Why are the dragons racist?

[Cwanky 17,457]

Well, if you count the comics as canon there are dragons living in Fillydelphia.

 

 

 

 

In any case the only dragons we saw in the show was that small group, and....they were stereotypical teenagers. Of course we've seen other dragons that are hostile (Dragonshy, Journal of the Two Sisters), but still that is only a small segment.

Even if it is the comics, its nice to see that a non-pony species is being treated as integrated into the society and coexisting and not being treated as some foreigners to be feared. As if ponies could not love and tolerate outside their own groups. 

 

Now if only they'd do likewise for the zebras and not treat them as some blatantly obvious stereotype of Africans. I mean I get the characterization, but its overdone. 

 

Not every zebra knows,

Zecora's rhyme and prose.

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

The main reason was to demonstrate the importance of spike's humanity in making the right choice, showing to be not just more mature, but also more human/pony at the end, in comparison with the superfluous and toxic behaviour on some adolescents(the dragons) which deny their inner child just because they're afraid of being hurt. This is noticeable in some adolescents I've seen myself.

Like a psychological mask they wear, which only shows how afraid an insecure they're about themselves, even If they can't quite realize that sometimes. The problem is that in their endeavor of fake-strenght, they often hurt other people just to keep up appearances. Like with the fenix eggs.

Heart is what makes us mature, not tests of self-delusion which only serve the purpose of feeding up the low-esteem on our egos. You can see this through the entire episode, in how spike at the end shows to be much more human, strong and mature than all those dragons put together, despite being failed their immature tests.

Great episode for Spike, not like others...

[The Awesome One 1,314]

The dragons seem to be nomadic in nature and they most likely do not have any form of education for their young. They are basically wild beasts who have somehow learned to speak English.

 

Also, no education and uncivilized means that they will be very very racist.

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

 

 

Well, if you count the comics as canon there are dragons living in Fillydelphia.

 

No, there isn't any dragons living with ponies. It was obviously all a bad dream devised by Luna to teach Spike a lesson about dignity or something and is no way something that should be considered a piece of canon that would just so happen to ruin a lot of the mystique surrounding the dragons presented in the show and completely clashes with Spike's character development up to this point.

 

It never happened.

 

Anyway, what @@~Chaotic Discord~ said. I think dragons just don't care about anyone else. They're big and scary and live where they want, when they want, and everyone else has to deal with it. It's more a lack of respect than outright racism, or whatever the proper term for this would be.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,152]

No, there isn't any dragons living with ponies. It was obviously all a bad dream devised by Luna to teach Spike a lesson about dignity or something and is no way something that should be considered a piece of canon that would just so happen to ruin a lot of the mystique surrounding the dragons presented in the show and completely clashes with Spike's character development up to this point.

 

It never happened.

 

Anyway, what @@~Chaotic Discord~ said. I think dragons just don't care about anyone else. They're big and scary and live where they want, when they want, and everyone else has to deal with it. It's more a lack of respect than outright racism, or whatever the proper term for this would be.

 

Eh; I never saw much mystique with dragons in the show. Honestly; they never felt properly implemented in the lore outside of the Journal of the Two Sister. I actually preferred the comic interpretation as we actually get some character from them that isn't immediately repulsive.

 

But that's just my view.

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

 

 

Eh; I never saw much mystique with dragons in the show. Honestly; they never felt properly implemented in the lore outside of the Journal of the Two Sister. I actually preferred the comic interpretation as we actually get some character from them that isn't immediately repulsive.

 

I like that we don't know too much about dragon culture, or whether they have much of a culture at all; the idea that they're too dangerous too be around and that's why ponies don't know too much about them.

 

I'm cool with having dragons that aren't repulsive, but the idea of them living in what looks like Bedrock from The Flintstones right down the street from ponies is ridiculous. Besides clashing with that danger the show has been pushing up to this point, it makes Spike less unique. He was once the child of two separate cultures, trying to live up to the virtues and society he was brought up with while struggling to find out where he came from and how to cope with instincts that might not necessarily be safe for his friends and family.

 

Now he's just some adopted kid going through puberty. It's like, "Why didn't we just go down the street and ask a dragon why our dragon turned into a giant monster?"

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,152]

I like that we don't know too much about dragon culture, or whether they have much of a culture at all; the idea that they're too dangerous too be around and that's why ponies don't know too much about them.

 

I'm cool with having dragons that aren't repulsive, but the idea of them living in what looks like Bedrock from The Flintstones right down the street from ponies is ridiculous. Besides clashing with that danger the show has been pushing up to this point, it makes Spike less unique. He was once the child of two separate cultures, trying to live up to the virtues and society he was brought up with while struggling to find out where he came from and how to cope with instincts that might not necessarily be safe for his friends and family.

 

Now he's just some adopted kid going through puberty. It's like, "Why didn't we just go down the street and ask a dragon why our dragon turned into a giant monster?"

 

Honestly that's a fair point. However one of my main problems with the shows interpretation of dragons is that they try to make them seem dangerous, but they come off (to me anyway) as a weak joke with very little bite. I love it when the culture of a species is shown as vague and mysterious; like the zebra and griffins from the show, or the deer from the comics. The dragons though have always lacked that for me. I appreciated what they tried to do with Dragonquest, but it always felt like a missed opportunity for me.

