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Our Dragons Are Different: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:kidbydragons01.png|link=
{{quote|
Nearly every culture has myths about something called a 'dragon', despite the fact none of them can agree on exactly ''what'' dragons are. How big are they? What do they look like? How many heads do they have? Do they breathe [[Kill It with Fire|fire]]? Or [[Kill It with Ice|ice]]? Do they fly (and if so, with or without wings)? How many legs do they have? Are they dumb as planks, or superintelligent? Are they low scaly pests, or ultra-rare Uber-serpents [[Stronger with Age|ancient and powerful as the Earth itself]]?
▲{{quote| ''"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."''}}
▲Nearly every culture has myths about something called a 'dragon', despite the fact none of them can agree on exactly ''what'' dragons are. How big are they? What do they look like? How many heads do they have? Do they breathe [[Kill It with Fire|fire]]? Or [[Kill It with Ice|ice]]? Do they fly (and if so, with or without wings)? How many legs do they have? Are they dumb as planks, or superintelligent? Are they low scaly pests, or ultra-rare Uber-serpents [[Stronger with Age|ancient and powerful as the Earth itself]]?
And most importantly, ''do they think we taste good with ketchup?!?''
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|Are usually [[Kill All Humans|antagonistic towards humans]].||Are benign, [[Beware the Nice Ones|but capable of destructive force when provoked]].
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|[[Breath Weapon|Breathe fire]]
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|Kidnap [[Damsel in Distress|damsels]] and/or hoard treasure. Often greedy and/or insatiable, especially in the latter regard.||
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|Either [[Giant Flyer|fly with bat-like wings]], or they lack wings and don't fly.||Can fly via magic even if they lack wings, which they usually do. When they do have wings, they are often birdlike.
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|Have varying levels of intelligence. Prior to [[Trope
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|Often have some form of innate magic if intelligent. They can also be immune to all magic.||Often have the ability to [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|transform into other animals]] and may even [[Humanity Ensues|assume human form]]. The latter is the [[Shapeshifting Squick|reason why]] [[Half-Human Hybrid|there are half-dragons in Fantasy]].
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|Live for a very long time, if not actually immortal.||May be an out and out [[Physical God]].
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|Are [[Flying Brick|incredibly strong]] and [[Healing Factor|hard to kill]] but usually have one or two [[Achilles' Heel|fatal weak spots]]. This is traditionally under the chin, but post-Tolkien, it's more likely to be on the chest or belly, and [[Go for the Eye|the eye]] is popular too.||In relation to the above, pretty much invincible. Not that people actively seek them out to kill them anyway.
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|Sometimes have poisonous blood, breath, saliva, or some such. Often, this will kill you after you kill it. If their blood isn't poisonous, it grants special powers such as invincibility.||
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Rivaling the wyvern is the '''Hydra''' from [[Greek Mythology]], which is often depicted as a flightless dragon-like water or swamp beast with one or more heads; [[Hydra Problem|for each head you cut off, two rapidly grow to replace it.]] If they have a [[Breath Weapon]], it's often a different one for each head. The original sprayed poison and had poison for blood.
Very old (Greek and Roman, and some medieval) dragons are presented as more serpentine than the more recent
Other reptilian or [[Biological Mashup|reptile/avian mixed]] mythological creatures, particularly the '''Basilisk''', '''Cockatrice''' and '''Quetzalcoatl''', may be considered types of dragons or similar creatures in some works.
A more recent trend has been to try and make dragons that could actually exist in the real world. Naturally, these tend to either use [[Science Fiction]] concepts or be very different from traditional dragons. Also common in later works is a tendency for dragons to [[Bond Creatures|form a life-long]] bond with any human or humanoid who is [[A Boy and His X|present when they hatch]] (probably inspired by the 'imprinting' which occurs with most birds in [[Real Life]], which is why birds raised in captivity with the intent to be released must be cared for by puppets). This gives writers a way to give dragons unique psychology without having to come up with unique motivations for them. It also explains why humanoid [[Dragon Rider
You'd think regular old dragons were boring or something!
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Compare [[Giant Flyer]], and other [[Dragon Tropes]].
Not to be confused with [[The Dragon]], a position only sometimes held by a real dragon (while dragons themselves can just as easily be [[Big Bad
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples on subpages}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dragon Tropes]]
[[Category:Our Monsters Are Different]]
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[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]
[[Category:Mythical Motifs]]
▲[[Category:index]]
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