Eret, Son of Eret

Eret, introduced as Son of Eret, is a dragon trapper and sells the dragons he traps to Drago Bludvist. He is one of the antagonists, later tritagonists of How to Train Your Dragon 2 and is voiced by Kit Harington.

Bio
Eret is a twenty-five year old dragon hunter who works with Drago Bludvist. He is an experienced dragon trapper who captures dragons, them gives them to Drago. Afraid of incuring Drago's wrath, Eret still holds a scar from when he failed to come to Drago's demands.

Personality
Eret is 25 and he is a cocky and charmingly cavalier. He sells the dragons he traps to Drago Bludvist, who he lives in endless dread of. Eret has a bit of a Gaelic look to him, has a confident personality and has a hobby for trapping dragons. He and Hiccup rub shoulders often in How To Train Your Dragon 2. Eret is also comically slow at making comebacks when talking with Hiccup and others. After Drago betrays him and Stormfly saves him, he allies himself with Berk. This shows that he is at heart, a good and honest man with a deep sense on what's right.

Hiccup Haddock
Throughout the duration of the second movie, Eret and Hiccup have never been the closest of comrades. However, after initially trying to trap Hiccup, and Hiccup successfully getting away, Hiccup then submits himself to Eret, and surrenders to him, much to the dismay of Astrid, who, being significantly more competitive than Hiccup, does not take kindly to the idea of being voluntarily captured. Hiccup is under the belief that he can get to Drago, and change his mind about dragons, just as he is trying to with Eret. Stoick the Vast eventually rides in to save Hiccup from Eret, and Eret goes on his way again.

However, after the initial battle with Drago, and the final battle with the Bewilderbeast, Hiccup sees potential in Eret, and they become good friends, as Hiccup trusts him enough to look after Skullcrusher.

One of the major differences Eret has from Hiccup other enemies is that he never mocked Hiccup for his size. He is also surprised by how Hiccup stands for what he believes in.

Toothless
Toothless' relationship with Eret, son of Eret is very similar initially to Hiccup's. While Eret did originally try to capture Toothless and give him to Drago for his dragon army, they eventually become allies, and while Eret never rides Toothless, like many other former and current villains have done, they are shown to trust each other at the end of the film, even if their relationship only goes to 'acquaintance' level.

Toothless, however, is shown to be quite relaxed in the company of Eret when Hiccup surrendered to him, and whether this is due to the fact that Toothless trusts that Hiccup has it under control, or whether he sees Eret as less of a threat, or perhaps sees his potential for improvement, he does definitely show his carefree side around Eret more along with many other characters.

In a deleted scene, Toothless saves Eret, and Hiccup, when the two were catapulted off Eret's ship into a sack of jagged rocks. It should be noted that Hiccup did not actually tell Toothless to save Eret, and that it was his own choice.

Astrid Hofferson
Astrid's relationship with Eret is rocky at first, with Eret trapping Stormfly. Then, when Hiccup decided to surrender himself to Eret, she showed her reluctance to be captured while complaining to Hiccup. However, Astrid got much more time to get to know Eret than Hiccup did, as she managed to capture him quite early on in the film.

When Eret claims he capture the riders for Drago, Astrid is visibly and understandably upset, and feels betrayed. However, he does eventually save Stormfly, helps to bring down Drago, and joins the Dragon Riders' ranks.

Stormfly
Eret's relationship with Stormfly is arguably the most complex out of any human other than Astrid herself. While her feelings for Eret show to be similar to her riders' feelings towards him, she shows a lot of independence of thought when it comes to how she greets him. For example, while Astrid feels pained when Eret originally tries to capture Stormfly, and Stormfly has the same feelings, Stormfly easily forgives Eret, and when they meet again after Hiccup surrenders to Eret, Stormfly's playful nature is seen clearly for a short time while Eret tries tirelessly to get rid of Hiccup's fire sword. When Astrid tells Stormfly to 'drop' Eret, she can be seen to be enjoying herself much more than Eret himself was at the moment, and she is confident that she can, and will rescue him.

Their relationship blooms from then on as Eret, finding Stormfly in one of Drago's traps, returns the favor of her saving him, as he frees Stormfly and eventually rides her, along with Astrid.

Drago Bludvist
Eret's relationship with Drago Bludvist, the evil madman who was building a dragon army, is shown in many ways to be entirely 'professional', but that is not to say that it is not in any way emotional. In fact, as soon as he slips up at any time, he is punished harshly. Eret has a scar from when Drago punished him for not bringing enough dragons in a shipment, and Drago has promised not to be lenient for any other times when Eret disappoints him.

Eret is obviously terrified of Drago, and his motivation for catching dragons is so that Drago does not punish him. However, when Eret double-crosses the dragon riders and brings them to Drago, along with their dragons, Drago becomes enraged, trying to execute Eret and the riders. Eret escapes with the riders, and for the remainder of the film, fights against Drago.

Valka
Eret's relationship with Valka is not entirely clear. Evidently, he is intensely annoyed by her and her vigilante, 'do-good' work, and the fact that she will stop at nothing to save Dragons. However, while Valka says many times that she detests Dragon Trappers, she seems to have no personal quarrel with Eret, and at times, like at Stoick's funeral and when Eret fights along with the riders to save Berk and the Dragons, she is able to be alongside him without any hint of negativity.

