History Main / Unicorn

* ''WesternAnimation/ItsPony'': In the same episode [[NamesTheSame name]] as this trope, Pony slips on a marshmallow that gets stuck to his head, making him believe he's magically transformed into a unicorn.

Compare {{Pegasus}} and OurHippocampsAreDifferent. Only related to DeadUnicornTrope by name.

* In ''Manga/AoNoFuuin'' they are called Demon Masks, but appearance-wise they seem very close to unicorns, including a very long, thin horn that they need to retain, as breaking it off is a death sentence to them. With their long mane, though, they can hide the horn and body and look like very shaggy dogs.
* In ''Manga/SugarSugarRune'', the "final exam" is to fetch a unicorn horn. The unicorn takes on the form of a white-haired boy to test Chocolat and Vanilla with trickster methodology.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Team Unicorn, a trio of D-Wheelers who use Unicorn-motif decks to unbelievably ''awesome'' effect. To drive the point home: Their ''first'' duelist Andore not only defeated, but ''completely wiped the floor with'', both Jack and Aki ''on his own'', and only a last-second moment of ''[[TooDumbToLive utter stupidity]]'' cost them the match. (Namely, Jean declaring an attack on Yusei, allowing a combo that took him out, when Yusei's deck had already been depleted; simply ''ending his turn'' would have clinched the victory.) Their ace cards are [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Thunder_Unicorn Thunder Unicorn,]] [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Voltic_Bicorn Voltic Bicorn]] and [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Lightning_Tricorn Lightning Tricorn.]] As you have read, two of them have more than one horn. There's also [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Sunlight_Unicorn Sunlight Unicorn,]] used by Luca.

* In the world of ''Manga/ParallelParadise'', mystical creatures exists, including unicorns. They are known to help out travelers...[[UnicornsPreferVirgins as long as they are virgins]]. The bicorns are the inverted versions of unicorns and can help out impure travelers.

* A moral inversion in ''Manga/Overlord2012'', where Nazaric's stables include a bicorn, an evil vicious bastard of a MoodyMount with two horns that can't be mounted by virgins. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztohAWQG6dE Which comes as a major surprise to Aura and Shalltear when the succubus Albedo can't stay on]] (Ainz having accidentally replaced "she's a slut" to "she loves Ainz" in her programming, so she's saving herself for him).
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', the Blu-Ray version of the show depicts a unicorn wind chime alongside a mermaid one in Episode 9, as Kyouko speaks with Madoka. The whole scene is very subtle symbolism, [[spoiler: with the unicorn representing Kyouko, who was wild before she met Sayaka the mermaid. Unicorn horns were said to clean tainted water, and since Sayaka became a Mermaid Witch, she became associated with water. What does Kyouko wish to do? Save her, or ''purify'' her. Kyouko may be further associated with the unicorn via her idealism and her use of a lance as a weapon. This is further invoked by Ophelia, Kyouko's Witch, riding a unicorn whose horn was cut, symbolizing her loss of purity.]]
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', the Military Police has a unicorn's head as their crest, and the branch is made up of soldiers who made it to the top 10 scores upon graduating from military training. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the unicorn symbolizes how the Military Police's fighting prowess is just as mythical as the unicorn itself; most people only enlist for the cushy upper-class lifestyle, and many of them prove to be incompetent once they have to fight titans.]]

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': Unicorns are among the monsters endemic to the Island, but the Thorden party instead encounters an EvilCounterpart called the bicorn: black horses with two goat-like horns. While unicorns are drawn to virtue and can be tamed by innocent virgin maidens, bicorns love immorality and are known to eat virtuous husbands. Laios reasons that it can be tamed by an corrupt adult male, and the party tries to catch it by behaving [[SevenDeadlySins sinfully]] so they can get close, but they fail to take it alive when it senses Chilchack (who the party assumed was the necessary corrupt adult) and tries to eat him. Turns out the state of his marriage is both less and more complicated than he pretends.

* ''Manga/HeavensDesignTeam'' is about a team of celestial beings accepting commissions from God to develop the Earth's animals. They regularly try to create mythical creatures, but run into various problems when their biology can't hold up to Earth conditions. Unicorns are impossible because their horns are unsustainable; growing a solid one saps too much calcium from the skeleton, leading to severe osteoporosis. They'd need a metabolism like a cow to derive enough nutrients from their diet to work, but that'd diverge too far from the elegant horse appearance for the creator's tastes. They try making them dumber to spare more nutrients from the brain, but that makes them TooDumbToLive. Making them hollow just makes the horns too fragile, rendering them uselessly ornamental.

