The Blackberry Walk

“Maid Dragon” and “Christian Morality” are two phrases which should not be linked by any reasonable mind in the same sentence; however, I believe the link with the debaucherous anime is a sound one, and I’ll attempt to explain my reasoning. To begin the discussion, let’s start with dragons. Dragons are as primal a symbol as you’ll find: there is the ourobouros, found in cave art across the world; the dragons of Celtic myth; of Chinese folklore; of Germanic mythology, in Fafnir; of the Aztecs – Lucoa being Quetzelcoatl, the feathered serpent. Yet how the dragon is portrayed differs widely from culture to culture: the Germanic dragon is something to be slayed who hoards gold; the Celtic dragon held a kind of god-like reverence; the Chinese dragon is lucky and a controller of the weather; whilst the feathered serpent brought the Aztecs culture, writing, and farming. The line between dragon and god is thin; Quetzelcoatl, for instance, is both a feathered serpent – a dragon in all but name – whilst also being a god of the Aztecs. Maid Dragon’s Tohru is much the same, being both the Norse god Thor, whilst also being a dragon in the show. To humanise the gods, as opposed to being simply animal-like existences, can be understood as a step up in man’s understanding of these pagan deities as more intricate and complex existences – a clearer vision of the god, so to speak. Hence we see in more advanced pagan civilisations, like the Greeks and the Germans, the slaying of monsters and dragons for their riches, retrieving and repurposing the value lying behind the outdated understandings of the gods, whether it be the Cyclops for the fleece or Fafnir for his gold. Yet these human appearances of dragons, whilst they may be clearer images of the deity in question, are still at root pagan deities: dragons. To summarise the topic of dragons, then, the dragon can be understood as a more primitive understanding of a deity, who can take on a human form to become a clearer vision of that deity. Let’s move onto the second part of the question of Maid Dragon: the maid element. The morals of Christianity, as understood by Aquinas, can be split into the Seven Virtues, which can be partitioned into two sets: the four cardinal virtues, and the three theological virtues. The cardinal virtues were inherited from the pagans, those being: prudence, justice, courage, and temperance. It’s wrong to see Christianity, or at least orthodox Christianity, as seeing pagan thinkers as somehow forbidden or whose knowledge is untouchable. Much of Christian thought is knowingly built upon pagan thought, such as Neoplatonism which is core to much of church thought, and the influence of Aristotle on Aquinas. For most of history, much of Christianity has seen the pagan gods as real… albeit as demons. The idea that Christianity believe there’s only one God is a more modern understanding – in the past (and many Christians today) believe instead that there’s only one God which should be prayed to. So it’d be wrong even to say that Christianity doesn’t think the pagan gods exists, when in reality many Christians think they do exist, albeit with a wholly different interpretation. Chesterton goes further, arguing that Christianity is a kind of upgrade upon paganism – specifically a moral upgrade – adding the three theological virtues to the roster: faith, hope, and charity. Classical Rome had a conception of hubris – it was seen as the worst vice of all – but had no conception of the underdog, of there being a kind of glee when the weakest overcame the strongest. For the Romans believed that the strongest should be strongest – a seemingly less paradoxical understanding of the world, but to us a less relatable one. The very idea that there is a joy in the courage of weakness, a faith in your lord, a joy and agapic/charitable love of serving God: is this not the heart of the maid? Reviewing, we have seen the maid, a symbol of Christian meekness, and the dragon, the roar of the might of the pagan gods. What does it mean then for a person to turn a dragon into a maid, to quell the dragons and teach them Christian morality – what does that make Kobayashi? A symbol of Jesus, of course. She is the figure to tame the unruly pagan deities who have been gradually rearing their heads once more on Earth ever since “the death of God”. Through Kobayashi’s parables and sermons, she teaches the dragons who follow her the joys of meekness, of fitting in, and of not being the most powerful. Maid Dragon may well show nudity, makes ecchi jokes, and have an undercurrent of perversion running throughout the show however at its core it’s wholesome-- no, beyond just wholesome; deeply moving and meaningful – a story which helps one transcend modern meaninglessness. A show which can heal your heart.