The Roast of Dragon's Dogma (Netflix Anime) 

Note: The timestamp at 16:45 is wrong due to a last minute addition to the video. the real end of the segment in question is around 17:53

Ethan is a terrible arisen, He only uses one pawn and doesn't even try throwing them of a cliff to see what would happen.

I love the scene where the show goes: "Guys, I think the rich are systematically exploiting us to stay in power." "Idk, man, you sound kinda evil to me."

As a frequent weed smoker, I've lost count of the amount of times I've almost been killed by a hydra at this point

"Noo actually poor people having basic decency is baaaad, we need to exploit them" The Animation

The worst sin of this adaptation is that Ethan isn’t joined by a revolving cast of other rando pawns that never shut up about how wolves fear fire. One of these pawns is fat wizard named Jim who doesn’t have anything equipped and another is a pawn 49 levels higher than Ethan who is able to one shot the final boss.

Some stupid peasant worker: i wish i wasn't dying in poverty while the rich never struggle A flying skeleton: You wish to improve society, and yet you participate in it! Very curious!

Half expected our heroes to come across an underwater city and for Ethan to chastise the citizens for not just selling their houses to mermaids

Ethan: “we should give some of this gold to the families who will all starve to death, the Duke won’t notice a few coins missing.” Commander: “monster!”

The most disappointing thing about this show was Hanna never yelled "WOLVES HUNT IN PACKS"

me, dumb: maybe people dying of poverty is bad smart nearby denizen, pulling out a sword: nice try, lich

What I found funny is the show makes the Dragon Right. When the Dragon is giving his speech about how evil and vile and weak humans are there are flashbacks to the events of the past 5 episodes, but there aren't any flash backs when Ethan gives his speech about how humans actually aren't all evil bastards. The show just straight up forgot to redeem humanity in their plot about how humans aren't all evil bastards.

... OK I've played a lot of Dragon's Dogma, and in none of the caves have I found psychedelic moss. All I found were rats, snakes, and very angry lizards.

"He names her Hannah, after his favorite singer, Hannah Montana"

Wait? Ethan had a wife and kid killed by the dragon? How stupid and cliche... In the game the dragon steals your heart and basically says "HAHA! catch me if you can" then dips Most of the town actually survives, I mean, having your literal heart stolen for a reason you don't even understand seems like a pretty strong motivation to me, why did they need to make it so generic....

“...Which I guess makes sense, if you define ‘evil’ as ‘breaking any rule to make one’s life better, ever’.” This show was written by Jigsaw.

You know, butchering Nietzsche's warnings about staring long into the abyss loses exactly all of its impact when the premise of the show is that the whole world is already in the abyss and everyone is fundamentally evil.

*scene of Wolves hunting in packs* Everyone watching the series: say it! Say the line! The anime: .....

I think Mothers Basement missed one thing and that is that any fan of dragons dogma knows that the weird off-putting medieval fantasy voices are actually very true to the game and I quite enjoyed the Jank

You had me at "an unbearably preachy reactionary evangelical screed that gets so high on its own neoliberal "bootstrap" bullshit it accidentally ends up endorsing feudalism." A hell of a sentence this is.

"Her pupils visibly dilate. an indication of arousal, while she's watching Ethan turn goblins into blood piñatas" I mean... would that not turn YOU on?

Also, dude, Kayaba totally had a strong reason for doing what he did: He went through 400 hours of uninterrupted consciousness because Bethesda wouldn't let him delay the game release. He wasn't exactly thinking straight when his buggy masterpiece ended up killing people.

Alright Dragon's Dogma, what do you have for us? "Tyranny is good actually" Hm I see, nothing of value.

I made a healer mage pawn with 3000 health, gave him a stick that revives him after death (wakestone staff) and called him Jesus. He never dies, cures debuffs and heals the everyone who lacks a sliver of health. The only attack he has is fireball. I also made him 7ft tall, excessively hairy, brutishly built and gave him the deepest voice I could. His title is BA, so Jesus the Badass comes with me on every adventure.

I like how the dragon's motivation is on par with a cat knocking your stuff down

as a current animation student: holy SHIT that facial animation is legitimately incredible. it’s amazing how much smooth expression they got out of these models. such a shame that amazing work was wasted on such a shitshow.

The "we have to sacrifice a child to keep the monster at bay" thing is so old even the Greeks did it. Twice.

