Tuffnut Thorston

Tuffnut Thorston is a teenage member of the Hairy Hooligan tribe. He is the fraternal twin of Ruffnut Thorston in the movie franchise and they are constantly arguing with each other, often to the point of physical violence, though never seriously enough to separate them for too long. His dragon is a Hideous Zippleback named Barf and Belch, which he shares with his sister.

Personality

Although never said throughout the show, Tuffnut seems to be slightly more dominant twin than his sister and has a more prominent role, especially in the television series. Together, he and his sister love to get into trouble, even if it means getting scolded by the chief of the village. Tuff likes the idea of Ruff being in danger (as he stated that when Ruff was on fire one time, he just watched for a while before he decided to help put her out). Tuff enjoys the chance to argue and wrestle with his sister, although it usually ends with Ruff overpowering him, either verbally or physically. He shares many similar traits with his sister. The only thing that seems to be apparent in difference, is he enjoys gross things as opposed to his sister (as seen in Gift of the Night Fury, when he smiled as Toothless put Hiccup's drool-covered helmet on his head). Despite having a close sibling relationship, Tuff is understandably frustrated when he has to share everything with his sister, but he's willing to make amends with Ruff to save his dragon. Although sharing rivalry with his sister, on occasion, he will help her if she is in trouble. He often thinks highly of his own skills, claiming that he was the world's deadliest weapon. In the television series, Tuff appears to show a thrill-seeking and masochistic personality, displaying an attraction to dangerous situations and seems to enjoy or looks forward to whatever bodily harm he receives (usually by his sister). Like Ruffnut he often has a sick toothy smile on his face. He seems to be either stupid or simply forgetful, inattentive and perhaps more suggestible.

In Total Nightmare, he and Ruff appear to be very keen on theatre, acting in a very theatrical manner and using almost Shakespearean words and phrases.

Appearance

In both the television show and the first movie, Tuffnut wears a dark brown long furry animal vest with a very light pale green tunic that goes all the way past his hip. Around his waist, there's a brown sash-like belt that is tied around. He also wears light grey-blue pants and dark brown furry boots. On his arms, he wears a long brown arm cloth arm band that starts at his elbows and ends at his wrists. His helmet is studded with four horns: the top two are bull-like, and the bottom two resemble ox horns. Without his helmet, his long blond hair, that ends with a brownish tint, is unevenly divided in the middle and appears to look like dreadlocks, particularly in the second film his teeth are somewhat uneven. His necklace's pendent is a large claw or tooth that may have come from a dragon. He's relatively skinny and tan skin with dark-blue eyes. His vest is slightly lighter in the television series. In the second film, it is confirmed that Tuff  have an older appearance as well as new clothes. As seen  How to Train Your Dragon 2 , it is revealed that he has adopted a dreadlocks hairstyle.

Skills & Abilities

Fighting: He and Ruffnut are almost equal in terms of strength and speed. They are both skilled in fighting, usually sparring violently with each other when they are arguing. In the television series, Tuff is shown to be slightly worse at fighting than his sister, often being overpowered by her in sparring matches and duels, as well as losing verbal arguments. Tuff even states that her slaps "are like a guy's", even to the point of tears. On the other hand, Tuff is strong enough to carry his sister for a sum of time without getting too tired. The twins share the same preference for the same weapon, which is a double-ended spear. It has been shown in the television series that the twins are the only ones who are not affected by Barf's gas, which can cause disorientation and a sick feeling, possibly because they are either immune or have gotten used to it.

Intelligence: Tuff does not seem to be too bright. He's unable to sit still and pay attention without fighting and/or getting into trouble with his sister, causing most of the other Viking Teens to doubt their abilities. Often, the others of the group have to explain to him (and Ruff) when they're about to execute a plan. Despite his inability to pay attention, he always knows how to make people or dragons angry, often proving helpful for him to act as a distraction or bait. Recently in the television series, Tuff has been shown to often have outbursts of intelligence and a smarter outlook on life, alongside Ruff, revealing that the twins are much more intelligent than they initially seem. Which suggests that they simply choose not to think.

The twins also have a strange ability (purposely or not) to get in trouble no matter where they are, even in an empty room. Tuff, as seen when he sneak onto Outcast Island, seems to have some ability in humor and acting, as he was able to convince Dagur that he was a Berserker and more so, for Dagur to like him even more^[6]; however on Dragon Island, Ruff could easily see through Tuff's lies and is able to pry him open of the truth without much effort.^[11] Tuff is also able to speak "post-lightning Snotlout" (which is gibberish that Snotlout may speak after being struck by lightning), and is the only known Viking to speak it.^[6]

Dragon Training & Riding: He is moderately skilled in training dragons, as shown in several episodes. Tuff was able to spot a changewing once.^[4]Tuff trained a Terrible Terror and taught him how to ram heads with his sisters.^[12] Tuff showed impressive skills in training a Typhoomerang (Torch), despite being caught in a trap at the time as well as being able to teach him basic hand signals and simple obedience.^[5] He did well training their dragon Barf&Belch but he claims he did most of the work then his sister.

