Current Events > I'm kinda over the Fantasy trend of Dragons always being rare/almost extinct

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like, there's plenty of great shows and movies with this premise, but it also just feels... kinda old at this point.

The only piece of media I can think of off the top of my head that actually has a shit-ton of dragons is How To Train Your Dragon. Like, I get it. You're trying to build up dragons as these super mystical, mysterious things that, even though there aren't many of them, they still have a big impact on *insert fantasy world here*

But god damn it, sometimes I just wanna see a world where a bunch of dragons run amok and fuck shit up. Is that too much to ask?

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DuranOfForcena posted...

you'll probably like the upcoming Game of Thrones spin off "House of the Dragon", chronicling the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons

Can't say I have very high hopes for anything GoT related anymore at this stage, if I'm being honest.

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DuranOfForcena posted...

true

the dragons will probably be pretty cool though

Fair.

I wanna see dragons fuck shit up.

How To Train Your Dragon shouldn't be my only fix for Dragons!

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were dragons common in Reign of Fire?

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Play Skyrim, that seemed pretty common in that game

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How much food do dragons need to eat daily

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Most Pokemon box legendaries are Dragon type.
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I like Pern, where dragons were genetically engineered by humans and rather commonplace

but then, Pern is more sci-fi/fantasy than traditional fantasy

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Duncanwii posted...

Most Pokemon box legendaries are Dragon type.

Not really

Gen 1 - 0/1 (if you count mewtwo even though he wasn't a cover pokemon)
Gen 2 - 0/3
Gen 3 -1/3
Gen 4 - 3/3
Gen 5 - 3/3
Gen 6 - 0/2
Gen 7 - 0/2
Gen 8 - 0/2

7/19 or 7/18 depending if you count mewtwo not even half

Flintlock_Staff posted...

Not really

Gen 1 - 0/1 (if you count mewtwo even though he wasn't a cover pokemon)
Gen 2 - 0/3
Gen 3 -1/3
Gen 4 - 3/3
Gen 5 - 3/3
Gen 6 - 0/2
Gen 7 - 0/2
Gen 8 - 0/2

Why does Mewtwo count but not Articuno, Zapdos or Moltres?
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Duncanwii posted...

Why does Mewtwo count but not Articuno, Zapdos or Moltres?

Because they weren't cover legendaries and mewtwo wasn't either really? Either way that doesn't help your post at all and just makes it less dragon pokemon

Gen 1 didn't even have legendaries on the boxart, just the fully-evolved starters

That trend didn't really start until Gen 2 with Ho-oh and Lugia

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Never read it but,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temeraire_(series)

Temeraire is a series of nine alternate history fantasy novels written by American author Naomi Novik.[1][2] The novels follow the adventures of Captain William Laurence and his dragon, the eponymous Temeraire, and reimagine events of the Napoleonic Wars with "an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators".[
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JKwaffle posted...

But god damn it, sometimes I just wanna see a world where a bunch of dragons run amok and fuck shit up. Is that too much to ask?

Monster Hunter
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I just want literal tits and dragons. No context, no script, no dialog, just lots of tits and dragons 1 hour a week for a 10 episode season.

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They still haven't done enough with dragons actually disguising themselves as people.

Dragons in most fantasy settings are beyond human intelligence and often use magic to polymorph themselves into humans.

How many times have we actually seen this happen in games, movies, or television shows?

Moreover, I like dragons. As long as they are varied and interesting, they are no different than any other powerful fantasy creature. I'm all for them as long as they are done well.

TheShadowViper posted...

They still haven't done enough with dragons actually disguising themselves as people.

Dragons in most fantasy settings are beyond human intelligence and often use magic to polymorph themselves into humans.

How many times have we actually seen this happen in games, movies, or television shows?

Moreover, I like dragons. As long as they are varied and interesting, they are no different than any other powerful fantasy creature. I'm all for them as long as they are done well.

Fire Emblem is the only VG series of note where dragons also have human forms. (That I can think of, anyway)

Actually, FE is kind of odd where their human appearance is their default form, and need special Dragonstones to turn into actual dragons.

Then there are the Wyvern Riders, whose charges are more like traditional dragons and can't transform at all...

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If dragons wete everywhere in most fantasy settings then it wouldnt make sense for anyone in fantasy settings to care about much of anything except not being slaughtered by the giant death lizards everywhere

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HylianFox posted...

Actually, FE is kind of odd where their human appearance is their default form, and need special Dragonstones to turn into actual dragons.

Pretty sure it's the other way around.

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marthsheretoo posted...

Pretty sure it's the other way around.

In the games I've played, once a Dragonstone's power is exhausted (or "breaks") the Manakete can't be used anymore (unless you can somehow get another stone).

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true. as a kid, i always thought it'd be cooler if there were different dragons of different types always going around fucking shit up cuz that's what they do

how to train your dragon actually is a pretty good version of this, never thought of it that way, but it's much more cartoonish than i imagined.

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HylianFox posted...

Fire Emblem is the only VG series of note where dragons also have human forms. (That I can think of, anyway)

Actually, FE is kind of odd where their human appearance is their default form, and need special Dragonstones to turn into actual dragons.

Breath of Fire and Warcraft also has dragons with human forms.

Although BoF is like Fire Emblem where they're primarily human and turn into dragons for combat, and in the case of WC, some dragons take on the forms of other humanoid races instead (like elves and gnomes).
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HylianFox posted...

