Today's dragons are both fire-breathing and fashionable.
While dragons tend to have a reputation of being Nigh-Invulnerable, sometimes this isn't enough: Not all dragons are clad in titanium-strength scales, or sometimes they need extra protection from dragon-killing weapons that would easily pierce through their normal scaly hides.
When this is the case, it's time for even the dragons to suit up in a layer of crafted blacksmith armor. Not only may it shield a potential weak spot (like a single missing scale), it looks cool to wear, doubly so if it's gold or silver in color.
Dragon armor is more common if a Dragon Rider is also involved, as the armor provides places to affix a saddle and harness to. Can also occur if the dragon is presented like an ordinary Beast of Battle: armor for war horses and even for War Elephants existed in real life, so if dragons were used in warfare it's easy to imagine armor being invented for them.
No relation to The Dragon (just to be clear), although they can overlap.
Examples
open/close all folders
Card Games
- Duel Masters has races called "Armored Dragon" and "Armored Wyvern", both of which are essentially dragons in Powered Armor. Some carry guns, some are covered in guns.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! features the Armed Dragon cards, which are part of the "LV" archetype that revolves around Evolutionary Levels. Armed Dragon LV3 upgrades to LV5, then to LV7 (and that can be replaced with LV10, optionally). They're an increasingly-humanoid series of red dragons that appear to wear dark, shiny metal armor.
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: In Frenzied Fortification, Ami starts armoring her dragons for the upcoming battle by having them coated directly in molten steel.
- Ice and Fire (Minecraft): Dragons can be equipped with sets of dragon armor, available in all metals and found in treasure chests.
- The Portal: Main character Blizzard gets a special set of armor that he can summon onto his own body simply using his thoughts.
- In chapter 25, a large number of young dragons put on some armor to prepare themselves for the final battle against Zobek and the Dark Ones.
Films — Animation
- In How to Train Your Dragon 2, the villain Drago has armored dragons among his forces. They don't see much action compared to his army, but the idea is to show that he is capable of subjugating dragons, making him an Evil Counterpart to Hiccup, who peacefully tames and trains them. Later after Drago’s defeat Berk took the armor off of the enslaved dragons. However later in the comics one of them, a Thunderclaw named Bonesnarl refused to have his armor off.
Literature
- In the Age of Fire books, the scaleless gray dragon AuRon got the dwarves to make him some armor.
- Bazil Broketail: Though dragons are already pretty tough to begin with, those in the Argonath legions also wear armor (helmets, breastplates, etc.) and use shields for even more protection, as they also use regular weapons (usually swords) while fighting armed enemies.
- The Hobbit has Smaug the dragon, who encrusted his soft underbelly with diamonds and other gemstones by lying atop a hoard of Dwarf treasure for the better part of two centuries. He has a single uncovered patch just above his heart, which Bilbo notices and passes on (accidentally, by way of an eavesdropping thrush) to Bard the Bowman, who is able to spot and shoot it by looking for the one patch which isn't reflected in the moonlight.
- In the Inheritance Cycle books, Saphira wears heavy armor to any big battle, and apparently the old Riders used dragon armor too, though it's brought up that making armor for dragons is difficult because of how they never stop growing (even if they slow down after a point), meaning it can be time-consuming and a constant drain on resources.
- Shatter the Sky: Emperor Rafael has his dragon Vix in armor for the final battle.
- Dragons in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series are commonly armored in layers of chain mail and leather for serious combat. In addition they love anything sparkly, so any that can obtain them will add pieces that are mostly decorative. Temeraire has a platinum breastplate (a gift from his captain, Laurence) of which he is very proud.
- Not an actual dragon, but a huge suit of articulated plate armor for a dragon appears in Margle's armory from Too Many Curses. When the various suits of armor become animated to battle Tiama, the dragon armor breathes fire just like its wearer once could.
- Wings of Fire: Dragons have been described as wearing armor on several occasions; for instance, Whirlpool wore impenetrable armor during his attempt to murder Tsunami. While dragon scales have been described as jewel hard, other dragons can easily get past scales to score a fatal blow in battle.
Live-Action TV
- The Dragon from The Masked Singer Australia wears a set of fancy medieval knight's armor.
Multimedia Works
- Digimon:
- WarGreymon is a Dragon Man Digimon that wears pieces of armor and a shield on its back, while its direct variant, VictoryGreymon, trades out its shield for a BFS. There is also the related EmperorGreymon, a Dragon Warrior Digimon who wears a whole suit of armor.
- Ryudamon is a small dragon-like Digimon that wears samurai armor for defensive capabilities. Its Digivolutions — Ginryumon, Hisharyumon, and Ouryumon — all follow the theme of dragons in armor.
- Future Card Buddyfight features the Armordragon class, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin in terms of monsters; this class includes both standard and anthropomorphic dragons that wear armor.