Ruffnut Thorston
As soon as Ruffnut sees Eret for the first time, she is instantly captivated by his good looks and manly charm, even to the point of letting herself and Barf, and, consequentially, Tuffnut and Belch, become caught and unable to fly for a while. Ruffnut is shown to be absolutely fixated on Eret, sidling up to him, rubbing her cheek on him, and even licking and kissing him, and evidently dreams of some sort of long-term, romantic relationship with Eret in the future. Her hopes are somewhat dashed when he betrays the riders by giving them over to Drago. While she evidently still finds Eret attractive, she seems to have moved on by the end of the film.

Tuffnut, Barf and Belch
While the relationship between Eret and the other three isn't as developed as that between he and Ruffnut, one can tell that all three are disgusted, embarrassed and perhaps concerned by Ruffnut's behaviour towards Eret. When Ruffnut rubs her cheek on his arm, just before Stormfly is ordered to drop Eret, both Barf and Belch seem to flinch, Barf noticeably more so, and Tuffnut, evidently mirroring and vocalising the dragon's distaste with her unseemly attitude, gives off a disgusted "Eww! before leading the dragons and Ruffnut away slowly.

Snotlout and Fishlegs
The relationship between the two rivals for Ruffnut's affection do not have a very developed relationship with Eret either, but are perhaps slightly jealous of Eret's success in attracting Ruffnut. Beyond this jealousy, there is not much in their relationship other than a great distrust of him and his dragon-trapping ways.

Stoick the Vast
Again, Stoick and Eret's relationship is a very undefined relationship, since Stoick and Eret only met once in a normal setting, and that was when Stoick saved Hiccup from Eret after Hiccup surrendered himself to him. However, dispute this lack of knowledge of one another, Eret attended Stoick's funeral, and fired an arrow at Stoick's fire ship. Whether this was to do with Eret being there at the time, or whether this was due to an actual sense of respect for Stoick is unclear, but considering that Eret felt honoured by being able to continue ridingSkullcrusher, Stoick's Rumblehorn, one can assume that Eret had a certain degree of respect for Stoick.

Skullcrusher
Eret met Skullcrusher when the dragon riders came to rescue Hiccup and Astrid, though they didn't formally interact. After Stoick's death and Drago's defeat, Hiccup suggested that Eret should look after Skullcrusher. The Rumblehorn was able to tell that Eret is trustworthy enough to be his new rider, as the latter help protect Berk even though it wasn't his home. The two quickly bonded in the end by flying together alongside the other dragon riders.

Abilities

 * Dragon Trapping: Although not seen in great detail, Eret himself claims he's the 'Finest Dragon Trapper' alive. Its not exactly known how good Eret was at his work. But judging from the amount of dragons in Drago's army, as well as the amount of dragons escaping his fortress in the original deleted opening scene, he can be considered to be quite good at his job.


 * Dragon Training & Riding: Eret is very new to the concept of dragon training and riding. As such, his skills are understandably not extremely impressive. Nevertheless, he rode Stormfly quite decent for a beginner and didn't show to have any specific kind of trouble riding Skullcrusher either. He did struggle to control the Scuttleclaw he was riding, but so did everyone else.

Trivia

 * Ruffnut had a crush on him, though the feeling is not mutual.
 * Eret is the second person in the film franchise to have brown eyes, the first being Savage. The third and fourth characters are Ryker and Viggo Grimborn.
 * Of the four, Eret is the only character with brown eyes who is not evil.
 * The pin on Eret's fur vest resembles a Stormcutter.
 * Eret is similar in personality to Han Solo, according to Matt Paulson, the modelling supervisor of How To Train Your Dragon 2.
 * At the end of the second movie, Eret forms a bond with Stoick's dragon Skullcrusher after Stoick's death. This makes Eret the second Dragon Rider from outside the Archipelago, the first being Heather.
 * Eret has a large symbol-like branding on his chest. He says Drago gave it to him the last time he failed him.
 * Eret has a few similarities with Heather. They originally were "allied" with an enemy of Berk, but after getting to know the Dragon Riders, joined them. Both characters also have black hair and have a friendship with Stormfly, who was the first dragon they flew alone. They are also the only Dragon Riders not from Berk.
 * In Rise of Berk, Eret first plans to learn how to train dragons and give the information to Drago, similar to Heather's first appearance.
 * Eret and Heather will likely meet in a future comic book.
 * All the dragons Eret rode on are associated with the Sharp and Tracker Classes. Though in Rise of Berk, he says he has a soft spot for Tidal Class dragons since he's a sailor.
 * Coincidentally, all these classes are associated with Hiccup's parents.
 * Eret is the only main male character without any form of facial hair.


 * Some of the names of Eret's crew are Ug, Teeny, and No-Name. Coincidentally, there is a character in the books named UG.
 * After joining the dragon riders side, he refers to his former profession as wrangling instead of trapping.
 * In an early promo reel for the movie, Eret says he comes from a long line of "sons of Eret," who were all dragon trappers.
 * Eret's sword is similar in appearance to Sting from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy.