#dragonslayer 1981

[astrospherica]

Vermithrax Pejorative in Dragonslayer (1981)

[eternal-gromnommer]

Getting into late for Smaugust so thought I'd put my take on one of cinema's classic dragons, Vermithrax Pejorative from Dragonslayer (1981). Been reading the behind-the-scenes for the film and loved a lot of design choices and inspirations so I thought I'd play with the design a bit.

I opted to stick to the head design mostly accurately to keep it recognizable as Vermithrax aside from some dinosaur-esque shrink-wrapping for a more elderly and ancient look, as well as a few other traits from the original design. Her feet are based on chicken feet brought by the filmmakers as reference and the tail is somewhat based on a Rhamphorhychus. Conceptually though, Vermithrax is described as having lived so long that she is in pain from being still alive after a thousand years, basically already falling apart from age while still living, and the idea of a dragon way past its prime and also suffering from just existing inspired me to add a little bit of Vhagar and Sheepstealer from "House of the Dragon" and some features of Shin Godzilla as well. While most depictions of dragons give them a sense of nobility and majesty, even malicious and evil ones like Smaug or King Ghidorah, I tried to make a far less elegant take, opting more on the "disgusting, vile beast" aspect, looking more like a demonic, rotting abomination that clawed it way out of the underworld, at least as percieved by many characters in-universe, a creature that inspires more a horrified revulsion rather than intimidated awe.

Another thing I more heavily redesigned are Vermithrax's brood of hatchlings, which are depicted as bloodthirsty man-eaters and are duly slain by the hero after they attempt to maul him at their nest after he stumbles upon them feasting on a princess. One big challenge the filmmakers had was trying to design a baby that would not be "cute" or "endearing" in any way and not elicit sympathy from the audience, so for them I referenced one of the more grotesque and hideous infants of the animal kingdom: cuckoo chicks. The filmmakers felt giving them big eyes would make them too empathetic and tried going for sunken, beady eyes, but I felt the opposite route of big, bulging but still closed eyes of a cuckoo chick also made for a "gross and offputting" look. Mixed with some features of vampire bats and with swollen bellies gorged on the flesh of sacrificial maidens, the hatchlings have a recognizably-baby-like look but not in an endearing way, ones that, like their adult parent, elicit feelings of disgust instead, and are monstrous spawn the audience would be glad to see be purged before they matured into more infernal aberrations like their mother.

[blockedragon]

Vermithrax

Mirmulnir/Brown Dovah

Smaug, but he has four legs because I got bored.

[endlesss-rain]

[vvargamora]

valerian should've been the main character of dragonslayer. she and elspeth should've, idk, tame that dragon and have her eat the priests and the king. and why did that old man literally explode, what was that even

[nyxqueen97]

she's so arya stark coded in this movie (dragonslayer 1981)

[ulenehlervu]

nobody tell casiodorus what the title of the movie is

[thegreatdisneymovieride]

Dragonslayer (1981)

Well, hello there. You’re an attractive young lady/gentleman/nonbinary friend. I’d like to take you out on the HHHHhhhHOTTEST of dates. I se

Never before have I seen a movie that so perfectly combined all of my favorite things into one amazing package. Watch. This. Movie.