I've always viewed Tops as a somewhat more... accurate character. Although no real Triceratopses could talk, if they could have, the dialogue from the earlier movies would have been most accurate. While we don't know about dinosaur behavior with 100% accuracy, we do know that herding animals behave in certain patterns. If the Triceratopses in the land before time films were cows, Tops would be the biggest bull. This role is reinforced when he takes responsibility for safety in the third movie (and screws up badly), and when he explains that one of the reasons he's marrying (or whatever the equivalent of that is) Tria is that "she needs protection." And in the world of the films and in the real world, this would be the case; now Tops is the Alpha male needed to protect no fewer than three females (first daughter Cera, "wife" Tria, and new hatchling Tricia), and he has certainly proven to be a rather strong dinosaur (he is far stronger than Tria; he was shown as being able to throw a raptor a great distance with his head alone, while Tria could only knock one down for a short time using her entire body... after which she turned and ran.)