User talk:Mooir
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Contents
Temeraire
Do dragons preclude airplanes?
Say we look forward 100 years. Would planes be invented in a world that already has air transport via dragon?
I'm gonna say yes. Maybe not in the same fashion/place/time but sooner or later someone will invent a plane with the justification of: "Dragons eat too much, are too hard to breed, and there aren't enough of them!" Someone will probably invent a plane that will replace dragons for the same reasons the motorcar replaced horses.
That said, I really think those early pilots are going to have one tough road ahead of them. I would not want to be the luckless WWI biplane pilot trying to fly against even a dragon of middling size. Those things started out as flying death traps. (Check out Stephen Coonts' 17th Day if you don't believe me.) But I think the plane makers will persevere because planes can ultimately be made to fly higher/faster/longer than dragons.
Just some thoughts because my fingers hurt from coloring dragons. I've only got 4 left to draw: Alaman, Bright Copper, Ironwing, Sharpspitter. All the other breeds are drawn and I just haven't scanned them in and cleaned them up to post yet. --Mooir 20:35, 4 July 2007 (PDT)
I'd just like to add to this discussion, that assuming the general public's skittishness towards dragons (at least in Western nations) holds, planes won't have a couple centuries of history and myth as giant eating and killing machines. Could a dragon even make a tans-Atlantic flight without somewhere to land? I'd imagine the fuel and cost of building and maintaining airplanes would be far cheaper than the cost of obtaining, raising, hatching, finding a pilot for, housing, feeding, training, and caring for a dragon egg/dragon.
That, and, planes can't point out your mistakes sarcastically.
--Liz 6:36, July 21 2008
Ironwing
Many apologies for the late reply (you asked me for Ironwing art suggestions at the beginning of June). I'll be gone travelling soon, as well, so unfortunately this will probably be all I can say to you for a while. It's very kind of you to ask, and though the Ironwing is hardly mentioned in the books, I can gather a few ideas together. Going by the breeding (which is all we have), I'd say the Ironwing should be a midsize dragon, with large wings. I'd suggest a dark blue belly (hence the Longwing's) with the 'iron' coloration of its name across it's back, upper head, and wings - but of course, the final decision lies with the artist. Keep up the good work!
Железное крыло 19:03, 11 July 2007 (PDT) (Zheleznoe Kruilo, Ironwing)
Excellent job, thanks.
Железное крыло 16:29, 22 August 2007 (PDT)
African mushrooms? *POSSIBLE SPOILER*
This is just idle speculation (and going here since South Africa and the mushroom found there don't have a page). I think the cure to the dragon plague is the strange three capped mushroom found in South Africa. Temeraire is rather sick when they reach South Africa, and while he gets his appetite back after switching to a Chinese menu, Laurence says Temeraire is "much improved and no longer so congested" after eating the foul sauce made from the mushroom. The incident starts on page 220 of the US edition. And since the 4th book is called Empire of Ivory, which I feel referrers to Africa, I'm pretty sure they are headed back to Africa to find a cure.
As a side note, one sure way to derail Napoleon's new dragon based war machine is to send him the Dakota dragon and shortly Napoleon will be in the same boat as Britain is. :) Mooir
I agree with you 100%. It's the most popular theory among my friends. It's also the most resonable one considering where the action of the new book takes place. The question is whether they are going to sail to Cape Town or fly there. One of my friends said that sending another dragon transport with Temeraire will be impossible, because they would have to explain to various people why they are doing it, and the mission will be secret. Flying there would be faster, too. They could fly above the mysterious African lands :) My personal prediction is that Gong Su will be the one to tell them about the mushroom. I don't think that Laurence really understood what made Temeraire get better. And it was he Chinese cooks who originally bought and prepared the mushroom. Maybe it is a known cure for colds in China.
I'm hoping for a flying across Africa book too since we've already had one sail round it on a transport book. I can't wait to see what kind of African dragons exist or what Temeraire will think of elephants. :) I'm not sure anyone really understood the cure, but it would be cool to have the Gong Su be the one to explain it. --Mooir 19:48, 5 September 2007 (PDT)
