Western Animation / Conan the Adventurer

An Animated Series loosely based on Conan the Barbarian (hence the title), but so very much Lighter and Softer than the original it should be considered more a generic fantasy series that merely borrows inspiration from Conan. The cartoon ran from September, 1992 to November, 1993, for a total of 65 episodes.

Thousands of years ago, the demon-god Set ruled the earth as an immortal tyrant, served by legions of monstrous reptilian humanoids called "Serpentmen". However, a mighty warrior-wizard named Vathalos led the other White Wizards of the world in a rebellion against the demon-god and sealed him and most of his minions away in the Abyss. Unfortunately, some of Set's minions, human and Serpentman alike, escaped the purge and slunk into the shadows to prepare for the day when they could release Set and reclaim the world.

None of this is of any concern to Conan, who is a mere youth apprenticed to his father, a blacksmith, in a peaceful mountain village in Cimmeria. One day, a strange celestial event results in a great shower of shooting stars; while they hit all over the world, several of them land at Conan's mountain, whereupon Conan's father forges the "starmetal" they contain into weapons and makes a profitable business selling them, saving one piece, a mighty broadsword, for Conan. This sword is concealed in a stone sarcophagus, and Conan is told that he will be ready to wield it on the day that he can lift off the heavy stone lid to retrieve it from its resting place.

Unbeknownst to the Cimmerians, Wrath-amon, the High Wizard-Priest of Stygia and Lord of All Serpentmen, has been told by Set that starmetal holds the key to undoing the spell that keeps the demon-god sealed away, and he immediately sets to gathering the substance for his master. Several years after the starmetal shower, Conan's village is attacked by Wrath-amon's minions, led by the dark wizard himself. Conan runs to retrieve his sword, and finally manages to free it, but returns too late to help, forced to watch as his father, mother and grandfather are transformed into stone statues by Wrath-amon's evil magic. He vows to never rest until his family are restored, and while leaving the mountain, he stumbles across the tomb of the sage Epimetrius, still haunted by the ghost of this ancient wizard. The benevolent spirit tells Conan the reasons behind Wrath-amon's attack, and gives him a companion in the form of a fledgling phoenix named Needle.

And thus the journey begins... As Conan proceeds to wander the earth and battle Wrath-amon's evil, he makes numberous other allies, including the Vanirman Snagg, the shuriken-tossing acrobat Jezmine, the warrior-wizard prince of the Wasai Zula, the wind-magician Greywolf, and the winged whip-wielding warrior Falkenar.

Later the show was given a "sort of" sequel in Conan and the Young Warriors, where Conan acted as a mentor to a group of three chosen ones who are destined to rule over the realm of Hyboria.

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Conan the Adventurer provides examples of:

• Achilles' Power Cord: A strange mystical example happens when Conan fights a near-invincible foe only to learn he is powered by a wizard using what is essentially a magic, invisible power chord of mystical energy. Defeating the foe involves finding a way to sever the energy connection.
• Action Girl: Jezmine is the only female member of Conan's adventurers.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: This Conan is much nicer and less tempermental than the original version.
• Alternate Continuity: The series is set in a different continuity than the Conan the Barbarian novels.
• Amazon Chaser: Snagg likes Breda because she's a strong Vanir woman and sees her as his equal.
• Amplified Animal Aptitude:
  • Thunder understands Conan. He chooses his own name by throwing Conan off his back until Conan suggests the correct one.
  • Exploited when Needle disobeys Conan and reveals himself to other people; Conan claims that Needle is his pet parrot, keeping the fact that he is a phoenix still secret.
• Androcles' Lion:
  • Conan's steed, Thunder, is a wild horse that accepted Conan as rider after he freed him from Hyrkanians who had captured him.
  • The Kari Dragon saves Conan, not once but twice. This is because of all the humans he encountered, Conan was the only one who would risk his life to save him.
• Animal Eyes: Wrath-Amon has reptilian-like eyes in his human form.
• Animation Bump:
  • The intro, while still having its moments, is far more fluid and detailed than the actual episodes.
  • The series has pretty average animation, but "The Sword of Destiny" stands out as the visually best episode. It has an anime feel to it, being animated by KKC&D Asia. The animation is very fluid and has many lightning effects. It's even more impressive since the script contains many sword fights, which means extra work in animation.
• Anthropomorphic Transformation: Turns out Wrath-Amon has this as his origin, rather than being a serpentman himself. Originally a Stygian Sand Lizard/Gila Monster, he was transformed by his predecessor Ram-Amon who wanted something more competent than his normal human guards. Wrath-Amon then proceeded to "out-competent" his former boss right out of his position of authority and became Set's new second in command.
• Artistic License – Biology: Set is a giant cobra with a rattle at the end of his tail. Justified since he's a snake god and thus not an actual species recognized by Earthly biology.
• Back for the Finale: The three-parter Series Finale bring back many characters: the ghost of Epimetrius, Mesmira, the Wizards of Xanthus, Conan's parents, Conn, Jezmine's parents, Ram-Amon, and the Kari Dragon. Oddly, Windfang is completely absent. Skullkar has a brief appearance early on, but isn't seen in the rest of the finale.
• Bad Boss:
  • Averted with Queen Mesmira who, aside from the occasional queenly tantrum and berating, treats her servants well and is in turn highly regarded by them that they are unhesitatingly entrusted with her safety in various schemes. Even such powerful and vile minions obey her requests for seemingly no other reason than loyalty and respect.
  • Played very straight with Wrath-Amon. His promises mean little. Success doesn't guarantee security if sacrificing you would profit him in any way. Of course those who don't succeed in their task are forfeit.
  Wrath-Amon: Fail me and your life will be the least you will lose.
  • Set is an interesting case; he is never seen or even implied to harm his serpent men in any way, and gives considerable leeway to the holder of the black ring, who is generally spoken to in a calm and guiding manner. However, the rare times he does issue a threat can be very unsettling, and once someone else usurps the ring, no thought is given to the previous owner no matter how loyal they are or how much they have achieved.
    • Then came the bad future (described below); while Wrath-Amon is now second-in-command of the whole world, he has become rather uneasy and on edge. There was one moment when Set menacingly appears behind him, supposedly just to inquire the state of the local celebration; but judging from Wrath-Amon's startled reaction, he may have had worse in mind.
