Chapter 14: Of Dragons and Lost Continents
Hello, and welcome back to our irregularly scheduled nonsense!
Last time, we got to hear two discrete stories from two characters who don't really do anything. I guess Lady Silkworm gave Kelsey something to help them on their quest, but she doesn't actually do anything other than give some very bad relationship advice. And completely rip off The Princess Bride.
Captain Dixon's story was entirely wrong, a bit sexist, and also gave some bad relationship advice.
So, like, 0/2 in terms of quality.
Also, I realized that I'm a bit of an idiot because silkworms aren't actually worms, they're caterpillars. I already knew that silk is made by boiling cocoons, I was just too dumb to put that together. Here's the silkworm moth:
So, yeah, the moth isn't completely out of left field. But whatever symbolism Houck was trying to go for still makes no sense. Butterflies (and I guess moths, too) are generally symbolic of change and transformation, since they, uh, change and transform from caterpillars to butterflies. But Lady Silkworm, who's supposedly been saved by Durga, demonstrates this change in reverse, going from moth to silkworm. Wouldn't that mean her transformation is, like, a bad thing? And that Durga has doomed her to an eternity of, like, regression?
So even when Houck gets something factually right, it still makes no sense from a symbolic or thematic point of view.
Chapter Fourteen: Of Dragons and Lost Continents
What's with the name of this title? It doesn't really fit in with the other names, which are generally just a description of what happens or the name of a character.
It's dark in the temple and Kelsey finds herself pressed against a very welldeveloped [sic], masculine chest." It's Ren, whomp whomp! Kishan asks how he found her, and Ren says that a carving of a horse wearing a scarf appeared and led him to a carving of Kelsey sewing. When he touched it, he pulled her out of the wall. Apparently she was gone for quite a while--an hour.
Wait, that's not how the spirit world works! Every other time they go into the spirit world, time stops in the outside world, or at least moves very slowly! (Or, well, that's how we're told it works, even though it was unclear how time worked while they were in Shangri-la as Lokesh was still able to do things. This was, I think, because Houck can't write and just forgot that she'd established that time doesn't work while in Shangri-la, rather than the rules operating differently).
As they walk back to the boat, Kishan says that they were really worried since she didn't even show up on their GPS tracker. HMM, it's almost like Durga told them that Kelsey needed to speak to someone in that very temple, and then Kelsey told them that she saw someone. CONSISTENCY, WHAT'S THAT??
Why, why, are all of the character such idiots??? They can't remember simple conversations they have with a friggin' GODDESS, and we're supposed to believe that they'll be the saviors of humanity?
Ugh.
Ren runs off as soon as they get back to the ship, so Kelsey explains to Kishan and Mr. Kadam what happened. She shows them the fabric Lady Silkworm gave her.
It was a black silk kimono.
Uh...this book is based on Chinese mythology, as we'll soon see with the dragons. Kimonos are Japanese. Which is very much not the same thing.
The back featured five hand-embroidered dragons in exquisite detail. They looked more like Chinese serpents than dragons.
This is such a weird way to describe that. They're dragons, but they look like something else other than dragons? Even though Kelsey knows what Chinese dragons look like, since she's able to describe them as dragons in the first place? What's the difference between a "Chinese serpent" and a regular serpent? It's two sentences but they're so bad.
She describes what they look like, and it's basically a stereotypical depiction of a Chinese dragon--long, snake-like bodies, beards, short legs with claws. Each dragon is a different color (red, white, gold, green, and blue) and are each surrounded by different symbols (stars, clouds, lightning, waves, and snowflakes). These descriptions aren't in the right order, because of course they aren't. The blue dragon is associated with clouds, for example. It's also weird because this would be a great place to incorporate the wuxing, which is the Chinese elemental system.
Mr. Kadam gets some papers from his desk and says that it's probably a map. See, there are some numbered dots also on the kimono, and connecting the dots in order of the Chinese numbers.
Yes, the super secret, hard to solve map puzzle is...a connect the dots game. It's not even a particularly difficult one.
"It's a star!" I pronounced.
Good job, Kelsey, you recognize basic shapes we learn in kindergarten! What's the point of having Kelsey say what shape it is when you include a picture showing that it's a star? It makes her look like a complete moron!
Kelsey points out that there are seven dots, and assuming the first dot is the first temple they've already been to, there's still an extra dot. Mr. Kadam says that the dots probably don't represent the dragons themselves because "[i]n Chinese mythology, dragons are revered for being helpful, especially water dragons."
