Talk:Dragon (Dragonriders of Pern)

Dragons, firelizards and the common side-blotched lizard

Has anyone else noticed the correlation between the five morphs of dragons and firelizards (gold and green females; bronze, brown and blue males) and those of the common side-blotched lizard (orange- and yellow-throated females; orange-, blue- and yellow-throated males) with their different sizes, colors, temperaments and mating strategies? Did McCaffrey consciously model her dragons and firelizards on multi-gendered Earth lizards, or is it coincidence?

Only one queen egg per clutch?

That's incorrect. There are several mentions, especially after the Oldtimers are brought forward, of queen dragons having clutches with more than one gold egg.

I don't recall any mention of queens being incapable of breathing fire, only that like the greens, chewing firestone makes them sterile. I'd have to dig out the books for the exact reference, but it involves a current generation person being astonished that the Oldtimers fly queens against thread and that chewing firestone makes them sterile. That leads to the explanation of the queen riders using flamethrowers as low flying "sweepers" to flame any Thread missed by the others above, and to land and flame any Thread that hits the ground.

In Dragonsdawn (about the 1st Pass), the queens chew firestone, but are unable to get any flame; they do remain fertile, however. Could be that, over the years, "Queens shouldn't chew firestone because it won't work" morphed into "Queens shouldn't chew firestone because it makes them sterile", and no one cared to test the theory and ruin their queen's fertility. (Or, in real life, McCaffrey may have realized that the original queen riders would have of course tried firestone, and the entire species would have been wiped out if it had actually worked.) --ScottAlanHill 19:59, 13 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite. What happened in Dragonsdawn is that they tried chewing firestone but couldn't bring themselves to do it, because of a hang-up ingrained in their genetic makeup to prevent them from sterilizing themselves. Noneofyourbusiness 19:24, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

-nods- The queens basically 'threw up' the chewed firestone. Disinclination 00:49, 6 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed Merger with Weyr

Disagree. In my view these are separate topics. The article on Pernese dragons should deal with the beasts' history, physiology, and habits, while the article on Weyrs should treat the physical, social, and political structure of this pillar of Pernese society. As of this writing, this is largely the case. Furthermore, the list of Weyrs and their founding in the Weyr article fits there, but would be collatteral in this article. --Apascover 18:56, 22 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

gender shortcuts

I've noticed that the dragon genders seem to follow an easy to understand shortcut Boys
Bronze
Brown
Blue
Girls
Gold
Green

it seems like something that should go in there but i want sure where to put it or how to phrase it anyone else want to give it a try? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joelaarhus (talk • contribs) 05:24, 15 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]