Maybe not a hot take, but a take I shall put out there nonetheless: make dragons WEIRDER.
Give me a dragon with vents along its neck where steam bursts directly before a torrent of flame spews from its mouth. Give me a dragon with several rows of teeth. Give me a dragon with more than four legs. Give me dragons with frilled necks, or multiple tails. Hell, give me a dragon with such large thick scales that they look like plate armor.
This goes for most any monsters (especially in D&D and other TTRPGS) but some of the most jaw dropping designs are dragons that shouldn’t go so hard as they do but DAMN if they don’t hit the perfect spot.
Take Rey Dau for example: it’s head. Is a massive god damned RAIL GUN. Monster Hunter team did a good with that.
Or the official art for D&D’s gold dragon in the 2024 books. That ain’t your average Draconic entity.
Just: make your dragons weird!!! They’re so fun to play around with, and it’ll stick with people
