Dragons.

Ahhh, the dragon. One of the most popular 'monster' archetypes imaginable.

I don't see much talk of Dragons here, and I see why. They've become overexposed, generic, overdone. Even the best-made CGI dragons made these days bore us, it seems.

But it wasn't always like that. Dragons didn't always have such a generic form. Stylized wings, doglike heads, catlike limbs, the original 'dragons' read more as fantastic chimaeras than mere winged Crocodilian dinosaurs.

here we see two interesting and different looking dragons fighting each other:



Alot more interesting than the modern ideal, but still kinda generic.



what to make of this strange almost comical wyvern?

this of course is just the tip of the iceberg. There's alot more monstrous goodness in the underexplored world of medieval bestiary dragons.

Here we are for the weird! An element spitting dragon from the DnD cartton


(from here http://www.michaeljaecks.com/purpledragon.html)

THE JABBERWOCK!

Easily on of the coolest "dragons" in children's literature; I just love his gross fishy face, his huge lips, and ratty teeth!

Hell, I even like Tim Burton's version.

He's still kinda generic, but there still some weird fishyness in his face, and his lanky body is a nice contrast to the lean, muscular dragons we usually get.

After the Jabberwock, my other favorit dragon would hafta be the Rankin/Bass interpretation of Smaug:

He's just so different from the standard dragon; he's fat, wrinkly, and looks more like a mammal than a reptile. He resembles a cat both in appearance and personality, which actually makes perfect sense for a dragon.

Rankin/Bass would later go on to make a much more obscure animated movie called Flight of Dragons.


They too have Smaug's fat wrinkledness, but I also enjoy their stubby legs and buldging eyes.

I LOVED Flight of Dragons. I like how each and every dragon had a unique color and pattern of horns and back-spines. So much personality!

In Alot of the Medieval legends, a dragon wasn't exactly 'born.' The theory was that a large bird of prey or predatory cat would have a den in a cave on mountain somewhere. Eventually, the 'essences' of all the various animals it killed and brought back to devour would combine somehow and spawn a horrific firebreathing chimaera. Not very scientifically accurate, but it made for all sorts of wonderful and fantastic designs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvMq8p6zSRU

RUPERT AND THE DRAGON FESTIVAL!!

If you're not a fan of Rupert the bear, fuck you.

Holy shit I was just about to post something about that.

Rupert the Bear was my childhood.

Falkor the luck dragon form the never ending story series is my personal favorite dragon.

Jab-berry-wocky! I like how they got Christopher Lee to voice the Jabberwock(y), despite only getting two lines, and how he walks with his wing-hands and how he kept flicking out it's tongue like a snake. Now only if it kept the waistcoat like in Sir Tenniel's art.


The six-legged shelled Tarasque is a French dragon tamed by St. Martha after causing destruction.

Another French dragon was the Peluda (or La Velue) which was denied access to Noah's Ark but managed to survive the flood (which is a pretty nifty backstory). It's green hair was able to straighten up to form sharp quills and it's breath wilted crops. The only way to kill it was to chop off it's tail.

Yet another French dragon, the aquatic/amphibious Gargouille isn't particularly odd looking, but St. Romain lures it onto land using a convict, tames it by making a cross with his fingers, and lights it on fire! It's head and neck don't burn, so he puts in on display on the cathedral (which supposedly leads to decorating churches with gargoyles).

Shame when they made a new Tv Show they made him a winnie the pooh Knock off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4393038.stm



Angelus/ Angel in Japan (Some weird Japanese reference to Buffy?)

Drakengard Best Video Game Series with dragons in ever shame the Developer Cavia No longer exists .



Best Arcade game with a dragon in also that Mammoth like creature is nowhere to be found in the game itself. The music is great in it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5Um6PHbvhw





Myamoto from Raizing's Arcade Shooters

I always loved how the dragons in older Western art are these chicken-sized, dog-faced little mutants. They look sickly, miserable, and genuinely like something that wasn't meant to exist.

I recall some sort of dragonlike creature in some culture that had a porcupine's body, turtle feet and a snake head...anybody know the name? I think it was something like Peluda.

Shame when they made a new Tv Show they made him a winnie the pooh Knock off.

What?

Also, Scythe, Peluda is correct. Monster-Man-08 posted it earlier in the thread. Never look up "Peluda" on Google Image Search without SafeSearch on, by the way.

The Dragon from the movie Willow was delightfully hideous. Too bad I can't find a picture anywhere...

Anyone have one?

Here's an action figure of him:

yes, this kind of thing is exactly what I was talking about. I like the Peluda, and the one from Willow looks delightfully weird. And who could forget Falkor? Who ever decided to take your old aunt's rat dog and turn it into a dragon?

Scythemantis pretty much said exactly what I was getting at. Not to sound sycophantic or anything, but I had a feeling he'd know what I meant.

I think that there exists a place in this world for sleek-looking dragons, abhorrent dragons, and nonsensical dragons alike, myself. I can't pick a favorite of the three categories.

Wait, no amphipteres yet? Come on, guys.