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This article focuses on the creature, Dragons. For the Land Without Magic character, see
The Dragon.

Dragons are a creature species featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They are native to the Enchanted Forest, the Land Without Magic and Wonderland, and first appear in the first episode of the first season of Once Upon a Time.

Biology

Dragons are scaled, firespewing creatures that come in different shapes and colors. All dragons are capable of flight, even the one who don't have wings. Some dragons are capable of taking human form. ("Best Laid Plans," "Mother")

Dragons can mate with each other without knowing who their partner is. Lily refers to this as a "dragon thing". Therefore, a dragon mother can have no knowledge of who the father of her child is. ("Operation Mongoose Part 2")

Dragons reproduce by laying eggs. The mother protects the egg by building a nest and curling her tail around the egg. A dragon capable of shapeshifting into a human, will produce offspring that look human when they're hatched, although the child still inherits the parent's ability to take on dragon form. ("Best Laid Plans," "Mother")

When a female dragon builds their nest, they seem to prefer to scorch all the earth around it to mark their territory, and to fill the nest with silver treasures. This is what Maleficent did when she built her own nest in a cave. ("Best Laid Plans") The magic present in dragon egg shells allows people to stop aging. Dragonscales are used as an ingredient in memory potions. ("A Curious Thing," "Sympathy for the De Vil")

Dragon Breeds

There are at least three different breeds of dragons:

Reptilian with four legs and two wings. ("The Shepherd et al.) 420LilyDragon
Reptilian with two wings and two legs. ("Bad Blood") W107Dragon
Serpentine with four legs and no wings. This breed also has scalp hair and facial hair. ("I'll Be Your Mirror") File:608DragonIsOut.png

History

Before First Curse

Unhappy with a dragon terrorizing his kingdom, King Midas wishes for King George's son, Prince James, to slay the beast, and he will give them a supply of gold in return. However, when the prince is fatally wounded in a battle with Behemoth, his twin, David, is procured to take his place. While preparing in camp, one of the soldiers advises him to let everyone else kill the beast so he can claim the glory. Closing in on the beast's cave, the dragon ferociously spits fire and burns the entire infantry to death. With one soldier still alive, David protects the man from harm before grabbing the a discarded sword and luring the wvyern into chasing him. When David seeks cover in the cave, he discovers the dragon's neck is not long enough to reach all the way in. Using the sword, he severs the dragon head, which is later given to King Midas as proof. Beyond pleased with the results, King Midas offers his daughter, Princess Abigail, to the faux prince in marriage. Although David is against it, King George coerces him into accepting as a means to secure an alliance between the two kingdoms. ("The Shepherd")

After escaping from the Evil Queen's grasp, Prince Charming becomes lost in the Infinite Forest on his way to rescue Snow White from the sleeping curse. The wizard, Rumplestiltskin, enchants a ring to find his beloved, but first, Prince Charming must help him hide a potion in a beast. Arriving at a castle, the prince bursts in as Maleficent casually sits on her throne. He demands to know where the beast is, and she gleefully transforms into a colossal dragon. With his defenses low, Prince Charming can only repeatedly dodge her attacks. While he hides behind a pillar, Maleficent stalks the room in search of him. When her head is turned away from him, he notices a large flap behind one of her ears. Seizing the chance, he goads Maleficent into chasing after him. At one point, he hops onto her neck and throws the potion into her lobe, to which Maleficent roars at the object's intrusion in her body and shakes him off her neck. As she attacks in retaliation, he jumps out a window and lands in the ocean. Spotting Prince Charming in the water, she puffs another stream of fire, but her flames are unable to reach him. ("A Land Without Magic")

Knowing the Evil Queen's curse may arrive soon, Grumpy and Sleepy are assigned to the very top of the castle as outlook guards. While Sleepy, as usual, dozes off, Grumpy looks on in shock as a strangely colored smoke engulfs everything in the near distance. Various wildlife, such as a dragon, take to the air in an attempt to fly away from the spreading cloud. ("Pilot")

