Another dragon thread: Good vs Evil natures

[Damien]

Ok all, I've been following the two other dragon threads for a while with interest. I love seeing the opinions since dragons have always been close to my heart. But I have another question for you. I'd like to ask it now since it is slightly related to a current writing project of mine. Ignoring the presence and appearance of dragons, what do you think of their natures?

Are dragons more interesting when they fill their traditional evil role? Or do you like to see dragons working on the side of the angels? Or, (just to be a completest), are dragons better as neutral parties who only observe? This, of course, assumes a certain degree of intelligence on the part of the dragon if we aren't talking about beasts harnessed to the purposes of their human masters. I've read numerous stories where dragons have filled each of these roles, but which role do you like them best in?

-Damien Lake (Chronicles of the Crimson Kings)

[Michele]

In general, I prefer my dragons to be more on the animal side. Not good, not evil - they are a force of nature. If they have intelligence then it should be a alien viewpoint, with a different basis for morality and such.

There are some great dragons written that are pretty much incredibly smart humans in the way they think, but I like dragons as awesome creatures. Melanie Rawn's dragons are my favorites.

I suppose if I was going with the traditional sort, then I'd describe them as a group who try to stay neutral but get forced somehow into doing evil things or wanting revenge on the bad guys - so I guess I'd put them in the "good" camp but more by interference than their own inclination.

[Robin]

If your gonna have dragons, then there should be more than 1 faction. As all the dragons can't be in the same camp. That would just be boring.

[Philip]

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." That is a quote from the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12, verses 7-9. I could not help thinking of it when I saw the title of this thread: another dragon thread, Good Vs Evil natures. When people think of the origin of dragons, they most often think of those mentioned in myths, like Fafnir in The Saga of the Volsungs, but it ought to be remembered that in The Bible, Satan is called the dragon four times in the Book of Revelation. So in The Bible, the dragon has more than an evil nature, he is evil itself. Humans have a natural, primitive fear of snakes, and many of them are repelled by lizards. Dragons are linked with snakes and lizards, as well as the unknown, sudden fire, storm, darkness and death. So I would find it hard to accept in a fantasy tale a good dragon. I would prefer a monstrous winged reptile to be entirely evil. In my own book, Angel War, I give my own version of the war in heaven and its aftermath, which is my version of the history of angels, involving the history of dragons. Dragons have been part of our culture for at least four thousand years. They may be mythic, but I am impressed by how well they have survived, not just in literature, but in art, film and computer games. If you have dragons in a story, I think it is important to say where they come from, who created them. In The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, it is Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, who is the creator of dragons, and so they are therefore entirely evil. They are the kind of dragons that I prefer to read about in a work of fantasy fiction.

[Guy]

In my stories, dragons are highly intelligent creatures who generally aren't interested in human affairs. They tend to look at us the way we look at cockroaches. Like other intelligent creatures, some are good and some are evil.

[Trike]

Michele wrote: "In general, I prefer my dragons to be more on the animal side. Not good, not evil - they are a force of nature. If they have intelligence then it should be a alien viewpoint, with a different basis..."

I quite agree. To the point where I actually typed something very similar to this in the other thread, but then lost the post.

I've always seen the movie Dragonslayer as a tragedy, because Vermithrax Pejorative was merely an animal doing what animals do. The movie works excellently as metaphor for how humans treat wild animals. Subsequently, I currently like Marie Brennan's pseudo-Austen meets Prof. Challenger books The Lady Trent Memoirs (A Natural History of Dragons) where dragons are similar to lions or rhinos or what-have-you.

But then I also like McCaffrey's telepathic and teleporting Dragons of Pern, and I have kind of a soft spot for Smaug (book, not cinematic torture device), who is rather the apotheosis of the "talking dragon". And then you have the space dragons who invade Earth in Christopher Moore's The Griff: A Graphic Novel.

So it all circles back around to "good writing" for me. At this point I don't have any sorts of preconceived notions about dragons. The envelope has been pushed in so many creative ways that I'm willing to accept just about any sort of dragon at this point.

[Sparrowlicious]

Another thread!

I like my dragons intelligent with lives of their own, so I also like them when they have moralities like humans do. Which is, nothing is ever purely 'black or white'.