If you were Kitty Ping

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:07 pm

.... Okay so it's a little like the other thread, but that one's hella old.

If you were Kitty Ping of pern fame, and had metasynth to play with genetics and a bunch of firelizards to mess around with...

What would YOU have done with their genes, instead of what she's done? There were mistakes along the way, creating the near-blind whers, and then the out of control crazy sizeness of them later, and this fascination with the 5 colors.

If you had the controls, what'd be your goal for long-term engineering of the base stock fire lizards? Knowing that Thread would fall, and they could fight it somehow - but they don't have to be the only method.

***

Obviously, I wouldn't go for size. Smaller is better, the size thing is retarded imho.

1 single gold dragon from the more recent era on Pern could easily be replaced by 40 smaller ones (horse+size) and have more action in the air, more quickly, and have literally one person able to tend their dragon properly without much help.

I'd also change the requirement to human-bond. Perhaps an affinity, but a slavelike tie to their human? When dragons could just as easily bond each other, or have multiple connections and be 'flown' from one person down on the ground telling the others what to do? (which is what the Zekiran dragons do.)

Less concentration on color rankings, and more on ability-ranks. Who cares who's gold - if she can fly and produce fire? or the 3 greens who race into the air and scout, providing a heads up to many small villages without the huge uproar that a gigantic queen causes.

Probably lastly, change the 'fire' to a more 'napalm' like substance, which ignites upon contact with the Thread substance. it's biological in nature (sort of) so it could be 'coded' into the release of this gas or particle spray, and on contact fizzle into bursts which then take out surrounding bits of Thread.

So instead of having 20 gigantic dragons and 80 or so people to work with them (just a guess at 4 per dragon like my one slightly delayed clutch takes) you'd have 80 tiny dragons and their riders, and *that's it* for the Thread that 'fall.

.... Just tryin to get the juices flowing. Had a little fantasy the other day about going to Pern, yadda yadda. I'm like that. So what would you do if you had the gene-altering metasynth?

Post by **Dray** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:27 pm

XD Could you update us about what limits metasynth has, again? I haven't read the books for years (and recently gave them all away, in fact! :( )

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:40 pm

It's the drug/chemical that enhanced intelligence, size (apparently, though that may have been a side effect and/or from further genetic engineering), and psionic / empathic abilities.

They tried using it on cats - and probably one of the funniest things she's ever stated was that caused the cat to become preternaturally able to hide, AND hold a grudge against humans...

It's what Kalkin was experiemented upon by his nemesis in this world (as it is akin to the things that were done to Sanger in my universe for intelligence enhancements).

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:21 pm

First and foremost, just LOSE the gender restrictions. I believe that was done in canon because Kitty was traditionalist and wanted the girls to stay home and make babies or some such and therefore gave the fighting dragons a preference to have males, because we know fire lizards didn't have anything like that. I'd definitely have it work more like that ... if anything I *might* do a sexual preference thing, like girl dragons pick girls and gay boys, boy dragons pick boys and lesbians, woo. Including the metallics. extra woo. But that always bothered me too because what happens then if a boy's green catches a girl's blue and they're all like "Oh noes straightness?" So maybe I might make the whole "must have secks with my dragon's mate's rider" instinct a leeeeetle less strong, so it's more like an inclination than an overpowering desire. Since we all know the only reason McCaffrey wrote that in was so she could write smut in her old age, haha

But I think the whole "if you ride this color dragon you're this way and if you ride this color dragon you're this way" thing was what annoyed the crap out of me about Pern the entire time. Oi.

jess d · Post by **jess d** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:50 pm

I reread Dragonsdawn often, and in there the first clutch was engineered mostly for males on male dragons, females on females. Kitti Ping wanted to keep the pairings same gender, as much as possible. The greens that got guys were mostly the guys who were attracted to other guys, and a few others since there were fewer girls of the right ages available.

It was later on, when the families wanted their daughters to stay and raise families that they weren't allowed to stand - by the parents, more than the weyrs. At least until it became habit, then the older riders were so set in their ways, they didn't want to accept female riders in the ranks, except the gold riders that they wouldn't have to deal with in "their" wings.

Oh, and it was Wind Blossom, Kitti's granddaughter, who was resposnsible for the whers. She wasn't completely satisfied with the 18 dragons in the first clutch, and thought she could "improve" on her grandmother's work, without all the training her grandmother had.

<.<looks>.> No..... I don't think I've read the books too many times XD

I'll be back... once I've actually thought up some things I would have done differently!

Graeth · Post by **Graeth** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 6:41 pm

jess d wrote:I reread Dragonsdawn often, and in there the first clutch was engineered mostly for males on male dragons, females on females. Kitti Ping wanted to keep the pairings same gender, as much as possible. The greens that got guys were mostly the guys who were attracted to other guys, and a few others since there were fewer girls of the right ages available.

It was later on, when the families wanted their daughters to stay and raise families that they weren't allowed to stand - by the parents, more than the weyrs. At least until it became habit, then the older riders were so set in their ways, they didn't want to accept female riders in the ranks, except the gold riders that they wouldn't have to deal with in "their" wings.

