Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: Difference between revisions
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[[File:n170083.jpg|frame|Needs more awesome. The only dragon here is on the [[Covers Always Lie|cover]].]]
{{quote|''"A cavalry? I'd rather have preferred a dragon."''
Even though [[Our Dragons Are Different]], they are still awesome in whatever form. Therefore works where dragons are not important to the story will often throw in a dragon anyway, just for the hell of it.
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Sometimes it's justified by a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], but it's still this trope when it otherwise fits.
Compare [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha]], [[Rent-A-Zilla]], [[Dragons Up the Yin
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has thrown in some dragons. The first one is a guardian in [[The Library of Babel|Library Island]] who apparently works as a watchman for Albireo Imma. The latter of the two dragons existed solely for [[Ninja|Kaede]] to defeat [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|while blindfolded]]. There's also the significantly [[Super Weight|less-powered]] ([[Action Survivor|only having recently graduated]] from [[Muggle]] status) [[Badass Bookworm|Yue]] taking a [[Biological Mashup|Gryphon-Dragon]] down with an [[Joke Weapon|ornamental dagger]] and [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]. At about the same time [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|Kaede]] brought hers down, [[Everything's Better
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has thrown in some dragons. The first one is a guardian in [[The Library of Babel|Library Island]] who apparently works as a watchman for Albireo Imma. The latter of the two dragons existed solely for [[Ninja|Kaede]] to defeat [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|while blindfolded]]. There's also the significantly [[Super Weight|less-powered]] ([[Action Survivor|only having recently graduated]] from [[Muggle]] status) [[Badass Bookworm|Yue]] taking a [[Biological Mashup|Gryphon-Dragon]] down with an [[Joke Weapon|ornamental dagger]] and [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]. At about the same time [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja|Kaede]] brought hers down, [[Everything's Better With Samurai|Setsuna]] and [[Cute Bruiser|Asuna]] took another one down, as well. [[Big Bad|Fate]] also demonstrates an [[Offhand Backhand]] to kill one of those dragons that had been left with a [[Non-Lethal KO]] by the heroines. Dragons are pretty much the [[The Worf Effect|Worf]] of Negima. Though there is Vrixas Nagasha, which fought Jack Rakan to a standstill.
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', you can mold an element into a dragon-shaped projectile, for example Kakashi and Zabuza made two dragons made of water clash.
** Sasuke has an attack in the manga that causes a small flame to travel a length of string. Apparently the anime adaptation took inspiration from this trope because the anime version of this attack ''sends a giant dragon made of fire along the length of string''.
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* In [[One Piece]], the leader of the Revolutionary Army, [[Mysterious Parent|Dragon]] is apparently only called so because it sounds cool.
** {{spoiler|In chapter 655, Luffy's crew encounters a real dragon.}}
* In ''[[
* From ''[[Bleach]]'', we have Toshiro Hitsugaya, who's zanpakuto can manifest into an ice dragon.
* In [[Fullmetal Alchemist (
* The hentai ''[[Dragon Pink]]'', despite the title, has no dragons in any form.
* Some of the most powerful [[Digimon]] belong to the "dramon" class, such as [[Digimon Adventure 02|Imperialdramon]] and the Seadramon line. They are [http://digimon.wikia.com/wiki/Dramon characterized] as having traits associated with dragons, but not all of them look draconic; [[Digimon Adventure|Birdramon]] looks like a big [[Toothy Bird]], but ''does'' [[Kill It
== Comics ==▼
* When Ron Marz took over writing ''[[Witchblade (Comic Book)|Witchblade]]'', his introductory arc (which was meant as a compelling jumping on point for new readers) pitted the hero against an evil cult within the Catholic Church intent on summoning a "living god" from another dimension. Given Witchblade's typical milieu - it's far from high fantasy - one would expect something bipedal and vaguely demonic or [[Light Is Not Good|angelic]], or more rarely, a Cthuluesque eldritch abomination. Nope, not this time. Just a straight-up D&D-style bat-winged dragon.
