Celebrate These Dragons on 'Appreciate a Dragon' Day | Game Rant
Appreciate a Dragon Day occurs every year on January 16. Donita Paul created this holiday in 2004 to celebrate the release of her novel, DragonSpell, and though it’s not a well-known holiday, it’s still fun to celebrate dragons, whether they’re in books, movies, or even video games. Paul’s website advertises a bunch of activities that people can do to appreciate dragons on this day, including things like drawing, painting, or creating mosaics of beloved dragon characters.
Video games through the years have seen their fair share of dragon characters, whether they were the heroes, villains, or even the sidekicks of the story. Genre-wise, dragons tend to be a staple of fantasy stories and have been brought to life in a ton of different ways. Though they vary in size and shape, most dragons have wings and breathe fire, making them incredibly powerful allies or adversaries. Though dragons can be found throughout pop culture, there are a few standouts to celebrate today on Appreciate a Dragon Day.
This little purple powerhouse first made his debut in 1998 with the game Spyro the Dragon. Since his initial game, Spyro has had 12 different games released along with the Skylanders spin-off and a remastered edition of his first three games, titled the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Though Spyro’s games were originally exclusive to the PlayStation system, the other titles that came out were made for all kinds of platforms, including handheld games.
Spyro’s best friend is a dragonfly named Sparx, who also serves as his health indicator in a lot of the games. Each time Spyro gets hit, Sparx changes color to indicate the dragon’s health level. Spyro 2: Season of Flame first introduced players to Spyro being able to breathe more than fire. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly furthered this with other elemental breaths like bubble, electric, and ice.
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This powerful dragon is introduced in The Legend of Spyro leg of the series, specifically in the game The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Cynder undergoes her own character arc, going from foe in the first game to Spyro’s friend by the end of The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. Due to her indoctrination by the evil Malefor, Cynder has abilities that aren’t typical of other dragons, including things like poison, wind, fear, and shadow breath attacks.
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is one of the signature summons of Seto Kaiba in the show Yu-Gi-Oh! and a powerful card all on its own. This dragon has 3000 attack points and 2500 defense points, which isn’t indestructible, but is still pretty strong. Kaiba was also known to combine three of these creatures to form the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, who has three heads rather than one. The teenage millionaire also flies a Blue-Eyes White Dragon jet in the television series and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light.
Yu-Gi-Oh! has introduced players to tons of dragons besides the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, including Joey Wheeler’s signature card, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and lots of other cards both in the show and in the trading card game. Some of these creatures are formidable and hard to remove from the playing field, while others are more stylized with a low amount of attack and defense points.
Appreciate a Dragon Day happens each year on January 16 and is the perfect opportunity to celebrate beloved dragons from all facets of media. These video game and pop culture dragons are three standouts, but are by no means the only dragons to be acknowledged today. Honor these dragons in whatever way feels best, but a good start would be playing one of their games for a trip down memory lane.
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