@Daneasaur  
It seems to have been more than a rumor in my hometown.

@Ardashir  
I heard rumors of that and stories of folks who’ve done the same, including looking down on the families that continue to provide love and support after that.

@Daneasaur  

 
I was going to say that this reminds me of what happened with some local kids once they graduated high school – they came home from the graduation ceremony to find on their front stoop a suitcase with clothes and an envelope with cash inside. Along with a note: “I took care of you for 18 years. Now it’s your turn. Good luck and goodbye.”
 
Or so some local parents bragged about doing to their kids. They also looked down on my mom and dad for not doing the same with me.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Also true. And just now I remember Ember complaining about the overbearing presence of her father, that she was going to show every dragon she was not “just some little princess”.

@Starswirl
 
Another thing to consider is The age difference between Torch and Ember. He is quite possibly old enough to be her grandfather (or even great-grandfather, based on what the show has hinted about dragon aging). It’s an old trope that men who have children later in life are more protective of them.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Well, most likely they can, not necessarily will. But aye, once you’re that big and strong, you don’t have to prove anything to anypony.
 
No wonder younger dragons are obsessed with looking strong. Even when Spike was with Garble’s gang, the firebreathing competition was the one thing the older dragons took any interest in.

@Starswirl  
So, it seems dragons mellow out and become more civilized in their old age. At that point they’re big and strong enough to be confident enough to buck dragon custom.

@Daneasaur
 
@Frustration in Excelsis  
True. And he gets away with it without looking weak because, well, he’s ridiculously huge even for a dragon.

@Frustration in Excelsis  
I anticipate that she might have been booted, but she came back when the summons was made and Torch had to step down. That said, yes, comparatively to the other dragons we’ve seen who are generally “in for themselves” and don’t care how they get others hurt, Torch preventing Ember from participating can now more openly be seen as an honestly kindhearted gesture of worry on his part.
 
He wouldn’t let her compete in the gauntlet because he felt it was too dangerous for her, telling her “only a big strong dragon can beat the gauntlet, because (he thinks) it takes a big strong dragon to lead.”
 
In a society where toughness and getting away from home is an ongoing theme, Torch comes across as downright loving towards his daughter.

@Starswirl  
I definitely get the impression that Torch and Ember’s relationship is unusual by dragon standards. Most dragons, like Garble and his gang, probably head away from home and never go back, but with Ember I’d say that either Torch’s parenting instincts overrode the “molt effect” and he never kicked her out to begin with, or perhaps the expulsion was less… forceful… than usual and she simply came back once the symptoms subsided.

@Background Pony Number 17  

Well, Dragon Lord Torch cared enough to be concerned about Ember’s safety in the contest.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Note how close Ember and her father are, even though she must have had her own molt. That, and how protective he was of her, and I’d say their relationship might be unusual for dragons.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Just like birds

@Background Pony #299A
 
Pretty much. Dragons aren’t into parenting, it seems. As soon as the kid hits puberty he’s kicked out of the nest. Apparently juvenile dragons band together for mutual defense, and that’s how we end up with Garble and his gang of delinquents.

@Daneasaur  
Please don’t take this away from me XD

@D_Tavs.exe  
Technically, this makes them loosely the same “age”.

Smolder: closes door hey kid wanna ss?

@Background Pony #299A  
Considering their adult lives lend them to hoarding, it’s a defensive measure that puberty forces them apart.

Is that why dragons are so mean because they have to defend themselves as children when they molt because their parents force them out of their own homes