• Bad Future: One of the late episodes has Conan get pulled into one resulting from him dying in the ambush he was just subjected to. Set has escaped and conquered the world, Falkenar has been killed, Snagg's eye has been gouged out, Zula's hand has been cut off, Jezmine has been transformed into a Serpentwoman and, worse, become a concubine of Set, Needle has been frozen into crystal, and Greywolf's siblings have been vaporized. In the course of preparing an antidote to dose Conan with so they can send him back, Snagg is eaten by Set, Jezmine changes into a serpent-beast to hold off Set and is killed and Zula and Greywolf are killed sending Conan back to his own time.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The villains won a couple of times:
  • Wrath-Amon staged a war between Cimmeria and the Vanir. Both factions had secret stashes of starmetal and forged them into weapons. As the two armies clashed, Wrath-Amon staged his surprise attack and stole all the weapons, except for Conan's and Snagg's.
  • Mesmira tried to elude Greywolf. She gave him two rare flowers to cure his siblings in exchange for Greywolf abandoning his pursuit. The wizard agreed and realized he had been duped: the flowers were fake. Mesmira fled and kept the real flowers for her nefarious plans.
  • In "The Star Metal Monster", the titular creature is melted down by Wrath-Amon so he can forge one of his starmetal disks.
  • This deserves a mention: Wrath-Amon successfully set a trap for Conan and poisoned him with giant snakes. With Conan dead, this is the beginning of the end as Set makes his eventual return and conquer the world. Only decades later, through time travel, can Greywolf change history by saving Conan before he is bitten. It becomes a Near-Villain Victory.
• Bald of Evil: Wrath-Amon doesn't have any hair underneath his helm.
• Barbarian Hero: Conan, Zula, and Snagg are all different versions of this; Conan is the standard "brawny loincloth-wearing white guy" type, Zula is the "Darkest Africa savage" type (if only in look), and Snagg is the "Horny Vikings" type.
• Barbarian Longhair: As everyone in-universe is constantly reminding us, Conan is "a big dumb barbarian". He also has thick and untamed shoulder-length hair.
• Bat Out of Hell: One of Mesmira's rides is a giant scary bat. It even creeps out her werewolf henchman.
• Battle Boomerang: Zula's starmetal boomrang, forged from his starmetal bolas.
• The Beastmaster:
  • Zula, technically, with his ability to request aid from animals.
  • Falkenar, with his loyal falcon Stormclaw, and technically Greywolf, with his lupine siblings, play it much straighter.
• Big Brother Instinct: Titanus, the starmetal golem from "The Starmetal Monster", pretty much exists to be a protective elder sibling for its creator. So long as she's safe and happy, it's a Gentle Giant. Threaten her, and it will immediately leap to her defense. Kidnap her, and it will not stop until it has saved her. Ultimately, it makes a Heroic Sacrifice so that Conan can save her from Wrath-Amon.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Ram-Amon betrayed Conan and his friends, but Greywolf came to their rescue after having a change of heart.
  • The Kari Dragon rescued Conan before Set can devour him.
• Big "NO!": When Set fails to devour an escaping Conan in episode "Into the Abyss" and again in "A Serpent Coils the Earth" when the dimensional rift to the Abyss is closed, losing half his army.
• Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The frost giants, much like in the original Conan story, have large but fairly human-looking womenfolk and far bigger and more monstrous menfolk.
• Black Magic: Wrath-Amon throws this around like it's going out of style. But there's plenty more of it that pops up. However, despite the setting, it averts Magic Is Evil.
• The Blacksmith: Conan's father is a very fine blacksmith, having crafted Conan's sword.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Wrath-Amon has two blades in his right-hand's gauntlet.
• Bloodless Carnage: Though this series actually has the characters hit their enemies, all they do is reveal them as Serpentmen (if their enemies are disguised) or cause them to disintegrate and be sucked out of their clothes into the Abyss (if their true form has been revealed). This is actually worked into the story on two occasions. In one episode, Conan and Jezmine are in the Abyss, and find their weapons near useless because you can't banish someone to a place they already are. And in the final arc, there's an open portal to the Abyss, so disintegrating the Serpentmen only sends them a few miles away, where they rush right back to the fight, giving Set an effectively inexhaustible army.
• Body Horror:
  • The episode "Curse of Ahx’oon" has its main villain getting consumed by lava. Now, you would think that this would be the last you would see of her. It isn't. As the lava flows away, you see her skeletal remains.
  • The episode "Final Hours of Conan" has Conan poisoned by a snake demon thing, and progressively turns into a Serpentman. The transformation process is quite horrible to behold, and a Painful Transformation to boot.
    • One moment has Jezmine recoil in horror as she sees snake scales appear on his neck where there previously only was a red sting wound.
    • For added horror, Conan can't even touch his sword without harming and burning himself.
    • Then, even though the starmetal turns out to be the cure (props to Thunder), the process involves covering his whole body in it and what amounts to burning every inch of flesh back to a human state, along with heaps of screaming and excruciating pain.
• Body Surf: The Evil Sorcerer of the Burning Skull uses a host to house his mind and soul. He changes hosts when his old one is about to expire.
• Bragging Theme Tune: "Conan, the Adventurer, Conan, warrior without fear, he's more powerful than any man, his legend spreads across the land and sea..."
• Butt-Monkey: Dregs is laughably incompetent and routinely humiliated. This is exaggerated for comedic effect in Dregs-Amon the Great, when even ruling Stygia can't get him out of being the butt of every joke.
• Call-Back: The show actually had a fairly decent continuity and several episodes referenced past ones.
  • Episode 16, "Master Thief of Shadizar", has Jezmine and Conan note that this scenario is much like a previous one, referring to their near-disastrous adventure after the Star of Transmutation. The Evil Sorcerer even turns out to be the same one from that episode, and references it himself.
  • In episode 31, a callback is made to Conan slaying the Medusa in episode 6.
  • When future!Greywolf sends Conan back in his timeline, the incantation is similar to the one used by Spellbinder.
  • Ram-Amon absently refers back to his first meeting with a time-traveling Conan in episode 24 when they meet him again in episode 60.
  • The very last bit of starmetal Wrath-Amon needed is the very same lost dagger in "The Last Dagger of Manir".
• Captain Obvious: In one episode, Conan yells "It's a trap!" to his friends, when the Serpentmen have already begun their attack 10 seconds earlier and Conan has already made his counterattack.
• Carry a Big Stick: Windfang usually fights with a mace. His other weapon is a flail.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Jezmine doesn't like when other women are too close to Conan.
• Cool Airship: The Wizards of Xanthus have an airship as means of transportation. They even use it for the final battle against Set's army.
• Cool Horse: Conan's horse named Thunder. He is loyal to his master and starts kicking serpentmen around when he's outfitted with starmetal horseshoes.
• Cool Old Guy: Conan's grandfather, Conn, was a pretty impressive adventurer himself in his younger days, and even in the present day thinks nothing of stealing the jewelry of a legendarily possessive and powerful lich-queen in order to trick her into destroying an enemy of his.
