Green mothers

[Faceless Woman]

When did green dragons stop mating? The books aren't by any means chronological, especially with the introduction of between times, but I clearly read one book saying that greens are made barren by brimstone while many others having greens with mating flights, including some during Thread. Anyone got any thoughts on this? Presumeably they ate brimstone during thread, as they were the most valuable fighters.

[Talysia]

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if it mentions when green dragons stopped mating in the books. It could be that the Weyrs didn't need the green dragon to produce eggs, as the size of the clutches was small, and as they needed every green to eat firestone to flame Thread, they didn't give it much thought.
In Red Star Rising, the green riders are valued as fighters, not as breeders, so they still focus on chewing firestone even though it would make them barren. Maybe, then, greens stopped mating after the end of the first pass. Nonetheless, it's a very interesting question. I hadn't thought of it before.

[devilsgrin]

i think its more that the green dragons are rendered infertile from the brimstone, but still have mating flights. Obviously as they aren't gold dragons their mating flights don't get much page space... but i'm certain that its in either dragonflight or dragonquest where it mentions a male green dragon rider being emotional and aggressive as his dragon was about to go on her mating flight - and he attacks f'nor (?) i think with a knife...

[pyan]

This seems to cover it:

Southern Boll Weyr - Mating Flights

[Faceless Woman]

Aha, merci mon amis. All cleared up.

[Rosemary]

I must admit I couldn't remember if they did, so thank you for the link Pyan.

It's an interesting site, full of facts and figures which will make for interesting reading...

[Cheryl]

Green dragons have always mated, they've just never produced eggs. This is explained to be because chewing firestone makes them infertile, but some fans speculate that Kitti Ping engineered them to be infertile regardless of firestone (because you wouldn't really ever want greens to reproduce given the frequency of their flights and that they only produce the lesser colors, which would soon overrun the Weyrs in blues and greens).

Green firelizards on the other hand are quite fertile, but have little maternal instict and therefore few clutches hatch because they do not guard them from predators.

[Goldrider Thais]

yes, its much like green firelizards. not much maternal instinct and the eggs get eaten up by tunnel snakes.

greens haven't stopped mating(as far as i know), but they don't get told much in the books. although i know there was one in the white dragon when jaxom wasn't aware that Ruth lacked the "urge" yet.

[manephelien]

Yeah, they don't get told because an overwhelming majority of green riders are male, and all riders of male dragons are male. Anne McCaffrey certainly didn't want to over-emphasize the gay sex part of dragonriding. It's always been there between the lines, but the White Dragon flight where Jaxom realizes Ruth isn't interested in mating is the closest we get to a green mating with both human partners being male. Even there we don't get to see it from the POV of those involved in the flight.

The other green matings are female greenriders with bronzeriders (Tai and F'lessan in Skies of Pern).

[mirinda]

Doesn't Anne bring to light the idea of male partners fairly clearly in Moreta as well. i think it's K'lon and his partner.

[manephelien]

It's hinted at, but it's not as if you hear the rider's dialog with his dragon or the partners talking with each other while engaging in sex (as happened, say with Lessa and F'lar's first flight). That probably would have been one line too far for Anne and I suspect, most of her readers as well.

[mirinda]

probably, but i still picked up on it so most other people probably did too.

[manephelien]

Yeah. It still bugs me, though. It took me a couple of readings before I picked up on the gay vibe outside TWD, and I was a sexually experienced woman when I first read Pern, not the more innocent kind of kid or young teen who wouldn't necessarily pick up on it. (So I wouldn't worry about youngsters reading Pern, if they're innocent enough, they probably won't notice, and if they aren't, why try and "protect" them from exposure to gay relationships?)

[mirinda]

true. though i'm not experienced and still picked up on it, but then i'm not naive either.