Basic Trope: A human that can turn into a dragon, or vice versa.
- Straight:
- Bob, a human, can turn into a dragon at will.
- Bob is a dragon that can turn into a human at will.
- Exaggerated: Every dragon can turn into a human at will, and every human can turn into a dragon at will.
- Downplayed:
- Bob can sprout wings or breathe fire.
- Bob, a dragon, can assume a Draconic Humanoid form, or vice versa.
- Justified: Bob prefers being in human form.
- Inverted: Bob can turn dragons into humans and humans into dragons.
- Subverted:
- Bob can't turn into a dragon.
- Bob can't turn into a human.
- Double Subverted:
- Then one day he inexplicably wakes up in dragon form.
- Bob finally learns how to become a human.
- Parodied:
- A super-massive dragon goes shopping, post memes on Twitter and goes to parties like any other human, until somebody points out that he's not even human.
- Bob uses his dragon form as a Mundane Utility.
- Zig Zagged: Some of the shapeshifters in Bob's world are humans who can transform into dragons at will, and others are dragons who can transform into humans at will.
- Enforced: The writer wants to make dragons into actual characters.
- Lampshaded: "I just realized that the reason why I never see any dragons is that they're in human form..."
- Invoked:
- Bob gets bitten by a therianthropic weredragon.
- Bob learns how to turn into a human at will.
- Exploited: Bob uses his dragon form to threaten people for his own benefit.
- Defied:
- Bob has a dragon form, but does not choose to use it.
- Bob hates turning into a human, and chooses not to.
- Emperor Evulz discovers the existence of a gene making humans capable of transforming into dragons at will, and he seeks to eliminate said gene from existence to prevent his main adversaries from interfering with his evil plans.
- Discussed: "So that guy I've been dating was a dragon all along? Never knew how many weredragons there were!"
- Conversed: "Honestly, they're like 2 yards long at smallest. Why wouldn't they want to be smaller at times?"
- Deconstructed: After learning of Bob's dragon-morphing abilities, many government agencies from the world over attempt to capture and study him for a chance to replicate his powers in other humans.
- Reconstructed: But then, Bob uses his unique powers to eliminate anyone who attempts to discover the secret of said unique powers.
- Played for Laughs: Bob transforms into a dragon, but his new dragon form is quite obese and has disproportionately small wings, making Bob incapable of flight and fitting into small spaces.
- Played for Drama: Bob transforms into a dragon after realizing it's the only way to defeat Emperor Evulz and his countless mooks, and once he does so, he quickly manages to save the day.
- Played for Horror: Bob more specifically transforms into a dracolich and unleashes a deadly plague upon humanity in an attempt to drive it into total extinction.
Back to Weredragon.