Drago Bludvist

"I alone control the dragons!"

- Drago to Astrid after capturing her - His most famous quote "See, I know what it is to live in fear! To see my village burnt, my family taken. But even as a boy left with nothing I vowed to rise above the fear of dragons, and liberate the people of this world."

- Drago Bludvist to Hiccup. "You need Dragons to conquer other Dragons."

- Drago Bludvist

Drago Bludvist is the main antagonist of the How To Train Your Dragon film franchise, starting with DreamWorks's 29th full-length Golden-Globe winning animated feature film, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and will return in its upcoming sequel, How to Train Your Dragon 3. He serves as the unseen Bigger Bad of Dragons: Race to the Edge​, being indirectly referred to by Viggo Grimborn and with one of his men serving as the tertiary antagonist of the season 4 episode, Midnight Scrum.

He is a wicked, cunning, heartless, destructive, and power-hungry warlord who sought to amass a massive army of men and dragons by enslaving dragons with his Bewilderbeast and convincing entire tribes of chieftains to follow him before proceeding to dominate humankind in a reign of terror. He is the Bewilderbeast's master, Eret's former leader, the archenemy of Hiccup and Valka, and the killer of Stoick the Vast.

He was voiced by the Beninese-American actor, Djimon Hounsou, who also played Korath the Pursuer and Mose Jakande.

Past
Drago's early life is shrouded in mystery, but Drago himself revealed that he once lived with a fear of dragons as a little boy, and had supposedly lost his home, his family, his friends and his left arm to them. Vowing to "rise above his fear" once and for all, Drago grew up learning how to control dragons with brute force and gathered an army of loyal humans under the guise of a "Dragon God", one who had absolute control of dragons. He eventually found a hatchling Bewilderbeast in one of his earliest conquests. He then tortured it until it became completely subservient to him.

Years before the events of the first movie, Drago visited a then dragon-terrorized Berk in an attempt to sway more people to his cause. He entered the Great Hall where an assembly of chiefs was present, promising them peace and freedom from the threat of dragons, but only if they bowed down to him. The chiefs rejected his offer by laughing at him. Angered by this, Drago left the hall calling back to the chiefs, "Then see how well you'll do without me!" Moments later, two of Drago's armored dragons descended into the hall through the roof and burned everything in sight, killing all the chiefs except for Stoick, who managed to escape alive.

Eventually, he met Eret, and made him one of his dragon trappers.

How To Train Your Dragon 2
In the film, Drago is described by Stoick as a madman completely devoid of conscience or mercy. His vast military resources have been acquired over the years by indoctrinating countless people, slandering dragons as savage beasts meant to be controlled and reinforcing the belief that he, and only he, has the power to conquer dragons and by extension, keep the people safe. In reality, he exercises absolute control over his followers, and will not hesitate to execute those who have failed him. He has also no tolerance for those who oppose his cause.

Having heard rumors of other "dragon masters", Drago immediately orders his army to invade the nearest dragon nest and take down its alpha. Here, the dragon riders of Berk interfere, destroying many of the army's traps and weapons all while the alpha Bewilderbeast of the dragon nest emerges. In smug retaliation, Drago unleashes his own Bewilderbeast and allows the two to fight for supremacy while he dueled with Stoick.

Then, Drago meets Hiccup in the heat of battle, with the latter imploring Drago to stop his evil, saying that dragons are not just monsters as well as pointing out the senselessness of the warlord's actions. Drago rejects Hiccup's pleas and instead has the Bewilderbeast (who managed to kill the alpha Bewilderbeast) possess Toothless before giving the order to kill Hiccup. As a result, Stoick gets killed in an attempt to save Hiccup from being blasted by the possessed Toothless, something which delights Drago. Hiccup, in a fit of despair, briefly disowns Toothless. Toothless and all of the adult dragons present at the time of the attack under the influence of Drago's Bewilderbeast, are captured by Drago. He then rides Toothless and his massive army to Berk.

Upon arrival at Berk, Drago announces to the villagers that their chief had perished and proceeds to annihilate the village with his Bewilderbeast by attempting to freeze it. Hiccup intervenes not long after and Drago gives him a "chance" to try and win back Toothless' loyalty with the expectation that Hiccup would fail. To his surprise, Hiccup succeeds and Toothless breaks free of the Bewilderbeast's psychic grip. He then whacks Toothless with his melee weapon in an attempt to get him back under the Bewilderbeast's influence, but he fails and is dismounted by Toothless. He lands on his Bewilderbeast, where he orders it to kill Hiccup and Toothless, encasing the pair in a large tomb of ice, seemingly killing them.

