Warning!! The following contains spoilers for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, available now.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy sees the ragtag team of heroes face off with one of the cosmos' deadliest threats - The Universal Church of Truth. Fueled by faith energy, the Church gains its followers by manipulating their minds to believe a false reality. After two failed attempts to stop the Church, the Guardians are at a loss on how to defeat the growing threat. However, the team's resident Space Llama, Kammy, gives Peter Quill the idea to get Lady Hellbender's aid by trapping the massive dragon, Fin Fang Foom.
Foom is a shape-changing alien from the Planet Maklua IV that has been the focus of Drax the Destroyer's species for generations. In the comics, his status is just as important. Foom has impacted Earth's history for centuries by helping to create the legends of Chinese dragons. Design-wise, he greatly resembled classic artwork of dragons, but his strangest feature was the shorts he would wear over his scales. Thankfully, this peculiar design choice was rectified and homaged in the game.
In the game, Drax desired to impress Lady Hellbender by bringing her Fin Fang Foom. Hellbender is a warlord who rules over Seknarf-Nine and deals in exotic animals. Her goal is to make sure that these creatures have safe homes under her care, even if it means killing those that cross her. Unfortunately, the Guardians cross her, forcing her to place a bounty on their heads that follows them throughout the game. However, to defeat the Church, the team decides to humor Drax and catch Foom to get on Lady Hellbender's good side.
After a crash landing on Maklua IV, the Guardians make their way towards the home of Fin Fang Foom. During their adventure, the team talks about their plan and the legends surrounding the dragon. Of the legends, Rocket mentions that Foom also wears purple shorts. Logically, Quill scoffs at the idea until Drax backs up Rocket's claim, stating that some legends mention shorts.
When the team finally faces off against the fabled dragon, he appears without shorts. But even though his most peculiar clothing accessory was nixed, the developers gave the creature a purple underbelly. Not only did the organic look give a more animalistic quality to the creature, but it also made him look more dangerous than comical. The purple underbelly also works as a reason for why many believed he wore shorts in the legends. Since the dragon can move quickly, they could easily appear as shorts at a glance.
Fin Fang Foom was a surprising addition to the game since none of the trailers came close to teasing his appearance. Instead, the game makes sure to nod to his past but doesn't let his early looks detract from his more menacing video game design. In the end, the surprise boss battle works as excellent fan service for longtime readers and shows how a character mainly known for his shorts can appear even more deadly and animalistic in other outlets.