Things to know about Quinn's dragons
No spoilers, just deductions:
1. There is no magic in Quinn's world. This is critically important. The movie presented the dragons as a species subject to scientific inquiry, with glimpses of various magazines and journals investigating the subject. It did not mention magic in any way, shape, or form. The dragons of Quinn's world are big flying reptile-like critters with lightweight but strong armour plating and glands that secrete chemicals that combine to provide the fire. They are not magical. I repeat: there is no magic in this world.
2. As long as I'm on the subject, Quinn's dragons are endotherms. Their internal temperature is a relative constant. Hence reptile-like rather than entirely reptilian. They can function in extreme cold. They just don't like it very much and avoid it where they can.
3. The dragons are intelligent, but not sapient. They have animal intelligence, not human. They are capable of being vengeful- one is said to have tracked a would-be dragonslaying expedition back to its fortress and killed all the residents- but then, any cat owner can tell you similar stories on a much smaller scale. I generally assume the intelligence of the brighter breeds of dog, but it varies by individual dragon.
4. The dragon reproductive model is similar to that of certain species of fish, according to the movie. The headline saying 'Dragon Nests Found In Tibet' during the second montage indicates a level of care for the offspring. While there are species of fish that do this- bettas, killies, Corydoras species of catfish, mouth brooders of various types- the dragons are more likely to behave like crocodilians towards their young. Crocodiles are solitary most of the year, coming together during mating season- this is entirely consistent with what the movie says about dragons. Crocodile eggs are laid in mounds of decaying vegetation to keep them warm, but this is not really practical for the dragons; more likely the eggs are partially buried and kept warm by the mother's body heat. Like crocodile mothers, the mother dragons will assist hatching offspring and keep protective watch over the babies until they're old enough to leave the nest.
5. It takes some time for young dragons to develop the ability to flame; those glands mature as the beast grows. Until the babies can do this, mother dragons will bring food back to the nest. The adults eat ash; this is canon, both from Quinn's montage monologue and from what we see of the adult dragon after the first 2020 flight sequence. However, ash is not their only food, or else those teeth would be something of a waste of time for non-reproducing animals. It is vital to their diet, but the beasts do digest meat.
6. They are incredibly nimble and almost obscenely swift. One dragon was shown in the movie as being able to give an American attack helicopter a run for its money in the speed department.
7. The scales are probably the toughest part of the dragon, unless the bony protrusions on the head count. I cannot honestly imagine them being so damnably difficult to kill otherwise; some enterprising Crip would have gone out to protect Los Angeles with a gun full of Black Rhino ammo and that would have been that. As dragons have no natural predators mentioned at any point during the movie, I can only assume that the development of natural lightweight armour is the result of millions of years of evolution filled with territorial squabbles. A dragon's greatest foe is another dragon; competition for feeding territory or a nesting spot must have been horrid in the past. Under good circumstances, dragon nests can coexist reasonably well in the same territory, but under bad ones you get the phenomenon of prairie dog towns, wherein one female will creep off and kill another's offspring while she's out. Mind you, it's canon that dragons hate the smell of their own dead, so this doesn't happen often. More likely the dragon-on-dragon battles are between adults, or else are the result of adult males (uninvolved in the raising of broods) pashing females' broods to bits in an effort to bring the females into heat again and fertilize the eggs themselves. Since female dragons are ferocious in the defence of their young, the ones who were nimblest and still best-armoured had the best chance of keeping their offspring alive.
More later as it occurs to me.
1. There is no magic in Quinn's world. This is critically important. The movie presented the dragons as a species subject to scientific inquiry, with glimpses of various magazines and journals investigating the subject. It did not mention magic in any way, shape, or form. The dragons of Quinn's world are big flying reptile-like critters with lightweight but strong armour plating and glands that secrete chemicals that combine to provide the fire. They are not magical. I repeat: there is no magic in this world.
2. As long as I'm on the subject, Quinn's dragons are endotherms. Their internal temperature is a relative constant. Hence reptile-like rather than entirely reptilian. They can function in extreme cold. They just don't like it very much and avoid it where they can.
3. The dragons are intelligent, but not sapient. They have animal intelligence, not human. They are capable of being vengeful- one is said to have tracked a would-be dragonslaying expedition back to its fortress and killed all the residents- but then, any cat owner can tell you similar stories on a much smaller scale. I generally assume the intelligence of the brighter breeds of dog, but it varies by individual dragon.
4. The dragon reproductive model is similar to that of certain species of fish, according to the movie. The headline saying 'Dragon Nests Found In Tibet' during the second montage indicates a level of care for the offspring. While there are species of fish that do this- bettas, killies, Corydoras species of catfish, mouth brooders of various types- the dragons are more likely to behave like crocodilians towards their young. Crocodiles are solitary most of the year, coming together during mating season- this is entirely consistent with what the movie says about dragons. Crocodile eggs are laid in mounds of decaying vegetation to keep them warm, but this is not really practical for the dragons; more likely the eggs are partially buried and kept warm by the mother's body heat. Like crocodile mothers, the mother dragons will assist hatching offspring and keep protective watch over the babies until they're old enough to leave the nest.
5. It takes some time for young dragons to develop the ability to flame; those glands mature as the beast grows. Until the babies can do this, mother dragons will bring food back to the nest. The adults eat ash; this is canon, both from Quinn's montage monologue and from what we see of the adult dragon after the first 2020 flight sequence. However, ash is not their only food, or else those teeth would be something of a waste of time for non-reproducing animals. It is vital to their diet, but the beasts do digest meat.
6. They are incredibly nimble and almost obscenely swift. One dragon was shown in the movie as being able to give an American attack helicopter a run for its money in the speed department.
7. The scales are probably the toughest part of the dragon, unless the bony protrusions on the head count. I cannot honestly imagine them being so damnably difficult to kill otherwise; some enterprising Crip would have gone out to protect Los Angeles with a gun full of Black Rhino ammo and that would have been that. As dragons have no natural predators mentioned at any point during the movie, I can only assume that the development of natural lightweight armour is the result of millions of years of evolution filled with territorial squabbles. A dragon's greatest foe is another dragon; competition for feeding territory or a nesting spot must have been horrid in the past. Under good circumstances, dragon nests can coexist reasonably well in the same territory, but under bad ones you get the phenomenon of prairie dog towns, wherein one female will creep off and kill another's offspring while she's out. Mind you, it's canon that dragons hate the smell of their own dead, so this doesn't happen often. More likely the dragon-on-dragon battles are between adults, or else are the result of adult males (uninvolved in the raising of broods) pashing females' broods to bits in an effort to bring the females into heat again and fertilize the eggs themselves. Since female dragons are ferocious in the defence of their young, the ones who were nimblest and still best-armoured had the best chance of keeping their offspring alive.
More later as it occurs to me.