Do you think that a terrible event occurred in the Great Valley in the past?

[ChomperHugger]

I know this is kinda weird, I mean, the Great Valley is supposed to the be Utopia with no Sharpteeth (well, until the TV Series anyway. :) ), lots of food and water, and a Combined Herd.

But how was it in the past? I mean, did they always have a Combined Herd in the Great Valley, or was that only after the Great Earthshake and when Littlefoot’s group arrived? Was there segregation in the past, possibly leading to feuding among the various herds that led to possible deaths?

Who first settled the Great Valley anyway? Was it Longnecks (In the Secret of Saurus Rock, at first, when it shows the timeline of the Meanest Ever Sharptooth, it shows only Longnecks at first, but later, it shows other kinds possibly at the time Saruus Rock appeared. So, did Longnecks settle the Great Valley?)

Also, if Grandpa Longneck heard the stories of the Lone Dinosaur from HIS grandfather, than it’s possible that Littlefoot’s great-great grandfather lived in the Great Valley or met someone who had seen the events (if the story is even true).

Another weird thing is that the Old One mutters, when hearing that the Great Valley is fine “Who knows how long that will last?” Because of the outside land changing. But, presumably, she had to have heard that the Great Valley was even able to dodge the infamous Leaf Famine of the 1st movie, so what would make her doubt that the Great Valley was invincible?

I had thought that, based on some of her other actions, that perhaps she was in the Great Valley, perhaps in her younger days, and saw something horrible happen, like perhaps a Sharptooth attack that had traumatized the residents, and thus knew that even the fabled Great Valley wasn’t immune to tragedy.

[Austin]

I know little about geology, but it’s likely that the Great Valley itself has existed for tens of thousands of years. It’s likely that it was settled by leaf eaters because it was rich in green food and could be defended reasonably well from sharpteeth. From the original movie, it mentioned that the Great Valley was “a land that was still lush and green.” This implies that the rest of the world was undergoing some pretty radical changes, but the Great Valley was so far untouched.

This hypothesis is further evidenced in the 4th movie when the wandering migrating longneck herd noticed changes everywhere they went. “Lands that we had migrated across for years had become…the Land of Mists…” It’s unclear how the Great Valley remained unchanged while the rest of the world fell apart, but the Old One in LBT 4 seemed convinced that changes were very possibly going to hit the Great Valley next.

Thankfully they never did (unless you count the swarming leaf gobblers (locusts) that ate all the green food in the Great Valley, but that’s not exactly climate change). However, the reason why the swarming leaf gobblers came to the Great Valley might be due to the fact that green food had become so scarce elsewhere.

Grandpa Longneck certainly knew what they were as soon as he saw them, which implies that they were at least relatively common outside the Great Valley. Remember that Grandma and Grandpa Longneck have spent most of their lives living outside of the Great Valley.

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