War Dawgz is a long-running Youtube Stop Motion animation series that utilizes LEGOs. Developed by Ponderous Production, the series starts as the Dolonian Empire has waged war against the Alliance. The Alliance's only hope is a hilarious and shocking band of fighter pilots known as the Dawg Squadron. Described as "the hilarious Sci Fi series about a ragged fighter Squadron set in outer space".
The series can be found on their Youtube channel
. While it hasn't ended, Schedule Slip means there's potentially years between episode. A spin-off series, War Dawgz News, was made between Season 2 and 3 that starred the main characters reporting on current events.
War Dawgz provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Froggy openly lusts after Captain Nutting and describes the sex he would like to have with her, only to Nutting to hate him for being a horny Frenchmen. So much so that his future self caused the plot of Season 2 by creating robot Nuttings to serve as sex robots. It's only after he gets married that he drops hitting on her.
- Affectionate Parody: It's a Battlestar Galactica parody with LEGO figures, and the writers clearly are having fun with it.
- All Germans Are Nazis: Rear Admiral Frenchie is German and displays obvious Nazi tendencies like shooting any Jew in his vicinity. Everyone but Neth seems to just accept this as normal.General Mayhem: "What? He's German, it's what they do".
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: The characters have spacesuits, but even if they're flung into space without them they suffer from no ill effects other than floating in the void. Possibly justified by the fact they're LEGO.
- Berserk Button: Vax is normally a happy person, but do not kill the Easter Bunny or something that looks like it. It's how the Dawg Squadron gears him up to fight the Matriarch.
- Bestiality Is Depraved
- In the presidential debates Neth makes the allegation that Froggy has sex with farm animals. While flippant at the question he admits to experimenting with a chicken and tries to defend himself by saying that other people have done similar things when drunk or high.
- Implied by Gravedigger; he mentions that there's not much tail where he's living, but he "makes do". A horse can be heard neighing when Neth asks how, so he drops the subject not wanting to know.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Played for laughs; Serge is so repelled by the idea of a foot massage he would would rather just be shot in the head than give the Matriarch one.
- The Caligula: While the Matriarch is initially your standard dictator, by Season 3 she's given up any semblance of being a stable ruler. For starters, she uses elaborately cruel executions involving gophers of anyone who even remotely resists her will despite the human population being depleted due to the events of last season. She becomes more sane by Season 4 but is still trigger-happy.
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Whenever the French are brought up up, there are jokes of them being cowards at their expense. Besides being a horny French Jerk, Froggy usually finds an excuse to run and hide whenever the Dawg Squadron is in a fight.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Admiral Price isn't all there, often rambling off-topic incoherently and making leaps of logic like mistaking a list of the most polluted cities for one of the most polite series.
- Death Is Cheap: Characters die all the time and come back, especially the Dawg Squadron; given their use of kamikaze tactics, it's pretty convenient. As it turns out, the reason for this is because they have bad credit and thus they can't pass on. In other words, death is cheap because staying dead is too expensive. This is why Season 3 has a sense of urgency for them; the Matriarch fixes their credit so if they die, they stay dead.
- Death Seeker: The Nutting-bots take this to the next level. They're so disgusted by their existence as Frog's sex robots that it wasn't enough to just self-terminate; they needed to change history and erase their entire existence. Ironically the first time around set up Froggy to be the last survivor and build them in the first place.
- Doomed Moral Victor: Initially it seems this way for Vax, who would prefer to fight a likely Hopeless War against alien invaders than sacrifice an innocent man (even if it is Froggy) as the price for a peace arrangement. However Froggy himself saves the day by marrying, eliminating the invaders from the timeline, so he's ultimately proven right in his actions.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Originally the LEGO mini-figures used the generic smiley head, however they were eventually updated to more characterized faces.
- Evil Counterpart: In-universe, General Mayhem believes their shared eccentric personality makes the Matriarch's one goatee and penis away from being Admiral Price's Evil Twin.
