Call a Pegasus a Hippogriff: Difference between revisions

 

When a completely fantastical character is named after a commonly-known creature, see [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit]], which is a sister trope. The title is a takeoff on [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp]], and is a reference to one of the best-known examples.

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' there's an in-story example when the group encounters a monstrous dog creature with multiple heads. Nodoka, being the high-fantasy book fan, identifies it as Orthrus by its snake-head tails. But at the same time, it has three heads total like Cerberus (whereas Orthrus had two), so she can't really identify it as anything. {{spoiler|This probably serves as a [[Chekhov's Gun]] because the person who conjured it (it was actually an illusion) was just a child with likely not much knowledge on mystical consistency}}. Note that in some myths, Cerberus is depicted with a snake tail or with snakes on his back.

* There are carnivorous "Alicorns" (also called "One-Horns", but guess what unicorn means) in the ''Elvenbane'' series as well. Traditionally, this word refers to either [[Winged Unicorn|winged unicorns]] or the horn of a unicorn, although it's likely a result of centuries of [[Recursive Translation]] from English <-> French (unicorn -> ''une icorne'' -> ''l'icorne'' -> a licorn -> alicorn).

** Some of the main characters are shapeshifting superintelligent dragons who are, in some details, [[Our Dragons Are Different|quite different]].