I know that this is a small detail. But one of the things I loved from the original game is that it is based on Medieval *Southern* Europe (with the starting village being based on Spanish Mediterranean villages and the city on Italian cities) rather than the usual Medieval Northern Europe of generic fantasy. Same with the monsters, being based on Greek Mythology rather than Norse Myths. The Netflix show throws that through the window and makes it Northern European, changing even the starting village from Spanish-influenced to Generic Medieval Town Nº 372.

The game was so confusing about why the dragon did what it did until you reached the end and found that he was simply a tool of a much greater force. He was sent down to find a person with enough will to fight him. Hell, the game shows a physical change in the dragon during the cutscene where the character inflicts the tiniest wound as a way of showing the dragon has found what it wanted. It immediately fucks off and tells you to come after it when you're ready because it wants you to succeed.

It's like they tried to half-ass grimdark. Everyone dies, life sucks, blahblah, but there's no weight because everyone has the emotional capacity of a paper bag and none of their motivations are compelling. I love the original DD, I'm sad they did it so dirty.

Shakesperean Dragon quoting Nietzsche has got to be the worst thing I saw today

What's really disappointing is that we never hear an armorer say "they're masterworks all, you can't go wrong!"

“ building expectations based on association” very Cyberpunk

Dragon's Dogma: "What if we rage in favor of the machine?"

the dragon literally just said "its what my character would do" also the ending is bullshit because in the game, the reason the arisen becomes a dragon isnt because they killed the dragon for the wrong reason its because they didnt have the required will to take up the mantle of god. the dragon is just a scouting agent for heaven, theyre just looking for another arisen who has more will than them, and as the cycle continues eventually an arisen has more willpower than god and becomes god.

What disappointed me the most was the dark fantasy tone altogether. The very reason I fell in love with Dragon's Dogma was how it was this bombastic, guitar-riffing epic adventure in its style and presentation at first, before turning into more abstract and high-fantasy themed takes on existential themes and the meaning of struggle and choice. And then comes this show that asks, "Hey, you know what we don't have enough of? Navel-gazing contrived moralizing on the seven deadly sins! Dysfunctional and brutal sexuality! Angry revenge for a dead family! Misanthropes and greedy assholes! Father-figure raising surrogate daughter-figure in a terrible world!" They could have literally changed the IP for Dragon Age and not only would it have been more fitting, we wouldn't have had to waste the unique elements that made Dragon's Dogma stand out. It missed the point about as much as the Monster Hunter movie coming out.

“The rantings of an upjumped zealot make for tedious listening.” This adaptation bastardized the dragon along with the rest of the legit interesting and unique lore

Story telling in Dragon's Dogma wasn't groundbreaking, but it was Shakespearean compared to the anime

Point of order: "people die when they are killed," isn't that bad a line, especially in context. The full line is "people die when they are killed, that's the way it should be," says a man who has been killed three times without dyeing, when he is asked if he really wants to give up his healing factor.

You know you're doing something wrong when a literal cult makes better and more subtle anime than you.

Can we stop and really break down just how poorly written Gluttony is? Setting aside the idiotic both sides "Feudalism is good actually" moral of the episode just like the whole plot of the episode makes no senses. Setting aside the fact that this extortion racket makes no sense because the cyclopes is clearly making it harder for the peasants to produce the crops and food that the peasants use to pay their taxes to the mayor. Let's ask the question that the writers never bothered to ask: what does the cyclopes get out of any of this? I mean look at that Cyclops it's fucking huge, human children are like sausagettes to it! A man cannot live by cocktail sausage alone! So what does the cyclopes get from all of this, why would it obey the Mayor just for the privilege of eating a single child once ever six months? The Cyclops does not appear to be coerced into doing what it does so what does it gain from waiting like once a month to eat a single child? Why is the cyclops going along with this plan? The Mayor has nothing that the Cyclops needs, and we are never shown how the mayor could coerce or control the cyclops. The extortion plan requires the mayor to be able to control the cyclops and restrict it's rampages to only against those he wants it to go after. But there's no reason for us to believe the mayor controls the Cyclops and nothing to suggest that the Cyclops benefits from this this arrangement.

Taking out the lore of the dragon and the seneschal and replacing it with generic medieval proselytizing is such an insult. The game genuinely has a unique commentary on death and entropy and the idea of conquering both and the consequences that would have on the fundamental nature of humanity. It's the entire point of the last stretch of the game beyond the dragon boss, and there's SO MUCH room for expansion on that in an entire series.

