History Main / DragonsVersusKnights

* In ''WesternAnimation/Hercules'', Hercules is more of a hero rather than a knight, but he is of noble birth and wields a sword. In order to kill Hercules, Hades sends the Hydra, depicted here as a giant dragon-like creature. [[spoiler:While the first battle was more of the traditional dragon vs knight, it goes crazy after Hercules cuts the Hydra's heads off to the point of the monster having dozens of heads. Hercules successfully kills the the multi-headed monster after a rockslide.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'': Deconstructed to heck and back as per the norm of the series. Shrek and Donkey are tasked with saving Fiona by Farquad in a deal for the former to get his swamp back from the fairytale creatures Farquad dumped into it. They reach the castle but naturally Shrek doesn't bother going by tradition despite donning a knight helmet, instead going straight for Fiona and just opting to run for it when the dragon catches on. When Fiona protests about doing it the usual way, Shrek points out that others who tried that ended up as scorched hunks of metal and bones. The dragon turns out to [[spoiler:be an asset later on when Donkey finds out she's a female and ends up charming her]].

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Back in his youth, the GodEmperor of Mankind personally battled Mag'ladroth, a DraconicAbomination also known as the Void Dragon, weakening it to the point that it became a SealedEvilInACan underneath the surface of Mars, which story became [[JuliusBeethovenDaVinci the legend of Saint George]]. Unfortunately, it's now more-or-less worshiped by the Adeptus Mechanicus as the Omnissiah.

In 20th century works, this allegorical angle is largely forgotten and the association of knights with God and dragons with Hell is no longer very common, even when these are still respectively portrayed as good or evil. However, as this motif was extremely widespread in European history, it's still common and well-known despite outliving the cultural context that gave it birth.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Bretonnia is heavily based on Arthurian myth and chivalric romance, and the theme of the heroic knight laying low a fearsome monster is consequently often used. Naturally, the archetypal foe of its wandering knights, and the most coveted by ones seeking to earn a name, is the dragon. Gilles le Breton, Bretonnia's first king, rose to fame when he fought and killed the legendary dragon Smearghus, who had been ravaging his land's countryside. His descendant, Duke Bohemond Beastslayer, himself slew a dragon in his younger years and crafted his mace's shaft from its thighbone. Jasperre le Beau, also called Jasperre the Dragonslayer, is particularly skilled at this; he killed the dragon Malgrimace while rescuing the king's daughter, and in his wanderings since then has killed many other dragons in addition to other monsters.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The GodEmperor of Mankind personally battled Mag'ladroth, a DraconicAbomination also known as the Void Dragon, weakening it to the point that it became a SealedEvilInACan underneath the surface of Mars.

** 1.) The "knight" is a whiny, pompous jerk who views himself as a hero when he's really a DirtyCoward.
** 2.) It turns out that the "evil" dragon is actually pretty friendly.
** 3.)[[spoiler: Tying into the above example, it's revealed that the dragon never kidnapped the princess--in fact, the dragon and the princess are a couple (and are genuinely in love at that). In fact, the trio had arrived just as the dragon and the princess were about to get married (the dragon's initial demeanor was apparently was apparently nothing more than the result of prewedding jitters). The knight just has a hard time accepting the reality of it.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': "[[Recap/WanderOverYonderS1E9TheHeroTheBirthdayBoy The Hero]]" has Wander and Sylvia help a knight try to rescue a princess from a supposedly evil dragon, only to find out 1) said knight is a pompous jerkass who views himself as a hero when he's really a DirtyCoward and 2) [[spoiler: the princess and dragon are actually a couple and the trio arrive just as the pair are set to be married. The knight just has a hard time accepting the reality of it.]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* The finale of ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'' introduces a dragon our heroes have to fight with a prince's magical blade in a play on the example of this trope in ''Sleeping Beauty''. [[spoiler:The twist being that the dragon-slayer here is not the brave knight who rescued the princess, but the princess herself, slaying the dragon with his sword.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Dofus}}'' backstory, the courageous Iop knight Rykke Errel encountered the mighty dragon Bolgrot, apparently to fight him. [[SubvertedTrope Against all odds]], the two actually became friends for a long time... until one day Rykke married a beautiful sorceress named Helsefine and introduced her to Bolgrot who, unexplicably, went into a rage and killed her. Furious, Rykke fought Bolgrot for real after a titanic battle which ended with a mutual kill and the recovery of the Six Primordial Dofus from the belly of Bolgrot.

