History WesternAnimation / DungeonsAndDragons

* CrapsackWorld: At the start of the series, the forces of evil have dominated the Realm for hundreds of years, destroying or imprisoning any forces of good and reducing the the Realm to [[SwampsAreEvil evil swamps]], dark forests, and wastelands with most of its inhabitants living in fear in scattered villages or small towns. Fortunately, the efforts of the heroes slowly breathe new life into dead areas, bring back lost heroes, and vanquish some of the evils terrorizing the land.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Downplayed. Diana, Bobby, and Uni - and sometimes even Sheila - are pretty caustic about Eric (though he [[ItsAllAboutMe brings it on himself]] often). Eric doesn't hesitate to dish it back out: but they do have a genuine friendship.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: See ExecutiveMeddling above. They already had a leash on the writers because of ''D&D'''s bad reputation in the early 80s, but the writers still managed to get a couple winners through. A great example is Eric being more of a pain in the ass than usual, causing Diana to snark off to Sheila that "he's having one of his days" (implying "time of the month").
** In "The Hall of Bones", there's a naughtily risqué moment with Sheila when she rises out of a pond, wrings out the back of her cloak, and a frog drops from under it, hopping away. Although her back is toward the camera and her cloak hides her backside from view, from her left side, it's still implied or evident she seems to be half naked, not wearing her skirt nor panties.

* ZettaiRyouiki: Sheila uses the boots + skirts version to reach a solid grade A.

* ActionGirl: Diana is the principal example: Sheila has her moments.

* LullDestruction: Kicks in about season 3, when the show started overextending occasionally and had to cram too much content into too small a time slot. Worst examples are in "Odyssey of the Twelfth Talisman" and "Citadel of Shadow", though "Citadel of Shadow" only really suffered from it for its first half.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Dungeon Master is known only by his title and, likewise, he ''almost'' always addresses the kids by their 'class' titles. (Sheila is the exception; the Dungeon Master refers to her as "child" rather than by her title, presumably due to said title being "thief".) Venger does the same, but his relationship with the kids is hardly a first-name one.
** To be exact, Dungeonmaster refers to Hank as "Ranger," Eric as "Cavalier," Presto as either "Magician" or "Wizard," and Shiela as "Child." Dungeonmaster calls Bobby by name in "Servant of Evil" though otherwise refers to him as "Barbarian," and calls Diana by name in "Child of the Stargazer" and otherwise never addresses her by her title. Both Venger and Shadow Demon refer to the kids by their titles.

* EvilVersusEvil: Venger and Tiamat despise each other; it's implied in at least one episode that the reason he wants the kids' weapons is to use them to fight her.
* ExactWords: Presto's hat tends to use the laziest interpretation possible. For instance, when he wished for an enemy to be removed from his sight, a bucket was magically conjured to drop onto Presto's head (making it impossible for him to see the enemy).

** In "The Hall of Bones", there's a naughtily risqué moment with Sheila when she rises out of a pond, wrings out the back of her cloak, and a frog drops from under it, hopping away. Although her back is toward the camera and her cloak hides her backside from view, from her left side, it's still implied or evident she seems to be half naked, not wearing a skirt nor panties.

** In "The Hall of Bones", there's a naughtily risqué moment with Sheila when she rises out of a pond, wrings out the back of her cloak, and a frog drops from under it, hopping away. Although her back is toward the camera and her cloak hides her backside from view, from her left side, it's still implied or evident she seems to be half naked, not wearing a skirt nor panties.

* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Hank's energy bow.

* {{Fanservice}}: Sheila has a gratuitous panty shot when Hank swings her up onto the back of his horse in the first episode, "Night of No Tomorrow."

* CharacterDevelopment: Eric becomes generally less selfish and obnoxious over the course of the series. By "The Winds of Darkness" he's even stepping up to lead the party when Hank's not available, and the only one who doesn't start to give up after the Darkling takes Hank.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: All six fall into this category. Hank(flaxen) and Bobby(honey blonde) are both blonde, Diana(dark brown) and Eric(black) are both brunettes, and Shiela(fiery red) and Presto(auburn) are both redheads.

This cartoon has the distinction of being one of the few Hasbro-related cartoons not owned by Creator/{{Hasbro}}. Instead, the cartoon is the property of Creator/{{Disney}}, who acquired the cartoon along with the majority of Marvel Productions' cartoons. This is because Hasbro had no ownership of ''Dungeons and Dragons'' at the time of production (they were still with [[Creator/{{TSR}} TSR, Inc.]] prior to that company's sale to Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, a Hasbro subsidiary). This may explain why Hasbro hasn't acknowledged the cartoon much compared to [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers other]] [[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero Hasbro-based]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends cartoons]].

This cartoon has the distinction of being one of the few Hasbro-related cartoons not owned by Creator/{{Hasbro}}. Instead, the cartoon is the property of Creator/{{Disney}}, who acquired the cartoon along with the majority of Marvel Productions' cartoons. This could be because Hasbro had no ownership of ''Dungeons and Dragons'' at the time of production (they were still with [[Creator/{{TSR}} TSR, Inc.]] prior to that company's sale to Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, a Hasbro subsidiary) and Hasbro seems to be uninterested in buying back the rights. This may partly explain why the cartoon hasn't been acknowledged as much in Hasbro Studios library compared to [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers other]] [[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero cartoons]] [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends from Hasbro]].

** Lukion is recognizable as a "Shambling Mound", an animate mass of swamp-plants loosely inspired by Comicbook/SwampThing and Comicbook/ManThing.

* ZettaiRyouiki: Sheila uses the boots + skirts version.

** In "The Skeleton Warrior", Presto starts a spell by calling out [[JonnyQuest "Sim sim sala..."]].