* In ''[[X
* In the [[Daria]] [[Fanfic]] series '' 'Legion of Lawndale Heroes' '', the Legionnaires are fighting The Alliance - another team of young metahumans. After [[The Worf Effect|her first volley is literally brushed aside by one of the kids, who says, "I thought you were going to be impressive"]], Quinn turns to Charles 'Upchuck' Ruttheimer and says, "Charles... impress them." [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|They are suitably impressed when Charles moves towards them - and turns into GODZILLA.]]
▲== Card Games ==
* [[Magic the Gathering]] has regularly featured Dragons. Typically they are Red cards, almost always have Flying, and are generally Red's most powerful individual creatures. Blue occasionally has Drakes, but they're getting rarer in recent editions.▼
** Particularly impressive in two blocks: Innistrad is a gothic horror setting...with dragons, and Ravnica's dragons are ''extinct''...except the ones that aren't, such as [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89086 this one], which isn't even legendary.▼
* [http://www.dragonstorm.com/ Dragon Storm] is an RPG collectable card game that features dragons as one of the playable character types.▼
▲== [[Fanfic]] ==
▲* In the [[Daria]] [[Fanfic]] series '' 'Legion of Lawndale Heroes' '', the Legionnaires are fighting The Alliance - another team of young metahumans. After [[The Worf Effect|her first volley is literally brushed aside by one of the kids, who says, "I thought you were going to be impressive"]], Quinn turns to Charles 'Upchuck' Ruttheimer and says, "Charles... impress them." [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|They are suitably impressed when Charles moves towards them - and turns into GODZILLA.]]
* In the Lord of the Rings fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3871735/1/Ancient_Prophecy_fullfilled Ancient Prophecy fullfilled]'', the author's OC's are something akin to Maiar (In-Universe Angelic Beings) who can shapeshift, and prefer to walk around as dragons. Que an [[Oh Crap]] moment when the father of those OC's decides to come back into the picture...
* George becomes a red dragon twice in ''[[
** It's a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] because doing so established him as just as much of a heavyweight as John and Paul.
*** [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]
* When Maleficent [[Scaled Up|turns into a dragon]] at the end of ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]''. Even if the Disney version didn't originate that, it's likely an earlier version did it for this trope.▼
* In another Disney animated feature, ''[[The Sword in
=== Film --
▲* When Maleficent [[Scaled Up|turns into a dragon]] at the end of ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney)|Sleeping Beauty]]''. Even if the Disney version didn't originate that, it's likely an earlier version did it for this trope.
▲* In another Disney animated feature, ''[[The Sword in The Stone (Disney)|The Sword in The Stone]]'', the wizard's duel culminates in Mad Madam Mim [[Loophole Abuse|breaking her own rules]], one being to not turn into anything make-believe, such as pink dragons, and turning into a ''purple'' dragon.
▲== Film -- Live Action ==
* The film ''[[Godzilla]]: Final Wars'' features a battle between the high-tech submarine, the Gotengo, and the Chinese dragon Kaiju, Manda. Manda is only there as yet another random monster to be featured in the movie and is quickly killed off at the beginning.
** And then there's Godzilla's final battle against <s>Monster X</s> Keizer Ghidorah, which is also an homage to the classic "Godzilla VS King Ghidorah" battles.
** Speaking of King Ghidorah, his appearances in ''Destroy All Monsters'' and ''Godzilla VS Gigan'' certainly count since the three-headed dragon is NOT the main focus in either film.
*** Manda also appears in ''Destroy All Monsters'''.
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Remember the krayt dragon skeleton from ''[[A New Hope]]''? Purely there to add a little awesome. So was Boga, the feathered lizard-mount Obi-Wan rode in ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]''. The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], while usually trying to stay clear of obvious references to Earth animals and myths, has various species of dragon, many of them said to be the nonsentient offspring of [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Duinuogwuin Duinuogwuin], which are a strange people like ten-to-a-hundred meter long centipedes with wings, hands, organic cold fusion reactors, and the ability to live in deep space. They're also called Star Dragons, and although they almost never actually ''appear'', they get mentioned as [[Noodle Incident
* "[[Starsky and Hutch (
* ''[[Sucker Punch]]''.
