Let's Talk About Dragons

[DragonOfTheAerie]

As you can probably tell by my name, I love dragons. So, I'm hoping to start some open discussion on the topic of dragons.
There isn't a hard and fast definition of what a dragon is. Cultures all around the world have dragon legends, which vary wildly. Dragons can be practically anything we want them to be. They can be dumb animals or they can far exceed humans in knowledge and intelligence. They can be huge, invincible flying tanks or they can be elegant and fragile. They can be savage and violent or gentle and non-threatening. They can breathe fire, but they can also spit acid or electricity. They can be good, evil, or neither. What a "dragon" is, how it behaves, and what it looks like is largely up to the writer, but everyone seems to be in agreement that they're awesome.
So, what do you guys think about dragons? Are they awesome, or an over-used cliche that should be avoided? Do you include dragons in any of your stories? What are they like? Are they characters in their own right, or just accessories? What do you think about the dragon rider trope? Should a dragon hoard gold, breathe fire, be ridiculously huge, etc--what are some dragon cliches you hate? What do you think about the plausibility of such a creature?
Hoping this ignites some interesting discussion.

 

[Ireth]

Thus far I only have one story centered around dragons, and I play with a combination of Eastern and Western tales. The dragons have their own culture and mythology (sort of; they are actually the demigod-like beings of the setting).

I bring the standard "Eastern" and "Western" dragons into the same mythos by way of sexual dimorphism. Physically male dragons are the "Western" type, scaly fire-breathers (with or without wings), while physically female ones are "Eastern", furry water-dwellers. Masculine dragons are stereotyped among humans much like in Western lore, as evil gold-hoarding monsters who must be killed, while feminine dragons are revered as keepers of wisdom and judgment.

The main dragon character is an MtF transgender dragon named Gorokhan, who makes the most of her wings and fire-breath to make a living and entertain herself. She does kill those who try to kill her, but only in self-defense; she uses their gold to pay back farmers and the like whose livestock she sometimes must steal for food, and crafts their armor into pretty sculptures. Her best friend is a cis-female dragon who lives in a lake just downriver from Gorokhan's mountain.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

A transgender dragon? Definitely never heard of that one before. It's actually a pretty interesting idea. I would read that book. Is her story about trying to be accepted as a transgender dragon, or does she just happen to be transgender and her story is about something else?

 

[Ireth]

A transgender dragon? Definitely never heard of that one before. It's actually a pretty interesting idea. I would read that book. Is her story about trying to be accepted as a transgender dragon, or does she just happen to be transgender and her story is about something else?

The latter. The MC is a human girl named Sarah who's magically dropped into Gorokhan's world; Gorokhan is the main one who tries to help Sarah while she looks for a way home. (I'm a big fan of so-called "portal fantasy.") It started out as a short story idea, but I'm considering expanding it into something bigger.

 

[Malik]

I wouldn't feature a dragon in my series right now if my editor held a gun to my nuts.

Dragons will have become the new vampires by the time anything you start writing today is finished.

 

[Russ]

I love dragons and when they are done well I cannot get enough of them.

Top dragons I have read about would have to include those beautiful creatures from Pern and above all the Dragons of Melnibone.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I wouldn't feature a dragon in my series right now if my editor held a gun to my nuts.

Dragons will have become the new vampires by the time anything you start writing today is finished.

Maybe. But as with vampires, there is an audience for dragons. Also, you have much more flexibility as to what you can do with dragons than with vampires.
Also vampires are just a lot more boring. In my opinion. Good things can be done with them, but I'm perplexed as to why they're so popular.

 

[Malik]

I love dragons and when they are done well I cannot get enough of them.

Top dragons I have read about would have to include those beautiful creatures from Pern and above all the Dragons of Melnibone.

There is also this. I'm not saying it can't be done, and can't be done well. I just think we're going to be up to our eyeballs in dragon-riding, dragon-controlling MC's within 18 months. If you're going to do it, make it good, and put a spin on it.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

The latter. The MC is a human girl named Sarah who's magically dropped into Gorokhan's world; Gorokhan is the main one who tries to help Sarah while she looks for a way home. (I'm a big fan of so-called "portal fantasy.") It started out as a short story idea, but I'm considering expanding it into something bigger.

Oh, ok. For some reason I assumed the dragon was the MC. A story about a transgender dragon trying to gain acceptance of her identity in dragon society would be an interesting read, haha! But I do enjoy a good portal fantasy, ever since the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was 7...memories. Sadly, portal fantasy seems to have fallen out of favor now; not much of it is being published, it seems.

 

[Malik]

Maybe. But as with vampires, there is an audience for dragons. Also, you have much more flexibility as to what you can do with dragons than with vampires.
Also vampires are just a lot more boring. In my opinion. Good things can be done with them, but I'm perplexed as to why they're so popular.