In keeping with the time-honored tradition, most of what Mr. Kadam blabbers about isn't even true. Out of the five dragons, only two could be considered helpful, and out of the other three, one is evil and the other two are at best apathetic and at worst amoral monsters who kill people for monetary gain. So Mr. Kadam's just plain wrong again, even in the logic of the story where he's painted as the expert.
Kelsey suggests going straight to the last temple, but Mr. Kadam reminds her that the whole point is to go through the tests.
"You couldn't have skipped the four houses in Shangri-la."
Um, they definitely could have. I guess the bit where Hugin and Munin (ughh) fixed their brain damage (?) accomplished something, but as I talked about at length before, none of the other tests actually, uh, tested them on anything.
Mr. Kadam starts talking about dragons, which could be useful, but Kelsey falls asleep like she does in a good fifty percent of her conversations with Mr. Kadam. He wakes her up and lets her know that he'll do some research while she sleeps and he'll get her up to speed in the morning.
Can't let our protagonist use her brain or contribute to the quest at all. Gotta get that beauty sleep. Ugh.
This is probably because I recently finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but it's a good thing when you show the protagonists studying and actually working hard to achieve a goal. There are so many montages of Ed and Al sitting in a library and just reading through books while trying to figure out the answer to a problem. It's a simple way of showing that the protagonists are trying everything they can to succeed, even if you don't show us exactly what they're looking at because it isn't relevant.
Here, it just looks like Kelsey is letting side characters do the hard work so she can swoop in and take the credit later. It looks like this because it's literally what's happening. It happened in the last book, where they navigated the Tests of the Four Houses with Mr. Kadam's notes, and it'll happen again in the fourth book, too.
Kishan walks Kelsey back to her room, and hangs back, saying that he hopes they can spend some time together. She feels bad about feeling uncomfortable around him, so they cuddle for a while (which is as steamy as this romance story gets). He asks what's wrong, and she says that she's just nervous but he shouldn't take it personally.
And, uh, that's that for that scene, because after a break it's the next morning, and they're with Mr. Kadam, whose expositing about the City of Seven Pagodas. Apparently, Marco Polo described the city and connected it with Shangri-la. Remember how dumb the ass-pull was in getting Noah's Ark involved in Shangri-la? There's more of that.
"In Shangri-la, you found objects that crossed mythical boundaries between many peoples. The ravens Hugin and Munin from the Norse, the sirens of the Greek, the Ocean Teacher of Tibet, the Spirit Gates of Japan, even the Kappa of the Chinese in Kishkindha . . . all of these things go beyond the borders of India, and, as a result, I have begun to explore sunken cities of other cultures. The most famous of which is--"
"Atlantis."
Whyyyyyy
First off, calling attention to the fact that Shangri-la was stuffed with things from disparate cultures is dumb, because it made no sense then, either. Second, kappa aren't Chinese; they're Japanese. Third, you didn't realize this until now??? You've known this for literal MONTHS and you're JUST NOW putting this together? AAARGH
Kishan asks what Atlantis is, so Mr. Kadam gives us the backstory. He says Plato described the probably fictitious city. Atlantis was a beautiful land that belonged to Poseidon, and was ruled by Poseidon's son, Atlas. It was supposedly larger than Australia, and located in the Atlantic Ocean, which is named after Atlas. Hey, you know what's funny? The City of Seven Pagoda's isn't in the Atlantic Ocean.
So why is this relevant, exactly?
It was an island paradise, but everyone on the island became greedy and wanted more. This angered the gods, who banded together to destroy the island, and eventually Poseidon sank it. In punishment for being terrible, Atlas was forced to hold up the heavens.
Except for one small detail here--Plato's Atlas isn't the same Atlas as the one from the better-known Greek story. The Atlas forced to hold up the heavens was a Titan, and was punished because he sided against the Olympian gods during the Titanomachy. Plato's Atlas was the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman, probably just...named after the Titan.
FIVE MINUTES ON WIKIPEDIA.
"This is why many pictures of Atlas show him bowed down in despair as he does his duty."
Given that none of the tragic stuff happened to this Atlas, I legitimately think it's just because the sky is really heavy.
Not that any of this matters anyway, because the City of Seven Pagoda's isn't Atlantis. Atlas isn't a character that shows up later, and there's no reference to the boundary between the oceans and the sky. Which makes this story...entirely pointless.
