Falkor

Falkor (Fuchur, German, Falcor or Falcore) is an overarching protagonist of The NeverEnding Story. He is the last Luck Dragon in the universe.
==Personality ==
Falkor is very wise, incredibly positive, dignified and a very sociable sophisticated being from Fantasia. He gives advice to people when they have lost hope in many things they set out to do, whether on a quest for what they seek or, in some cases, people and beings that have given up altogether and lost faith. Mostly during the Nothing's destruction of Fantasia, he helps Atreyu along the way on his quest to stop The Nothing. Falkor's optimistic attitude purely comes from his heart and it is proven that his openness to making friends means a lot to everyone he encounters, into which Falkor in return treasures every friendship he has. Falkor, however, never wants to make enemies, only those who are threats to his friends or threats in general towards Fantasia itself.
There is no knowledge of anyone or anything in Fantasia who has been hostile towards Falkor, only The Nothing and Gmork were his only true foes. The other thing to point out is that Falkor never likes to be alone, he is always wanting to be close or even in the company of other beings or creatures of Fantasia, Falkor loves to have friends and ones who he knows will be loyal to him and not betray his good will and open heart. Falkor also likes to look after and shelter those who have been injured, are unconscious, or even maybe in general he likes to keep people safe within his reach; this is proven as Atreyu ends up sleeping in Falkor's paws within the duration of when Atreyu was in his recovery phase after he was rescued from the Swamps of Sadness by him.
==Appearance==
Falkor has a graceful elongated body of 43 feet long. His whole body is covered in albino light downy/soft fur on the entire length of his body. He also features an elegantly shaped tail and paws. Along Falkor's back, he is covered in pink and white scales. His eyes are the same color of rubies but often are mistaken for deep brown or oak.
==The Nothing and the destruction of Fantasia==
Falkor was one of the few beings to survive the first encounters with the Nothing, the Nothing's creation being a result of neglect and forgotten hopes from Mankind's universe. Falkor's first appearance was when he mysteriously appeared out of a nebulous orange cloud formation, and he soared low over the Swamps of Sadness and saved Atreyu's life before he drowned and, in the process, carried him over 9000 miles to his destination. In the meantime, the Nothing had continued to destroy Fantasia and everything looked entirely bleak. Bastian Bux, who by that time was deep in reading the NeverEnding Story book, wasn't realizing his own powers over Fantasia. Atreyu and Falkor had become very good friends after he had saved his life from the Swamps of Sadness. In the meantime, Falkor asked Atreyu if he was heading for the Southern Oracle, yet Atreyu was slightly pessimistic in saying it was too far away, but when Falkor reveals he brought him over 9891 miles, Atreyu knew he had a chance at saving Fantasia. 
The two later decide to journey together to beyond the boundaries of Fantasia from the Southern Oracle's guidance, both of them flying over the mountains, oceans, and deserts in quick fashion. However, this didn't stop them from encountering the Nothing over the Sea of Possibilities. Falkor and Atreyu were thrown about by the Nothing's incredible power and, unfortunately, Atreyu fell off Falkor's back, plunging hundreds of feet into the ocean and being washed on the beach of a ruined city. Among the confusion, Atreyu lost the Auryn necklace and without it, his mission would be incomplete. In complete despair and worry, Falkor desperately searched the ocean for Atreyu with no success. Falkor took it upon himself to find the Auryn and let it guide him to Atreyu's location. After Atreyu had an encounter with the suffering Rock Biter after the latter lost his friends due to the Nothing's destructive forces, he travels into the ruins to find paintings drawn up of Atreyu's quest so far: from the beginning at the Ivory Tower, the death of Artax, the encounter with Falkor, and lastly, a dark painting of a giant Wolf.
While this was happening, Falkor found the Auryn and risked his safety by plunging underwater to retrieve it, as Luck Dragons can be poisoned by water if underneath for a few minutes. After he finds it, he travels back towards Atreyu with little time left. After Atreyu kills the Servant of the Nothing who is the Wolf Gmork, The Nothing unleashes its final and ultimate power to finally end Fantasia once and for all. Atreyu holds onto a tree for dear life as the Nothing rips away the earth around him with powerful hurricane-force winds. Falkor arrives in a split second of time before the tree gives way and he yet again saves Atreyu's life. After the Nothing finally disintegrates itself, Fantasia is no more. Falkor and Atreyu were the last survivors of the Nothing's brutal force. The two fly on in search of the Ivory Tower, where they hope it will still stand. Falkors deep optimism and the Auryn's guidance pay off when a meteor moves aside and to their happiness, it still stands. As the two land at the Tower, Atreyu knows within him that Falkor will be the next victim if the Nothing still exists. Despite this, Falkor urges Atreyu into the tower by winking and telling him to 'Go on'. Atreyu looks back at Falkor in sadness and proceeds to go inside, leaving Falkor behind for the last time.
 A few minutes pass when the Empress and Atreyu talk over what went wrong with the quest and that Atreyu had not failed. Meanwhile, Bastian starts to believe that he is the successor to Fantasia's future. For some unknown cause, which is possibly another form of the Nothing, meteorites and shooting stars begin to destroy the Ivory Tower and the remaining fragments. Little is known, however, if Falkor survived this final onslaught by the reformed Nothing. When the high winds begin to appear again and the Ivory Tower disintegrates, Falkor is nowhere to be seen. Yet when Bastian calls out the Empress's new name, Moonchild, the chaos and destruction comes to an abrupt halt. After Bastian and the Empress talk of the future of Fantasia, Bastian is unsure what to do, yet after a few wishes, Fantasia is reborn. Falkor, Atreyu, Artax, The Rockbiter, Teeny Weeny and his racing snail, The Nighthob and his Bat, as well as all the other beings and creatures are returned to normal. 
