Trogdor
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== Portrayal== | == Portrayal== | ||
| - | {{ | + | Trogdor is typically characterized as a cruel, powerful fire-breathing monster who takes pleasure in destruction, in the manner of {{w|European dragon}}s of legend. He is not simply mindless, showing capacity for intelligence and thought, but does not burninate to hoard treasure or for any secondary goal beyond for its own sake. |
=== Dragon-Man === | === Dragon-Man === | ||
| + | The "Trogdor" song features Strong Bad initially asserting that "Trogdor was a man", before hesitantly instead suggesting that Trogdor is either ''also'' "a dragon-man" or simply "just a dragon". This portion of the song is sung in a halting tone, suggesting Strong Bad is making it up as he goes (and the song was created offhand by [[Matt Chapman]]); the conceit of Trogdor being something other than a dragon is almost never brought up. No games featuring Trogdor include man or dragon-man. | ||
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| + | The illustrations accompanying the song in [[dragon]] portray Trogdor the man as a long-haired medieval knight, clad in a suit of {{w|plate armor}} and wielding a battle-[[axe]]. The "dragon-man" humorously swaps everything above the waist for the illustration of Trogdor as a dragon. Whether this is meant to depict Trogdor as a sort of [[TVTropes:Main/Weredragon|weredragon]] or simply Strong Bad changing his mind about what the character's story is is left unclear. | ||
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<gallery perrow="3"> | <gallery perrow="3"> | ||
Image:A man.PNG|<center>''A man!''</center> | Image:A man.PNG|<center>''A man!''</center> | ||
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</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
==== Powered by The Cheat ==== | ==== Powered by The Cheat ==== | ||
| - | + | [[Trogdor Was A Man]], a '70s-themed cover of "Trogdor", similarly features the "man" and "dragon-man" versions of Trogdor. A visual gag in the video features the dragon-man leaping out of the armored legs, revealing his whole body to be that of a dragon. | |
<gallery perrow="3"> | <gallery perrow="3"> | ||
Image:PBTCTrogdorMan.png|<center>''Man''</center> | Image:PBTCTrogdorMan.png|<center>''Man''</center> | ||
| - | Image:PBTCTrogdorDragonMan.png|<center>''Dragon-man'' | + | Image:PBTCTrogdorDragonMan.png|<center>''Dragon-man'' |
Image:PBTCTrogdor2.png|<center>''Trogdor''</center> | Image:PBTCTrogdor2.png|<center>''Trogdor''</center> | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
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=== Speech === | === Speech === | ||
| + | Though Trogdor is often heard simply roaring, in a manner befitting his monstrous appearance, he has been shown to be capable of complex and intelligent speech. Trogdor was first heard speaking in ''Peasant's Quest'', with his voice provided by the early, crude speech synthesizer {{w|Software Automatic Mouth}}. Despite the rough and artificial sound of S.A.M., Trogdor is portrayed as speaking in a calm, relaxed manner (using the slang words "sup" and "kinda"). Trogdor has continued to be voiced by S.A.M., such as in [[Snowglobe]] or [[8-Bit is Enough]]. | ||
=== Size === | === Size === | ||
| + | Trogdor is consistently portrayed as large in scale, though his size has constantly and dramatically shifted. In ''TROGDOR!'', he is approximately twice as tall as a peasant; in ''Peasant's Quest'', he is over a dozen times larger than Rather Dashing. His size continues to vary widely between portrayals. | ||
=== Variations === | === Variations === | ||
| - | A [[20X6]] version of Trogdor, called [[Trogador]], was revealed at the [[NYU Talk - 1 Mar 2005|NYU Talk]], but did not appear in the Homestar Runner canon until [[Happy Trogday]] was released on the third anniversary of Trogdor's debut. | + | A [[20X6]] version of Trogdor, called [[Trogador]], was revealed at the [[NYU Talk - 1 Mar 2005|NYU Talk]], but did not appear in the Homestar Runner canon until [[Happy Trogday]] was released on the third anniversary of Trogdor's debut. |
== Popularity == | == Popularity == | ||
Revision as of 19:23, 25 March 2024
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| Domicile | The Trog-Cave |
|---|---|
| Voiced by | Software Automatic Mouth |
| Debut | Email dragon (January 13, 2003) |
| Complete Filmography | |
| 3D Variation | |
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- This article is about the character. For other uses, see Trogdor (disambiguation).
