History Main / DragonsPreferPrincesses

* Deconstructed in the Creator/TamoraPierce short story "Plain Magic", compiled in ''Literature/TortallAndOtherLands''. Not only is the young girl part nonsense (dragons simply see a staked human as easy prey, and don't distinguish between young and old and male and female, let alone virgin and non virgin), but human flesh makes them ill - and they ''only'' flame when ill. Nearly half the valley gets burned down thanks to the villagers [[NiceJobBreakingItHero giving it their daughters]], and it's only stopped when a passing peddler who actually knows what she's doing manages to capture the dragon herself, saving the would-be sacrifice in the process.

* ''Literature/{{Damsel}}'': In this book by Elana K. Arnold the Kingdom of Harding has a tradition of the first-born son riding out to conquer a dragon and return with a damsel; a tradition with generations of precedent. The main character, who soon gets the name Ama, is one such Damsel who on top of trying to fit into the royal court needs to deal with [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast her lack of a past]]; a total inability to remember where she came from. [[spoiler: There's a good reason for this, the Damsel ''is'' the Dragon and once she's borne a child the Weredragon won't be able to turn back.]]

* ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'': Played with. While dragons do traditionally kidnap princesses, the main protagonist of ''Dealing with Dragons'', Cimorene, is a RebelliousPrincess who fled to the dragons to escape traditional life as a princess and forge her own path. Her relationship to her dragon, Kazul, is friendly and she's more of a live-in cook/housekeeper/librarian/cavemate than a hostage. Most of the princesses are in fact captives and rather silly, and are mostly kept around as status symbols for the dragons. A later book in the series also establishes that the stereotype of dragons eating princesses is untrue (which makes sense, given that the first book explains that there aren't enough princesses to go around). The first book also lampshades the StandardHeroReward aspect with one character speculating that it's surprising that more princesses aren't voluntarily working for dragons, since it pretty much guarantees a good marriage, although another surmises that part of the reason most don't is that their life expectancy drops significantly if the dragon happens to lose its temper.

* ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'': Played with. While dragons do traditionally kidnap princesses, the main protagonist of ''Dealing with Dragons'', Cimorene, is a RebelliousPrincess who fled to the dragons to escape traditional life as a princess and forge her own path. Her relationship to her dragon, Kazul, is more of a live-in cook/housekeeper/librarian/cavemate than a hostage. Most of the princesses are in fact captives and rather silly, and are mostly kept around as status symbols for the dragons. A later book in the series also establishes that the stereotype of dragons eating princesses is untrue (which makes sense, given that the first book explains that there aren't enough princesses to go around). The first book also lampshades the StandardHeroReward aspect with one character speculating that it's surprising that more princesses aren't voluntarily working for dragons, since it pretty much guarantees a good marriage, although another surmises that part of the reason most don't is that their life expectancy drops significantly if the dragon happens to lose its temper.

* ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'': Played with. While dragons do traditionally kidnap princesses, Cimorene fled to the dragons in ''Dealing with Dragons'' to escape traditional life as a princess and forge her own path. Most of the princesses are in fact captives and rather silly, and are mostly kept around as status symbols for the dragons. A later book in the series also establishes that the stereotype of dragons eating princesses is untrue (which makes sense, given that the first book explains that there aren't enough princesses to go around). The first book also lampshades the StandardHeroReward aspect with one character speculating that it's surprising that more princesses aren't voluntarily working for dragons, since it pretty much guarantees a good marriage, although another surmises that part of the reason most don't is that their life expectancy drops significantly if the dragon happens to lose its temper.

* {{Justified|trope}} in Film/{{Damsel}}; the dragon demands that every generation, three Aurean princesses be sacrificed to her [[spoiler:in revenge for the first king of Aurea having murdered her three hatchlings unprovoked]]. However, the royal family have been getting around sacrificing their own daughters by marrying a random girl to one of their princes, performing a ceremony to mingle their blood to trick the dragon into believing these girls are of RoyalBlood and then sacrificing them instead.