* The ''[[Harry Potter (
* As the page quote shows, this is subverted and lampshaded in ''[[The
== Literature ==
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* In [[The Dresden Files]] ' third book, ''Grave Peril'', an elder dragon (think "minor god-level") named Ferrovax makes an appereance. He's only shown for [[One-Scene Wonder|one scene]], in which he brings Harry to his knees with only half of his True Name (without even using magic, just raw willpower), receives a mysterious gift [[Chekhov's Gun|that will almost certainly be important in the future]], then leaves. [[Word of God]] has it that he'll play a part in the final apocalyptic trilogy.
* ''[[Duumvirate]]''. One of [[Mad Scientist Laboratory|Northberg]]'s [[Evilutionary Biologist|scientists]] decided to make dragons, just because he could.
* In the [[Star Trek Enterprise Relaunch]] novels, a battle during the Romulan War takes place on Berengaria VII. Dragons show up to eat Romulans. There's no particular reason for it, but, hey, we're on Berengaria, previously established in throwaway lines of [[Star Trek:
* In the ''[[Shadowrun]]'' novels and associated table-top RPG, dragons are rare, but enough people found Dunkelzahn awesome to get him elected President by popular vote.
** There's also the plotline behind Night's Dawn, where Alamais the dragon is the main antagonist, but just shows up out of nowhere to be killed by laser bombardment, having previously been seen only in the prologue as part of an ambush. This troper had a bit of a [[Deadpan Snarker]] moment when asked by a friend about the book, comparing it to the ending of the Shadows over Mystara videogame. Its really more of a 'battle between brothers' kind of novel with the non-literal [[The Dragon|dragon]] being the primary story element.
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* For most of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series, dragons are added primarily for the awesome (they appear only as plot devices).
* This is the entire premise of [[The Crown Colonies]] series: colonial New England with Dragons. And zombies. And muskets are fired by magic.
* The creature on most of the [[Dragaera|Vlad Taltos]] cover arts is ''supposed'' to be a
* The first book in the ''[[
* The [[Wheel of Time]] - thus far, no Dragon of any sort has materialized except the "Dragon Reborn", a male Channeler meant to fight the Dark One. His emblem is a lizardlike dragon, but no-one has any idea what it is, only that it's his emblem. The male half of the Aes Sedai symbol has become negatively associated with the Drgaon Reborn, and conflated with the Dark One. There's no real reason for either of them to be in, except this trope.
* ''[[
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' have been known to throw dragons in for the hell of it. A dragon flew out of the portal created by Glory in the season 5 finale of Buffy, and Angel fights a dragon ([[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|offscreen]]) in its series finale (also its season 5 finale, interestingly enough).
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', they have to deduce a dragon's name as part of a test. Vala suggests they start guessing and names it "Darrell", while Cam throws in "Smokey".
** [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Perhaps, Puff?]]
* ''[[Tic
* In ''[[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]]'' and [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|its American adaptation]], the main team pilots [[Humongous Mecha]] based on [[Stock Dinosaurs]]. The [[Trope Namer|TropeNaming]] [[Sixth Ranger
== Music ==
* The name of the band [[
* [[Summoning]] put a dragon on the cover of their album ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame''.
* The music video for [[Shine
* I Fight Dragons
** If they do a [[Cover Version|cover]] of a song, they define this trope even more (i.e., [[The Power of Love]] +
* Jimmy Page, of [[Led Zeppelin]] fame, was noted for wearing what was and will always be the coolest onstage costume of all time, the Dragon Suit.
* The cover of the self-titled Asia Album.