Trogdor the Burninator is an S-shaped wingaling dragon with a beefy arm that originated in the Strong Bad Email dragon. He sprang from the wild imagination of Strong Bad, originally appearing as an illustration and swiftly expanded upon with music and games. Rather than appearing in mainline toons or interacting with the main characters, Trogdor is typically found in the fantasy world of Peasantry wherein he burninates the countryside, peasants, and thatched-roof cottages.
Trogdor quickly became more popular than The Brothers Chaps ever could have imagined, developing into one of the most recognizable figures from the Homestar Runner body of work, both on the internet and in the real world. Fans often dress up as Trogdor for Halloween, and fan art of the dragon has been featured in the Weekly Fanstuff and on @StrongBadActual.
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History
Creation
Trogdor first appeared in the Strong Bad Email dragon, in which Strong Bad was asked to demonstrate his "skills of an artist" by drawing a dragon. After a fumbled first attempt, Strong Bad uses "simple step-by-step instructions" (evocative of Ed Emberley's books) to create a distinctive dragon: a winged serpent with a single muscular arm and an angry expression.
How to draw a dragon (according to Strong Bad)
- Draw an S.
- Draw a more different S.
- Close it up real good at the top for his head.
- Using consummate V's, give him teeth, spinities, and angry eyebrows.
- Add smoke or fire.
- Maybe add some wings, you know, if he's a wing-a-ling dragon.
- Put one of those beefy arms back on him for good measure.
- Name him. (Strong Bad named him TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR)
- Add majestic lines... for majesty.
Note that the scales on Trogdor's body are not consummate V's; rather, they are "regimented U's" and are a side detail that he did not comment on during his first drawing of Trogdor (see tweets from 28 Dec 2016, 10 Jan 2018, and 6 Dec 2019).
Trogday
Trogdor's birthday of January 13 is recognized as "Trogday", occasionally celebrated with new Trogdor media:
- 2006 — Happy Trogday commemorates his third birthday with a fanstuff montage.
- 2008 — Strong Bad sings both an entire alphabet song and (though only after Trogdor showed up in person and forced him to) a heavy metal song about The S is for Sucks Dragon, as the two dragons share a birthday. With typical sarcasm, he claimed this was due to internet users "ruining" Trogdor (along with zombies, pirates, ninjas, and himself).
- 2018 — An HTML5 version of the TROGDOR! game was released
- 2021 — The Trogdor-themed Main Page 27 was released.
- 2022 — The Trogday Micro Game was released.
- 2023 — For Trogdor's 20th Birthday, a faux trailer for a VGA enhanced version of Peasant's Quest was released.
Song
- See main article: Trogdor (song)
.jpg)
The dragon email consistents mostly of the idea of drawing a dragon, but in its conclusion dramatically shifts to an over-the-top heavy metal song about Trogdor and his exploits accompanied by pencil artwork.
As mentioned in the DVD commentary, there originally wasn't supposed to be a song in the email, but after Matt Chapman started singing it off the top of his head while making eggs, The Brothers Chaps knew they had to put it in the email.
The Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits contains an extended version of the song. The song is also featured in KaraokeFun on the DVD. Homestar Runner is the singer and gets a score of 84 out of 100. In November 2006, the extended version of the Trogdor song made an appearance as a bonus song in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 game Guitar Hero II.
Games
On March 17, 2003, the TROGDOR! game was released. In Arcade Game, it is shown to be an arcade game found in the Basement of the Brothers Strong. The player controls Trogdor, and the goal of the game is to squish enough peasants required to achieve burnination, while at the same time avoiding The Red and Blue Knights and the Siamese archers. The game was a fan favorite before the debut of the game Peasant's Quest. In Peasant's Quest, killing the Burninator is Rather Dashing's goal after Trogdor burninates his thatched-roof cottage. In this game, Trogdor's voice is an old speech synthesizer called the Software Automatic Mouth, or S.A.M.
Trogdor was also the main subject of the finale of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, 8-Bit is Enough. In it, the TROGDOR! arcade machine breaks and Trogdor is released into Free Country, USA, and promptly burninates Strong Badia. Driven for revenge (much like Rather Dashing in Peasant's Quest), Strong Bad sets out to kill Trogdor by enlisting the help of various other Videlectrix characters. When Strong Bad finally confronts his foe, Trogdor morphs into ULTIMATE TROGDOR!!!, but is still no match for Ultimate Strong Bad.