- Pokémon Sun and Moon, has the Pseudo-Legendary line, of Jangmo-o, Hakamo-o, and Kommo-o, whose scales are used to this effect. This shows up in all three of their abilities giving immunities. Bulletproof protects them from ball and bomb moves, Soundproof protects them from sound-based moves, and their Hidden Ability, Overcoat, protects them from Weather Effects and Powder moves.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Some of the rule books allow for armor constructed for dragons.
- Draconians in Dragonlance wear armor frequently.
- The fluff mentions from time to time dragons being armored by jewels and coins as in the Smaug version above after so many time sleeping over their treasure.
- Future Card Buddyfight: Dragon World has Armordragons, who as their name implies are dragons who fight using armor and weapons. While there are many standalone ones, there are also factions of them such as the Thunder Knights, the Blue Sky Knights, the Crimson Battlers, and the Fifth Omni Dragons. The Purgatory Knights are a unique case in that they're also Armordragons, but circumstances have them instead fighting for Darkness Dragon World.
- Legend System: As part of the 3rd Circle of the Dragon racial track, you gain a suit of armor, fluffed as having really hard scales. What's interesting is that this armor can be enchanted like normal armor, allowing you to sense enemies, blast people to the ground and even slice nearby opponents up with your scales! Of course, nothing stops you from wearing armor before this, or even fluffing this circle as more traditional metal armor.
- Pathfinder: Sovereign dragons always go clad in their distinctive golden armor. Humanoids find this very impressive, but other dragons think it's kind of ridiculous.
- Warhammer: Age of Sigmar:
- The Stardrakes are immense magical dragons used as steeds by Stormcast Eternals who wear armor plating on their chests and legs.
- Despite being the strongest and toughest of its kind, Bigteef, the Maw-Krusha ridden by the Megaboss Gordrakk, wears an armored helmet made of crudely beaten metal.
Video Games
- Battle for Wesnoth: Drakes. The law-keepers have a full set of golden armor over their scaly body.
- Final Fantasy XIV: In Heavensward Midgardsormr comes clad in battle-armor once he ascends to his rideable, flying mount form at the end of Azys Lla.
- Fire Emblem: The wyverns used as mounts by the Wyvern Rider class frequently don armor. If they aren't armored initially, they often gain some once their rider promotes to a Wyvern Lord.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Argorok, a dragon fought as the boss of the City in the Sky, wears a full suit of armor all over its body. In order to defeat it, Link has to destroy said armor to reach its hidden weak spot.
- Mahou Daisakusen has Miyamoto the samurai dragon, who of course wears samurai armor.
- Panzer Dragoon: The dragons are all decked in stone-like armor — the same used by the Empire's airships — that doubles as Anti-Gravity devices.
- Spyro the Dragon:
- The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: The payer can find different pieces of dragon armor for Spyro and Cynder to wear, including helmets, bracers, and hip pieces. Each piece has its own special ability, and collecting a full set will give you a bonus ability that comes with it.
- Skylanders: Blades and Drobot are both dragons who wear armor. Drobot has steampunk-styled Powered Armor while Blades wears full plate armor.
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy: Spyro himself doesn't wear any armor, but the second realm he visits, the military-themed Peace Keepers world, features many dragons wearing helmets and breastplates.
- Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap: Daimyo Dragon wears a suit of samurai armor, and attacks by channeling lightning with his sword. The armor doesn't make him any more or less vulnerable than other dragons (only the head has a hurtbox).
- World of Warcraft: Several dragons are depicted as wearing armor. The intro of Cataclysm in particular shows Deathwing getting his armor pinned to his scales. However Deathwing's armor is not to protect him, but to keep his body held together.
Webcomics
- Both Franz the Heterodyne dragon and the Baron's dragon in Girl Genius, though as constructs of mad science at least some of the metal plates are embedded in their skin. After their fight Franz is seen wearing the other dragon's helmet as a trophy.
Western Animation
- Dragon Booster:
- Blue Draconium Gear includes Absorption Armor: aerodynamic flip up plates designed to dampen mag blasts and spread the energy out in such a way that it actually drains more from the attacker.
- Red Draconium Gear includes Heat Armour: low-impact, high heat resistant body armour that can deflect reasonable blows but can also resist heat. Heat storing power can be added to be used with venting and speed gear.
- Dragons: Riders of Berk:
- When faced with anti-dragon arrows (Dragon Root lanced arrows), Hiccup realizes they have to start developing armor for their dragons to wear to better protect themselves Too bad the dragons don't find it very comfortable. The first set was made of Screaming Death scales because it is the toughest of all dragon scales but it was heavy so they switch to Gronckle Iron armor because it was lighter.
- The Armorwing and Boneknapper dragon species create makeshift armor out of scavenged metal and dragon bones, respectively.
- Some dragon species like the Razorwhip and Shellfire have armor plating that is natural for them.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) has Granamyr sporting a helmet that his horns protrude through.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the episode "Gauntlet of Fire", Dragon Lord Torch is never seen without his black plate armor. In addition, most of the dragons (except Garble) competing in the Gauntlet don armor, showing how dangerous the ordeal is. This includes Princess Ember, though in her case it's mostly to hide her identity from her father.
