History Headscratchers / DragonridersOfPern

** For all we know, Thread ''did'' exterminate life entirely on any of that system's other planets which harbored it. Pern got lucky in being wet enough to provide a refuge for some small fraction of its organisms, and it still faced a catastrophic mass extinction that left vast terrestrial fossil beds to perplex the original colonists.

** Otherwise, probably ADateWithRosiePalms.

* In "Moreta," ''why on earth did Moreta not stop to rest?!!'' She ''knew'' time traveling was dangerous (she'd chewed out K'lon for it, and he was a damn sight more careful than she was), and she was on an aging dragon to boot. Surely Holth's comment of "I am too tired to think that far right now" should have sent alarm bells ringing in an experienced dragonrider? WhatAnIdiot indeed.

** This Troper always figured it was because she found Mirrim annoying and was now stuck with her.
** This Troper agrees. Mirrim had never been the easiest character to get along with. It's pointed out by some of the other characters at times.

** This Troper also agrees. Mirrim isn't the easiest person to get along with. Painful at times really. Lessa was probably really just more annoyed at the rider herself than the fact she impressed.

** But sooner or later, all that built-up loss of energy is going to take its toll, right? This Troper believes that it's because of Thread. All that ash and dead Thread that escaped from the Red Star into Pern probably helped to balance out the energy toll in some way or another... This might explain why the Red Star is so barren, come to think of it.

** This Troper agrees with both comments above this one. Not to mention, Ruth's asexuality was MEANT to underline his difference from the other dragons. Makes sense considering that he's a mix of all colors... which means of both genders.

** There's actually a scene in The White Dragon that gives us, very subtly, exactly the OP's point. So subtly that it went right over this troper's head when she was a teenager and finally, on the umpteenth reading last year, smacked her over the head with the realization that heterosexual dragonriders, at least in the era when men ride greens, are a serious minority. Basically, Jaxom briefly witnesses the preamble to a green mating flight, with a group of sweaty male riders milling excitedly around the male green rider, and it makes him really uncomfortable, and a few subtle things are said about how he... kind of hadn't thought about that part. After that he doesn't {{Wangst}} so much about Ruth not being interested.

** This Troper isn't sure about the apprentice part but is certain that blue clothes are a sign of being an official harper. Which is why, in the books, they've called it Harper Blue.

** On that matter. No, Weyrleaders don't have to be official couples, but yes, it was implied that Torene did feel quite strongly about him. But it does rather ruffle this Troper's feathers that just because he's a male, he gets to make decisions like that. Then again, outside of certain female characters in the entire series, all females in the book seem to be lacking in proper brains to make their own decisions anyways.

** This Troper agrees with both comments above this one. Not to mention, Ruth's asexuality was MEANT to underline his difference from the other dragons. Makes sense considering that he's a mix of all colors... which means of both genders. Jaxom's insecurity, of course, only leads even more to point just how much of a GaryStu he actually is in the books.

* Why does Jaxom constantly {{Wangst}} about Ruth's sterility/{{Asexuality}} in ''The White Dragon''? Wouldn't Ruth mating with a green (and consequently, Jaxom sleeping with the green's rider) put him in a bad position with the other, sexually conservative Lord Holders, never mind the fact that Jaxom is heterosexual? Surely it would add fuel to the argument that Ruth belongs in a Weyr? To me, it always looked like Ruth saved him a major headache. It's not as if it's an issue of continuing Ruth's bloodline, since only the bronzes have any hope of siring baby dragons.

*** It ''is'' stupid, but people do stupid things ''all the time''. If we would be stopped from doung stupid thing by the mere fact that they're stupid, the world would've been a much better place.

*** The effect is more stronger when the riders are close to themselves. If their instances are miles away, it's merely a slight discomfort, and according to Todd's books this effect doesn't exist for non-riders (Masterharper Zist could pleasantly talk with himself, for example), implying that it's basically the resonance of a dragon-rider psychic links, which diminishes with distance.

* How is it that Pern had a functional terrestrial biosphere when the Red Star dragged Thread onto in on the regular? "Only fire destroyed Thread on land; only stone or metal stopped its progress."

** It only makes sense if once something is changed only the changed version is remembered (and written). This makes it seem like you can't change the past. If someone thought to use time travel to get reinforcements from the past for a bunch of Weyrs in decline after a long pass, then the timeline would adjust so they were always gone, which is just what happened. When AIVAS was not fooled, used time travel to kill thread off forever regardless of the consequences, the Oort Cloud creatures countered with the plague of Moreta's time. It is either ingenious or McCaffrey never bothered to make it ontologically consistent, just stable.

