Trogdor

Template:HSR TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR is a dragon that is a part of the Homestar Runner series of animated cartoons. The character, its name and the theme song bear great similarity to the 1996 B-movie Zarkorr! The Invader, its destructive monster character, and its theme song. In the fictional context of the Homestar Runner series, Strong Bad created him when a fan e-mail requested him to show his "skills of an artist" by drawing a dragon. His theme song, which appears on the Strong Bad e-mail "dragon," is featured on the video game Guitar Hero II for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.

Character history

Trogdor's design is described, in Strong Bad's own words from the Strong Bad Email "Dragon", as an S, paired with a "more different S," "closed-up real good at the top", with "consummate V's" for teeth, "spine-ities", "angry eyebrows", "smoke and fire" and "some wings" (if you want a "wing-a-ling dragon"). He also has a "big beefy arm", for "good measure" which "looks real good, coming out the back of his neck, there." Trogdor is also a specific variation on the basic design, called a "wing-a-ling dragon." However, Trogdor is not the first dragon design Strong Bad tried drawing, as the first one featured too many muscular appendages and looked awkward. In Strong Bad's own words it looked "too unnatural"; he states that the S stands for "sucks". The final version of Trogdor is enhanced by flames coming from his mouth, smoke coming out of his nose and radiant lines around him to represent his "majesty." Also v's for scales.

Other characters' attempts at drawing a dragon were not as well received. Coach Z drew something resembling a giant-headed eel, which Strong Bad criticized for not using "consummate V's", Strong Mad has only managed to carve the word "DAGRON" into the table with a knife, and in an Easter egg Homsar has managed to write "Taster's Choice" on a piece of paper taped to the table (upon which Strong Bad told him, "Get out of my house!"). When Strong Sad reveals his drawing, enhanced by Chiaroscuro shading, Strong Bad "burninates" it with his BMW lighter, claiming that it was an improvement.

Some fans prefer to write his name TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR, as this is the way Strong Bad originally wrote the name on a piece of paper, complete with the lowercase "i". The reason that the "i" was lowercase is because the font that The Brothers Chaps used for Strong Bad's handwriting, "Ahnberg Hand", all I's appear to be lowercase. However, lowercase i's have since appeared in other fonts on the site (such as a store name, "PRiCE STYLE") and have become an inside joke.

Game

The website hosts a game featuring Trogdor. In it, Trogdor achieves "Burnination" by stomping on ten peasants. Knights and archers are also out to see him "Sworded" and "Arrowed," respectively. Occasionally, Trogdor can be "Swarrowed" (simultaneously sworded and arrowed). Once he has managed to crush ten peasants without dying or letting any peasant return into their cottage , he begins breathing fire, allowing him to "burninate" both the peasants and the thatched-roof cottages. The count goes down for every peasant who makes it back into his cottage, and a burninated peasant does not count toward the next count. When all the thatched-roof cottages are burninated, the game proceeds to the next level.

Later appearances

After the appearance of Trogdor in the original "Dragon" e-mail and his video game, the dragon appeared in various other formats, most notably in video game form. one of the games available in Videlectrix form on the "Games" section of the Homestar Runner website, Peasant's Quest, portrays a peasant ("Rather Dashing") whose thatched roofed cottage was burninated by Trogdor. He has also made an appearance in a live-action movie trailer of Peasant's Quest, in which an animated version of Trogdor tramples and "burninates" the countryside. Also he has been in Guitar Hero 2 with a longer verson of his "song."

Strong Bad also considered cashing in on Trogdor's prestige when asked whether he had ever thought of opening a theme park. In Strong Bad's design for "Strong Bad's Mount Ridesplace, USA," the signature ride was to be called The Bowels of Trogdor, which would spin in a circle "until you either throw up or catch fire somehow."

Trogday

On January 13, 2006, the three-year anniversary of the week Trogdor debuted on the site, a "Happy Trogday" animation was released, featuring fan-submitted pictures of Lite-Brite drawings, tattoos, Halloween costumes, pancakes, license plates, and other things inspired by Trogdor. At the end of the animation, Stinkoman rants, saying that those never happened on his birthday last week (which is true, because Stinkoman was created on January 6, 2003, a week earlier than Trogdor), but instead, gets a challenge against "Trogador," the 20X6 version of Trogdor which bears a resemblance to a Chinese dragon, and Stinkoman thinks that was a birthday challenge. The design Trogador had previously been revealed by the Brothers Chaps at a talk at New York University (NYU) on March 1, 2005, and was originally not set to make an appearance on the website.

