Tops

Noname · **Reply #40 on:** August 06, 2008, 07:35:08 PM

True... but he IS capable of defending her from any predators... yes, if a meteor falls on them, they're both dead.

Serris · **Reply #41 on:** August 08, 2008, 10:04:56 AM

He does care for Cera but he is rude to almost everyone else in the valley.

I have NO idea why he's like this. I don't know if it was the way he was brought up or something.

I do have to admit, his speciesist tendencies do decrease in the sequels, but they still crop up.

Noname · **Reply #42 on:** August 08, 2008, 10:41:21 AM

Well, Tops does care for Cera, Tria, and Tricia... but that IS just about it... you're right...

Kor · **Reply #43 on:** August 08, 2008, 02:13:28 PM

I guess most of the way he acts is the way he was raised. His parents likely raised him to think that threehorns are the best at everything and other dinos are dumb and not very good at what they do. & also taught him to be tough & never back down. Thinking about another person's idea and admitting you may be wrong may have been taught is showing weakness.

Just a few ideas I have on it.

Noname · **Reply #44 on:** August 08, 2008, 02:16:32 PM

Yes, that makes sense. Tops said in the third movie (in the song "staying tough"), that his father "made him what he was today."

EDIT: In a sense, Tops is the most important character in his family; while he doesn't put food on the table in a world where the leaf-eating dinosaurs can eat plants freely, he prevents them from BEING food on the predator's "table." After all, his defense of the valley from predators is far more valuable to the survival of everyone else than Tria's relaxing in warm mud... I can see a comparison of the two characters now in a conversation...

Tria: How was your day, dear?

Tops: Exciting.

Tria: Exciting?

Tops: Old man longneck and I went to seal a breach in the wall, when a bunch of fast-biters came out of nowhere! They were tough; I knocked down one, and two more came up to me! Old man longneck knocked a couple down, but then a whole bunch more came up from behind us! It looked bad, until I took a chance and charged the leader with everything I had! Once he was down, the rest fled back to the mysterious beyond. It then took Longneck and I several hours to find and push a boulder large enough to seal the hole in the wall, and then some more time to return.
How was your day?

Tria: I ate, went to the mudpool for a few hours, ate some more, picked up Tricia from her "hatchling-sitter", ate some more, rested, and then went out to meet you.

Tops: (mumbling) And she says we contribute equally to the valley...

Tria: What? I can't hear you?

Tops: Oh, uh, nothing dear...

Tria: Alright... Now, remember when we talked about giving Tricia another full sibling? Well, I know a good place to...

Tops: :blink:

Basically, outside of making new Triceratopses, Tria doesn't contribute much...

Kor · **Reply #45 on:** August 09, 2008, 12:22:08 PM

Not that we see. She may be visiting other dinos, especially other females with offspring as well. This may help to reinforce the working and living together thing as well if someone is having a problem helping them with the problem or knowing someone who is capable of helping with the problem. Which is helping, but in a different way. As well as teaching Tricia and perhaps Cera (when she isn't off with her friends).

Noname · **Reply #46 on:** August 09, 2008, 10:43:02 PM

Right, but until we see those things (or hear of them), we can't be sure of them. I'm only going with what we've seen and heard.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #47 on:** August 09, 2008, 11:15:04 PM

Keep in mind that someone has to watch over the baby while the other one is out taking care of business. If Tria were to partake in the same duties as Mr. Threehorn, who would watch over Tricia and even be there for Cera when she needs advice? Tria, from what my impression is of her, is a great female figure for Cera to be mentored by. She does serve purposes other than reproduction, such as the ones Kor has pointed out.

Noname · **Reply #48 on:** August 09, 2008, 11:48:50 PM

Once again, we don't know. Yes, Tria seems to spend time in the mud pools and collecting shiny stones... and eating... besides those things, I guess all she would have to do is to watch Tricia... I suppose it isn't a bad life for a female Triceratops... she gets to live in a green valley, be protected by her husband, get to raise a daughter, relax in the mud pools without fear of attack (mostly), and NOT have to defend the valley against threats... as long as the mountain wall has no openings and as long as Tops is around to protect her (and Cera and Tricia), things would look good for her...

Malte279 · **Reply #49 on:** August 14, 2008, 06:42:41 PM

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Let's face it... Tria NEEDS Tops for protection (this is explicitly made clear in the 11th film), she is too weak to keep herself and Tricia safe from predators.

I see where you are coming from and I do agree that the movie does depict her as weaker than Tops. I would not rate her dependency on protection too high, whatever else Tops may claim (he was the one who made it explicitly clear that Tria "needed protection", wasn't he?). She seems to have survived by herself (probably with a herd but not with an assigned "protector" for quite a while in places more dangerous than the Great Valley). Males and Females of much less defensible species than threehorns (e.g. Ducky's mother) seem to make do quite well without a stronger protector in the Great Valley. The place itself provides a lot of protection. Looking at the many "singles" in LBT I don't really see it as strongly advocating the conservative image of "each female needs a male protector". I realize that there are scenes which might support such a view (e.g. LBT 4), but I don't see it as a general attitude of the movies and don't really believe in Tria as being utterly dependent on Tops.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #50 on:** August 14, 2008, 07:39:22 PM

Personally, I don't think Tria needs Topsy for protection. Just because she's female does not mean that she needs a male protector. There's nothing in the 11th movie, from what I recall, that suggests that she needed protection. Topsy chose to jump in protect her. She didn't call for his help.

