Fun Crackpot theory for Valstrax: Rather than being analogous to falcons, Valstrax are actually the seals/sea lions of the sky. Monsters like Narwa and Yama Tsukami show that the world may host an entire ecosystem miles above ground, and Valstax is one of the only species that can exploit both terrestrial and high-altitude zones. The dream is that a future monster hunter game will have a map set on top a floating island or giant Yama Tsukami so we can experience it.
Well, seals can't run 30kmph on land, but maybe val can as his legs are developed... And a seal is an semi-aquatic mammal, not a flying ,warm-blooded lizard with jet wings, as flight are anatomically restricting, but common elders can do it so it's a point.
Bazelgeuse once again proving why he's one of the best designs in the series. Not just badass, unique, and flashy, but also somewhat ecologically sound. Speaking of soundness or lack thereof I'd love to see you try and tackle Valstrax once and for all, to try and see if he can fill that falcon niche you mentioned in the Legiana video
If anything Valstrax seems to be some sort of fish/aquatic prey specialist based on the footage Capcom gave of him hunting a ludroth. That would imply it has very good eyesight (which doesn't make that much sense considering how obscured his eyes are by his head) and that it maybe just cruises in the sky until it sees a fish or leviathan chilling near the surface, then uses its immense speed for a quick strike.
@@chianliu8352 well then gogmazios has no business flying around then, also bazelgeuse attacks hunters because they ever pose a threat to him or out of territorial instinct but I will agree his is a wee bit harsh on valstrax and I do think valstrax has a good reason to have limbs out side of his wings.
I think one good example for why super competition isn't viable is when you look at humans because humans are the number one species on the planet and instead of being able to breathe fire or something we have intelligence we're great marathon runners we have opposable thumbs we have social order and a bunch of other seemingly boring stuff that when it mixes together becomes incredibly powerful instead of having one super flashy ability.
well honestly the main reason why we managed to take over the planet is because we managed to evolve with our minds rather than our bodies, creating weapons no other organism on earth could ever dream of. That level of intelligence and the tools to use it is why we are so high up on the pecking order.
We don't have enough oxygen, size, or lungs for a fire breath to ever work. And then we would need a cavity for it to work. But if we did... it would be a damn waste since we know how to make fire already lol. But then again... it could be very effective since there are many animals scared of fire, greater control of constructs with fire like torches, and catching fire on so many mammals. But we would need resistance to smoke, so we would need covers on our eyes similar to sharks and crocodiles for example. And an evolutionary trait to handle the smoke that would kill us normally. And we would be flammable ourselves with out blood, hair etc.
@@diousthomas8878 well jokes on the fire breath hypotesis , flametrowers where way more common in antiquity than pepole assume , that is to say they existed and most pepole think of them as a recent development , you just need a flammable liquid , a good enough pump and a way to lit it up ... And yeah all things considered flametrowers where less effectives than axes , pikes , crossbows , guns , artillery and streamlined bombers , Once again pretty boring and streamlined solutions to the question of "how do i puncture the organs of the guy over there ?" Rather than trying to scorch them alive or smt else ... Wich is kind of a similar process to nature : wolves are similarly streamlined with long legs to walk and run and strong jaws to kill and crack bones , and those alongside the rest of their adaptations work fine for them ...
i would disagree,humans are actually a good example of super competition,we come from africa, a place we would have to share with lions,hyenas,leopards and thats only counting tge predators,most herbivores could if they wanted,easily kill a few apes before we got our hands on fire and sharp sticks. what happened? we neotony our ways into having weaker jaws for bigger brains. put resurces that would normally go into a stronger body into bigger brains, with the end result being indeed a creature with great endurance,but mainly a good brain and the tools to use it (hands and language) humans are like if you put a fish in a swamp full of predators,hyper specialised in a venom organ at the cost of making all its fins and tail weaker, and somehow that becoming so effective it spread all over th world
High risk survival strategies like supercompetition and even self-harming evolutionary traits like brachy's mold might not be as unviable in the monster hunter world with the existence of hyper-medicinal remedies like vitalilies, vigorwasps, and herbs completely changes how one would approach danger. Even if their effect isn't instantaneous as it's depicted in game, the ecosystems provide different vectors of healing that would make recovering from greivous injury quickly and reliably enough to approach situations with greater confidence of survival- assuming they make it out of the initial encounter (which would also necessitate high lethality evolutionary traits since the komodo dragon method wouldn't work). A little bit of foraging might be all it takes for a predator to remedy an otherwise crippling injury before it can so much as begin to starve to death.
Some monsters that I can think of that heal in the middle of combat are nergigante, safijiva and qurupeco. Another thing is the fact that monsters run away often and heal when they sleep. Odogaron may also be mentioned for is hypermetabolism after eating a meal even if it's not really healing.
Sure but the same pitfalls apply to super healing plants. Why would they evolve such expensive properties? There has to be a deeper underlying reason that explains why it's not expensive.
@@bleensteen9331 given the size of flora and fauna it might be safe to assume the ecosystem is far more energy (nutrient not bio) rich than our ecosystems. Ignoring the probable high oxygen content for flora and fauna to get so large, those titanic creatures are enriching the soil with titanic defecation. Considering prey items are themselves densely muscled, high in keratin, and generally chemically active, the circulation of turnover rate of chemical energy (the stuff you digest) from sun to branch to meat to dirt and back to the branch is likely fast and in vast quantities. This could make stockpiling energy for chemical restoratives or elementally specialized organs less taxing to invest into
@@bleensteen9331Might be a method of seed dispersal - those kind of restorative properties would incentivize consumption even by animals that normally wouldn't bother.
As I theorized in the UHC discord, I hypothesize Brachydios being a small prey specialist using its pounders and slime to excavate hidden small prey like a badger digging up squirrels. If it has prey trapped then the prime time of the slime isn't an issue and by blowing up the rock instead it protects the prey from being obliterated by the indirect nature of the blast. It primes its slime like the C4 on a safe in a heist movie and if the blast doesn't do the job the pounders break apart the weakened rock giving access to the meal trapped inside. We even discussed if this has to do with its conflict with Agnaktor, as Uroktors are likely an ideal meal for Brachydios and the Agnaktor may be hostile to a potential predator of its young like the Raths with Seregios.
Ok , that makes some sense tbh ... Still if the preferred defence motod of brachidios is to fight ( as it's stubby legs and overhall not sprinter fisique may suggest ) this doesn't explain why it's soo wonkily designed for self dence ...
@@gergomolnar2193 honestly same , i am not sure if i got banned afther a debate or if it got limited to patreon supporters or somenthing else entirely , I was kicked out in the middle of writhing a comment
Zinogre's charge has always felt like a feature developed for intraspecific confrontation to me. I always thought two Zinogre squaring up would rather show off their charge instead of phisically fighting at the risk of hurting each other, the one that lures more fulgurbugs and thus generates higher charge and "shines" more would be dominant. It should also count as a honest signal, since a Zinogre unable to properly lure bugs clearly has somethign wrong with it and wouldn't make an insteresting mate. Another option I've considered could be that fulgurbugs may function as a form of anti-parasite that keeps pests away (been wanting a Wyvern Tick as a rare drop fro monsters for years) while in turn they get a safe shelter and a chance at dispersal or meeting their own kind by sticking with the fanged wyvern. Zinogre doesn't really need its electric attacks to hunt (it eats Gargwas, you really do not need elemental power for those) or defending itself, it already has the size, strength and agility to fend off the majority of predators that it could encounter in its mountainous habitat.
I have a theory on how zinogre might use the bugs agenst other monsters as we see In the iceborn cut scene the bugs are arriving on mass as it approaches the rath and diablos and in the scored magna we see the same and it is able to instantly get its charge. So my theory is when zinogre detects the smell of another large predator they will howl and draw the bugs and will do so repeatedly as they aproch the source of the smell able to instantly charge with the hoard of bugs ready if the predator dosnt retreate. That might be what we see in his first cut scene that zinogre was run out of its territory by amateu and this was staying charged so it could claim a new territory and be safer from a ambush attack
15:34 Obviously Cheetahs just need to evolve to be faster to the point where they can create afterimages, then they can take their rightful place as the super-mega-apex species 😎. I see no way that an increase in speed optimized anatomy could backfire in this endeavour. In all seriousness, great video. Would love to see more in this vein, as someone who messes around with spec evo your videos are always a source of inspiration, wether for something I’m currently working on or something I’ve yet to start on.
I've always pictured brachydios as a hyper-aggressive ore eater rather than a top order predator. The shape of its jaw and tail club suggests a hard food source in need of rigorous crushing and grinding. It would explain why the mold seems inefficient for hunting and aggression, because it's primary purpose is foraging ores. Priming it with saliva lets it choose when to set it off, the delay lets it reach a safe distance (since we established its armor is poor for resisting frontward explosions- but might be better at surviving caveins). You could argue the pompadour is for precision placing slime when excavating a narrow ore vein where only its head fits. It was probably coopted as a weapon due to its overtly aggressive disposition, but even then it's more effective as a defensive mechanism (as exemplified by raging brachy).
This is my thinking too. We see it eat herbivores in the games, but it seems better adapted to blast mining than hunting, with the thick armor on its back protecting it from cave ins and raining debris. Its large pounders would be great for pulverizing rocks, and its slime is an extension of that. Its flamboyant appearance also makes more sense as a deterrent against potential predators or other territorial monsters ("I explode, so stay away") rather than anything to do with hunting. It may opportunistically hunt herbivores, rather than rely on them.
Absolutely love these videos, i'm always interested to learn more about biology/zoology in order to help my writing and you attributing it to MH is a blessing.
There's a curious example of a predator that eats mostly "predators" of its same size, albeit it wouldn't exist whithout our intervention. The grey wolf populations of the iberian peninsula feed largely in asociation with livestock (horses, cows...) but the prey that they choose more often are the shepherd dogs that watch over the herds of cows. They also consume a lot of foxes and domestic cats, maybe because hunting cows/horses its more work for the small-ish packs that live around here than just killing their domestic counterparts.
I think I have a general pool of ideas for Brachydios. 1: I've said before, but I believe the pounders themselves evolved to help kill hard-shelled prey. It's shown to hunt Rhenoplos in the older games at least, and I can imagine it taking Apceros that venture near volcanic areas as well. Even if it's mouth can bite through such shells, injuring hardier prey with other weaponry is often the case when quicker kills aren't as possible. Brachy isn't going to instantly crunch through a Rhenoplos like a pufferfish can through a crab. Also the bluntness probably serves as better intraspecific weaponry against the harder upper shells of other Brachys than their claws. 2: I don't think it's likely that Brachy actually HUNT things like Uragaan, Gravios, and Agnaktor like Akantor would. I think instances shown of them fighting are moreso just encounters that escalated into life or death. Brachy may coincidentally have the equipment to process the hard shell of Uragaan, but even then the tar that covers their body is likely unappealing regardless. I could see Brachy hunting juvenile Uragaan and Basarios, however. It's not unlike how we see Rathalos attacking Nargacuga. Rathalos certainly could kill and consume one, but it's moreso just a result of not wanting it in it's territory. 3: I think the slime's primary use could actually be as an intimidation display. While not as safe as a Bazel bombing run, we do see Brachy scrape it's arms on the ground often, which allows the slime to dislodge and explode. Between roars, explosions only further add to the loudness and displayed danger of Brachy. The slime is also brightly colored as well, which is a common trait for things that are displaying that they are something that shouldn't be messed with. And perhaps that's why Brachy formed a relationship with the slime in the first place. It's not explicitly meant for predation, but was a way of perhaps a weaker, more vulnerable ancestor of Brachy to intimidate more immediate predators. It doesn't exactly matter that the slime is slow-acting when used in combat. Much like an animal attacking another that's poisonous. The poison isn't going to be effective within seconds, but it still ends up acting as a deterrent. This also in turn cultivated the slime to become more and more explosive over time as well, as their hosts became more resilient, allowing for better spreading and multiplying. Buuuut that's enough from the Brachy Defense Squad. I'd be perfectly fine with more short-form videos in between the bigger releases. Just means more good content!
