Note: For the purposes of this discussion, I am leaving out those that have been softened or made specifically “relatable” for things like children’s stories or other forms of consumption.
Yes, I’m looking at you, but not just you.
There are few creatures called “dragon” who walk upright.
Oh, there are those who might rear up on one or more sets of back legs, some might have upright carriage at the end of a serpent’s tail. Nevertheless, in a majority of cases, the dragon crawls, lumbers, slithers- sometimes it even flies, but aside from a few debatable exceptions, dragonkind does not carry itself in the manner of Man; the closest analogue would be the upright posture of the cockatrice or (in some cases) the wyvern, and those are more like birds than humans.
This is interesting to point out because the dragon of old times and contemporary is more of a chimera than even the Chimera itself. It cribs from nearly every aspect of nature- the modern Western dragon is more like a hunting cat or a dog than the skulking, poisonous/venomous lizards of old; it can have feathers like a bird, scales like a fish or a lizard, even prodigious amounts of fur, and we still call this creature “dragon.” No named legendary dragon that I know of bears any resemblance to an insect, nor any creature of the sea aside from an eel or great fish. Armored creatures like crustaceans and misshapen horrors like octopi, squids, even stingrays were left for other monsters.
Which in fact, perfectly explains the general draconic abhorrence for creatures like The Interloper– the same way that humans recoil from simple insects that are a bare fraction of their size (and many completely harmless!), and would surely be distressed by the presence of any arthropod large enough to knock themselves down, the dragons scattered through the Now could only be horrified or enraged by the sight of something completely alien to them that not only spoke and reasoned, but claimed kinship with them as well.
These were some of the thoughts that went through my head as I worked tonight, mostly the “dragons don’t walk like men” part, but the other realizations came in time.
At first this one was supposed to be standing, misjointed arms spread wide in challenge, and no wings on its back, then I realized that would be a little too manlike for my purposes, so I changed it around a lot.
What, Godzilla doesn’t count? Giant scaled monster that breathes “fire”?
Good question. Either he (and other scaly kaiju) is one of the “debatable exceptions” like Grendel, or he’s not meant to be a dragon at all, which would also make sense, considering that he’s the manifestation of our Atomic Age Fears or something- his upright bearing could be subtly intentional, as the personification of Man’s destructive capacity.
It’s also probably interesting to point out that the 1998 Godzilla had a much more bestial posture. Makes one wonder about if they’d had the luxury of improved rubber suit technology, would he walk more like a monster?