History Main / LazyDragon

* ''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]].]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': In the modern-day, dragons need to spend extremely long periods of time asleep. Yhis 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.

* ''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.

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 names' similarities. For other lazy creatures, see CatsAreLazy and SluggishSeal.

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 names' similarities.

* 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.
* While technically not a Dragon-type, the otherwise draconic Charizard from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' was definitely lazy during his rebellious phase, rarely battling on Ash's behalf. This changed in "Charizard Chills", when Charizard was frozen by an Ice Beam and Ash stayed up all night thawing him out and warming him back up; now, he's as loyal and dependable as any of Ash's other Pokémon.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Vándlat (Hope-Death) a.k.a. 'Dave' 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. And as his creation and control of the Wights demonstrates, being asleep didn't really slow him down very much.

** 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.
** In ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/16375/sharing-the-night Sharing the Night]]'', dragons are born as fairly active creatures but spend increasingly long periods asleep and increasingly short ones awake as they age. Young adults, like the dragon seen in "Dragonshy", only sleep for a century or so at a time between periods of activity, but the truly ancient ones never wake at all. Aging dragons, instead of dying, simply find a good spot to sleep and stay there, letting plants and dirt gather over their slumbering forms until they become parts of the landscape. It's implied that a very large portion of Equestria, if not its entirety, lays on the backs of hundreds upon hundreds of sleeping, dreaming dragons.

* Lampshaded in ''Film/{{Firefox}}'' when Gant is infiltrating the Soviet Union as a common smuggler, in the hope that this will attract less attention from the KGB.

* ''Literature/FightingFantasy'': The War Dragon spends most of his time asleep on his hoard. But when he is awake, you will sorely miss when he was napping...
* ''Literature/TheFirebringerTrilogy'': Dragons spend most of their very long lives asleep, but are able to [[spoiler:watch the goings-on of the world through their dreams, as the main character discovers to his dismay in the third book]].
* 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.
* ''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 an allusion to ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', where much the same happens, as Tolkien was a scholar of English literature and is known to have studied and translated ''Beowulf'' specifically.

** 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.

* ''Literature/FightingFantasy'': The War Dragon spends most of his time asleep one his hoard. But when he is awake, you will sorely miss when he was napping...

* ''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 an 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.

* ''TabletopGame/WorldTreeRPG'': Merklundum Harnispundum, a god who favors draconic form, is one of the most inactive deities in the World Tree, and spends the vast majority of his time sleeping in a cave somewhere in the World Tree's distant reaches.

%%The examples on this trope have been sorted by medium of origin and alphabetized. Please add new examples in order. Thank you!

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', [[spoiler:the Ruined Dragon]] can be found after his boss fight lounging in his boss arena and complaining about being tired. Though this is in large part because he spent so much energy in the fight against Mario.

On the other hand, more comedic examples will take full advantage of the comedic potential of these gigantic hellbeasts acting like grouchy old men who never want to go out. Or if they are [[DragonsAreDivine divine dragons]], TheGodsMustBeLazy.

On the other hand, more comedic examples will take full advantage of the comedic potential of these gigantic hellbeasts acting like grouchy old men who never want to go out.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'', [[spoiler:the Ruined Dragon can be found after his boss fight lounging in his boss arena and complaining about being tired. Though this is in large part because he spent so much energy in the fight against Mario.]]

* In ''Literature/TheElricSaga'', dragons need ''a lot'' of sleep, sleeping months or years after a few weeks of activity.

** Mountain landwyrms spend most of their lives sleeping within their lairs or curled up on some mountain peak, during which time they're almost indistinguishable from the rocky landscape around them.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/KillSixBillionDemons'', the immortal 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. [[spoiler:Turns out Mammon's immortality does not protect against [[TheFogOfAges senility]], the vault is actually to protect ''him'' from the outside world]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry Nutcracker'' feature film has a sequence where Tom finds himself in a cave inhabited by numerous sleeping dragons (whom he naturally wakes up to [[AmusingInjuries disastrous effect]]).

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.

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Vándlat (Hope-Death) a.k.a. 'Dave' 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.

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 to conserve energy or to warm themselves up. Many reptiles are also ambush predators, lying still so that prey doesn't see them. In fact, [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodilians]] may be the closest thing to real-life Lazy Dragons due to this.

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 to conserve energy or to warm themselves up.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* 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.

* ''[[https://tapas.io/series/Slack-Wyrm Slack Wyrm]]'' centers around this trope. It features a lazy VillainProtagonist dragon who often takes advantage of the nearby villagers and other characters.