You might want to practise remembering that name.
Neebs: Don't we need like more people?
Doraleous: Sure, but a small, highly skilled team can be just as effective.
Doraleous And Associates
is a comedic fantasy animation series by Hank And Jed.
The show follows a group of adventurers-for-hire called Doraleous and Associates, in which our long-suffering protagonist Doraleous serves as The Leader and Straight Man. His main associates include Neebs, a stupid elf archer with a tendency to ruin the Associates' plans; Mirdon, a smartass wizard who always get his spells wrong; and Drak, an annoyingly-voiced axe-wielding dwarf.
Lesser known are his two other associates who turn up to their meetings awfully late, but are more competent than Doraleous' other three associates: Sir Walken (a competent knight who's also Doraleous's second-in-command) and Broof (an axe-wielding warrior with inhuman vitality and a husky voice, who is prone to some of the more unexpected humor in the series). They have both become more popular over time.
The bunch mostly work as mercenaries, selling their services as fighters and/or negotiators to communities in need of help. This hardly ever goes as planned, thanks to bickering among the associates as well as the extremely wierd people they have to deal with.
The show had a successful Kickstarter that met its goal in April 2013, with the new episodes being released the following February. Season 3 premiered on July 8th, 2017, several years after the 2nd Season.
This show provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: As seen below under Running Gag, not a lot of people can seem to get Doraleous' name right. King Calas, in particular, constantly calls Doraleous "Doralingus".
- The Ace: Testicles.
- Affably Evil: The Pyramites.
- All There in the Manual: According to interactive map of the setting, Mirdon is over 300 years old, and Doraleous apparently valued Drak for his engineering skills.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Grandmother: Broof's Nana knits him an axe cozy with a floral pattern in episode 34 and he puts it on his axe to humor her but it's clear that he's very embarrassed to be doing so in front of Doraleous. Then she brings out his baby portrait in the next episode...
- Ambadassador: Doraleous. Peacetalk is his first choice, but when it fails, he's ready to kick some serious asses.
- Art Evolution: Compare the pilot episode with Episode 1.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sometimes these guys are so goofy, you forget they're all very competent warriors.
- Beam-O-War: Mirdon vs. the leader of the Brothers of the Old World in episode 23. He does it again against Giligorf in episode 49.
- Berserk Button:
- Doraleous is not a bitch, and make sure you don't address him as such.
- Neebs doesn't like being discriminated against for being an elf. Also, while he does disobey and disagree with Doraleous a few times, he never actually insults or blatantly disrespects him, and when Ladder Guy does just that, Neebs goes off on him.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Drak is back!
- Sir Walken saving the life of the Associates at the end of Episode 6.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Turns out Ladder Guy has zero respect for Doraleous (specifically, referring to Doraleous as a "dumbass" who "ain't worth shit"). When he reveals this to Neebs, Neebs becomes very angry.
- Captain Ersatz: The leader of the Geigh Kingdom looks and speaks just like King Leonidas from 300.
- The Chosen One: Doraleous, confirmed multiple times. Although, what exactly he's been chosen to do is unclear. Due to his humility, he doesn't seem to be in a rush to claim the title, and he's totally okay with the idea of Testicles being The Chosen One, due to Testicles' status as a renowned warrior.
- Combat Pragmatist: Neebs likes to engage his enemies in "theological discussion" and shoot them in the head while they're distracted. This is the source of plenty of his conflicts with Doraleous, and the cause of his eventual firing in the first half of Season 2.
- Continuity Nod: The return of the rather idiotic bandits.
- Cool Old Guy: Sir Walken, Broof, Testicles and the Crazy Old Guy.
- Expy:
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In an attempt to
de-Scrappyfy him after his firing, Neebs. - Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Sausage Fest of the Geigh Kingdom. It really is a festival about sausage, and much fun is had by the heroes.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: Sir Walken never raises the visor on his helmet. And somehow, his eyes can be seen when he puts on another helmet over his regular one as part of a disguise.
- Face–Heel Turn: After he's kicked out of the Associates, Ladder Guy joins the Brothers of the Old World.
- Faceless Goons: Most of the town guards and opponents of the Associates.
- The Ghost: Neebs has a sister who has yet to appear on screen.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Doraleous has one over his right eye.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Mirdon kills an army with a whale — specifically, Drak tossed into the air and transformed into one.
- Harmless Villain: The Black Cloak Society. Granted, they are just starting out.
- Heroic Build: Doraleous and Broof are the most prominent examples.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Doraleous, the leader of the Associates, and his second-in-command Sir Walken, wield swords.
- Hidden Depths: Neebs is selfish, lazy, and self-aggrandizing, but holds a deep respect for Doraelous, and will fight anyone who badmouths him.
