Trogdor

This article is about the character. For other uses, see Trogdor (disambiguation).

"And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!"

Trogdor the Burninator is an S-shaped wingaling dragon with a beefy arm that originated in the Strong Bad Email dragon. Trogdor burninates the countryside, peasants, and thatched-roof cottages of Peasantry. He sprung from the wild imagination of Strong Bad when he was asked to show his "skills of an artist".

History and rise to popularity

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. 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. Fans even dress up as the character as seen in Fan Costumes toons, and have created some fanstuff.

In his debut email, there is a heavy metal song about Trogdor with a music video drawn in pencil. According to dragon's 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.

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.

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. 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.

Five of Trogdor's birthdays have been celebrated with new content. In 2006, Happy Trogday commemorated his third birthday with a fanstuff montage. However, two years later, Strong Bad decided to sing 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 instead. He claimed that Internet users had ruined Trogdor, along with zombies, pirates, ninjas and himself. In 2018, an HTML version of the TROGDOR! game was released. In 2021, the Trogdor-themed Main Page 27 was released. In 2022, the Trogday Micro Game was released.

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.

Many years later, following a hiatus, 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.

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.

• Domicile: The Trog-Cave
• Debut: Email dragon

How to draw a dragon (according to Strong Bad)

1. Draw an S.
2. Draw a more different S.
3. Close it up real good at the top for his head.
4. Using consummate V's, give him teeth, spinities, and angry eyebrows.
5. You can add smoke or fire.
6. And maybe add some wings, you know, if he's a wing-a-ling dragon.
7. Put one of those beefy arms back on him for good measure.
8. Name him. (Strong Bad named him TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR)
9. Add majestic lines... for majesty.

Trivia

Contrary to popular belief, the scales on Trogdor's body are not consummate V's. As Strong Bad has explained multiple times on Twitter, the scales 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).

Trogdor's many incarnations

TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR	Trogdor was a man!	I mean, he was a dragon-man!	Er, maybe he was just a dragon.
But he was still TROGDOR!	Trogdor game sprite	Bowels of Trogdor from theme park	From Peasant's Quest
From the movie trailer	Trogdor is a bad, bad guy!	Trogador	Trogdor bush in the Topiary Garden
Shadow puppet from theme song	Baby Trogdor from the Store	From concert	Trogdor Poster from the Store
"Trogor" from Make-O Your Own Stinko	"5-dor" from an Index Page	In real life? from Trogday 08	Hedge Trogdor from Homestar Ruiner
3D Trogdor from 8-Bit is Enough	ULTIMATE TROGDOR!!! from 8-Bit is Enough	Frishy Freshy Dragonman! from imaginary	The Trogbuildening from @strongbadactual (Instagram)
Trogdor Game Piece from Trogdor!! The Board Game	Trogdor Meeple from Trogdor!! The Board Game	Powered by The Cheat Trogdor from Trogdor Was A Man	Powered by The Cheat Trogdor Man from Trogdor Was A Man
Powered by The Cheat Trogdor Dragon Man from Trogdor Was A Man	Powered by The Cheat Trogdor from Trogdor Was A Man	Realistic from Main Page 27	Trogdor the Burninator T-Shirt by Nina Matsumoto for Fangamer
From Trogday Micro Game

See Also

• Dragons