Firkraag has his own lair. The Shadow Dragon rents from the Shade Landlord. Clearly Firkraag is a much more successful dragon
Abazigal has a bigger lair, an army, a bastard son guarding his door, a Bhaalspawn soul, another +5 THS, more scales, a component of the FoA and was a member of the Five.
That damn recession even hit the monster businesses! It's no wonder that so many unemployed dragons must now raid nearby settlements and live together with other monsters in a single lair just to make ends meet.
Firkraag has his own lair. The Shadow Dragon rents from the Shade Landlord. Clearly Firkraag is a much more successful dragon
Abazigal has a bigger lair, an army, a bastard son guarding his door, a Bhaalspawn soul, another +5 THS, more scales, a component of the FoA and was a member of the Five.
@fitscotgaymer: Of course there are many things one should take into consideration when measuring a dragon awesomeness, and still I think that Firkraag is the most charismatic one and more powerful than Adalon.
There is no story about Firkraag in BG because no one is too old to remember it, in FR lore dragons are far older than the ones in TES lore, IIRC (I could be wrong). Yes, Alduin has a really good hype but, in the end was just delusional. Firkraag was a great foe that gave my first BGII CHARNAME a real hard time, proportionally greater and more powerful compared to Alduin vs Dragonborn. Dragons in FR lore are less "beastly" than those in TES lore, more charismatic, and deadly than dragons in Skyrim (I mean: you walk across the land, 2 steps, one dragon, two hits, "FUS-RO-DAH", dead dragon, 2 steps, another dragon, and so on... at the time I've encountered Alduin I was somewhat used to dragons and that thing gave me lesss enthusiasm...) But in FR Dragons are more rare (yes, I agree that in BG there are too many dragons in that portion of the land ;P) and so when I faced one I was much more thrilled and excited to start the fight.
That said, I liked Skyrim, even if maybe it is the TES game i liked less (Morrowind is my best one, I've played all of them), but in my personal opinion and just in my personal opinion, for me FR dragons are much better and Firkraag is the best BG one for its characterization and all the rest.
...or maybe it's like that just because when I've faced Firkraag for the first time I was just littlle more than a child and since then I've beaten hundreds of dragons before Alduin...so it is only a matter of affection, who knows? ;P
I disagree: if I have to follow your line of reasoning even the last Skyrim boss: Alduin has to be removed from the list, that was one of the easiest bosses of all the RPGs I've played (and I've played many), talking of first time run, instead of Firkraag that was too powerful for me first time I've faced him.
You say that Firkraag is easy to fight, but if you think well about it, you'll see that Firkraag is easy only if you know exactly what to do, using cheese tactics or clearly OP spell combo that one could not know in his first run (unless he has read walkthroughs or guides on forums); Alduin, instead, needed just some hack and slash, some dodging and was done, even with difficulty mods... so for me Firkraag comes to mind more than Alduin, but not only for this, of course: I think that that character has much more personality and charme than Alduin, even if Firkraag is not in a stunning 3D graphic: there's the story, the voice, the temper, the atmosphere...the power! Damn, if you're not more than prepared he squash you in less than 10 seconds!
He is an awesome dragon, he is a powerful ancient Red like no many others in FR and I think that he deserves a place in a "Top 10 Dragon list" more than others, but of course this is only my opinion and *that* list in OP doesn't exist.
My disagreement with this is that Alduin if the final boss. He is the main antagonist for the game and stopping him raising the other dragons, and eating the world is the main plot line for the entire game. Therefore he deserves to be on the list but not as high.
I personally didn't like the list as there were too many main antagonist listed. If they were looking at well written and diverse dragons then I can see Firgie making the list. Sadly, they took the lazy way and went with what we got.
I think Firkraag deserves a place on any list of most awesome dragons ever through sheer personality.
No other dragon in BG, or in other games, shows so much character, imo.
Firkraag approaches you in the Copper Coronet while you're at minimum level, weak, and vulnerable. He entices you. He tricks you into serving his ends. He has impeccable voice acting. He's funny. He is the epitome of the entertaining villain.
None of the other dragons in BG, even Abazigal or Draconis, give you this level of mustache-twirling fun villainy in BG. Firkraag gives you everything an awesome draconic villain should be, and none of the others come close.
That said, I do think that Deathwing also deserves his place on the list. The single most awesome moment in my entire WoW experience, which went very, very far in redeeming that whole franchise from so much of the well-deserved bad reputation it gets, was when I saved Rhea's whelp from Deathwing. It's a quest chain from the Badlands in the central EK.
A lot of people who play WoW the typical way without doing any roleplaying could have very well missed the quest and the story.
