Join hosts Aureo, Sam, and Sierra and guest Tiffany as they discuss the depiction of dragons in Harry Potter and other media.
In this episode:
- Dragons are insects
- We want our own dragon lore
- Dinosaurs were the origin of dragon myths
- But what if it was a phoenix?
- We want to see more dragons in the new Harry Potter TV show
- Ron is now a lion animagus
- Another win for ring theory
- How to Train Your Dragon is perfect if you like dragons
- Dragons and cats are both magical creatures
- Pokemon needs to do better
- Dungeons and Dragons has all the dragons and you should avoid them
I appreciate the Reign of Fire recommendation. Watch it, it’s fun.
Knowing that the myth dragons probably originated from misinterpreting dinosaur bones, do dinosaurs exist in HP canon? Or are they canonically just ancient dragons?
On this note, knowing that birds are actually the direct descendants of dinosaurs… could the right intention behind the spell avifors cause something to be transfigured into a dinosaur? That would be an interesting dueling mechanism, even if you’re making little compys to cause chaos.
And back to Reign of Fire, dragons are given as the in-movie reason as to why the dinosaurs went extinct.
Enjoy your butterbeer.
While I get where you’re coming from with the description of different types of dragon, ultimately dragons are fictional, and can be whatever the author wants them to be.
Whether something is technically a wyrm, a wyvern, or whatyver, it’s still a whopping great big flying, fire-breathing lizard.
(Also, you forgot to mention wingaling dragons. Beware being burninated in the niiiiight.)
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Thought this was appropriate 🤣
I raised this idea on an episode of Alohomora and got kind of a “cool story, bro” reaction, but maybe someone here will find it interesting:
As well as ring theory, the dragons in books 1, 4, and 7 also represent the “maiden/mother/crone” trope (look up “Hecate sisters” on tvtropes if you’ve got a spare week or so). Hecate was the ancient greek goddess of “magic, crossroads, witchcraft, sorcery, ghosts and necromancy”, and was sometimes depicted with three heads (representing past, present, and future), which all feels very apt.
That is interesting!
Honestly, the good thing about exploring ring theory is not just that the same things pop up in different books, but how they pop up. The same elements will be presented, but they will evolve and change, be opposite to each other, invert some important aspect. So I really like your idea of the evolving dragon representing the three cycles of Hecate.
Thank you, Irvin, I feel seen. *melodramatic sniff*
I remember seeing someone noting that drawing dragons in cat-like poses makes them seem regal and menacing, whereas dog-like poses make them seem cute and friendly.
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Take heart, Sam: at least Charizard is a dragon-type for one of it’s mega forms.
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I second the recommendation for Dragonheart (and note that the cast also includes David Thewlis and Jason Isaacs).
I will never take heart ever!!! He should be an OG Dragon
Him and Gyarados both
Shoddy work on the Seven Ingredients – Draco’s wand core is unicorn hair, not dragon heartstring. That’s a fairly important point, illustrating that Draco is not all that evil!
If we’re looking for an important dragon heartstring for Harry, I nominate Hermione’s wand! Saved him a million times over.