- Hired Guns: Of the We Help the Helpless variety (according to Doraleous' vision, at least).
- Hold Your Hippogriffs:Mirdon: "Holy balls of a dragon!"
- Hurricane of Puns: When Sir Walken and Broof first see the Wooden Army:Sir Walken: "What branch of your army is this?"Sir Walken: "This guy looks a little trunk."
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Sir Walken, to Doraleous. An interesting example in that, unlike other examples of this trope, Doraleous isn't incompetent himself; he's just very unlucky at times (often due to having people like Mirdon and Neebs around).
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Sir Walken justifiably chastises Doraleous for sheathing his sword without wiping off the blood.
- Infinity+1 Tree Branch: The Zephyr Blade.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: General Leslie sings a traditional Wetald lullabye while trying to inspire the troops to repel an invading army, as Music for Courage. It becomes a Crowd Song that creeps the other guys out so much they retreat."Only a madman sings a Battle Lullabye!"
- Jerkass:
- The Lady of the Lake. Possibly a Troll as well, the way she tells people they're the chosen one and makes them do pointless quests.
- Half of Doraleous' crew.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Broof, in Testicles's presence.
- Last of His Kind: Broof is one of the Legapur Nine, the last survivors of the Legapur people that fought a Last Stand against a hostile army and won. Another member of the Legapur Nine, Anferny, makes an appearance, but he seems to be considered the weakest of the bunch by strangers.
- Ludicrous Gibs:
- When the cult leader dies and when the Crazy Old Man explodes a guard.
- When Broof kills all of the King of Mightopolis' guards singlehandedly (except for the last one, who Anferny kills when he's about to sneak up on Broof).
- Magic Knight: Mirdon. Though he rarely engages in combat, he's pretty capable at it.
- Meaningful Name:
- Sir Walken is an obvious expy of Christopher Walken.
- King Calas is, well, callous.
- Testicles (pronounced "Testiclees") has a big pair of... well, you know.
- Thesaurus has a habit of mumbling synonyms for words that other people say.
- Memetic Badass: In-universe, Testicles reaches a level so phenominal, that Doraleous, Drak and Broof start making these kind of statements about him for a laugh.
- Minions with Fs in Evil: The Black Cloaks.
- The Mole: Sir Walken plays as an heroic one, freeing the Associates from their enemies.
- Mushroom Samba: In Episode 20, Mirdon eats some of the berries from the field they sneak through (which are implied to be hallucinogenic), and spends the latter half of the episode high as a kite.
- Neck Lift: Doraleous to Neebs in the Season 1 Finale.
- Nice Guy: Doraleous. He's the most polite and patient of the team, and he genuinely wants the Associates to be a force for good.
- Nightmare Face: Used in episode 25, during an actual nightmare. Doraleous wakes up and finds himself in bed with the Lady of the Lake ("Last night was wonderful." "Was it?" "...no."), and she offers to give him the Zephyr Blade. But of course, instead of giving him the blade, her face is replaced with the screaming head of the Graboonie from episode 16, and then Doraleous wakes up for real. The Lady of the Lake trolls people even in their dreams.
- No Indoor Voice: The soldiers of the Geigh Kingdom communicate almost exclusively by shouting.
- No Man of Woman Born: It was prophesized that no man could kill General Barat but a couple of bees did, because he was allergic.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The Immagitchu is only seen on camera briefly, and is largely depicted as a squeaky voice in the distance saying "I'mma get you!" and a hand from Behind the Black performing a Vertical Kidnapping.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The threat of the Giopis attacking the Geigh Kingdom is built up over several episodes, but unfortunately we don't get to see the battle; according to Doraleous, the Geighs won (with the Associates helping).
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Members of the Legapur Nine are renowned for never running from a battle, until Anferny does so. Broof gets a lot of mileage out of teasing Anferny over this.
- Only Sane Man: Doraleous, Sir Walken, and later on, Thesaurus display the most common sense out of all the Associates.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The Zephyr Blade.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Subverted with Drak. Ostensibly a dwarf, has a high-pitched voice, wears only a loincloth, no Scottish accent, and the demeanor of an eight-year-old girl. In addition, he is only seen drinking beer once. However, he does have a beard and uses an axe in combat.
- Our Elves Are Different: Elves in the world of Doraleous and Associates seem to be typical high fantasy fare, except that they speak with Southern accents and every example seen is almost impossibly stupid, averting the usual portrayal of elves as The Beautiful Elite that you can't argue with.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The Old Worlders, who are green, fanged and armored.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Drak.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The undead in Georgiana. They can be cured by the bite of the living.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Both Broof and Aleena. (1x16)
- Perpetual Frowner: Broof.Broof: This is my happy face.Doraleous: Yeah? It's also your sad face.Broof: And my angry face.
