>>50153973It can be both, though. the Deino line definitely had a lot of thought put into it. "Modern" inspirations such as King Ghidorah (which, to be fair, is itself based on Orochi, but Orochi doesn't fly and Gen V Hydreigon's cry sounds like a deeper version of Heisei-era Ghidorah's roar), puppets (extremely likely IMO, the dangling animations Hydreigon has are too similar to the flailing you see from marionettes to be a complete coincidence), and tanks (confirmed in a Sugimori interview around the time of the BW launch) were combined with older legends like Orochi and the Hydra, along with some concepts from nature like how cave dwelling animals have poor to non-existent vision. Bundling all those ideas in a way that makes sense and doesn't look cluttered is a tall order for most design teams, and I'm very happy with how Game Freak pulled it off.
Also posting another 'mon I find cool due to diverse origins.
