dragons have lips
this isn’t a shitpost. in skyrim’s dragon language there are pairs of distinct words such as: ‘nid’ (no/none), ‘mid’ (loyal/loyalty), ‘mu’ (we) vs ‘nu’ (now), and ‘aan’ (an) vs ‘aam’ (to serve). this indicates that dragons are able to distinguish between the sounds ‘m’ and ‘n’.
the only difference between ‘m’ and ‘n’ is that the latter is formed with the tongue, while the former is produced with the lips
therefore, dragons have lips
Given when Odahviing talks to you, you can see the movement of lip plates and scales around his mouth, so my theory is that dragons have a setup like this, taking inspiration from Smaug’s design (and colour coded at the risk of looking like a clown)
Also when Odahviing is talking to you, you can see him raising the front portion of his snout to bare his teeth in a(n albeit threatening) smile, so I feel there’s flexibility there too, like a bird’s upper beak given all of that information, it’s now obvious as to why Skyrim dragons have learned to never laugh or show happiness ever
y’all are pulling out all these facts and diagrams and stuff, but truly the only proof you need is right here
she’s wearing lipstick ladies and gentlemen