Drago soaks in his victory, before an explosion shatters the ice, revealing both Hiccup and Toothless to be unharmed. Toothless, now with enhanced powers and immunity to the Bewilderbeast's control, challenges the latter for the position of alpha dragon, repeatedly pummeling the Bewilderbeast with shots. This distracts the Bewilderbeast enough to free the other dragons from its control and they unleash a massive volley of fireballs, forcing Drago to take cover, but not before several blasts knock off his mechanical arm, exposing a stump where his real arm used to be. Toothless fires one last huge shot, taking off one of the Bewilderbeast's tusks.

Drago and his Bewilderbeast are defeated, and the latter retreats into the ocean with Drago still on it. It is unknown if he survived. However, it is likely that Drago survived his fate in the second film because it has been revealed by the film's director that he will return in the upcoming third film. He has been also revealed that he will be a lot more complex than he was in the second installment.

Appearance
Drago is a 50-year-old, 6'10, 300 lb, well-built man matching his intimidating personality. He wears a prosthetic arm from when his original was cut off by a dragon attack and wears his hair and beard in thick dreadlocks. Multiple scars run over Drago's face and body, evidence of his past encounters with dragons. His attire consists of a sleeveless shirt, a thick waist belt and a huge black cape made from dragon skin. Attached to his belt, he wears a loincloth, blue trousers, and boots covered in fur.

According to The Art of How to Train Your Dragon 2, Drago was designed to look as racially ambiguous as possible and from a land far from the Vikings of Berk. His appearance had several influences from different countries and cultures. His clothing was based of Slavic origin, while his actual physical appearance was based of people from the Mediterranean and northern Africa.

Personality
Drago is very ruthless, egocentric, manipulative, and confrontational, so he lacks any sort of morality and showed an equal disregard to his allies well-being as he did his enemies. His cruelty towards others was monumental and both Valka and Stoick are aware of how scarring his actions can be. Although the full level of how torturous his methods of enslaving dragons was never fully explored, they are clearly aggressive, traumatic, and barbaric, as Drago was able to enslave a Bewilderbeast as a baby and subjugated it to a life of pain and misery. As a result his Bewilderbeast obeyed his command without any hesitation although this was more out of fear than actual loyalty as the second Drago was defeated the Bewilderbeast instantly fled his master.

However, this ruthlessness was not limited only towards his dragon subordinates, Drago was equally destructive, abominable, and monstrous towards his human compatriots. Eret (who was a dragon trapper and had helped Drago enslave dragons for years), secretly had no respect for him and was a tool for Drago's own personal mission for power. He was also utterly antipathetic, uncompromising, contemptuous, and intolerant of failure or disappointment; whenever Eret failed to satisfy his quota, Drago would also act extremely violent, dangerous, and vituperative toward him and simply abandoned the dragon trapper once his goal of usurping Berk was nearly complete. He was also completely heartless and utterly callous, as well as sadistic, as proven when he murdered the chiefs of Berk when they refused to serve him, ceremonially scarred Eret as a reminder to never fail him again and simply smiled when he discovered a brainwashed Toothless had killed Stoick instead of Hiccup. All of these things prove him as being a person of pure evil.

Despite his obvious madness, Drago possesses complete mastery over dragons. Even the most fearsome of creatures were completely helpless and afraid in his presence. However, his greatest weakness was that he could not respect or even understand a love or bond between a dragon and a person. Drago's ultimate undoing was his inability to understand dragons being peaceful, nonviolent, elegant creatures that Hiccup spoke about; in his eyes they were nothing but warmongering monsters, which led to him being utterly dumbfounded when Hiccup was able to get Toothless to break the connection between him and the Alpha out of sheer loyalty for one another.

​Abilities
Strength and Fighting Skills: Despite his disadvantage of his missing arm, Drago is a formidable fighter and opponent to both humans and dragons, being able to defeat Valka with relative ease and hold his own very well against Stoick the Vast. However, despite his combat skills, he rarely uses them himself unless necessary, preferring to rely on his dragons and henchmen to do his dirty work.

Controlling Dragons: Unlike Hiccup, Valka and the rest of the dragon riders, Drago enslaves his dragons with brute force and intimidation, and is able to use his Bewilderbeast to brainwash any who refused to follow him.

Intelligence: Drago's cunning is nearly unmatched; his plans are strategized to be nearly unstoppable thanks to his brute force. He is able to figure out ways to use his opponents' strengths against them, as shown when he turns Toothless and the other dragons against their former allies.

Quotes
"Let's see how well you do without me!"

- Drago to the chiefs in the Great Hall.

"You belong to me now!"

- Drago to Hookfang.

"First there was one rider and now all of Berk?! You led them to ME!"

- Drago to Eret

"Stop all preparations! We must attack the dragon riders nest at once! We will take down their alpha! Then we will take Berk!"

- Drago Bludvist.

"Whatever comes, keep hitting the mountain. We need to draw the alpha out!"

- Drago

"The alpha! Now we have a fight!"