Tria might have spent some time alone in the Mysterious Beyond before she ended up in the Great Valley. I highly doubt that she spent all that time without encountering sharpteeth and she seemed to manage on her own. Her being a female does not make her defenseless against a sharptooth attack. While having a stronger individual around would help, I do not think Tria requires Topsy for protection.

Noname · **Reply #51 on:** August 14, 2008, 07:51:40 PM

Well, I never said she was so helpless that she would be unable to do anything without Tops, but she does need his help against those raptors... and in nature, female herd animals are decidedly weaker than the males; the rams HAVE to protect the ewes, just as bulls must protect the cows... this isn't conservatism, it is fact. In a modern society with laws, police, a military, and the fact that humans aren't easily preyed upon in most countries by wild animals, the weaker members of society can be expected to live better on their own... but that isn't The Land Before Time, is it? Basic assurances of security do not exist in nature...

And it is possible that the reason WHY Tops says that Tria needs protection is that either he observed that she did or she told him so. It could have been that Tria was living a dangerous life alone and needed a male to protect her and that she was simply lucky to have lived as long as she did...

And as for examples of other females who live in the valley without a male present... we only see two of them. Ducky's mother can simply run away to the water and swim (where many predators cannot follow) and Petrie's mother can simply fly away. In either case, they are probably too weak to fight, so they have to flee where predators cannot follow. Tria doesn't have that option. Being a land-based herd animal, she cannot fly or swim away, and the animals who would prey on her are also land-based.

Yes, there is a way to read too much into Tria needing protection; I'm sure that she is able to handle small predators or else chase them away, but a significant threat will see her dead, whereas it would not be such a mortal threat to Tops. A good example of this is to ask a shepherd how long a flock of sheep would live for if the rams were all killed; the wolves would be able to prey on the lambs and ewes with impunity... you see where I am going with this...

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #52 on:** August 23, 2008, 12:50:44 PM

I watched "The Amazing Threehorn Girl" on Youtube the other night, and wow! I never did realize how good of a fighter Mr. Threehorn really is

. Dang, he can kick some serious dino butt! No wonder the sharpteeth don't come near the valley. Maybe it's the stories of him that scare them away

. In the sharpteeth minds, instead of Chuck Norris giving Freddy Kruger nightmares, it would be Mr. Threehorn giving them nightmares

. Sorry, just being my random self once again

.

Noname · **Reply #53 on:** August 24, 2008, 11:54:11 AM

Quote from: Cancerian Tiger,Aug 23 2008 on 11:50 AM

I watched "The Amazing Threehorn Girl" on Youtube the other night, and wow! I never did realize how good of a fighter Mr. Threehorn really is . Dang, he can kick some serious dino butt! No wonder the sharpteeth don't come near the valley. Maybe it's the stories of him that scare them away . In the sharpteeth minds, instead of Chuck Norris giving Freddy Kruger nightmares, it would be Mr. Threehorn giving them nightmares . Sorry, just being my random self once again .

See what I mean... do you think Tria can defend herself like that? No, if those crocodiles attacked her, she would really not complain about needing Tops to protect her...

NeoGenesis005 · **Reply #54 on:** March 13, 2009, 09:26:47 PM

Yeah...A real "Sharpteeth Slayer"... <_< But a Real Jerk if you ask me.

Kor · **Reply #55 on:** March 13, 2009, 09:39:58 PM

He is that, but he does get sorta kinda less of a big jerk, at least a little in my opinion, in the tv series, though he still has a lot of that.

Though everyone will disagree, I think he got off easy at the end of the 11th movie. If I was Tria, considering how he treated me in front of those other dinos in public (attempting to not put out any spoilers) I'd have made him apologize in front of the dino group.

action9000 · **Reply #56 on:** March 14, 2009, 01:22:03 AM

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Though everyone will disagree, I think he got off easy at the end of the 11th movie.

I actually totally agree. They could have taken some direction with that and have it affect their relationship, how Tria saw him, etc. but instead this event of Tops putting her down was completely ignored by the rest of the movie! Bad writing in my personal opinion.

Kor · **Reply #57 on:** March 14, 2009, 01:29:28 AM

very bad writing, though its happened before in LBT so I wasn't surprised. Though I was disappointed.

Noname · **Reply #58 on:** March 14, 2009, 12:25:11 PM

Well, considering that Tops saved Tria's LIFE, I would imagine that she would be willing to get over that little incident...

action9000 · **Reply #59 on:** March 14, 2009, 12:54:58 PM

I dunno, if some girl saved my life who I had completely different values from, I still wouldn't marry her.