* ''ComicBook/LokiAgentOfAsgard'': Loki turns into a unicorn for one panel after being Inverted. And as a side-note, per the rules of Loki's shapeshifting, they can only turn into "themselves" (i.e., a species they resemble, so they can turn into a fox, but not a fly).
* ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'': One story from the B&W super-sized comics has Conan "hired" to retrieve the horn of unicorn for a ruler who had heard it would cure his impotence. Said unicorn has nothing in common with the myth other than being an equine with a horn, being black and its valley populated by the bones -- particularly the skulls -- of everyone who'd tried to capture or kill it. As one of the few survivors of Conan's party after he gives up he tells another survivor to simply take and give the king some ground bone from some other creature and lie about it being unicorn horn rather than continue in the fool's folly to try killing the unicorn.
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': In ''Recap/AsterixAndTheMissingScroll'', the Gauls encounter a few of them in the forest of Carnutes. Later, the Romans following the Gauls are attacked by one.

* In ''ComicBook/ArakSonOfThunder'' #37, a foreign envoy has brought a gift for the Frankish king: a unicorn. All they need to tame it is a maiden, and all eyes turn to ActionGirl Valda. But they don't know about her recently-consummated relationship with Arak, and the unicorn has to be pacified by CourtMage Malagigi's magic when it goes wild.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' had the two unicorns aboard TheArk eaten by the lions, whereupon Noah decides to confine all carnivores to their own deck from now on.

* In the ''Series/{{House}}'' fanfic "Ignorance and Knowledge" Cameron's young niece Alexandra loves unicorns and Cameron gives her a toy unicorn as a present.

--> Can’t have the silly fairies get all high on magic and fly into trees or stab themselves on a unicorn or something.

* ''Animation/ElArca'': A unicorn shows up too late to board Noah's Ark, and consequently drowns in the global flood.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCareBearsAdventureInWonderland'': Alice saves a foal, thus passing at least part of the Princess Test.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'', the leader of "Cloudcuckooland" (yes, just as it sounds) is Uni-Kitty, part cat, part unicorn, who is always, always cheerful (it's required in the job description). Something ''very'' "disturbed" appears when she finally cracks.
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': Agnes is obsessed with unicorns, and has a plush unicorn that she won at a carnival game in the first movie.
** In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'' she hears about a real one and tries to capture it. [[spoiler:She finds a goat kid with a missing horn instead, which she still insists is the real thing.]]

* In ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' [[spoiler: a Unicorn is one of the hundreds of creatures stored under the facility to potentially be set upon the heroes. It's eventually seen stabbing a man with its horn]]. FridgeBrilliance will remind us that it makes perfect sense since only a [[FinalGirl virgin female]] can tame one.
* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' Peter is shown riding a unicorn into battle, a detail that did not occur in the book. (Unicorn-riding comes later, see Literature below.)

* In ''Film/VoyageOfTheUnicorn'', the crew of ''The Unicorn'' must find the real thing, in order to use its tears to restore a fellow shipmate who has been turned to stone. In an interesting variation, the unicorn is portrayed as black with a gold horn. The only two characters who ever ride it are young (and therefore presumably virgin) girls.

** The ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series heavily features unicorns. He goes for the "horse with a horn" image, but his unicorns can [[VoluntaryShapeshifter shapeshift]] into human and other forms, play music on their horns (and use hoofbeats for percussion), dissipate body heat by breathing fire, perform crazy acrobatics, and are magic-resistant to the point where if a herd of them stand in a circle, no spells can be cast within. Unicorn Neysa also demonstrates her LivingLieDetector powers by impaling Stile with her horn -- since he wasn't using deceit, he wasn't harmed. Stile talks with a male unicorn (who's in human form at the moment) about various things, such as unicorn stallions not being able to breed unless they're in charge of the herd. But when his mentions the myths of [[VirginPower a virgin's power over a unicorn stallion]], the unicorn laughs and says he wouldn't put his ''head'' in a young woman's lap. ([[AuthorAppeal Dammit, Piers]].)
** In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', has a female character who can summon any kind of horse. However, after she [[DoubleEntendre gets to know]] her husband, she can no longer summon unicorns.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' has the Kirin, a unicorn-like Elder Dragon with powerful electric attacks.

* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'': The unicorn is the Principality of Gallia's national animal, which is seen decorated in its flag and military insignia. Its horn resembles the Valkyrur's lance, which denotes Gallia's royal family's connection to the Valkyrur [[spoiler:or so they claim]]. In addition, the northwestern part of their country resembles an unicorn's head.

** ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyANewGeneration'': Unicorns have horns marked with spiraling patterns and, in contrast to the pegasi and earth ponies' more modern cities, live in {{Arboreal Abode}}s within the forest of Bridlewood. They used to have magic in the same vein as their ancestors in the era of ''Friendship is Magic'', but lost it when magic faded from the world and are very depressed about it. They're also highly superstitious and studiously avoid saying words they consider bad luck.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor] Jamie and Zoe encounter a unicorn in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E2TheMindRobber The Mind Robber]]". It attacks them on sight.

* In ''Series/TheVoyageOfTheUnicorn'', the crew of ''The Unicorn'' must find the real thing, in order to use its tears to restore a fellow shipmate who has been turned to stone. In an interesting variation, the unicorn is portrayed as black with a gold horn. The only two characters who ever ride it are young (and therefore presumably virgin) girls.

* Ameristar casino advertisement: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU5nzqkzvJY "Is that a unicorn?"]] [[UpToEleven "No, it's a quadricorn!"]]

* ''VideoGame/FiveDChessWithMultiverseTimeTravel'': The Unicorn piece, available in some board setups, is capable of triagonal movement in any three of the four axes of movement. It can move horizontally or vertically through space and time or diagonally across time or space, making it an advanced version of the Bishop despite its design being based on the Knight.

* ''VideoGame/5DChessWithMultiverseTimeTravel'': The Unicorn piece, available in some board setups, is capable of triagonal movement in any three of the four axes of movement. It can move horizontally or vertically through space and time or diagonally across time or space, making it an advanced version of the Bishop despite its design being based on the Knight.

* Ke$ha: In the video for "Blow", unicorns are [[FunnyAnimal bipedal, wear clothes]] bleed rainbows when shot and, since they're hanging with Ke$ha apparently have no hangups about the state of one's virginity.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': Agnes is obsessed with unicorns, and has a plush unicorn that she won at a carnival game in the first movie. In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'' she hears about a real one and tries to capture it. [[spoiler:She finds a goat kid with a missing horn instead, which she still insists is the real thing.]]

Either way, when they're good, the most important unicorn association is [[PurityPersonified purity]]; [[UnicornsAreSacred harming one can often be a sign that a character is a villain]]. Indeed, the connections with maidens is probably why the unicorn has become gentle in popular culture and myth for several centuries. In modern days, unicorns are often part of a SugarBowl theme. In fantasy settings, unicorns are often associated with good factions and/or forest-dwelling fairies and elves. If used as mounts, their riders will almost always be women. Portraying unicorns as aggressive is one of the more common fantasy subversions -- or perhaps the writers of today still haven't forgotten Pliny's vicious unicorn. It's a resurgence not unlike the reappearance of TheFairFolk. Truly evil unicorns, however, are relatively rare and often explicitly tainted, desecrated or otherwise "wrong" in some manner, and often have [[DarkIsEvil black coats]].

* EnchantedForest: A deep, magic forest.

* {{Demythification}} in ''En busca del unicornio'' ("In search of the unicorn") by Juan Eslava Galán. A Spanish expedition travels to Africa in the mid-15th century to find a unicorn for King Henry IV of Castile. They expect it to be as in the legends, but are disappointed when they find a rhinoceros and realize that this is what the mythical beast actually was.

* ''Literature/BookOfImaginaryBeings'': The unicorn has been known since the time of the Greek writer Ctesias, who reported it as wild ass with a white coat, a purple head, blue eyes and a pointed horn that is white at its base, black in the middle and with a red tip. Pliny described it as a horse with the tail of a boar, the feet of an elephant, the head of a stag and black horn three feet long. In modern depictions it is typically white, with legs like an antelope's and a beard like a goat's. It's often described as a fierce creature impossible to capture alive, which can kill an elephant with one strike of its horn and which is a mortal enemy of lions. It can be caught and rendered tame by a virgin maiden, which according to Leonardo da Vinci is due to the unicorn's lust overpowering its fierceness.
* ''Literature/{{Dracopedia}}'': Unicorns are depicted in ''Dracopedia: The Bestiary''. While pretty standard in appearance, these denizens of European woodlands are highly territorial and extremely ferocious when cornered or provoked. Hunters frequently pursued them for their horns, believing they had magical properties.