Best type of take on dragons: dragons as eldritch, beautiful beings that inspire fear purely because of their dangerous, lovely otherness
There is precedence for this in the sheer charisma of dragons in stories and how incredibly powerful, unique and intelligent they often are, beings either capable of forging incredibly deep bonds with humans or posing a horrifying existential threat to them. Dragons are More Than humans, and they are fundamentally different from us. Fablehaven did this right in having dragons exude ādragon fear,ā a magical aura of immobilizing terror that means most beings that come into a dragonās presence canāt function or move. I think thereās SO much great potential in portraying dragons as inhabiting that space between āterrifyingā and āimpossibly beautiful,ā that sort of immobilizing awe that accompanies something that we cannot understand and that could destroy us or love us. Creatures that have intelligence beyond humans, that are both more wonderful and more horrible than we have the capability to truly comprehend.
I would like to see more dragons that are just...not cleanly monsters or friends, necessarily, but creatures that are completely otherworldly. Perhaps even creatures that, if they gave a single shit what humans were up to, might be gods.
Give me dragons that overwhelm with their presence, inspiring terror, fanaticism, obsessive love in those that encounter them, able to bend ordinary beings into utter devotion just through the force of their charisma. Dragons that people almost cannot bear to look at, but that you are irresistibly drawn to. Give me dragons that the eye cannot quite interpret, whose wings beat with thousands of fractals of possible perception and whose hides might be every color of the rainbow or a cool, unrelenting black. Give me dragons whose voices seem to echo from deep places in their listenersā bodies, slithering up from their guts like thoughts that always existed deep inside them. Dragons that seem to exist outside of the normal rules of reality, that seem like they cannot possibly be killed because they are not the sort of thing that dies.
Give me dragons that are older than planets, in whose eyes the the birth of the universe can be glimpsed. Give me dragons old enough to know the answers to all the questions we keep asking, and that terrify us just with their ability to erase our doubt. What are we, next to a Dragon? A creature that has existed much longer than us and that will outlive us? What an honor to be noticed, seen, by such creatures, but also what a horror, to live noticed and seen by beings that could save or end us, decide whether we deserve to be saved using a rubric we canāt begin to understand?
Why quibble over whether dragons are evil beasts or powerful companions? Give me a creature that represents both the fears that live deepest in the darkest, most unspeakable places in our minds, and the pure, deep intimacy and acceptance and oneness that we are almost afraid to want. The wrath of a dragon is every nightmare we can hardly bear to think about, but the companionship of a dragon is the deepest love we know how to ache for.
tangentwithtanner
jbbartram-illu
jacobvanloon
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
