My theory on Spike's growth spurt in "Secret of My Excess"...

[windy_prance 114]

Spike in "Secret of My Excess" made no sense to me at first considering what we know about dragons.

 

A dragon's growth can be quickened through collecting. However Spike turned into a full-grown dragon in ONE day from just collecting random things. If its that easy to grow up, how come the teenage dragons in "Dragon's Quest" just grow up already by collecting apple tree leaves?

 

This is my theory for why Spike's growth spurt was SO intense. It is due to Spike's upbringing.

 

I think mother dragons teach their babies at a young age to have a VERY high standard when hoarding treasures. Gems and precious metals only! Ignore the rest! Those baby dragons are thus raised to focus their greed on just those items and nothing else. Assuming that gems and precious metals are relatively hard to obtain where dragons live, it must take YEARS for an individual dragon to stash enough gold coins and rubies to obtain the greed needed to fully grow up.

 

Spike however was NOT raised by dragons but by ponies. He was not taught to discriminate between junk and treasure so when Spike's greediness took over, it wanted to consume EVERYTHING!

 

It explains why Spike grew up so fast and why other dragons (Dragonshy and Owl's Well That Ends Well) only had treasure in their cave and not random junk like Spike.

 

EDIT:

 

Conclusion: According to my theory, Rarity would be the ideal mother dragon!

Edited December 11, 2012 by windy_prance

[NavelColt 22,880]

I'm glad this is brought up, because it confused the hell out of me, too. Completely inconsistent to say that 'dragons greed cause them to grow', when there's various dragons of various sizes who all have treasure, and aren't the same age. If they had said Spike's bizarre behavior and growth was a dragon's equivalent to puberty or something that might make a little sense, but as it was, it didn't make sense.

 

Anyway, interesting theory :3 I like the distinction between wanting high and low amounts of treasure because that would explain why dragons want gems and gold exclusively.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

I suppose that it could also be a trait of Spike's specific species of Dragon since he seems to be a different breed than anything that we saw in Dragon Quest, but your theories do make sense to me.

 

I'd never given much thought to that episode before so thanks for bringing this up.

[Jadefire 2,797]

My theory is that the greed-growth, while very common for dragons, isn't actually part of their regular aging process.

 

I assume that dragons are inherently magical creatures (though may lack the ability to control it like Unicorns), and they have natural hoarding instincts. Spike's sudden out-of-control hoarding with no discipline at a young age when it was previously supressed probably screwed with his body's internal chemistry and magically induced his transformation.

 

 

In short, it's a biological quirk that can occur if their behavior gets out of control, and not actually tied to the aging process. Not much of an explanation, but I figured it'd be something like that. I figure Spike will probably grow and go through adolescence normally as he gets older.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Jadefire

[windy_prance 114]

Hmmm...no my theory still makes more sense.

 

Why? If greed was the main factor for dragon's growth, it would explain why dragons still protect their horded treasure even as adults. If their power and size is fed by greed and their inventory runs low due to Rarity--I mean other dragons, the dragon as a result grows weak or worse digress back into a baby...like Spike did!

Edited December 11, 2012 by windy_prance

[Evilshy 5,090]

I like this idea. I, too, was wondering about this, and my theory was always that the sudden hoarding spree was too much of a system shock and his growth was accelerated. We already saw in Dragon Quest that not only does Spike not hoard things, but that he is not very dragon-like at all. He's been living like that for quite a few years, so the concentrated hoarding hit him harder than a normal dragon who has likely been hoarding stuff since they were old enough to.

 

Also, we can't forgt that Spike was hatched by Twilight's magic and not by a dragon, which might have changed him. I know we barely no anything about dragon biology, but I like to think that being hatched by Twi's pony-avatar-state magic is what gave him magic breath as opposed to regular fire, and at least partly what makes him act so differently from other dragons.

[Akemi Homura 7,680]

Perhaps how many material goods a dragon may acquire over the course of their lives is a general indication of their growth more than anything else. Driven by greed, it could explain why larger dragons are much more prone to being arrogant and jerk-ish as many have pointed out, as judgmental as that might sound. The contrast between how the teenage dragons and Spike himself grew up is pretty big, although never shown on-screen, it can be safely said that they were brought up to be nasty and pompous as they were shown to be.

