Dragon Theories: Snafflefang

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Hey, everyone! Here in the U.S., tomorrow is Mother's Day! So today, we're going to look at one of Valka's dragons! We've already done the Stormcutter, so instead we're going to look at another one of Valka's more prominent dragons: the Snafflefang!

Probably the first modular dragon to have a name and description released by the franchise, the Snafflefang doesn't get a lot of love, but from what I can see, it's definitely deserving of more! This dragon is friendly, gentle, and playful, if a bit finnicky, which just makes me even more endeared to them. On top of that, they take a good bit of inspiration from cattle and dogs, two extremely loving animals. I don't have a huge amount of theories for this dragon, nor do I have any theories for that are particularly involved, but I do hope I at least gave this lovable creature proper consideration. Hope you enjoy!


Theory 1: The Snafflefang's blind spots are behind it and under their chin. Snafflefangs have eyes placed very far forward, so I bet they have good vision in front of them but not so much behind. They also have a huge chin, which they probably can't see under very well.

Theory 2: Snafflefangs are social and live in groups.
Snafflefangs are based on cattle and dogs. Both of these animals are highly social; therefore, I think Snafflefangs probably are, too. I don't really know how their social groups would be constructed, since dogs and cattle have different methods of social structure, but at the very least I'm confident in saying I think Snafflefangs live in groups.

Theory 3: The Snafflefang does not mate for life.
Most dragons don't, so I don't think Snafflefangs do.

Theory 4: Snafflefangs use their horns to battle for mates by head-butting.
Snafflefangs have horns on their heads that point backward, and they appear to have a hard skull. Based on these features, I think they may use their horns and heads much like the cattle they are based on. If left to their own devices to mate, bulls will battle each other for cows by ram their heads together and clashing horns. I believe it's possible that Snafflefangs compete for mates in the same way. After all, we do see the Snafflefang use a head-butting maneuver in Dragons: Rise of Berk during Brawl.

Theory 5: The Snafflefang's colors are meant to attract mates.
Regardless of fighting, we have to wonder what gets the female's attention in the first place? I think that's what the Snafflefang's bright colors are for. Snafflefangs are extremely colorful dragons, with colors like red patches on blue, purple patches on blue, yellow patches on green, and even white on blue with a yellow belly. Snafflefangs probably use their impressive colors to attract the opposite gender.

Theory 6: The Snafflefang's wing claws are for mating.
Snafflefangs have tiny wing claws on the middle joint. They're too small to be much use for most things, but with their apparent dexterity, they may help in clinging to each during mating.

Theory 7: Snafflefangs breed once a year.
Other dragons we've seen in the franchise appear to breed once a year, so I believe Snafflefangs probably do as well.

Theory 8: Snafflefang eggs are spiky to deter predators. According to Dragons: Rise of Berk, Snafflefangs have spiky eggs, and since Rise of Berk released the Snafflefang before School of Dragons did, I'm going to go with their design. So why have these eggs that are spiky on every surface? I think it makes sense that these spikes would keep predators from eating the eggs.

Theory 9: Snafflefang females have a lining inside to protect themselves when laying eggs. If these eggs are laid with spikes, it only makes sense that the female would have a way of protecting herself from those spikes while laying them.

Theory 10: Snafflefangs grow up very quickly.
Other dragons seem to, so Snafflefangs probably do as well.

Theory 11: The Snafflefang's closest relative is the Moldruffle and Common Rockstomper, followed by the Snifflehunch, Shovelhelm, Mudraker, Thunderclaw, and Windgnasher.
Due to sharing basically the same model body type, the Snafflefang shows quite a bit of similarity to the Windgnasher, Snifflehunch, Shovehelm, Common Rockstomper, Moldruffle, Thunderclaw, and Mudraker. I think the Moldruffle and Common Rockstomper may be the Snafflefang's closest relative due to having the greatest similarities to the Snafflefang in terms of bone structure.

Theory 12:
When a Snafflefang eats glowing algae (the algae the Flightmare feeds on), it glows green. Up above, I stated that the Shovelhelm's closest relatives were the Rockstomper and Moldruffle. It's also been stated by the franchise that the Snafflefang is a relative of the Gronckle. We know when a Gronckle eats glowing algae, it glows green. According to Dragons: Rise of Berk, so does the Rockstomper. This leads me to believe that, as a relative of these two dragons, the Snafflefang (and all the other dragons that are relatives of the Gronckle and Rockstomper) glow green when they eat glowing algae.

Theory 13: The Rookery is kept warm by the East Atlantic Current.
According to Dragons: Rise of Berk, Irontooth the Snafflefang lives at the Rookery. This little island where Deadly Nadders, Gronckles, Hideous Zipplebacks, and Monstrous Nightmares go to breed is kept warm and balmy even in winter despite being part of the Barbaric Archipelago, located in the north Atlantic. So why is this place so warm. I think it's because of the East Atlantic Current.

You may recall, back in my Flightmare theories months ago, my discussing the climate of the Faroe Islands. If you have, I apologize for being repetitive, but if you haven't here's a refresher: The Faroe Islands is an archipelago found in the Norwegian Sea, halfway between Norway and Iceland. Settled by historical Viking people somewhere between 300 and 600 C.E., these islands usually maintain the temperature usually stays above freezing. This is because the East Atlantic Current brings warm water from the Caribbean all the way up to north Atlantic, making the ocean, and thereby the climate, much warmer than it normally would be at such high latitudes.

As an island in the west of the archipelago, well-exposed to the current, I think it very likely that the Rookery is kept warm by the same mechanism that keeps the Faroe Islands so relatively warm.

Theory 14: Aside from the Bewilderbeast, Hiccup knew every species he encountered in Valka's Sanctuary before he was taken there. The Snafflefang was certainly known to Berkians before the war ended. I mentioned this before in my Shovelhelm theories, but basically, Hiccup doesn't act very surprised to see a lot of the dragon species he encounters in Valka's Sanctuary. So I think, aside from Bewilderbeast, all of these were dragons he's already known. And absolutely he must have known of Snafflefangs before then, if nothing else. A Snafflefang was seen flying over Berk in the Dragons: Riders of Berk comic "The Legend of Ragnarok," which takes place before Alvin had even made peace with Berk. On top of that, according to Dragons: Rise of Berk, Snafflefangs can be naturally found at the Great West Ocean, which is a location on Berk, so I find it easy to understand why one would be the comic and hard to believe that the Berk Vikings weren't aware of them.



And that's all I have on Snafflefangs! As always, feel free to say whether you agree, disagree, or have something you'd like to add.

Next week we will be doing a dragon that was dual-requested by MonstrousStryke and XxXPurleHolkingXxX from the School of Dragons forum: the newest dragon to the franchise, the Dramillion!
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Bronyman50's avatar
They must also have strong teeth since they Gnaw on Geodes but I think that's just a Boulder class thing...