How do you feel about dragons?

[-Drifter-]

What are your views concerning dragons in fantasy? Love 'em? Hate 'em? Somewhere in between?

Personally I like dragons, but only when they're done a certain way. A lot of the time they're depicted as nothing more than giant lizards with wings. When I think dragon I think of a majestic, prideful looking beast. Like this:

 

[Hiname]

Majestic, prideful looking beast... and the picture of an oldschool >RED< D&D dragon... Im sure he would laugh at the irony. Before setting your kittens on fire. *snicker*

Otherwise, I agree with you.

 

[Saargston]

Meh, I like the nasty, fucked up looking ones. They're more fun and exciting.

 

[Amondren]

They breath fire you know they can be cool.

 

[Cpu46]

I like the smaller Wyvern a bit more but dragons are a close second.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I like the discworld dragons. Tiny, pathetic, sickly little creatures that are just ticking time bombs waiting to happen. Adorable in a funny way.

 

[spartan231490]

Majestic, prideful looking beast... and the picture of an oldschool >RED< D&D dragon... Im sure he would laugh at the irony. Before setting your kittens on fire. *snicker*

Otherwise, I agree with you.

Where is the irony? Nothing about Majesty or prideful has anything to do with being good or evil.
Majestic and prideful perfectly describe red dragons.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I don't have anything against dragons personally, but you only hear about them when they are causing trouble. We don't need them in our society, even if it's not PC to say that.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Dragons are my Batman. I loves me some Dragons, Wyverns, Wyrms, etc. I've never understood though, why classic Dragons never figure into Sci-Fi. I also dislike how many Dragons are unable to talk. I'd love to play a game, or watch something, which takes place in the future and yet uses Dragons in the plot in some way or another.

 

[Zakarath]

Dragons are awesome. And yeah, I hate it when games use them as just another boss fight. They're supposed to be powerful, majestic, nigh-immortal, and above all, intelligent, with a touch of well-deserved arrogance and a bit (or more than a bit) of greed. I approve of the dragons of, say, Divinity 2 or the Kolmar series of books. I rather didn't like the ones of, for example, dragon age, where despite the name all they were were another boss fight.
And since I like and admire them, I really hate killing them

 

[NotR]

I can't say I apreciate dragons very much. From the few books ive read which involved dragons, none portrayed them in a unique way befitting to their.. well, uniqueness. They always have a very "human" character. Either greedy hoarders or wise ancients. Always very involved in the doings of man. Anthropocentrism strikes me as unimaginative.
Atleast, thats my experience on the issue.

 

[cainx10a]

Dragons? A manly pet! Nuff said. If Dragons existed in Duke's world, he would tame them, he would train them, and no aliens would ever dare invade his world.

No seriously, I <3 dragons.

 

[Zakarath]

Dragons are my Batman. I loves me some Dragons, Wyverns, Wyrms, etc. I've never understood though, why classic Dragons never figure into Sci-Fi. I also dislike how many Dragons are unable to talk. I'd love to play a game, or watch something, which takes place in the future and yet uses Dragons in the plot in some way or another.

Well, they do show up (prominently) in the Dragonriders of Pern series of books, which are actually more sci-fi than fantasy; but I would say that the reason the don't show up more in science fiction is that dragons fit much better into a world without railguns and anti-aircraft turrets... what they're best at is being the undisputed masters of their world, and when even the pesky little humans can outmatch them in terms of firepower, they don't have much of a role to play. (I'm not saying they can't be done, but they would need to be different from your standard fantasy dragon to fit in)

A book I rather enjoyed, Dragonhaven, actually told the story of a sort of alternate, slightly more advanced Earth, where dragons used to be among the dominant species, but they are now a dwindling species since the humans took over the world.

 

[Tartarga]

I do enjoy a good dragon. That might be why I like using Myrh so much in Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, she turns into a giant dragon and turns her enemies into bbq. I'm more partial to the Japanese/Chinese style dragon.

Spoiler

Truly a fearsome creature, it fly's through the air without the use of wings.

 

[Hiname]

Majestic, prideful looking beast... and the picture of an oldschool >RED< D&D dragon... Im sure he would laugh at the irony. Before setting your kittens on fire. *snicker*

Otherwise, I agree with you.

Where is the irony? Nothing about Majesty or prideful has anything to do with being good or evil.
Majestic and prideful perfectly describe red dragons.

Part of majesty is acting like it. Being all high and mighty and walking around like you own the world issnt really my definition of "majestic".

 

[DOOM GUY]

Can't say I care very much for Dragons, though I will say the original Spyro trilogy is really awesome (the games by Insomniac)

 

[Bags159]

Not looking forward to seeing them in Skyrim. Don't mind them that much though and Spyro was one of my favorite games as a kid... it's complicated.

 

[Particulate]

Dragons are good but in my opinion they're too "normal" there's other things that make better protagonists and antagonists and to me Dragons work better in secondary roles. I ran a DnD campaign a while back where to chief villain made use of a Dragon as a Financier/ Producer to his grand scheme. The dragon was basically the Eduardo Saverin to my malicious Mark Zuckerberg and the general consensus of the players was that it worked. Why? Because it hinged on the fact that he was a Dragon.

Dragons...
-have hordes of wealth
-are really, really old
-are generally capable spellcasters or beasts in their own right

So when some up and coming ne'er-do-well with a grudge and a clever scheme comes along that the Dragon thought it could benefit from sure, it fronted him the cash and the two became semi-friendly partners with one being the visionary mastermind and the other being the money and idle investor.

The party tried once to disrupt their activities by picking a fight with the dragon and in return they got the snot beat out of them. Why? BECAUSE IT'S A DRAGON. A Dragon with a complicated, well planned lair, ranks of henchmen and beasts, and no less than seven contingency plans. How do you think they manage to live for such long periods? Hint... it isn't just a good diet and exercise. But the way they actually managed to put a dent in things was when they convinced the dragon to cut funding and in doing so yank the financial legs out from under the actual bad guy who then got really nasty and started making mistakes once his credit line was gone and he didn't have the money to pay some of his best leg-breakers.

 

[sinboy666]

Dragons are my Batman. I loves me some Dragons

I agree, I love Dragons, I have a soft spot in my heart for any time they pop up in a game to really f*ck things up.
I'm a HUGE geek for Shadowrun, (NOT THE CRAPPY SHOOTER FROM A FEW YEARS BACK), but the original pen and pencil game. One the big reason was that even though it was a Sci-fi cyberpunk setting...

IT HAD DRAGONS! which is one the things that really made it stand out from the other cyberpunk games of the day.

 

[Gaiseric]

They are awesome and metal.