Bring on the dragon revolution.

[the_grynne]

I remember, some time after the film for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out, having a conversation with orange_crushed about different takes of the dragon in fantasy, and how so few films with dragons as a central element seem to work (eg. Eragon, Reign of Fire, DragonheartAttempts to domesticate the dragon in fiction, especially when they are supposed

Comments

[rez_lo]

::draws large arrows pointing to this post::

::writes YES in the margins with aggressive black gel-pen::

This is why I fangirl you so very, very hard. Among all the other reasons.

:)

[the_grynne]

This is probably why I came down so hard on the pro-Cylon side when BSG started. If you're going to bestow something with sentience (thus, arguably, setting it into a different category than you would a prize thoroughbred or a Ferrari), at least have the decency to treat it with the respect you would to your fellow Man (if not Human), or don't be so surprised when it starts to self-reflect and becomes bitter.

[tigertrapped]

I think I like my dragons the way I like my women: a little aloof and rebellious. A force of nature.

You win my Best Quote from the Flist for this week. Just... excellent.

[the_grynne]

Hee. I try my best. :)

[orange_crushed]

Yes yes yes yes.

Oh, Nic Clarke is on to something. I feel the same way. Dragons as force-of-nature are interesting. Dragons-as-pony are not.

LeGuin's dragons are among the few that interest me. They can speak to humans, and they sometimes do; but they'll just as often take a bite or a sheep or a lazy flight around the village torching everything. Ged gets one to obey him, so to speak, by knowing his name. But he never "tames" him.

It's interesting that you tie it to the Cylons, too, because I think there's a lot of nonhuman "metaphor" characters running about, being terribly misused in fiction. Too often it becomes a black-and-white split between the "good" nonhumans (who are subservient, gentle, die to save their human masters/friends) and the "bad" nonhumans (who either want freedom, which is treated like a bad thing, or are just evil killing machines.) That's depressing to me, because I see too much of a global colonial past in crap like that.

[the_grynne]

OMG I LOVE that LeGuin dragon. How he's a bit all-knowing (like, offering to tell Ged the name of his shadow), and also a bit of a bastard, but not really all that interested in terrorising humans (only in their livestock). Plus, wasn't the gender of that dragon rather mysterious? I mean, he was male, but he somehow had all those young dragons that Ged killed?

[orange_crushed]

Yeah, I think you're right. Mysterious in many ways, that dragon. Just as it ought to be.

LeGuin does so many things right, though, as regards magic.

[the_grynne]

I'm also fond of Pratchett's dragons - both the comic swamp dragons (walking evidence of the pitfalls of evolution, rather like the panda) and his Great Dragons. If I were a dragon, I definitely wouldn't let some puny human RIDE ME.

[angstbunny]

instead of treating them as the crunchy snack food they clearly are

Hahahaha. YES.

[the_grynne]

This is why I secretly love Reign of Fire. GO DRAGONS!