- Extreme Omnisexual: Froggy plays the horny Frenchman trope to the hilt. He constantly muses on having or wanting to have sex with women, but has also fine with men on occasion, admitted to experimenting with a chicken and has had sex with various objects like mashed potatoes and even an electrical socket.
- Expy: The mysterious alien invaders from Season 2 appear to be parodies of the Cylons from both Battlestar Galactica. They're a group of mysterious robotic aliens that are at war with humanity, and like the 2003 series they were originally created by humanity.
- French Jerk: Froggy; rude, crude, lecherous and French, especially to Nutting. He becomes less lecherous after getting married, but he's still no less politically incorrect and vocal about his opinion.
- Gainax Ending: The ending of Season 3; after literally going through the fourth wall, Froggy ends up locating Earth. Then it suddenly blows up along with Froggy at the same time for no explained reason, and the Serial Rabbit (from another Ponderous Productions series) shows up at the end.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: The enemy of Season 2 is initially portrayed as a race of Inscrutable Aliens who are trying to wipe out humanity, and no-one knows why. While talk is made of trying to find some sort of an agreement, president Vax concludes that they just want to kill everyone and negotiations are impossible; which makes their decision to have Froggy handed over as a peace deal a curveball. It turns out they want to stop him from creating them, and if they can't just wipe Froggy out they'll wipe humanity itself out.
- Hidden Depths: Vax is usually written as The Ditz, being airheaded and easily distracted by food. When he runs for president, he's surprisingly well-spoken on pressing issues and manages to beat the smarter and more reasonable Captain Nutting in the election.
- Hook Hand: Vax gets one to replace the one he lost fighting the Matriarch. When Neth points out why they don't put reattach his hand when they were able to reattach his head, Vax explains it's a deterrent so he doesn't pick his nose.
- Interim Villain: The Matriarch is the main villain of the War Dawgz series, however she's out of the picture in Season 2 due to a truce with the Dolonian Empire and the Alliance. Instead, the villains of Season 2 are a mysterious alien enemy seeking to destroy all of humanity. She returns in full force in Season 3 and stays the main threat from then on.
- Jerkass: Most of the characters have moments of being a jerk, but Froggy and House stand out as the biggest dicks of the group; Froggy is a crude, politically incorrect Frenchman and House is a Drill Sergeant Nasty who's dialogue with Dawg Squadron consist almost entirely of chastising them. They're particularly jerkish to Admiral Nutting, due to Froggy being her Abhorrent Admirer and House being overly critical of her.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Vax is among the stupidest characters, however he's also one of the kindest, being polite to almost everyone and not even willing to sacrifice Froggy to appease evil aliens.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The Matriarch reveals to Vax she's his sister while they fight, so they can team up. Vax couldn't care less about their relation and doesn't think it makes him evil, so he continues fighting her.
- National Stereotypes: The French Frog/Froggy is a cowardly, sex-obsessed man named Frog.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: General Mayhem seems to be a send-up of Sean Connery, which is sometimes pointed out in-universe. He's got a gruff, similar sounding accent, a greying beard and general serious attitude in common with the man.
- No Ending: The end of War Dawgz News is a parody of the ending of the The Sopranos; right as they're talking about organized crime, the series fades to black mid-communication.
- No Fourth Wall: The character point out the plot, writing and actors with abandon. For example, Neth goes on a rant saying he turned down Scrubs for this series. This becomes a plot point in Season 3; in order to stop the Matriarch in Season 3 the Dawg Squadron find the script for the season, and when it turns out they all die they venture to Earth in hopes of getting the writer to change the script.
- No Name Given: For a long time we don't know the identity of the mysterious aliens who are seeking to Kill All Humans; they're just referred to as "the invading force we know nothing about that wants to destroy all mankind". Their actual name is a big twist as to their origin and motives; that being Nutting-bots.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Most of the characters have distinct faces including hair. Vax, meanwhile, just uses the basic mini-fig smiling face. He also gets a Hook Hand by Season 2 after losing the original hand in a battle against the Matriarch.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Initially "the invading force we know nothing about that wants to destroy all mankind" are, well, exactly what you think. However they were willing to go stop their invasion if Froggy is surrendered to them. Mainly as part of their Ret-Gone suicide plan, but when President Vax rejects this they continue their onslaught until Froggy's marriage manages to erase their existence.
