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Our Dragons Are Different: Difference between revisions
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Even within these traditions, however, there is much variability. This has increased in modern times, as Western and Eastern authors have blurred the traditions by mixing and matching attributes from both (benign Western dragons are quite popular these days, for instance). Some authors invent completely new attributes to [[Our Monsters Are Different|set their dragons apart]] from the crowd [[Mythology Upgrade|or just make them]] [[Rule of Cool|cooler.]]
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!colspan=2|A quick rundown of the Western and Eastern schools of dragon is as follows:
||'''Western Dragons'''||'''Eastern Dragons'''||▼
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||Are [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|scaly and reptilian]] (outwardly, anyway), and usually serpentine.||Are [[Mix and Match Critters]]||▼
||Tend to be large.||Can be as small as a locust or large enough to fill the space between heaven and earth.||▼
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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]] -- a staple that's been around since ''[[Beowulf (Literature)|Beowulf]]''.||Breathe ''sheng chi'', the essence of life.||▼
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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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||Have a variable number of heads and legs, though one head and six limbs (four legs, and a pair of wings) and a tail is the most common configuration. More divergent types (no legs, multiple heads, etc) seem more likely to be brainless bestial monsters than the "basic" form.||Most often have one head and four legs.||▼
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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 Makers|Tolkien]], they rarely spoke. After Tolkien, they are often portrayed as at least as clever as humans, and frequently [[Magnificent Bastard|(much) more so]].||Are intelligent.||▼
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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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Western dragons physical variability has created a number of named sub-species. The most popular variation recently has been the '''wyvern''', a dragon with a somewhat birdlike configuration: the forelimbs are bat-like wings and the rear limbs are their two legs. In some settings, ''all'' dragons are wyverns (some writers evidently prefer ''realistic'' flying, fire-breathing Uber-serpents). In other settings, wyverns are not considered "true" dragons at all, but a related, usually less powerful and intelligent species. Wyverns, when they are treated separately from dragons, often lack a breath weapon, but they often have [[Beware My Stinger Tail|a poisonous stinger in their tails]] and viper-like fangs. The most common type that are associated with dragons are from films are Vermithrax Pejorative from ''[[Dragonslayer]]'' and the dragons from ''[[Reign of Fire]]''.
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[[Category:Trope]]
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