Oh, and it was Wind Blossom, Kitti's granddaughter, who was resposnsible for the whers. She wasn't completely satisfied with the 18 dragons in the first clutch, and thought she could "improve" on her grandmother's work, without all the training her grandmother had.

<.<looks>.> No..... I don't think I've read the books too many times XD

I'll be back... once I've actually thought up some things I would have done differently!

No, you haven't read it too many times. And I wanted to bring up Wind Blossom, but you beat me to it.

And the size was engineered, not a side effect. The thought was the bigger the dragon, the bigger the organs, the bigger the flame cloud, the wider area protected. The size was supposed to boom exponentially for 300 years and then taper off--and it did.

I personally wouldn't mind a broader draconic size spectrum. The larger ones are good for area coverage and don't get buffeted around in storms as easily, and a smaller class--smaller than the greens, would do well on tactical strikes; like chasing down one clump. Possibly adding some support in a bar room brawl.....

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:18 pm

Hee

That's why all of the Healing Den's dragons are meant to be small - tiny in fact.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:12 pm

>.> I've never really read enough Pern stuff to be able to contribute. Honestly, I got bored with her writing style after the Dragon Singer trilogy. Tried picking up the White Dragon, but her writing just came off as so bloody /bland/. :) So I went back to DragonLance which offers me much brain candy.

As such, my contributions aren't so much on the lines of Pern canon, but what I like to see in dragon-human bonding stories. I /like/ the big size cause I've always had this vision of dragons as huge, magestic masters of the sky. Not so big as DnD dragons, but more of an inbetween. Think DragonHeart.

My dragons have also always been on the independant size. The bond thing came out of a need to fight for a common cause. The Ancients of Tris'Hath started out as completely independant and only started up the Orders when there was a need to fight the hydras. Joining with their "chosen race", the humans, only made sense. Politically, it gave them strong ties to an ally, and martially it gave them an airborne weapon that they didn't need to manipulate.

And that is my tanget for the day. *bows*

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:42 pm

That's because they were already a society too, I think. What Pern had was.... base animals, with a flock mentality, suddenly given essentially... thumbs.

Post by **Dray** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:31 pm

dun Dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

Graeth · Post by **Graeth** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:51 pm

And then they develop leet deducing skills.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:52 pm

roffle!

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 4:54 am

XD Aaaaand... another thread has been successfully derailed by teh funnies!

Post by **Dray** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:34 am

Well, I would try to add something to the list... but I think that everybody has hit the main points already.

Smaller size - means more can be housed
Weaker bond - so they don't just die when their rider does (do all the flits in a flock die when their queen does? Eh?); also so there isn't as much angst when it comes to mating flights
Up-play the intelligence at least a little! - The fact that they can't even remember names is silly. I don't like the thought of dragons being used as big, dumb animal tools. :\ It seems like almost all plots involve that kinda stuff... can't we see something intelligent that's that big that isn't evil or the last of its kind?

Luna · Post by **Luna** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 9:33 pm

Well....

Aside from the main points, I'd have to say that I would toss aside the color caste thing between dragons. I'm partial to Greens myself, and I'd have liked to see some maturity and intelligence among the 'lesser' colors. The constant "golds are smarter/sharper/more undertsanding" thing annoyed me since it directly contradicted other cannon statements that the rider made the dragon and what not.

Why couldn't Mirrim have been Monaco's Weyrwoman! T__T!

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 9:53 pm

Yes I agree, I forgot to mention that one. And I agree with Dray, that the dragon shouldn't HAVE to die if the rider dies. Actually I've got an old-worlder I write about constantly whose original rider died, but through hand-wavey-magic, he managed to stay alive. I know he was supposed to between himself, but he's such an angsty yet fun to write about character, I couldn't stand to let him go. That, and he's a fully functional stand alone character, which I'm sure Ms. McCaffrey would *hate.*

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:28 pm

Well heck yeah, .... my Khalbalahath allowed his rider Ringo to be *killed*, because he knew the guy was no good.

Think about this: would you rather upgrade the *human* empathy level, or the *dragon's*? Humans would become more telepathic/empathic, perhaps able to control their mental energies better. Dragons, I'm not sure how you'd apply 'empathy' to an animal at the flitter stage, but in a big dragon, intelligence would, to me, be far more important than empathy.

It's weird, because in so many ways McC was dealing with the old, European ideals of 'dragons are monsterous and cannot be trusted on their own' thing. I'd trust a dragon's instinct better than a human's, any day - especially perhaps if they *were* more animal-minded.

Mystic Dragon · Post by **Mystic Dragon** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:42 am

Totally agree on the weaker bond thing. I've used Tris'Hath as an excuse to make my own Old Worlders more "independant". Any dragons who spend excessive amounts of time on Tris'Hath will gain some of that lovely Ancestral strength so that when their rider dies, they don't necessarily have to follow. Some still will out of love though.