- Drago during the first showdown between him and Hiccup and after the male Alpha has released.

"I've waited a long time for this!"

- Drago to Valka during their fight.

"This is the great dragon master? The son of Stoick the Vast? What shame he must feel."

- Drago meets Hiccup for the first time.

"Witness true strength! The strength of will over others!"

- Drago Bludvist

"You? I watched you burn!"

- Drago to Stoick during their fight.

"We've won! Now...finish her!"

- Drago ordering his Bewilderbeast to kill Valka.

"NO! Let me show you!"

- Drago shows Hiccup the great power of his Bewilderbeast.

"Your chief is dead! No one can protect you now!"

- Drago to Berk.

"You certainly are hard to get rid of, I'll say that."

- Drago to Hiccup.

"He will not miss a second time!"

- Drago tells Hiccup that Toothless will not miss again.

"He's not yours anymore. He belongs to the Alpha! But please, oh great Dragon Master, try to take him. He will not miss a second time."

- Drago to Hiccup.

"Take control of it! Stop them!"

- Drago to his Bewilderbeast.

Trivia

 * He appears to have a cape made of dragon hide that can withstand the fire of a Monstrous Nightmare.
 * Drago is the tallest character in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise.
 * Drago seems to have successfully enslaved a Bewilderbeast, as the beast doesn't mind letting the man on its head.
 * It is unknown if he had a different name before going insane.
 * He also has a mechanical/prosthetic left arm. However, because of his narcissistic need to appear invincible, he hides it with a cape from his men and his enemies.
 * The characters of him and Valka are portrayed as counterparts to each other: both are obsessed with dragons, know ways to control dragons and both are able to summon their own Bewilderbeasts for a battle. However, they are also depicted as opposites: Drago has many followers and back ups, while Valka struggles alone; Drago subjugates dragons by force, while Valka wins them over with benevolence.
 * He shares various facial characteristics with his enslaved Bewilderbeast: Dreadlocks, wrinkles, broad chin, darker-than-usual skin tones, well-built physique, and so on. With this point, it contrasts with Valka's mask.
 * Methods used by Drago to enslave dragons are not entirely known, but it is implied that his acts of taming dragons are traumatically violent.
 * Hiccup and Drago seem to share some characteristics: They both have prosthetic limbs and personal objects most probably made from parts of Monstrous Nightmares.
 * One of Drago's dragon-capturing machines is called the Scrambler. It makes a screeching noise that paralyzes a dragon into submission, and then Drago can bend the animal to his will. It's possible that Drago may have seen a Screaming Death, and had been unable to capture it. However, he could have figured out that the scream it emits temporarily disorients dragons and possibly based the Scrambler's design on this concept.
 * Director Dean DeBois has confirmed that Drago will appear in How to Train Your Dragon 3, saying, "You have to wait until the third film to actually see where Drago’s character goes. He’s a lot more complex than he’s presented in this second installment."
 * His character model would later be used for another DreamWorks sequel villain, Kai in Kung Fu Panda 3.
 * He is the second animated DreamWorks villain to be a Complete Monster after General Mandible from Antz.
 * His last name is pronounced "Blood-fist" by many fans.
 * He is similar to the following villains:
 * Lots-O' Huggin' Bear from the Disney/Pixar film, Toy Story 3, which was released the same year as the first How to Train Your Dragon film.
 * Both of them were introduced in a sequel to a computer animated film.
 * Both of them are the main antagonist.
 * Both of them turn the protagonist's friend against him.
 * Both of them are Complete Monsters.
 * Shan Yu, the main antagonist of the Disney film, Mulan. This is because both of them are Warlords, Mongers and Complete Monsters who have goals of conquest. Plus they were both in movies with Dragons. However, while both of them are Complete Monsters, Drago Bludvist is more evil as, while Shan Yu wants to take over China, Drago wants to rule the world.
 * Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films. Both are introduced in the second film of a movie trilogy. Both turn heroes into villains and both are mongers, warlords, God Wannabes and, truly, Complete Monsters. Additionally, How To Train Your Dragon 2 and The Empire Strikes Back are extremely similar, as both are acclaimed movie sequels considered by several to be superior than the original. Both have darker tones than the originals, the main characters are developed, family members are revealed to be alive and a major character dies (or in the latter's case, is frozen in carbonite).
 * King One-Eye from The Thief and the Cobbler, because they are huge, barbaric warriors who control large armies and seek to conquer vast areas.
 * Ruber from Quest for Camelot: They are strong, barbaric and insane, but also very intelligent, and they control large creatures. Plus, their films have dragons.
 * Scar from The Lion King: Both are Complete Monsters and Big Bads, and they kill off a major character who happens to be the father of the protagonist.
 * Professor Screweyes from We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story: They both control animals through hypnotic methods (Drago has his Bewilderbeast, Screweyes has the screw in his left eye).