I AM THE DRAGONMASTER

Note: This post is a modified transcript of the attached short. It’s not a 1:1 script! I changed it to read better as a standalone blog post. 

What makes them special? 

When the original Pokemon slowly launched globally between 1995 and 1998, Charmander was one of three potential pokemon players first had control over. This was before Pikachu was even voted by Japanese players as being the designated mascot for the franchise.

While there were differences between the original japanese versions of the games and their global counterparts, Charmander’s adult form, Charizard, always made it to the cover of whatever batch of Gen 1 games were being launched locally.

Charizard is the closest thing Pokemon has to a second mascot. Pokemon’s main prerogative as a franchise is pushing its smaller, cuter creatures to the forefront of their business. With that in mind, Charizard upholds the milieu of the larger, cooler Pokemon. No matter the region, “Red” version was always available, and Charizard is right there on the cover, letting you, the consumer, know that if you choose to play this game,with a bit of effort, you can become this creature’s master. 

And effort you will need, because picking Charmander as your very first Pokemon means enduring the game on a de-facto hard mode. While the other two starters, Bulbasaur and Squirtle, will be on the winning side of the game’s rock-paper-scissors style mechanics for the first two major bosses of the game, Charmander is hilariously disadvantaged for the first quarter of the game. In some later generations of games, among a bevy of other problems Charizard has mechanically, ONE SINGLE move called stealth rocks ensured that Charizards would be unviable to play competitively thanks to Charizard’s X4 weaknesses to rock-type moves. 

It actually gets worse in other media - Narratively, if a Chamander’s tail-mounted pilot light is extinguished, IT WILL DIE. Sometimes it’s even played for laughs!

Despite these weaknesses, Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard represent a power fantasy. One standout episode of the TV show had Charmander learning rage, a move that gave Charmander the pokemon version of a Zenkai boost, and once matured, Charizard has visually stunning moves like Seismic toss, Fire Spin, and the high-risk Blast Burn. Charizard’s  sheer popularity and ties to Gen 1 always keep them relevant. The original holographic Charizard trading card is a highly sought collector's item that has only appreciated in value over time.

As a means to prolong relevance, Charizard was given not one, but two separate mega evolutions during the sixth generation of games. In a moment that would have had my eight-year-old self lose his mind, one of the promos leading up to “Pokemon X and Y’s” launch had a Charizard fully dunked underwater, and then had him exceed his natural limits and overcome his deathly weakness to emerge, ready to fight as Charizard X. 

Finally, in the eighth generation of pokemon game, Sword and Shield,  a Charizard was Champion Leon's signature Pokemon. This marked the second time Charizard occupied the final boss slot for the game's main story. Gary / Green / Blue could originally have Charizard as his final pitch hitter, provided the player picked Blubasuar as a starter pokemon. 

 Leon’s Charizard takes it a step further, employing a technique called “Gigantamaxing”. Charizard changes forms again, this time to the size of a building. 

Note: This post is a modified transcript of the attached short. It’s not a 1:1 script! I changed it to read better as a standalone blog post. 

I recorded this at a bit of an interesting point in time: The Monster Hunter Stories 3 demo is out, but the full game isn't. However, that doesn't stop the demo from having a superboss. Get to just before the end of the demo, and run through a few fights at nighttime to cause the Elder Dragon, Namielle, to start aura farming above the lake.

This ugly angler is way stronger than anything else I can throw at him. I deal 1 digit of damage. He deals 3!!!

But there's still a shred of dignity in losing. Namielle will leave behind a single Namielle hide.

You can bring three of them to the blacksmith to craft the usual monster hunter weapons and armor, but that would mean going head to head with Namielle 3 times, and let's face it… probably losing!

He does seem to have a weakness to status effects though, and by the looks of things, one of the boys on reddit cracked the code to outmaneuvering this angler. Link to the thread here.

Note: This post is a modified transcript of the attached short. It’s not a 1:1 script! I changed it to read better as a standalone blog post. 

YOU TOO can be a Zombie Dragon. 

When I get to starting the “ranking” portion of the Dragon Ranking, “video game protagonists” hold a special position of power above most dragons; mostly because of two magic words called  “player empowerment”. No matter the obstacle, through perseverance, dedication, and designers furiously enabling power fantasies, the player will always be the largest force for change in a setting.