- One Bad Mother: The Matriarch isn't an Evil Matriarch since as far we're told she doesn't have kids. Rather it's a title, and "Matriarch" fits the "mother" role. She's the evil leader of the Dolonian Empire and come Season 3 is a straight up Caligula in how she acts.
- Ontological Inertia: Even after the Nutting-bots are erased from history, the destruction they wrought remains in effect. Given they've destroyed all but a few hundred people, humanity is in a pretty weak spot when the Matriarch returns to her main villain status in Season 3.
- Our Presidents Are Different: After his predecessor is killed former Vice President of the Alliance Vax is both the President Buffoon given his personality, and proves himself to be a President Personable due to his strong moral code. His unnamed predecessor doesn't get any characterization beyond being a President Target, and Vax's successor in Season 3 is a black President Minority.
- Overly Long Name: Serge or Serge the Scourge's full name is Sergio Huan Lopos Dalos Carrot Ramirez Antonio Chavez E Chavez Sebastian Rodriguez. There's a Running Gag of people trying and failing to say his full name, only for them to fail almost always.
- Pet the Dog: House is usually a Drill Sergeant Nasty to the Dawg Squadron, but when he notices Neth is stressed and angry due to it being a while since his last cigarette break he lets him go off and blow a small moon up for some catharsis.
- Precision F-Strike: Vax has the cleanest mouth of the cast, and almost never swears. The "almost" is due to him going "oh shit" after the Matriarch cuts off his hand.
- Ret-Gone: The ultimate goal of the mysterious aliens seeking to kill everyone is to do this to themselves. They were so disgusted at being Froggy's sex robots it wasn't enough to destroy themselves, but to erase their entire existence. They ultimately get what they want in a roundabout way when Froggy gets engaged and negates the reason to build them.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In Season 4, in order to prevent the Alliance from being reduced to a small handful stuck on one solar system Admiral Price proposes they use the sun's energy to go back ten years and prevent the Dolonian Wars from ever happening. The price is that this requires all the sun's energy so if they fail they're screwed, and if they succeed the Dawg Squadron will have never been formed.
- Sex Bot: The true nature of the Season 2 villains are Future Froggy's "Nutting-bots" built as pleasure robots after being made the Sole Survivor of humanity. They were so disgusted at this they want to Ret-Gone themselves by destroying humanity/Present Froggy.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: There's a fair amount of cursing from everyone (except Vax), but Froggy and House stand out. Froggy will often use the f-word and other swears due to general irreverence, while House swears at the Dawg Squadron all the time because they disappoint him.
- Stable Time Loop: Key to the plot of Season 2. The alien invaders are from the future, and eventually wipe out humanity except for Froggy. Lonely, he ends up creating Nutting pleasure bots, only for them to turn on him and be so disgusted at their own existence they try to Ret-Gone themselves by becoming the alien invaders trying to destroy humanity. The time loop is broken when Froggy gets hitched, eliminating the reason to build them.
- Stupid Evil: During Season 3 the Matriarch has a penchant for killing her subjects for the pettiest of reasons, even when the human population has been reduced to a triple digit number. Even her own loyal men suffer the same fate when they point out the absurdity of her actions, with the Matriarch not realizing or caring that if she keeps it up she's not going to have any subjects to rule over. She cuts down on the pointless killing come Season 4, though the damage is already done as humanity is down to about a hundred.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: The ending of Season 2 in a nutshell; Froggy getting hitched ret-gones the aliens trying to destroy humanity, yet humanity is still mostly destroyed. And Froggy only got to creating the aliens/Nutting-bots because he was hiding from their invasion in the first place. The inevitable paradoxes are immediately pointed out.
- Took a Level in Kindness: While still a crass Frenchman Froggy is less obnoxious in Season 3, now that he's married to Vanessa. He also stops constantly hitting on Nutting.