The name Ethan doesn't bother me too much, but I get what you mean. I mean, it's better than Keith. You know? Like, "Look out for the Arisen, Keith!"

Seriously, if you haven't played the game, all of this isn't as nearly as stupid and maddening. It's extra hard to swallow for those who have. To explain some parts of the game's story that give a reason for the whole thing: There are 3 sources of time. The God (Seneschal), the Dragon and the Arisen. Everything else in the plane of existence is guided by fate, not will. And even theose 3 have to follow some basic rules. The Dragon's job is to open a window in this fate system by attacking a city or a village or whatever. By doing so, some idiot is bound to rise up against all odds instead of running away. The dragon stops the rampage, acknowledges the one who stood up by taking that idiot's heart and making them immortal (only to time and desease). After that, the Dragon stops killing people and goes back to their lair. Now the newly Arisen has a will of their own, they aren't guided by fate (to be more specific, they were acting on their own since the Dragon started attacking). Like the Dragon once said "time flows with your (the Arisen's) footsteps". The second part of the Dragon's job is to test the Arisen as a replacement for the Seneschal. To sum it up real quick: If the Arisen is killed then that Arisen is being reborn as a lesser dragon. These dragon's are way smaller and seem to have very little to no memory of their human life. They are driven by their instinct which is to hunt and kill. One dragon in the game actually had a brief mental breakdown just before fighting with the Arisen, saying things like "I... must... kill..." or something like that. The main Dragon does have their human memories and no, they don't kill just to kill. If the Arisen kills the Dragon, then they get to challenge the Seneschal in order to take their place. If the Arisen dies by the Seneschal, then they are being reborn as the main Dragon and take on the job of finding another Arisen. If the Arisen manages to kill the God as well, then that Arisen is now the new God and the recently slain Dragon is being reborn once again to continue their duties. As you cn see, the one who gets dicked out most in this case is the Dragon who lives for god knows how long, only to die and live again as an immortal for just as long for once more. There are no extra rules like the seven sins and the Dragon is in no position to make such rules. The Dragon offers to realize a wish of the Arisen's choice for a sacrifice: the Arisen's most beloved person (that can lead to very complicated situations, as the DLC showed us). If the Arisen refuses that offer, they have to fight the Dragon. And then, not even the God is in any position to make any extra rules. As the Seneschal themself state "such is the office I have served", basically saying that even being God is just a job. There's only one small window for the Seneschal to change how stuff works and that's by rage quitting. If the God kills themselves before resurrecting a Dragon, then the cycle is broken and fate stops controlling everyone. The fact that the Dragon serves a higher purpose is very important. If any Dragon could do as they please, then the Arisen would hardly stand any chance against them. The idea that the Dragon makes the fight almost fair is due to the fact that it's just a test for the Arisen. No point in this test if the Dragon just flies around throwing fireballs until one hits the Arisen. The same goes for God. If the Seneschal wanted to, they could just erase the Arisen from existence. But it's not how it works. The saddest part is that the game is actually pretty philosophical. Almost everything in the game symbolizes something.

All the great girls in the game that the anime just completely forgets about. Madeline the quirky peddler whose love of money leads to shenanigans, Quina the childhood friend who knows healing magic, Mercedes the lady knight who leads the Enlistment Corps and battles the hydra alongside the Arisen, Selene the former Pawn living in the woods and working as an apothecary. Such a shame the anime was an adaptation in name only.

“Ethan” is a name I eternally relate to the “ctrl+alt+del” webcomic... so now all I can see is a fantasy hero trying to kill a dragon for causing his gamer girlfriend to have a miscarriage.

The fact that the he protagonists name is Ethan reminds me of the fact that the primary protagonist for the fare reaching sci-fi epic Dune's name is Paul.

The writer must’ve heard that DD was influenced by Berserk so he created the Great Value Berserk instead of learning squat about the games lore. So now Capcom has zero good anime lol

"Drugs are bad. Mmmkay?" And then confetti shoots out

2:56 "why do the parents, the largest humans, not simply eat the other two"

Game Grigori : "This battle you have begun sits at the very heart of all creation. We are the axis about which the world turns, Arisen. Time itself flows with your footsteps! Aye, raise your weapon... Your teeth of steel, your blood-red voice... Show me your power, Arisen! Prove yourself worthy of what lies beyond my corpse! Show that you possess the strength to still my heart. The will to do it. The soul! Slay me, and with me death itself. Stay the fires of destruction!" Anime dragon : "i say nietzsche quotes i found on pinterest which means that i am very intelligent"

This show is one of the worst examples I've seen of one of my least favorite kinds of media, "edgy story that's trying too hard to be morally gray while either not being that at all or inadvertently making itself even more black and white in the process". It's almost impressive.