Pranking Skills: With the help of his sister they are great team to make many pranks on yaks. As shown their prank on Snoutlout to believe he was going to die showing to make everyone believed.They also did some "yak-tipping" in the episode "how to pick your dragon" in "dragons:riders of Berk". They even decided to turn their pranking skills into a profession in "Race to the Edge".

Relationships

Ruffnut

Ruffnut and Tuffnut have a strong love/hate sibling relationship. Although most of the time quarreling and fighting over trivial things in life, they show an inseparable bond with each other and rarely spend too much time apart. They both enjoy the feeling of pain, especially if the pain is inflicted on the other twin. Tuffnut in particular has even stated that he had merely watched Ruff when she was caught on fire once before deciding to help her.

On occasion, Tuffnut is willing to help his sister. Tuff showed concern for her, asking her to leave Scauldy behind when the Changewings were approaching and was happily riding Belch afterwards, watching his sister who was safe, despite the sacrifice she made for Scauldy to make. After she says goodbye to Scauldy she starts to feel sad, but Tuff quickly teases her about her looking like a boy, in which Tuff succeeds in making Ruff smile again.

As twins, Tuffnut and Ruffnut share a strong invisible connection towards each other. They have the ability to understand each others thoughts and ideas without speaking, as shown several times to finish each others sentences or to have the same idea at the same time. They also have the ability to stay together as they are rarely too far apart for a long time. Wherever one twin goes, the other twin is never far behind, even if they intentionally try to stay away from each other. Ruff and Tuff also work incredibly well together (when they want to) and can synchronize themselves to do the same actions at the same time. It's also possible that they are able to sense where the other is and what happened to them, as other twins are able to do.

Barf and Belch

Being their dragon, the twins had to share riding it. The twins care tremendously about their Dragon, although not as much as Hiccup. One head is loyal to each twin (Barf and Ruff, Belch and Tuff) and on occasion, the heads will fight each other when the twins fight each other. Usually the heads will work in unity if they feel that their riders are in danger and feel that their rider's constant quarreling is annoying. Both dragon and Rider are willing to risk their necks to save each other. Tuff even states that Barf and Belch is his "totally awesome dragon" that he shares with his "totally un-awesome sister". Several times during the television series, Barf and Belch are seen to be extremely protective of their Riders when they are in danger, as shown as they are willing to fight a several enemies, such as a wild Typhoomerang^[5] and a Scauldron, to defend Ruffnut ^[13], as well as leaving the cave on Dragon Island to search for Ruff.^[11]

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Not a lot of screen time is shown between the twins and Hiccup. Most of the time, they follow Hiccup's commands, although not always done in the right way. On occasion, they disobey him or misinterpret his orders. Despite Hiccup doubting their abilities most of the time, he acknowledges their abilities to work together if they want to. He gains respect for the twins when they figure out the idea to "fight fire with fire" and Tuffnut's ability to train Torch.^[5] Although finding them annoying from time-to-time, Hiccup is shown to care for them as he and the other Viking Teens attempt to find them after their disappearance and was relieved to find out that Ruff and Tuff were both okay. He also acknowledges their decision to follow Alvin's ship to spy on him.^[6] They also care about Hiccup, (even though it's hard to tell), like when they, along with the other Riders, were very happy to see that he was alive after the battle with the Red Death and when he fell down a hole, (then came out okay later), in ^[14].

Astrid Hofferson

Although they rarely interact in the show or movie, they remain neutral to each other and will work together when it comes to it. Most times, Astrid will get angry if they do something wrong, especially if it's because they're not paying attention or just being silly. Like Hiccup, she doubts their abilities as Dragon Trainers due to their inability to pay attention, although it is assumed that she gained respect towards the twins when they put out the fire and trained Torch. On occasion, she will punch Tuff if he angers her, although Astrid is never shown on-screen to hit Ruffnut. Astrid was one of the Vikings who attempted to find the twins after they were blasted out of the sky in A View to a Skrill Part II. It is presumed that off-screen, she had attempted to find them although Stormfly soon grew exhausted, showing that she does indeed care for the twins.

