Talk:Gauntlet of Fire/@comment-29856479-20160812013037/@comment-27161581-20160812230950

To run with Guildmaster Grovyle's comment, having a centralized dragon culture and organization makes it difficult to have good dragons and bad dragons, since dragons are simultaneously depicted as both savage brutes, and also intelligent creatures. Therefore it is necessary to have multiple organizations in order to depict dragons in these different ways, hence the decentralized culture.

A notable point I would like to make, is that not all the dragons are seen in Gauntlet of Fire, therefore some of the dragons did not attend. If the problem Spike had with not attending affected every dragon, than there is a gaping plot hole when other dragons did not attend.

One possible answer is that the decentralized culture typical of fantasy dragons plays itself out by having multiple dragon lords, as Guildmaster Grovyle stated, only the dragon lord Spike followed is depicted so far.

Another possibility is that the compulsion Spike felt to participate gets weaker overtime, or with the effective strength of the dragon. Therefore, a large and likely old dragon such as Torch, would have no compulsion to participate, and therefore would not go.

Another option I would like to point out is that the Gauntlet is not the defacto way of passing along leadership, as Spike was able to hand over the staff without much trouble, which in my opinion indicates that this political tradition is quite fickle, changing with one lord to the next. Perhaps this Gauntlet of Fire only happens due to this single dragon lord choosing to start one for giggles.