Like, the idea of a corrupt system falling and being replaced by another one is a pretty interesting and, sadly, a very common consequence in the real world. And discussing that all people have darkness in them, that even those who have been victimized can become abusers or the righteous can fall into evil, is an old but still very relevant and compelling debate. *That being said...* this show literally frames it like, "Muah human rights bad". Like dude, you can discuss the deprivation of humanity without going full Mao.

Selene is arguably one of the most important characters of the game because she confirms that pawns can have free will or agency. Amazing that they wrote her out of the plot. Also I'd love to see Geoff's revisit of this anime when he plays the game.

shame such a overlooked game gets the least flattering adaption possible and is further buried into the capcom vault with the likes of Powerstone and the Clover properties.

You know, I didn’t actually predict the fat guy/cyclops twist. Because I didn’t consider it a twist in the first place.

honestly, the thing that dissapoints me the most about this adaptation is that they're probably going to think ''yeah nobody liked this, let's never try it again'' so we'll probably never have a good anime adaptation to the game we all love so much. this makes me very very sad, big corporations suck.

"This whole anime was just an extremely convoluted, impulsive suicide attempt." *Castlevania has entered the chat*

“Don’t worry it’s all good, those villagers will be forced into almost total slavery and thus will do nothing but be productive until they die of exhaustion so it’s a win win.” Wow I never thought about it like that before!

What bothers me was the MC woke up the snake and made it enter the city. And for some reason the Mc try to blame the addict that the wife is dead?

So the Berserk knockoff cg-anime gets decent animation, but actual cg Berserk doesn't. What a reality to live in....

So, this anime seems to have a tendency to bring up an idea that would actually improve society, then brutally pivots and claims that the idea that only results in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is the best and only good option. Did Ayn Rand come back to life to write this?

Why did they ruin this? Dragon's Dogma is such a great game. It deserved something better. Like a Dragon's Dogma 2 for example. PLEASE CAPCOM MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Anyone else wish they could have just animated Ashe and Olra's journey and how Bitter Black Isle came to be? The final nail to this coffin is the omission of the Seneschal and the cycle, the only good thing about this is I guess the humanisation of pawns because in the game they're basically emotionless but slowly learn what feeling is like until the day their master dies in which they are granted their masters life force and thus free will.

Damn they had solid lore and setting for them on a silver platter. The dragons motives are actually pretty interesting in the game. It actually IS against their will to maim and destroy. Would actually have loved to see the lore portrayed, makes it such a shame.

Personally, I don't like how they went with the typical anime trope of "the protagonist is powered by anger/hype", considering the way you survive in the game is through strategy and teamwork. But it's a good thing that the writers clearly haven't played the game, since if they knew that becoming what is essentially a God is one of the game's outcomes then they would double down on preachy bullshit.

The Grigori is a much more compelling character in the game. Unlike the show, the game wasn't obsessed with shoving bad philosophy down your throat.

Wow, this entire anime is just deep-throating the boot.