• Continuity Snarl: Conan says that no one can follow him to the hidden tomb of Epimetrius as its location must remain secret. In the finale, Conan brings Conn to the tomb and Epimetrius doesn't seem upset about it (then again, Set has returned to Earth and "bending the rules a little" is the least of the ghost's concerns right now).
• Covers Always Lie: The intro animation loosely follows the series' plot in the beginning, but not completely. It begins with Conan fighting Wrath-Amon on horseback (he actually gets his horse after fighting Wrath-Amon for the first time, who rides a chariot pulled by wyverns, instead), then Conan rescues Jezmine from a giant spider (which happens in the third episode "Star of Sharizar") and they team up to rescue Zula from a slave galley (Conan meets Zula aboard the galley in the second episode "Blood Brother", and Zula rescues Jezmine's friends in "Sharizar" while Conan rescues Jezmine).
• Cursed with Awesome: Skulkar was transformed from a human warrior into an undead skeleton by being exposed to the Black Magic of his treacherous former-friend Sadinar, after having already been empowered by the Black Magic of Wrath-amon. Skulkar actually likes this state, to the extent he goes berserk when Sadinar transforms him back into a human .
• Darkest Hour: The Series Finale is very much this. Set has returned to Earth along with thousands of banished Serpentmen. With the portal to the Abyss permanently opened, the Serpentmen turned from a joke army of mooks to an unstoppable army of mooks. The very last episode also counts. Conan is chained to a slab of stone and is to be devoured by Set while his imprisoned friends are helplessly watching from afar.
• Damsel in Distress: The Princess of Vendhya is captured by an Evil Sorcerer and Conan goes to her rescue.
• A Day in the Limelight: Needle and Dregs get one episode where they are the focus. They have been captured by a creature collector and must escape him.
• Defecting for Love: Astavis renounces loyalty to Wrath-Amon, and eventually his power-mad god Set, because they fail time and again to guarantee the safety of his beloved human wife and daughter.
• Defrosting Ice Queen:
  • When they first meet, the Princess of Vendhya is cold and insulting to Conan who came to rescue her. She warms up to him after she's successfully rescued.
  • Breda refuses to accept Snagg as her lover, but has a change of heart when he finally show a bit of humility.
• Dem Bones: Skulkar, and any of his minions.
• Designated Girl Fight: Downplayed. The two major female characters of the series, Jezmine and Mesmira, rarely square off against one another.
• The Determinator: Nothing will stop the undead queen from getting her jewelry back, as Mesmira found out the hard way.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the final episode ("A Serpent Coils the Earth Part 3") Conan and his friends fight Set, the Big Bad and a demon-god, and win.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Medusa is male in this universe rather than female.
• The Dog Is an Alien: While not an alien, Needle, a baby phoenix, would occasionally pretend to be a parrot to avoid drawing attention.
• Draconic Humanoid: Windfang is a Multi-Armed and Dangerous version of this who is a recurring opponent. Others include the dragonspawn, minor enemies who show up in several episodes.
• The Dragon:
  • Windfang, once a human general named Venturas who opposed Wrath-amon centuries ago, but was captured by him and forcibly transformed into a flying monster. Gets two episodes devoted to him; "Windfang's Eyrie" and "Earthbound".
  • Similarly Wrath-Amon is this for Set.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Something of a recurring problem for Set, and part of the reason his plans kind of limp along until Wrath-Amon shows up. There's no shortage of dark wizards and priests who will happily take advantage of Set's favor, but are not really interested in seeing him escape the abyss. As was so succinctly put in one episode "They worship his power, but are not loyal to him."
• Elemental Embodiment: In one late episode, a renegade Xanthus wizard is transformed by Mesmira into an elemental humanoid, capable of switching between a hulking earth form, a winged fire form, a tornado-like air form, and water form.
• Eldritch Location:
  • In the episode "The Book of Skelos", Conan and his allies are transported to the City of Demons. A place where the physical laws of reality don't apply.
  • The Abyss is shown to be a barren and desolated place with red and black sky. Another episode show landmasses broken, scattered and floating in the air.
• Elemental Powers: The White Wizards of Xanthus study magic that gives each of them control over one of the four elements. A Xanthus wizard is also allowed to only study one particular element — trying to wield power over multiple elements results in exile.
• Elite Mook:
  • The Serpent Riders of Set. It take simultaneous starmetal blows to take them out. Fortunately for Conan, they only show up in one episode.
  • The mummies guarding Stygia. They hit so hard that they send the gang flying, are damage resistant to even starmetal weapons and have eye beams.
• Enemy Civil War: The many forces of evil in this series are by no means united as a collective, and even amongst Set's own forces there's notable examples of political struggles; Wrath-Amon dethroned Ram-Amon as Set's right hand, and Ram-Amon naturally wants to take the role back, whilst the Damballahs, despite also worshipping Set, are fierce enemies of Stygia, to the point that when Set tells their high priest Sadinar that he would welcome a new champion, Sadinar makes plans to launch a full-blown war on Stygia to defeat Wrath-Amon and take his place. Nanoc the Nasty even notes during the episode "Master Thief of Shadizar" that whilst many dark sorcerers pay homage to Set, it's all lip service and all they really want is the demon-god's power, with no true loyalty.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Conan teams up with Ram-Amon against Wrath-Amon, not once but twice in the series. It naturally ends with Ram-Amon's betrayal in both accounts.
  • In one episode, Conan and Zula unwittingly team up with Skulkar, newly reverted to his human form of Sakumbe, to defeat the slavers of the Damballahs. Skulkar finds it hilarious, though his oblivious comrades-of-the-moment don't get the joke due to not knowing "Sakumbe's" origin.
  • In the Series Finale, Mesmira helps our heroes invade Stygia when Set invade the world. This was part of her plan as she steals the remains of the black ring when everyone has completely forgotten about her.
• Epic Flail: Windfang usually fights with a flail. His other weapon is a mace.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Set, the demonic serpent god, finds the Gremlin Toads to be too revolting to deal with, meaning he is less than thrilled when Dregs disobeys Wrath-Amon and sets them free, as seen when some of the Frog Men come leaping into his temple.
  Set: "By my scales, you set loose the Gremlin Toads! You'll get no more power from me until those disgusting creatures are out of here!"
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Misha and Sasha are technically humans turned into wolves, but they fit the trope perfectly as they are capable of smelling evil, usually Mesmira. Too bad Conan and his crew are too slow to catch on until it's too late.
• Evil Is Hammy: With Scott McNeil as Wrath-Amon, you bet it's gonna be hammy.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: The entire Earth was once plunged into darkness by an elder demon so terrible, a mere gaze at its shadow would strike one with a crippling horror. Despite learning of the legend in all of its detail, a warlord still plans to unleash it to conquer a kingdom for him, fully believing that such a wicked being would even consider his request.
