Goron Reproduction

[Fig]

To me, this is a very disturbing topic. Then again, it does make you wonder about it. :xd:

 

[DarkLink17]

There are baby gorons, but no sign of females. Well, it is a video game fantasy world after all.

 

[Dan]

Although to be honest, if you really want to know how Gorons reproduce , and you are into that kind of "art". I'm sure it exists after all we know the rules of the internet...

 

[Batman]

When a mommy and a daddy Goron love each other very much, they get real close and hug and kiss each other. Afterwords a baby magically gets planted into the mommy Goron's tummy and after a long time, the mommy Goron will go to the doctor. And when she gets back there'll be a new baby Goron!

 

[Gooey Fame]

If I may say, sir, you have, in my eyes, just won the Zelda Dungeon. Well done.

And, as far as the actual reproduction of Gorons goes, I'm going to actually call this quote relevant, because it's probably just the best explanation.

There isn't really any evidence to support this though. Goron women looking just like Goron men is equally of a valid theory as there being no Goron women! We need some proof!

 

[Beauts]

I think female gorons just look very similar to the males.

I agree, the gerudo's thing was just a thought. Maybe because goron's are rocks** they produce similarly to plants, where they're male AND female (excluding strawberries). I think females and males probably do just look the same though. I mean what's nintendo supposed to do, give the females eyelashes?

** by which I mean rock-like creatures, not that they're literally rocks, obviously

 

[Smitie]

I wrote an entire article for ZD about the Gorons in 2010 (link to it if you are interested). I suggest that Gorons reproduce asexually via budding (so a sort of rock lump grows on the goron, is shed and then there is a goron baby). You only need one gender for this, this is common in the 'real' world and can be a very successful strategy for animals that live in a specialized habitat with only small populations. There is of course no evidence for this, but I just can't imagine a female goron with that typical goron voice. The only downside of cloning is the limited gene pool to compensate for changes in the habitat. This could explain the lack of gorons in certain games. And Nintendo did introduce female characters in the other races like the zora, so they could have done that for the gorons as well but they didn't.

As for the Gerudo (which I saw in some of the posts). There are species of fish who use the sperm of males of other species to trigger their reproduction, so all the animals are actually female. (again, I wrote an article on ZD about the gerudo as well as Din Akera...not to advertise or anything but it is one page before the last one in the article archive :puppy:.)

 

[Djinn]

I have posted my thoughts on this very subject a couple times in the past. Overall the goron is a very confusing animal because there are so many strange contradictions that appear between almost any two games they are present in. At first they do appear to have some very mammalian characteristics, Desert Colossus made a very strong case for this a few years ago in one of their articles. They listed how there are too many things present on the Goron that are specifically mammal traits that point towards a live birth.

now the nipples are not present on previous versions that appeared in OoT/MM and PH but they do have navels which still suggest a live birth. Any other aesthetics that appear on Goron anatomy might just be there for them to better resemble most of the other living creatures that wonder the land of Hyrule. Fi claims them to have been composed of living stone.

Goron race--
beings made of living stone.

Another thing to think about is that the Gorons have appeared in almost every game since their initial appearance. In these appearances we have seen many facets of their society and many different examples of various Gorons from varying ages from the average Goron that rolls around their home, to the elders, and even numerous small children. But not once a specific female at all. Nintendo has had numerous chances to include a female but has chosen not to each and every time. By this point one has to assume it is on purpose. Not often do we see variation in a society as the developers become lazy and just reuse the same character model to represent all of the members of that race. But the Gorons are second to the Hylians in having a gigantic variety of individuals at this point. And still no female. One migh be able to say that the same was done for the Zoras, that they were all male except for a small few select named individuals who were important to the story. But by now the Gorons have had a large variety of named individuals spamming more games than any other non Hylian race.

The suggestion that Gorons are a form of above water bipedal coral has been brought up a few times in the past as well. Coral also has a very stonelike outer structure composed of hardened calcium which to an uninformed individual would just as well be stone or crystal. However it is in fact an animal.

Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to sea anemones and jellyfish. At their base is a hard, protective limestone skeleton called a calicle, which forms the structure of coral reefs. Reefs begin when a polyp attaches itself to a rock on the sea floor, then divides, or buds, into thousands of clones.

Now the next step is understanding just how coral reproduces, by budding.

Budding is a form of asexual reproduction in which a new organism develops from an outgrowth or bud on another one. The new organism remains attached as it grows, separating from the parent organism only when it is mature. Since the reproduction is asexual, the newly created organism is a clone and is genetically identical to the parent organism.

Taking this into effect one can think that the fact that all other random unnamed gorons are almost perfectly identical to one another outside of a few ransom named individuals. This is a common gaming convention but it could also be an explanation as to why they always look so similar. Even Medigoron and Biggoron look exactly like the others only with varying sizes.

However this discounts the few very unique individuals we have seen and does not account for the presence of a navel on each and every Goron to appear. Plus there have been a few times where a specific young Goron will be said to be the offspring of a certain named Goron. This has occurred more than once and in each occasion the parent is always called the father while no mother is ever mentioned at all.

"My dad is Darunia... Do you remember him? Dad named me Link after you, because you're so brave! It's a cool name! I really like it!" — Link the Goron

At the same time they do tend to refer to each member of the tribe as brother, often calling individuals big brother. This could be a cultural trait as they also took to calling Link brother in OoT as well. Or it could be an actual reference to the entire tribe being related in some way.

"Kid, I like you! How's about you and I become Sworn Brothers?! No, there's no big ceremony involved! Just take this as a token of our friendship!" — Darunia

One must know our dance if he is to be called a Goron. If you dance well, I'll give you a Symbol of Brotherhood!"

So you are now a member
of our proud tribe, eh,
Goro-[Link]?
You should carve yourself
a home. They are perfect
for Goron life!

The tribe could in fact be related and all members might actually be brothers literally instead of figuratively.

 

[Satsy]

There are no women because this is a 'manly' race. A race of hard-working thick-skinned mountain dwellers who eat rocks and build manly weapons like hammers and swords. Not to mention that for fun they fight or roll down steep inclines until they hit something. So yes I think Nintendo have deliberately left out females, because that would dampen their role.

Whether or not they actually exist is something I don't think Nintendo have thought too hard on, nor the artistic choice to add belly buttons (which I don't take to mean live-birth at all, instead purely an aesthetic that is silly, despite being a perfectly normal trait). If they do exist, I doubt their appearance would be any different from the males.

 

[WechyPichu]

It's highly possible that Gorons reproduce asexually. There is no evidence pointing towards or against it therefore a solid argument cannot be made. Also, none of the Gorons i have ever seen appear to be female.

Maybw they are just ugly females?

 

[PokaLink]

....... ummmmm, lets see the game disc is read by the wii and makes magical Goron babys, or even better the Stork.

 

[mastersword427]

Well, I guess if nintendo can make tranny characters like birdo, then you are right

 

[Terminus]

This is just too disturbing. Box this thread up, make a sweater and send it to Nintendo. This'll either creep them out or amuse them.

 

[felipe970421]

I think you guys are overthinking this...

 

[Locke]

Alright, I've let the go on long enough. Moving it to WoZ where such speculation belongs.

OT: I had assumed budding, but I hadn't thought about the belly buttons. I'll have to go with it being a game design thing.