#black dragon mordroc

[oldmanwinterstmnt]

I just had to turn this John Pomeroy commissioned "Dragon's Lair" drawing into a Christmas card parody. It's sort of a "Game Over/Bad Ending" inspired concept where the hero fails in his quest and the wicked wizard ends up getting his own "Happily Ever After" ending. At least this unlikely couple is making the most of it, and probably mailing these out to all the minions who helped make this possible.

Original Art: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDYxxVJRaoh/?hl=en Concept inspired by: https://stayathomemum.com.au/occasions/christmas/this-familys-parody-of-christmas-cards-is-just-amazingly-awkward/

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

Explain the lore of a random animation

WOOAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA

Yes, I can do that right away, thank you.

I don't know if this is for anything in particular, but I'll start off with Dragon's Lair and if there's something else you want me to talk about like Space Ace, those scrapped games, or something else, go ahead 👍👍

(I'm so sorry for how long this is. And also this is just tying canon together with headcanon, so take it as you will)

Alright, before we begin, let's establish something. Even though he comes off as a very underrated character in the franchise, the games and its spin off material seems to do its best to establish the character of Mordroc (not to mention getting a lot more of a canon description and backstory than Dirk, Daphne, and Singe). It's mostly established through canon material that he is the main villain, as Singe and the other goons are just souls he owns (or the dark kingdom residents). Most of the levels and villains support this motive that he's just building up his power and kingdom.

Another thing established through the games is that the castle is likely very infamous, and it's often implied (more so little details and once in the comics) that knights have been set out before Dirk. So then why do you not see bones and armor of past knights littering every once of the castle? There's 3 explanations for this.

1. You do actually see knights, one being the Black Knight(Phantom Knight?) and the invisible armored figure in the floor-tile level. Despite his ghostly implication, the Phantom Knight has a lot of once-human qualities; like his figure, his voice, and still having a horse. You can easily assume because of this, that these were once knights for the actual kingdom on the other side of the land.

2. In the lava level, you are introduced to the Lava/Mud-Men, who are fairly strange creatures- but don't seem to actually be aggressive towards Dirk at all. While they do cause and appear in deaths, their intent is not to cause them. In the first and most prominent death they're seen in, they work together to push Dirk into a geyser full of mud. As soon as they emerge from it, you can see all 4 smile, with brand-new one frowning in the middle that so happens to be wearing Dirk's helmet (Aka they were once people). In the second death, Dirk falls into a tide and is pulled to the edge of the river. From the side, you can see the mud-men gather and watch him as he goes down in a concerned manner.

And finally 3. Apparently it's cannon that if you get cut, stabbed, slashed, or electrocuted in the DL universe, you have a 90% chance of blipping from existence. It's fully established with enemies, but you do see it happen to Dirk a couple times in his deaths- so it's just an overall thing instead of just working on the enemies.

So yeah, the Lair itself has this function and motive behind it. You can probably assume the majority of the characters were caught and forced to reproduce in the dungeon (Giddygoons), were once people (Knight characters, and Mud-Med), or was brought as an egg and raised (Lizard King, and probably Singe)-as a ploy to build up the support of the 'dark kingdom' and its riches.

Anyways, let's talk about the other half of the story before I forget. From across the land, the real kingdom resides. From a distance their rulers bare no prominent issues. However, on the inside, the castle and its staff 'suffers' because of the princess not putting enough heart into her land. Princess Daphne is a unique individual, often stepping out of the boundaries expected for a young lady at the time (also showing more than what would be allowed in a dress + wearing heels before women were allowed to). Her mother, despite being past a point of having an adult child, resents this behavior and always looks out to correct it. However, from Daphne's perspective, she was raised to do something she never had a passion or attention span for, and often fancied herself for the lives outside of royalty. She was corrected constantly no matter what, and often scolded by her piers with the phrase 'A good princess is seen and not heard'.

Eventually, Mordroc's dark castle eventually caused a major issue for the kingdom's people, and a neighboring kingdom generously transferred one of their best knights to subdue the issue. Dirk, or 'Dirk the Daring' was born in raised in a far-off and small village by his two parents on their farm. His parents were not that well off despite the farm, but were very humble with what they had nonetheless. When Dirk was very young, his family's previous home was taken down to some freak accident with him in the middle of it. Because of this, the parents found that he was suffering from Noise/Damage-Induced Hearing loss. As the boy had no outward sources to recover at the time, he began to lose his motive, voice, and personality. After seeing this decline, his parents invested almost every last penny with physical trainers, signing classes, and medics to restore the boy to his former glory. This paid off well down the line, as Dirk was able to enhance his natural instinct, skills, and graduated quickly from squire to local knight because of it. Through his pay through quests and journeys, he funded it all back to his parents and moved on from any kingdom that needed his assistance.

Once the transfer came through, Daphne's overall confidence was gained back again as she finally had someone to talk to without being scolded or told to act feminine. It wasn't a love at first sight thing, but rather two friends who supported each other well and didn't mind if the other had something to vent or talk about. The kingdom suspected something before they did, as there would be a point where you couldn't see one without the other tagging along. Sooner or later, the friendship broke-and was kept in private due to how they expected others to react to two different classes coming together.

