Taking the GM's Advice and doing a pro-dragon post
I and others have already covered what I think the dragon as a romantic pursuit means for Mathilde's magical perspective on the world but there is one angle which has not been covered, namely xeno-affinity. First of all let us consider what it is and where it comes from. It was born of her experiances with dwarfs, surly and suspicious but willing to take a chance on her, with the We, seeming monsters who proved a peaceful and honorable ally and even Querch, truly a monster in some ways, but also a victim of the Horned Rat. Mathilde has learned to see the basic humanity, for lack of a better term even in the most strange and frightful beings. Now what does it mean that she would seek romance in one who is not human and never was, in a dragon. I mean she is a reader of romance novels right? She should be looking for mister tall dark and handsome?
I think choosing Cython is an acknowledgement that romance isn't about lust physical attraction, but about the soul and this is a woman who can see souls. This is about Mathilde the romantic determined to do the seeming impossible, courtly love with dragons in palace of princes, pure of the distractions of the flesh. It's worth recalling that the romance Mathilde is reading would not be of the modern sort. Oh there would be plenty of books with steamy scenes, implicit or explicit, but there would also be the kind of love that neither gets nor requires physical consumption to be true. It would ironically perhaps be the kind of romance a Bretonian bard would sing... between the dragon and the peasant girl.
That just feels compelling to me.
I and others have already covered what I think the dragon as a romantic pursuit means for Mathilde's magical perspective on the world but there is one angle which has not been covered, namely xeno-affinity. First of all let us consider what it is and where it comes from. It was born of her experiances with dwarfs, surly and suspicious but willing to take a chance on her, with the We, seeming monsters who proved a peaceful and honorable ally and even Querch, truly a monster in some ways, but also a victim of the Horned Rat. Mathilde has learned to see the basic humanity, for lack of a better term even in the most strange and frightful beings. Now what does it mean that she would seek romance in one who is not human and never was, in a dragon. I mean she is a reader of romance novels right? She should be looking for mister tall dark and handsome?
I think choosing Cython is an acknowledgement that romance isn't about lust physical attraction, but about the soul and this is a woman who can see souls. This is about Mathilde the romantic determined to do the seeming impossible, courtly love with dragons in palace of princes, pure of the distractions of the flesh. It's worth recalling that the romance Mathilde is reading would not be of the modern sort. Oh there would be plenty of books with steamy scenes, implicit or explicit, but there would also be the kind of love that neither gets nor requires physical consumption to be true. It would ironically perhaps be the kind of romance a Bretonian bard would sing... between the dragon and the peasant girl.
That just feels compelling to me.
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