Personally, I think it'd make a lot of sense for Brachydios to hunt Gravios and Basarios. They're exceptionally weak to blast, and their big size and slow movement would make the priming time and energy expenditure of the slime a worthwhile tradeoff for access to such massive, meaty kills.
The “dive into Iceborne” lore book says your first point almost verbatim, with it using its slime to blow up Rhenoplos and Gastrodons in volcanic areas
@@ericgodoleshi383 that's general hunting though.... Gastodons only have a hard head, like Pachycephalosaurs. What dude talked about was more how their evolutionary path revolved around busting armor, and competition with others of their own species for food, mates or territory, it makes sense that they be able to fight against each other effectively. Like how deer are fleshy and have antlers (bones are pretty tough), these guys are hard and have bomb-punches.
Have you ever considered doing some videos on the spec Evo on the monsters from the game Pikmin? Their not as flashy as monster hunter monsters but there's just as much effort to explain their roles in the ecosystems
@@kirbyfazendoummoonwalk9214 IDK about a place where fans discuss it but if you read the wiki it includes the in universe ecological notes made up by the various captains.
I think among all these arguments for what all these adaptations can be alternatively useful for, and how they could still be effective for hunting, it's actually important to note that nearly all turf wars in the game end in mere seconds and almost always end in one or both monsters running/walking away afterward. These aren't all predatory interactions, and half of the cutscenes tend to support this. I imagine the majority of these extreme adaptations and weapons are just there to scare away predators, discourage fighting, and fight for mates. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.
I think people underestimate the value of sheer size and weight. Most large ungulates don’t need anything more than charges and kicks to scare predators away from a “fair” fight and bears, lions, etc. don’t need any special “weapons” to bully smaller carnivores.
Commented to the same effect on the design video, but I think the Brachydios' slime splats against a hard surface and then detonates could mean it functions, in the same way as a HESH round, which is a kind of tank shell used primarily by the British army. It's a shell with a thin exterior full of soft plastic explosive - when it strikes the target, it squashes and spreads before being detonated, kind of in the same way Brachy's slime pancakes against hard surfaces before exploding after a few moments. This causes shockwaves that ripple through the structure of hard armour - in warfare it primarily results in spalling on the interior of an armoured vehicle that causes the interior surface of the armour to flechette and ricochet around the interior, killing the crew, though in the case of a monster with stony or chitinous armour it's more likely to result in ruptured organs, concussion, internal bleeding and the like. Obviously Gravios is the prime candidate when it comes to large prey with hard armour but it's not the only one, there are a lot of creatures with hard armour in volcanic regions lower down the pecking order like Basarios, Volvidon and Ceanataur that might fit the bill without it coming into too much direct competition with super-predators like Akantor. This method of hunting is also consisten with the way Brachy's fingers protude backwards from below the pounds and appear to be long and strong if not particularly dextrous. I think they're for prising hard armour plates off of prey that have succumbed to internal injuries so Brachy can feed.
Spalling works because the interior of a vehicle is hollow and hardened steel isn't very malleable. The notion that it'd be unable to generate enough concussive force to kill a volvidon or a ceanataur when it already has giant armoured boxing fists for hands is not very believable.
@@theandice8152 bro mh monsters are durable af, kulu ya ku could break a boulder twice it's size without flinching and aptonoths ramming into cliffs, in which the cliffs break first.
Your comment is true but I think the previous commenter was assuming real world biology, and animals durability, much like the video itself is assuming. Under such circumstances a powerful punch would be reached by evolution long before the development of the right chemicals to generate proper explosions, much less the morphology/tools to properly use said explosions.
Interesting analysis! As a fan of monsters in general, it is engrossing to compare monsters to real life animals, and examining the requirements for the more fantastical elements. "You don't need to explodorize bones to kill things" is a hilarious, but logical, way to think about these supposed extreme adaptations.
I think the slime of Brachydios is atleast useful in killing massive prey like Uragaan. Brachydios is more agile so it could Hit a Uragaan multiple times before the Uragaan can even turn to see the Brachydios and defend itself or roll away. But otherwise I can't really imagine the slime to be useful in any other way. Even Uragaan lives in volcanic areas, so explosions and fire realistically wouldn't be that effective. Maybe it is mainly used as a form of defense (like shown in the Agnaktor cutscene, Agnaktor is the aggressor, not Brachy) and thus possibly sexual selection too. Edit: I also think that the existence of Akantor isn't much of a problem for Brachydios. Yes, an encounter would probably a death sentence for Brachy, but here is the thing: Akantor is said to be really rare, rarer than some elder dragons. Also Akantor mainly lives in secluded areas in volcanoes where barely any predator other than Elders or Raging Brachydios (it is stated that it gets the flashpoint slime in more secluded areas of volcanoes) would go. So an encounter between normals Brachydios and Akantor is probably very rare.
I think barchydio's slime is akin to a parasitic yeast infection, likely due to weaken immune system due to a genetic bottle cap, and thier over the top abilities were evolutionary coping mechanism to mitigate the effects of the exploding fungi or remove as much as possible. Prehaps they have even become dependent on the slime for its immune system.
@@rexxysaucette5354 kinda like the idea that it's a fungivore and the slime mold on the prey items essentially pre digests the food at a rapid rate turning that endothermic reaction into something useful and leaving pools of edible goop only it can eat.
According to a data book for MHRise, apparently the horns, spikes, etc on Magnamalo are for sexual display or so I heard. Just thought I'd let you in on that.
Yeah, but you have to admit it’s weird then why it makes these very valuable spikes,horns,blades etc. pop out while fighting hunters. Like you could say it’s to make itself look more intimidating but it’s already a rocket powered spear tailed tiger the size of a building so I’m not sure how much that helps.
@@godzillaking5033 I feel like they leaned way too much into the samurai aspect of it too, instead of making it more grounded, it’s almost impossible to remember that he’s supposed to be a tiger. The armor and arm blades would have been fine I guess, but the spear tail, horns and fangs popping out are way to much or could have at least been integrated better. Actually, make his horns retract while in combat if it’s so special to the Magnamalo.
@@Mariofredx I honestly feel like Magnamalo would have made more sense in general (and look "neater") from a design standpoint without the crazy back spikes. The explosive blast gas is a stretch for sure, but Valstrax also exists, as unrealistic as that is. Would have made Magnamalo look slightly more plausible, still having the samurai motif without those crazy blades throuhout its' back.
I once heard someone say that in most fiction related situations adults ask ”why?” once. If you explain in convincing enough detail how something like Tobi-Kadachi generates electricity it becomes easier for people to accept some more fantastical monsters
I notice most monsters that use thunder elements almost always generate it outside of their bodies, not generated within them. It is obvious why this is the case
@@Paradox1012 Rajang doesnt produce its own electricity. It gets it from Kirin horns. And Narwa is an elder dragon, and even then, her electric ability is shown more as a way of moving around via electromagnetic repulsion than anything, so even though she has no clear way of producing it, its use is grounded in normal things an animal needs to do.
I’m of the opinion that Magnamalo’s very over-the-top design could actually be just that ecologically - over-the-top, meant to be an intimidation tactic. The glowing hellfire it makes as exhaust, having fangs, spines, and a tail that can fan out and retract, and generally being a large-looking, vibrantly-colored animal suggests to me that more than anything, Magnamalo is trying to communicate that it isn’t to be messed with. Magnamalo is a very mobile wyvern, as seen by its movement in battle and across the map, as it scales the mountainous parts of the shrine ruins with ease. Its environment, additionally, are all inclusive of varying elevations and narrow clearings. The shrine ruins, frost islands, and lava caverns are all very complex terrain, with little in the way of open space. In areas like these, Magnamalo’s vibrancy doesn’t matter, as it can still easily function as an ambush predator to things like the weaker fanged beasts and bird wyverns. These monsters may not even register how vibrant Magnamalo is - tigers, to their prey, are certainly not bright orange. Instead, I theorize that Magnamalo produces its hellfire when eating as a sign to warn other predators that might try to steal its kills from far away. The glow, especially given Magnamalo’s intro cutscene is at night, would be easily noticeable by other predators from a distance, ensuring that it isn’t disturbed while eating.
More on this, I think the hellfire is actually moreso a chemical Magnamalo secretes. Similar to Mizutsune’s bubblefoam, Magnamalo’s hellfire may be capable of it’s strange projectile properties due to it being lightweight, as well as being flung by their user. Magnamalo tends to perform very particular motions for certain attacks. Slow pacing with tail flicks to launch individual fireballs, to the huge tail jab that Magnamalo creates its “beam” with. The beam itself is moreso a cylindrical casting of hellfire; in attacks with more physicality to them, these concentrated projectiles instead appear as an explosive dust the fanged wyvern leaves behind. This may be the chemical in a sort of floating cloudy form, since the method of casting the chemical was less precise than the more practiced motions it uses to create more coherent projectiles. A chemical would also explain how its body becomes coated in hellfire; it would be secreting this chemical over itself, which it then flings off during attacks.
Last piece, I think the hellfire is a defensive tool as well. Aside from being something to ward off scavengers and competition, it’s likely to have aided it in its adaptations alongside the rampages that Ibushi and Narwa cause. A rampaging monster is often a tired monster given enough time, and with Magnamalo’s built-in defense system and agile movements, it was likely able to benefit from rampages, taking down smaller monsters and being able to protect itself amid belligerent larger monsters that could have been more inclined to attack it were it not coated in a glowing, flame-like chemical. While yes, rampages do not take place frequently in-universe, they likely last for an extended period of time when they do happen. And given that many previously-stated common prey items for Magnamalo appear in rampages (I would like to mention that even Tetranadon could be on this list, as it looks as though it could be a monster that larger Magnamalo could reasonably take down, especially in the case of smaller tetranadon. In fact, Magnamalo may prey on other amphibians like Zamite occasionally when it appears in the Frost Islands) many Magnamalo could view such events in the same way that bears view salmon migration; it would be an event for which they could all call a temporary peace pact, wherein they would have enough resources not to compete heavily with one another and may even engage in joint hunting.
Still, it looks very expensive for the body to both produce and maintain, thus needing more food to sustain itself, as well as having a unsustainably high metabolism
The reaction between heated potassium chloride and sugar produces a purple, singing fire. The “singing” comes from hydrogen escaping from sugar into the atmosphere. I think this is what is going on with magnamalo.