Deathwing actually puts in an appearance during the finale of the quest, through a cutscene, and he does the same mustache-twirling villain schtick that Firkraag is famous for. Basically, you get to trick him into destroying a fake red dragon egg (red dragons are the "good guys" in WoW, as opposed the blacks). He kills Rhea, but you get to keep and protect her final egg, which hatches into a beautiful dragon whelp that you adopt, which Rhea died to protect, and, it's the best roleplaying story I've ever seen in a game as shallow as WoW.
If Blizz had made all the single player WoW quests as deep as that, I'd probably still be paying them their fifteen bucks a month to keep playing. Unfortunately, that quest was one shining pearl lost in an ocean of mud and swine.
But, because of having experienced it, I appreciate Deathwing as the Firkraag of WoW. Notice that I compare Deathwing to Firkraag as the archetypal draconic villain, not the other way around.
I can see why the list authors chose Darkwing, though. Practically every gamer out there has heard of or experienced Deathwing, but only we "classical" "antique" gamers (meaning pre-1995 gamers) know who Firkraag is.
Comments
There is no story about Firkraag in BG because no one is too old to remember it, in FR lore dragons are far older than the ones in TES lore, IIRC (I could be wrong).
Yes, Alduin has a really good hype but, in the end was just delusional. Firkraag was a great foe that gave my first BGII CHARNAME a real hard time, proportionally greater and more powerful compared to Alduin vs Dragonborn.
Dragons in FR lore are less "beastly" than those in TES lore, more charismatic, and deadly than dragons in Skyrim (I mean: you walk across the land, 2 steps, one dragon, two hits, "FUS-RO-DAH", dead dragon, 2 steps, another dragon, and so on... at the time I've encountered Alduin I was somewhat used to dragons and that thing gave me lesss enthusiasm...)
But in FR Dragons are more rare (yes, I agree that in BG there are too many dragons in that portion of the land ;P) and so when I faced one I was much more thrilled and excited to start the fight.
That said, I liked Skyrim, even if maybe it is the TES game i liked less (Morrowind is my best one, I've played all of them), but in my personal opinion and just in my personal opinion, for me FR dragons are much better and Firkraag is the best BG one for its characterization and all the rest.
...or maybe it's like that just because when I've faced Firkraag for the first time I was just littlle more than a child and since then I've beaten hundreds of dragons before Alduin...so it is only a matter of affection, who knows? ;P
I personally didn't like the list as there were too many main antagonist listed. If they were looking at well written and diverse dragons then I can see Firgie making the list. Sadly, they took the lazy way and went with what we got.
He's just crazier. He LITERALLY throws his offspring at you (always found it weird that a male dinosaur laid eggs...)
In a fight, crazy always wins
No other dragon in BG, or in other games, shows so much character, imo.
Firkraag approaches you in the Copper Coronet while you're at minimum level, weak, and vulnerable. He entices you. He tricks you into serving his ends. He has impeccable voice acting. He's funny. He is the epitome of the entertaining villain.
None of the other dragons in BG, even Abazigal or Draconis, give you this level of mustache-twirling fun villainy in BG. Firkraag gives you everything an awesome draconic villain should be, and none of the others come close.
That said, I do think that Deathwing also deserves his place on the list. The single most awesome moment in my entire WoW experience, which went very, very far in redeeming that whole franchise from so much of the well-deserved bad reputation it gets, was when I saved Rhea's whelp from Deathwing. It's a quest chain from the Badlands in the central EK.
A lot of people who play WoW the typical way without doing any roleplaying could have very well missed the quest and the story.
Deathwing actually puts in an appearance during the finale of the quest, through a cutscene, and he does the same mustache-twirling villain schtick that Firkraag is famous for. Basically, you get to trick him into destroying a fake red dragon egg (red dragons are the "good guys" in WoW, as opposed the blacks). He kills Rhea, but you get to keep and protect her final egg, which hatches into a beautiful dragon whelp that you adopt, which Rhea died to protect, and, it's the best roleplaying story I've ever seen in a game as shallow as WoW.
If Blizz had made all the single player WoW quests as deep as that, I'd probably still be paying them their fifteen bucks a month to keep playing. Unfortunately, that quest was one shining pearl lost in an ocean of mud and swine.
But, because of having experienced it, I appreciate Deathwing as the Firkraag of WoW. Notice that I compare Deathwing to Firkraag as the archetypal draconic villain, not the other way around.
I can see why the list authors chose Darkwing, though. Practically every gamer out there has heard of or experienced Deathwing, but only we "classical" "antique" gamers (meaning pre-1995 gamers) know who Firkraag is.
Here's a link to that WoW quest, for those who know both WoW and BG:
http://www.wowhead.com/quest=27859/the-egg-lives-on
I do agree with you on one point. It does all come down to personal opinion.
For myself the awesomeness of a character goes like this:
Lore
Storyline
Personality
Skills
Encounter
In order of importance to me.
So its all good