@death cloud: I don't see how that changes anything.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:01:38 PM by Crowind

It makes him SLIGHTLY more justified in attacking Spike. By dragon standards he might have considered it an act of self-defense

Whanting to kill kid for stealing some of his stuff is diffrent from whanting to kill kid who could become treat really fast.

But it's not exuse for whanting to kill baby dragon.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:05:27 PM by DeathCloud

that maakes a lot of sense.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:06:08 PM by FallenLegend

Oh its a Christmas episode alright.

Well, no. Spike did steal his possessions, so the dragon being angry is justifiable (by dragon standards).

If you mean he's slightly more justifiable for attacking a baby dragon, then I don't see how being afraid of Spike's growth spurt has anything to do with it.

Edit: OK, gotcha. What I remember from that episode doesn't really suggest it, but I'm not trying to argue with you here.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:09:31 PM by Crowind

If he DID suspect that Spike was under the effects of his greed instincts, what else could he have done about it? Spike showed the capacity to lie convincingly to Twilight in that state, he could've easily lied to the dragon and told him that he wouldn't come back.

He may have been paranoid, but it edges him out of MONSTER territory for me

a baby dragon who could quickly become a massive THREAT to him

edited 10th Dec '11 3:09:55 PM by gingerninja666

It certainly puts a lot of the behavior of that dragon in perspective.

Actually it probably suggest that despite dragons being intelligent they would probably be to paranoid of each other to really form a society.

It's more like Fringe Briliance and not that much justification. Horever in my head cannon dragons don't care about their younglings, like many reptiles.

Shame I missed fact that this ep was writen by my favorite pony writer.

I have to agree, the idea that the Dragon might have been acting out of perceived self-defense strikes me as Fridge Brilliance.

Spike blinking sideways (I think that's what he was doing) kinda creeped me out when I first saw it.

And I restate, What else could that green dragon have done?

edited 10th Dec '11 3:20:08 PM by gingerninja666

Yes, the dragons we have seen so far do seem to indicate that they have no society whatsoever. Unless those are the mal-adapted dragons that deliberately live far away from their society.

Huh, I forgot this, but there not being books on dragons also imply that either normally hatching dragon eggs are not part of Celestia's school's entrance exam or the students are not meant to hatch the egg. Otherwise we'd be seeing more dragons running around and there'd be records on how to raise your dragons.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:22:59 PM by Crowind

It's also possible he was under the effects of rapid aging too - keep in mind he was closer to them than Basil, but they still didn't know about him. How? He was too small to be a problem before. Basil, on the other hand, was old enough that the hormone surge had worn off, and he was just plain old big.

Like, let's use the 'magical defense to make sure they don't get killed' theory. In that case it's likely that they would also be hyperagressive during these times, which we saw in spike. They're extremely defensive of their newfound hoard, and highly terrotoreal. Once they've established thier home and hoard, the hormones wear off and they set in 'big' mode, where they're allowed to live as they will, being able to defende themselves.

In other words: Their body goes through a spike in growth which kicks the male instints of aggresion and teriatorialism (as well as probably certain ah, urges, as well) into hyperdrive. Once the growth stops the hormones recede, and the rational mind re-emerges. puberty, in a nutshell.

Basil was an adult. Reggie was a teenager. He just wasn't out of the hormonal part of his growth cycle yet.

Eh, I still think Reggie took the most logical (if not a little paranoid) course of action. His home had become a ripe target for this invading dragon, and judging by how insane Spike went over a BROOM, and when you consider that Spike goes nuts over gems NORMALLY, there was no way in hell he was going to just leave that cave of gems, big dragon guarding it or no. Reggie would be under constant threat

I picture adult dragons (in this show) as peaceful loners. If somepony barges into their home, tells them to get out, and kicks them in the snout, though, they will defend themselves.

I don't think peaceful is perfect word for them.

They're not actively rampaging on their neighbors. That counts as peaceful, I think.

They just wanna be left alone. They even pick places where (they think) they won't be a bother to anyone

It took basil getting kicked in the face for him to become actually defensive. Most people I know would try and swat a pest the moment it gets inside their home. An make no mistake, Basil probably didn't give a shit about them off the bat.

As for Razorfang/Reggie, I still hold that he was in the horading process when he attacked spike, and was thusly not in his right mind.

What else could Reggie do given the circumstances though? He always struck me as being a paranoid recluse (even moreso than dragons usually are)

Last part is rather not true , at least with Basil example because he doesn't care about damage what he caused during sleep.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:36:13 PM by DeathCloud

Throw Spike out?

edited 10th Dec '11 3:36:50 PM by Crowind

Thanks, kegisak. You explained it better than I did.

I still hold that Basil didn't know the damage his sleep was causing. His sleep has apparently NEVER been an issue before now, why would this place be any different?

Then he'd try to come back in. How long do you expect Reggie to do that for?

edited 10th Dec '11 3:38:25 PM by gingerninja666

I don't think he even knew about it - he only found out when he first woke up, after all

@Ginger: I assume you mean what he could do if her were in his right mind... Well, his only option were to chase Spike away, really. Spike had already eater a bunch of his gems, so he had plenty of reason to assume he had hit hoard-mode. And considering it was probably the equivalent of a winter store, he needed it. So yeah, his only real options were to tell Spike to piss off, or scare him away.

edited 10th Dec '11 3:39:04 PM by kegisak