Kelsey asks to hear about the other sunken cities Mr. Kadam alluded to earlier, and he namedrops a bunch: Meropis from Greece, Mu from Polynesia, Lemuria in the Indian Ocean, Kumari Kandam in India (so why not use this story???), Ys in Britain, Vinetta in Holland, Menouthis and Herakleion in Egypt, Port Royal in Jamaica, and Sante Fe la Vieja in Argentina.
Don't forget Leshp and most of Winterhold.
This whole section is reminding me that I could be reading Jingo instead. Now I'm sad.
Also, naming all of these cities is pointless because none of it is relevant. Everything (well, most everything) inside is based on Chinese mythology. I'd say that it even has an internal logic that makes sense, because when you don't try to shoehorn in every single myth that you can, you have some room for creativity. WEIRD.
Now we get to talk about dragons!
Mr. Kadam set out drawings he had found of the five dragons. "In Chinese culture, the dragons are each assigned a territory, one for each compass point: north, east, south, and west. That leaves the fifth dragon."
Except no, it doesn't. There are legendary animals associated with the four points of the compass, but only one of them is a dragon. There's the Azure Dragon (east), the Vermillion Bird (south), the Black Tortoise (north), and the, uh, White Tiger (west).
Last time, we got to hear two discrete stories from two characters who don't really do anything. I guess Lady Silkworm gave Kelsey something to help them on their quest, but she doesn't actually do anything other than give some very bad relationship advice. And completely rip off The Princess Bride.
Captain Dixon's story was entirely wrong, a bit sexist, and also gave some bad relationship advice.
So, like, 0/2 in terms of quality.
Also, I realized that I'm a bit of an idiot because silkworms aren't actually worms, they're caterpillars. I already knew that silk is made by boiling cocoons, I was just too dumb to put that together. Here's the silkworm moth:
So, basically exactly how Houck described it.
So, yeah, the moth isn't completely out of left field. But whatever symbolism Houck was trying to go for still makes no sense. Butterflies (and I guess moths, too) are generally symbolic of change and transformation, since they, uh, change and transform from caterpillars to butterflies. But Lady Silkworm, who's supposedly been saved by Durga, demonstrates this change in reverse, going from moth to silkworm. Wouldn't that mean her transformation is, like, a bad thing? And that Durga has doomed her to an eternity of, like, regression?
So even when Houck gets something factually right, it still makes no sense from a symbolic or thematic point of view.
Chapter Fourteen: Of Dragons and Lost Continents
What's with the name of this title? It doesn't really fit in with the other names, which are generally just a description of what happens or the name of a character.
It's dark in the temple and Kelsey finds herself pressed against a very welldeveloped [sic], masculine chest." It's Ren, whomp whomp! Kishan asks how he found her, and Ren says that a carving of a horse wearing a scarf appeared and led him to a carving of Kelsey sewing. When he touched it, he pulled her out of the wall. Apparently she was gone for quite a while--an hour.
Wait, that's not how the spirit world works! Every other time they go into the spirit world, time stops in the outside world, or at least moves very slowly! (Or, well, that's how we're told it works, even though it was unclear how time worked while they were in Shangri-la as Lokesh was still able to do things. This was, I think, because Houck can't write and just forgot that she'd established that time doesn't work while in Shangri-la, rather than the rules operating differently).
As they walk back to the boat, Kishan says that they were really worried since she didn't even show up on their GPS tracker. HMM, it's almost like Durga told them that Kelsey needed to speak to someone in that very temple, and then Kelsey told them that she saw someone. CONSISTENCY, WHAT'S THAT??
Why, why, are all of the character such idiots??? They can't remember simple conversations they have with a friggin' GODDESS, and we're supposed to believe that they'll be the saviors of humanity?
Ugh.
Ren runs off as soon as they get back to the ship, so Kelsey explains to Kishan and Mr. Kadam what happened. She shows them the fabric Lady Silkworm gave her.
It was a black silk kimono.
Uh...this book is based on Chinese mythology, as we'll soon see with the dragons. Kimonos are Japanese. Which is very much not the same thing.
The back featured five hand-embroidered dragons in exquisite detail. They looked more like Chinese serpents than dragons.
