竜 Is there a connection between dragon, eel, rivers, waterfalls, and Gyarados? 竜

6 comments

1. The relationship between Magikarp and Gyarados is based on the Chinese Legend of the Dragon Gate if that’s what you are asking 鯉躍龍門/魚躍龍門/鯉魚跳龍門 etc

   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmen_(mythology)

   The Yellow River and Longmen Mountains are real places that this legend is based from

   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River

   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Longmen_(Shanxi)

   Gyarados has no relationship with Eels as far as I know

2. gyarados is water/flying acktually 🤓

3. 滝山さん

4. Eastern dragons are commonly associated with water, which may come as a surprise for westerners.

5. Great opportunity to learn the kanji for waterfall: 滝 (たき), made from dragon plus the water radical (three dots on the left like little drops).

6. It looks like a towering eel to you, but I can easily see it being more like a dragon shape- specifically a leviathan, which although a water monster, could be associated with dragons.

   In addition, dragons are often connected to water in Eastern mythology… plus you need to realize the general shape of an Eastern Dragon: very slim, no wings, and often bending and curving… much like a river would. This also isn’t taking into account that centuries (or even millenia) ago, when people settled near a river for water, as much as water gives us life… when a violent river floods, it would’ve been very devastating for any villages. So you can also see how flowing rivers would be respected as something very powerful.

   And then for Gyarados specifically, the other comment covers it, but to put it briefly: when a carp (Magikarp) is able to successfully climb that particular waterfall, they will be transformed into a great dragon.