Vampires are popular as romantic leads because they promise eternal youth. There is a gazillion-dollar industry based solely on promising young women that they can delay aging. A handsome, sexy, worldly man who promises eternal love, eternal beauty, and eternal youthfulness speaks to a vulnerability and a deep-rooted fear inside the female psyche.

 

[Nomadica]

I like dragons most when they are different in some way from the typical western ideas of them.

My favorite dragon picture The Keeper by Crutz

 

[Ankari]

I wouldn't feature a dragon in my series right now if my editor held a gun to my nuts.

Dragons will have become the new vampires by the time anything you start writing today is finished.

But dragons have always saturated fantasy. I've read/consumed

LOTR / Hobbit
D&D universes
Pern
Malazan Book of the Fallen
A Song of Ice and Fire
His Majesty's Dragon
Dragon Age (video games and books)
Skyrim (video game)
The Witcher 3 (comes close)

I think it always boils down to uniqueness.

 

[Ireth]

Oh, ok. For some reason I assumed the dragon was the MC. A story about a transgender dragon trying to gain acceptance of her identity in dragon society would be an interesting read, haha!

Fair enough, I wasn't exactly specific. But gaining acceptance in her own society wouldn't be an issue, as trans and other non-binary dragons are quite commonplace in that world. It's the way humans (minus the MC) view her that's her real problem.

 

[TWErvin2]

I don't actively seek out stories with dragons in them, but usually they add something to the story. The brighter/more intelligent they are, the more they tend to dominate the storyline, which only makes sense.

In my fantasy series, dragons are not overly intelligent (think elephant equivalent) and are used as mounts (serpent steeds). They're the type whose wings are associated with their front legs (like a bat), and there are different types (Reds breath fire, large, with, dagger-like serrated teeth. Blacks, have a maw more like a snapping turtle and breathe jets of acid, whites honk like large geese, with a long horn that extends back, like some dinosaurs, and it's attached to their nasal chamber to amplify the sound and the whites spit jets of liquid nitrogen, grays are herbivores, with a bovine head and horns and gout steam. The Land Drakes, don't fly are brown like dirt and their breath weapon is a cone of intense sound waves.

 

[Nomadica]

My brother had this idea once that I really liked. The idea was that dragons didn't eat to survive but to grow and how they accomplished this was by hiding deep in the forest and being experts at mimicking sounds of other creatures including humans though they can't understand human language. So when a human would go walking by the dragon would speak, maybe call for help if it learned that that was an effective sound to lure humans off the trail and into the dark bush where the dragons, usually the size of a grizzly bear, would attack them. The dragons would be rare enough elusive that most people wouldn't know about them but the old mountain men would come into town to trade with tails of phantom voices in the woods and partners disappearing. Though most towns folk thought the voices they heard were just an effect of them spending to much time in the woods.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I don't actively seek out stories with dragons in them, but usually they add something to the story. The brighter/more intelligent they are, the more they tend to dominate the storyline, which only makes sense.

In my fantasy series, dragons are not overly intelligent (think elephant equivalent) and are used as mounts (serpent steeds). They're the type whose wings are associated with their front legs (like a bat), and there are different types (Reds breath fire, large, with, dagger-like serrated teeth. Blacks, have a maw more like a snapping turtle and breathe jets of acid, whites honk like large geese, with a long horn that extends back, like some dinosaurs, and it's attached to their nasal chamber to amplify the sound and the whites spit jets of liquid nitrogen, grays are herbivores, with a bovine head and horns and gout steam. The Land Drakes, don't fly are brown like dirt and their breath weapon is a cone of intense sound waves.

These dragons sound pretty cool. The details are unconventional but interesting and make these species seem more real.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

There is also this. I'm not saying it can't be done, and can't be done well. I just think we're going to be up to our eyeballs in dragon-riding, dragon-controlling MC's within 18 months. If you're going to do it, make it good, and put a spin on it.

I read a lot of YA, and there is actually somewhat of a dragon drought in this genre.
Just about anything can be done well. Just like anything can be done badly. Personally, I write about dragons because I like them and they appeal to me, not to follow (or avoid) a trend.

 

[Sheilawisz]

Hello everyone!

What a wonderful thread. I also have a great fondness for dragons, and I think that they are far from being a cliche that would need to be avoided. Dragons of all types and styles are common and very traditional in Fantasy, so if you want to have them in your story and setting just go ahead and do it.

I have many types of dragons in my stories.

