Basic Trope: Dragons are seen as divine beings.
- Played Straight: The Trope Dragon is seen as a divine emissary by the Kingdom of Troperia (more specifically the Divine Emissary of Goddess Tropeland), if not an actual god themselves, with people worshiping it.
- Exaggerated: There are many gods (the main one being Goddess Tropeland), and they all take a draconic form.
- Downplayed: The Trope Dragon is revered, but is not seen as divine.
- Subverted: The Trope Dragon is thought to be a divine being at first, but it's revealed to not actually be divine, and its religion ceases to exist.
- Double Subverted: ...But that's revealed to be a trick of the main villain to get people to worship the evil being known as the Cliche Dragon, and things go back to normal.
- Zig-Zagged: The story goes back and forth on whether or not the Trope Dragon is truly divine or not.
- Justified:
- The Trope Dragon was a normal dragon before ascending to godhood.
- The Trope Dragon's mere presence is known to eradicate demons.
- Averted: Dragons aren't seen as holy beings or as anything special.
- Enforced:
- The author thinks dragons are cool and get a bad rap, so they try to show them in the most positive way possible.
- The author is adapting a work of Chinese mythology that uses this trope, and there's no need to change it.
- A Christian studio is cashing in on the friendly dragon trend, so they make the dragon a literal Crystal Dragon Jesus to promote their religion.
- Exploited:
- Alice and Bob use the fact that the Trope Dragon is seen as holy to get people to quit attacking them when they take refuge in its temple.
- Alice and Bob know that they need a divine patron to defeat a demon, so they ask the Trope Dragon to lend them its power.
- Inverted:
- The Trope Dragon is seen not as any type of god, good or evil, but as a demonic scourge.
- Dragons worship humans as gods.
- Defied: Troperia rejects the Trope Dragon's divinity at every turn. As such, they refuse to include it as part of Tropeland's Pantheon.
- Lampshaded: "Are all these people really praying towards this dragon?"
- Discussed: "The people of Troperia are known to worship a being known as the Trope Dragon, who destroyed a demon long ago."
- Conversed: "This show sure does love its holy dragons."
- Deconstructed: The people's belief in the Trope Dragon, along with its general aloofness from humanity, allows them to be easily manipulated by anyone claiming to be an instrument of the Trope Dragon's will.
- Reconstructed: After the actual Trope Dragon helps Alice and Bob defeat the interloper, it tries to make an effort to be closer to humanity in order to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
- Played for Drama: The heroes and the Trope Dragon come to blows, but because the dragon is of heavenly nature, the heroes' holy weapons do not affect it, meaning they can't fight it so easily.
- Played for Horror: The dragon is a being easily angered and its holy powers can have nasty effects on those it deems its enemies.
- Implied: Nothing is explicitly said about the Trope Dragon's divinity or lack thereof, but statues of it are common everywhere and people are seen praying to it for protection.
- Untwisted: Alice and Bob have met many dragons claiming to be gods and/or divine beings but turning out to be frauds, and expect the Trope Dragon to be little more than another charlatan, only for them to be sorely mistaken.
Back to Dragons Are Divine.