• Evil Sorcerer: The series is full of them, but Wrath-Amon and Ram-Amon are the series' most recognizable ones.
• Exposed to the Elements: Conan actually has a second, mostly blue outfit for episodes in snowy areas, topped with a horned helmet (but still leaving his arms uncovered). However, in "In Days of Old" he uses his usual furry cloak and loincloth with no ill effects.
• Expository Theme Tune: It pretty much sums up what Conan is after. Some consider it Awesome Music, too.
• Eyepatch of Power: In the Bad Future, Snagg lost an eye and wears an eye patch.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • Conan gets stung by a demon in one episode and begins to transform in a Serpentman.
  • What the god Set implies he will do to those who defy or fail him miserably, vowing to swallow their very being whole.
• Fight Unscene: Happened regularly. Someone would swing a weapon, and things would suddenly zoom into just the weapons as they clanged against each other, and then it would zoom back out again. This would also sometimes happen when the serpentmen would get struck by starmetal — the scene would zoom in on either them or their torsos while they got zapped back to the Abyss, then zoom back out again.
• Find the Cure!: Conan has been poisoned by Wrath-Amon's giant snakes and Conan has to find the cure. What makes it interesting is that Conan is already dead when he undergoes this quest. That's because he's being pulled into the future by Greywolf, just moments before he was bitten. The cure can only be found in the future and Conan will return to his timeline once this is done. Which makes you wonder why Greywolf couldn't just use Time Travel to prevent the poison attack in the first place.
• Frog Men: The Gremlin Toads, slimy, tailed creatures that multiple when blasted into puddles of slime, who are shown to be rude, lazy and a general nuisance. Wrath-Amon sealed them up in an enchanted box and warned Dregs to never let them out... of course, Dregs didn't listen.
• Forced Transformation:
  • Greywolf's brother, Misha, and his sister, Sasha, are transformed into wolf-monsters. Greywolf manages to restore their human minds, but is unable to do more in the process than turned them into ordinary wolves. Restoring them to human form becomes his driving motivation for the series.
  • The final fate of Wrath-Amon, he is permanently turned into a mindless lizard-like creature.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Bad Future episode demonstrates that starmetal cannot banish Serpentmen to the Abyss, if Set is already on Earth; they're merely briefly dispersed and retake shape soon afterwards. This comes to pass in the Grand Finale, allowing the Serpentmen to become practically unstoppable.
  • In the Grand Finale, a new character named Darius offers to help Conan and friends in the struggle, but Greywolf's siblings are briefly seen growling at him. Part 2 of the story reveals "he" is really Mesmira in disguise.
• Forgot About His Powers: In the Series Finale, Conan's friends have freed themselves, but they can't reach their weapons. Why Jezmine and Zula do not summon their weapons back is quite puzzling.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Wrath-Amon started his life as a common and mindless giant gila monster. Then Ram-Amon turned him into a Lizardfolk. After getting rid of his master, Set made him his new servant and Wrath-Amon became the most feared and powerful sorcerer for the next two hundred years.
• Galactic Conqueror: What Set is on the verge of becoming in a dark alternate timeline. Not content with simply ruling Earth, he aspires to invade and conquer other dimensions as well.
• Gentle Giant: The starmetal golem Titanus is about 7ft-8ft tall and wrought in the shape of a demon, but has the personality of a doting big brother. Its only concern is protecting and comforting its creator, a little orphan girl with untrained magical powers, and so long as she is unmolested, it's quiet and peaceful. Ultimately, it makes a Heroic Sacrifice to protect her, allowing itself to be melted down by Wrath-Amon so she can be rescued by Conan.
• Giant Mook: Among the commonly fought serpent-men in the episode "Seven Against Stygia" was one almost twice the size of Conan that sent him flying, shield and all, with one strike.
• God of Evil: Set in a nutshell.
• Go-Go Enslavement: An evil sorcerer enslaves Jezmine and magically changes her clothes.
• Golem: The episode "The Starmetal Monster" features an orphan girl with untrained magical abilities, which most prominently manifest in the ability to grant life—not just motion, but an actual apparent personality!—to sculptures. Originally, she just uses this on her doll for companionship, but when an angry blacksmith threatens to throw her into his furnace, she instinctively animates his starmetal statue and creates the titular monster, Titanus, as a protector/surrogate brother.
• Gone Horribly Right: Fed up with his servant's (Dregs in the past) incompetence, Ram-Amon spared no attribute when invoking the powers of darkness for a replacement. Who would later become Wrath-Amon.
  Ram-Amon: Give him the strength of a hundred men, give him cleverness and cunning, give him the power of EVIL!
• Grand Finale: "A Serpent Coils the Earth" three-parter.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Serpentmen aren't very competent. In the finale, they tied up our heroes, but forgot to remove Falkenar's cloak. Guess what he does when he is freed?
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: The only female member of Conan's team is the only one with a ranged weapon.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Jezmine discovers she is half-human, half-Serpentman.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Often in normal dialogue and literally true in every fight scene. Every single voice actor is practically screaming themselves hoarse while Chewing the Scenery.
• Harmless Freezing: Conan is frozen by the Frost Giant's daughter. It takes several minutes for Snagg to find him. When he does, he removes the sheet of ice encasing him. Then, he place torches around him to warm him up and Needle gives a hand by flying overhead. Afterward, Conan is fine and capable of moving like nothing happened.
• Hates Being Touched: Spellbinder hates being touched as he hates the company of others.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Astavis, a Serpentman with a human wife, falls in love with her and tries his hardest to keep her safe, even personally renouncing Set. When he is banished to the Abyss, his wife is accidentally pulled with him and he fights as hard as he can to keep her safe. When he finally returns to the world as part of Set's army, he deserts at the first chance he gets.
  • Same goes for his wife. When she reunited with her long-lost daughter Jezmine, she made a bargain with Wrath-Amon. Jezmine unharmed in exchange for Conan, Zula and all the starmetal weapons. When Wrath-Amon didn't fulfill his end of the bargain, she switched sides.
• The Hermit: Spellbinder lives alone on top of a snowy mountain. He deliberately avoids people because he hates them. Falkenar and Zula take note of this and threaten to take him to civilization if he doesn't cooperate.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Conan always favor swords, even when he loses his.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • The Kari Dragon sacrifices himself to save the heroes from a recently unleashed Set.
  • Needle does that as well against Set, just moments later. He turns into a bright and large burning phoenix and eventually falls into the ground in ashes. However, like the phoenixes of legends, Needle rises from its ashes, unharmed.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Ninjas seen in Phenion wear green costumes. Conan himself trains as a ninja and wears a red and orange costume. This goes the same for Jezmine when she joins them and also wear a red and orange costume.