I feel Brachydios would work great as a herbivore and ore eater. Then have it so that the fist slime works by being excreted during stress like terror sweat. We already have Iguanodon, a big animal that had big ass arms. Thus, having Brachydios be like that makes perfect sense
9:22 Another thing that probably factors into survival is efficiency in hunting. painted wolves are one of the most successful hunters in africa. Lions only get a kill 1 in every 4-5 hunts, while inversely when painted wolves hunt 5 times, they failed one and get a kill ~80% of the time. Cheetahs arent as successul as the painted wolves, but still get a kill every coin flip. Having a higher success rate means several advantages, but in this context, it means that they can usually afford to lose a kill to larger predators.
I would make a couple of defences/comments on this theory. First of all is the misnomer that these creatures have evolved superweapons at all. Compared to reality the monster world is far more energetically rich, so seemingly excessive adaptations don't have the same drawbacks we'd expect in reality. When everyone's super, no one will be etc. These weapons are arguably less effective in interspecific combat than in real life; a lion can end a hyena with a good bite, whereas Bazelgeuse and Deviljho can dramatically crash and explode into one another repeatedly and both walk away with little lasting damage. Monsters are so naturally resilient that such 'superweapons' are necessary to even tickle each other. It's a fairly normal evolutionary arms race, it simply looks more dramatic than it really is. Take Rajang and Kirin; we all know how absurd Rajang is. If it's 'hunting' Kirin with any degree of regularity, Kirin's lightning powers look a lot more reasonable as a defence mechanism. Or say, if Brachydios predates Uragaan (I've only played World so this might be off base). Uragaan needs that shell to defend itself, and Brachydios needs such explosive power to hope to take Uragaan down. If anything doesn't make sense in the monster world it's the continuing presence of mid-sized, slow and defenceless herbivores. Elder dragons we see a bit less as a rule, but if Nergigante is an expected, highly aggressive regenerating predator, then again they don't seem so absurd. Lunastra and Teostra rely on cooperation to defend themselves successfully, for instance. But maybe this is all a moot point as all these ludicrously powered creatures are simply defence mechanisms against humans. Seeing as a few particularly good hunters can still slaughter even the toughtest of elder dragons, maybe that's what really drives the escalating evolutionary power creep, and all the other trophic interactions under that are just the fallout of this. This is a rather messy thought dump some time after actually watching so forgive me for any mistakes.
Argument here: Brachydios: The slime of a Brachydios might taste terrible similar to the Hagfish (again we are back to this guy lol) which like the Hagfish would repel opponents since Brachydios' least defensive point is it's underside. Considering that if baby Brachydios can accidentally kill themselves with slime, due to it being a entire different thing of it's own. Another usage likely is that this is how they temper and harden their shells. Again, we see this example with Raging Brachydios: A Brachydios large, old and strong enough to withstand the Flashpoint Slime, which tempers it's shell even more! It is now so strong anc tough that it makes Raging Brachydios' tier the same as Savage Deviljho, Seething Bazelgeuse, Scorned Magnamalo, Furious Rajang, Mid-Tier to High-Mid Tier Elder Dragons like Teostra, Lunastra, Kushala, Chameleos, Vaal Hazak, Namielle, Velkhana, Nergigante etc.
Been hearing you critique all these ubermonsters, and I love your theories, but I'm actually curious to see what YOU could design based in science while being epic as hell
In Magnamalo's defense, the games do state that it's ludicrous armor is apparently this ludicrous due to sexual selection. Which, I guess makes them somewhat akin to Peacocks. Still no idea how they're meant to survive tho, unless they were secretly herbivores or "hunters" of sessile organisms all along. I feel like both it and Brachydios must be far less top-ordery than Monster Hunter likes to pretend. I assume we only see the larger males with both, and they surely must have Raptorwyvern-esque small counterparts hiding somewhere. Brachydios massively resembles that subset of Birdwyverns, after all.
yea the hyper eating thing hasn't really worked for any creature that has it, they are either starving or rare due to the amount of food they need to survive. So magnamalo must be quite rare, most probably don't get past the hurdle of finding a territory with enough food. But that's what happens when you put all your eggs into "exploding stomach gas" as your main weapon. especially since their armor does NOT regrow, any magnamalo that suffer damage have lower chances to get mates and ones with broken horns just straight up get turned into incels so it really begs the question of... how the fuck are they surviving, this species HAS to be on the decline
@@sevirakalau2171 Magnamalo already seems to be hyper-aggressive, especially when its not a part of the Rampage. That, or Magnamalo experience drastic population booms that coincide with the Rampage.
@@sevirakalau2171 That would probably explain the magnamalo being a beneficer to the rampage because easy food, easy prey (i believe the male magnamalos prefer easier prey) don't have to risk its armor (especially it's crown) being wrecked at all. In terms of the magnamalo being a beneficer to the rampage is quite similar to crocodilians in real life. 2 ex: 1. Somewhere in africa there's a migratory season where these african buffalos or some type of african bovines are migrating towards a particular river that is particularly dangerous, these african bovines would only enter in one spot of that river cause apparently to those African bovines " it's the safest spot to travel through" (i think...) Not only there was a strong river current aswell as sharp rocks n such but some crocodiles that lives around that area all come to that spot and they wait for those african bovines to come to them. 2. In WW2 some where in the south east coast of south east Asia a platoon of the Japanese army all got eaten by crocodiles.
@@Dualbladedscorpion7737 Exactly the rampage is probably the only reason they can keep that hyper aggressive lifestyle AND the high standards of the females, without it one of those 2 things is gonna have to go
I think a good point to consider is the rate and degree these monsters can heal from injury. For a lot of animals getting wounded can be a death sentence so it's best avoided. Although if the creatures are able to survive considerable punishment and heal up as good as new that would have a significant impact on behavior and the frequency of fights. Based on the game's I get the impression they heal pretty quickly.
First off, top tier video like always. Genuinely love getting this level of nitty-gritty information. Your vids are always an instant watch for me. Second, of all the things mentioned here, your closing comments on how what you're talking about isn't canon may actually be the most important. I know people can get pretty defensive when criticism is brought up (Fuck you Valstrax is badass), but I appreciate that the main bulk of your content is an examination from one single facet of the series. An important one, of course, but not the only one. I've mentioned elsewhere, but MH designs need to balance fantasy concepts, anime stylization, a light dose of realism, and (what might get glossed over the most) the necessity for the monsters design to functionally act as a video game boss. In this regard, I appreciate that while each individual monster may shift in its strengths among its goals, they at least attempt for everything.
I do think it’s important to note that Brachydios when enraged, seemingly makes its slime explode on impact which makes far more sense in a fight where you need something dead fast. It could be something that is actually more voluntary, able to actively stimulate the slime for this enraged mode for proper combat situations, and its normal form being more of a warning to not engage Brachy. That being said it is baffling that Capcom didn’t put emphasis on this rage mode in any cutscenes, and it would of made a lot of sense for it to turn it on for a fight against agnaktor.
It's also not exactly clear how much of things like rage mode is gameplay mechanic and how much is actual lore and physiology. Monsters getting more aggressive makes sense when enraged, but it's hard to fathom the real reason for rathian doing 30% more damage with her charge.
16:00 aren't Akantor rare though? The chances of the 2 meeting and competing seems rather unlikely. Certainly possible but I doubt it's something Brachydios as a species would have to be worried about. I don't think Brachydios is necessarily a super predator I think it's possible his symbiosis with the slime came about coincidently and he simply uses it to his advantage if he happens to clash with another monster. You could apply these criticisms to the majority of the monster roster to be honest. Like why does Rathalos need fire breath or Legiana need ice wind? They're fantastical elements to make the monsters more interesting. I only have a problem when they go completely overboard like with Magnamalo.
I love learning more about t rex and big cats holy fuck. Lions adaptations being moreso for "diplomacy" rather than murder destruction is something i never really considered before. And t rex being designed to walk makes a lot of sense! It makes them seem so much more tangible now. I wonder how many would exist on a single continent and how theyd section their territories
"Superweapons", IMHO, are pretty much evidence of intervention in some way - magi, supernatural beings, aliens playing with genetic LEGO bricks, or whatever fits best in your world or story. This video pretty much explains it better than I could.
I mean, in MH lore, there is mention that "humans" were genetically enhanced super soldiers meant to fight big monsters (I think drakes, not sure). So it's possible that many of the "superweaponary" is possibly genetically engineered by some alien civilisation
I like to think the world of monster hunter is kind of like the insect world, filled with monsters that have imaginative abilities that rival the known abilities of the insect world, just scaled up to 1000. Once you start to think of the monsters like insects, fighting each other with their crazy abilities for food/dominance it starts to feel a bit more grounded. Despite this, I do however think some are overdesigned such as Rise's flagship: Maggy. One thing to note is the descriptions having "carapace" in their name. Just goes to show that maybe it's not so outlandish for the monsters to have insane abilities after all a lot of animals in the micro world have bizarre abilities for hunting such as spiders having webs that are more than strong enough for their prey or bombardier Beatles that use chemical attacks to scare off larger predators, or even the pistol shrimp that can shoot bubbles hot enough to produce light (though it can't be seen with how short it last) Honestly, I feel there is still a ton of room left to make vastly unique monsters that have more insect-like properties similar to Astalos
One thing I thought it to be interesting is that this show competition is costly. Sometimes, the best strategy is just let everyone keep their own way.
Just add to the back story some sort of nanobot situation providing exponentially more energy for your alien species cells. Because something something 0 point energy. Digital mitochondria. But also explain "psychic field hive minds" and such. Nanites in the atmosphere. Also make the digital bits responsible for managing mutation. Now you could have super evolution, super competition, even super cooperation.
I don’t want super accurate MH animals, but I don’t want super ridiculous animals either. MH is about finding that balance between the “ok I could see this” and “damn this is sick” reaction when seeing a monster for the first time. Which I think rise and Sunbreak have mainly veered into the rule of cool territory, but as long as a fight is fun, I don’t mind too much. I just hope it doesn’t go overboard
@@shadowdragon1396 Yeah, World Monster gone a bit too safe on the Ecology Base Rise only problematic one was Magnamalo who lean WAY too close on the problem with some Frontier Monsters(There are cool Frontier Monster Ecology like Espinas, but theres also not many that are as great as it) In Sunbreak Malzeno and Gaismagorm are VERY interesting Since we know Malzeno does not fully control the Qurio, infact it STEALS Gaisma's Qurio like how certain Ants would kidnap another Ant species Egg just to raise them as their own
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 Bro thats the point Rise Monsters except Magnamalo are made to be ridicilous but not too over the top Compared to World Monsters who are way too realistic, i love Anjanath but i would rather have what its Subspecies Fulgur did than the original The other World Monsters and their Subspecies including Elder Dragons are way too Ecology friendly, except i guess Vaal Hazaak, the Jiiva, Velkhana, and Ishvalda But at the same time, we kinda dont want stupid things like Frontier Monsters, Espinas and Hypnocatrice are pretty ecology friendly while still being over the top But then we have other Monsters like Akura the Crystal Blood Spitting Scrorpion, Burst Species, Zenith Species, dont even get me start on the Elder Dragons
This video was amazing. if you're looking for feedback on whether or not you should do more "shorts" where you break down general tropes through the lens of real-world ecology, the answer is YES! One of the things that makes this channel wonderful is the way you use these works of fiction to explain (and play with, speculatively) real-world ecology, which enriches both sides there. I love to see it.