This is such a weird way to describe that. They're dragons, but they look like something else other than dragons? Even though Kelsey knows what Chinese dragons look like, since she's able to describe them as dragons in the first place? What's the difference between a "Chinese serpent" and a regular serpent? It's two sentences but they're so bad.
She describes what they look like, and it's basically a stereotypical depiction of a Chinese dragon--long, snake-like bodies, beards, short legs with claws. Each dragon is a different color (red, white, gold, green, and blue) and are each surrounded by different symbols (stars, clouds, lightning, waves, and snowflakes). These descriptions aren't in the right order, because of course they aren't. The blue dragon is associated with clouds, for example. It's also weird because this would be a great place to incorporate the wuxing, which is the Chinese elemental system.
Mr. Kadam gets some papers from his desk and says that it's probably a map. See, there are some numbered dots also on the kimono, and connecting the dots in order of the Chinese numbers.
Yes, the super secret, hard to solve map puzzle is...a connect the dots game. It's not even a particularly difficult one.
Oh, no, an easily recognizable shape! What will we do?
"It's a star!" I pronounced.
Good job, Kelsey, you recognize basic shapes we learn in kindergarten! What's the point of having Kelsey say what shape it is when you include a picture showing that it's a star? It makes her look like a complete moron!
Kelsey points out that there are seven dots, and assuming the first dot is the first temple they've already been to, there's still an extra dot. Mr. Kadam says that the dots probably don't represent the dragons themselves because "[i]n Chinese mythology, dragons are revered for being helpful, especially water dragons."
In keeping with the time-honored tradition, most of what Mr. Kadam blabbers about isn't even true. Out of the five dragons, only two could be considered helpful, and out of the other three, one is evil and the other two are at best apathetic and at worst amoral monsters who kill people for monetary gain. So Mr. Kadam's just plain wrong again, even in the logic of the story where he's painted as the expert.
Kelsey suggests going straight to the last temple, but Mr. Kadam reminds her that the whole point is to go through the tests.
"You couldn't have skipped the four houses in Shangri-la."
Um, they definitely could have. I guess the bit where Hugin and Munin (ughh) fixed their brain damage (?) accomplished something, but as I talked about at length before, none of the other tests actually, uh, tested them on anything.
Mr. Kadam starts talking about dragons, which could be useful, but Kelsey falls asleep like she does in a good fifty percent of her conversations with Mr. Kadam. He wakes her up and lets her know that he'll do some research while she sleeps and he'll get her up to speed in the morning.
Can't let our protagonist use her brain or contribute to the quest at all. Gotta get that beauty sleep. Ugh.
This is probably because I recently finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but it's a good thing when you show the protagonists studying and actually working hard to achieve a goal. There are so many montages of Ed and Al sitting in a library and just reading through books while trying to figure out the answer to a problem. It's a simple way of showing that the protagonists are trying everything they can to succeed, even if you don't show us exactly what they're looking at because it isn't relevant.
Here, it just looks like Kelsey is letting side characters do the hard work so she can swoop in and take the credit later. It looks like this because it's literally what's happening. It happened in the last book, where they navigated the Tests of the Four Houses with Mr. Kadam's notes, and it'll happen again in the fourth book, too.
Kishan walks Kelsey back to her room, and hangs back, saying that he hopes they can spend some time together. She feels bad about feeling uncomfortable around him, so they cuddle for a while (which is as steamy as this romance story gets). He asks what's wrong, and she says that she's just nervous but he shouldn't take it personally.
And, uh, that's that for that scene, because after a break it's the next morning, and they're with Mr. Kadam, whose expositing about the City of Seven Pagodas. Apparently, Marco Polo described the city and connected it with Shangri-la. Remember how dumb the ass-pull was in getting Noah's Ark involved in Shangri-la? There's more of that.
"In Shangri-la, you found objects that crossed mythical boundaries between many peoples. The ravens Hugin and Munin from the Norse, the sirens of the Greek, the Ocean Teacher of Tibet, the Spirit Gates of Japan, even the Kappa of the Chinese in Kishkindha . . . all of these things go beyond the borders of India, and, as a result, I have begun to explore sunken cities of other cultures. The most famous of which is--"
"Atlantis."
