Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3471274-20130606153913/@comment-15271256-20150312022119

54.146.159.40 wrote: Explaining fact wise, dragons are wise and powerful. That power, however, seems to overrule their wisdom quite often. According to Paarthurnax, Esbern and Durnehviir, dragons are extremely proud in nature, meaning they are willing to do whatever they feel necessary to maintain their power and superiority.

Durnehviir also said that when the dragons ruled Tamriel, feuds often turned into bloody conflicts over patches of land across the continent. Everyone wanted a slice of the pie, and the dragons apparently didn't care about their own well beings in order to achieve what they wanted. Power and control is all that they cared about, so much so, that they didn't bother to watch out for innocents, or for any consequences that might befall them; hence Durnehviir's enslavement in the Soul Cairn.

Paarthurnax was the same way once, until he witnessed what atrocities that he did in Alduin's name. He, therefore, developed a sense of compassion and, according to him, abandoned his ruthless dictatorial ways through intense meditation. What you have just said is the ultimate answer, and an event that has happened quite often in our own real-world history: excessive pride. Alexander the Great belived himself invincible and all-powerful, and so he conquered a very large portion of the world. And what was his fate? Being killed by Malaria from a mosquito bite in his early thirties. His pride even showed in his grave, the words carved into his mausoleum are "A Tomb now suffices for Him, for whom the World was not enough."

This is EXACTLY the same in the case of the Dragons. They believed they were bigger, stronger and had more power than humans, which was true. But rather than just live among them, they wanted to live above mankind, which is why the whole Dragon War happened in the first place. In several cases, as with Vulthuryol, Numinex, Odahviing, Durnehviir, Mirmulnir and others, they became a little too hot for their giant heads and became either trapped in some embarrasing way or died because they couldn't turn down a good fight. And so just like Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, they became the victims of fortune... and looked like fools.