Tropes and Cliches

Dragons

Wow, it's been a minute since I last updated, so let's get into it.

Dragons are the poster child of the fantasy genre. Hell, they have their own game called Dungeons and Dragons. And they aren't in just one region. Every culture has some type of dragon or something that could be categorized as a dragon but probably shouldn't be. And they're very versatile when it comes to what role they can fill.
Now I did a chapter in the myths book about dragons that probably has more details, but this is how they're a trope in media.
A dragon's role will vary based on many factors. These factors include who's doing the writing, the culture it's set in, the type of dragon, and even then intended audience.

Now in many stories from around the world, what it means will most definitely varies, even within the cultural groups in the area. Personally, I think dragons are easier to categorize by the role they play. 
  
For example we have the Dragon Shifter, basically they can turn human or close enough to humans. One example is in American Dragon Jake Long, where dragons are the protectors of the magical world. His design changed from the standard European to the slimmer Asian style but here's a visual aid:

It's a cool concept. And, side note, his design is a reference to the fact that he's of Chinese and European descent. And there's actually different styles for each dragon depending on their country of origin, so that's cool.  And there's also a subtrope of this being a curse due to greed or some cursed artifact. 

Then we have those in the roles of divinity. Or essentially gods of some sort, that fall into support roles rather than the main cast of characters, providing intervention, sometimes through magic or simple guidance, as needed. I think the best example is the Dragon from the Dragonball, series. Or even the dragons from Avatar the Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, as they serve as teachers to firebenders, or at least that's their universe's lore. It's even incorporated into their buildings and clothes, so that's a cool touch. Even in many East Asian countries have this small touch. 

On the other end of the spectrum, dragons as the bad guy, going back to that curse thing. I think the "dragon sickness"plot line in the Hobbit movies was based off a Norse/Scandinavian story that I have to look into more but will cover when I talk about curses under the Magic trope. But dragons, in European stories anyway, were used as a "Christianity saves the day" thing when paganism was still very prevalent. They were often protecting hoards of shiny treasure or the ever pretty Damsel in Distress. 

And subverting tropes like the ones I listed is hard but can be simple by narrowing down how one wants these dragon's to be seen in their stories. I've used American Dragon because we have dragons that just want to live their lives, the fact that being able to even shift into one can skip generations if both your parents are dragons, and each having their own traits and abilities based on their own heritage. 
We do have those who will argue as to what counts as a real dragon, but I have to disagree. JRR Tolkien said there's two dragons that are real dragon: the one from Beowulf and Fafnir. Why? Because they contribute to the plot and theme of the story. Again,  I disagree. Dragons can be anything you want them to be. They can be divine mentors to true neutral characters that want nothing to do with either the hero or villain. And that's because we classify a lot of things as a "dragon" but not all of them will look like the agreed upon definition, yet it's universally accepted. 

The whole fire breathing thing is a western concept because most Asian dragons are water based, and I believe there are indigenous tribes in the Americas where it's lightning. People within these groups know this, but it's a dragon, we can write it to spit ice breath, no horns, and feathered wings if we wanted to. 

Dragons are a category of creatures, just like fairies or demons. You can change the design and ability but  can still fall under dragon. With amount of power and versatility a dragon has from a story telling perspective, they are the poster child for fantasy for a reason. Just look at media like The Dragon Prince or The Lord of the Rings or even old works like The Journey to the West or Beowulf. Dragons are what you want to make them.