* ''Film/{{Dragonslayer}}'' (1981). A kingdom chooses which virginal young woman will be sacrificed to a dragon by drawing lots. When Princess Elspeth learns that the King has made sure her name is never included in the lottery, she rigs it so that her name is chosen, and voluntarily goes to the dragon. Unfortunately she pays the price for her honesty and is eaten by the dragon's babies.

* Part of the backstory revealed in ''Film/{{Dragonheart}}'' was that the dragon Draco had loved the queen (played by Creator/JulieChristie) back when she was princess, and so later donated part of his heart to save her son, leading to tragic consequences for her in the film.

* ''Literature/TalesOfTheFiveHundredKingdoms'': As the books are based on traditional myths and fairy tales, most evil dragons find themselves forced to capture a maiden, preferably a princess, at some point. This forms a major plot point in the second book, ''One Good Knight'', which is 1/3 the myth of Andromeda, 1/3 George and the Dragon [[spoiler:(although the dragon didn't actually have many choices in the matter, being under compulsion at the time)]], and 1/3 trying very hard NOT to have the endings of either of those legends happen.
* Literature/{{Damsel}}: In this book by Elana K. Arnold the Kingdom of Harding has a tradition of the first-born son riding out to conquer a dragon and return with a damsel; a tradition with generations of precedent. The main character, who soon gets the name Ama, is one such Damsel who on top of trying to fit into the royal court needs to deal with [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast her lack of a past]]; a total inability to remember where she came from. [[spoiler: There's a good reason for this, the Damsel ''is'' the Dragon and once she's borne a child the Weredragon won't be able to turn back.]]
* ''Literature/TheDragonHoard'' has a StoryWithinAStory about a princess who is kidnapped by a dragon. She inadvertently wins her freedom when she tries to mollify it by spinning straw into gold; it turns out the dragon is allergic to gold, and it lets her go before she can do any more damage.
* ''Literature/ThePaperBagPrincess'': Gender-inverted. A dragon carries off Prince Ronald, and Princess Elizabeth sets out to rescue him.

* In Creator/JohnMoore's ''Slay and Rescue'', dragons capturing princesses is such a common problem that Prince Charming has rescues down to a fine art, even though he's still too young (and too polite) to ask any of the princesses for the reward he'd ''really'' like.