The Queen eventually found out about it and embarrassingly announced it to her people to throw shame towards it. Because of this, the Queen did everything in her power to split the two up. Despite scheduling multiple useless meetings and suitor dates appointments for Daphne, and threatening and isolating Dirk- even to the point of greatly lessening his pay-nothing seemed to prevail. Even as she grew even more desperate, she frequently sent Dirk out on su1c1de missions-becoming the more impatient as he finished each one- unscathed.

The desperation grew outside of her morals, as she feared nothing more than her bloodline not carrying through the kingdom- or having to suffer a 'peasant' being a prince. At once, she called for a meeting in private with Mordroc, who was infamously known amongst the kingdom. The Queen made a deal he couldn't refuse, as she requested for him to separate Dirk and Daphne to allow for kingdoms and suitors to throw their hat in the ring of claiming and marrying daphne. For his reward, Modroc was offered to be announced 'redeemed' amongst the kingdom-and offered a place as the royal mange (Local Mange-Mordroc is seen/supported in some scrapped spinoff material). Mordroc agreed, with intention of either a. corrupting the castle from the inside and claiming the entire land or b. having the plan backfire a little and either have a disfigured princess and/or knight(s) to add to his kingdom's collection (as interpreted by the fact that writers don't seem sure if Mordroc and Singe are in it for catching Daphne or Dirk-and can't seem to make up their minds) (Also a handful of the deaths show Dirk getting captured, so it could be a double motive thing-as supported by the Phantom Knight paragraph)

Taking it way too far, Mordroc sent out his biggest Drake Dragon to retrieve Daphne, allowing for one of his goons to announce to neighboring villages and kingdoms to send their best to save her. While waiting for Daphne's safe return, the Queen ordered her men to blindly do what they can to subdue Dirk from going out to have her. Eventually, the kingdoms lost a good amount of men trying, which began to worry the Queen of her daughter's safety. Her desperation overcame her and she sent out the majority of her men- having none of them come back. Unintentionally, she got rid of what was keeping Dirk out of the way, so he immediately went out to save his princess.

After barley succeeding- Dirk was able to slay the Drake and save Daphne. She eventually caught on to what went on, and denounced her role as princess because of how twisted and uncaring her royal family has shown to be thus far. Dirk purposed at some point during this period of transfer, and they agreed to live in his hut and live off of what pure vigilantism would bring. While this did have a steady decline in pay compared to what they had before, they eventually made little successes as the years passed by; having only a few kids of their own, but becoming a safe and open home to adopt children with unsafe, abusive, neglectful, or non-supporting households. (Aka, why they didn't age much between 1 & 2, and why Daphne's body isn't hormonally wrecked from having 10+ kids)

The fact that they were building up a family of their own with no apparent regrets leaving the kingdom upset the Queen greatly. She became desperate once more, asking Mordroc to help once more with no further elaboration. After being upset from the last 'deal' not paying off at all and costing him most of his goons, Mordroc took it his own way and decided to split the two by marrying Daphne for himself. When they were least expecting it (likely when Dirk was out of uniform), he took Daphne and disappeared with her across time. Mordroc placed the beginning of a banshee spell on her, which is further inflicted on the subject by mourning what is lost (aka why he rips her from her time to one where Dirk and their kids aren't alive) and the placement of a sacred wedding ring (you may recall that this also supports the habit of Mordroc mutating and disfiguring all of his subjects)

The Queen being behind this is also supported by a couple things in the first scene of DL2

If it just happened, why did she hear about it. It's the 1400's. Are we really going to pretend like doves are that fast?

Also if she did hear about it, it would likely be from Dirk asking her to take care of the kids. She literally neglects the kids for the majority of her screen time, and just focuses on killing the one guy who can save her daughter.

Without an ounce of explanation, she targets Dirk for staying back and not leaving an unstable hut full of children (in the middle of a dark forest) who just lost their mom. The game and attraction show that her intention isn't to help him or get him out-but she literally breaks into their home to traumatize a bunch of kids by trampling their house-their dinner- and yelling at and murdering their father right in front of them. This could just be a ploy to just get rid of him while Mordroc is executing the other half of the plan (Okay-you can also say that the majority of the villains are voiced by the same guy also as evidence, but that also extends out to the time machine so... eh? 🤷)

(Uh-yeah. The little DL lore 'expert' here; I have no idea how to explain why Mordroc's mother gave birth to a time machine, or even how a time machine gave birth to Mordroc. There's literally nothing that alludes to the time machine being once-human. Honestly I don't think he was supposed to talk originally-but then they just had to explain partially why a wizard and a guy from the 1400's can time travel. No other material seems to talk about the time machine brother. Dirk just acts like he doesn't hear it- and maybe I don't either because its literal existence makes no lick of sense)

Mmmmm. I don't know how to end this honestly because there's two endings to DL 2. One is the normal one where Dirk breaks the curse and places it on Mordroc; instantly turning him into an indistinguishable mass having to be put out of his misery. But in the directors cut I have no Idea what happens because Daphne's curse only goes as far as knocking her out and turning her purple once- and then Mordroc just screams as the ring is flung onto him. I don't know if 'Director's Cut' is the director setting the bar to how far Mordroc would go or not, but overall the first ending doesn't seem out of place or character at all. The full release even calls that ending 'Full Mordroc'-but I still have no clue what that means because it literally lessens his pay-off and motive. Maybe they didn't want him to die in the end to open for a #3-idk.

