Our Dragons Are Different/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** It should be noted that in universe, the dragons vary from nation to nation, mainly by facial differences (lenght of head, horns, etc). Jake, being a mixed-race character, in dragon form shows markings of both traditional Western and Eastern dragons, whose dominance depends on the season. In season 1, he had a more Western body type (big and buff) with a longer Eastern type head; in season 2, he strangely reverted to a more long and skinny Eastern style body, with head and face now little more than his human self, just dragonized. There's also rules of magic, (silly) dragon diseases, and the rule that dragons are the protectors of the magical world.

*** They're also weak against [[Kryptonite Factor|Sphinx hair]].

** Additionally, the Sun Warriors claim that fire, particularly that which the sun is made of, is the source of life as it produces the heat necessary to live. That means, at least philosophically, that The Last Airbender's dragons breathe both fire and sheng chi.

** Not to mention Wan She Tong, which is a strange owl-dragon hybrid.

* There are quite a few ''[[Transformers]]'' who transform into dragons, despite real dragons generally ([http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Dragon but not always]) being nowhere to be seen. Aside from all being Western-style dragons, they're as different as the individuals that turn into them.

** And stupid. Don't forget stupid. Dulcy can't land worth beans, and regularly falls asleep in midair, which is problematic since she can't, you know, fly while she's sleeping.

* The animated feature ''[[Hellboy]]: Sword of Storms'' apparently set out to make its dragons as different as possible, stretching the definition of "dragon" a bit further than it could go in the process. Everything from human-sized, human-shaped ogres with lightning powers to unimaginably [[Cosmic Horror|huge, squashy undersea demons]] are identified as dragons. This might not have been so jarring if we saw anything onscreen that anyone off the street would call a dragon.

** The comparatively better-known ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]'' similarly had a small dragon who looked like a winged pig.

*** Dave the Barbarian also had more conventional dragons. Faffy himself was routinely referred to as a "flying potato" and noted to be pretty pathetic by dragon standards.

** Even stranger is how his statue in the early episodes is a traditional Chinese design, long and swirling, but his actual form is the mixed form above.

* ''[[My Little Pony]]'': Spike actually learns this as an Aesop in "Spike's Search". Additionally, the dragon (though he is curiously never refered to as such) in "Through The Door" is literally just a [[Punch Clock Villain]] (they really like that trope) and is very [[Emo]] about having to be the bad guy all the time.

*** Additionally, dragons seem to age quite slowly but live a very long time. Spike's personality fits a kid of 8-10 years old, and the canon timeline supports him having lived about that long, but he's still tiny enough to ride on Twilight's back, and chubby as a toddler; the ponies all refer to him as a 'baby' dragon. Meanwhile, the dragons we meet in "Dragonshy" and "Owl's Well That Ends Well" are gigantic enough to swallow a pony in one bite (in Fluttershy's words), and apparently, sleeping for one hundred years only qualifies as a ''nap''.

**** The episode "The Secret of My Excess" shows that draconic maturity is related to greed and hoarding, the more they hoard the bigger they get {{spoiler|and giving it up makes them shrink.}}

** In G3 Spike mentions waking up from a 1000 year nap, but he still looks like a baby. That really makes you wonder how dragons age..

** In the pilot for the series Tirek has some dragon-like animals which looked like no other dragons in the series.

** It gets worse: {{spoiler|those dragons can also lay Eliatrope Dofus, a single egg which contains a baby dragon and a baby human, the latter gaining teleportation-related powers. And yes, Yugo, [[The Hero]], hatched from one of those eggs.}}

* As the name suggests, ''[[Dragon Hunters]]'' takes this trope and runs with it. Gwizdo and Lian-chu, the titular hunters, go after a number of different kinds of dragons over the course of the series, and no two alike. With all the variety, it seems most likely that any creature that is threatening enough to make a village hire hunters to get rid of it is labeled a "dragon" for simplicity's sake.

* And then there's ''[[Dragon Tales]]''...

** Bo on the Go also takes the "dragons are reptile-marsupials" approach.

* ''[[The Pirates of Dark Water]]'' featured dragons (or rather "Dagrons"), but they were apparently exceedingly rare. Dagrons were pretty much your standard green Western dragon critter. One episode featurd a magic cowl that would turn the wearer, physically ''and'' mentally, into a dagron.

* In the ''[[Rupert The Bear]]'' stories Tiger Lilly keeps a small, eastern dragon as a pet.

* The eponymous dragon in ''[[Potatoes and Dragons]]'' can't fly, and its body and head are just kind of a green lump with stegosaur-like spikes. It also has an irrational hatred of crowns for some bizarre reason.

* ''[[The Herculoids]]''. Zok, the dragon with [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser]] [[Eye Beams|beam]] eyes.

Tales of derring-do,<br />

Bad and good luck-tales! }}

* In ''[[Son Of The White Mare]]'', the three dragons are part of the ancient evil released out of curiosity by the brides of the progenitors' three sons. They bear resemblence to the multi headed humanoid dragons from Hungarian folklore, but strongly deviate from the traditional depictions. The three headed dragon is a massive golem of rock and lava, the seven headed is a [[Military Mashup Machine]] that looks like it several world war 2 german tanks welded togerther while the twelve headed dragon looks like a cross between a modern day metropolis and a giant computer mainframe.

* One rather odd episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' was about Garfield and his owner Jon Arbuckle ordering food at a Chinese restaurant when the waitress noticed that Garfield was actually eating too much food. She then cautions Jon by telling him an ancient Chinese folktale about an evil dragon who threatened a nearby village to completely relinquish their food otherwise he will set their village on fire. A big tiger-striped cat challenges the dragon to an eating contest in order to get the villagers' food back and wins. The dragon gets very furious and starts chasing away the cat, and while everyone's food has finally been rescued by the cat, both the dragon and the cat were never seen again. After she is finished, the waitress tells Jon that if the orange-and-black cat's descendant (in this case, Garfield himself) eats too much, then the dragon from the folktale will have his revenge. The episode ends with Garfield and Jon leaving the restaurant, while the dragon looks on while disguised as a paper dragon.

 

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