in regards to ruffnut's general personality, i do entirely take whatever the movie has given post-the first film with a grain of salt. as in, i could acknowledge the events happening, but do i agree with ruff's characterisation 100%? no, i do not. her general characterisation will be based off any feeble threads of memory i reserve from the tv series.
some notable takes are as following:
on the bond,
ruffnut and tuffnut do care deeply for one another. yes, they fought incessantly as siblings, but in the show, their bond had been remarked as incredibly deep as ruffnut has, multiple times, insisted that she refuses to live alone without tuffnut.
on their intellect,
both ruffnut and tuffnut are also deeply clever, academically thoughtful and extremely calculative. often time, they seem to downplay their intelligence and exaggerate their difficulty to pay attention, dramatically lowering everybody's expectations of them and allowing them to maintain virtually no productivity.
ruffnut has also been stated to be marginally "smarter" than tuffnut is, but i personally do not interpret it as such. i do think tuff's academic talent and interest lies more on literary and cultural aspects than the scientific curiosity ( though they do collectively share an abundance of that to begin with ) while ruff is the opposite.
ruffnut is definitely far wittier though, and sharper with any knowledge she requires, not above using what she learns to her advantage to trick and manipulate her surrounding — which is in contrast to tuff, who may not be so easy to be malicious.
though keenly intelligent, i don't think ruff had ever been interested to formally approach this academic talent - and this is entirely due to the lack of resources locally, and simple disinterest on her part.
of course, in many of her high fantasy verses, she does play a huge role under hiccup and astrid’s watch, in documenting many dragons’ abilities and limitation + rewriting their initial knowledge when they were the hunters.
additionally, in her high fantasy verses, ruffnut and tuffnut are usually ideal to be sent in as a representation, or part of the main convoy — tuff, more than ruff though — simply because they could pick up foreign languages and culture subtleties easily. not that they’re even slightly courteous nor that diplomatic though.
on personality,
ruffnut is considerably anarchic, impulsive, irresponsible, and tactless at first glance. or second, or third. though of course, her intelligence aside, she also possesses a side to her that’s strong, compassionate, and selfless. for example: she once cut all of her hair off to save a stray dragon before.
interestingly, in the show, while tuffnut was talking with barf about ruffnut, he concludes ruff has a lot of rage and frustration because she feels trapped since she's "a woman in a man's world" which i find to be hilarious but…….. not inaccurate.
though ruffnut carries with her a tough and dauntless exterior, often time an off-putting disposition that keeps people at a distance and does not encourage her reputation in the slightest, she does respect her teammates greatly. does she like them? that’s debatable, but she can and does acknowledge their strengths well — even if their thoughts on her and her brother may not always be favourable.
ruffnut often aspires horror and shock with her antics, but like tuff, it takes a lot for her to genuinely dislike or snap at someone. on that note, she’s easier to snap than tuff is.
ruffnut thrives on chaos. she does liken violence to that, but in truth, she just prefers the disorderly that comes with violence, not really the act of harming itself. with that said, she is not afraid to be violent to protect her loved ones.
on the outside, it is easy to think ruff and tuff are the same. this isn’t true: tuffnut is far easier to give his compassion than she is. he is also the more relaxed and nonchalant out of the two. this is a distinct personality shown many times throughout the series and one i’ll be keeping in my narration of her.
