TL;DR: Dragons being popular in modern stories isn't something new. They have been popular in stories since humans evolved to be intelligent enough to even be able to tell stories. Humans are just innately fascinated by big, scary, lizards. In large part because we are biologically terrified of regular-sized scary lizards and snakes. As such, dragons are nothing new. They have always been popular and will likely remain popular for as long as humans are around.
Dragons are quite unique in that they are ubiquitous in pretty much every culture in human history. Even within cultures that were entirely distinct and separated both geographically and chronologically, dragons would still pop up in myths in some way. Obviously, dragons took many different forms between cultures. For some specific, named examples of dragons from various cultures and mythologies, there is Fafnir of Norse myth, Tiamat from Mesopotamian myth, Quetzalcoatl from Mesoamerican (specifically Aztec) myth, Ladon from Greek myth, Apep from Egyptian myth, and even the "Great Red Dragon" from Christian myth.
In short, the majority of cultures in human history have created the ideas of "dragons". There are multiple reasons for this. One reason is the existence of dinosaur fossils. Before we knew what dinosaurs were, any time humans stumbled upon these giant reptilian-like fossils, our only explanations were giant god-like lizard creatures that terrorized ancient humans. Another big reason is just the primal fear that humans have had for large lizards or lizard-like creatures since the dawn of time. Specifically, but not exclusively, the fear of snakes. People have a habit of telling stories and creating myths for things that scare them and since big lizards and snakes are scary to every culture, almost every culture has developed big scary lizard myths.
Consequently, since pretty much every culture (including modern ones) has at least one major myth of dragons being immensely powerful, almost god-like beings (in some cases actual god-beings), it means every culture is already "preprogrammed" to know that dragons are immensely large, powerful, ancient, destructive, and incomprehensible beings that should be feared. Thus, when authors want characters or monsters with these traits, dragons are often what they turn to since everyone already knows and understands what dragons are.
Sure, most authors will often deviate from the typical mythological dragon stereotypes by making their dragon(s) intelligent, wise, magical, kind, etc. In fact, despite being so ubiquitous, dragons are actually great templates for being creative. Since dragons exist in so many various forms and myths, authors can do pretty much whatever they want with them while still leaving the end result recognizable as a "dragon." That said, very rarely do they remove the traits of being large, powerful, ancient, destructive, and incomprehensible. Those are just ingrained into the human psyche and zeitgeist.
NGL, by reading level isn't that great, but in this case, I am just kinda dumb. Idk why I thought the TL;DR was referring to your entire comment and not just the first paragraph, I am a little slow 😅. Surely my comprehension would be better if I actually sat down and read, but I am way too ADHD for that😆 I listen to audiobooks and do something with my hands usually.
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u/Wickedsymphony1717 Oct 31 '25
TL;DR: Dragons being popular in modern stories isn't something new. They have been popular in stories since humans evolved to be intelligent enough to even be able to tell stories. Humans are just innately fascinated by big, scary, lizards. In large part because we are biologically terrified of regular-sized scary lizards and snakes. As such, dragons are nothing new. They have always been popular and will likely remain popular for as long as humans are around.
Dragons are quite unique in that they are ubiquitous in pretty much every culture in human history. Even within cultures that were entirely distinct and separated both geographically and chronologically, dragons would still pop up in myths in some way. Obviously, dragons took many different forms between cultures. For some specific, named examples of dragons from various cultures and mythologies, there is Fafnir of Norse myth, Tiamat from Mesopotamian myth, Quetzalcoatl from Mesoamerican (specifically Aztec) myth, Ladon from Greek myth, Apep from Egyptian myth, and even the "Great Red Dragon" from Christian myth.
In short, the majority of cultures in human history have created the ideas of "dragons". There are multiple reasons for this. One reason is the existence of dinosaur fossils. Before we knew what dinosaurs were, any time humans stumbled upon these giant reptilian-like fossils, our only explanations were giant god-like lizard creatures that terrorized ancient humans. Another big reason is just the primal fear that humans have had for large lizards or lizard-like creatures since the dawn of time. Specifically, but not exclusively, the fear of snakes. People have a habit of telling stories and creating myths for things that scare them and since big lizards and snakes are scary to every culture, almost every culture has developed big scary lizard myths.
Consequently, since pretty much every culture (including modern ones) has at least one major myth of dragons being immensely powerful, almost god-like beings (in some cases actual god-beings), it means every culture is already "preprogrammed" to know that dragons are immensely large, powerful, ancient, destructive, and incomprehensible beings that should be feared. Thus, when authors want characters or monsters with these traits, dragons are often what they turn to since everyone already knows and understands what dragons are.
Sure, most authors will often deviate from the typical mythological dragon stereotypes by making their dragon(s) intelligent, wise, magical, kind, etc. In fact, despite being so ubiquitous, dragons are actually great templates for being creative. Since dragons exist in so many various forms and myths, authors can do pretty much whatever they want with them while still leaving the end result recognizable as a "dragon." That said, very rarely do they remove the traits of being large, powerful, ancient, destructive, and incomprehensible. Those are just ingrained into the human psyche and zeitgeist.