On September 29, 2017, Strong Bad began to tease a potential Trogdor board game on social media. On July 17, 2018, Trogdor!! The Board Game (an adaptation of the TROGDOR! game) was put on Kickstarter. The goal was $75,000, but it was surpassed in the first three hours. By the end of the campaign on August 15, $1,421,903 had been pledged by 23,338 backers. Later that year, The Cheat made a music video for a song from a '70s commercial of said board game.
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Portrayal
Trogdor is typically characterized as a cruel, powerful fire-breathing monster who takes pleasure in destruction, in the manner of European dragons of legend. He is not simply mindless, showing capacity for intelligence and thought, but does not burninate to hoard treasure or for any secondary goal beyond for its own sake.
Dragon-Man
The "Trogdor" song features Strong Bad initially asserting that "Trogdor was a man", before hesitantly instead suggesting that Trogdor is either also "a dragon-man" or simply "just a dragon". This portion of the song is sung in a halting tone, suggesting Strong Bad is making it up as he goes (and the song was created offhand by Matt Chapman); the conceit of Trogdor being something other than a dragon is almost never brought up. No games featuring Trogdor include man or dragon-man.
The illustrations accompanying the song in dragon portray Trogdor the man as a long-haired medieval knight, clad in a suit of plate armor and wielding a battle-axe. The "dragon-man" humorously swaps everything above the waist for the illustration of Trogdor as a dragon. Whether this is meant to depict Trogdor as a sort of weredragon or simply Strong Bad changing his mind about what the character's story is is left unclear.
 |
 |
|
Powered by The Cheat
Trogdor Was A Man, a '70s-themed cover of "Trogdor", similarly features the "man" and "dragon-man" versions of Trogdor. A visual gag in the video features the dragon-man leaping out of the armored legs, revealing his whole body to be that of a dragon.
 |
 |
 |
Speech
Though Trogdor is often heard simply roaring, in a manner befitting his monstrous appearance, he has been shown to be capable of complex and intelligent speech. Trogdor was first heard speaking in Peasant's Quest, with his voice provided by the early, crude speech synthesizer Software Automatic Mouth. Despite the rough and artificial sound of S.A.M., Trogdor is portrayed as speaking in a calm, relaxed manner (using the slang words "sup" and "kinda"). Trogdor has continued to be voiced by S.A.M., such as in Snowglobe or 8-Bit is Enough.
Size
Trogdor is consistently portrayed as large in scale, though his size has constantly and dramatically shifted. In TROGDOR!, he is approximately twice as tall as a peasant; in Peasant's Quest, he is over a dozen times larger than Rather Dashing. His size continues to vary widely between portrayals.
Variations
A 20X6 version of Trogdor, called Trogador, was revealed at the NYU Talk, but did not appear in the Homestar Runner canon until Happy Trogday was released on the third anniversary of Trogdor's debut.
Popularity
According to the email myths & legends, at some point, the CG Dinosaur Channel created a special called "Walking With Trogdor". In the email concert, Strong Bad receives an email purporting to be from "Your Dragon, Trogdor", which he considered to be an impersonation.
The toon Fan Costumes 2016 referenced the scene in which Trogdor was first drawn. In the scene, Strong Bad shows the audience how to draw a star, after seeing poorly drawn stars on Homestar costumes. This may have been the inspiration for the "Skills of an Artist" series, introduced on July 12, 2017. The series takes its title, music, and premise from the Trogdor-drawing scene.
Merchandise
According to the Giant Magazine Interview, the Trogdor shirt sold in the store was the best-selling item there at the time, even more than the strongbad_email.exe DVD. The original Trogdor shirt did not include the majestic lines for "majesty", but this was corrected in later prints. In September 2006, the store began selling a line of baby clothing bearing a more child-friendly image of Trogdor that sold out one day later.
Trogdor's many incarnations
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 from Trogday 08 |
 from Homestar Ruiner |
 from @strongbadactual (Instagram) |
 from Trogdor!! The Board Game |
 from Trogdor!! The Board Game |
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 from Trogdor Was A Man |
 from Main Page 27 |
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 by Nina Matsumoto for Fangamer |
 from Happy 20th Trogday! |
See Also