Whyyyyyy
First off, calling attention to the fact that Shangri-la was stuffed with things from disparate cultures is dumb, because it made no sense then, either. Second, kappa aren't Chinese; they're Japanese. Third, you didn't realize this until now??? You've known this for literal MONTHS and you're JUST NOW putting this together? AAARGH
Kishan asks what Atlantis is, so Mr. Kadam gives us the backstory. He says Plato described the probably fictitious city. Atlantis was a beautiful land that belonged to Poseidon, and was ruled by Poseidon's son, Atlas. It was supposedly larger than Australia, and located in the Atlantic Ocean, which is named after Atlas. Hey, you know what's funny? The City of Seven Pagoda's isn't in the Atlantic Ocean.
See: the entire Indian Ocean.
So why is this relevant, exactly?
It was an island paradise, but everyone on the island became greedy and wanted more. This angered the gods, who banded together to destroy the island, and eventually Poseidon sank it. In punishment for being terrible, Atlas was forced to hold up the heavens.
Except for one small detail here--Plato's Atlas isn't the same Atlas as the one from the better-known Greek story. The Atlas forced to hold up the heavens was a Titan, and was punished because he sided against the Olympian gods during the Titanomachy. Plato's Atlas was the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman, probably just...named after the Titan.
FIVE MINUTES ON WIKIPEDIA.
"This is why many pictures of Atlas show him bowed down in despair as he does his duty."
Given that none of the tragic stuff happened to this Atlas, I legitimately think it's just because the sky is really heavy.
Not that any of this matters anyway, because the City of Seven Pagoda's isn't Atlantis. Atlas isn't a character that shows up later, and there's no reference to the boundary between the oceans and the sky. Which makes this story...entirely pointless.
Kelsey asks to hear about the other sunken cities Mr. Kadam alluded to earlier, and he namedrops a bunch: Meropis from Greece, Mu from Polynesia, Lemuria in the Indian Ocean, Kumari Kandam in India (so why not use this story???), Ys in Britain, Vinetta in Holland, Menouthis and Herakleion in Egypt, Port Royal in Jamaica, and Sante Fe la Vieja in Argentina.
Don't forget Leshp and most of Winterhold.
This whole section is reminding me that I could be reading Jingo instead. Now I'm sad.
Also, naming all of these cities is pointless because none of it is relevant. Everything (well, most everything) inside is based on Chinese mythology. I'd say that it even has an internal logic that makes sense, because when you don't try to shoehorn in every single myth that you can, you have some room for creativity. WEIRD.
Now we get to talk about dragons!
Mr. Kadam set out drawings he had found of the five dragons. "In Chinese culture, the dragons are each assigned a territory, one for each compass point: north, east, south, and west. That leaves the fifth dragon."
Except no, it doesn't. There are legendary animals associated with the four points of the compass, but only one of them is a dragon. There's the Azure Dragon (east), the Vermillion Bird (south), the Black Tortoise (north), and the, uh, White Tiger (west).
I tried to find a picture of a compass, but they're all very New Age-y and weird.
They're each associated with a color (note: the colors are different than the ones Houck uses) and an element of the wuxing (which is also different from the elements that Houck uses).
A handy-dandy chart!
Kelsey says that the fifth dragon might be homeless, and Mr. Kadam says it would be more accurate to say it's the center point of the compass. It varies whether the center point is represented by a dragon or the mythical qilin, but I'll let this one slide because it is still sometimes associated with a dragon. I immediately take these points away because she's also gotten her colors mixed up. The center point is supposed to be yellow, but it's not in this book, because research is for Losers, even when entire chapters of your story is dedicated to showing off that you've done research.
"They are also called the dragons of the five oceans."
There are dragons that individually rule over the different seas, but these dragons are entirely unrelated to the compass other than the direction in which the sea is located. Because there are a lot of dragons in Chinese mythology, and referencing every story that involves a dragon as the same story is DUMB. Also, Chinese mythology references only four seas, ruled by Ao Guang, Ao Qin, Ao Run, and Ao Shun individually and presided over in total by the Dragon King, Long Wang. Who is, I reiterate, entirely unrelated to the Azure Dragon and Yellow Dragon used in the compass.
The four dragon kings in the Temple of Maizu in Taiwan.
Kelsey picks up a picture of a Chinese dragon dance and mentions she saw one when she went on a date with Li. Houck decides it's relevant because it has the word "dragon" in it, when that's...not true. Again, there are a lot of Chinese dragons. That's like saying every story that mentions a Cyclops in Greek mythology is about the same Cyclops. Like, no, Polyphemus and the guys that help Hephaestus aren't the same thing (to use Greek mythology as a reference, since more people are familiar with it).