imma say magnamalo woud make for a great surprise herbivore not just because of all the weaponry but the vibrant coloring and most of all the use of flamable gas something completly associated with big herbs
A truly well made and pertinent video ! Again ! Yeah, this trope to show only competion, with subject predators, when the animals kill preys or fight others carnivores is very common (even if not as common than before. Most wild nature documentaries about animals life today since some decades are quite diverses in term of themes and subjects others than the competition aspect when they depict an animal life) still pretty strongly in mind when we think about animals ecology and the Evolution's History of their respective family/order. In addition, as a unvolontary but bad bonus effect, to depict them as bloodthirsty mindless beast that attack everything at view. Which of course is not the case. Sure, the competion domain still a big component of an animal life and specie evolutionary direction, but it's not the only component and plenty others things can put pression on the specie to adopt one particular behavior or an other. For the case of Monster Hunter, the idea that if almost every creatures are so ridiculy buffed to the maximum with many badass and cool looking superpowers is because mainly to proprely fight as best possible the others monsters between themselves. It's not a stupid idea on the surface. Of course, your video had explain just why in nature and real life, the "supercompetion" where totally every animals and especially predators, in a same location, evolved at the maximum to protect themselves and attack the others just don't happen at all. Because animals must avoid as possible any kind of injuries, sensible and dangerous situation and keeping most of their body energy, every animals will evolved to avoid competion with others animals. By taking differents ways, with some leading to the apex predators niche for the luckiest of them, and others leading to only flee in front of the first. If competion happen noneless, it's because it can only be put on the lowest level, never entirely shut down. And some animals will whatevers happen entered in competion with others animals (like in Lions, Hyenas for example). Also, However, in the world of Monster Hunter, to this day, whatevers in game on a hunt, during the cinamtics, etc... of every entries of the franchise, we have seen very few kills/death made by a monster on an other one. Sure, we have a lot of fighting whatevers in game and in the cinematics, more famousely known today as "Turf War" (especially in the recents entries and especially in MH World). But very few case when we see directly a monster actually killing an other. Most of the time, we see two monsters entered a fight, this latter during most of the time few second to one minute only, and the two stop with one of them fleeing in front of the others. And, actually, this kind of behaviors is very realist since it's an extremely ultra common scene/situation and behaviors that animals do in nature. So, even if the designs are and still ridiculy buffed to a more funny point than anything else, it's show that monsters in general not have developt such overpowered abilities only to resist and attack at their best to the others monsters between themselves but also maybe due to others pressions on them given by their environnement. Afterall, many of them still have a ecology missunderstood or with plot holes. Also, even if Monster Hunter is a 50/50 mixbag when it's come to realism, and even if the franchise still a pretty interesting and good Speculative Evolution universe in many ways, it's still firstly games mean for fun and to play good time by hunting creatures. The creators made mainly serious and important work of logic and realism on the creature and their ecology in order to made them more alive and put more deepth in the games, but let liberties because it's not means to be educationals, and embrace his fiction aspect. But for any kind of true serious scientific spec evo world, which the main goal is to be educative by using fictional examples, these same kind of liberties can't be accepted. The world must be serious in 100% when it's come about the biological and evolutionary domain.
I really like the approach you take in your videos. I don´t mind you criticising (kind of) the design of the monsters. Its in an educational way and i learn something new most of the time, if not every time.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel the Genre is called science-fiction, so staying grounded in science should be a Baseline for the Genre (sadly having Quantum or nano at the beginning of a Word doesnt Count. RIP modern sci-fi)
Anjanath still my favorite fictional animal in video game, not only does it reflect what Dinosaur would look like alive, but at the same time the simplistic design almost made it as a Flagship.
I love your videos. They're exceptionally educational and insightful to the design of fictional creatures. I'd love to see a video on Valstrax or Nergigante since they're such odd animals in the MH world. Hope you have a good day and good luck in the future!
Your videos are great, I’ve made a few monsters inspired by monster hunter myself as well as google docs trying to explain their ecology and why they’re the way they are, your videos have really helped me design these monsters because I always try to consider what would and wouldn’t make sense, but of course I’m no expert so my reasonings could be horrible
12:40...this is what players of the isle and other dino games and even basic dino nerds need to realise...alongside not needing bone crushing to KILL...to be able to use that much force on an attempt never happens...a crocodile or hyena doesnt use its full bite on the kill...only once the animal is dead can they actually begin the bone crunching...so all these fights about rex being stronger than X dino cuz his bite is waaay stronger just doesnt stand up...or that trike or other herbivores couldnt help but die cuz rex bite is again super all powerful
Except rex fans dont just use "rex has a strong bite" to win debates anymore, at least not the educated ones There are so many other factors to rex being objectively the strongest theropod in history that we know of. Its twice as agile as similarly sized non-tyrannosaur theropods, its one of the fastest for its size category (arguably faster than Giganotosaurus), its actually enormous out-weighing even the largest Giganotosaurus specimens by 2 tonnes, its scarily intelligent regardless of the "SmArT aS a BaBoOn", its senses were archaic and aeguably second to none among theropods, and very well so much more When Triceratops is Tyrannosaurus' biggest prey competitions, Tyrannosaurus needed adaptations to deal with an actual monster of an herbivore.
Something I feel is a lost oppportunity regarding Magnamalo, game descriptions describe him as being a skilled fighter rather than just physically stronger or larger, with that description I picture a monster using his 1 weapon in skilled and varied ways, rather than Magnamalo having 3 weapons and using them pretty normally compared to other monsters, if it only had its spear tail and used it skillfully it wouldnt feel nearly as overdesigned as it is
One thing that *might* (maybe?) explain why monsters are like this would be the theory that you presented in the Deviljo video, that the world has somewhat recently gone through an ice age or something like it, and in the same way Deviljo themselves have yet to fully adapt to the new state of things maybe the current top carnivorous monsters used to be lower on the... Uh, "power scale", and there used to be some mega-super-12yo'sOC-tier-carnivores that forced them to evolve the defences they did. This also comes with a whole lot of problems, but I feel would make a bit more sense than competition... Maybe?
I always thought brachydios uses less slime against small annoying target(the hunter) as a way to save some energy and have an area denial advantage against nimble hunters. Then, fighting bigger target using their "angered mode", when the slime explodes almost on contact to be effective and quickly be done with a risky fight. Seeing the nose and jaws, looks like it could immobilise a prey with a bite, cover it with saliva before punching it away or while being held. Sadly, no document talks about it, just me interpreting my MHtri gameplay as a kid.
Maybe the T-Rex thing is also good explanation of brachyodos. The caustic compounds might be good for physically breaking down food, with pounding down being a good substitute for impressive jaw muscles. Maybe the horn then coopted the mechanism for display purposes.
Man, i was hoping that Mattpat did a dumb again and was ready for a verbal smackdown. Alas, i’ll just have to settle with your hyper specific knowledge on animal ecology 😆
5:31 I have to object to this point. You're forgetting Brachydios has an incredibly durable shell shown capable of withstanding even the extreme heat of Agnaktor's attacks. He's more than capable of avoiding injury long enough for the slime to detonate.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel Brachydios shell withstands powerful explosions so it's likely more durable then rock. Also, before Agnaktor emerges, it often shakes the ground violently and heats it up meaning Brachydios could just move out of the way to protect his underbelly as we've seen he's able to reposition very quickly using his pounders. Plus if Brachydios gets a hit in before Agnaktor can burrow (which takes it time) the slime would have more than enough time to detonate while Agnaktor's underground. There's other factors you didn't consider either like when Brachydios becomes enraged his slime detonates instantly and it doesn't take him more than like a second to prime his slime.
Honestly I enjoy this stuff you do, very educational and fun at the same time. Also i noticed you mentioned Xenomorphs within one of your previous videos and they actually are excellent examples of the quip about invasive species. Things that are native to a non Xenomorph infested planet haven't evolved to handle a extremely adaptable, acid filled organism with a Mesoskeleton that requires armor piercing rounds to really hurt it. I know you might not cover them since it's most likely they were specifically created to be a Bioweapon by strange alien bois, but I just find them interesting. Very alien yet so very real, in the terms of certain traits its species has.
Just a thought, but maybe the high tier monsters evolved exceptionally powerful abilities not to kill or defend themselved from other apex predators, but simply to be able to stop their prey from getting stolen by wyverns? Species that have evolved both powerful ranged weaponry and flight to hunt, like rathalos, could theoretically heavily damage other grounded animals from a safe distance away enough that they abandon their prey much like a bazelgeuse without needing to put themselves in danger by flying in and attack at melee range. If other predators didn't have long ranged weaponry to counter that, they may well have to hand over their kill every time a rathalos spotted it. Of cause this doesn't explain monsters like brachydios, but it does do with ones like zinogre. As for why rathalos evolved flame breath in the first place, that is more likely a hunting strategy against packs of aptonoth than for countering the abilities of other apexes.
I'd love to see more of these, full on. That said, I knew there was a reason I didn't like Savage Kingdom and shows like it. Though now I really want to re-watch that speculative documentarial take on "what if dragons had been real" and compare it to what I've learned from places like this channel.
Question for you: How come you don’t do ecology videos on more elder dragons too? Is it maybe because they are more fantastical than the other ones? Edit: typo
well, I mean... ...to be fair, it's kinda difficult to find a real-world analogy for having f***ing JETS for wings (Valstrax). Or a never-ending, forever-respawning, rapidly-growing set of spines (Nergigante). Or literally, completely fusing at the molecular level with your mate (The Allmother, aka. Ibushi & Narwa). And I honestly don't even think there IS an analogy for Gaismagorm. edit: grammar. Also, before anybody says anything, yes I do know Dragonflies fuse themselves together when they mate. What Ibushi & Narwa do is not even CLOSE to the same thing
I finally finished watching all your videos! One small suggestion might be to make a playlist for all your monster hunter videos, as the existing ones don't cover all of them. Love this channel and keep up the great work!
I feel like MH designs are half Speculative Evo, and half Rule-of-Cool. Also, unrelated to the video, but I've been thinking about the potential of Pseudo-magic having existed at some point during the history of Monster hunter's world(but died out somehow). I KNOW that the main thing about MH and it's creatures is that magic is never used, but that doesn't completely rule out the possibility of it existing. The kind of Pseudo-magic I'm thinking of would be things like bioenergy, or the twins resonating with dragons- things and abilities that can just Almost be explained, but don't have an exact parallel to our world.
Always thought of brachydios slime primary as a way to explode rocks and secondary as a weapon, but that's just my headcanon. Also there's the fact that brachydios has overdeveloped arms, so when it punches other monster it may disorient them giving the time the slime needs to explode
makes sense, Brachydios is often compared to a boxer in how it fights with lots of ducks and weaves to disorientate the opponent, there's also the fact that multiple hits will of course get more slime on the opponent and once the fuse goes off for the first one it'll no doubt cause a chain reaction for the other slime patches too if they're nearby. Monsters like Uragaan and Gravios are in an odd place in the food-chain too... they're big and powerful monsters who most predators wouldn't want to bother with due to the time and energy needed to take one down with their thick rock-like hides but they're also pretty docile and feed on rock-material/ore so they'll often leave most other beasts alone too unless threatened.... kinda like Volcanic Elephants in a way... so I feel like Brachydios was introduced as a bit of a counter to these sorts of monsters, to give them something that would actually pose a threat to them other than Elder dragons and Akantor which i'd imagine would be a meeting that'd never happen for the majority of the species too.... a monster like Brachydios would be a bit more feasable and give them something to look out for due to the slime explosions having a more powerful effect on their hides.