In the very first trilogy of Fantasy novels that I wrote, dragons are always winged and snake-like creatures about the length of an airliner. They are magical creatures instead of a biological species, and even though they are intelligent all of them are servants of the Mages that create them. These dragons attack by means of beams and blasts of magical fire, and they are used either for war or just as pets.

In my Joan of England trilogy, dragons are not seen very often but they are part of the Fantasy world anyway. They are more traditional, four-legged versions instead of the snakey dragons of my earlier stories, but they attack by means of magical fire as well and they are also very intelligent.

Those dragons are not servants, and they decided to join the armies of the Mages on their own.

Apart from this material, four of my more recent stories feature dragons in one way or another: The Lonely Bones has a very intelligent and talking dragon that serves as guardian of the Afterlife World, there is a great Lake Dragon in Halley Wolffer accompanied by a character that turns into a dragon herself, dragons are very intelligent but shady creatures in El Camino de Gracia and a talking dragon is the loyal companion of Princess Starlight in Whispers of the Witch.

I do not have any crazily huge dragon, in my worlds they are always large but never giants.

I loved the huge and terrifying Smaug in the recent The Hobbit films and the Hungarian Horntail as seen in the HP Goblet of Fire movie is superb, but my favorite dragon is definitely the Jabberwocky from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. That one shoots what looks like super destructive violet lightning bolts, how cool is that?

So yeah, dragons rule... And welcome to Mythic Scribes, Dragon of the Aerie.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

My dragons come in a variety of species. The smallest are about the size of a rat, the largest could be compared to a draft horse in terms of body size (the wings and the long neck and tail throw it off though) So, none of them are ridiculously huge. They're nearly as intelligent as humans, though in very different ways, and can understand language, but not speak it (their mouths/throats are not designed to produce a wide variety of sounds.) There are dragon riders, but dragons are also used for hunting, personal protection, and to perform a variety of tasks. Some will cooperate with humans and can be trained, others just won't. Dragons are very sensitive to human emotion and may form strong bonds with a human companion characterized by great sensitivity and loyalty. Their views on humans vary; some see them as enemies, some see them as pests that are an annoyance rather than a threat, some see them as beings like themselves and friends, some see them as just prey animals. Some individuals like the taste of humans and target them specifically as prey. Others kill humans for sport or because they see them as a threat, or because they compete with the humans for resources. Some avoid humans. Some are curious about humans and will observe them trying to find out why they do the things they do, or even capture a human to learn more about them. Only a dragon with a very strong bond to a human will allow the human to ride it, though. They are very fragile and don't have armor scales; instead, they have smooth, hairless skin like a dolphin (they are egg-laying mammals). They are built for flight and thus are very vulnerable on the ground; that's why they evolved their breath weapon. They rely on speed and stealth to attack. Their life spans are about equal to humans' overall, but like with dogs, smaller dragons live longer (the smallest might live 110 years while the largest live about 60 years).

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Hello everyone!

What a wonderful thread. I also have a great fondness for dragons, and I think that they are far from being a cliche that would need to be avoided. Dragons of all types and styles are common and very traditional in Fantasy, so if you want to have them in your story and setting just go ahead and do it.

I have many types of dragons in my stories.

In the very first trilogy of Fantasy novels that I wrote, dragons are always winged and snake-like creatures about the length of an airliner. They are magical creatures instead of a biological species, and even though they are intelligent all of them are servants of the Mages that create them. These dragons attack by means of beams and blasts of magical fire, and they are used either for war or just as pets.

In my Joan of England trilogy, dragons are not seen very often but they are part of the Fantasy world anyway. They are more traditional, four-legged versions instead of the snakey dragons of my earlier stories, but they attack by means of magical fire as well and they are also very intelligent.

Those dragons are not servants, and they decided to join the armies of the Mages on their own.

Apart from this material, four of my more recent stories feature dragons in one way or another: The Lonely Bones has a very intelligent and talking dragon that serves as guardian of the Afterlife World, there is a great Lake Dragon in Halley Wolffer accompanied by a character that turns into a dragon herself, dragons are very intelligent but shady creatures in El Camino de Gracia and a talking dragon is the loyal companion of Princess Starlight in Whispers of the Witch.

I do not have any crazily huge dragon, in my worlds they are always large but never giants.

I loved the huge and terrifying Smaug in the recent The Hobbit films and the Hungarian Horntail as seen in the HP Goblet of Fire movie is superb, but my favorite dragon is definitely the Jabberwocky from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. That one shoots what looks like super destructive violet lightning bolts, how cool is that?

So yeah, dragons rule... And welcome to Mythic Scribes, Dragon of the Aerie.

All these sound very cool. I agree that Smaug is awesome, but I mainly love him for his personality, not for being a dragon (though that certainly helps too.)
And thanks for welcoming me!