So with that said, why not focus on a game that necessitates a player working from the bottom to the top, step by step? Here’s your recipe:

 Load up Dark Souls, grab your master key, escape the Undead Asylum. Once you’re in Firelink Shrine, take the series of elevators down, and make a mad dash for the invisible wall nestled in the trunk of Blighttown’s Arch-Tree! Once you’re inside, do not be content with mediocre rewards! 

There’s a second invisible wall! Push through it, and then brave the onslaught of run-ringing monsters within the Great Hollow. When you get to the other side, you’ll enter Ash Lake, one of the coolest, most atmospheric secrets I've ever seen in a game. Make it past the Black Hydra, and make it to the Everlasting Dragon. 

Commune with our fuzzy brother, and now your protagonist is, at least part dragon. 

Part dragon is still a dragon! If you’re a seasoned enough player, you can get this process done in about 20 minutes.

That’s not to say the game will be much easier. But, you have some new tools if you just keep the DRAGON MENTALITY (*DRAGON MAN-TALITY). An example I have is trying to off the other, larger Zombie dragon in the valley of the drakes. On my last playthrough, I died multiple times trying to land hits with  the game's starting axe. That ain't dragon mentality! 

Get ready to plaster the setting with the primordial pyre!!

Back when I made this video during the Halloween season, I got the itch to talk about some zombies!

Castlevania! One of Dracula's favorite guardians are the “bonehead” dragon skulls. They're not strong, and gameplay-wise, they’re too bad to deal with, but combined with other obstacles, they can rapidly become a pain. Small fries, for sure, but their talent and danger is in their ubiquity.

Slightly more annoying are the serpent bone dragons (or white dragons in some instances) that permeate the castle. Especially because they tend to pop up right above doors the player will need to progress through. They're almost mini-bosses, but their tricks are limited to undulating and popping a cheeky fireball here and there, even in cases where they can be unshackled and teamed with a Fleaman rider like late into “Symphony of the Night”.  

But of Dracula's menagerie of zombie dragons, Circle of the Moon's “Twin Zombie Dragons” are the Dark Lord's most dangerous. They have two types of fireballs, a word I realize I'm going to be saying as much as “dragon” in this series, but their strongest tool is their ability to bob their heads back and forth and look drunk! This is, shockingly, their strongest and most versatile tactic.

Note: This post is a modified transcript of the attached short. It’s not a 1:1 script! I changed it to read better as a standalone blog post. 

It was possible to get this dude in Fortnite. Throughout September and October of 2025, Fortnite included the Dragonzord battle mode as an unlockable skin. Just looking at it, you can kind of see that The Dragonzod’s body proportions are a little less “chonky”. That's easily explainable. It needs to use Epic's Fortnite rig as a skeleton now.

Something important about this blog or the youtube channel:  I will be pedantic or superficial with my classifications depending on which is funny. 

If we’re looking at the Dragonzord seen in Power Rangers versus the Dragonzord in Fortnite then there is one clear conclusion: This dude is a different dude. Which is to say I am classifying this as a different dragon. 

The Dragonzord Battle Mode seen in Fortnite is first and foremost a Fortnite skin. That means anything that inherently made it unique is now stripped away and gone. 

Unlike games like Overwatch and Marvel Rivals, Fortnite is not a bespoke hero shooter. Or at least, with the heavy de-emphasis on Fortnite’s original “Save the World” mode Fortnite is not a bespoke hero shooter anymore, and certainly not for tie-in characters. No concessions were made to incorporate a Dragonzord kit. Glaringly, the Dragonzord battle mode seen here  is mini. What it can do is everything that a standard Fortnite character can do. 

It still has the power staff and it can technically win fights with it, but it's a pickaxe skin. Let's be real here. For the sake of future classification, I’m calling this thing Dragonzord Battle Mode (Fortnite Snapshot).

Note: This post is a modified transcript of the attached short. It’s not a 1:1 script! I’ve modified it to read better here as a standalone blog post. 

