Basic Trope: A fantastic creature that becomes more powerful the older it is.
- Straight: Dragons become larger and more powerful with age, with the very eldest being the very strongest.
- Exaggerated: Crystal Dragon Jesus claimed the title of Top God simply by being as old or older than the universe.
- Dragons grow harmonically more powerful with age, from birth. A 2-year old dragon is twice as powerful as a newborn, a 3-year old is three times as powerful, a 4-year old is eight times as powerful…
- Dragons grow exponentially more powerful with age, from birth! A 2-year old dragon is twice as powerful as a newborn, a 3-year old is four times as powerful, a 4-year old is eight times as powerful…
- Downplayed: Dragons grow throughout life, but they are not immortal and can still die of old age, capping their total power.
- Dragons do not grow much stronger after adulthood, but an old dragon is Taught by Experience, and therefore far more dangerous.
- Justified:
- Dragons, like most reptiles, grow throughout life.
- It’s a law of in-setting magic that Older Is Better, and as creatures of magic this applies to dragons as well.
- A thousand-year old dragon may not be much bigger than a hundred-year old, but he's got 900 years of experience on him. He's too smart and too cunning to lose a fight to anyone with that big an age gap.
- A Dragon doesn't get more powerful automatically as they age. However, they are constantly evolving and adapting to new environments. As such, older Dragons are typically much tougher than younger ones because they’ve become immune or more resistant to a greater variety of dangers. Similar to how a piece of tech may receive upgrades that fix previous issues.
- Inverted: Dragons grow weaker with age like normal organisms. Also counts as averted, for obvious reasons.
- Subverted:
- Dragons grow throughout life, but they eventually become too big and are crushed to death by the Square-Cube Law.
- Older dragons are stronger, but they are still subject to arthritis and battle injuries, meaning the older dragons are inevitably Dented Iron.
- Older dragons are more knowledgeable than their younger brethren, but lack the physical prowess to be useful in a fight.
- Double Subverted:
- It only seems like they die at this stage:they instead break free of their physical bodies, becoming even more powerful than before.
- They only look decrepit: by the time a dragon is this old, they are capable of using magic to nullify or even remove any penalties from their injuries, moving as spryly as they did when young.
- The causation is actually backwards. All dragons were actually created at the beginning of the universe. The ones who survived until today were the strongest. Making the backwards perception Right for the Wrong Reasons.
- Parodied: Ancient dragons need dentures, use walkers, move to Florida, and kvetch about their grandkids never calling. They're also totally immune to all harm and can shatter planets with a casual flick.
- Zig Zagged: Dragons grow stronger with age, but they die and reincarnate on a daily cycle, being their very strongest right before they die and become children again.
- Averted: After a dragon reaches adulthood it becomes locked in time,unable to grow stronger but unable to weaken either.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: “Wait, humans become weaker as they age? That's just backwards!”
- Invoked: An Evilutionary Biologist alters their own biology to ensure he mutates into stronger forms with time.
- Exploited: A Dragon nests within a time abnormality, in order to suffer Rapid Aging and cheat it’s way to power.
- Defied: “We may grow for longer, but we age as all other creatures do. Nothing is immortal.”
- Discussed: "Don't even think about fighting Lord Draco. He's nearly 30,000 years old; you won't stand a chance."
- Conversed: "Why do these things always get more powerful after a thousand years? Does cellular decay not exist in this movie?"
- Deconstructed: Between their growing power and growing senility, it's inevitable that a dragon that reaches old age will become utterly mad. As a consequence, they cause so much trouble they're killed either by humans and/or other dragons.
- Reconstructed:
- Dragons grow both stronger and senile with age but insanity isn't necessarily violent. While they're still incredibly dangerous, the elder wyrms are non-hostile and perfectly content to wallow in their own senility, so long as you don't provoke their ire...or their interest.
- Dragons also become Older and Wiser, and thus remain lucid as they age...usually.
Back to Stronger with Age
