Tamino Casually Fights A Random Dragon.

In the opening scene, one of the opera’s main characters, Prince Tamino, runs onto the stage, freaking out because he is being chased by a large dragon or serpent that he had apparently been fighting. As with so many other stories that involve dragons or serpents, like the tale of Siegfried, this scene makes little sense. For one, where did the dragon-serpent thing come from? It couldn’t have just fallen out of the sky; dragons have wings to keep them from doing that. And why would it leave its river if it was a serpent? – Well, we’ll get to a plausible explanation for that later. But even if it did escape from say, the wizarding world of Harry Potter, what was Tamino doing fighting it? It’s not like he was hiking and just happened to come across a dragon. A bear would probably be more likely to find. At least there is a semi-reasonable explanation for this: Tamino, like many other princes of the medieval/renaissance era appears to be fulfilling his princely duty of killing random dragons and serpents that apparently roamed the fields and caves of Europe. Interestingly enough, I’ve never seen one, although I vacation there quite a bit. Maybe you need to be a prince to see them…

• Foreword
• Point One:
  Tamino Casually Fights A Random Dragon
• Point Two:
  Hey Diddle Diddle, A Cat and a Fiddle, A Queen of the Night Jumped Over the Moon
• Point Three:
  Love at First Sight… or Love At First Photoshop?
• Point Four:
  Tamino Takes Advice From Twelve Year Olds
• Point Five:
  Love at First Sight… I Guess?
• Point Six:
  Tests and Queens and Confusion, Oh My!
• Point Seven:
  Random Things/People Showing Up Out Of Nowhere Cliché… Again
• Point Eight:
  Lightning. Just Lightning.