* In ''Backyard Dragon'' by Betsy Sterman, the generally nice dragon Wyrdryn, who comes from the past, admits that in his time it's simply expected for kings to occasionally offer up their daughters for him to eat. When the protagonist introduces Wyrdryn to his friends he specifically notes that the group's [[TheSmurfettePrinciple one girl]] is ''not'' a princess.
* An inversion in ''Literature/DragonInDistress'': The dragon doesn't want a princess, it's Princess Florinara Tansimasa Qasilava Delagordune who wants the ''dragon''.
* In ''Literature/{{Zog}}'' by Julia Donaldson, kidnapping princesses is an essential part of dragon education. The dragon of the title, who has failed everything so far and been bandaged up by a RebelliousPrincess who wants to be a doctor, becomes her [[DragonRider flying ambulance]] instead.
* In Creator/GeneWolfe's ''Literature/WizardKnight'', the dragon Grengarm from Muspel is offered the life of Princess Morgaine by the Aelf from Aelfrice. As per normal Gene Wolfe, the trope's form is utilized but nothing about the circumstances is normal. The dragon has a reason for wanting the princess (access to Mythgarthr), the offerers have a real reason for offering her (favour from their god), and Sir Able has a reason for trying to rescue her (to keep the sword his love has promised him). Morgaine is a very unconventional princess, not in the least virginal or needing protection, and Able is really a boy and not interested in Morgaine.
* The speculative-science book ''The Flight of Dragons'' by Peter Dickinson (quite different from, though related to, the film of that name) offers an explanation of ''why'' Dragons Prefer Princesses: it's the diamonds. The real-world dragons he theorizes used hydrogen gas for lift, which they got by breaking down large quantities of limestone in special acidic stomachs. To break the limestone into chunks for easier digestion, they had a crop like a bird's, but where birds have gravel in their crops to grind their food, the dragons needed something harder: yep, diamonds. When humans tried offering them tribute to get them to stop raiding their towns, they figured out that a pretty girl bedecked in diamonds was the ticket. Too bad they didn't figure out they could have offered the diamonds without the girl. (This also explains the dragon's hoard of gold: it's the discards after the diamonds have been pried out.)
* In ''Literature/TheTwoPrincessesOfBamarre'', Princess Addie allows herself to be kidnapped by and kept as a pet/companion by the dragon Vollys, intending to stay long enough to learn a cure for the plague sweeping the land but escape before Vollys decides to eat her. Like with the St. George example below, Vollys doesn't prey exclusively on princesses (the previous humans she kept with her were pretty much anyone she managed to kidnap, starting with a chair maker). Addie just happened to be the latest she caught.
* The ''Literature/InCryptid'' series takes this in a new direction. The women found around dragon lairs, commonly known as Dragon Princesses, are a species of Cryptid that happen to look human and have a symbiotic relationship with dragons. Both require gold to maintain their health for unknown reasons, so the princesses gather the gold, [[DragonHoard and the dragons protect it]]. Later investigations reveal that [[spoiler:the dragon princesses are actually [[BizarreSexualDimorphism female dragons]]]].
* ''Literature/VainqueurTheDragon'': The number that a dragon possesses is one measure of status among them. But they release them after a time, so the population can be kept up, and find them by an ability literally called in the RPGMechanicsVerse, as Virgin Princess Radar.

-->''Bedelia got up, dusting herself off. "Dragons," she said, "are not very bright."''
* Deconstructed in the Creator/TamoraPierce short story "Plain Magic", compiled in ''Literature/TortallAndOtherLands''. Not only is the young girl part nonsense (dragons simply see a staked human as easy prey, and don't distinguish between young and old and male and female, let alone virgin and non virgin), but human flesh makes them ill - and they ''only'' flame when ill. Nearly half the valley gets burned down thanks to the villagers [[NiceJobBreakingItHero giving it their daughters]], and it's only stopped when a passing peddler who actually knows what she's doing manages to capture the dragon herself, saving the would-be sacrifice in the process.
* ''Dragon Princess'' by S. Andrew Swann parodies this. It's about a travelling thief named Frank tasked with rescuing Princess Lucille of Lendowyn from a dragon at the request of Court Wizard Elhared; in exchange, [[StandardHeroReward Frank gets to marry the princess and join the royal court]]. But the reason the dragon took the princess is because he had gambling debts to TheFairFolk and decided to hold her for ransom -- which doesn't work too well because the Kingdom of Lendowyn is small and very poor. Also, Elhared secretly planned to cast a FreakyFridayFlip spell to swap with Frank afterward so ''he'' could marry the princess -- but the spell goes wrong and Frank ends up in Lucille's body, the dragon ends up in the wizard's body, and Lucille ends up in the ''dragon's'' body. [[spoiler:And Frank ultimately has to kill Elhared in Frank's original body, leaving everyone stuck like that. Which means that Frank (in the princess's body) and Lucille (in the dragon's body) have to marry each other as they currently are.]]

