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Why Dragons?
2 years ago
What's Reptu up to this time?
Well, it’s the perfect day for dragons! It’s Appreciate a Dragon Day, January 16th on 2024, The Year of the Dragon. I suppose the stars are in line for us mythical reptilian creatures on this very day, because the next occurrence is on 2036_01_16.
So yeah, I’m gonna try and capture why out of all species, it was dragons that I came to love.
In my history for my like in cartoon anthropomorphic animals, I came to love reptiles in general first before dragons. It started in 2006 because of a restaurant called Rainforest Café. It’s rare that a restaurant will have mascots for their brand, let alone those mascots being cartoon anthropomorphic animals. This group of 8 animal mascots was called The Wild Bunch which consisted of a frog, macaw, jaguar, elephant, orangutan, gorilla. But the final two were a crocodile and an iguana, Nile and Iggy respectively.
So, I got their little figurines to play with and Nile and Iggy triggered something in me. I can’t really pinpoint why it was those two that made me so happy. Maybe because they were both male. Or it could be the colors because they were green and had their mouths open so the red from their tongues contrasted the green. Or possibly it was the imitated scaly texture sculpted ridges on the plastic. Or maybe it was their faces: long mouths paired with two nostrils at the tip.
Whatever the reason may be, I owe it to Nile the Crocodile and Iggy the Iguana of Rainforest Café for me being a scalie. Thus, my love for anthro reptile characters was born.
This love for reptiles led to my love for dragons, a logical connection. Reptiles have this distinct look to them. Like I said, the scales, their long mouths, their two nostrils at the tip of the snoot, and just an overall simple smoothness to their faces. And don’t forget their lovely claws, bellies, spines, and tails. Already it’s this formula in my mind about their appearance that seems so appealing to me. Therefore, dragons are a huge manifestation of that simple reptilian formula.
I can say I like dragons so much, because it’s reptilian appearance + creativity. You could do so much with the appearances of dragons like adding different horns, spikes, and chest plates, yet, they all look like they belong in the same group. Variety in a unity to put it. Appearance-wise, there’s so many possibilities to be uncovered with dragons that I’d say out of any species, they are the one I could come up with the most unique heads/faces for.
But, on top of the appearance aspect, there’s the associated personalities and meanings to them that draw me in. There’s so many different takes you can have on dragons. First, of course, they can be evil, sneaky, a huge, threatening opponent to take down. But you can reverse all that and make them super sweet and deserving of love and attention, which is what I try to do with my scalesona. I guess I speak more from the Western dragon side of things. But, it’s nice with Eastern dragons, they represent protection and good luck. (I’ll be making an Eastern dragon this year so stay tuned). And I believe that those positive associations with Eastern dragons might have helped Western dragons break out of those evil, threatening meanings.
Despite the many different perceptions in regards to their meaning, I have a unique take on dragons that I see with anthropomorphic ones. Dragons, of course, start off with so much power with their ability to
fly and breathe fire. However, because anthropomorphic ones can talk, walk on two legs, and hang out with other anthropomorphic animals, all those activities can invite silly, awkward, and embarrassing situations, which I love seeing get paired with the associated power and stature dragons start with.
It’s partly why I love seeing dragon characters being so cowardly and vulnerable, because it makes me want to care more for them, like they’ve fallen so far from the natural traits form their species. Even though my main timid, weak dragon is Vulnero, it all stared from another earlier dragon OC, Xizo.
Here’s my first drawing of him:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37058759/
Once I made Xizo, it was just the awakening of the journey I love taking with dragon art. And ever since then, dragons have been my main, lovable, go-to species that has me attached to this fandom.
And one last side note, I often get my scalesona compared do Dragon Tales which I absolutely love, because those characters are the cutest, most darling creatures that add this positive vibe to dragons as a whole. However, Dragon Tales had little to do with my origins of getting invested in them. It was because even though I certainly would have enjoyed the show as a kid, there was no way for me to watch it because of the cable network I had at the time. Thus, it’s a funny oddity that one would not expect with my dragon origins, despite my strikingly similar cartoon style to the series.
Anyways, cheers to dragons this day and all the other anthropomorphic animals that came to like us and become friends with us! I shall keep developing my dragon scalesona and other derg OCs for years to come.
TLDR: Dragons are my main species that I love for so many different reasons.
So yeah, I’m gonna try and capture why out of all species, it was dragons that I came to love.
In my history for my like in cartoon anthropomorphic animals, I came to love reptiles in general first before dragons. It started in 2006 because of a restaurant called Rainforest Café. It’s rare that a restaurant will have mascots for their brand, let alone those mascots being cartoon anthropomorphic animals. This group of 8 animal mascots was called The Wild Bunch which consisted of a frog, macaw, jaguar, elephant, orangutan, gorilla. But the final two were a crocodile and an iguana, Nile and Iggy respectively.