* For no apparent reason, Chris Squire, bassist of [[Yes]], sometimes wears a robe with a dragon on at shows.
▲== Tabletop [[RP Gs]] ==
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', Elementals gain draconic forms when they breach a certain threshold of power, regardless of what their original form was. There's no real reason for this; [[Word of God]] says that they are emulating the ideal of the Five Elemental Dragons, who, while not elementals themselves, were the basic template that elementals were designed off of. But we all know the real reason.
▲* [[Magic:
▲** Particularly impressive in two blocks: Innistrad is a gothic horror setting...with dragons, and Ravnica's dragons are ''extinct''...except the ones that aren't, such as [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89086 this one], which isn't even legendary.
▲* [http://www.dragonstorm.com/ Dragon Storm] is an RPG collectable card game that features dragons as one of the playable character types.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''; yeah, right there in the title. Some notable examples:
** ''[[Dragonlance]]''; mortal beings work alongside dragons and worship draconic gods.
** ''[[Council of Wyrms]]'' was a (sadly unsuccessful) setting with dragon PCs.
** ''[[Birthright]]'': Cerilian dragons are rare and among the most ancient and powerful beings in the world. A Cerilian dragon's breath weapons can be compared to erupting volcano.
** In the ''[[Dark Sun]]'' campaign, there are no "natural" dragons, the Athasian Drakes being the closest you can come to that. However, powerful defilers often use an unholy ritual to become dragon-like beings. Preservers have their own version, which they use to combat the evil types, but eventually succumb to madness. ''The'' Dragon is a term used for [https://darksun.fandom.com/wiki/Borys Sorcerer King Borys], undoubtedly [[Big Bad| the most powerful evil force on Athas.]]
== Toys ==
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== Video Games ==
* Since so many [[Video Game]] [[RPG
** ''[[
** The ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' series is another exception, as the main character is ''always'' a human-dragon hybrid of some sort.
*** That doesn't mean that you don't fight dragons. In fact, every game in the series has you fighting against your own kind for some reason or another, and they are ''always'' more powerful than you.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' got a sidequest based on
** The paper-thin background lore is that Crusader, the strongest of the Espers, was sealed during the ancient War of the Magi using the power of eight dragons. These "Crusader" dragons are vicious, but defeating them will get you the Crusader magicite, the only Esper that can teach Merton/Meltdown. [[Awesome but Impractical|Which really isn't much of a reward, but hey.]]
** The Bahamut summon that appears in almost every FF game.
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* [[Altered Beast]] allows players to become a dragon in level 2. Also, two of the bosses are dragons.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', the only games in which dragons of some sort appear without playing a major part in the story is Daggerfall, with the small and actually-not-dragons dragonlings (an actual dragon is in the game files, but it does not seem to have been implemented). The other three games with dragons - Redguard (the super-weapon that set-up the situation and Tiber Septim's loyal servant), Oblivion (an avatar of a God that shows up to rescue the day after desperate measures are taken) and Skyrim (the [[Big Bad]]) - all have them as important parts of the story, and so does not quite fit this trope. That the God of Time near-universally amongst Tamriel's peoples is a ''Dragon'' God of Time may have something to do with this trope, though...
* In ''E.V.O.'', if you eat a red crystal you temporarily get a powerful form depending on your current animal type. Naturally, if you're a bird, that temporary form is a Dragon
** The red crystal forms are fixed, you just have to be a bird to reach the dragon one (and the gargoyle one). Temporarily turning into one via green crystal works too, since the effect doesn't wear off inside the cloud maze for some reason.
* In the infamous MMORPG ''[[Maple Story]]'', there's a 3rd job class that is pretty much dedicated to this trope. The Dragon Knight. Said class's skills ALL INVOLVE DRAGONS in some way or another. Dragon Crusher, Dragon Fury, Dragon Roar, Dragon Blood, etc. These attacks are arguably some of the flashiest skills in the game, which is a huge motivation point for those who went for the extreemely boring Spearman class and want to keep going forward.