* In Tarma and Kethry's parts of the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'', this comes up twice.
** ''A Tale of Heroes'' has a monster, not apparently draconic but certainly very large, very hairy, and very fast, with a marked preference for eating women and children. A local lord offers the StandardHeroReward, marriage to his daughter and charge of part of his lands, to the slayer of the monster, who is lured out with a weekly sacrifice. The lord puts on a show of that sacrifice being his daughter, who's paraded out on a horse, but it is in fact always an unlucky prisoner, which the monster finds acceptable as the prisoners are drugged and chained.
** ''A Dragon In Distress'' has Tarma and Kethry pass through a portal into another canon's setting, where they come to the aid of a DelightfulDragon who had HappilyAdopted a princess who was stolen from her cave by a prince who wants to marry her.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' deserves an honorable mention, even though Mario is [[AlmightyJanitor far from being a knight]] and Bowser isn't [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a typical kind of dragon]].
-->'''Bowser''': I will kidnap the princess again and again until I get it right, and nobody can stop me! Losing isn't an option, and neither is giving up!
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' visually invokes a more traditional version of this. During his journey to rescue Peach, Mario must stop in the Ruined Kingdom, where he fights the Ruined Dragon, a [[NonStandardCharacterDesign surprisingly realistic-looking]] Western-style dragon. One of the outfits Mario can buy here is a knight's plate armor, which he can wear while fighting the Ruined Dragon.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsBounty The Legend'', Princess Amelie fears that she may be kidnapped by a dragon, as she's a princess, but is sure that the main character will save her. [[spoiler:At the very end, she ''is'' kidnapped and taken hostage by Haas, the BigBad dragon.]]
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIIIToHeirIsHuman'', the three-headed dragon demands a maiden be sacrificed each year. King Graham decides to leave his daughter, Princess Rosella, tied at the stake to be eaten by the dragon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'': Invoked in the beta. In order to summon the [[{{Dracolich}} Dragon King]] boss, you need to craft a Decoy Princess in order to attract it.
* ''VideoGame/CastleMaster'': The plot is kicked off when a dragon kidnaps the princess and the knight goes to save her... if you picked the knight as your character. If you pick the princess instead, she gets to save the knight.

* One side-quest in ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' involves you acting as the representative of TheChurch to slay the dragon solo in an attempt to discourage the worship of a legendary princess who was said to have offered herself to a red dragon to save her kingdom. The FlavorText of the Treasure Art for completing this quest reveals that, after you defeated the dragon [[spoiler:you found the princess' ring among the DragonHorde, which gave evidence of her HeroicSacrifice and unsurprisingly encouraged her followers to worship her even more. The church eventually co-opts this worship by canonizing her as a saint]].
* Defied in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'', while the dragon may occasionally kidnap the duchess for a LeaveYourQuestTest, depending on your affinity with the others, it is more often for him to pick anything that moves.
* In ''VideoGame/GragyrissCaptorOfPrincesses'', one of your main goals as a dragon is to capture princesses [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title claims.]] Winning enough battles in a specific region will eventually lead to you capturing its princess, and they end up being a helpful captive, willingly giving you buffs or abilities you can use to improve your growth or to battle enemies (including their own people) more efficiently. The ending shows the princesses hanging out with your dragon, so the preference seems mutual in this case.

* GenderFlip in ''WesternAnimation/JaneAndTheDragon'', in which the Dragon kidnapped Prince Cuthbert because he believed the prince could translate the runes on his cave wall.
* The villain in the ''WesternAnimation/DCSuperHeroGirls'' TwoPartEpisode "[=#TheFreshPrincessOfRenFaire=]" is a shapeshifting dragon who only wants to eat a real princess, and she's been starving since princesses aren't exactly common these days. Zee is in costume as a princess, so she becomes the dragon's target, but once she actual gets a taste, she declares Zee is disgusting. Luckily for her, Diana doesn't dress up in fancy gowns, but she is literally the daughter of a queen and heir to the throne of her home nation, i.e. a real princess.

* Deconstructed in the Creator/TamoraPierce short story "Plain Magic". Not only is the young girl part nonsense (dragons simply see a staked girl as easy prey), but human flesh makes them ill and start flaming. Nearly half the valley gets burned down thanks to the villages [[NiceJobBreakingItHero giving it their daughters]], and it's only stopped when a passing peddler who actually knows what she's doing manages to capture the dragon herself, saving the would-be sacrifice in the process.