** That being said, one could look for solutions. Depending on your opinion of Todd-- I don't like his work, but it is a theoretical solution-- one could try to get a solution hashed out for debatable levels of canoncity. Regardless of said opinion, it's possible that solution COULD work out as a reasonable or rational one but still not be acceptable to the majority of fans. I know I might have a knee-jerk reaction there, even knowing that I know this. If we're just looking for justifications regardless of canon status, that's a different story.
** One way of looking at it is the old saw of time being an illusion, and that from some perspective in the Pern continuum, all of the events are happening simultaneously. Though the use of the word perceptive is possibly a bad one since there isn't supposed to be a privileged observer position. Maybe there is in the FSPverse! It also raises questions about free will, though there are people who argue that there isn't free will in a linear timeline. I suppose if free will exists at all, it may have a certain similar achronal existence of its own.
** Other possibilities I can think of is that Anne was wrong similar to her change on the sexual orientation thing. Maybe loops are highly stable, but come from recursive reinforcement. IE, an event happens for one reason or another-- a lot of weyrfolk die off, causing their dragons to suicide, or KPY's poor choices on the minimum Gold numbers meant a few bad clutches wiped out the other Weyrs, who concentrated their numbers over time in either case, eventually leaving Benden alone. Lessa makes the trip to fix it, and suddenly the universe's conservation of effort makes THAT the reason why everything happened. No loop begins to collapse until you actually observe something about it. Details may be changed by elements that happen external to the loop, but if they impinge upon the loop, the prior loop is preserved. The problem with THAT is it makes Time into a Fate-like force/entity that forces things to happen. Which, again, there might be a Privileged Observer in this universe.

** Along with being experienced, it's mentioned in the second book that the Oldtimers taught the modern Benden Dragonriders quite a lot about dealing with Threads. And on top of THAT, you have to look at Benden Wyr in particular -- it was woefully understaffed, had only 150 or so Dragons (as opposed to the nearly 400 or 500 in the second book, seven years after the Oldtimers came forward), and you have to wonder if they really would be better off. Six weak Wyrs, all with a small number of dragons, without any Thread-fighting experience, weighed against having five experienced and strong Wyrs (1800 dragons!) available right in the nick of time.

** It only makes sense if once something is changed only the changed version is remembered (and written). This makes it seem like you can't change the past. If someone thought to use time travel to get reinforcements from the past for a bunch of Wyrs on decline after a long pass, then the timeline would adjust so they were always gone, which is just what happened. When AIVAS was not fooled, used time travel to kill thread off forever regardless of the consequences, the Oort Cloud creatures countered with the plague of Moreta's time. It is either ingenious or McCaffery never bothered to make it ontologically consistent, just stable.

** Not to mention the fact that existing more than once at the same time is very draining and disorienting. "I am too many today." Lessa fainted when there were only three of her, and these riders and dragons had to double back on themselves many more times than that to get everything deliverred at once. They likely wouldn't have been ''able'' to rest effectively in such circumstances.

** Bottleneck is a good word. During intervals (particularly the interval preceding the ninth threadfall) the numbers of Queen dragons decrease and the genetic diversity probably drops sharply. There are also few culling mechanisms for Dragons short of bad between transfers, duels and injuries in the training games. On the approach to a Pass, though, the dragons start mating with increased fervor, clutch sizes rise and the weyrs increase the number of queens. It was also the tradition that weyrs allowed open flights, bringing in fresh bronze blood. This would increase genetic diversity and health and, of course, fighting thread provides an excellent culling mechanism. There have also been some dragon plagues mentioned, which would provide an alternate method of purging draconic bloodlines of less healthy examples.

Nobody is particularly surprised to see Ruth's egg - they aren't shocked at Ruth after he hatches either, they just feel that he is unlikely to survive, and a small egg is seen as being unworthy of impression. It's clear that hybrids have occurred in the past.

* So it's been established that, under normal circumstances, the time a dragon spends ''Between'' is about three(3) seconds. In ''Dragonflight'', Lessa says it took about twice that long to travel ten(10) years through time. Assuming that pattern holds true, then by my math (450 ÷ 10 = 45, 45 x 6 = 270, 270 ÷ 60 = 4.5) she was in a vacuum for nearly five(5) minutes when she went back 450 years to get the Oldtimers. Given that brain cells begin to die after only one(1) minute without oxygen, how did she survive the trip without incurring serious brain damage?

* So it's been established that, under normal circumstances, the time a dragon spends ''Between'' is about three(6) seconds. In ''Dragonflight'', Lessa says it took about twice that long to travel ten(10) years through time. Assuming that pattern holds true, then by my math (45010=45,456=270,27060=4.5) she was in a vacuum for nearly five(5) minutes when she went back 450 years to get the Oldtimers. Given that brain cells begin to die after only one(1) minute without oxygen, how did she survive the trip without incurring serious brain damage?

** IIRC, the 'good maternal instincts' at the firelizard level mostly meant that the golden mothers were willing to protect the nest until the eggs hatched and the babies impressed, whereas the greens would lay eggs and forget they existed. In both the lizards and the dragons, once they're Impressed, they appear to be treated like any other member of the group. Ramoth does care about people messing with her eggs!

** Wrong, familial ties are actually quite common amongst the animal kingdom. It's just that dragons have pretty little of this in them.