Give the Dragonzord something to combine with and now we're in business. The first configuration in the show is the Dragonzord Battle Mode. This is 60% the standard Megazord configuration, but it swaps out the Tyrannosaurus and Pterodactyl mechas for the Dragonzord. 

The Dragonzord's drill tail becomes the much more flexible power staff, and the beefier arms from the Mammothzord let it fight hand to hand. The Dragonzord Battle Mode is a slight step up in power for the team. Usually its appearance represents an escalation in the threat the team is fighting. 

But why settle for combining mecha substitutions when we can really just take all six mechs and throw them together? 

I'll let you in on a little secret about the Dragonzord's second combining configuration. Once the Dragonzord is bereft of its central chest shield component, Dude's body constitution is basically a giant mecha jacket.

It can click right on top of the Megazord and form the appropriately named Mega Dragonzord. With all six Zords working in tandem, they gain access to this giant Kamehameha beam with a Z on the front of it. 

Z for Zord! … Not really. The “Z”’s everywhere on the Megazord are holdovers from originally being adapted as God-Beasts from the show’s Sentai progenitor; Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger.

I have an educated suspicion that the localized / adapted names for “Zords” was decided on to to account for their prevalence of “Z”s everywhere in the Zyuranger iconography.  

Back on topic: The overall design of the Dragonzord is meant to account for a man in a robot suit for everything put to film, while also accounting for a combining toy that needs to obey real physics to combine. Those arms aren't going to be moving so good. The Dragonzord participating in the six-zord fusion becoming a metal hood and two oversized pauldrons that shoot lasers is kind of the best we can ask for. Godzilla can wear it. 

But suppose being a giant gun isn't enough. What if you could be …more gun? The Mega Dragonzord is an intermediary form. Don't put the credit card away yet because there's one more Zord! The team's final configuration is the Dino Ultra Zord. 

The Dino Megazord combines with Titanus the Carrier Zord, and they just turn into this floating mag dump…. thing. Don't get me wrong, this is awesome, but this is also the only thing they do. Just drive and shoot! It's a finishing move. It's just sort of a finishing move.

Note: This post is a modified transcript of the attached short. It’s not a 1:1 post! I’ve modified it to read better here as a standalone blog post. 

Ranked Dragon #1: The Dragonzord

The inaugural dragon for the list is the Dragonzord. One may say it's unorthodox to start the ranking list with a mecha. But if we're looking at how the Dragonzord is used narratively, it still fills the tropes of a dragon being a “big devastating monster” that trashes cities. Aside from its mechanical body, its other contemporary flare is that the Dragon Zord is under the control of a flute-playing gym bro who in turn is also being controlled by an over-dubbed witch.  

The Green Ranger and the Dragonzord started the trope of the “sixth ranger”. Basically additional Power Rangers  introduced mid-season to shake up the group dynamic as well as introduce new toys. 

For the power scalers in the audience, it does lose its first fight. Its true strength actually stems from it being a team player. 

Power-wise on its own, it has these finger missiles and a drill tail that can easily bore through buildings. Also, 2024’s Rita's Rewind game has a chest laser that I'm pretty sure wasn't there in the source material. 

It has the strength to  absolutely wipe out a city. Once I get to making the ranking list, this thing absolutely makes it into the “lesser elder” tier of dragons.  

Hello all! My name is Break. 

I’ve already tested the waters and posted some of my shorts to my Tumblr blog here at the end of 2025. But you know what? Mission statements never hurt anyone.

I have 8 long-form video ideas in me right now. The first of which is YEAR OF THE DRAGON 202X… or maybe I’ll call it Break and the 99 Dragons. I’ll be honest though, I’ll just make it whatever works for SEO the first time that I post it. 

The plan? Rank every dragon that I personally know about. That’s the only condition! So if I read, watched, played, or listened to anything with a dragon, expect me to talk about it eventually. 

That’s not all I’m planning on doing, but the Dragon project can be broken down into smaller bite-sized segments that I can generate as Youtube shorts! So why not cross-post my projects here? Heck, I also burn-in my subtitles, so why not adapt some text versions of the shorts as well?  

For a peak behind the curtain. I’m working on an intro segment to the video, to better contextualize my ranking system but instead of waiting for it to be done, I’ll just jump right in to posting the shorts that I HAVE made.