Straight Fire: A love letter to dragons

To quote J.R.R. Tolkein, “I desired dragons with a profound desire.” Who doesn’t, really? Dragons have endured for centuries in fantasy literature, worming their way into the imaginations of readers and writers across cultures. Dragons are, depending on who you ask, wonder and imagination, destruction and awe.

This is Straight Fire, a column that’ll be published on Polygon twice a month, where I’ll use my expertise to analyze and tell stories about dragon media — largely video games. What makes a compelling video game dragon? Let’s find out together. —Nicole Carpenter