History Main / LazyDragon

* In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', Senshi tells Team Touden that dragons the size of [[TheDreaded The Red Dragon]] only wake once a month to go hunting. The rest of the time they stay asleep to maintain their massive bodies.

This typically translates into a sleeping dragon who has been slumbering from millennia ([[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant though he will probably get woken up during the plot's unfolding, and that's probably bad news]]). Their long (sometimes millennia-long) sleep may be handwaved as [[WeAreAsMayFlies dragons being so long-lived that a century-long nap is]] [[TimeDissonance a reasonable hibernation time for them]]. In some settings this will be linked to the dragons' age, with younger specimens being more active in the world but spending longer and longer periods of time sleeping or idling in their lairs as they age.

** In ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/386671/1/the-lazy-dragon-of-dragonvale-and-other-stories/the-lazy-dragon-of-dragonvale The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale]]'', the titular character is lazy even compared to other dragons. He was the last of his clutch to hatch and the last to leave home (and only because his mother got fed up with him loafing around and literally tossed him out), and spends as much time sleeping as he can manage. Rather than pillaging villages, he decides to found a village of his own simply because he was in a nice spot for one and finding a pre-existing village was far too much work. Most of the story revolves around him sleeping in one spot until a problem arises, waking up to deal with it and going back to sleep.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': In the modern day, dragons need to spend extremely long periods of time asleep; this was not always so, but for poorly understood reasons, possibly linked to the cooling of the volcanic mountains where they lived, they were afflicted by a species-wide state of chronic torpor. The majority of the dragon species is in perpetual hibernation deep beneath the mountains of Caledor, in the high elven homeland, waking only briefly when certain magical songs are sung, and even the dragons who live among other factions or on their own in the rest of the world spend most of their time asleep in their lairs.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Vándlat the Elder Wyrm has spent effectively the entirety of the last ''million years'' asleep, which Harry taunts him about while also suggesting that he's a coward. Vándlat's account, by contrast, is that until Harry turned up he hadn't sensed anything worth waking up for.

[[folder:Film (Live-Action)]]
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'': In his later, more heroic film appearances, Godzilla often had to be ''convinced'' to bother saving the planet from the MonsterOfTheWeek.

* In the second part of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', the dragon Beowulf had to face is described as having been sleeping on its hoard within its lair, only awakening when a thief snuck inside and stole a goblet from its treasure.

This typically translates into a sleeping dragon who has been slumbering from millennia ([[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant though he will probably get woken up during the plot's unfolding, and that's probably bad news]]). Their long (sometimes millennia-long) sleep may be handwaved as [[WeAreAsMayFlies dragons being so long-lived that a century-long nap is]] [[TimeDissonance a reasonable hibernation time for them]].

May be based on the TruthInTelevision that snakes (on whom the earlier European dragons were based) and, indeed, most reptiles, are prone to laying down for hours on end.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fic ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/386671/1/the-lazy-dragon-of-dragonvale-and-other-stories/the-lazy-dragon-of-dragonvale The Lazy Dragon of Dragonvale]]'', the titular character is lazy even compared to other dragons. He was the last of his clutch to hatch and the last to leave home (and only because his mother got fed up with him loafing around and literally tossed him out), and spends as much time sleeping as he can manage. Rather than pillaging villages, he decides to found a village of his own simply because he was in a nice spot for one and finding a pre-existing village was far too much work. Most of the story revolves around him sleeping in one spot until a problem arises, waking up to deal with it and going back to sleep.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wp_1453172428623.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Awww. Sleeping like a little hatchling.]]A lot of dragons in fiction are lazy creatures who don't do much apart from [[DragonHoard guarding their hoards]].

* ''{{ComicBook/Saga}}'': When Gwendolyn, Sophia, and Lying Cat travel to the planet Demimonde '''NSFW'''': [[spoiler: in search of dragon spunk ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]), they find the last male dragon not just constantly lounging, but... [[ADateWithRosiePalms auto-fellating]].]]

* In his later, more heroic film appearances, Franchise/{{Godzilla}} often had to be ''convinced'' to bother saving the planet from the MonsterOfTheWeek.

* Teriarch in ''Literature/TheWanderingInn'' is quite lazy, preferring to contact his sole human friend, Lady Reinhart, through spells rather than actually visiting her. He ''does'' offer to fly to Magnolia's manor when he learns she is in danger (she's actually safe, and makes fun of the very idea he'd get out and do something), but retracts it as soon as he learns she's in no imminent peril.
* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Hogwarts School's CanisLatinicus motto translates as "Never tickle a sleeping dragon", alluding to the idea of long-slumbering dragons who may turn fierce when woken up but are safe otherwise. However, the dragons actually seen in the books later on don't reflect this trope.

* Played for BlackComedy in ''VideoGame/NightmareNed''. In the Attic/Basement level, at one point you come across a dragon head mounted on the wall... but then you see that she's actually just sleeping, and [[http://nightmarened.wikia.com/wiki/File:Dragon.PNG the rest of her body is visible near the wall]]. Despite this grisly introduction, she's actually [[DarkIsNotEvil really friendly]]. Waking her up will prompt her to tell you poems (albeit somewhat macabre ones) with a cheerful GrannyClassic voice.

* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'', the dragon [[GodEmperor Demiurge]] Mammon has spent the last few centuries holed up in a vast TreasureRoom at the heart of an [[EldritchLocation infinite, extradimensional labyrinth]] in his fortress of Yre, attended only by the Priests of the Count who run his multiverse-spanning bank.

* In ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', Senshi tells Team Thorden that dragons the size of [[TheDreaded The Red Dragon]] only wake once a month to go hunting. The rest of the time they stay asleep to maintain their massive bodies.

* In his later, more heroic film appearances, Film/{{Godzilla}} often had to be ''convinced'' to bother saving the planet from the MonsterOfTheWeek.

** ''The Slayer's Guide to Dragons'' mentions how dragons must sleep for long periods of time, especially as they grow older. The oldest are only awake for 15 minutes of every day. It explains how dragons will take long naps to balance out this ratio.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E7DragonShy Dragonshy]]", a dragon only poses a passive threat because of the smoke it breathes out while sleeping. It spends most of the episode asleep on its hoard -- it's stated it will keep sleeping for a century if left undisturbed -- and the biggest reaction it has to the ponies before Rainbow Dash kicks it in the snout is at most to stretch and go right back to sleep. Not even quakes on the mountain it nests in are enough to wake it.

This typically translates into a sleeping dragon who has been slumbering from millenia ([[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant though he will probably get woken up during the plot's unfolding, and that's probably bad news]]). Their long (sometimes millenia-long) sleep may be handwaved as [[WeAreAsMayFlies dragons being so long-lived that a century-long nap is]] [[TimeDissonance a reasonable hibernation time for them]].

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', Hogwarts School's CanisLatinicus motto translates as "Don't tickle a sleeping dragon", alluding to the idea of long-slumbering dragons who may turn fierce when woken up but are safe otherwise. However, nothing references this trope with the dragons actually seen in the books later on.

* ''Literature/TheHobbit''[='=]s Smaug appears to have simply been sitting on his gold for an exceedingly long time until he is enraged by Bilbo stealing from him and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This is almost certainly in allusion to ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', where much the same happens, as Tolkien was a scholar of English literature and is know to have studied and translated ''Beowulf'' specifically.

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* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. In 1st Edition Advanced D&D, all dragons encountered inside their lairs had a percentage chance of being discovered while asleep. This ranged from a low of 5% for Bahamut the Platinum Dragon to a high of 60% for a white dragon.
** The Slayer's Guide to Dragons mentions how dragons must sleep for long periods of time, especially as they grow older. The oldest are only awake for 15 minutes of every day. It explains how dragons will take long naps to balance out this ratio.

** The Slayer's Guide to Dragons mentions how dragons must sleep for long periods of time, especially as they grow older. The oldest are only awake for 15 minutes of every day.

* ''{{ComicBook/Saga}}'': When Gwendolyn, Sophia, and Lying Cat travel to the planet Demimonde… '''NSFW'''': [[spoiler: …in search of dragon spunk ([[ItMakesSenseInContext long story]]), they find the last male dragon not just constantly lounging, but... [[ADateWithRosiePalms auto-fellating]].]]

* ''Literature/TheHobbit''[='=]s Smaug appears to have simply been sitting on his gold for an exceedingly long time until he is enraged by Bilbo stealing from him and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This is almost certialt in allusion to ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', where much the same happens, as Tolkien was a scholar of English literature and is know to have studied and translated ''Beowulf'' specifically.

[[caption-width-right:350: Awww. Sleeping like a little hatchling.]]A lot of dragons in fiction are lazy creatures who don't do much apart from guarding their hoards.

* ''Literature/TheHobbit''[='=]s Smaug appears to have simply been sitting on his gold for an exceedingly long time until he is enraged by Bilbo stealing from him and goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge (all of this is presumably in allusion to the Beowulf example above).

Naturally a subtrope of OurDragonsAreDifferent. Often combined with OrcusOnHisThrone and AllPowerfulBystander, depending on the power level, intelligence and general monstrosity of dragons in the setting. On the other hand, very rarely related to DragonTheirFeet, despite the namins similarities.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E7DragonShy Dragonshy]]", a dragon only poses a passive threat because of the smoke it breathes out while sleeping. Not even quakes on the mountain it nests in are enough to wake it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', a dragon only poses a passive threat because of the smoke it breathes out while sleeping. Not even quakes on the mountain it nests in are enough to wake it.

This typically translates into a sleeping dragon who has been slumbering from millenia ([[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant though he will probably get woken up during the plot's unfolding, and that's probably bad news]]). Their long (sometimes millenia-long) sleep may be handwaved as [[WeAreAsMayFlies dragons being so long-lived that a century-long nap is]] [[TimeDissonnance a reasonable hibernation time for them]].

Naturally a subtrope of OurDragonsAreDifferent. Often combined with OrcusOnHisThrone and AllPowerfulBystander, depending on the power level, intelligence and general monstrosity of dragons in the setting.