Why are we so obsessed with dragons?

Dragons have been having a moment since Daenerys Targaryen emerged from the smoking ashes of her husband's funeral pyre holding three baby dragons. I was seventeen years old watching that episode for the first time and it was without a doubt one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.

Game of Thrones S1 (2011)

Unlike Chinese dragons, which are associated with good luck, power, and prosperity, Western dragons are known to be hostile, dangerous, and usually guarding treasure. That is, up until recently.

It was JRR Tolkien who popularised this depiction of dragons in his novel The Hobbit (1937.) He bases the dragon Smaug on the story of Fafnir of Norse Mythology. In the story of Fafnir, a dwarf kills his father to steal his treasure, hides it in a cave and squats over it, protecting it for so long that he becomes a dragon. At the root of our Western understanding of dragons, we find humanity and our propensity for greed. 

In Jungian terms, the dragon symbolises the Ego or the shadow, depending on the context. These two concepts are intertwined. The Ego is your identity (the one with all the opinions.) The Ego is the part of you who argues, compares, demands, wants, wants, wants. The shadow is the culmination of all the things you have repressed, like aggression or sexuality. 

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

When the hero goes to slay the dragon in a myth, it is referring to overcoming a challenge within yourself. By learning about ourselves in the aftermath of an issue, we seek out our own dragons who lie asleep guarding secret treasure. The hero (our conscious self) battles the dragon (our Ego or our shadow) and slays it. In a fairytale, slaying a dragon symbolises gaining the treasure: personal growth.

Smaug is physically daunting, ruthless, and treasure-lusting. His persona is one characterized by self-importance, greed, and power. - John Tuttle

But with Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, we find that the people we perceive to be the heroes now have dragons on their side.

A familiar is an animal companion that enhances the power of a witch. With the popularity of GOT, HOTD, the book series Fourth Wing and How To Train Your Dragon, we’ve seen a new trend of dragon familiars. The dragons are no longer the ones to be defeated, instead, they are the allies and protectors of the heroes. 

What does this mean for our psyches? If we are not “defeating” our Ego or our shadows, what can be said about the symbolism of the new style of dragons? 

House of the Dragon S1 (2022)

Firstly, the dragon provides the hero with immense power. It has a primal and animalistic nature that is unpredictable and difficult to tame. We see this when Daenerys’ dragons begin burning children to death. We had been warned, for many seasons, that Daenerys was not in control.

We are in the midst of a technological revolution that allows us to see and hear everything on a global scale in a way we have never had before. We are inundated with tragic news of the pandemic, natural disasters, climate change, war, nuclear weapons, violence, polarising political views all contributing to what many people are casually calling “the apocalypse.” I do not think it’s a coincidence that we are, at the same time, obsessed with dragon familiars. Humans also have a natural inclination towards spirituality and belief in a higher power. With an abundance of atheism in Western culture, we are feeling lost, lonely and doomed. We are comforted by the idea of a god-like magical beast, much more powerful than us, to protect us. We crave the safety that a dragon familiar guarantees. 

How do we relate this to our psyche? If the dragon is our Ego or our shadow, what is to be said of the relationship between hero and dragon familiar? Ideally it symbolises how we have integrated the shadow parts of ourselves, accepting our unpredictable and primal nature, but that’s not what it is. The dragon familiar currently exists for the opposite reason: we refuse to acknowledge the darkness within ourselves. 

Daenerys thinks the dragons are her children. Had she considered them extensions of her own wild and cruel nature, she may have become aware she was on a one way track to madness (like a lot of Targaryen dragon riders are.) We see in the final episode of season one of HOTD that the riders are not in control. Violet from Fourth Wing is stubborn and refuses to see from another point of view. She assumes she is always in the right. Culturally, we are now fascinated by “strong female characters” who dominate others and fight hard. (See Daughters of the Father.)

Game of Thrones S8 (2019)

Our dragon familiars symbolise our need to control, conquer, overpower others. To fight for our point of view, take down anyone who we perceive as “wrong” and destroy differences of opinion.

I am part of the unique generation to have experienced growing up both with and without social media. I was an early adopter of Instagram in 2011 with my single square images and an overuse of the Amaro filter. Twitter became extremely popular around that same year. Daenerys Targaryen emerged from the ashes with her baby dragons on our screens in June 2011. In 2015, Jon Ronson published a book titled “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” which explores the internet phenomenon of public shaming, which at the time of writing the term ‘Cancel Culture’ had not yet been coined. 

There is a connection between our ruthless communication style and our obsession with dragons. We hold people to the metaphorical dragon fire for opposing us. We burn them to ash, branding them unforgiven and unable to be redeemed. 

Perhaps we should heed the warning that the collective is a powerful force that cannot be controlled. Things snowball, especially on the internet. Next time you feel the adrenaline rush of cancelling someone (saying “dracarys”) think twice. How certain are you? You know what happens to those who obsess over guarding their treasure.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you in two weeks.

Liked this? Listen to:

• Ep 461. Dragons | The Rest Is History Podcast

• Things Fell Apart Podcast by Jon Ronson

• The Witch Trials of JK Rowling Podcast

Read:

• The Third Perspective by Africa Brooke

• So You’ve Been Publically Shamed by Jon Ronson

Sources:

• Ep 461. Dragons | The Rest Is History Podcast