During First Curse

With the Evil Queen's curse enacted, many Enchanted Forest inhabitants are ripped from their world to another, in which they are given false memories and written new, unhappy lives in Storybrooke. Unlike everyone else, Maleficent suffers differently by remaining in dragon form; with the potion still hidden in her body. Imprisoned underground beneath the town library, she guards a trigger, an item capable of permanently erasing Storybrooke. ("The Evil Queen")

Twenty-eight years later, the curse savior, Emma, enters Storybrooke. Due to her presence, the curse begins to weaken. Halfway across the world, August, who once broke a promise to his father to protect Emma, is slowly turning back to wood. Travelling to Hong Kong, he tries to find a magical solution from someone called the Dragon. As he waits in line, Tamara gets her turn with the Dragon, where she lies about having cancer and needing a miracle cure, in order to find out if he possesses real magic. Although the Dragon knows she is lying, he plays along and, in exchange for a cherished photo of her grandmother, gives her a potion. As for August, the healer agrees, for an extensive amount of money, to provide a substance to stop him from turning back into wood. Short on cash, he steals from Tamara and delivers the payment to the Dragon. When August leaves, Tamara chases him down and steals the potion from him. Visiting the Dragon, Tamara admits to her lies and reveals she ran tests on the potion he gave her, which had substances not known in this world. Satisfied with finding real magic, she then ensures no one else will by killing the Dragon. The next day, August wishes to ask the Dragon for another cure, but he finds him dead. ("Selfless, Brave and True")

Desperate to save a comatose Henry, who ate a poisoned apple turnover, Emma and Regina join ranks to find a true love potion from Maleficent that Mr. Gold claims can revive the boy. Rather than this, Mr. Gold actually has his own motives for needing the potion to bring magic to Storybrooke. Armed with her father's sword, Emma takes an elevator to the floor below the library while Regina operates the switch on ground level. After accidentally alerting Maleficent to her presence, she attempts to injure the dragon with gunfire, but there is no effect. In her haste to run for cover, Emma drops the sword, although she later retrieves the weapon and throws it straight into Maleficent's chest. Defeated, the dragon explodes into a shimmer of embers; leaving the potion behind for Emma to take. ("A Land Without Magic")



After First Curse

In Wonderland, Alice and Knave are on a mission to rescue Cyrus from Jafar. Unable to access a hovering lair, they eventually discover a birdbark tree, whose branches can float. While making a basket from the branches to reach the lair, Alice has a bitter reunion with her father, Edwin, although she doesn't know he is actually Jafar in disguise. As they resume work on the basket, Jafar secretly casts a spell to draw out a wing-armed dragon. During the attack, Alice and Knave shield themselves from the dragon's fire blast using their assembled branch slants. The trio escape into the woods, where Edwin is nearly devoured by the beast, until Alice kills it.("Bad Blood")



After Second Curse

When Ursula and Cruella De Vil use the blood of Mary Margaret and David on Maleficent's ashes as part of her resurrection, it brought her back in her dragon form before she regressed back to her normal form.("Unforgiven")



Known Dragons

Trivia

On-Screen Notes

  • A dragon is featured in the title card for "The Shepherd",[2] "Bad Blood",[3] "Unforgiven"[4] and "Mother".[5]
  • The six-limbed dragons (four legs and two wings) featured in several episodes of the show, have the traits of a European dragon. ("The Shepherd" et al.)
  • The dragon that Alice, Will and Jafar encounter has only two legs,[6] meaning that it's technically a wyvern. A wyvern is a legendary creature with a dragon's head and wings, a reptilian body, two legs and a tail. The most important difference between a dragon and a wyvern, is that dragons are depicted with four legs, or without legs, whereas a wyvern only has two legs, and does not breathe fire, although they are known to breathe poison instead.[7] However, the two-legged creature that Alice and the others encounters does indeed breathe fire making it a type of wing-armed dragon. ("Bad Blood")
  • The Dragon's natural form is a Chinese dragon, which are depicted as quadrupeds with no wings. ("Changelings")
  • Dragons are considered as animals, as Cruella magically smoothed the dragon Maleficent with persuasion magic which only works on animals according to Isaac's story. ("Sympathy for the De Vil")

Props Notes

Set Dressing

Costume Notes

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

References


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