• Hitchhiker Heroes: Over the course of the series Conan befriends several characters that join with and help him defeat his enemies and save his family: Thunder and Needle in the pilot, followed on by Zula, Jezmine, Greywolf, Snagg, and Falkenar.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ironically, Set's own dark magic and energies has often aided the forces of good. The Amulet of Vathelos was powered by his own sorcery, which enabled Epimetrius and the wizards to banish him to the Abyss in the first place. He inadvertently recharges the relic that has now passed to Conan, though the artifact does not grant the wearer immunity to his fangs or coils. Even his venom is necessary to spare Conan from a poisonous toxin that would otherwise surely kill him.
• Hook Hand: In the Bad Future, Zula lost his right hand and replaced it with a hook.
• Horny Vikings: The Vanir.
• Hot Witch: Mesmira, who is frequently making use of mind-controlling and mind-altering spells to get what she can't get through simple flirting.
• Humanity Ensues: Played straight with Skulkar in the episode "Bones of Damballa".
• Hydra Problem:
  • Inverted with the Serpent Riders of Set, who start out as seven serpentine demonic riders, but as one falls, its companions absorb the fallen's essence and grow bigger, stronger and more monstrous-looking. By the time only one is left, it's a towering behemoth that is practically invulnerable.
  • When Dregs blasts the first Gremlin Toad with the Black Ring, it explodes in a shower of slime that then transforms into several larger, humanoid Gremlin Toads. The more he blasts them, the more these new Gremlin Toads multiply, until they are swarming all over the city and making a terrible nuisance of themselves.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Deconstructed. Making one of these Got Ram-Amon Starscreamed
• Identical Grandfather: In the episode "The Amulet of Vathalos", a man tells Conan a story about Conan's grandfather. During the flashback, Conan's grandfather looks like an older, less muscular version of him.
• Idiot Ball: Jason, stealing Conan's sword and going after Wrath-Amon and actually thinking he would win. Wrath-Amon summed it up wonderfully when Jason accused him of cheating by using magic:
  Wrath-Amon: You think this is a game, boy?!
• Inadequate Inheritor: In one episode the Stygians incapacitate Falkenar and then have a Stygian-aligned Kusan noble challenge for the right to rule, as without Falkenar, the next in line to serve as the crown's champion is an untrained and unwarrior-like boy. After Conan and Zula's efforts to train him up for the ritual combat fail miserably, the boy uses a relic to pass his ability to wield the flying cloak (and with it his right to the throne) to Conan so he can be champion in his stead.
• Invincible Villain:
  • The demon god Set. When an exasperated Conan demands to know what it'll take to destroy the evil serpent, Set angrily replies "More power than you shall ever possess!".
  • Set's own creations/minions the Serpent Men also seem to share his immortality, in that while they may be overwhelmed or incapacitated, they can never die, merely be banished to the Abyss.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: This being a kid's show, the arrows and other projectiles will always miss human targets, even when fired at point blank. However the Serpentmen will get hit by starmetal projectiles, since that only takes them to the Abyss.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: The pilot is a long succession of scenes giving Conan the iconic items he has in the rest of the series. His father forges his longsword from recently fallen starmetal, but will only give it when he's strong enough to retrieve it from under a large headstone (which he accomplishes after one year working on his father's forge); his grandfather gifts him his necklace which turns out to be the key to defeat Wrath-Amon in the finale, Wrath-Amon arrives and curses his family, which sets him off on his journey; he befriends his steed Thunder, originally a wild horse; the ghost of Epimetrius the Sage gifts him his shield, from where he can summon Needle; and at the end, he is turned into a Slave Galley right next to Zula, the first of his companions.
• The Juggernaut:
  • Titanus, being a towering monster of living metal, is practically impossible to stop when he's in pursuit of his "little sister", knocking down trees, smashing through walls and swatting aside even the biggest of animals.
  • The lich-queen who Conn uses as a weapon against Mesmira in one late episode will hunt her jewelry to the ends of the earth, walking along riverbeds to get where she wants to go.
• Karma Houdini:
  • The unnamed woman who drugged Conan and sold him to the Serpentmen in episode 1. She's never seen again and never got punished for her misdeed.
  • Ram-Amon, original wielder of the Black Ring and creator of Wrath-Amon, escapes unscathed in the final episode. Ditto Mesmira. Presumably, this was a Sequel Hook for future episodes, had there been any.
  • Windfang and Skullkar are still unaccounted for.
  • While they made a Heel–Face Turn in the end, Jezmine's parents were accomplices to Wrath-Amon and who knows how many atrocities they committed while living in Tarantia.
• Kids Are Cruel: A bunch of boys took a poor orphan girl's animated doll and taunt her. They then toss the doll in a bonfire and left her to cry.
• A Lady on Each Arm: Snagg has two girls in each of his arms in the Series Finale.
• Last of His Kind: The Kari Dragon says he is the last remaining dragon alive.
• Leave No Survivors: Through deceit and exploitation of the Vanir and Cimmerians' mutual prejudice and distrust, Wrath-Amon successfully incites a war between them while his serpent army and Windfang's hordes lie in wait to steal their star metal weapons reserves and finish off whoever's left.
• Lethal Chef: Jezmine boards a ship disguised as a cook, much to the peril of the sailors.
• Liquid Assets: Conan and Greywolf have their youth stolen and turned into a "youth perfume" in episode 23 by an evil old sorcerer. They manage to get it back from the villain.
• Lizard Folk: Technically, Wrath-Amon isn't a serpentman, but a lizard folk. He was just a common giant gila monster when Ram-Amon used the black ring to turn him into his servant. He has three forms; a bald, "near-human" form with reptilian eyes, fangs and scaly patterns on his scalp; a more serpentman-like form where his skin becomes covered in green scales, which he takes upon being exposed to starmetal; and his original form, which has a reptilian face, claws, scaly skin and a tail.
• Love Makes You Dumb: One disguised serpentwoman became a king's new queen. With her new political power, she increase taxes and imposes cruel punishments to all who oppose her. The king is said to be a good ruler, but has done nothing to stop her because of his blind love for her.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Conan dislikes using a shield, but he reluctantly carries it because it serves as Needle's resting place. It's also able to resist many attacks.
• Manly Tears: In the Bad Future Zula sheds tears when Snagg is eaten by Set.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Needle announces that the portal to the Abyss has opened and Set is coming to Earth, everyone's jaws drop down.
• Master Swordsman: Conan.
• Mentor Archetype: Like Obi-Wan, the ghost of Epimetrius serve as Conan's mentor, although he rarely appears himself.
