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Nightmare Fuel / Dragon Hunters

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This fantasy franchise is one of the rare examples where dragons are absolutely not romanticized by the plot and cause serious and obvious harm to people and animals (with some exceptions), sometimes in a nightmarish way, and most of them look nothing like traditional winged firebreathing reptiles and comes across as more like disturbing mutants. You can also see the dark sides of human nature here, which worsen in extreme situations. Also not all of the characters who reveal their souls to the audience survive after their finest hour. The show tries to talk about it in a calm tone, but without coddling a young audience, following the example of the adventure movies of the 80s from different countries, which also inspired the creators of the show.

The Series:

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Beware the Scarlet Slayer!

  • The behavior of the Dogdalites at the climax of the episode Isle of Mist, revealing their true nature, leads to eerie reflections.
    • And this is not to mention the offscreen fate that awaits them after a failed attempt to kill the heroes who saved them and a meeting with a surviving dragon.
  • In the episode Who's Lost their head now?, the Salamango dragon suddenly talks to Lian-Chu that he will come back when he kills him in a low tone of voice. Later in the episode the decapitated head seems to speak to him without moving its lips. There's just this vacant stare.
  • The Giant Spider dragon Aratog from Billy Thoughnut: a massive, four-legged spider-like monster with a creepy stare, the ability to Flash Step out of someone's vision and to shapeshift into people. The scene where he turns from human to dragon is rather creepy, especially when in the middle of the process.
  • In For a Few Veggies More, Gwizdo tries to kill Chief Big Beard, who is putting his plan in jeopardy by going along with his and Lian-Chu's mission to hunt themselves (They're disguised as their own bounty hunters). The extreme closeup and the look of murderous rage in Gwizdo's eyes shows that he means business. Fortunately, Lian-Chu stops him short of pushing him off the St. George, and Gwizdo grudgingly keeps steering.
    • The skinny bounty hunter's death in the dragon's jaws at the end of the same episode (that guy was an experienced and dexterous killer, but still couldn't save himself from a slug-like predator). Gwizdo doesn't look surprised by the remains of the badly ripped clothing between the sharp dragon teeth, which may mean that the little guy has already witnessed several violent deaths in his hunter practice, and this is why he constantly hides his worries behind his signature dark humor (and both official comic books that tell about the earlier career misadventures of heroes expressively confirm this fact!).
  • The consequences of how Ulrich the Toothless kills the unfortunate dragon with his bare hands in Farewell, Lian-Chu can be briefly described as Gorn, which is extremely atypical for an animated series designed for a family audience. The reaction of the villagers (including the young boy) to the handiwork of their "savior" can be described as slightly disappointed and this suggests that such a thing on the streets is just an annoying routine.
    • In light of this, Gwizdo's boasting in the movie about his team experiences and how "they took about a whole weekto clear the village" no longer sounds like an exaggeration.
  • The Shadow dragon in Dragon in the Hearth. Not helped by the fact that the heroes, at one point, stumble in a room which is highly implied to contain the frozen remains of his last victims. Judging by the toy, not long ago there was a family with a young child. The next night, Gwizdo felt very uncomfortable while sleeping.
  • Porkfester's Pigfarm Island has the Scarlet Slayer: a monstrous lovecraftian Dragon who brainwashes people and animals to get food, turning the farmer and later the heroes in mindless, red-eyed zombies. And when one of the pigs return without food, he proceeds to eat the swine alive.

The Movie:

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I once Lifted my sword before him and the mere sight of his Fiery gaze drove my own eyes back into my skull!
  • The World Gobbler in the movie itself, a giant and terrifying skeleton dragon that wakes up and destroys anything in its path in every 20 seasons and its size is almost bigger than Godzilla!
    • Its first appearance is at the beginning of the film when it destroys Lian-chu's village with only his glowing yellow eyes appearing in the smoke (as provided as the page image). The music doesn't help either.
  • The horrible death of the oldest prince Granion de Bismuth in Lord Arnold's castle almost at the beginning of the movie. Poor knight turns into the ashes inside his armor, while walking to the dinner table and stays conscious even up to his noisy vanishing!
  • The dark and predatory stinky forest gradually lets the characters walk around its territory to suddenly drop giant spiky seeds on their heads ready to chase them to the edge of the island. The panic of young travelers after a sudden attack looks absolutely understandable.
  • The bats that torment Gwizdo after he abandons his friends seem to force themselves into his mouth. Later he briefly goes mad and shows to Zoe enough scary performances with his own hands in very dirty fingerless gloves to make her screaming loudly. However, soon enough he comes to his senses and feels guilt and shame for his ugly behavior.
    • A little bit later he saves Zoe, Hector and himself from the terrible disintegration in the World Gobbler's powerful suction throat, clinging to one of its giant fangs with his whole forces. And given the extent of the little guy's muscular development, this situation looks extremely tense and fearful while Lian-Chu yet can't hurry to help them because of his sudden panic attack.

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