Just a brief note to all writers and filmmakers out there. Dragons are not lonely and misunderstood, the victims of ignorance and superstition. They are not majestic creatures filled with magic and wonder. They are particularly not talking friends of humans.
Dragons are the villains. They symbolize cruelty, greed, and gluttony. They are the ultimate challenge, the ultimate threat, and the ultimate proof of heroism. If you take away the need to kill dragons, you take away part of what makes a hero great. Heroes need mighty foes, and the mightiest foes are dragons.
Also, if dragons are friendly and beautiful, they're just a step above ponies, and we really don't want that.
The Charming Mr. Wheaton
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My Dearest Gentle Readers,
It is with the greatest pleasure that I am able to inform you that on this
very day I was so delightfully privileged as to meet t...
16 years ago
YES!!!
ReplyDeleteI will make an exception to dragons who serve as mounts, but even then the dragon should be defeated and tamed, rather than befriended.
See also: vampires.
ReplyDeleteI must respectfully disagree, sir. I would agree that dragons are not lonely, misunderstood victims of ignorance and superstition. And I would certainly agree that they can't be counted on to be talking friends of humans.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would disagree that they symbolize cruelty, greed, and gluttony. They certainly are the ultimate challenge and the ultimate proof of heroism, but they have that status by virtue of being intelligent, wise, noble, honorable creatures in their own right. The great hero needs to slay a dragon to prove himself; this is because no other creature is truly a worthy adversary. The dragon is the only creature truly worthy of a great hero, and is so because of its great intellect, wisdom, and nobility. They are not the mightiest foes just because they're big and strong and breathe fire (although these things certainly don't hurt); they're the mightiest foes because they are cunning and clever in addition to all these other things.
I think I know the type of dragon you're rallying against, and I would certainly agree that that is not an accurate depiction of a dragon. However, I don't think they're pure evil as you suggest, either.