• Mineral MacGuffin: Enchanted stones or metals show up in several episodes:
  • Starmetal is the most ubiquitous; it's the iron ore from meteors that were originally part of the stars used to bind Set to the Abyss. They can be forged into weapons that banish Serpentmen to the Abyss, but also be used to breach the Abyss and release Set back into the world of men.
  • The episode "The Star of Transmutation" has the titular stone, which can transmute any material into anything else the bearer commands, such as turning a mass of mud and sticks into a Giant Spider.
  • The Amber of Asheron, from "Master Thief of Shadizar", is a hand-sized amber crystal that can generate bolts of lightning, and also encase victims in a prison of amber.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Windfang has four arms.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Astavis is the only known Serpentman to have fallen in love with a human. The other Serpentmen think he is mad and Ram-Amon, who's been ruling over Serpentmen for a very long time, believed that such a thing was unheard of.
• Mythology Gag: This show has dozens of references to the novels, from major ones like Conan and his tribe being descendants of Atlantis to minor ones like the usage of character-names and place-names from the novels.
  • The title "Conan the Adventurer" rather than "Conan the Barbarian" is rightfully seen as a declaration that this is a lighter and softer adaptation, yet Needle calls Conan a "big dumb Barbarian" regularly.
  • Conan and Snagg often bicker due to being a Cimmerian and a Vanirman; the Vanir are frequently enemies of the Cimmerians in the novels, though this hasn't stopped peace between them and Conan, indeed, befriended a Vanirman at one point in his travels.
  • At the end of episode 11, the countess tells her son that as count, he should only bow to the King of Aquilonia, who Conan, as he cheerfully admits, is most certainly not. Fans of the novels will remember that Conan's tales eventually ended with him becoming King of Aquilonia.
  • The mystical Black and Purple Lotuses are reoccuring items in the series. Both are potent mystical plants/drugs from the original literature.
  • Needle being a phoenix on a shield might be a reference to The Phoenix on the Sword, one of the very first Conan stories.
  • The general look of Dregs and the other nagas might be considered to be based on the "Man-serpents" from certain Conan stories, first appearing in The God in the Bowl.
  • Zula's patron god, Jhebbal-Sag the Master of Beasts, is lifted from Beyond the Black River, though here he is a good-guy, whereas in the novel he was a demon/old god who was empowering the Pictish shaman.
  • "Star of Shadizar":
    • The plot is basically pretty much the same as The Tower of the Elephant, with Conan raiding a wizard's tower to steal a highly valuable gem.
    • The fight he has with an ape-beast in the same episode could be seen as a Shout-Out to Rogues in the House, which revolves around Conan having to deal with a monstrous man-ape that has taken over the house of its sorcerer ex-master. Especially because the ape-beast has the same name — Thak — as the man-ape from the story.
  • Episode four involves the "Cannibals of Darfar", a degenerate race who first appeared in Man Eaters of Zamboula.
  • Episode 26's plot has a certain resemblance to The People of the Black Circle. An Evil Sorcerer named the Master of the Black Circle is the antagonist of episode 23.
  • Titanus, the titular entity from "The Starmetal Monster", could be seen an invocation of Khostral Khel from The Devil in Iron. Both are demonic golems made of living metal, but Khostral Khel is the Big Bad of his novel, whereas Titanus is a Gentle Giant.
• Near-Villain Victory: Wrath-Amon actually won by killing Conan. He then killed Mischa, Sasha, Falkenar and captured Jezmine. Greywolf, Zula and Snagg are the only ones left, but they can't stop Set from invading the world. Starmetal weapons become useless and mankind is enslaved. Decades later, only by saving Conan through time travel can they undo his victory.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: One group of Serpentmen ambushes Conan, Jezmine and Falkenar with spears, hooks and other gimmicks that incapacitate their starmetal weapons. The plan only fails because of Venturas' timely arrival. With a little improvement, this could have given the Serpentmen an easy victory, but they never bring that plan again.
• Never Say "Die": Turned to living stone? Banishing to another dimension? What about Wrath-Amon's constant threats to "destroy" Conan and his friends? Definitely not as bloody as the classic stories.
  • In the Bad Future where Snagg is eaten alive by Set, Zula shoots an arrow with "sleeping potion" next to him so he won't suffer. An adult-oriented show would have him shot or poisoned to put him out of his misery instead.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In one episode, Conan travels back in time to steal the black ring and therefore, saving his family. Unfortunately, he fails and the black ring changes hands: from Ram-Amon to Wrath-Amon.
  • Zigzagged once Conan freed Ram-Amon and teamed up with him. At first, Conan wants to replace Wrath-Amon with Ram-Amon. The latter captured him and his friends and delivered them to Set. However, Conan would not have recharged the amulet without Ram-Amon's help, meaning his parents would still be trapped in stone. Jezmine's mother was also successfully rescued because of Ram-Amon (although she probably would have escaped on her own once the portal was wide opened).
• The Nicknamer: Needle is king of this:
  • Conan: Big Dumb Barbarian
  • Jezmine: Stargirl
  • Snagg: Red Beard
  • Grey Wolf: Grey Wizard
• Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: Conan is a Barbarian Hero who ends up learning some of Zula's animal-magic (he's never very good at it, though, but he gets better when he discovers his Totem animal — a lion), becomes adopted into Zula's tribe as his blood-brother, discovers he's of Atlantean blood and becomes a trained Ninja.
• No Indoor Voice:
  • Needle. OH SO VERY MUCH AWWWWWWWK AWWWWWWK AWWWWWWK!!!
  • Jezmine does not speak, ever. She screams every line.
• Non-Lethal Warfare: As explained under Bloodless Carnage, Conan and company can hit their enemies, but there won't be any severed limbs or blood, just Serpentmen getting zapped to another dimension. Which poses a problem when either A: you're in said dimension, or B: a portal's been opened so the zapping is only a minor inconvenience. Unfortunately, Conan winds up in both scenarios over the show's run.
• No Ontological Inertia: Seems to be largely how a lot of magic in the setting works. The instant the wizard who cast a spell is defeated, their curses are near instantly undone, such as when the Medusa is killed. The same is true with many magical relics, as seen when the Star of Shadizar is melted, the Cornucopia of Grondar is destroyed, etc. In fact, destroying Wrath-Amon's black ring to restore Conan's family is one of the guiding quests of the series.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: One Serpentman challenged Conan with a magical armor that protected him from the effects of starmetal weapons. He's defeated nonetheless and the Serpentmen never craft the armor ever again.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Jezmine wear a pink corset that exposes much of her skin.
• Oh, Crap!: When Wrath-Amon sees Ram-Amon for the first time after nearly 200 years. He is visibly shaken.
