D-War/Headscratchers

• Since at the end of the movie it was shown that a single dragon was enough to kill Buraki, why didn't the dragons in heaven, you know, just do that in the first place?
  • For that matter, why is Heaven's big plan is "Have these two guys protect this incredibly powerful MacGuffin from the evil giant serpent monster and his Legions of Hell"? And no, I don't care how good these two guys are, just sending them down alone is only going to get your best guys killed.
  • There's a whole trope for that.
• Why did Buraki spend so much time hissing and roaring when Sarah was tied on the alter and not just eat her immediately? Since he'd spent 500 years waiting for her, you'd think he'd be a bit impatient to get on with it...
  • Lowered Monster Difficulty. Happens to all oversized monsters by the end of a film.
• At the end, why didn't Buraki just cut his losses and run for it? It was pretty clear he wasn't going to win against an "all-powerful" dragon, plus he could've tried again in 500 more years. Sure, waiting that long would be a bitch, but it's better than dying.
  • Perhaps a non-speaking, serpentine version of a Villainous Breakdown?
• Why did the dragons of heaven put Buraki in such a damn flimsy "prison" on Earth? He seemed to be able to waltz out of it at will.
  • Because the only ones who could actually defeat Buraki in combat were the dragon-gods themselves, and none of them wanted to be the one stuck on Earth guarding Buraki while everyone else got to live in heaven. In short, there was literally nobody who could have successfully imprisoned him.
• Where did Buraki's tower at the end come from? And where were they?
• What happened at the battle in the city? It appeared to be a standstill, each side giving as good as it got, so what happened to the fight?
  • This troper's guess? Thousands of casualties on both sides, tens of thousands of civilian deaths, and billions of dollars worth of damage to LA. The US forces would obviously win, seeing as Buraki wouldn't reinforce an army without a goal to accomplish, and the US would be putting every available military asset into stopping an unprecedented invasion by an unknown foe. So...yeah. Lots and lots of deaths, but victory for the US.
• Why is this movie supposed to have a "happy ending"? Both main characters die, Sarah from sacrificing herself to the good Imoogi so it could become a dragon, and Ethan from thirst or starvation because he was left in the middle of a desolate wasteland with no food or water.
  • Ethan'll be fine. They're actually just a short jog from the cave entrance, which apparently is some kind of dimensional portal or something. He can get back to civilization in minutes.
  • Ethan's fate will be detailed in the sequel D-War 2: Dude, Where's My Portal? (joke paraphrased from Dread Central)
• Why were Buraki's army have their siege weapons firing into that town at the beginning of the movie, knocking over building and walls? It may sound like a great way to soften up a city, but the whole purpose of the attack was to kidnap a specific girl - alive - from an unknown location in the village, right? It's not like Buraki's army couldn't have won the fight anyway. I'd have stopped the barrage right away and beheaded whoever ordered it.
  • Rule of Cool, man. Rule of Cool. Explosions rule.
• Question: Why is it that whenever a person with a gun was facing the bad guys' infantry, they wisely chose to shoot at the shields of the soldiers, which are obviously BULLETPROOF. It would seem wise to, I don't know, aim at the legs or some other exposed area as opposed to continuing to put round after useless round into the shields.
  • For that matter, WHY THE HELL DID THAT EVEN WORK. Seriously, modern firepower is pretty terrifying, and these guys were using armor and shields fifteen hundred years out of date. If you want to know what that scene should have looked like, go read the Salvation War series. So why was the army so ineffective?
    • Oh, I'm aware of what modern firepower is capable of and I've read Salvation War. You could write it off as the armor and shields being made of some magical material, I suppose, but nonetheless...
• Why is that the Apache pilots chose to fly dangerously low to the street in between buildings? It would seem wiser to ascend to a REALLY. HIGH. ALTITUDE. and proceed to fire down at the baddies with their autocannons and Hellfire missiles. Real-life Apaches can hit targets accurately from a height that none of the dragons could have retaliated against or even NOTICED the choppers at. Oh well, Rule of Cool I suppose.
• OK, so the zoo-worker is dismissed as crazy and is institutionalized because he says he saw a giant snake eating the elephants at the zoo. Did no-one bother to check for the missing elephants?!
• How the hell can Buraki move around the city completely unnoticed in the first half of the film? He's not exactly the stealthiest of creatures.
  • It was never brought up in the movie, but he's a master of disguise. Those Groucho glasses are surprisingly effective.
• Just how large this dragon is? IIRC in some shots its mouth was as big as a truck, but then suddenly it is hugging a skyscraper, ready to swallow the whole roof.
  • Fridge Brilliance. Eastern Dragons (IE: Chinese, Japanese, Vietnames, and Korean) are capable of changing their size at will. That or Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale. Take your pick.
• Buraki's General said he was waiting for his army to bring the girl to him when he was actually actively hunting her, and doing a better job than his soldiers were. Is this just Bad Bad Acting, or was it the Good Imoogi rampaging around the city?

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