I always assumed that in mh the extremes were in part due to more energy/energy efficiency. Stuff like elements seeming to be an energy that is potentially more efficient to produce/magnify. Hence enabling the ecosystem on the scale we see. Doesn't explain everything but it helps framing I think.
This is so unbelievably late it's not worth saying, but it is worth mentioning there's 2 monster hunter teams. The "A" team that works on the main series, ergo Tri, 4, World, and their expansions. The "B" team works on the "Portable" games and used to work on a couple of the sequels. They made 3rd Portable, Generations and it's expansion, and Rise and it's expansion. Those are where the bulk of the "anime hype" monsters come from, barring exceptions like Brachydios (Tri). They're obviously less concerned about realism, and that's not a bad thing IMO. Though obviously, fan favorites tend to leak over into the main series, like Zinogre or Glavenus. So the real answer why there's these apparent lapses in realism is just that it isn't a priority for the "B" team.
Maybe brachy isn’t a top order carnivore. It is rather small for brute wyvern standards, so the slime could be a defense mechanism. And I don’t mean fighting, I mean anything that gets slime on it and is wounded by a blast is not gonna target another Brachydios for a long while afterwards.
One interesting thought that could *possibly* explain super lethal weaponry, would be a need to survive non-organic aggressive danger. This seems to be only possible in the case of fantasy magic, perhaps fantastical evolutionary response to technology (such as animals somehow evolving to monsters to be able to compete with modern humans and weaponry), or possibly aggressive flora? If for example, rock golems come alive in an area and animals require super-weaponry to fight off the things rather than compete with them for food, it seems relatively plausible to me. Even then that is a very specific scenario and not exactly similar to reality. It would still also be likely to be better to be fast and better at running away.
You are also thinking of constant ready for battle type evolutions. A constant upkeep of ready to fight would be horribly energy and efficient in regards to the noger as its body is still organic and needs a rest from constant electrical charge every now and then. Brachidios has the Speed and Agility despite its own size and bulk. The Slime that brachidious uses gets primed whatever it's enraged instantly detonating so brachidios whenever coming across a potential Challenger May pump itself up figuratively to Prime the Slime so that it detonates instantly in order to go tackle something much larger than itself like Gravios. Not that I don't see the inefficiency of these super weapons though they are necessary in quotation at adaptations to survive in the world of Monster Hunter considering there are giant snake elder dragons that terraform mountains as a hobby it goes to say in rather realistic terms for a brachideos to use slime and wait for it to detonate
Gotta say I loved this video, it was very entertaining and a good subject matter! I think this format can work out, smaller videos with simpler subject matters between grand videos. I hope to see a video addressing the possible questionable taxonomy practices of the guild and here what monsters in your opinion might be misplaced.
I swear that the computer is reading my mind. I was recommended this after I wrote up a story where a woman is hunting several MH-level beasts. However, I have specifically lampshaded that they are unfeasible, rare and seem to suggest they have one alternative means of feeding and a much more dense energy storage. Specifically, their skin absorbs energy from the environment that most are not attuned for, however it is not that effective so they do need to keep a wide territory.... and even after this I propose that this is not some evolution, but an unnatural mutation. Still, good to see someone taking on the subject. Practicality is exactly what nature maximizes on. Often you find animals becoming super-powerful if they require it to defeat their environment, and often that need not be just competition.
“A wolf is kept fed by his feet, not by its glowing explosion horns” might be new my favorite quote.
14:42
If epic kill monsters don't happen then how come I exist
When the comment annihilates the video
You don't.
@@ginam5497 🤣
You don’t exist
@@ginam5497 There's no Rule 34 of them, therefore they don't exist
"A wolf is kept fed by its feet, not by its glowing exploding horns"
It's true, my grandpa use to say that all the time
Fun Crackpot theory for Valstrax: Rather than being analogous to falcons, Valstrax are actually the seals/sea lions of the sky. Monsters like Narwa and Yama Tsukami show that the world may host an entire ecosystem miles above ground, and Valstax is one of the only species that can exploit both terrestrial and high-altitude zones. The dream is that a future monster hunter game will have a map set on top a floating island or giant Yama Tsukami so we can experience it.
thats a really cool idea
This is brilliant
Evolutionary meta strat: "if it can't reach me, it can't harm me" dialed to 9999
That's absolutely worth doing, just for the lore alone 👍🏾
Well, seals can't run 30kmph on land, but maybe val can as his legs are developed... And a seal is an semi-aquatic mammal, not a flying ,warm-blooded lizard with jet wings, as flight are anatomically restricting, but common elders can do it so it's a point.
This is like Anti-TierZoo. I dig it.
Bazelgeuse once again proving why he's one of the best designs in the series. Not just badass, unique, and flashy, but also somewhat ecologically sound. Speaking of soundness or lack thereof I'd love to see you try and tackle Valstrax once and for all, to try and see if he can fill that falcon niche you mentioned in the Legiana video
good idea
If anything Valstrax seems to be some sort of fish/aquatic prey specialist based on the footage Capcom gave of him hunting a ludroth. That would imply it has very good eyesight (which doesn't make that much sense considering how obscured his eyes are by his head) and that it maybe just cruises in the sky until it sees a fish or leviathan chilling near the surface, then uses its immense speed for a quick strike.
By his own logic, there is no way Bazelgeuse can fly with that body structure.
Also, Bazelgeuse has no reason to fight hunters on the ground. Just like he said to Valstrax.
@@chianliu8352 well then gogmazios has no business flying around then, also bazelgeuse attacks hunters because they ever pose a threat to him or out of territorial instinct but I will agree his is a wee bit harsh on valstrax and I do think valstrax has a good reason to have limbs out side of his wings.
I think one good example for why super competition isn't viable is when you look at humans because humans are the number one species on the planet and instead of being able to breathe fire or something we have intelligence we're great marathon runners we have opposable thumbs we have social order and a bunch of other seemingly boring stuff that when it mixes together becomes incredibly powerful instead of having one super flashy ability.
well honestly the main reason why we managed to take over the planet is because we managed to evolve with our minds rather than our bodies, creating weapons no other organism on earth could ever dream of. That level of intelligence and the tools to use it is why we are so high up on the pecking order.
Sometimes simplicity works best.
We don't have enough oxygen, size, or lungs for a fire breath to ever work.
And then we would need a cavity for it to work.
But if we did... it would be a damn waste since we know how to make fire already lol.
But then again... it could be very effective since there are many animals scared of fire, greater control of constructs with fire like torches, and catching fire on so many mammals.
But we would need resistance to smoke, so we would need covers on our eyes similar to sharks and crocodiles for example.
And an evolutionary trait to handle the smoke that would kill us normally.
And we would be flammable ourselves with out blood, hair etc.
@@diousthomas8878 well jokes on the fire breath hypotesis , flametrowers where way more common in antiquity than pepole assume , that is to say they existed and most pepole think of them as a recent development , you just need a flammable liquid , a good enough pump and a way to lit it up ...
And yeah all things considered flametrowers where less effectives than axes , pikes , crossbows , guns , artillery and streamlined bombers ,
Once again pretty boring and streamlined solutions to the question of "how do i puncture the organs of the guy over there ?"
Rather than trying to scorch them alive or smt else ...
Wich is kind of a similar process to nature : wolves are similarly streamlined with long legs to walk and run and strong jaws to kill and crack bones , and those alongside the rest of their adaptations work fine for them ...
i would disagree,humans are actually a good example of super competition,we come from africa, a place we would have to share with lions,hyenas,leopards
and thats only counting tge predators,most herbivores could if they wanted,easily kill a few apes before we got our hands on fire and sharp sticks.
what happened?
we neotony our ways into having weaker jaws for bigger brains.
put resurces that would normally go into a stronger body into bigger brains, with the end result being indeed a creature with great endurance,but mainly a good brain and the tools to use it (hands and language)
humans are like if you put a fish in a swamp full of predators,hyper specialised in a venom organ at the cost of making all its fins and tail weaker, and somehow that becoming so effective it spread all over th world
High risk survival strategies like supercompetition and even self-harming evolutionary traits like brachy's mold might not be as unviable in the monster hunter world with the existence of hyper-medicinal remedies like vitalilies, vigorwasps, and herbs completely changes how one would approach danger. Even if their effect isn't instantaneous as it's depicted in game, the ecosystems provide different vectors of healing that would make recovering from greivous injury quickly and reliably enough to approach situations with greater confidence of survival- assuming they make it out of the initial encounter (which would also necessitate high lethality evolutionary traits since the komodo dragon method wouldn't work). A little bit of foraging might be all it takes for a predator to remedy an otherwise crippling injury before it can so much as begin to starve to death.
Some monsters that I can think of that heal in the middle of combat are nergigante, safijiva and qurupeco. Another thing is the fact that monsters run away often and heal when they sleep. Odogaron may also be mentioned for is hypermetabolism after eating a meal even if it's not really healing.
Sure but the same pitfalls apply to super healing plants. Why would they evolve such expensive properties? There has to be a deeper underlying reason that explains why it's not expensive.
@@bleensteen9331 given the size of flora and fauna it might be safe to assume the ecosystem is far more energy (nutrient not bio) rich than our ecosystems. Ignoring the probable high oxygen content for flora and fauna to get so large, those titanic creatures are enriching the soil with titanic defecation. Considering prey items are themselves densely muscled, high in keratin, and generally chemically active, the circulation of turnover rate of chemical energy (the stuff you digest) from sun to branch to meat to dirt and back to the branch is likely fast and in vast quantities. This could make stockpiling energy for chemical restoratives or elementally specialized organs less taxing to invest into
@@bleensteen9331Might be a method of seed dispersal - those kind of restorative properties would incentivize consumption even by animals that normally wouldn't bother.
As I theorized in the UHC discord, I hypothesize Brachydios being a small prey specialist using its pounders and slime to excavate hidden small prey like a badger digging up squirrels. If it has prey trapped then the prime time of the slime isn't an issue and by blowing up the rock instead it protects the prey from being obliterated by the indirect nature of the blast. It primes its slime like the C4 on a safe in a heist movie and if the blast doesn't do the job the pounders break apart the weakened rock giving access to the meal trapped inside. We even discussed if this has to do with its conflict with Agnaktor, as Uroktors are likely an ideal meal for Brachydios and the Agnaktor may be hostile to a potential predator of its young like the Raths with Seregios.
But thats just a theorizing A GAME THEORIZING
What about the UHC discord server? because I can't find it anywhere anymore
Ok , that makes some sense tbh ...
Still if the preferred defence motod of brachidios is to fight ( as it's stubby legs and overhall not sprinter fisique may suggest ) this doesn't explain why it's soo wonkily designed for self dence ...
@@gergomolnar2193 honestly same , i am not sure if i got banned afther a debate or if it got limited to patreon supporters or somenthing else entirely ,
I was kicked out in the middle of writhing a comment
I thought it specialized in armored targets and used the slime to destroy the rock armor of things like gravios, uragaan, and agnaktor.