* Fittingly, the first and penultimate boss of ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheBlackKnight'' is a winged dragon, each protecting a magical sword Sonic needs to complete his quest of knighthood and save Camelot from dark magic.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' the Writer's Block [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2015-07-13 fights]] a dragon with a sword at one point and ends up [[https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/2015-07-15 saving a princess]].

* The Platinum Knights from ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' are an order of paladins who swear oaths to protect the holy city of Vasselheim and kill any evil dragon they find in honor of their patron, Bahamut, lord of all good dragons. Their most notable member is Lady Kima, a little hafling woman whose platinum plate-armor and her magical two-handed sword allow her to help the heroes more than anyone else in their battles against the ancient dragons bent on destroying human civilization.

* ''WesternAnimation/BlazingDragons'' inverts this trope's traditional morality -- the protagonists are a group of heroic dragon knights, and their arch-enemies consist of a group of evil human knights.

* The penultimate book of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' is dedicated to the epic, two-day long battle between the Myth/SaintGeorge, armed with sword, shield, and lance, and the dragon, armed with its whole body. Since George is a KnightInShiningArmor representing holiness, having his FinalBattle be with a beast [[Literature/BookOfRevelation biblically]] associated with the Devil is quite fitting.

In post-medieval works, this allegorical angle is largely gone and the association of knights with God and dragons with Hell is no longer very common, even when these are still respectively portrayed as good or evil. However, as this motif was extremely widespread in European history, it's still common and well-known despite outliving the cultural context that gave it birth.

* Invoked in ''Literature/GuardsGuards'': when the Dragon sees the heroic prince on a white horse brandishing a shiny sword and wearing a shiny armor as expected, the narration points out that the sight causes him to recognize the figure as something akin of a "natural predator".
* In ''[[Creator/ItaloCalvino The Non-Existant Knight]]'', Dragon-hunting is mentioned as a past-time for the paladins of Charlemagne, with one of them boasting about one of his deed of Dragon-slaying... only for the protagonist to kindly point out that it happened during a season in which Dragons moult their skin and become easier to kill, much to the other knight's annoyance.

* ''VideoGame/KingsBounty'': Knights deal bonus damage to Dragons.

* [[ArchangelMichael St. Michael]], the archangel who cast Satan out of Heaven, is often depicted as a warrior or knight fighting a dragon -- in this case, [[DragonsAreDemonic the dragon is literally Satan.