* The Dragon-type in ''[[Pokémon]]''. They are arguably the handiest Pokemon to own since they resist [[Playing
** As a counterbalance, they are weak to the ''incredibly common'' Ice type and to their own type.
*** Kingdra and Palkia are Dragon/Water types, contering the Dragon-type's Ice weakness.
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** Dragon type trainers are known for being very badass. [[Little Miss Badass|Iris]], [[Jerkass|Clair]], [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|Lance]], [[Badass Grandpa|Drake, Drayden]]..
* The ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' series routinely has all sorts of dragons among the most powerful (and expensive) creatures available. The 5th entry even turned all gods (including the evil one) into dragons, with the units being the offspring of the gods. And not to forget the Dragon Utopia, a treasure hoard guarded by, yes, dragons.
** The spinoff [[Warriors of Might and Magic]] features a powerful dragon named Thalin Thraxxus as a boss in the [[
* Ridley in ''[[Metroid]] Fusion''. While he is a major character in the series, Fusion is one of the few games in the series that doesn't involve the [[Space Pirates]] in plot-related role, so he seems a little out of place.
** In the beginning of the game when you are first exploring the vessel, you see the frozen corpse of the Ridley from Super Metroid. Later in the game, the X parasite takes Ridley's DNA, leaving the corpse's shell.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
*
* The ''[[Shining Force|Shining]]'' series is chock-full of dragons, playable or otherwise, and they're almost always among the strongest characters. ''Shining Soul'' introduced an entire new species, Dragonutes, to the canon.
* ''[[
* [[Dragon Age]], despite the name, has only one true adult dragon, as an ''optional'' fight. The only other Dragonkin in the game are very young and small, or {{spoiler|a shapeshifted witch, and an Archdemon.}}
* You fight a slow, slothful zombie dragon at the beginning of ''[[Demons Crest]]'' on the SNES, a dragon figures into the backstory, and Firebrand's Demon Fire has a dragon-shaped appearance.
* ''[[
* In [[Touhou Project]], the God of Gensokyo is simply referred to as The Dragon. Theory goes that Hong Meiling is a Chinese dragon in girl form; she's one of the very few [[Youkai]] whose exact species isn't identified by [[Word of God|ZUN]], and thematically she references Chinese dragons in a number of ways.
* ''[[Mega Man X|Mega Man X4]]'' had [[Playing
* ''[[Bug!
* Yoshi from [[Super Mario Bros.]], contrary to popular belief, is not a dinosaur, but actually a dragon.
* [[Fate/stay
** Unless you count the mana-circuit-eating dragon from the anime that replaced the H scene.
* The ''Xtended'' mods for the ''[[X (
== Web Animation ==
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' didn't have a dragon until someone asked Strong Bad if he could draw one. Thus, Trogdor was born.
** And the "S Is For Sucks" Dragon.
** In ''The King of Town's Very Own Quite Popular Cartoon Show'' The Knight tries to use a dragon as one of many methods to deodorize [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103112130/http://www.homestarrunner.com/kotpopshow.html the Poopsmith]
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Parodied in [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/6/ this] ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' strip.
* Terezi Pyrope's lusus from ''[[Homestuck]]'' is a dragon. This has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but is awesome none the less.
** Terezi occasionally also [[Role Play
* Dan of ''[[
== [[Web Originals]] ==
* There was a story arc in [[Avatar Adventures]] revolving around dragons. It was awesome.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Fairly
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' The original fire benders and although most of them have be hunted down by the fire nation, two of the ones left end up teaching Aang and Zuko the true nature of fire bending. Also in the Avatar's last previous life, Roku, had a pet dragon.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': Both [[Everything's Better
* There are more than a few [[Transformers]] with dragon altmodes. [[Transformers Generation
* Dulcy in ''[[Sonic
* In the ''[[Teen Titans (
* Spike, a baby dragon, has been in the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' cartoons, in their various incarnations.
== Real Life ==
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