Anyways, that's about it.

Thank you so much for asking that was fun to write!!!!

Anyways, hope that was alright.

[jimclassicstoycollection]

Dragon’s Lair 3-D

Princess Daphne with Fire Drake

and Mordroc

by Anjon, Inc

These figures were eBay purchases back in November of 2019. I bought these after watching a youtube video about the Dragon’s Lair, and I totally forgot there even was a brief toyline based on the game.

Truth be known; I never played the game, my memory of Dragon’s Lair was centered around the Saturday morning cartoon series. I do remember the arcade machine in the 90′s where you see Princess Daphne being cursed into becoming an old hag, but that’s all I recall from the games.

I remember these figures showing up Sun Coast Video stores and stuff, and I never picked them up back then, but I was feeling nostalgic, and I was able to pick these figures up for a reasonable price.

Dragon’s Lair was originally an animated arcade game made by Cinematronics and utilized hand drawn by Don Bluth back in 1983 by using Laserdisc technology. 

These figures came out in 2002 around the time that Dragon’s Lair 3D premiered. 

Fire Drake:

Starting with the fire drake, it came packaged with Daphne.

Just so we’re clear, the package was already opened when I bought it, just that the original owner still had the card back and plastic bubble, so I had no qualms about removing them from it,

The fire drake has a lot of personality; he’s got those very cartoony proportions such as the rounded belly, the tiny, under developed wings, and large exaggerated snout, with evil, scheming grin.

You can tell he’s up to no good, and is probably there to guard the captive princess.

The toy has limited articulation, and they are rotation at the shoulders, but it limited by the body proportions, and the wings swivel a little bit, however they just get in the way of each other.

And that’s it for articulation, this guy is simply an accessory piece to Daphne.

Princess Daphne:

Princess Daphne is our scantily clad damsel in distress.

She’s wearing a black, skimpy bathing suit, high heeled sandals, and a cartoonishly curved crown with a blue hair band.

Her proportions are very exaggerated with a tiny waist, looooong legs, and teeny tiny feet; in fact Daphne can’t even stand on her own without the help of a small display stand in the shape of a mound of gold coins. Even then the pegs are so small she leans back a bit.

Daphne’s head sculpt has got this wildly long blonde hair which goes all the way down below her butt; I really like how the hair has sculpted curls at the very ends, and the sweeping bangs in the front.

In short Princes Daphne is very sexualized, and yet that resting bitch face of hers lets you know not to try anything funny...

Her only accessory is a plastic gem stone, which she can barely hold in her hand...I mean dangle off of her thumb...

I’m not sure of the significance of the gem, but my guess is you could maybe put it on a chain, and I suppose actually wear it. I suppose, but that wold be some cheap costume jewelry...

Princess Paphne has 6 points of articulation...well let’s say five...because of her massive hair her head doesn’t really swivel very well...

Swivel at the head (barely), rotation at the shoulders, waist swivel, and rotation at the thighs. That’s it. Everything seems to work okay, but much of the plastic feels so rigid and inflexible I doubt the toy could take much abuse.

Mordoc:

As much as I like the...aesthetics of Princess Daphne, Mordoc steals the show here in sheer personality and detail.

Mordoc is hunched over old warlock with green skin, warts all over his face and hands with spindly fingers, a crooked nose shooting out of his face like an evil carrot, long gray strands of hair, and wearing simple peasant clothes and a strange cap. 

There’s a lot of ugly to have to take in with this figure.

Mordoc only comes with one accessory, and that’s his jeweled staff.

He holds it well, however I’m concerned about the long term life of tha staff; it’s made from a very hard plastic, and if I’m not careful it’s liable to break over time if I’m not careful.

Mordoc’s range of motion is a bit better than Daphne’s

Ball jointed (though a bit loose), ball joint at the shoulders (loose), bicep swivel, swivel at the wrists, rotation at the hips (though these heavy plastic robes make the a moot point), and swivel at the ankles.

And Mordoc can stand okay without the use of a stand, but a little little wobbly, however he stands better if you position the staff for support.

Final Thoughts:

These Dragon’s Lair 3-D figures are pretty good. 

Mordoc in my opinion is the most interesting out of the three. Daphne may by nice to look at, but Mordoc has the most personality.

I suppose now that I have Daphne she can hang out with my other video game princesses. Still she is a bit under dressed.

Mordoc doesn’t exactly fit in well with some of my other video game figures, but he definitely stands out.

(And I see that i accidentally included Ludwig von Koopa, and I haven’t posted that one yet, but there he is.)