Lesson learned: predators only need the weapons enough to get the job done
Same with militaries.
Zinogre's charge has always felt like a feature developed for intraspecific confrontation to me. I always thought two Zinogre squaring up would rather show off their charge instead of phisically fighting at the risk of hurting each other, the one that lures more fulgurbugs and thus generates higher charge and "shines" more would be dominant. It should also count as a honest signal, since a Zinogre unable to properly lure bugs clearly has somethign wrong with it and wouldn't make an insteresting mate.
Another option I've considered could be that fulgurbugs may function as a form of anti-parasite that keeps pests away (been wanting a Wyvern Tick as a rare drop fro monsters for years) while in turn they get a safe shelter and a chance at dispersal or meeting their own kind by sticking with the fanged wyvern.
Zinogre doesn't really need its electric attacks to hunt (it eats Gargwas, you really do not need elemental power for those) or defending itself, it already has the size, strength and agility to fend off the majority of predators that it could encounter in its mountainous habitat.
I have a theory on how zinogre might use the bugs agenst other monsters as we see In the iceborn cut scene the bugs are arriving on mass as it approaches the rath and diablos and in the scored magna we see the same and it is able to instantly get its charge. So my theory is when zinogre detects the smell of another large predator they will howl and draw the bugs and will do so repeatedly as they aproch the source of the smell able to instantly charge with the hoard of bugs ready if the predator dosnt retreate. That might be what we see in his first cut scene that zinogre was run out of its territory by amateu and this was staying charged so it could claim a new territory and be safer from a ambush attack
15:34 Obviously Cheetahs just need to evolve to be faster to the point where they can create afterimages, then they can take their rightful place as the super-mega-apex species 😎. I see no way that an increase in speed optimized anatomy could backfire in this endeavour.
In all seriousness, great video. Would love to see more in this vein, as someone who messes around with spec evo your videos are always a source of inspiration, wether for something I’m currently working on or something I’ve yet to start on.
Give em the ole’ A-Train treatment
I've always pictured brachydios as a hyper-aggressive ore eater rather than a top order predator. The shape of its jaw and tail club suggests a hard food source in need of rigorous crushing and grinding. It would explain why the mold seems inefficient for hunting and aggression, because it's primary purpose is foraging ores. Priming it with saliva lets it choose when to set it off, the delay lets it reach a safe distance (since we established its armor is poor for resisting frontward explosions- but might be better at surviving caveins). You could argue the pompadour is for precision placing slime when excavating a narrow ore vein where only its head fits. It was probably coopted as a weapon due to its overtly aggressive disposition, but even then it's more effective as a defensive mechanism (as exemplified by raging brachy).
Its a predator because all the herbivores in the volcano have really hard shells.
This is my thinking too. We see it eat herbivores in the games, but it seems better adapted to blast mining than hunting, with the thick armor on its back protecting it from cave ins and raining debris. Its large pounders would be great for pulverizing rocks, and its slime is an extension of that. Its flamboyant appearance also makes more sense as a deterrent against potential predators or other territorial monsters ("I explode, so stay away") rather than anything to do with hunting. It may opportunistically hunt herbivores, rather than rely on them.
I love monster hunter.
“Maybe they just like eating rocks” is a perfectly valid route to take when figuring out monster biology.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 Hard shells that are resistant to explosions...
Honestly my thought is that it's a specialized fungivore which uses the explosive slime as a means to spread it's food around, and protection.
Absolutely love these videos, i'm always interested to learn more about biology/zoology in order to help my writing and you attributing it to MH is a blessing.
Thank you, you're very welcome!
12:07 I like that humans and Rexy are both extremely well adapted for distance walking
There's a curious example of a predator that eats mostly "predators" of its same size, albeit it wouldn't exist whithout our intervention. The grey wolf populations of the iberian peninsula feed largely in asociation with livestock (horses, cows...) but the prey that they choose more often are the shepherd dogs that watch over the herds of cows. They also consume a lot of foxes and domestic cats, maybe because hunting cows/horses its more work for the small-ish packs that live around here than just killing their domestic counterparts.
Interesting example! Although I’d say that’s primarily facilitated by human activity. Is it specified they eat the dogs over just killing them too?
I think I have a general pool of ideas for Brachydios.
1: I've said before, but I believe the pounders themselves evolved to help kill hard-shelled prey. It's shown to hunt Rhenoplos in the older games at least, and I can imagine it taking Apceros that venture near volcanic areas as well. Even if it's mouth can bite through such shells, injuring hardier prey with other weaponry is often the case when quicker kills aren't as possible. Brachy isn't going to instantly crunch through a Rhenoplos like a pufferfish can through a crab. Also the bluntness probably serves as better intraspecific weaponry against the harder upper shells of other Brachys than their claws.
2: I don't think it's likely that Brachy actually HUNT things like Uragaan, Gravios, and Agnaktor like Akantor would. I think instances shown of them fighting are moreso just encounters that escalated into life or death. Brachy may coincidentally have the equipment to process the hard shell of Uragaan, but even then the tar that covers their body is likely unappealing regardless. I could see Brachy hunting juvenile Uragaan and Basarios, however. It's not unlike how we see Rathalos attacking Nargacuga. Rathalos certainly could kill and consume one, but it's moreso just a result of not wanting it in it's territory.
3: I think the slime's primary use could actually be as an intimidation display. While not as safe as a Bazel bombing run, we do see Brachy scrape it's arms on the ground often, which allows the slime to dislodge and explode. Between roars, explosions only further add to the loudness and displayed danger of Brachy. The slime is also brightly colored as well, which is a common trait for things that are displaying that they are something that shouldn't be messed with. And perhaps that's why Brachy formed a relationship with the slime in the first place. It's not explicitly meant for predation, but was a way of perhaps a weaker, more vulnerable ancestor of Brachy to intimidate more immediate predators. It doesn't exactly matter that the slime is slow-acting when used in combat. Much like an animal attacking another that's poisonous. The poison isn't going to be effective within seconds, but it still ends up acting as a deterrent. This also in turn cultivated the slime to become more and more explosive over time as well, as their hosts became more resilient, allowing for better spreading and multiplying.
Buuuut that's enough from the Brachy Defense Squad. I'd be perfectly fine with more short-form videos in between the bigger releases. Just means more good content!
Personally, I think it'd make a lot of sense for Brachydios to hunt Gravios and Basarios. They're exceptionally weak to blast, and their big size and slow movement would make the priming time and energy expenditure of the slime a worthwhile tradeoff for access to such massive, meaty kills.
As a Brachy fan, i love this comment so much, all the things that you said make perfect sense to me
The “dive into Iceborne” lore book says your first point almost verbatim, with it using its slime to blow up Rhenoplos and Gastrodons in volcanic areas
@@ericgodoleshi383 that's general hunting though.... Gastodons only have a hard head, like Pachycephalosaurs. What dude talked about was more how their evolutionary path revolved around busting armor, and competition with others of their own species for food, mates or territory, it makes sense that they be able to fight against each other effectively. Like how deer are fleshy and have antlers (bones are pretty tough), these guys are hard and have bomb-punches.
@@Virjunior01 I know but that's literally what the official capcom lore book says, I myself wasn't claiming anything
Have you ever considered doing some videos on the spec Evo on the monsters from the game Pikmin? Their not as flashy as monster hunter monsters but there's just as much effort to explain their roles in the ecosystems
I would love that
I would definitely watch that
would definitely be interested in this
Is there already a place Talking about it or some fan wiki Talking about their ecology? It sounds pretty Interesting
@@kirbyfazendoummoonwalk9214 IDK about a place where fans discuss it but if you read the wiki it includes the in universe ecological notes made up by the various captains.
I appreciate the crap out of this video. I stumbled on this while world-building, and it really helped me build my death world.
This sounds like what a supercompetitor would say.
Unexpected yet welcome surprise. These videos are some of the most helpful for us creature designers, gotta be grateful for this content
I think among all these arguments for what all these adaptations can be alternatively useful for, and how they could still be effective for hunting, it's actually important to note that nearly all turf wars in the game end in mere seconds and almost always end in one or both monsters running/walking away afterward. These aren't all predatory interactions, and half of the cutscenes tend to support this. I imagine the majority of these extreme adaptations and weapons are just there to scare away predators, discourage fighting, and fight for mates. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.
I think people underestimate the value of sheer size and weight. Most large ungulates don’t need anything more than charges and kicks to scare predators away from a “fair” fight and bears, lions, etc. don’t need any special “weapons” to bully smaller carnivores.
Commented to the same effect on the design video, but I think the Brachydios' slime splats against a hard surface and then detonates could mean it functions, in the same way as a HESH round, which is a kind of tank shell used primarily by the British army. It's a shell with a thin exterior full of soft plastic explosive - when it strikes the target, it squashes and spreads before being detonated, kind of in the same way Brachy's slime pancakes against hard surfaces before exploding after a few moments. This causes shockwaves that ripple through the structure of hard armour - in warfare it primarily results in spalling on the interior of an armoured vehicle that causes the interior surface of the armour to flechette and ricochet around the interior, killing the crew, though in the case of a monster with stony or chitinous armour it's more likely to result in ruptured organs, concussion, internal bleeding and the like. Obviously Gravios is the prime candidate when it comes to large prey with hard armour but it's not the only one, there are a lot of creatures with hard armour in volcanic regions lower down the pecking order like Basarios, Volvidon and Ceanataur that might fit the bill without it coming into too much direct competition with super-predators like Akantor. This method of hunting is also consisten with the way Brachy's fingers protude backwards from below the pounds and appear to be long and strong if not particularly dextrous. I think they're for prising hard armour plates off of prey that have succumbed to internal injuries so Brachy can feed.
Spalling works because the interior of a vehicle is hollow and hardened steel isn't very malleable. The notion that it'd be unable to generate enough concussive force to kill a volvidon or a ceanataur when it already has giant armoured boxing fists for hands is not very believable.
@@theandice8152 bro mh monsters are durable af, kulu ya ku could break a boulder twice it's size without flinching and aptonoths ramming into cliffs, in which the cliffs break first.
Your comment is true but I think the previous commenter was assuming real world biology, and animals durability, much like the video itself is assuming. Under such circumstances a powerful punch would be reached by evolution long before the development of the right chemicals to generate proper explosions, much less the morphology/tools to properly use said explosions.
Interesting analysis! As a fan of monsters in general, it is engrossing to compare monsters to real life animals, and examining the requirements for the more fantastical elements. "You don't need to explodorize bones to kill things" is a hilarious, but logical, way to think about these supposed extreme adaptations.
I think the slime of Brachydios is atleast useful in killing massive prey like Uragaan.
Brachydios is more agile so it could Hit a Uragaan multiple times before the Uragaan can even turn to see the Brachydios and defend itself or roll away.
But otherwise I can't really imagine the slime to be useful in any other way. Even Uragaan lives in volcanic areas, so explosions and fire realistically wouldn't be that effective.
Maybe it is mainly used as a form of defense (like shown in the Agnaktor cutscene, Agnaktor is the aggressor, not Brachy) and thus possibly sexual selection too.
Edit: I also think that the existence of Akantor isn't much of a problem for Brachydios. Yes, an encounter would probably a death sentence for Brachy, but here is the thing: Akantor is said to be really rare, rarer than some elder dragons.