Snotlout Jorgenson

Snotlout and the twins share a close relationship. Often times, the twins will follow Snotlout and act as one of his supporters when he bullies Hiccup and possibly Fishlegs as well in the first film. In the game, they listen to Snotlout's plan to cheat in the competition against Hiccup/Astrid. Snotlout often thinks the twins are incredibly dumb and in return, they sometimes exclude Snotlout from their ideas, as seen during Auvandil's Fire^[15]. Although sometimes siding with Snotlout, they occasionally bully him back, like how they fooled him into thinking he was dying^[16]. Tuff also made things up when Snotlout was pursuing his sister by telling him that she like terrible terrors.^[17] It's presumed that Snotlout had attempted to find the twins (as stated by Hiccup) after they disappeared after being blasted out of the sky, which shows his apparent caring personality towards them.^[6]

Fishlegs Ingerman

Fishlegs and the twins rarely show any screen time together. Sometimes, the twins are seen to bully Fishlegs because of his size, although Fishlegs bests the twins in terms of knowledge. The twins, particularly Tuff, find it annoying that Fishlegs knows a lot of things. Fishlegs attempted to find the twins after they were blasted out of the sky, along with Meatlug, but ends up over-exhausting his dragon. Even so, he offered to join Hiccup on his search again and shows worry when Hiccup tells him that there was no sign of them.^[6] Just like Snotlout, Tuff played pranks on Fishlegs when he was pursuing his sister by telling him that his sister had a sixth toe.^[17]

Stoick the Vast

Stoick is well aware that the twins are capable of causing dangerous accidents and pranks, as well as notorious for causing mischief. Ruff and Tuff show a level of respect for Stoick, possibly because he's Hiccup's dad, but also like to make fun of him when he's not around. He's the one who possibly created the saying "Where there's smoke, there's the twins".^[5]

In How to Train Your Dragon 2, Tuffnut and the other Dragon Riders were deeply saddened by Stoick's death, and fired a flaming arrow to Stoick's ship, showing that he had always respected and honored his chieftain.

Windshear

Following its attack, Tuff became infatuated with Heather's Razorwhip, Windshear. Tuff loved its style and was even willing to marry it. He almost did, thinking he was dreaming until Heather snapped him out of it.^[18]

Main Weaponry

• Heckler & Koch MP5A2 sub-machine gun
• Cyan Blue Lightsaber

Trivia

• Tuff is a character from the book How to Train Your Dragon, but Ruff is an original character created for the film, seemingly to provide contrast to both Tuff and Astrid, the only other female in Dragon Training.

• The twin's names may indicate the phrase "Rough and Tough."
• In the video game, it's said that Tuff is the older twin by five minutes, but Ruff is slightly taller.
• They appear to be based off of Jackal and Hyena from Gargoyles
• In the books Tuff has the same name as his father (Tuff Senior), so his name in the Book Series is Tuff Junior, which, ironically, means his name would be T.J Thorston, the same first name as his voice actor.

• Tuff's vest is a different shade of gray in the series.
• Tuff is the only character from the movie who did not appear in any of the Racing for the Gold clips.
• Ruff and Tuff are one of the only Vikings on Berk who has a known sibling in this case, each other. The other only known Viking siblings are Gustav and Hildegard. Dagur also said he had a sister.^[11]

• Ruff and Tuff both mentioned that they have a large amount of back hair and that they love it dearly, although Tuff said that his back

hair had went up in flames while flying over the forest fire.^[5]

• Ruff and Tuff are one of the only Vikings on Berk to have more than two horns on their helmets (The twins have four horns). The only other person to have more than two horns on their helmet is Mildew with six horns (but he joins the Outcasts later on).

• Tuff is the only known Viking that speaks "Post-Lightning Snotlout" (which is a gibberish language developed by Snotlout after he has been struck by lightning)

• Tuff, under the alias "Buffnut the Berserker", hasn't told Dagur that he was in league with Hiccup and lived on Berk so it's possibly that Dagur still believes that Tuff is a Berserker.^[6]
  • Tuff is the only other Viking Teen other than Hiccup to encounter Dagur face-to-face alone. 
• Both Ruff and Tuff have trained a large dragon and later released into to the wild. It's also possible that the dragons they

trained (Torch by Tuff and Scauldy by Ruff) are counterparts to each other.

• • Scauldy was trained by Ruff, Torch was trained by Tuff.
  • Scauldy is a Tidal Class dragon (dwells within the water and sprays water), while Torch is a Stoker Class dragon (dwells on land and

manipulates fire and air to attack).

• • Scauldy was hostile and a danger to the Viking Teens, while Torch was more civil and friendly from the beginning.
  • Torch was the one who (partially) saved Tuff and Ruff was the one who saved Scauldy.
• The twins seem to show a level of intelligence when they caught the Eel Pox in The Eel Effect, doing experiments on air resistance, inventing ice cream, and speaking with advanced vocabulary.
• In the episode Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, he develops a crush on a mace. That's right; a mace.
• It is possible that Tuffnut has either a tattoo on the left side of his body, or a birth mark that looks like a tattoo, on the left side of his body.
  • This is revealed in the first movie, by a fire, when Fishlegs gasps: "Your mom let you get a tattoo?" Tuff's return is "No, it's a

birthmark!" but Ruffnut challenges his statement with "No way, I've been with you since birth, and I've never seen a birthmark!" Tuff's return is, "That's because you've never been on my left side before."

• • • It may be a birthmark, as, so far as we know/have seen, Ruff is always on Tuff's right side.

• • • The mark is not seen, as the camera is intentionally panned away; possibly to prevent from encouraging teenage tattoos, or to create an aura of mystery...