Mentioning the dragon dance launches Mr. Kadam into an explanation of the importance of dragons to Chinese culture. While interesting, it's not at all relevant to what they're about to do.
"I've also been doing some research on colors. It appears that every color has different powers and characteristics. The red and black dragons are fierce and destructive. They can cause violent storms; they battle in the clouds and are said to be the source of lightning and thunder.
"Black dragons are considered evil and deceptive. Reds are associated with all the symbols of red: blood, temper, anger, love, fire, passion, volcanoes."
So are "red and black" dragons black or red? That's two colors. Also, I love how "volcanoes" is just tacked onto the end there. One of these things is not like the others...
"Blues are more peaceful. They like ice and cold waters. Golds are the kings and queens of dragons; they hoard wealth. Greens can heal and promote wellness but also cause earthquakes, spew acid, and eat humans. Whites are reflective and wise; they are seen only rarely, tell half-truths, are omens of death, and their scales shine like mirrors."
This reads like a D&D manual. In reality, the colors tend to be associated with the five elements in the wuxing. Additionally, yellow dragons (not even mentioned by Houck) are generally representative of royalty because yellow was the color worn by the emperor.
In-universe...they're also wrong! The red and black dragon is pretty chill, the green dragon does, like, the opposite of healing and promoting wellness, and the white dragon assists them and isn't an omen of death in any way.
Houck covers her ass:
"Remember, Miss Kelsey, that this is all research. Your dragons could be similar to these or completely different."
I guess this is to say, "Well, it doesn't matter if all of my research is wrong, so there!" But if you're going to share research in fiction, where things are generally constructed around a narrative, yes it matters if the research that you, the author, choose to share with us is correct or not. If you tell us that what you share might not be correct, and then it isn't, we as the readers have no way to learn how the world works, lose all faith in you as a storyteller, and get very bored because we spend chapters and chapters talking about stuff that doesn't matter.
He talks at length about dragons, which is annoying because the stuff that's summarized is actually the stuff that happens in the book, because this book was edited by monkeys. The relevant stuff is that some dragons live in crystal palaces underwater, that dragons can cause waterspouts, typhoons, and hurricanes.
He spoke of bearded dragons [. . .]
???
I think Houck means "dragons with beards," but a bearded dragon is a thing that exists.
He also names Ao Guang, Ao Qin, Ao Run, and Ao Shun, but incorrectly labels them as the dragons of the four compass points. This is weird, because even in the logic of this book where the compass points are represented by dragons, these aren't their names.
Mr. Kadam decides to go over their maps while Kelsey (the woman) rustles up some lunch, which Sucks. He's sent the staff to shore for the day, so they can use the Golden Fruit.
The Fruit made sandwiches and a tray of sliced melon, which I offered to Mr. Kadam but he waved it away, so intent was he in his studies of the map.
Say, I haven't mentioned this before, but how come the Golden Fruit can make some things that aren't food (as in, plates, trays, and glasses) but not water? But the Scarf can only make things out of fabric? That doesn't seem very consistent to me.
Kelsey picks up the kimono and starts fucking around with it. She places her finger on the dot representing the Shore Temple and traces the line to the first dot. Her hand starts glowing and the threads making up the dot unravel and travel across the black silk until they reach the red dragon, which roars. Then they all start to feel the ship moving. And that's the end of the chapter.
Hey, points for coming up with a kind of cool way for them to get from place to place. A touch-screen kimono that takes you where you want to go is pretty original and feels like it fits in with what little we know of how Kelsey's powers work.
Closing Thoughts
Wow, that was a rough one. Whenever Houck starts talking about mythology (which is always done in such an authoritative tone, which is irritating), I always know I have to do a bunch of research to fact check.
No, fictional retellings of myths and folklore don't have to be 100% accurate. But there should at least be an attempt to get them right. The changes should feel intentional rather than like you just accidentally didn't do enough research, you know?
Additionally, this chapter is all about Mr. Kadam sharing the myths. They're presented as the authoritative version of the mythology, and there's even a disclaimer included saying that reality might not actually be what the stories say. So in that situation, these stories shouldn't have this many inaccuracies. And this is just the stuff that I, an overworked student with no background in studying this stuff, can find in a quick Google search. It's honestly just embarrassing.
Next time, Chapter Fifteen: The Red Dragon's Star! Houck's dragons are...weird.
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