So, I got their little figurines to play with and Nile and Iggy triggered something in me. I can’t really pinpoint why it was those two that made me so happy. Maybe because they were both male. Or it could be the colors because they were green and had their mouths open so the red from their tongues contrasted the green. Or possibly it was the imitated scaly texture sculpted ridges on the plastic. Or maybe it was their faces: long mouths paired with two nostrils at the tip.
Whatever the reason may be, I owe it to Nile the Crocodile and Iggy the Iguana of Rainforest Café for me being a scalie. Thus, my love for anthro reptile characters was born.
This love for reptiles led to my love for dragons, a logical connection. Reptiles have this distinct look to them. Like I said, the scales, their long mouths, their two nostrils at the tip of the snoot, and just an overall simple smoothness to their faces. And don’t forget their lovely claws, bellies, spines, and tails. Already it’s this formula in my mind about their appearance that seems so appealing to me. Therefore, dragons are a huge manifestation of that simple reptilian formula.
I can say I like dragons so much, because it’s reptilian appearance + creativity. You could do so much with the appearances of dragons like adding different horns, spikes, and chest plates, yet, they all look like they belong in the same group. Variety in a unity to put it. Appearance-wise, there’s so many possibilities to be uncovered with dragons that I’d say out of any species, they are the one I could come up with the most unique heads/faces for.
But, on top of the appearance aspect, there’s the associated personalities and meanings to them that draw me in. There’s so many different takes you can have on dragons. First, of course, they can be evil, sneaky, a huge, threatening opponent to take down. But you can reverse all that and make them super sweet and deserving of love and attention, which is what I try to do with my scalesona. I guess I speak more from the Western dragon side of things. But, it’s nice with Eastern dragons, they represent protection and good luck. (I’ll be making an Eastern dragon this year so stay tuned). And I believe that those positive associations with Eastern dragons might have helped Western dragons break out of those evil, threatening meanings.
Despite the many different perceptions in regards to their meaning, I have a unique take on dragons that I see with anthropomorphic ones. Dragons, of course, start off with so much power with their ability to
fly and breathe fire. However, because anthropomorphic ones can talk, walk on two legs, and hang out with other anthropomorphic animals, all those activities can invite silly, awkward, and embarrassing situations, which I love seeing get paired with the associated power and stature dragons start with.
It’s partly why I love seeing dragon characters being so cowardly and vulnerable, because it makes me want to care more for them, like they’ve fallen so far from the natural traits form their species. Even though my main timid, weak dragon is Vulnero, it all stared from another earlier dragon OC, Xizo.
Here’s my first drawing of him:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/37058759/
Once I made Xizo, it was just the awakening of the journey I love taking with dragon art. And ever since then, dragons have been my main, lovable, go-to species that has me attached to this fandom.
And one last side note, I often get my scalesona compared do Dragon Tales which I absolutely love, because those characters are the cutest, most darling creatures that add this positive vibe to dragons as a whole. However, Dragon Tales had little to do with my origins of getting invested in them. It was because even though I certainly would have enjoyed the show as a kid, there was no way for me to watch it because of the cable network I had at the time. Thus, it’s a funny oddity that one would not expect with my dragon origins, despite my strikingly similar cartoon style to the series.
Anyways, cheers to dragons this day and all the other anthropomorphic animals that came to like us and become friends with us! I shall keep developing my dragon scalesona and other derg OCs for years to come.
TLDR: Dragons are my main species that I love for so many different reasons.
That's still cool how he influenced your love of both reptiles and dragons.
Oh and happy Appreciate a Dragon day to you Reptu :)
Yeah, totally. Nile is such a wonderful, huggable crocodile that he along with Iggy opened all of the floodgates for the scalie love I could experience.
Thanks, Retro. Happy Appreciate a Dragon Day! So nice to see your comment. :)
Wow, no way you rode that! That's so awesome! It's certainly an effective way to get into dragons. I'm a bit jealous that you got to see Figment. He's such an awesome, lovely, purple dragon. Again, that's so cool your love for dragons came from that direction. Yeah, I like your story about how Figment has influenced you. It gives me great joy to be part of this community and share our love for this anthropomorphic passion.
Awesome, Parker. Yeah, that place looks amazing. Man, what others have been commenting on this journal has gotten me jealous about the animal-themed places they've visited.
Yes, that was mentioned in the previous comment to this journal: a fat pear shape. Indeed, I love that shape too: nice, good dragon bellies.
That is nice of dragon tales the show and other media motivated you to draw oc. I hope you get to watch blazing dragon or other dragon shows for a fan art.
I would be actually surprised if you do attempt to draw your oc dragon in calculus, calculus physics and differential equations with linear algebra as cute educational art.
Yeah, thank you, Simic. Ah, Blazing dragon seems pretty cool. And definitely, even though I've missed out on Dragon Tales as a kid, I've been getting into it as an adult.
Oh, right. That is a heck of a challenge. I've actually done it before with my graphing calculator in Algebra II, but it was of my purple and green dog OC, Spoto.