I would probably not wish to meet any of them in person, but rather watch them from a distance.  They would likely change more from meeting me then I would change from meeting them, and part of the magic of the land before time is that they are just kids and their view of the world is so narrow compared to ours.

My specialty is atmospheric science....severe weather more specifically. I hope to enter the study of tornadoes and supercell thunderstorms one day.


Wow this is quite the reception! Coming from the Red Alert forums (where people tear each other's heads off daily) this is kind of refreshing.

My biggest wish would be to have my questions answered about the origins of life and the universe.  There is nothing worse then ignorance.

Something that I've noticed that nobody else has commented on (at least not that I have seen) is that the creatures of the mysterious beyond call their home "The Mysterious Beyond". Does that not seem odd to you that this is the case? The term was coined in the land before time 2 by the great valley dinosaurs who rarely venture outside their own valley (the GoF excepted) so how would it spread to the denizens who actually live there? Anyway onto the real topic of my post  



While there are many plot holes that can be brought up over the course of all the movies (ie what happened to Ozzy and Strut, Dina and Diana, Cera's Mom, Petries Dad, and Ducky's Dad) I'm going to address the biggest one in the TV series which is undoubtedly about Chomper and Ruby. What are they doing in the great valley? How come the leaf-eater parents find them so easy to accept? Why is Red Claw so specifically mentioned as the Sharptooth villian when there are hundreds of other sharpteeth out there? I've fashioned a pretty long explanation of my own which could be right and could be wrong but is also appropriate enough that it could be in an E rated land before time episode:



I'll start with the heirchy of the Mysterious Beyond because its important to understand how things are where Ruby and Chomper grew up.  The majority of the large herds in the region have retreated to the Great Valley bringing a huge void in the food supply for the sharpteeth in the area, which due to the lack of water and intense heat makes everyday a struggle for survival. Assuming they are as smart as the great valley dinosaurs the Sharpteeth will band together, with the strongest of them all being the leader and having the pick of the kill. There are likely to be very few T-rex sharpteeth in this mix because of the lack of food, but plenty of fast-biters and other small carnivores. The fact that the larger Sharpteeth rule the smaller is demonstrated by Redclaw and his two thuggs (how they found out his name I don't know...but ill get to that point later) which don't get eaten by their larger master but rather are lead on by his ravenous hunger.


So lets talk about Redclaw now, as far as we have seen he is the only large sharptooth around the edges of the great valley and has a huge gash on the left side of his face which could never have been caused by any leaf eating dinosaur. I propose that in some prior time Redclaw was in fact the leader of the sharpteeth in the mysterious beyond (likely around the time of LBT I or II) but was cast out when he was defeated by another, younger and stronger sharptooth of similar size which gave him his scar.  Bitter and resentful about his loss of supreme power and status (he used to have his pick of mates and the kill) he moved west and took up a new territory closer to the great valley which was populated by mostly smaller sharpteeth, who quickly owned up to this new and proficiant predator who gives them their fill of his large kills. Before long he would develop a following amoungst them, setting the stage for the next set of events.

Wow this is turning out to be quite the wall of text...ok next part is about Ruby and her family.

Ruby's parents are all on their own in the mysterious beyond, with no others of their kind to associate with which brings into question many things about them which i couldn't possibly come up with an explaination for right now, but here is my theory about them:

Ruby's kind, refered to as Fast Runners, occupy an odd part in the food chain with their ability to eat meat or plants as the times demand, and this makes them excellant survivors but it also makes them subject to redicule from both the leaf eaters and sharpteeth, who wouldn't see them as belonging in either group. Sharpteeth would despise them for their weakness when eating leaves, while leaf eaters would hate them for stealing eggs, eating fish (or seashells), or picking meat off corpses. Ultimately Ruby and her parents are outcasts, but given what things are like in the mysterious beyond they likely do have a place, but not a favourable one. It's interesting to note that Ruby and her parents know how to speak sharpteeth language (as you can't promise Chomper's parents something if they can't understand you).


...



<The Sun glowingly sets in the horizon as the dry winds crossing the mysterious beyond begin to subside. Exhausted after a long day of searching for food, Ruby's father returns to the family nest where his wife, Ruby's mother, had just settled in. Suddenly he turns his head quickly at the sound of stomping foodsteps from around the ridge and cowers at the sight of a massive sharptooth gathered with nearly half a dozen fast biters, slowly making their way through the arid winds with their noses in the air, sniffing out the two fast runners>

Ruby's Dad:<To his wife> Hide dear! Redclaw is back!

<she dashes around the corner, but limps as if burdened>

Dad:<in sharptooth> Redclaw? There is no food here and the land is dry, why is it that you have come?

Screech: Lookie its the cowering little morsel at last

Thudd: Barely worth our time

Redclaw: Silence before I skin you both <once more they cower in fear> Now, I am here to deal with one of the many problems in MY land.

Dad: Problem....with what?

Redclaw: You are the problem <roars, Screech and Thudd do the same> You refuse to leave like the rest of your worthless family, I was merciful before for not hunting you like I would any other leaf eater, but you continue to try my patience!

Dad: But Redclaw we are one of your own, we hunted with your packs for generations and even paid our respects to you why are you casting us out like this?

Redclaw: No weak leaf eater is kin of mine. I tolerated your parents, however useful their speed might have been, but times have changed and I will have no more of you! If you are not gone out of my territory by the next rising of the great circle I will send my underlings to...make use of you... as like any other insignificant creature.

Sreech, Thudd, and other Fast Biters: <screeching and licking their lips>

Dad: But Redclaw be reasonable, my wife is about to lay her eggs we cannot go for fear of losing our children...

Redclaw: Then all the bigger feast for my own <scowls and walks away>

<The fast biters surround Ruby's dad screeching their thirst for blood, but a quick growl from their master and they relent, leaving him all alone on the arid sands>

Ruby's Mother:<approaches> What are we to do...It's almost my time I can feel it.

Dad:<look of sorrowful concern> The only thing we can do dear, run.

...

I suspect that there would be some sort of relationship between the sharpteeth and Ruby's parents because they are next of kin, but not completely the same. Likely this relationship was one on speaking terms (as opposed to kill on sight as with predator-prey) for if it wasn't then they never would have spoke to Chomper's parents or even considered bringing him into their family for a brief while while him and Ruby prepared to leave for the great valley. I'll post more analysis on this and possibly some more fan fic if anyone is interested.

You can find a good portion of the episodes on You Tube.

Hold on a minute...they incriminated Pterano for what happened but it wasn't really his fault was it? How could he have known that the sharpteeth would attack them? The very same thing had just has much chance of happening to the main group but it was a matter of luck that it didn't.

Shorty: "Has anyone seen Littlefoot? I'd like to have a....word...with him.

Ruby: Petrie I couldn't help but notice how....tender... you look

Petrie: What you mean Ruby?

Ruby: ...... <spot of drool down her lip>

Acutally I ment underdeveloped...bad grammar on my part.

Thanks for your insights....I think we will probably get more on her come the next movie BUT there is also something else about her that is kind of odd.

She looks to be much younger then the others, probably somewhere around 6-7 years old and yet her parents send her off to protect someone older then her.

Does this not seem odd to you why her parents would do this? Especially since she is so young and innocent when it happens (ie they didn't send her away because she was a nuisance). I suspect that the reason she says she is guarding chomper is because that is what her parents told her the reason was, so the story of herself is technically told from the perspective of herself without taking into account the bigger picture.

In a later episode we may find that her parents did not tell her the whole truth and that she in fact is the victim of something more sinister. Lets think about this for a moment...what could a family of Oviraptors possibly owe to a family of vicious Sharpteeth that would institute sending away their oldest daughter to a land that they have never been? How could a 6 year old Oviraptor baby expect to protect another baby from a massive sharptooth?  Ruby could be suffering the consiquences of something her parents did.

After not seeing the land before time for 5 straight years i came back to find the episodes on you-tube and my first thought was...hey whos that pink chicken with them?

I did some searching and came across the first TV episode only to find that the only explanation of her existance we get is "Your parents told me to protect you from a sharptooth."

We know all about the others as well as chomper, but they suddenly bring in a new character and don't even tell us about her? I would expect a whole episode dedicated to her just to find out what shes about, where she came from, etc. rather then just being a background character who occasionally extends some wisdom when littlefoot isn't around (she is practically second in command if anyone has noticed).

Interestingly too she never shows her teeth, even when she smiles. Perhaps she is hiding the shiny rows of sharp teeth? She crunches an entire shell in one bite and yet they never really allude to her being a raptor.