The last appearance of Falkor comes when Bastian and him cross dimensions and go back to his world, to get revenge on the 3 bullies who had given Bastian problems in the beginning of the movie. Falkor sees this fun plan of Bastian's with much delight. As Falkor and Bastian pursue the 3 bullies, Falkor then bursts out with laughter as the 3 boys hide in rubbish to escape Falkor's charge. They then both head back into Fantasia.
==Gallery==
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File:The-NeverEnding-Story-II-The-Next-Chapter-the-neverending-story-4149863-500-282.jpg|The Neverending Story II's Falkor retained the physical look, as well as his charismatic and wise attitude with minor adjustments involved.
File:466064968 a254555f44 z.jpg|The Neverending Story III's Falkor model looked nothing like the original design. Falkor's personality was generally backward in comparison to the original.
File:Falkor in 1989.jpg|The original Falkor and his deteriorated condition in 1989
File:The second Falkor 1989.jpg
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==Trivia==
* In the last scene of the Ivory Tower's destruction from the Nothing, Falkor is nowhere to be seen on the stairs that lead up to the Empresses home where Atreyu left him. It is possible that he escaped by flying away from the tower or in the sad but inevitable event, that the Nothing eventually caught up with Falkor and destroyed him, but this was never shown onscreen. (To prevent upsetting the viewers further who saw the film in Cinemas).
*In the German version of the movie (The 97-minute uncut release), Falkor's demise is never recorded on this version either, (see reason above).
*Many have tried to replicate Falkor with CGI and other computer graphics but most have failed to bring Falkor back to his original state.
*Falkor's appearance changed consistently during the other 2 movies.
**The Neverending Story II which came out in 1990 saw a third Falkor based on the original design. This Falkor was built specifically for the second movie. His head and bodily features were slightly altered, and his soft and sleek appearance was dampened by longer duration materials rather than the natural fibers used to construct his fur coat and his body scales. The original Falkor animatronic puppet was unusable as he was placed on public display in the Bavaria Filmstadt museum in 1985 along with other props that were used in the 1984 movie. (See below third paragraph)
**In The Neverending Story III, which came out in 1994, his appearance changed yet again, this time ultimately for the worse. Most people who see or have seen the third movie criticize greatly of Falkor's general look as well as his personality. Also in the third movie, Falkor's attitude had been drastically altered from a wise, loving, caring, and heavily intellectual being with a lot of dignity to a creature whose thinking was generally backwards and noninspirational towards the audience of both young and older generations. A lot of people who have seen the 1984 movie will always say that the original Falkor is a very lovable and inspiring character for his attitude as well as his appearance compared to the other 2 types of Falkor designed and used in the Neverending Stories II and III.
***In 1985, after The NeverEnding Story was finished being filmed, the original Falkor was moved into the Bavaria Movie Studios Museum where he is currently on public display. Unfortunately, in 1989, the original Falkor puppet was in his worst condition. Due to heavy neglect of his body and his features, this had lead to horrible matting of his fur, broken claws, terrible bleaching of his facial features and the biggest edit they did to Falkor was in 1986 when his body was cut in half so that the animatronics could be removed for safety reasons, this being that there was no cooling system within Falkor himself and that the electrics could not breathe if ever reactivated. Also the reason being that the mechanisms that controlled Falkor were put on public display to show the technology that was involved in Falkor's movements in order to make him as real as possible during filming. Its also to note underneath Falkors neck support you can see cords underneath dangling below in amongst his matted fur. It is believed that these are the original control cables that were positioned in his neck to control his facial movement. To add the other half of Falkor which was removed in 1986 was never found however it is under speculation that when Falkor was restored in 1993, they recovered and used the other half and joined him back together, yet this is unconfirmed as a press release was never published and information was never given out.
***The second 43-foot long Falkor deteriorated far worse than the original Falkor, in the sense that most of his frame and interior structure was removed leaving the skin and his fur, which in turn resulted in Falkor 2 to collapse on himself. Most of the pearl scales that were used on the second model also broke due to heavy handling as well as neglect. This Falkor's current state is virtually the same since the movie had been shot and he can be seen during the tour. Many have commented to the Filmstadt that this Falkor should be restored like the original.
***In 1993, Falkor underwent a massive restoration. This involved a completely renewed body and complete with fur similar to the original. However, this wasn't easy as the original Falkor was cut in half to be used in the late 80's as an exhibit to show off blue screen technology as well to get to all the animatronics inside. Falkor's restoration by the Bavaria Studios was completed in 1997, but this wasn't an easy task to bring him back to the similar state he was in during the films shooting in 1984. Health and Safety also was involved in some radical changes to Falkor's general appearance: most of the teeth, tongue, claws and plastic scales were removed to comply with the new regulations, Falkor's scales are now complete pieces compared to the original separate scales, his teeth are of a safe soft plastic as the original ones were made of clay. Lastly, his tongue was made into a soft plastic, whereas the original was of a carbon compound with skin moisturizer sprayed on. In the picture from 1989 (See the first image), his tongue began to rot and turn yellow after being neglected for such a long time. Lastly, his claws instead of being made of clay and mod rock, were constructed of the same soft plastic. The last original parts on Falkor today are his pearl plated eyes, and his head in general.
***Most who visit the Bavaria Studios (Filmstadt) can ride Falkor while projected in front of a blue screen. He is one of the main attractions of the NeverEnding Story history as well as being a main part of the guided tour that is offered there. You can ride him and have photo opportunities whilst being on the magnificent Luck Dragon.
Category:Dragons
Category:Male
Category:Fantasy Heroes
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Category:Live Action Heroes
Category:Wise
Category:Optimists
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Category:Nurturers
Category:Voice of Reason
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Category:Neutral Good
Category:Genius
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Category:Last of Kind
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