• One-Hit Kill: One blow from a starmetal weapon is all that is needed to defeat a Serpentman. However, it doesn't kill them, only banish them, which becomes a plot point in the series finale - with an open rift between the Abyss and Hyperborea, all banishing a Serpentman accomplishes is to take him out of the fight for a while until he can travel back to the portal and rejoin Set's army.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: Conan is a young teen when his father forges and stores away his starmetal sword for him, and he has to age some years and grow stronger, bulking up into a Heroic Build, in order to get strong enough (and then some) to remove the stone slab covering it. Naturally, the young Conan tried to remove the stone immediately, but he couldn't lift it yet and was told "You Are Not Ready."
• Our Dragons Are Different:
  • The Asiatic-looking Kari Dragon is at least nominally friendly towards Conan and co. once Conan earns his respect.
  • Episode 30 has Conan go after a "Fire Salamander", which can be best described as a frill-necked, fire-breathing Stegosaurus.
  • Wrath-Amon's chariot is pulled by two pink wyverns.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Frost giants are the primary adversaries in a Snagg centric episode.
• The Phoenix:
  • Needle, a rather immature/weak version. He does get to become a fully grown adult for a few moments, though.
  • The episode "Crevasse of Winds" has an evil phoenix show up.
• Pink Means Feminine: Jezmine wears a pink corset most of the time.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Zula's bolas (later forged into a boomerang) and Jezmine's shurikens. They were coated with a magic ointment that make them return to the thrower when yelled "Return!"
• The Quest: Conan starts his adventures in order to free his parents and grandfather from the curse of living stone.
• The Quisling: Ram-Amon isn't a Serpentman, he is human. He served as ruler of Stygia long before Wrath-Amon came to power. He knows full well that an invasion by Set will enslave mankind and doesn't seem to care.
• Raise Him Right This Time: While fleeing the heroes, the old sorcerer mentioned in Liquid Assets accidentally knocks over some of his bottles, dousing himself in his perfume and regresses into a baby. Greywolf takes the baby when they leave his tower, stating that he now has a second chance and they should find someone to adopt him.
• Raising the Steaks: Whilst Skulkar typically raises human skeletons, he's quite capable of raising animal skeletons as well. Prominent examples include undead monkeys he sends to assassinate Conan and company, and riding into battle upon an undead elephant.
• Really 700 Years Old: Ram-Amon is more than 200 years old. Sorcery is probably responsible for this.
• Reformed, but Rejected: When Windfang returned to his human self, he wanted to turn a new leaf, but Falkenar refused to accept him. This is because their animosity runs deep, as Windfang has been fighting Falkenar's clan for 200 years. Jezmine gives him the benefit of the doubt while Conan is suspicious at first, but warms up to him later.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Set is a demon-god that appears as a giant cobra, the Serpentmen are Set's main allies, Wrath-amon is a humanoid monster created from a carnivorous lizard... and that's not even getting into all of the other reptilian monsters that show up.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • The ancient evil that was sealed under a castle. Wrath-Amon unburied it to create the Serpent Riders of Set.
  • An evil demon that could strike fear to anyone who looked its gaze. It's being magically sealed beneath the earth by ancient wizards.
• Sealed Evil in Another World: Sett the Serpent-God was sealed in Another Dimension known only as "The Abyss" a thousand years ago by all the good magicians of the time. His High Preist Wrath-Amon spends the series trying to breach the barrier between worlds to bring him back. Similarly, his serpent-man Mooks are banished to the Abyss by the slightest touch of starmetal.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Twice. First Conan traveled through time to prevent his parents' living stone curse. He failed and returned to his timeline. Second, a wizened Greywolf pulled Conan into the future and they must find a cure for the poison Conan is about to be injected with seconds before the pulling.
• Sequel Hook: After Set had been banished, Ramamon and Mesmira are acknowledged by Grey Wolf who are uncounted for. Speaking of Grey Wolf he is unable to permanently reverse the curse on his siblings before the show ends.
• Sham Supernatural: An episode sees Conan arrive at a village in time to watch an evil wizard abduct a young woman before cackling evilly and commanding him to leave. The villagers lament that the woman is most likely doomed and Conan should leave before he brings the wrath of the wizard down on himself. Ever the hero, Conan invades the villain's dark tower only to discover the whole thing is a sham using stage magic and the entire village is in on it. The victim seen earlier is even the daughter of the man playing the wizard (and quite alive to boot). It was their way of discouraging actual evil magic users from attacking the village and enslaving them.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Jezmine is already beautiful, but always in traveling gear with no time for the more feminine touch-ups. Spending time with her aristocratic mother accentuated her youthful complexion with her smooth and long hair let down, and having a lady's gown for attire. When she dresses up for a festival, even the familiar Conan is speechless.
• Ship Tease: It's implied a few times that Conan and Jezmine are attracted to each other, but they never officially become a couple.
• Slave Liberation: Both Conan and Zula were slaves to Stygia and escaped together with a handful of other slaves.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Several civilizations practice slavery with Stygia being the worst. In the Bad Future, all of humanity has been enslaved for either menial tasks or food.
• Slipping a Mickey: Conan fell victim to this on more than one occasion. He should really stay away from taverns.
• Smooch of Victory: The Princess of Vendhya gives one to Conan when she's rescued, eventually that is.
• Snake People: The Serpentmen, of course. Unusually for this trope, they favor the "human" part of their form, standing upright on two legs and lacking tails. Their reptilian attributes consist of scaly skin, hairlessness to varying degrees, and facial features that blend serpentine with human, predominantly in the form of forked tongues, slit-pupiled eyes, and prominent snake's fangs.
• Snub by Omission: The wizard Zulanti invites Conan and Jezmine to journey with him, but intentionally omits Greywolf.
• The Smurfette Principle: Jezmine is the only woman among the seven heroes.
• Spin-Off: Conan and the Young Warriors. And even then, its connection to this series was suspect. There were a few Continuity Nods, but the strongest link was them reusing the Conan character design.
• Stable Time Loop: In "Birth of Wrath-Amon", Conan travelled into the past when Ram-Amon possessed the black ring in order to steal it. He ends up causing the rise of Wrath-Amon, and by extension, was the one responsible for his family being turned to stone.
• Stalker with a Crush: Windfang is infatuated with Jezmine because she reminds him of the woman he'd loved, back when he was a human.
• The Starscream:
  • Skulkar's backstory is revealed that he was originally a Damballah man named Sakumbe, who helped an ambitious Damballah priest named Sadinar to become the High Priest and ruler over the Damballahs by stealing the former High Priest's scepter of rulership. This backfired for Sakumbe when Sadinar betrayed him, which ultimately led to Sakume's transformation in Skulkar.