* ''TabletopGame/Pathfinder'': One of the later Bestiaries for 1st Edition has a sorta-Slavic three-headed dragon called the Gorynych, who specializes in snatching princesses along with any attractive, young, wealthy human female. They also ''mate'' with them, producing half-dragon offspring, and are [[EvenEvilhasStandards considered to be perverts by other dragons for it]].

* In ''[[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/396.htm The Three Dogs]]'', the hero fights a dragon and saves a princess.
* In ''[[http://www.classicreader.com/book/995/5/ The Three Princes and their Beasts]]'', the oldest prince kills a dragon and saves a princess.

* This is the key motif of tale type ATU 300, "The Dragonslayer", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: the hero is joined by three dogs and kills a dragon which demanded sacrifices once a year/month, the latest lot having fallen on the local princess.

** ''[[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/079.htm The Three Princes and Their Beasts]]'' (Lithuania).

** ''[[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/079.htm The Three Princes and Their Beasts]] (Lithuania).

* Similarly, this narrative is also present in another tale type of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, ATU 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers": twins/triplets are born to a poor couple, and one of them strikes out on his own, reaches another kingdom and rescues the local princess who has been given as sacrifice to a dragon.

* In ''Literature/GuardsGuards'', it's mentioned that noble dragons prefer to eat people of noble blood because they taste better. It's also implied that it's a dominance ritual; the more important the human sacrifice is, the clearer it is that all humans are subservient. When a noble Dragon takes over the city of Ankh-Morpork, she calls the various civil leaders to a dinner to explain the distinction over dinner. It occurs to them all midway through the conversation that [[FatteningTheVictim the dragon has been serving them all a very large, very fattening meal.]] Since there are no actual ''princesses'' in Ankh-Morpork, the city leaders (to save their own necks) decide the closest is its richest woman, Lady Sybil (who fortunately enough has a lot of meat on her bones already). Unforunately, people who want to offer Lady Sybil to a dragon are [[SilkHidingSteel not going to have an easy time of it]].

* ''Webcomic/DungeonsAndDoodlesTalesFromTheTable'': [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/dungeons-doodles-tales-from-the-tables/here-be-dragons-part-1/viewer?title_no=682646&episode_no=12 This]] comic uses the virgin variant for humor when the party is sent to deal with a dragon said to have developed a particular taste for the flesh and blood of innocent virgins, which he can supposedly smell from a mile away. The cleric and rogue aren't especially worried ("Good thing we're all adults, then"). The paladin, who it later turns out doesn't believe in premarital sex, doesn't quite share her friends' confidence.

* ''Webcomic/DungeonsAndDoodlesTalesFromTheTables'': [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/dungeons-doodles-tales-from-the-tables/here-be-dragons-part-1/viewer?title_no=682646&episode_no=12 This]] comic uses the virgin variant for humor when the party is sent to deal with a dragon said to have developed a particular taste for the flesh and blood of innocent virgins, which he can supposedly smell from a mile away. The cleric and rogue aren't especially worried ("Good thing we're all adults, then"). The paladin, who it later turns out doesn't believe in premarital sex, doesn't quite share her friends' confidence.

* Similarly, this narrative is also present in another tale type of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, ATU 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers": twins/triplets are born to a poor couple, and one of them strike out on his own, reaches another kingdom and rescues the local princess who has been given as sacrifice to a dragon.

* Defied in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'', while the dragon may occasionally kidnap the duchess for a LeaveYourQuestTest, depending on your affinity with the others, it is more often for him to pick AnythingThatMoves.

* ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'' takes it in [[CasualKink a slightly twisted direction]] in [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20080615 one strip]], where the princess critiques the dragon's knot-tying technique and things eventually escalate into a BDSM scene.