Also Akantor mainly lives in secluded areas in volcanoes where barely any predator other than Elders or Raging Brachydios (it is stated that it gets the flashpoint slime in more secluded areas of volcanoes) would go.
So an encounter between normals Brachydios and Akantor is probably very rare.
Could also be coolant or shock absorption
I like to think Brachydios slime started as a defense mechanism, but became something sexually selected. Same with its armour.
I think barchydio's slime is akin to a parasitic yeast infection, likely due to weaken immune system due to a genetic bottle cap, and thier over the top abilities were evolutionary coping mechanism to mitigate the effects of the exploding fungi or remove as much as possible. Prehaps they have even become dependent on the slime for its immune system.
Perhaps the Slime has more of a utility use like creating large dens or clearing the various debris of the Volcanic habitats.
@@rexxysaucette5354 kinda like the idea that it's a fungivore and the slime mold on the prey items essentially pre digests the food at a rapid rate turning that endothermic reaction into something useful and leaving pools of edible goop only it can eat.
According to a data book for MHRise, apparently the horns, spikes, etc on Magnamalo are for sexual display or so I heard. Just thought I'd let you in on that.
Yeah, but you have to admit it’s weird then why it makes these very valuable spikes,horns,blades etc. pop out while fighting hunters. Like you could say it’s to make itself look more intimidating but it’s already a rocket powered spear tailed tiger the size of a building so I’m not sure how much that helps.
@@godzillaking5033 tbf, it might once be a weaker monster before in their ancestry
@@godzillaking5033 I feel like they leaned way too much into the samurai aspect of it too, instead of making it more grounded, it’s almost impossible to remember that he’s supposed to be a tiger. The armor and arm blades would have been fine I guess, but the spear tail, horns and fangs popping out are way to much or could have at least been integrated better. Actually, make his horns retract while in combat if it’s so special to the Magnamalo.
@@Mariofredx have you seen a zinogre and astalos?
@@Mariofredx I honestly feel like Magnamalo would have made more sense in general (and look "neater") from a design standpoint without the crazy back spikes. The explosive blast gas is a stretch for sure, but Valstrax also exists, as unrealistic as that is.
Would have made Magnamalo look slightly more plausible, still having the samurai motif without those crazy blades throuhout its' back.
I once heard someone say that in most fiction related situations adults ask ”why?” once. If you explain in convincing enough detail how something like Tobi-Kadachi generates electricity it becomes easier for people to accept some more fantastical monsters
I notice most monsters that use thunder elements almost always generate it outside of their bodies, not generated within them. It is obvious why this is the case
@@unicorntomboy9736 well except rajang and narwa.
@@Paradox1012 Rajang doesnt produce its own electricity. It gets it from Kirin horns. And Narwa is an elder dragon, and even then, her electric ability is shown more as a way of moving around via electromagnetic repulsion than anything, so even though she has no clear way of producing it, its use is grounded in normal things an animal needs to do.
I’m of the opinion that Magnamalo’s very over-the-top design could actually be just that ecologically - over-the-top, meant to be an intimidation tactic. The glowing hellfire it makes as exhaust, having fangs, spines, and a tail that can fan out and retract, and generally being a large-looking, vibrantly-colored animal suggests to me that more than anything, Magnamalo is trying to communicate that it isn’t to be messed with. Magnamalo is a very mobile wyvern, as seen by its movement in battle and across the map, as it scales the mountainous parts of the shrine ruins with ease. Its environment, additionally, are all inclusive of varying elevations and narrow clearings. The shrine ruins, frost islands, and lava caverns are all very complex terrain, with little in the way of open space. In areas like these, Magnamalo’s vibrancy doesn’t matter, as it can still easily function as an ambush predator to things like the weaker fanged beasts and bird wyverns. These monsters may not even register how vibrant Magnamalo is - tigers, to their prey, are certainly not bright orange. Instead, I theorize that Magnamalo produces its hellfire when eating as a sign to warn other predators that might try to steal its kills from far away. The glow, especially given Magnamalo’s intro cutscene is at night, would be easily noticeable by other predators from a distance, ensuring that it isn’t disturbed while eating.
More on this, I think the hellfire is actually moreso a chemical Magnamalo secretes. Similar to Mizutsune’s bubblefoam, Magnamalo’s hellfire may be capable of it’s strange projectile properties due to it being lightweight, as well as being flung by their user. Magnamalo tends to perform very particular motions for certain attacks. Slow pacing with tail flicks to launch individual fireballs, to the huge tail jab that Magnamalo creates its “beam” with. The beam itself is moreso a cylindrical casting of hellfire; in attacks with more physicality to them, these concentrated projectiles instead appear as an explosive dust the fanged wyvern leaves behind. This may be the chemical in a sort of floating cloudy form, since the method of casting the chemical was less precise than the more practiced motions it uses to create more coherent projectiles. A chemical would also explain how its body becomes coated in hellfire; it would be secreting this chemical over itself, which it then flings off during attacks.
Last piece, I think the hellfire is a defensive tool as well. Aside from being something to ward off scavengers and competition, it’s likely to have aided it in its adaptations alongside the rampages that Ibushi and Narwa cause. A rampaging monster is often a tired monster given enough time, and with Magnamalo’s built-in defense system and agile movements, it was likely able to benefit from rampages, taking down smaller monsters and being able to protect itself amid belligerent larger monsters that could have been more inclined to attack it were it not coated in a glowing, flame-like chemical. While yes, rampages do not take place frequently in-universe, they likely last for an extended period of time when they do happen. And given that many previously-stated common prey items for Magnamalo appear in rampages (I would like to mention that even Tetranadon could be on this list, as it looks as though it could be a monster that larger Magnamalo could reasonably take down, especially in the case of smaller tetranadon. In fact, Magnamalo may prey on other amphibians like Zamite occasionally when it appears in the Frost Islands) many Magnamalo could view such events in the same way that bears view salmon migration; it would be an event for which they could all call a temporary peace pact, wherein they would have enough resources not to compete heavily with one another and may even engage in joint hunting.
Still, it looks very expensive for the body to both produce and maintain, thus needing more food to sustain itself, as well as having a unsustainably high metabolism
@@unicorntomboy9736 I think it the main reason why they only seen to appear during the Rampage.
The reaction between heated potassium chloride and sugar produces a purple, singing fire. The “singing” comes from hydrogen escaping from sugar into the atmosphere. I think this is what is going on with magnamalo.
I like these more broad concept videos about stuff like "superweapons" or basic design. I'd like to see more of them.
I just assumed that it was to protect against being predated. After all, we know that Magnamalo is preyed upon by some elder dragons like Narwa.
I feel Brachydios would work great as a herbivore and ore eater. Then have it so that the fist slime works by being excreted during stress like terror sweat.
We already have Iguanodon, a big animal that had big ass arms. Thus, having Brachydios be like that makes perfect sense
9:22
Another thing that probably factors into survival is efficiency in hunting.
painted wolves are one of the most successful hunters in africa. Lions only get a kill 1 in every 4-5 hunts, while inversely when painted wolves hunt 5 times, they failed one and get a kill ~80% of the time. Cheetahs arent as successul as the painted wolves, but still get a kill every coin flip.
Having a higher success rate means several advantages, but in this context, it means that they can usually afford to lose a kill to larger predators.
I would make a couple of defences/comments on this theory. First of all is the misnomer that these creatures have evolved superweapons at all. Compared to reality the monster world is far more energetically rich, so seemingly excessive adaptations don't have the same drawbacks we'd expect in reality. When everyone's super, no one will be etc. These weapons are arguably less effective in interspecific combat than in real life; a lion can end a hyena with a good bite, whereas Bazelgeuse and Deviljho can dramatically crash and explode into one another repeatedly and both walk away with little lasting damage. Monsters are so naturally resilient that such 'superweapons' are necessary to even tickle each other. It's a fairly normal evolutionary arms race, it simply looks more dramatic than it really is. Take Rajang and Kirin; we all know how absurd Rajang is. If it's 'hunting' Kirin with any degree of regularity, Kirin's lightning powers look a lot more reasonable as a defence mechanism. Or say, if Brachydios predates Uragaan (I've only played World so this might be off base). Uragaan needs that shell to defend itself, and Brachydios needs such explosive power to hope to take Uragaan down.
If anything doesn't make sense in the monster world it's the continuing presence of mid-sized, slow and defenceless herbivores.
Elder dragons we see a bit less as a rule, but if Nergigante is an expected, highly aggressive regenerating predator, then again they don't seem so absurd. Lunastra and Teostra rely on cooperation to defend themselves successfully, for instance.
But maybe this is all a moot point as all these ludicrously powered creatures are simply defence mechanisms against humans. Seeing as a few particularly good hunters can still slaughter even the toughtest of elder dragons, maybe that's what really drives the escalating evolutionary power creep, and all the other trophic interactions under that are just the fallout of this.
This is a rather messy thought dump some time after actually watching so forgive me for any mistakes.
Argument here:
Brachydios: The slime of a Brachydios might taste terrible similar to the Hagfish (again we are back to this guy lol) which like the Hagfish would repel opponents since Brachydios' least defensive point is it's underside.
Considering that if baby Brachydios can accidentally kill themselves with slime, due to it being a entire different thing of it's own.
Another usage likely is that this is how they temper and harden their shells.
Again, we see this example with Raging Brachydios:
A Brachydios large, old and strong enough to withstand the Flashpoint Slime, which tempers it's shell even more!
It is now so strong anc tough that it makes Raging Brachydios' tier the same as Savage Deviljho, Seething Bazelgeuse, Scorned Magnamalo, Furious Rajang, Mid-Tier to High-Mid Tier Elder Dragons like Teostra, Lunastra, Kushala, Chameleos, Vaal Hazak, Namielle, Velkhana, Nergigante etc.
Been hearing you critique all these ubermonsters, and I love your theories, but I'm actually curious to see what YOU could design based in science while being epic as hell
Tbf, uber monsters in monster hunter work because how the energy distribution in the mh universe is wild.
As a fellow who dabbles in speculative evolution, this video was super helpful and informative! Would love to see more like it
In Magnamalo's defense, the games do state that it's ludicrous armor is apparently this ludicrous due to sexual selection. Which, I guess makes them somewhat akin to Peacocks. Still no idea how they're meant to survive tho, unless they were secretly herbivores or "hunters" of sessile organisms all along.
I feel like both it and Brachydios must be far less top-ordery than Monster Hunter likes to pretend. I assume we only see the larger males with both, and they surely must have Raptorwyvern-esque small counterparts hiding somewhere. Brachydios massively resembles that subset of Birdwyverns, after all.
yea the hyper eating thing hasn't really worked for any creature that has it, they are either starving or rare due to the amount of food they need to survive. So magnamalo must be quite rare, most probably don't get past the hurdle of finding a territory with enough food. But that's what happens when you put all your eggs into "exploding stomach gas" as your main weapon. especially since their armor does NOT regrow, any magnamalo that suffer damage have lower chances to get mates and ones with broken horns just straight up get turned into incels so it really begs the question of... how the fuck are they surviving, this species HAS to be on the decline
@@sevirakalau2171 Magnamalo already seems to be hyper-aggressive, especially when its not a part of the Rampage.
That, or Magnamalo experience drastic population booms that coincide with the Rampage.
