[thejeff]

I like the idea of more impressive dragons, though I don't share all your prejudices about dragons.
Don't blame Tolkien for talking dragons. He was working from mythological source. Fafnir spoke in the Norse myths. I can't remember if the dragon in Beowulf did.
Chinese versions of dragons often talked and played a very different role than medieval European ones. That's probably also where the idea of dragons taking human form comes from.

And from a literary point of view, a villain who can talk and has a personality is more interesting than a simple destructive monster, however powerful.

As for dragons being demonic, to the medieval Christian anything supernatural was either divine/angelic or demonic. If you're going to classify dragons as demons based on that, everything magical should be
demonic. Including many of the non-human races and most summons.


And despite the scoffing here, Tea with the Black Dragon is a really good book. I read it a long time ago. Highly recommended. Except maybe for those who want their dragons only as destructive forces of nature. Even the dragons get bored with that after thousands of years.