The Dragon (Spoilers)

[BigGayEnergy]

I'm missing some subtext here. What do you think Summers "dragon" represents? She mentioned that she wanted to love the dragon and coexist with it but she always just hated it, just like her father Could it have been alcoholism? drugs? mental illness?

[K0rp0]

I was wondering, too. It could be anything that is passed down from parent to child, like a tendency to become abusive or an alcoholic - people are likely to encounter these if their parents displayed them. I originally thought it was abuse and anger, hence the Dragon... but it could also have been becoming rigid and closed off - hence the quartz and minerals you mine. In the end, they don't really tell you. You just get a hint.

[Nate T]

Cancer seems to be a common guess in the fandom. It would fit with Summer having worked with harsh chemicals in her early career; she could've picked up cancer from exposure to certain pesticides. Cancer can also have a genetic component, so she could have gotten it from her father. Even without a genetic predisposition a lot of people contract cancer and die from it, and the treatments aren't nice so Summer's father might have turned mean and bitter during it.

Ultimately though, this is all just guesswork.

[ClockworkXI]

Originally posted by Nate Twehues:

Cancer seems to be a common guess in the fandom. It would fit with Summer having worked with harsh chemicals in her early career; she could've picked up cancer from exposure to certain pesticides. Cancer can also have a genetic component, so she could have gotten it from her father. Even without a genetic predisposition a lot of people contract cancer and die from it, and the treatments aren't nice so Summer's father might have turned mean and bitter during it.

Ultimately though, this is all just guesswork.

I can confirm, it is cancer.

[Cottontail]

Cancer was my assumption given Summer's obsession with healthy and natural living - and the reference to being 'bald' and having dry 'scaley' skin. That struck me as a very intentional reference to common symptoms of cancer therapy.

Also, the dragons appear to have 'malignant tumors'.

That's what I was going to post here before seeing that confirmation, at least!

[Pineapple]

Originally posted by ClockworkXI:

Originally posted by Nate Twehues:

Cancer seems to be a common guess in the fandom. It would fit with Summer having worked with harsh chemicals in her early career; she could've picked up cancer from exposure to certain pesticides. Cancer can also have a genetic component, so she could have gotten it from her father. Even without a genetic predisposition a lot of people contract cancer and die from it, and the treatments aren't nice so Summer's father might have turned mean and bitter during it.

Ultimately though, this is all just guesswork.

I can confirm, it is cancer.

I never even considered cancer. :O

I thought it was some kind of guilt from what she'd done in the past with the chemicals and poisoning the land and potentially others through experimentation and that her father might have done something and felt awful about it that became a part of his personality.

Now that this is confirmed as being cancer, it makes a lot more sense with the 'corruption' and growths coming out of the dragons.

[Averagedog]

Originally posted by Pineapple:

Originally posted by ClockworkXI:

I can confirm, it is cancer.

I never even considered cancer. :O

I thought it was some kind of guilt from what she'd done in the past with the chemicals and poisoning the land and potentially others through experimentation and that her father might have done something and felt awful about it that became a part of his personality.

Now that this is confirmed as being cancer, it makes a lot more sense with the 'corruption' and growths coming out of the dragons.

it makes her time on the barge that much sadder imo. she slowly comes to terms that she cannot escape "the dragon" and accepts that she must confront it and internalize it as part of herself...

[Vahnkiljoy]

Man letting go of anyone and learning their story is BOTH beautiful and saddening. I figured it was cancer as well, eapecially when she mentioned that she thought it was gone or she was content with it it came back stronger, meaning a relapse.