Forum - View topicDragon Goes House-Hunting (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Dragon Goes House-Hunting (TV) Genres: comedy, fantasy, shounen Thems: dragons Plot Summary: When a dragon fails to live up to the fearsome standards set for him, his family kicks him out. He embarks on a quest to find a new home, but soon finds that life on the road is no place for a cowardly beast of legend. In a fantasy world full of elves, dwarves, and other mythical creatures, where everyone wants a piece of him—literally—the frustrations of house-hunting reach a whole new level. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
I liked the art, such as the Dwarves felt right as fantasy dwarves in comparison to the likes of the ones in the Slime show. And some nice looking harpies, which I have a soft spot for. The dragon himself was kind of the least interesting of the monsters. Also liked the references, like the whole Monster Hunter thing. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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I have not heard the term "Sahaugin" since the Balder's Gate video game... and pretty much only there, a "Forgotten Realms Dungeons and Dragon" entry. In the game, they were a kind of deep sea shark people and the one here is quite clearly a kappa crossed with a carp.
This whole episode made me be flash back to previous western RPG games I've played, like calling trolls "trash mobs" reminded me of Might and Magic 7 where trolls were trash mobs... not weak, just massive powerful trolls that were used as a trash mob. Then again, that game had an area where dragons, powerful dragons, were used as a trash mob so trolls being strong may just be relegated to this rather peculiar game world. So how much humor you get out of this series will depend on how you feel about RPG video game tropes. Seeing how I laughed at the notion of that petty archer was taking pot shots at the dragon that didn't do anything but, as the warrior put it, "improve his DPS"... damage per second, a most useless stat tracked in bottom tier action RPGs. The absolute idea of it being tracked in a real fantasy setting did make me laugh. I liked the episode, it was a good start and a good idea of how it wants to use its RPG tropes. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I have currently been playing the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and I was up against monsters called Sahagin, that were Kapa like. Rather than the D&D like shark people. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4158 |
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And now I'm really confused. Anime/manga has taken actual Beholders from D and D and still called them Beholders, one appears in Goblin Hunter, but here they took the name of a D and D race but just stuck it on a kappa?
So this work is referencing FF7 but FF7 referenced D and D... yet in both cases they could have just used the term kappa? More confusingly, it sounds like the monsters from FF7 were used as the same as the vicious D and D beastmen while the sahaugin here has the more friendly kappa personality. Anyway, the term itself made me recall the Sahaugin subplot in Balder's Gate 2 where I would aid the "good" sahaugin but then still kill all of them because they're a rather vile, evil race. So when I read the name Sahaugin, I immediately thought "Don't trust him, Dragon, in fact just kill him." |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3670 |
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That happens sometimes. Kobolds in D&D are dragonlike, while typically JRPG kobolds are furry dog-like creatures.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am not sure that the Beholder like creature in Goblin Slayer was named a Beholder though. The reason is that I think that actually calling something a Beholder is one of the few things that Wizards of the Coast might have copyright over in being rather specific invention, while many other fantasy creatures you might find as part of D&D are so connected to things like historical fantasy they are open. I have the plan of writing my own story using parts of D&D as a base, so understanding which ones would be under copyright were needed. I have spent far too much time going over the 5e monster manual and learning about the creature, and I like to see evil usually as in some ways subjective. At least under the 5e banner, the Sahuagin as shark people are very much under a society of might makes right, their instincts are fine tuned to go into a shark like frenzy when they smell blood. I see them as the kind that would be pitted against each other when young to wean out the weak as part of their culture, before turning it on all outsiders they see as weak, and at least they are not prey. Basically it is eat or be eaten as pushed by their culture/god, but theoretically could have some maybe do something like pull a Bruce, or intimidate enough to know it is better to not try, since they might fall in line to a bigger and badder creature. I bought and downloaded the first two Balder Gates onto my PS4 a while back, but was finding the controls very finicky to feel like I was playing right with my Halfling rogue. Maybe I will try to pick it up again after I am through my current RPG, of which I would like to finish for once. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 2
I am going to be honest, if I was a fantasy creature I would totally consider living in a creepy haunted mansion. Great Luigi's Mansion reference too. Also, I liked how the idea of heroes were illustrated as breaking into houses to go through cupboards and break pottery, we have all been there. |
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Yttrbio
Posts: 3670 |
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And we're done. I was pretty meh about the first episode, which focused on Letty, but it grew on me as Letty became the viewpoint character/straight dragon to contrast with the more interesting characters/world around him.
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (final)
I did improve a bit with the more characters, that it was not just him. I also think that the show was as much harmed by its premise as it was helped, the parts that were way too out of place for a fantasy setting. Fantasy can be silly is strange, but I don't really know what to think when it was just a joke being a modern thing in a fantasy. I did rather like game references or parodies, granted I am the kind of person that got a lot of joy out of Magical Circle Guru Guru, it is hasn't got old yet to have references like heroes breaking into houses to break pots and steal things. It was kind of at its most fun when it did something like play up on rules of an RPG, although maybe too far when it made something boring. Just as Letty kind of often ended up boring for supposedly being a dragon protagonist, not really being able to do much. I do have high praise for one part of the show though, the OP is great. It is catchy, looks good, has its moments of epicness with its varied fantasy elements, and touches like RPG sprites. My favourite part being around the middle which shows Letty's hand being outstretched as the other hand and setting change, it just has really good build up to it, eventually landing on the dwarves from the dwarves from episode one who were not friendly. Just re-watching it I can see that the one right before the dwarves happens to be Nell's father, who he actually did have a good interaction with. And again on the dwarves, I really like how they were in line with fantasy tropes, how Letty tricked them by saying that something was after their gold, silly but fun. I did though want to make a contrast to another series, The Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle, which I think are kind of apt as comedies that mix fantasy and RPG tropes with comedy of along the lines of what if you are in an RPG setting. I do think that they kind of take different approaches, which made Sleepy Princess much more successful for it, such being that Princess Syalis was always just plain interesting to watch as she broke the rules of the setting, and doing so cutely. I am not entirely who Dragon Goes House-Hunting is really aiming for in audience, not usually going for cute, stories kind of too obvious for older audiences, but too mature for younger audiences with its theme of looking for a house. With just moments I can think of when they deconstruct the logic of something found in a video game to try and make sense of it. Like I had mixed thoughts on the in a classic dungeon thing that made up the previous episode, and maybe how the recent episode of Killing Slimes for 300 years had things like the sound effect for going up floors be spoken. My rating is probably going to be Good (7/10), but probably only because I am a big sucker for fantasy with RPG tropes, especially a bit more creatively than some many ecchi harem series, I just wish that it was more interesting on that. |
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poltroon
Posts: 105 |
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I quite enjoyed this series, with Dearia as our Elf Demon Lord/Realtor/Architect as my favorite character. The art is nice to look at and the references were sly and it was basically intelligent and watchable. It's goofy but in a delightful way and I hope there is another season. Letty is a silly foil but he's got some good room to develop, and Dearia's flashbacks about how he became the Demon Lord and his early training were very fun. And I appreciated the architecture tips for keeping pesky heroes out of your house.
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