That dragon is Maur and she almost kills Aerin in their battle.Ĭornelia Funke wrote Inkheart and The Thief Lord, two books that absolutely everyone my age read in seventh grade, but she also wrote Dragon Rider, which was written for younger audiences and published later on but which I read in high school anyway. Robin McKinley’s 1984 Newbury-Award-winning novel tells of a young girl named Aerin Firehair who grows into a fierce and powerful queen, after she fights to save the people of her homeland, Damar… especially after the last of the dragons that once ravaged the land returns to do it again. A corporate dragon kind of makes sense as a modern update to a species known for cupidity and rapaciousness, but still, it’s a smidge depressing. Jane Fonda voices Babe the Dragon, the CEO of the Land of Luck, in that new movie Luck that (if you live in NYC) you have seen advertised on the side of every bus station all summer long. Devon is snobby and lean, Cornwall (or “Cornie”) is stout and uncouth, and together they are (in Devon’s terms), “the reason cousins shouldn’t marry.” So, clearly this movie is the wrong kind of “family friendly.” In this Warner Brothers animated film about a Medieval journey to find Excalibur, Devon and Cornwall are (is?) a two-headed dragon with heads voiced (respectively) by Eric Idle and Don Rickles. Essayistic or poetic reflections such as al-Masudi’s “Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems” or Li Shizhen’s essays, or Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies, or The Classic of Mountains and Seas/Shan Hai Jing, which feature meditations on the natures of dragons, are not eligible.ĥ0. Basically, the more interesting the dragon (hero or adversary), the higher the dragon ranks.Īlso, the dragons mentioned have to be actual characters. So, bad dragons and good dragons are intermingled. This is kind of a list of who’s a cooler dragon. What are the criteria I’m using to rank these dragons? This is a good question, because unlike the other rankings we do about representations of specific characters or entries in a certain genre, we’re not evaluating the efficacy of embodying specific characteristics. And creatures which are technically “dinosaurs,” like Yoshi from Super Mario Bros., don’t count either. I’m sorry… I had to draw the line somewhere. You know who’s not eligible? Sea monsters. Also, a person who is able to turn into a dragon is also eligible for this list. They will be evaluated in the same listing, due to sharing the same body. The exception to this is two-headed dragons with a different personality per head. If they are just a group of dragons who basically act the same, they will share a listing. If there are numerous dragons in a specific text, they will be evaluated on their own if they are distinct enough. If an adaptation does the original character any justice or if it does the opposite, it will be noted, but it won’t affect the overall score of that dragon. So, when I mention the Game of Thrones dragons, I’ll be referring to their original appearance in the books. Now, it is often the case with fictional dragons that they eventually wind up adapted, so we’re ranking the ORIGINAL appearances of those dragons. I’m calling this list an assembly of “fictional dragons” to include all these media, not to imply that I left any dragons off this list for being real. Incidentally, “House of the Dragon” is also what you might have called my actual house this past week, since I spent every waking moment studiously immersed in the field of dragon-forward entertainment to bring you this ranked list of the 50 best dragons in movies, TV, and books. And whether or not you are a devotee of the House Targaryen, you have to admit that the series is at least a significant contribution toward the field of dragon-forward entertainment. Dragons are in the news again! The Game of Thrones spin-off/prequel House of the Dragon has officially aired.
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