Baby fights

When it comes to fan depictions of Blue and Echo's big fight that got big enough it left Echo with permanent marks, I usually see it set in when both raptors already look just as they do in their first appearance in Jurassic World (apart from Echo's scar and misaligned jaw). As much as the raptors are probably still very young adults in that movie, though, I wonder if they actually were nearly even that old at the time.

Baby animals are cute, but they can already be capable of quite a bit of the violence that may become an expectation for survival for them as an adult, and not necessarily just as play. This post is in large part inspired by learning that when it comes to raptors in particular - avian raptors, that is - the most intense sibling rivalry tends to be exhibited as literal babies, just days from hatching, when the size difference between rapidly growing chicks is the biggest and even a day's age difference shows, to establish a pecking order early on. Things can settle to peaceful coexistence from there, but the fights can also cause injury, and in some cases get serious enough one chick even kills another.

JP/W raptors are quite different from actual raptors of both the deinonychosaur kind and the birb kind, of course, so what's usual for eagles and the like may not be for them, and avian raptors have their own type(s) of social life. They aren't by any means incapable of anything but violence, and can be quite gentle with their mates and young, but though they can also spend time in groups especially outside of nesting season, the need to learn complex social behaviors and negotiation skills isn't as immediate priority as for a species constantly living in and depending on a tight-knit community, while learning to physically defend oneself and "elbow" one's way to the front row at feedings is vital. But kids do still fight, and surprisingly viciously at times, in our own very social species, too, especially when those complex social behaviors and negotiation skills haven't yet been learned.

Blue and Echo can actually be seen exhibiting competitive behavior in the cute baby videos shown in Fallen Kingdom. It's easy to miss in the chaos of the playful raptor chicks running around, but when Owen tosses a treat in Blue's direction, both Blue and Echo try to catch it, and when Blue manages to be a bit quicker, Echo is a sore loser and reacts by shoving Blue. Nothing more serious seems to come of it at the moment, but something like that could easily have been the catalyst the time things did get serious. Competition for food is a big deal. So is position in the social group's inner hierarchy, if it affects access to resources like food.

It's pretty obvious Blue has been Owen's favorite child ever since the raptors were small, both to the audience and to the raptors themselves. Some of the special treatment she gets seems to be motivated by Owen trying to maintain his own position as the leader of the pack. He feeds Blue last in their introduction scene in Jurassic World, but gives her a bigger treat than the others, acknowledging Blue is the boss among the raptor sisters, but reminding her he still outranks her. Judging by the raptors' behavior and whose lead they actually follow, Owen is the only one out of the five of them who thinks of him as some sort of alpha for the pack, but he is still the parent in their dynamic, and the raptors' feeding is controlled by him.

 Incidentally, Blue's body language in this scene is hilarious.
"For me? ...oh. Now for me? Oh come on!"

I could see Blue getting challenged after one exclusive treat too many to prove she isn't in her leadership position as a result of sheer parental favoritism. I could also see Blue actually taking more than she's entitled to and Echo having to defend her right to her share. As empathetic and intelligent as Blue may be, humans, too, can be quite thoughtless and selfish at times as children (and many as adults, too, yes, but even the ones that grow up to be the nicest of adults), still learning all the ways our actions impact others and how to share, as established, let alone animals, even very smart and social ones.

That Echo would be the one who needs to guard her resources the most also makes sense considering that other than Charlie, she's the youngest of the raptors. Charlie may be a special case in her own right, perhaps babied and protected all the more for having been brought into the pack with a significant age gap to her sisters, if she is a bit later addition, explaining her place in the order by age not matching her place in the order by their alphabet naming theme. That Charlie doesn't get bullied is carefully watched, but Echo is mostly left to fend for herself.

Blue and Echo's Epic Battle was perhaps actually fought in the nursery rather than in the paddock. That would have been easier for humans to intervene in, too, and though the raptors do seem to know the taser guns aimed at them during their argument over the paddock worker who fell in are something they don't want to mess with, from Owen's dialogue it also seems it's more by deduction than experience. What kind of equipment might one need to separate two wrestling raptor babies, though? I don't know, thick gloves?

It seems they have indeed gotten to that peaceful coexistence stage by the movie, in any case, though Echo does still seem a bit of a troublemaker, basically causing the drama at the paddock gate and only showing up for the end of the resolution. Also during their hunt for the Indominus, where after sprinting here and there for a bit for the fun of it they settle into a rhombus formation, with Blue at point and Charlie at rear and Delta and Echo in the middle, what Delta snaps at her for at one point is probably that she keeps getting alongside Blue instead of running behind her.

But, Blue herself doesn't seem to mind, judging by that it's Delta who tells her to knock it off. And a little later, when the raptors turn on the human soldiers using them as dino shields against the Indominus, Blue attacks a human right after that human had started firing at another raptor, probably picking her target to protect her sister from the gunfire. Since Delta and Charlie have just pounced on human victims of their own, that sister is likely Echo.