Fantasy and Mythology Discussion: Dragons

[Dahrinn (Groucho)]

"It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if there aren't any dragons."
-J.R.R. Tolkein

Dragons.
Easily THE most recognizable and iconic fantasy creature of all time, the very name conjuring an image of the ferocious winged beast, casting a stream of flame from it's jaws! If you got a fantasy story, nine times put of ten there's gonna be one.

As a patron of fantasy and mythology, it should be no surprise that the creatures themselves capture my fascination. As such I would like to post a place for discussion of these creatures, how they are depicted, and people's favorite Dragons.

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I usually like the older interpretations for my mythological creatures, but Tolkein's (comparitively) more modern Dragons such as Smaug capture my interest, particularly the idea of an immense, tertifying, and thouroughly evil creature with startling intellect.

My all time favorite of this variation?
None other than a Dragon named Grigori from the RPG Dragon's Dogma. Here he is, in all his glory!

Grigori is my favorite Dragon, and one badass lizard. The best way to see how awesome he is would be watching videos of the game, or getting it yourself if you so choose. But as it stands, there are so many great details in his design, movement, and personality that I love, it's hard to explain them all without a huge walk of text. Though the most outstanding is the way he talks, even if it's in your character's own mind. A low, growling, voice with an unnatural echo. Sometimes in what the game calls Wyrmspeak, but you may know as Latin. And there wasn't anything cooler than an enourmous Dragon speaking Latin from a tooth-lined beaklike set of jaws.

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So, Iwaku, what Dragons do you like? What is your favorite depiction? Got any cool Dragon-based ideas?

 

[Quiet One]

Personally, I prefer displaying dragons in a "realistic" light. I might catch hell for this, but I don't like Game of Thrones. Nothing is executed badly - in fact, I'd go so far as to say characterization, story, and plot are about as flawless as they come for a TV series - but the overall tone is just so hateful and so dark and negative that I stopped watching after season 4.

However, I absolutely love the take on the dragons in GoT. These aren't wise or evil creatures; they're just animals. Animals that happen to have impenetrable scales and fire breath, but still animals.

And strangely, I actually prefer that to wish granting serpents a la DBZ or sentient embodiments of greed like Smaug. Seeing a dragon talk actually takes me out of the fantasy a little bit. It's like, "you've got a giant monster that can eat a cow whole, but it's able to move its lips and jaw to resemble human speech?" Why does the apex predator of all fantasy worlds need to be intelligent? I'm not saying make them mindless brutes, though. Predators of any kind are going to be relatively smart, so my preference for dragons is an animal with intelligence above that of the average beast, but still not close to that of a human. That way a fight against a dragon isn't about a battle of wits, but simply brain vs brawn.

The ultimate scenario is: here is a creature that eats everything in sight, has scales stronger than steel, and breathes fire. You are NOT equipped to kill this thing. Kill it anyway.

 

[Dipper]

Chinese dragons are awesome. They're big, look cool, and unlike western dragons, aren't out for gold and just gold. They just chill like gods and... do cool stuff. Like exist.

In fictional media, the dragons in the Age of Fire series are fairly interesting. They have a society of their own, but the way they behave is wilder. Hard to explain without tearing chunks of the book out. And the mythology surrounding them was enjoyable to read up on.

 

[malina]

hey chinese dragons still eat people i think

tbh i don't like dragons at all lol
i guess if i had to pick one it'd be alduin just b/c i like tes haha

idk i kinda miss the four legged dragons too. recently all the dragons in media are like the wyvern types

edit: oh st george's dragon was pretty neat and OH SHIT thte paper bag princess :DD

 

[Greenie]

OH SHIT thte paper bag princess :DD

*thumb's up* I love that story XD

I love all dragons to be honest, it's hard to pick which is my favourite.

If I'm forced to, I will say I love Haku's design from Spirited Away and base my favourite eastern dragon on the same design.

 

[Joan]

Dragons are some of my favorite things :3 My favorites would have to be the dragons in Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon series, simply because they're some of the most realistic and interesting dragons I've seen.

 

[Shiri]

Dragons are love. They are possibly my favorite mythical beasts because they are present in almost every culture. They are also so much fun to draw! If I can't think of something to put on a new piece of paper I tend to just doodle a dragon. Many, many liberties can be taken when designing them.

I don't really know if I have a favorite version. The Western dragon represents physical strength and protection, whereas the Eastern dragons harbor elegance and a wisdom beyond human comprehension, then there's the Mediterranean sea serpents who represent the unforgiving wrath and chaos of the open sea. It's hard to pick one! They are all so cool!

I do have a beautiful puzzle of Smaug near my bed. He glows in the dark. :3

Spoiler

 

[Aero Blue]

When I was a kid that cared about things like the Chinese Zodiac, I resented everyone who got to fall under the year of the Dragon (aka my little brother), while I got the Monkey.

Anyways, I don't really have a preference between dragons depicted as overwhelming savage beast or old, intelligent pieces of fire-breathing symbolism. Typically, the former blends into the latter anyway.

also being real, but the pre-dominant dragon in my head is the Blue-eyed one from Yu-Gi-Oh. Shout out to Seto Kaiba lul.

 

[Shiri]

When I was a kid that cared about things like the Chinese Zodiac, I resented everyone who got to fall under the year of the Dragon (aka my little brother), while I got the Monkey.

But Monkey King :D

 

[Aero Blue]

... nice!

 

[Kagayours]

Boy, I do love me some draggos.

I'm having a hard time thinking of any long-time favorites off the top of my head, but that's probably because I've been playing a lot of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lately and I'm kind of in love with the dragons from that game, so when you ask me to think of awesome dragons, my mind is clouded with visions of them, lol.

But seriously, these dragons just leave me totally awestruck. I remember catching a glimpse of one in the sky early on in the game and being all like "!!! what is that!!!" and just thinking it was so cool that I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see this awesome thing, even though I knew it probably wouldn't be relevant until much later into the game. I felt like Ash Ketchum looking up and seeing that Ho-Oh, man. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that seeing it was something special.

And then as the game progressed, I found myself getting closer and closer to these things every time they happened to fly on by. I took pics of them with my sheikah slate that progressively became more close-up and detailed. And it always felt so magical to have these increasingly close encounters with them.

And when you get really close... man... the music that plays. It does a lot to add to this aura of power and majesty that seems to radiate off of these giant creatures.


Anyway, don't get me wrong -- I do also love dragons that are just big, ferocious animals like Quiet One described. But at the moment, it's the full-of-incomprehensible-wonder god-like majestic beings that BotW has managed to pull off so well that I am enamored by.

 

[Legens Legentis]

SPACE DRAGONS
*ahem*

King Ghidorah is easily one of the most recognizable and iconic dragons in film history. He brings destruction to other planets for the fun of it, cackling eerily as lightning rains from above, making humanity appear feeble against this cosmic monstrosity. There's not much that can top him.