References to Trogdor in other media

On the Screamsheet, Charlie Martin made a fan music video combining the original Trogdor song with clips from the movie Dragonheart. The video is available in the music videos section, and has since been uploaded onto YouTube.

Trogdor was also mentioned in the final episode of the television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer as a character in a game of Dungeons and Dragons that the cast was playing on the eve of the big battle. Series creator Joss Whedon is a fan of Homestar Runner [1] and has been seen wearing a Strong Bad T-shirt (of the same design later seen worn by the character Andrew in the Buffy spin-off Angel when Angel and Spike went to find Buffy in Italy).

In the MMORPG Guild Wars, you have a chance to learn the spells 'Rodgort's Invocation' and 'Mark of Rodgort', where Rodgort spelled backwards is Trogdor. The name fits perfectly as a fire element skill, as Trogdor is a dragon that breathes fire. There is also a boss in Talmark Wilderness named "Hops Flameinator" that uses the Mark of Rodgort skill.

The Warcraft franchise has referenced him on numerous occasions. In the MMORPG, "Master Smith Burninate" is a quest-giving NPC at Thorium Point. In the Trading Card Game based on the latter game, one of the expansions see players attempt to slay the legendary fire breathing dragon Onyxia with one of the cards available for Onyxia to use is called "Burninate" and the quote on the card reads "Suddenly everything was aflame, burning like thatched roof cottages".

The word "Burninate" also appears in Final Fantasy I & Final Fantasy II: Dawn of Souls for Game Boy Advance in one of the bonus dungeons added into the GBA version. In Hellfire Chasm, one of the NPCs says, "This is private property. Trespassers will be burninated!" [2]

In Kingdom of Loathing, if you attack someone with your Mysticality in a PvP battle you are said to "burninate" your opponent. Also, one of the items in the game is a jumbo olive that has been "sworded". "Arrowed!" (which, in addition to being part of an episode of Teen Girl Squad, is also the effect of being shot by an arrow in the Trogdor game) is also an adventure in the Kingdom of Loathing. [3] These were probably added by the moderator AUCarter, who was (presumably still is) a big fan of Homestarrunner, as she used to be in charge of the Homestarrunner message board Homestar Freaks, which took the place of homestarrunner.net

In Tony Hawk's Underground's Moscow level, falling into the buildings' smokestacks will occasionally result in the text "Burninated!" appearing onscreen.

The 13th track of the Planet Smashers album Mighty, "Girl in the Front Row", begins with a band member yelling, "TROGDOR!".

The loading screen messages of Auto Assault are particularly notable for saying completely random things, rather than saying what they are actually loading. One of the loading messages is "Burninating the peasants...". Also in the Biomek zone "The Moat" players can encounter NPC enemies called "Scav Burninator"s.

In the online game Legend of the Green Dragon, there exists a Forest Event where a player can be BURNiNATED by Trogdor.[4]

In the online game Adventure Quest, there exists a guardian blade that summons the mighty Guardian Dragon to attack the enemy in battle, during the summon the dragon uses many quotes, one of them is "BURNINATE!!!!"

The freeware audio player for Windows foobar2000's CD burning component is called foo_burninate. [5]

In the third issue of the Top 10 spin-off comic book mini-series Smax by Alan Moore and Zander Cannon, a poster on a wall displays Trogdor's head, along with the words "the dragon comes in the night".

In the interview clips on the concert DVD "Samson Comes Alive" by Christian parody group ApologetiX, guitarist Karl Messner wears a Trogdor the BURNiNATOR t-shirt.

On April 1, 2003 at MIT a hack, or prank, was played by putting a picture of Trogdor up on the media test wall using Post-Its.

On the game Guitar Hero 2 TWS the "Trogdor Song" was avalible in the bonus tracks.

Downloads

HomestarRunner.com now offers a variety of Strong Bad Emails and toons, including "dragon", in a format suitable for downloading and viewing on a computer or portable media device at Podstar Runner.

External links

Trogdor is both a boy and a girl.