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I don't have an issue with the concept either, though I will never let anyone on my back for any reason. Anyone who hops on my back will be thrown up into the sky, lol.(edited)
It really depends for me. If a dragon has had a fateful encounter with another being incapable of flying or was raised by it, there is a strong bond there and mutual trust that could allow riding. Plus I like the ability to gift another non-dragon with the sights/feelings of our kind and all the intensities. On the other hand, forced riding, usage for (unjust?) war, inept or undeserving rider, etc would all be a very different story to me.
If I found someone worthy enough, I would probably let them ride, and have fun with it!
This is just a feeling since I can't quite remember it but I think asking us for rides, where I come from, is generally considered offensive unless you're injured, sick, or something of that sort. otherwise, you cannot ask without offending our people. We can offer rides if we feel like it though!
(•Auuthhiiiviiirrokkk•)
I am curious to know what you all think of the "dragon rider" concept.
I'm not even sure if there were humans or other beings that could ride us, but we were probably too small anyway. I was about the size of a lion, some dragons were a bit bigger and some were probably smaller. I can only guess whether or not we would have a problem with it, but we would probably only let someone ride us on our terms.
My species sometimes took riders, and it was a very special, sacred arrangement where dragon and rider would bond for life. It was more like a marriage than anything though, both parties committed to each other in every way and no one was above anyone else.
I personally enjoyed just giving rides to people for fun, as did a number of other dragons. But when the rider is literally along for the ride and just strapped in, there's no way they could possibly start to view the dragon they're on as anything less than a fellow sentient being. Especially since we could talk to them telepathically while they were usually busy screaming and waving their arms in the air lol(edited)
I like the idea of giving rides to precious people, regardless of their flight capability. A permanent rider? that’s not a thing for me. I am only loyal to those of my heart.
I actually love giving rides to precious people if they don’t get air sick
My species had a lot of variety. Those who lived closer to human settlements might have been ridden, but I lived far out in the wild and barely even knew humans existed. I don't personally want anyone on my back, but if someone else is alright with it, more power to them.
I think if you had appropriate tack (or even just. Rope For Tying/Holding On) it would be fine, assuming you’ve got a species where you’re not constantly going to get battered by their wings on every upstroke anyway xD
3:06 pm
And re: the initial question, current me would not mind at all were I to get isekai’d into a dragon body, but me during my dragon life was, uh, far less socially inclined sudhdbfkkg
As a concept the only time dragon riders bother me is when the dragons are sentient but treated as subserient to their human masters, but like… it’s not the riding that’s the problem there, y’feel :P (And even then, it’s potentially interesting and fun to read about i f the narrative actually addresses that as a problem.) If they’re equal partners, or if the dragons are non-sentient and treated well, no squick or anything for me
Yeahhhh, I don’t know if sentient humanoids exist in my world, but uh. …if they did I don’t know that I would’ve stopped long enough to realize they were sentient tbh sjdhdbdk
I enjoyed reading Pern when I was younger, but I think I'd have a hard time revisiting the books. I've heard too much from others about the flaws in the setting.
content warning obviously applies:
so the gold queen dragons are responsible for making eggs, and so they initiate a mating flight every so often. bronze colored (male) dragons will chase after her and whoever catches her gets to mate. but since they are linked with their riders, those will participate in the mating themselves aka sleep with each other, whether they like it or not. now, that is very questionable in itself, but the scene i'm talking about didn't even involve the dragons. so there's a young gold rider whose queen will soon rise for the first time, and she is very scared. her friend, a brown rider, fears she might get traumatized because she's a virgin, so his solution is... to drag her to a hidden location and take her virginity. yup. she fights him at first and then ends up liking it but that doesn't make it ok in the slightest(edited)
Of course. There are a lot of subtle and not so subtle differences though if you've only read Dragonflight some of the differences aren't brought up until later books (humans relationship with watch-whers and fire-lizards, the assortment of species native to Pern, and so on).
One thing that is different is that greens actually can potentially produce clutches, its just that they were genetically engineered to only be fertile if no mature/able to produce young gold dragons are around them for an extended time period. This was put into place to keep dragon populations from exploding but also to have a fail-safe if something dire happened to all the gold dragons. Even fertile greens don't produce many eggs but as soon as one manages to produces a gold hatchling and it matures all greens become infertile again.
Also, whom dragons impress is a bit different as well. Its not based on sexuality, but sort of based on gender. Sort of.
[contains spoilers(?) for Dragonsdawn regarding the origins of dragons as a species]
Dragons hold a gender preference but the cause of this is entirely due to their genetic modification. Kitti Ping Yung disliked how the influences of mating flights of dragonflies encouraged an open view of sexuality and sexual relations with others and feared the increased mental abilities of dragons would cause Pern society to retain a strong liberal view on sex and sexuality. So along with creating dragons to lean towards people with certain general personality traits, she also created dragons to have a gender bias. (This modification had not been done on dragonflies due to the Pernese not being aware of how their mating flights could affect people when they were created, nor was this modification added to gargoyles as they were mostly the product of Wind Blossom who was not concerned about the topic.) However, Kitti Ping’s efforts were only slightly successful.
Firstly, as Kitti Ping viewed gender as being the same as sex, she didn’t consider the fluidity and diversity of gender among the human species (and she certainly didn’t consider the diversity of sex itself as she didn’t consider the existence of intersex people either). Further, as Pern’s culture has continued to evolve and cultural ideas around gender has also slowly changed, this too has affected what “genders” dragons impress to. (This is especially true in weyrs due to the social structure needing to be open and accepting for the good of the dragons and their riders.)
People who would be called cisgender and endosex are easier to judge what dragons they might impress because its mostly follows a female rider to female dragon / male rider to male dragon (sort of). People whose gender cannot be easily placed on a binary scale between man and woman are wild cards and it’s hard to really know how things might turn out.
4:26 pm
[continued]
Because of this fluke and error on Kitti Ping’s part, a high number of dragonriders are who Terran society would call queer. Also, being raised around a society (a weyr) where diversity of gender and sexuality is generally open, young dragonriders are left in an environment where they are allowed to be more open to exploring aspects of their gender and sexuality they might have otherwise ignored or shunned away from entirely. (Also, weyrs often have a higher population of queer individuals whether they be dragonriders or not due to people joining weyrs as a means of finding more accepting people.) Do to the more conservative nature of Holds (and to a lesser extent Halls), the reality of dragon gender preferences verses how dragons were intended to be programed isn’t widely talked about or openly acknowledged outside of weyrs. In fact, within Holds (and to a lesser extent Halls) it is common for people to hold certain gender and sexuality stereotypes on riders based on what dragon they ride. So, the views of people in Holds is closer to how the books portray riders.
I personally love the Pern books, except for all the bedroom stuff she insisted on putting in there. The White Dragon is probably my favorite, I really liked how it allowed the reader to see what the relationship between dragon and human was, how Ruth loved Jaxom, and how Jaxom loved Ruth, and just the dynamics of their relationship.
But I really didn't like how basically being a Dragonrider meant you were going to wind up involved in mating flights. Made my Ace brain squirm.
ive been wanting to read the pern books but don't know where to begin but i know not all of the content holds up nowadays. what are your guys recommendations for a first time reader?
This is what I did, and it worked fairly well:
Start with the Harper Hall trilogy. It doesn't have much in the way of dragons in it but it is excellent world building. Then read the original trilogy: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. The White Dragon leads nicely into All the Weyrs of Pern, and after that I recommend reading Dragonsdawn, as it explains a bunch of stuff that happens in All the Weyrs. Or, for reasons I won't disclose due to spoilers, you could read The Masterharper of Pern after All the Weyrs. There's a bunch of other books written by Anne besides those that cover ancillary stuff, and then her son Todd also wrote a number of book, but Todd's stories have a much different tone so be warned if you liked Anne's work you might not like them; alternately if you didn't like Anne's work you might like Todd's.
Drakmanka
This is what I did, and it worked fairly well:
Start with the Harper Hall trilogy. It doesn't have much in the way of dragons in it but it is excellent world building. Then read the original trilogy: Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. The White Dragon leads nicely into All the Weyrs of Pern, and after that I recommend reading Dragonsdawn, as it explains a bunch of stuff that happens in All the Weyrs. Or, for reasons I won't disclose due to spoilers, you could read The Masterharper of Pern after All the Weyrs. There's a bunch of other books written by Anne besides those that cover ancillary stuff, and then her son Todd also wrote a number of book, but Todd's stories have a much different tone so be warned if you liked Anne's work you might not like them; alternately if you didn't like Anne's work you might like Todd's.
thank you! that sounds like a great plan! im on a mission to read more books with dragons in them and ive been wanting to read annes stuff for for a while now!
This is also true. I just find the Harper Hall books to be a good introduction to Pern before getting chucked straight into the somewhat weird first couple books.
9:09 pm
(Also tangentially related Todd McCaffrey is one of the few authors I've gotten to meet! He gave me some tips on how to write adult scenes as an asexual lol)
Drakmanka
(Also tangentially related Todd McCaffrey is one of the few authors I've gotten to meet! He gave me some tips on how to write adult scenes as an asexual lol)
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