Let me tell you something about how fucking unfair these incredibly classist tones are when compared to the original game’s themes. *SPOILER WARNING!!* In the game, Gransys is a duchy ruled by a mad duke whose court is so decadent as to ignore and exploit the plight of the common people. The duke’s madness originated from the time when he as an arisen sacrificed his beloved to the dragon in exchange for survival and power; he even murders his young wife out of grief, guilt, and utter madness unless you stop him. YOU, a hero from a poor fishing village whose parents were killed in your youth, have the choice to go out of your way to help the common people, buying houses for peasantry who then know you as a friend, saving your kinsmen from being framed and punished under an unjust legal system that favours corrupt nobles, and saving people from goblins just because. Your house is so barren that calling it “humble” is generous, your ambitions are implied to be quaint before the dragon changes everything, and you stay in touch with old friends who become church sisters and wanderers; humble, lower class, DECENT people. The show throws these themes out the window. Ethan starts out the show living in a nice house and is implied to earn a decent living, enough to not need to worry about taking on the responsibility of fathering two children while letting his wife stay at home to do domestic work, and goes morally downhill when he loses this comfortable life. I understand it’s traumatic, but it’s such a departure from the original game’s message; you are a salt of the earth “good fisher” who (compared to Ethan) holds onto your humanity, who sets out to avenge your village and countrymen while battling conspiracy and an upper class that sets out to make your life as difficult as possible. The lower class is not inherently decadent, cruel, or opportunistic, but this show is quick to demonize them and place them on the same level as the tyrannical class that takes advantage of them to fuel an unnecessarily luxurious lifestyle. I will acknowledge that I played a do-gooder character (a female arisen, which makes the “woman in the fridge” cliches so much more infuriating) and that my experience is biasing my take, but canonically the arisen gave all they were to save the world and people they loved. They came from near nothing, and they gave everything until they had nothing more to give. In conclusion, this show really botched what I feel in retrospect was such a vital theme in the game; those in power do not always have your best interest in mind, and those of lower status have more interest in throwing down tyrants than becoming tyrants themselves. Thank you for reading my incredibly Marxist and sleep deprived rant X)

The dragon didn't damage the village that much in the game. He just went on a beach and killed a bunch of people.

"That would explain the recurring theme of unsatisfied wives" Savage. I love... dry humour.

the "logical" statement by hannah isnt even logical. them being larger and needing more nourishment is *exactly* why it was the correct decision. it uses the same amount of resouerces to maximize the amount of survivors, which would require the same upkeep, and have the longest remaining lifespan.

Children actually need nutrients more than adults because their bodies are still growing and that takes a lot of energy. So it is actually more logical for the children to take priority at feeding time. This is something I notice a lot of lazy writers use, writing someone to sound smart without being smart. Like how Temperance Brenden on Bones constantly mentions how Logical something is, even if she said something completely contradictory the previous episode (I loved Bones, Still do to be honest, but rewatching it makes me realize how little she makes sense to people who actually know things and how often Booths folksy and slightly conservatives wisdom is framed as the right thing even if that is only because Bones is written to be wrong).

No Seneschal, no Everfall, not even goddamn Bitterblack Isle. The entirety of this anime was in speed run mode and it hurted.

I feel like this criticism gets thrown around a little too much, but here it fits way too well: This feels like something I wrote and thought was deep and smart when I was 13.

Considering the dragon in the game was meant to serve as a method for finding a new guardian of the world, basically a God like character, this dragon is way out of the way of its original purpose

In the Game: The quest to kill the dragon is to test how far will the Arisen go to reclaim their heart. A test of will power. Then ince they kill the dragon they have a choice to become LITERAL GOD and send the previous god down to the world as the next dragon to choose the next arisen to then continue the cycle. The pawns serve the Arisen as the one who will provide comfort and wisdom to the Arisen and also the reason pawns ezist at all is because they were each hand made by several arisen from several worlds. And gain their humanity from your character's sacrifice. Anime: Kill dragon become you just freaking hate it because it took your heart and the lives of your friends and family only to be consumed by your own rage and become the dragon. BUT WHAT THE HELL IS PURPOSE OF PAWNS IN THIS UNIVERSE IT MAKES NO SENSE AND WHY IS SHE A HYBRID CLASS AAAAAAH BY THE MAKER THIS SUCKS

Hopefully Capcom ignores this show and just makes a faithful sequel.

oh my god they made 7 episodes and named them after the 7 deadly sins on my god how can you be that cliche in the year of our lord 2020

After watching Anime America's recent video about how bad the Japanese Government treats their citizens this series becomes more frighteningly put in perspective: this isn't endorsing "feudalism" per say, but rather trying to enforce the Japanese ideals of people sacrificing everything, including personal well-being and safety, for "The good of the country". The peasants going "crazy" after being freed from the duke well that's just to show that Japanese citizens don't have the self-control to govern themselves and should support their leaders no matter how much they just take from them and consume. Not divvying up the gold to help veterans, of course now that they don't contribute you should just toss them aside and give the government their rightful wealth by doing your job. The people hiding in the cave just getting high, Ethan proposes bringing back the "lord" to put them to work because anyone who refuses to slave away for the government might as well be so high they can't do anything useful. I don't know where the unsatisfied wife and succubus come into things... well the succubus could easily be interpreted as "Sex is bad and you should avoid learning about it" thing that series like Shimoneta and "Oh ladies in your savage seasons" criticizes. As for the Pride and dragon change thing... I think maybe "anyone who tries to upend a powerful figure will become just as corrupt so why bother trying"? but that's a stretch even for me. Toxic Bushido would be the term I use to describe it, the idea that people aren't individuals but pieces of a whole whose only purpose is to support the country even when there isn't a crisis going on. Sorry for the rant but I just had this revelation and had to get it out of my system