  • Wrath-Amon wasn't the first ruler of Stygia. He stole the black ring from Ram-Amon and became Set's newest sorcerer.
• Status Quo Is God: The Black Ring is separated from its master on several occasions, but since depowering The Heavy would end the series, Wrath-Amon always gets the ring back before the ending credits. At least until his final confrontation with the heroes in the penultimate episode.
• Stripperiffic: Mesmira. She wore some sort of tabard that covers her upper body, but for her lower body just a belt and sash that hangs down between her legs, leaving almost all of them on display.
• Summon to Hand: Jezmine's shurikens are enchanted to return after throwing. She later teaches Zula how to enchant his bolas to do the same. When he has them reforged into a boomerang, they retain the magic.
• Surrounded by Idiots: With Dregs as their servant, Ram-Amon and Wrath-Amon certainly think so. The naga is incapable of doing anything right and is too feeble to fight.
• Sworn Brothers: Conan and Zula become blood brothers in a ceremony, because of the former's actions that saved them both. Should anything happen to Zula, Conan will succeed him as prince of the Wasai.
• Sycophantic Servant: Dregs, a naga who serves both Ram-Amon and Wrath-Amon.
• Taken for Granite: The spell of living stone with which Conan's parents and grandfather got cursed.
• Third-Person Person: Needle always refers to himself in the 3rd person when speaking.
• Threatening Shark: Conan escapes from a slave galley and jumps into the water while still wearing shackles on his feet; then he's attacked by a great white shark. Hilariously, he manages to throw a punch underwater with enough strength to dissuade it.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: Conan tossed his shield like a frisbee and decapitated a mummy.
• Thunderbolt Iron: Starmetal
• Token Minority: Among the seven heroes, Zula is from Wasai and is black. Falkenar is from Kusan, an Eastern Asia-like country.
• Took a Level in Badass: Subverted. Dregs decides to try for this when he steals the Black Ring while Wrath-amon is briefly transformed back into the lizard he once was. His attempts at spells tend to backfire — for example, when he tries to make a crevice appear under Windfang, Windfang just flies away with his wings, leading Dregs to fall into the crevice. Wrath-amon's troops won't obey him, Dregs doesn't know how to use any of Wrath-amon's other artifacts and makes a mess, and he finally pisses Set off so badly that Set won't recharge the Black Ring for him.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • There are many instances where Dregs saves or helps his master Wrath-Amon. The evil sorcerer never thanked or acknowledged Dregs' actions, much to his frustration.
  • The Emperor of Vendya declares whoever will rescue his daughter from a ghastly cult will be made king of a province. Conan succeeds where no-one else even dared and is given a formal half-hearted thank you and a pouch of gold coins tossed to the ground near him.
• Uniformity Exception: One of the main characters is the daughter of a human mother and one of Set's serpentmen mooks. (Apparently the only good one.) When the old Dad returns to Earth with the rest of Set's horde, he's a slightly different color from the rest of the mooks, and thus stands out and is easily identifiable.
• The Usurper: Zula's cousin, Gora, tried many times to take the throne of the Wasai for himself.
• Villain Episode: Dregs is the focus of one episode where he takes over the leadership of Stygia from Wrath-Amon.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: When things go south for Wrath-Amon or any villains, they run away to fight another day.
• Villainous Crush:
  • Its implied that Set is sexually attracted to Jezmine, who is a half-breed of human and serpent man, two races he desires to rule over together supreme. In an alternate bad future it's plausible he forced her to become his concubine.
  • Mesmira in no way makes her desire for Conan a secret. Emphasized when she once disguises as Sasha the wolf; her animal instincts make her overtly affectionate towards him while initially unable to mask her aggression towards Jezmine.
• Villainous Rescue: In the second episode "Blood Brother", the Slave Galley guards are fine with seeing Conan drown after he jumps overboard while still wearing iron shackles on his feet. However, the slaves overseer and ship commander have them rescue him because they have been told to deliver him to Wrath-Amon.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Conan and Snagg routinely exchange tribal insults.
• Was Once a Man: Windfang used to be General Venturas of Koth, before he was turned into a four armed dragon-man by Wrath-Amon's experiments
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Conan in most episodes, Zula to a lesser degree.
• Weakened by the Light: Set hates the brilliant light of a Phoenix.
• Wham Shot: In the Bad Future, the sight of Jezmine being a Serpentwoman came out of nowhere and was quite creepy as hell.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Two characters disappear before the end of the series with nothing to indicate their final fates:
  • Greywolf's subplot is the only one completely unresolved at the end of the series. The best he can accomplish is turning his brother and sister into reverse werewolves (human during a full moon, wolves otherwise).
  • Windfang's fate also remains unresolved by the end of the show.
  • Mesmira takes the remains of the destroyed Black Ring for herself at the end of the penultimate episode, but the series ends before she has a chance to do anything with them.
  • Two characters turned to stone are not seen restored: a tribe's leader and Conn's adventuring buddy.
• Who Dares?: Set is outraged when the black ring is destroyed, momentarily disrupting his powers.
• World of Ham: Second only to BRIAN BLESSED in terms of how much of any given episode a character is shouting. Even the intro is hammy.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Conan considers hitting women against his code of honor, to the point that he allowed himself to be recaptured by the Amazons rather than fight his way out of their camp. As Needle put it, "Big dumb barbarian need better code".
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The wizard in "The Star of Sharizar" pretends to have been attacked and usurped by his familiar in order to make intruders lower their guard and kill them.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Much of the series is spent trying to stop Wrath-Amon from building the pyramids he needs to create the portal to free Set or deny him the starmetal he needs to make the discs to put on top of the pyramids, but Wrath-Amon ultimately succeeds at the beginning of episode 63, setting up the three-episode Grand Finale in which Conan and Co fight Set.
  • Part of the reason for this is because Conan spent a good part of the series trying to free his family from the spell of living stone. This left Wrath-Amon free to build his pyramids mostly undisturbed. Only at the very end Conan has no choice but to intervene.
• You Fool!: This line from Wrath-Amon:
  Wrath-Amon: FOOL! You can not destroooy the Serpent Riders! You can only make them STRONGEEER!
• You Have Failed Me: When a Serpentman failed to retrieve the Claw of Heaven, Wrath-Amon fed him to an unseen beast.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A servant girl brings Gora personal items covertly taken from Conan and Zula for his latest scheme to take over the Kingdom. She was under the impression that he would make her a queen. Instead, his two large baboons take her away.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: When Conan returns home with the cure for the spell of living stone, he finds that Wrath-Amon had raided the village a second time and stolen his petrified parents, making it impossible for Conan to cure them without fighting his way to the Temple of Set in the heart of Stygia.

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