Symbolism is important.
I have never experienced an easy dragon fight. I used to hate monsters in ttrpgs because I felt like fights were never interesting unless the opposition was using tactics. I’ve since learned that I just needed to play better systems than 5e, and I’ve accumulated a healthy respect for monster fights. That’s not the point though. Dragon fights, in every game I’ve played them in, are never an easy fight, even if they have predictable aspects. The symbolism of a dragon is important because it communicates something that you cannot achieve with a weird dinosaur. The next several rounds of combat are going to hurt for sure and there is no chance you might be wrong about that. A weird dinosaur has plenty of imaginary leeway to doubt or experiment, but you know what you’re getting with a dragon.
When you start to challenge the expectations a dragon affords you, you lose the advantage it gives you. At that point, you might as well use a weird dinosaur.
shorthand & pink slime
Pink slime fantasy is the sometimes-derogatory term for referring to the way modern fantasy is self-referential rather than original. Fellow blogger Habeeb refers to this phenomenon as inertia — specifically the practice of using fantasy traditions without questioning their implications.
In contrast, I don’t view the ouroboros-like nature of fantasy as being fueled by nostalgia. My experience watching the dozens (sometimes hundreds) of new fantasy anime each year is that these tropes function as a cultural shorthand for the viewer. The point isn’t to challenge expectation, but to use a common framework to explore the story you’re actually interested in telling. It’s commedia dell’arte in 2026. Dragons are scary. Adventurers meet in taverns. All of this was in the syllabus.
Shared languages have a habit of becoming invisible
This is a feature and not a bug. I respect the call to action here, but I think this is ultimately an issue with terminology more than practice. If we had enough words so that we could separate the genres of modern-fantasy-expectations and fantastical-literature, I think that both of us would be happy. We are seeking two different types of narrative and we’re both calling it fantasy.
Languages aren’t the problem. Using the same sentences forever is.
I really like when people use music as a metaphor. Habeeb mentioned it at the start of his post while talking about the inheritance that artists draw upon. When I think about using the same sentences forever, I think about how I have listened to more songs that sample the Amen Breakbeat than I’ve ever listened to Amen Brother. I think about how a good chunk of those artists probably don’t even know where that sample in their drum software came from. This is not an argument against originality or asking new questions. This is a defense of sampling — of propagating fantasy tropes without interrogation — not because of inertia, but because the beat sounds good and killing dragons is fun.
This is not an excuse to be uncritical in harmful ways. Do not perpetuate bioessentialism, racism, etc. This post is about cool shit only.