This pairing is firmly rooted in medieval stories and symbology. In European Christianity, [[DragonsAreDemonic serpents and dragons represented satanic powers]], a connection ultimately derived from the serpent of Eden, and Satan himself was often depicted as a draconic beast. Knights were instead associated with a marriage of piousness with the warrior ideal, serving as the archetypal champions of Heaven and righteousness on Earth. The image of a knight slaying a hideous dragon was thus a popular metaphor for good's triumph over evil.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': There are plenty of knights in Westeros, but initially, dragons have been extinct for decades. When Daenerys' newly hatched dragons grow to full size, she trains them [[DragonRider for warfare]]. We finally see an actual "KnightInShiningArmor vs Dragon" scenario in season 7's "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS7E4TheSpoilsOfWar The Spoils of War]]", when Daenerys uses her biggest dragon to decimate an enemy army. When it's wounded and she has to jump off, Jaime smells an opportunity and charges it with his mount. As with many fantasy tropes, it's deconstructed: Jaime is really [[StraightForTheCommander aiming for Daenerys]], not Drogon, but it's a blatantly suicidal move to charge a giant firebreathing reptile armed only with a lance. If not for Bronn's DivingSave, Jaime would have been incinerated before he even got close. Jaime himself isn't a particularly reputable character either, being an incestuous kingslayer with his fair share of atrocities.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': There are plenty of knights in Westeros, but initially, dragons have been extinct for decades. When Daenerys' newly hatched dragons grow to full size, she trains them [[DragonRider for warfare]]. We finally see an actual "KnightInShiningArmor vs Dragon" scenario in season 7's "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS7E4TheSpoilsOfWar The Spoils of War]]", when Daenerys uses her biggest dragon to decimate an enemy army. When it's wounded, Jaime smells an opportunity and charges it with his mount. As with many fantasy tropes, it's deconstructed: Jaime is really [[StraightForTheCommander aiming for Daenerys]], not Drogon, but it's a blatantly suicidal move to charge a giant firebreathing reptile armed only with a lance. If not for Bronn's DivingSave, Jaime would have been incinerated before he even got close. Jaime himself isn't a particularly reputable character either, being an incestuous kingslayer with his fair share of atrocities.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': There are plenty of knights in Westeros, but initially, dragons have been extinct for decades. When Daenerys' newly hatched dragons grow to full size, she trains them [[DragonRider for warfare]]. We finally see an actual "KnightInShiningArmor vs Dragon" scenario in season 7's "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS7E4TheSpoilsOfWar The Spoils of War]]", when Daenerys uses her biggest dragon to decimate an enemy army. When it's wounded, Jaime smells an opportunity and charges it with his mount. As with many fantasy tropes, it's deconstructed: Jaime is really aiming for [[StraightForTheCommander Daenerys]], not Drogon, but it's a blatantly suicidal move to charge a giant firebreathing reptile armed only with a lance. If not for Bronn's DivingSave, Jaime would have been incinerated before he even got close. Jaime himself isn't a particularly reputable character either, being an incestuous kingslayer with his fair share of atrocities.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': There are plenty of knights in Westeros, but initially, dragons have been extinct for decades. When Daenerys' newly hatched dragons grow to full size, she trains them [[DragonRider for warfare]]. We finally see an actual "KnightInShiningArmor vs Dragon" scenario in season 7's "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS7E4TheSpoilsOfWar The Spoils of War]]", when Daenerys uses her biggest dragon to decimate an enemy army. When it's wounded, Jaime smells an opportunity and charges it with his mount. As with many fantasy tropes, it's deconstructed: Jaime is aiming for [[StraightForTheCommander Daenerys]], not Drogon, and it's a blatantly suicidal move to charge a giant firebreathing reptile armed only with a lance. If not for Bronn's DivingSave, Jaime would have been incinerated before he even got close.

* In the baseline arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'', Lancelot and other knights are occasionally seen dragon-slaying. In the space arc, the Dragons are a [[DraconicHumanoid humanoid]], space-faring race who the ''Excalibur'' crew sometimes come into conflict with.

* ''The Flight of Dragons'' by Creator/PeterDickinson says dragons were extinct long before knights in armour existed, but that it could be a race memory of stone age tribes seeing the local dragon get killed by a wanderer from a region that had discovered how to smelt metal, hence the metal being seen as an important part of the story.

* [[ArchangelMichael St. Michael]], the archangel who cast Satan out of Heaven, is often depicted as a warrior or knight fighting a dragon -- in this case, the dragon is literally Satan.

* In the baseline arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'', Lancelot and other knights are occasionally seen dragon-slaying. In the space arc, the Dragons are a humanoid, space-faring race who the ''Excalibur'' crew sometimes come into conflict with.

* ''Literature/FarmerGilesOfHam'': The work parodies the convention of dragon-slaying knights through the eponymous farmer, who gets in possession of a legendary dragon-slaying sword and needs to pose as a knight to slay the dragon that menaces the region.

* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' has man vs. dragon as a central storyline for much of the series. Usually TheChosenOne who could wield a historic blade that can destroy an evil dragon.