Trogdor

Template:HSR TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR is a fictional dragon that is a part of the Homestar Runner series of animated cartoons (He is also a frekin' awesome dude!). Another character of the series, Strong Bad, created him when a fan e-mail requested him to display his "skills of an artist" by drawing a dragon.

Character history

Template:Spoiler Trogdor is first featured in the email "dragon" (which also includes the song "Trogdor," known for its heavy-metal sound and the phrase "And the Trogdor comes in the night!"), and he appears in three video games (two of which, Peasant's Quest and Trogdor!, were made by The Brothers Chaps) and Guitar Hero II. Trogdor's nefarious deeds consist of "burninating" the countryside and its inhabitants.

Trogdor's design is described, in Strong Bad's own words, 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 wing-a-lings". He also has a "big beefy arm, for "good measure" which "looks real good, coming out the back of his neck, there." "Look at him in all his Majesty". Trogdor is also a specific variation on the basic design, called a "wing-a-ling dragon." Much like Strong Bad's attempt at describing his own made-up animal, as well, 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 his nose and radiant lines around him to represent his majesty.

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" and states that he (Coach Z) "wouldn't know majesty if it came up and bit him in the face." 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. When Strong Sad reveals his drawing, enhanced by Chiaroscuro shading, Strong Bad "burninates" it with his BMW lighter.

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", does have a capital "i" but appears similar to a lowercase i. 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 homestarrunner.com website hosts a game featuring Trogdor. In it, Trogdor achieves "Burnination" by squashing "lotsa" 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 "lotsa" peasants without dying, 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, the dragon appeared in various other forms, most notably in video game form, played by characters in the games Trogdor! and Peasant's Quest. Both are available in Videlectrix form on the "Games" section of the website.

Trogdor has also made an appearance in a live-action movie made by The Brothers Chaps and their friends. He, however, still remains in animation as he tramples the countryside while "burninating" it all. This movie is the live-action rendition of Peasant's Quest, which involves a peasant named Rather Dashing seeking revenge against Trogdor for "burninating" his thatched-roof cottage.

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

File:Trogador.jpeg

Trogador, the 20X6 incarnation of Trogdor

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 orignal 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 online text game Kings of Chaos, when you win a battle, the text appears "You burninated the enemy!"
• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, "Master Smith Burninate" is a quest-giving NPC at Thorium Point. [2]
• In the video game 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 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!" [3]
• 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. [4]
• In Brian Clevinger's 8-Bit Theatre, Black Mage imagines Drizz'l's Guardian to look like Trogdor.[5]
• In the Warcraft 3 expansion, Frozen Throne, a soldier guarding the cell occupied by Kael is named Trogdar. He is "burninated" shortly after his introduction by Lady Vashj.
• In Tony Hawk's Underground's Russia level, falling into the buildings' smokestacks will occasionally result in the text "Burninated!" appearing onscreen.
• In the Half-Life modification Counter-Strike, servers running AdminMod occasionally display the message, "(Player 1) was burninated by Trogdor, er by (Player 2)."
• Howstuffworks.com now uses the word "burninate." In an article concerning cold heat soldering tools, it is on the caption describing the condition of the solder after being worked with.
• In the The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, one of the expansions see players attempt to slay the legendary fire breathing dragon Onyxia. 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 website Neopets has an avatar with the word "burninate" in it.
• Multiple tributes to the song have been made, such as one tribute by Lessthan3 and another by Screaming Mechanical Brain.
• Google Page Creator was codenamed "Trogdor".
• In the video game Kingdom Hearts II, one of the boss fights (The Hydra, a Dragon itself) grants you a special attack which involves throwing huge clay urns at the boss. The attack is called "Urninator".
• In the video game The Sims 2, one of the songs you can have on the stereo says "Trogador" in the bizarre language of Simlish.
• 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...".
• In the video game Gladius you have a chance of fighting a Minotaur named Tr'gdor at the Exuro's Eye arena.
• In the PS2 video game, Bujingai: The Forsaken City, the player has to fight a boss battle against a creature named Trogdar which uses fire attacks.
• In the online game Legend of the Green Dragon, there exists a Forest Event where a player can be BURNiNATED by Trogdor.[6]
• 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!!!!"
• On the 2006 King Kong Extended Edition DVD, there is a picture in the Skull Island concept montage of a "Ceratops" dinosaur. His name is given as Angror the Invincinator. He is stated as looking for wrestling partners.
• The freeware audio player for Windows foobar2000's CD burning component is called foo_burninate. [7]
• 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".
• At the end of one of Littlekuriboh's Yu-Gi-Oh the abridged series, Kaiba summons his blue eyes white dragon to the tune of "Trogdor"
• "Trogdor" is a Bonus track on Guitar Hero 2

Downloads

• The song is available for download for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh on the HomestarRunner.com Downloads page for free.
• HomestarRunner.com now offers a variety of Strong Bad Emails, including "dragon", in a format suitable for downloading and viewing on a computer or portable media device at Podstar Runner.

See also

• Peasant's Quest

External links

• Email introducing Trogdor and featuring his song
• Trogdor turns three years old
• Short introducing Trogdor arcade game
• Trogdor the game
• HRWiki entry on Trogdor