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

I think you hit the nail on the head there. It all makes sense now because Spike's standards on hoarding weren't high at all like a normal dragons. He collected everything (even leaves). Basically Spike's "greed" hormone went crazy compared to the teenage dragons in dragons quest who have a more controlled  "Greed" hormone".

 

 

But who cares it's just a cartoon it's not really too odd for the show to NOT make any sense.

[windy_prance 114]

I just wanted to apply my theory to the Dragon Migration in "Dragon Quest" as well.

 

Assuming that dragons go on migration for mating, it would make sense for dragons gather on neutral territory where they don't have to worry about other dragons knowing where their personal loot is hidden.

 

While teenage dragons create bachelor packs to hone in their skills and participate in relatively non-violent competition, the adult dragons will...well...

 

No treasure to protect = no greed. No greed =  other hormones kick in. Other hormones = ...parties. A LOT of parties!!

 

Since the Dragon Migration is a "once in a generation" event (I assume that's anywhere between 20-100 years), it give dragons enough time to relocate their treasures between migrations. Plus hiding it well enough so no one steal it while the dragons are away.

 

Now I know there were gems in "Dragon Quest" but if one dragon decides to get greedy with HUNDREDS of dragons around...it's pretty much suicide. So the gems are thus treated like food supply during a dragon migration.

[Sunbro 4 Lyfe 939]

well, thats not true. he technically grew up in a day. as zecora said, dragons will grow when their greed is fed. since spike was left to  ransack a village of everything, and i mean EVERYTHING, then his greed was fed faster, so he grew faster. those teen dragons however, had to share all the gems with eachother. so they grew slower.

[hironakamura 126]

Spike in "Secret of My Excess" made no sense to me at first considering what we know about dragons.

 

A dragon's growth can be quickened through collecting. However Spike turned into a full-grown dragon in ONE day from just collecting random things. If its that easy to grow up, how come the teenage dragons in "Dragon's Quest" just grow up already by collecting apple tree leaves?

 

This is my theory for why Spike's growth spurt was SO intense. It is due to Spike's upbringing.

 

I think mother dragons teach their babies at a young age to have a VERY high standard when hoarding treasures. Gems and precious metals only! Ignore the rest! Those baby dragons are thus raised to focus their greed on just those items and nothing else. Assuming that gems and precious metals are relatively hard to obtain where dragons live, it must take YEARS for an individual dragon to stash enough gold coins and rubies to obtain the greed needed to fully grow up.

 

Spike however was NOT raised by dragons but by ponies. He was not taught to discriminate between junk and treasure so when Spike's greediness took over, it wanted to consume EVERYTHING!

 

It explains why Spike grew up so fast and why other dragons (Dragonshy and Owl's Well That Ends Well) only had treasure in their cave and not random junk like Spike.

 

EDIT:

 

Conclusion: According to my theory, Rarity would be the ideal mother dragon!

This makes sense to me. He grew the biggest when he stole Rarity so to him, she was more valuable than anything else. Wild dragons don't desire the same thing. They were raised to value gems and other forms of material loot to feed their greed.

 

This makes Spike even more dangerous than other dragons.

[Zygen 6,066]

I think this theory makes pretty darn good sense. I wonder where the whole thing would've started, but it makes sense regardless to me.

So I could say this is a pretty interesting theory And very possible

Edited December 14, 2012 by Zygen

[One 498]

It's like looking at distorted facts and plot holes and making the best reasonable decision you can- even though the creators had never thought of it.

 

The theory is good and makes sense, I'll accept it.

[windy_prance 114]

This makes sense to me. He grew the biggest when he stole Rarity so to him, she was more valuable than anything else. Wild dragons don't desire the same thing. They were raised to value gems and other forms of material loot to feed their greed.

 

This makes Spike even more dangerous than other dragons.

 

Huh. I didn't notice that about Rarity being Spike's most valued item...

 

Wow. It's official. My theory needs to canonized!! It must be done!!