I love how consistently Geoff despises neoliberalism. Same honestly 😂

Let's be honest, the dragon was the most relatable and endearing character in the show. After seeing how terminally stupid everyone in this world acted I have nothing but sympathy for the beast.

Interesting possible twists this show could have done. 1. The Noble could have been leaving the ogre alive because he found a way to control the ogre and believes the loss of life is worth the benefits of having a ogre in his control (possibly a weapon he could use against the dragon) 2. The man actually starts wreaking the goblins to the point they start running away in fear. Because of this he decides to let them go showing off how scared they were of him. Once they’re a good distance away however one of them fires an arrow killing the wife instantly 3. The workers all think that the moss is safe to smoke and have before been unable to for the lord made it illegal in the town. However, it turns out the lord secretly has a process that deludes the moss to a safe point while smoking it without this process will simply lead to a painless death. The lord keeps this process a complete secret to grow a monopoly on it and any unofficial routes will likely accidentally kill off their customers and likely themselves when sampling the merchandise. Edit: probably giving this topic more thought than it deserves but came up with a few more things 1. Continued. This twist can go many ways. Maybe the protagonist decides to help the noble. Maybe after he helps the Noble a mysterious man comes forward and says the king will just control the people. Maybe when he hears that the protagonist kills the noble but then it turns out the mysterious man profits greatly from this so maybe he lied. How many twists until the protagonist just gives up even trying in this situation? 2. Continued. Instead of the woman actually showing sexual desires for the protagonist make it clear that this is all an act because this is the only way she thinks she can stay safe; by kissing up to a man that may protect her. Maybe you can make it tragic by showing the reason she thinks like this is because she was raised like that. 3. Continued. Continuing with the first twist how the moss actually kills if I wanted to keep the theme of the sins perhaps instead of being lazy druggies maybe they’re being lazy and ignoring the warning signs that the moss may be dangerous. Also when the hydra attacks the villagers look on in horror. Not wanting the painful death of being swallowed whole and slowly digested they look to the moss they have. The episode ends with one of the girls screaming as they see the smoke rising from the houses. It’s up to the viewer to imagine how many people they save if there’s any left to save as well as any scenes that end up like the ending of The Mist 4. This is for the lich episode. Keep the Basic structure but actually make the monster that’s a representation of greed actually be a representation of greed. Don’t do this give us the orange lantern and not this Karl Marx bs. The rude knight still believes that this is due to their “treasonous idea”. That is till one last scene where we see that the knight’s lord has come down with the curse of greed as well and the once self righteous knight looks down while listening to his king’s manic laughter and in his hands are a couple bags of gold ready to be given to the soldiers’s family. It leaves there letting the viewer to think about what happens next. Does he stick to his principles? Does he do the right thing? Is he found out by the king and is tried for treason? Is the cursed coin among those bags of treasure?

I personally believe that Dragon's Dogma, the game, is a goddamn masterpiece. That being said, this show was a mistake and is an insult to the game.

fact: the dragon from the game and the anime are the same person; David lodge. they butchered his voice with filter in the anime.

His transition from 'Drugs are bad, mkay' drugs are- OH SH~T A HYDRA!' scared me more than the actual episode.

The “Drugs are bad, m’kay?” Bit had me rolling on the ground laughing

I love grimdark where all problems are eventually chalked up to “there is a magical force of suck we invented whose only purpose is suck for no particular or rational reason, now feel bad about the suck”

The Dragon in the game probably has one best voices in video games, the one in the anime sounds like a 14 year old trying to be Shakespearian villain

Man the thing that made me most mad at this show was how they treated the dragon. Look at how they massacred our boy! I would listen to Grigori read me bedtime stories while I murdered him because that is our relationship and the cycle is neverending but not this thing. This ain't our dragon

I had to stop watching for a bit around the 27 minute mark because I'm genuinely scared the show is going to say something worse than "slavery is good because it stops people from doing drugs"

Not that Dragon Dogma's lore is rich as, say, Dark Souls, but they stripped off 75% of it to make a dumb short re-interpreted version and run it poorly. The review is quite accurate in most points, if you knew about all the game plot you would be even more pissed off.

