Talking Dragons and ones that don't

[poniesforfun 716]

Teenage Dragons: The teenage dragons are able to speak and seem to have some sort of sentience and a tribal/gang organization. In fact they seem smarter than the adult dragons around them.

 

 

Adult Dragons: Adult dragons on the other hand seem to have lost sentience and are unable to speak except for the one with the moustache. Even Spike lost his ability to speak and some level of sentience as a bigger adult-like dragon.

 

The only adult dragon that can talk.

 

 

 

So what does this mean? When dragons get older they lose their "humanity/ponanity?" And become more feral-like and lose the ability to talk? The one with the moustache still retained his sentience and the ability to speak.

Edited March 10, 2013 by poniesforfun

[Betez 1,734]

Well, that one dragon who's cave spike goes into during the Owlicious episode could talk there could very well be a chance that some dragons just never learned how to talk. Although this might not be very likely.

[Rainbow Dash Loyalty 1,275]

I think the 'dragon' with the mustache was a sea serpent xP (Not to be a smartass).

I have no explanation on why Spike couldn't talk, maybe they have their own language or something and the writers just so happen to translate it in english xP 

[PonyEcho 1,610]

erm think of it this way, the older dragons are allot less social and thus do not need to talk or act intelligent because thats not what they need to be, they need to be bad ass and intimidating to scare intruders away. 

 

also saying that the older dragons are dumb because.... the teen dragon and spike are the only dragons talking since they are the focus characters not the older ones is kinda silly 

 

also with spike my theory was he was to obsessed with his greed (which at a young age he couldn't handle) at that point which was the reason why he didn't speak he was likely still able to speak long sentences but the episode wouldn't have been as fun if he did that. 

Edited March 10, 2013 by PonyEcho

[poniesforfun 716]

Well the teen dragons seem to be able to organize better so in that sense they're smarter. I know the difference between being smarter and being sentient thus I used "sentience" to describe the teen dragons. And if the one with a moustache is not a dragon that would make sense... in mythology the serpent is usually considered the same as a dragon though. And yeah moustache dragon had arms so couldn't be a snake.

Edited March 10, 2013 by poniesforfun

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

It seems to me that you didn't watch those episodes with enough care. Both the red dragon from "Dragonshy" and the green dragon from "Owl's Well that Ends Well" were sentient and could speak perfectly well, even if they only had a line each  ("That Rainbow one kicked me..." and "What are you doing in my cave, and why are you eating my gems?" respectively, which shows they can identify both themselves and others). The adult dragons in "Dragon Quest" were never given the opportunity to speak, which is a very different thing from being given scenes in which to speak and not doing so. 

 

As for Big!Spike, his situation in and of itself is exceptional, being a dragon raised by (shown to be clueless w.r.t. anything to do about dragons) ponies. His being unable to speak and acting animalistic as an adult are unique to him, and extrapolating from him to other dragons is a logical non-starter.

 

So your two fundamental assumptions ("adult dragons are not sapient" and "Spike is a typical dragon") are both irrevocably flawed. 

Edited March 10, 2013 by Full Spectrum

[PonyEcho 1,610]

Well the teen dragons seem to be able to organize better so in that sense they're smarter. I know the difference between being smarter and being sentient thus I used "sentience" to describe the teen dragons. And if the one with a moustache is not a dragon that would make sense... in mythology the serpent is usually considered the same as a dragon though. And yeah moustache dragon had arms so couldn't be a snake.

(edited because full spectrum made the point i was about to make in a better way)

 

Has there been a point in the plot of FIM that has required the older dragons to become the focus point to point out there intelligence rather then these huge monsters that shouldn't be messed with?

 

Also the sea serpent was likely different in the way he was more interested in his personal beauty and more vocal about it also it was apart of the plot

Edited March 10, 2013 by PonyEcho

[poniesforfun 716]

It seems to me that you didn't watch those episodes with enough care. Both the red dragon from "Dragonshy" and the green dragon from "Owl's Well that Ends Well" were sentient and could speak perfectly well, even if they only had a line each  ("That Rainbow one kicked me..." and "What are you doing in my cave, and why are you eating my gems?" respectively, which shows they can identify both themselves and others). The adult dragons in "Dragon Quest" were never given the opportunity to speak, which is a very different thing from being given scenes in which to speak and not doing so. 

 

As for Big!Spike, his situation in and of itself is exceptional, being a dragon raised by (shown to be clueless w.r.t. anything to do about dragons) ponies. His being unable to speak and acting animalistic as an adult are unique to him, and extrapolating from him to other dragons is a logical non-starter.

 

So your two fundamental assumptions ("adult dragons are not sapient" and "Spike is a typical dragon") are both irrevocably flawed. 

 

Oh yeah he did I always thought that he used body language but he did say that. Overall the dragons just didn't talk enough for me to think they spoke. Been such a long time since I watched them.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Full Spectrum

[Phoenix237 353]

Well I think think that adult dragons are able to speak. It is shown in various episodes.

 

As for Spike I think I have an explanation. Remember that he was consumed by greed and that he started to act on instinct. That right there may be the cause. He could have been acting solely on instinct and thus wasn't able to communicate verbally. This is just a theory however.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,307]

Dragons talk when dragons want to talk. It's that simple. They never implied that all dragons can't talk, just because they only depicted a few being able to. Oh, and Steven Magnet isn't a dragon, he's a serpent.   

[Mand'alor Dash 2,224]

I think the only reason Spike couldn't talk was because he "grew up too fast", as it were.

 

A baby one day, and an adult the next. That can't be good for a developing mind.

 

Or, it was just a plothole that that the writers unfortunately overlooked. Headcanon to the rescue!

[Zygen 6,066]

I don't know if its they can't talk, I think they're just big bad and scary and more or less let their strength tail and teeth do the talking per say Xd.

 

They just don't have a need to talk as much I guess since adult dragons are shown to be greedy and also are alot stronger, so I guess they'd just much rather smash then talk.

 

They can talk though, its been shown that both the dragon in "Dragonshy" and the dragon in "Dragon Quest" can talk, just they don't really bother with it when they can just attack.

[Blanky 3]

It might also be a pride thing.  Adult dragons may consider talking to "lesser species" to be beneath them.  Hence the red one in Dragonshy only saying something once it had been sufficiently intimidated.  It showed that it understand Rarity when she was talking to it, but simply opted to not talk back.

 

As for spike, I figure he was in too much of a "hulk smash" mindset...  Now there's a question.  Are some of the "adult" dragons we've seen actually just children going though a greedy phase?  Probably not the ones that spoke, but maybe a couple of the ones in the dragon migration.