- Pet the Dog: Neebs, despite being fantastically self-centred and thoughtless, still beats up Ladder Guy for insulting Doraleous, proving that while monumentally stupid, he is still very loyal to the Associates.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Drak.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:"THIS.... IS.... GEIGH!!!!!!"
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Partially broken with the introduction of Thesaurus, replacing Neebs.
- Real After All: The Zephyr Blade, apparently, as it shows up in Harry Pooter's book of magical weapons. Also, it actually does look like a stick.
- Red Right Hand: Giligorf, an old friend of Mirdon, has unnaturally pale skin and red eyes, a side effect of using dark magic.
- Right Behind Me: Averted or played with, depending on the author's intentions. When Aleena turns out to be right behind Neebs when he's insulting her boobs with a, "Oh really?' Neebs doesn't skip a beat, turning around and responding, "Yeah really!"
- Running Gag: Plenty.
- No one outside of Doraleous's associates can seem to say his name right.
King Calas: Doralingus, this is *bullshit*!
Farmer: We'll never forget your name. And by the way, what is your name?Doraleous: It's Doraleous.Farmer: Dromaleous.Doraleous: No, Doraleous.Farmer: [with more difficulty] Drolaleous.Doraleous: Okay. "Dor"...Farmer: "Dor"...Doraleous: ..."aleous"...Farmer: ''..."aleous"...Doraleous: "Doraleous".Farmer: Domaleous!- Doraleous killing things, only to have someone else (usually Neebs) take the credit.
- The Zephyr Blade.
- Serious Business: For Walken, it's not cleaning off one's sword before sheathing it, and for Ladder Guy, it's stepping on the top rung of the ladder. Granted, they both have a point (as not cleaning your sword promotes rust, and stepping on the top rung of the ladder could cause it to fall backward), but Walken and Ladderguy react with comic defensiveness when these rules are broken.
- The So-Called Coward: Leslie.
- The Stoic: Compared to the boisterous other warriors, Broof, but...
- Not So Stoic: ...when Testicles is around, he goes into fanboy mode.
- The Straight Man: Doraleous to pretty much everyone else. Thesaurus sometimes has this role as well.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Doraleous.
- Taken for Granite: Looking into the eyes of the Meowdusa in Episode 38 causes this.
- Take That, Audience!: A promo for the series featured Sir Walken suggesting people watch as they've got nothing better to do.
- Tap on the Head: Sir Walken, frequently.
- Tear Off Your Face: Fycus, one of Doraleous' friends from the Old World Gate. He gets an orc's face at the end of the episode, courtesy of one of Mirdon's botched spells.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Associates bicker among themselves quite frequently, with their petty arguments serving as one of the main sources of humor in the series.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- Broof to a Pyramite.
- Exaggerated in Episode 23. The cult leader is impaled with a sword, decapitated, and cut in half; then as a final touch, Neebs shoots his severed head as it flies through the air.
- Turns out to be subverted as even with all that overkill, the cult leader returns in Episode 49, covered in scars but very much alive. His actual death is less overkill, as Doraleous just cuts his throat.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Many, many times."He's goin' drinking, bitches?!"
- Those Two Guys: Sir Walken and Broof.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The Meh kingdom people do nothing but criticize the Associates attempts to help them. Considering the source...
- Neebs is a fair example as well, what with walking up to an enemy army, threatening them, breaking a prisoner from the stocks, and bringing the man and his shackles to the King's court with him.
- Traveling Salesman: After Doraleous fires him, Neebs becomes one of these, peddling WonderBrooms to whoever will listen. He apparently liked it enough to use his Farewell Address to make them the official broom of his kingdom. Later, after Thesaurus quits the Associates and Neebs rejoins, Thesaurus takes over Neebs' old business, apparently doing well enough to provide the Associates with huge sackfuls of money.
- Verbal Tic:
- There is. Sir Walken. Obviously.
- What do you think? Meh.
- Though not presented as compulsive, Thesaurus will usually mumble synonyms of words he has just heard, regardless of what's going on at the time.
- Vocal Evolution: Drak's voice gets a bit deeper as the series goes on.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The hairy, heavy-set Drak never dons a shirt at any point.
- Weapon-Based Characterization:
- Doraleous and Sir Walken use swords.
- Drak and Broof use axes.
- Mirdon, as the mage, uses a staff.
- Neebs and Thesaurus, as archers, use bows.
- We Help the Helpless: Doraleous aspires to this. The other Associates mainly just want to get paid.
- Wimp Fight: Leslie the Wetald vs. Marcus of Callas. Especially funny as it's Combat by Champion for both sides: Worst Man vs. Worst Man.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Doraleous feels this way about Ladder Guy, who isn't much use beyond helping them climb over not-very-high walls.
- Wizards Live Longer: Mirdon is over 300.