 

With the comic interpretation at least we're given something that I can grab onto and believe without scratching my head.

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

 

 

Honestly that's a fair point. However one of my main problems with the shows interpretation of dragons is that they try to make them seem dangerous, but they come off (to me anyway) as a weak joke with very little bite. I love it when the culture of a species is shown as vague and mysterious; like the zebra and griffins from the show, or the deer from the comics. The dragons though have always lacked that for me. I appreciated what they tried to do with Dragonquest, but it always felt like a missed opportunity for me. With the comic interpretation at least we're given something that I can grab onto and believe without scratching my head.

 

I just don't like the idea of them flat-out living with ponies, let alone the idea that they have a town and a comic book industry and all that goofiness. It's like the writer really wanted to do something about racism and dragons, but all they could think up was having them literally live in an intercity neighborhood. And in an attempt to not write a story that wouldn't interfere with future episodes, they wrote a story that doesn't fit in with what little has been established at all.

[Megas 27,064]

Not really fair to call all dragon's racists just because we only got to see a few of their teenage assholes. Which was kind of a problem with Dragon Quest in that all we saw were the teenage assholes.

 

Personally the Luna/Spike Friends Forever comic did dragons more justice despite its problems, like why there's an entire dragon community in Manehattan out of nowhere in the first place

Edited May 11, 2015 by Megas75

[[NULL] 906]

I haven't seen the episode in a while, so I don't remember whether or not they are actually racist.

 

Assuming that they are however, they're racist because racists exist, and that's life.

[Shanks 10,811]

It is a bit presumptuous to label dragons as racist when the dragons we have seen in the show are few and far between, and as we have seen in episodes like Bridle Gossip there are plenty of ponies who also racist. Pretty much all the mane 6 automatically assumed the worst of Zecord except for Applebloom though Twilight acted as a voice of reason at first she did eventually join the others in their ignorance. Also I would like to note that there are many different species of dragons in mythology and not all of them are hostile or poorly educated. I think it is reasonable to assume that there are probably different species of dragons in Equestria.

 

Much of the racism that does exist is mutual, most ponies are afraid of dragons because there are dragons that are hostile and dangerous and even one hostile dragon can be a threat to an entire town. Many dragons likely think that ponies are superstitious, cowardly and weak and probably don't like being automatically branded as monsters. The cultures simply don't understand each other or have much contact and that has bred all sorts of misunderstandings. Honestly this show really needs to handle dragons better, I refuse to believe that Spike is the only dragon out there that is not a violent, aggressive bully.

[The Awesome One 1,314]

They're not racist, they're jerks, there's a difference.  On top of that, they're teenage-jerks, which is a whole other level of bad, but I don't think the jerkiness really changes that much with age for dragons.  Maybe they won't be quite the same punks when they're older, but they might be even more hotheaded than they were before, who knows?  We've seen what adult dragons in the show can be like, and that's nasty and short-tempered.  Either way, it's not really racism, not unless you read too much into it.

 

They grow up to become massive flying lizards of doom who can burn down your towns and villages by just breathing. So I guess they have a superiority complex in them.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

I don't know if the dragons are racist/speciesist at least any more so than other species in Equestria.  I mean there is a subtle pony superiority running through Equestria, depending on if you want to look at Equestria as a dystopia or read WAY to deep into things.  Ponies throw out the term mule like an insult and then feel the need to correct themselves, Dragons are considered dangerous to the point nobody knows anything about them. The vampire fruit bats views weren't even considered even though they have a language, a sign of a higher intellect, And in the Equestria Games, there were only 6-8 Griffons (give or take, I don't remember the exact count) and that was it when it came to non pony species.  The upper deck section, which contained multiple dignitaries, was composed only of ponies.  In a land which has been repeatedly shown to have multiple intelligent species, it seems odd that only one would compete in the world equivalent of the Olympics, with only a token showing by one other race. So I would say most species in Equestria have a sort of nationalistic attachment in their race and might have a slight bias towards their own race.  As to weather that constitutes racism/speciesist depends on how far one takes it and in what light. 

[sweetolebob18 724]

Once saw a T-shirt that said "The view is different from the top of the food chain"   Dragons think they are superior because they are.  Griffons act the same way around ponies.  (Or, Gilda did, at least.  Tough to show respect for things you eat).  + these dragons were teenage males & they are often jerks. (God knows, I was)

[silvadel 1,393]

The only dragons we saw were the rude gang of teenagers. Can't judge a species off of that demographic.

 

That said, as all the dragons we've seen so far (Spike doesn't count as he was raised from birth by ponies) are inherently greedy, independent and immensely territorial, I imagine dragons view themselves as stronger and far more superior to other creatures, not just ponies, which would translate into insults and racism very easily.

 

We also saw the dragon in the cave that Spike ran into which tried to kill him, Twilight, and her owl over the offense of Spike eating a couple of gems unknowingly despite him being prostrate and apologetic and willing to leave. 

 

Then there was the behavior of the dragon in Dragonshy.

Edited May 13, 2015 by silvadel