In the games I've played, once a Dragonstone's power is exhausted (or "breaks") the Manakete can't be used anymore (unless you can somehow get another stone).

Yeah that's gameplay weirdness I'm pretty sure.

My memory of the lore is that dragons seal their power inside dragonstones which has the side effect of removing their draconic form and letting them live as humans. Then they access that power in small amounts to take dragon form selectively (to keep from going nuts).

Fates throws this out the window tho.

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marthsheretoo posted...

Yeah that's gameplay weirdness I'm pretty sure.

My memory of the lore is that dragons seal their power inside dragonstones which has the side effect of removing their draconic form and letting them live as humans. Then they access that power in small amounts to take dragon form selectively (to keep from going nuts).

Fates throws this out the window tho.

It's been a while since I played any FE games (mostly the GBA and GCN ones) so I may not be entirely correct.

But either way, FE dragons (or Manaketes aka Mamkutes) typically have dragon and humanoid forms.

And then there are the Laguz, which includes beasts, birds, and dragons but that's a whole other deal.

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Inferno Dive Dragoon posted...

Breath of Fire and Warcraft also has dragons with human forms.

I think the main dragon characters spend more time in their elf/human forms than they do as dragons.

And then you have ones like Chromie or Krasus which are virtually never seen as dragons.1

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oh yeah, the Mars Clan in 'Golden Sun' can also turn into dragons

is that a spoiler?

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solosnake posted...

Play Skyrim, that seemed pretty common in that game

*hear roaring*

*look up in the sky*

...fuck.

*draw sword*

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I think RuneScape started covering ideas about dragonkin lore where they would disguise as humans and they were shown as humanoid beings, separate from the usual dragons you can fight. That was stuff like all the way back when the Armadyl staff could be obtained, havent played that in a long time.

Skyrim does have a lot of dragons to fight, but they dont use the human stuff at all from what I know. The lore is about the dragon shouts and the Dragonborn, people who can learn to use shouts, and Alduin is kind of a deity dragon or something (world ender).

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Even if Skyrim has a lot of dragons, isn't the storyline still that they're super rare and almost extinct? Like the whole plot of the game revolves around the dragons coming back?

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pegusus123456 posted...

Even if Skyrim has a lot of dragons, isn't the storyline still that they're super rare and almost extinct? Like the whole plot of the game revolves around the dragons coming back?

Yes, thats the main quest. The game also covers a lot about the Imperial and Stormcloak war.

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JKwaffle posted...

But god damn it, sometimes I just wanna see a world where a bunch of dragons run amok and f*** s*** up. Is that too much to ask?

Monster Hunter.

Can literally grind them.

Dragon Bump

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The Dragonlance series has a bunch of dragons depending on the time period, but the "main" stories take place after a few of dragons pretty much wiped out all of the others to secure a power base. It also has Daconians which are dragon men in an abundance.

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KILBOTz posted...

were dragons common in Reign of Fire?

Female dragons were but there was only 1 male dragon.

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JKwaffle posted...

But god damn it, sometimes I just wanna see a world where a bunch of dragons run amok and fuck shit up. Is that too much to ask?

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but there's a Plane in MtG where after some time travel shenanigans the main character unintentionally stopped his home Plane's Dragons from going extinct. In the new timeline every clan of people were enslaved by Dragon's, and previous leaders from his OG timeline were either killed by or became subservient to them.

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HylianFox posted...

I like Pern, where dragons were genetically engineered by humans and rather commonplace

but then, Pern is more sci-fi/fantasy than traditional fantasy

I love Anne McCaffrey! I dont see Pern get mentioned much. Its nice to see a fellow fan. @HylianFox

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WingsOfGood posted...

Monster Hunter.

Can literally grind them.

In the lore though Elder Dragons are still incredibly rare and often seen as bad omens or forces of nature sweeping through

One of the only pieces of media where dragons are just a thing no one bats an eye at is Spyro

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Dragons are super common in Pern aren't they?

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Spyro the Dragon?

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Spyro is an interesting mention. I just played through all the games in the trilogy and the overall idea is that dragons are abundant, but the third game does mention that dragons were sort of banished by the villain and she needs their inherent magic to accomplish her goal. I may be confusing some of that, but there is a connection between dragons and fairies. She may have wanted fairy magic.

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Dragons are a bit like ninja, if there's only they're badass, if there's a billion of them they are lame.

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Yeah, same goes for fairytale creatures in general dying out. Everyone copied from Tolkien's layout.

It makes sense. In these stories, the fairytale/fantasy world dying feels pretty representative of loss of innocence.

But it is definitely overplayed at this point. Lets have a world where the humans are dying out in favor of the fantasy world instead. Or wait I guess thats Shadowrun

E_S_M_Z posted...

Dragons are a bit like ninja, if there's only they're badass, if there's a billion of them they are lame.

oh come on

everyone loves ninjas even if they are one-hit mooks with no stealth ability whatsoever

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Dragons were common as shit in Skyrim and it was annoying as fuck. They were like giant cliffracers with more hp

More dragons.

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bump.

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The idea is probably that civilization would be hard to establish with dragons raining destruction down on humanity. Same reason that humans couldn't have evolved during the age of the dinosaurs.

In the lore of Game of Thrones, for example, they were only widespread in places where the Valyrians lived, who had the magical ability to bond with them. Once the dragon riders brought their dragons to Westeros, the latter was hopelessly outmatched. Any setting without such a magical race would be pretty fucked by the existence of dragons.

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