History Main / DreadfulDragonfly

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack It is more dragon than fly now.]]]]

* Dragonflies appear as large enemies that Buck must face in ''[[VideoGame/IceAge Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs]]''.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' has a boss called Commander Yammark, a dragonfly Maverick.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' has a Dragon-Fly, who is Bug's mount that only appears in the end-of-world {{Bonus Level}}s. It resembles a dragonfly with a dragon's head! The first boss of the sequel ''Bug Too!'' is a dragon-fly -- this time, an actual dragon but with dragonfly wings.

* Dragonfly badniks have appeared in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series:

[[captionwidthright:350[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack It is more dragon than fly now.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack It is more dragon than fly now.]]]]

[[quoteright:350: [[VideoGame/Bayonetta2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dreadfuldragons.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Those are darn big darners.]]

* In ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'', the Gaichuu take the form of insects and arachnids, and Cabernet, the one Reverse sends to devour the artificial sun, takes the form of a dragonfly. It's one of the largest and most powerful Gaichuu in the series, second only to [[spoiler:Spiritus, the one inside the sun]], and takes the protagonists' combined efforts to defeat. It's also one of the few Gaichuu that is able to fly.
* Chapter 3 of ''Manga/HeavensDesignTeam'' opens with a 70-cm-long dragonfly escaping the Insect Department before it can be shrunken down to a more insect-appropriate size, briefly terrifying the designers before Ueda catches it. This is a reference to ''Meganeura'', the real-life ancestor to modern dragonflies and damselflies that indeed could reach up to 70 centimeters in length.

* In the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', Mickey, Donald, and Goofy make their way across the giant's moat when they see a swarm of giant dragonflies flying overhead. Donald teases them by making machine gun noises, and one of them attacks. They are saved when a giant fish eats the dragonfly.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSteamEnginesOfOz'', the Tin Man's MechaMooks include giant mechanical dragonflies which he sends after the munchkin air force.

** Riz the damselfly is a paranoid hick who believes anyone who passes near his village to be poachers who want to harm his family, and when Team Snakemouth encounters him, he attacks them without letting them explain themselves, initiating the boss fight. In battle, he's a very formidable opponent, capable of using the [[BladeOnAStick spear]] made of a pen nib that can ink party members, [[PowerNullifier preventing them from using skills]], and can also use drill-bombs that strike after two-turn delay, hitting hard and also [[StatusInflictionAttack inflicting status effects]], making him very hard to beat. However, he's not actually evil and only wants to protect his family, and when the team defeats him and assures they mean no harm, he [[DefeatMeansFriendship apologizes for attack and grants them passage to his village]].

Dragonflies can fill the role to perfection. After all, they combine high-speed flight, toothed mandibles, and gigantic compound eyes. This makes them some of the most formidable predators among insects, being able to prey upon even small fish. They are also quite big for insects, and their younger life stages are just as deadly: dragonfly larvae are aquatic predators with extensible mandibles that burst out to capture prey, and they habitually prey on tadpoles and other small vertebrates. As such, ''giant'' dragonflies would be an incredibly terrifying sight for hapless humans, who would have no hope of outrunning them and surviving their teeth.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''{{Franchise/Extrapower}}'': [[BugWar Spy Flies]], dragonflies the size of grown adult humans with a hardened, knife-edged tail, are the main troop type in Mensouma's bioroid army. While usually cannon fodder against player characters, ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce Attack of Darkforce]]'' shows how horrific they can truly be against human populations, when one smashes into an airplane's cockpit and skewers the pilot with a single swipe of its tail.

* Gary the Dragonfly in ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse2021'' was an ordinary dragonfly that was accidentally mutated by [[TheDarkSide the Power of Havoc]] into a giant monster [[HorrorHunger ravenously hungry]]. [[NonMalicousMonster He's actually an okay guy, hunger aside]].

* ''{{Franchise/Extraower}}'': [[BugWar Spy Flies]], dragonflies the size of grown adult humans with a hardened, knife-edged tail, are the main troop type in Mensouma's bioroid army. While usually cannon fodder against player characters, ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce Attack of Darkforce]]'' shows how horrific they can truly be against human populations, when one smashes into an airplane's cockpit and skewers the pilot with a single swipe of its tail.