There is also the first episode being a gigantic red flag with Ethan's family. Background exposition, pregnant wife, everyone is happy, all the usual and generic red flags. They don't even try to hide it for the entire episode, and then somehow you have to pretend to be shocked when something you saw coming a mile away happens. My fault for being hyped due to how much I love DD and DD:DA but holy shit that was awful. Also gamewise, Hannah wasn't possible. Pawns can't be Magick Archers, but that's just nitpickkng.

Small story because Dragons Dogma has one of my favorite gaming memories. Spoilers, I guess. Theres a dungeon in the last part of the first act of the gane/first part of the second act. It is more or less a spiral cylinder downward. Halfway down is your first encounter with a Ogre- a fairly difficult miniboss. Absolutely kicked my ass the first few times i fought him. One time he literally dropkicked me off the edge, falling for a solid 30 seconds to my death. On my last attempt of the night, im crawling on its back stabbing its neck like a angry mosquito with a knife. However, it stumbled off the edge- with me on it. So im watching the screen, me falling for the longest time, clinging to this Ogre, just emotionally defeated. When i finally hit the ground, the Ogre takes all the fall damage and im there, at the bottom, my destination, completely unharmed. So I grab the plot orb (tm) i need to grab. This activates the plot orb worms (tm) that shoot fireballs to spawn. Now the game wants me to run ALL the way back up in a daring escape. MY escape involved running dick first through half the dungeon i didnt kill. So i was running around lost and confused while zombies tear at my face and fireball worms spitting on me. I eventually made it out after using all my healing items, and all my pawns still died. Thats the best part of Dragons Dogma. Its the wholly unique experience i had with it.

(Spoilers for dragon's dogma) I think one of the worst things was how they handled the arisen and dragon parallel. You see, the dragon isn't strictly evil, he is a test for the arisen. The arisen is destined to become god and the dragon is sent out to find a worthy person for the title. That's why grigori attacks cassardis, he's looking for a worthy individual and what does he find? As guards flee in terror, you the arisen pick up their swords to defend your home. It was never a story of revenge, it was a story of courage. A story of someone brave enough to face the odds to save others was seen as worthy by a dragon to be the next god of the world. But it wasn't just a battle. Grigori gave the arisen deal, a deal that would cost him his worthiness (something he didn't know about). A deal to offer his love in exchange for the safety of the world. The dragon tested arisen mercilessly. There is so much wrong with the main 2 characters of the story it's ridiculous

28:48 "Breathing is a need, If we don't do it... we die!" And presumably the same goes for the Dragon. Assuming the author has two brain cells to rub together it means that the Dragon is driven by an instinctual need that will cause him immeasurable suffering and drives him to kill humans.

As an Ethan, I’m offended by association to this guy

They could've named this anime after anything else and nobody would know the difference

It really sucks that this anime completely missed the entire mark of what Dragons Dogma was even about. The seven deadly sins gimmick is so uninspired and dull. The arisen doesn't even become a dragon by succumbing to rage, they become a dragon by losing a duel with fucking God. I want to enjoy it, but its story doesn't even do Dragons Dogma's justice. Say what you will about how little of the game is dedicated to the Dragon and Arisen struggle, at least the game put you doing things that built the world, and a lot of it was voluntary world building too. The Salvation cult in the game was better than anything in the anime and it wasn't even a focal point of the game, just the designers pulling a long-con troll on the players by saying "none of that meant anything". The only part it even somewhat did decently was the Pawn, Hannah. She slowly became more Humane and less rigid, as the will of the master shapes the soulless pawn, but even that is somewhat rocky. Lots of hype, and it delivered poorly. At least it might garner enough people to play the game so that a second one gets made.

it amazes me that the cannon ending to this anime is the ending they threw in as a joke, where if you die on the final boss you become the dragon and repeat the ‘endless cycle’. the entire point of dragons dogma is that even though you triumphed over an impossible goal and became an omniscient god, you turned it down to reject fate. ethan literally missed the entire point of the story and failed his quest, which is honestly kind of fitting for the anime. idk if they were geniuses or idiots but they did in fact make an anime