@@sevirakalau2171
That would probably explain the magnamalo being a beneficer to the rampage because easy food, easy prey (i believe the male magnamalos prefer easier prey) don't have to risk its armor (especially it's crown) being wrecked at all.
In terms of the magnamalo being a beneficer to the rampage is quite similar to crocodilians in real life.
2 ex: 1. Somewhere in africa there's a migratory season where these african buffalos or some type of african bovines are migrating towards a particular river that is particularly dangerous, these african bovines would only enter in one spot of that river cause apparently to those African bovines " it's the safest spot to travel through" (i think...) Not only there was a strong river current aswell as sharp rocks n such but some crocodiles that lives around that area all come to that spot and they wait for those african bovines to come to them.
2. In WW2 some where in the south east coast of south east Asia a platoon of the Japanese army all got eaten by crocodiles.
@@TornaitSuperBird yea the rampage probably helps keep them afloat
@@Dualbladedscorpion7737 Exactly the rampage is probably the only reason they can keep that hyper aggressive lifestyle AND the high standards of the females, without it one of those 2 things is gonna have to go
Excellent video! Good stuff for us spec creators to keep in mind.
I think a good point to consider is the rate and degree these monsters can heal from injury. For a lot of animals getting wounded can be a death sentence so it's best avoided. Although if the creatures are able to survive considerable punishment and heal up as good as new that would have a significant impact on behavior and the frequency of fights. Based on the game's I get the impression they heal pretty quickly.
First off, top tier video like always. Genuinely love getting this level of nitty-gritty information. Your vids are always an instant watch for me.
Second, of all the things mentioned here, your closing comments on how what you're talking about isn't canon may actually be the most important. I know people can get pretty defensive when criticism is brought up (Fuck you Valstrax is badass), but I appreciate that the main bulk of your content is an examination from one single facet of the series. An important one, of course, but not the only one.
I've mentioned elsewhere, but MH designs need to balance fantasy concepts, anime stylization, a light dose of realism, and (what might get glossed over the most) the necessity for the monsters design to functionally act as a video game boss. In this regard, I appreciate that while each individual monster may shift in its strengths among its goals, they at least attempt for everything.
I do think it’s important to note that Brachydios when enraged, seemingly makes its slime explode on impact which makes far more sense in a fight where you need something dead fast. It could be something that is actually more voluntary, able to actively stimulate the slime for this enraged mode for proper combat situations, and its normal form being more of a warning to not engage Brachy. That being said it is baffling that Capcom didn’t put emphasis on this rage mode in any cutscenes, and it would of made a lot of sense for it to turn it on for a fight against agnaktor.
It's also not exactly clear how much of things like rage mode is gameplay mechanic and how much is actual lore and physiology. Monsters getting more aggressive makes sense when enraged, but it's hard to fathom the real reason for rathian doing 30% more damage with her charge.
16:00 aren't Akantor rare though? The chances of the 2 meeting and competing seems rather unlikely. Certainly possible but I doubt it's something Brachydios as a species would have to be worried about. I don't think Brachydios is necessarily a super predator I think it's possible his symbiosis with the slime came about coincidently and he simply uses it to his advantage if he happens to clash with another monster.
You could apply these criticisms to the majority of the monster roster to be honest. Like why does Rathalos need fire breath or Legiana need ice wind? They're fantastical elements to make the monsters more interesting. I only have a problem when they go completely overboard like with Magnamalo.
I love learning more about t rex and big cats holy fuck. Lions adaptations being moreso for "diplomacy" rather than murder destruction is something i never really considered before.
And t rex being designed to walk makes a lot of sense! It makes them seem so much more tangible now. I wonder how many would exist on a single continent and how theyd section their territories
"Superweapons", IMHO, are pretty much evidence of intervention in some way - magi, supernatural beings, aliens playing with genetic LEGO bricks, or whatever fits best in your world or story. This video pretty much explains it better than I could.
I mean, in MH lore, there is mention that "humans" were genetically enhanced super soldiers meant to fight big monsters (I think drakes, not sure). So it's possible that many of the "superweaponary" is possibly genetically engineered by some alien civilisation
I like to think the world of monster hunter is kind of like the insect world, filled with monsters that have imaginative abilities that rival the known abilities of the insect world, just scaled up to 1000. Once you start to think of the monsters like insects, fighting each other with their crazy abilities for food/dominance it starts to feel a bit more grounded. Despite this, I do however think some are overdesigned such as Rise's flagship: Maggy. One thing to note is the descriptions having "carapace" in their name. Just goes to show that maybe it's not so outlandish for the monsters to have insane abilities after all a lot of animals in the micro world have bizarre abilities for hunting such as spiders having webs that are more than strong enough for their prey or bombardier Beatles that use chemical attacks to scare off larger predators, or even the pistol shrimp that can shoot bubbles hot enough to produce light (though it can't be seen with how short it last)
Honestly, I feel there is still a ton of room left to make vastly unique monsters that have more insect-like properties similar to Astalos
I love this! Fiercely educational and interesting spec-evo. I’d love to see more shorter videos like this on the side of the bigger videos
One thing I thought it to be interesting is that this show competition is costly. Sometimes, the best strategy is just let everyone keep their own way.
Just add to the back story some sort of nanobot situation providing exponentially more energy for your alien species cells.
Because something something 0 point energy.
Digital mitochondria.
But also explain "psychic field hive minds" and such. Nanites in the atmosphere.
Also make the digital bits responsible for managing mutation. Now you could have super evolution, super competition, even super cooperation.
I don’t want super accurate MH animals, but I don’t want super ridiculous animals either.
MH is about finding that balance between the “ok I could see this” and “damn this is sick” reaction when seeing a monster for the first time.
Which I think rise and Sunbreak have mainly veered into the rule of cool territory, but as long as a fight is fun, I don’t mind too much. I just hope it doesn’t go overboard
Bro how is aknosom in rule of cool, thats a crane
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 my man is an umbrella
@@shadowdragon1396 Yeah, World Monster gone a bit too safe on the Ecology
Base Rise only problematic one was Magnamalo who lean WAY too close on the problem with some Frontier Monsters(There are cool Frontier Monster Ecology like Espinas, but theres also not many that are as great as it)
In Sunbreak Malzeno and Gaismagorm are VERY interesting
Since we know Malzeno does not fully control the Qurio, infact it STEALS Gaisma's Qurio like how certain Ants would kidnap another Ant species Egg just to raise them as their own
@@shadowdragon1396 Its a crane with a umbrella like feathers, its less ridiculous than an icy shark frog that creates ice armor.
@@marcusaaronliaogo9158 Bro thats the point
Rise Monsters except Magnamalo are made to be ridicilous but not too over the top
Compared to World Monsters who are way too realistic, i love Anjanath but i would rather have what its Subspecies Fulgur did than the original
The other World Monsters and their Subspecies including Elder Dragons are way too Ecology friendly, except i guess Vaal Hazaak, the Jiiva, Velkhana, and Ishvalda
But at the same time, we kinda dont want stupid things like Frontier Monsters, Espinas and Hypnocatrice are pretty ecology friendly while still being over the top
But then we have other Monsters like Akura the Crystal Blood Spitting Scrorpion, Burst Species, Zenith Species, dont even get me start on the Elder Dragons
I love this kind of focus on educational content for spec evo design. Love all your work, cheers!
This video was amazing. if you're looking for feedback on whether or not you should do more "shorts" where you break down general tropes through the lens of real-world ecology, the answer is YES! One of the things that makes this channel wonderful is the way you use these works of fiction to explain (and play with, speculatively) real-world ecology, which enriches both sides there. I love to see it.
More to come at points in the future!
Im enjoying these shorts
imma say magnamalo woud make for a great surprise herbivore not just because of all the weaponry but the vibrant coloring and most of all the use of flamable gas something completly associated with big herbs
In another reality instead of being based on a tiger, Magnamalo is based on an Ankylosaurus.
A truly well made and pertinent video ! Again !
Yeah, this trope to show only competion, with subject predators, when the animals kill preys or fight others carnivores is very common (even if not as common than before. Most wild nature documentaries about animals life today since some decades are quite diverses in term of themes and subjects others than the competition aspect when they depict an animal life) still pretty strongly in mind when we think about animals ecology and the Evolution's History of their respective family/order.
In addition, as a unvolontary but bad bonus effect, to depict them as bloodthirsty mindless beast that attack everything at view. Which of course is not the case.
Sure, the competion domain still a big component of an animal life and specie evolutionary direction, but it's not the only component and plenty others things can put pression on the specie to adopt one particular behavior or an other.
For the case of Monster Hunter, the idea that if almost every creatures are so ridiculy buffed to the maximum with many badass and cool looking superpowers is because mainly to proprely fight as best possible the others monsters between themselves. It's not a stupid idea on the surface.
Of course, your video had explain just why in nature and real life, the "supercompetion" where totally every animals and especially predators, in a same location, evolved at the maximum to protect themselves and attack the others just don't happen at all.
Because animals must avoid as possible any kind of injuries, sensible and dangerous situation and keeping most of their body energy, every animals will evolved to avoid competion with others animals.
By taking differents ways, with some leading to the apex predators niche for the luckiest of them, and others leading to only flee in front of the first.
If competion happen noneless, it's because it can only be put on the lowest level, never entirely shut down.
And some animals will whatevers happen entered in competion with others animals (like in Lions, Hyenas for example).
Also, However, in the world of Monster Hunter, to this day, whatevers in game on a hunt, during the cinamtics, etc... of every entries of the franchise, we have seen very few kills/death made by a monster on an other one.
Sure, we have a lot of fighting whatevers in game and in the cinematics, more famousely known today as "Turf War" (especially in the recents entries and especially in MH World).
But very few case when we see directly a monster actually killing an other.
Most of the time, we see two monsters entered a fight, this latter during most of the time few second to one minute only, and the two stop with one of them fleeing in front of the others.
And, actually, this kind of behaviors is very realist since it's an extremely ultra common scene/situation and behaviors that animals do in nature.
So, even if the designs are and still ridiculy buffed to a more funny point than anything else, it's show that monsters in general not have developt such overpowered abilities only to resist and attack at their best to the others monsters between themselves but also maybe due to others pressions on them given by their environnement.
Afterall, many of them still have a ecology missunderstood or with plot holes.
Also, even if Monster Hunter is a 50/50 mixbag when it's come to realism, and even if the franchise still a pretty interesting and good Speculative Evolution universe in many ways, it's still firstly games mean for fun and to play good time by hunting creatures.
The creators made mainly serious and important work of logic and realism on the creature and their ecology in order to made them more alive and put more deepth in the games, but let liberties because it's not means to be educationals, and embrace his fiction aspect.
But for any kind of true serious scientific spec evo world, which the main goal is to be educative by using fictional examples, these same kind of liberties can't be accepted. The world must be serious in 100% when it's come about the biological and evolutionary domain.
I really like the approach you take in your videos. I don´t mind you criticising (kind of) the design of the monsters. Its in an educational way and i learn something new most of the time, if not every time.
So you are saying my spec evo T.rex that lives in snowy Mountains shouldnt have giant antlers on its Back ?!?!!
Sadly so :(
IF you want it to be grounded. If.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel the Genre is called science-fiction, so staying grounded in science should be a Baseline for the Genre (sadly having Quantum or nano at the beginning of a Word doesnt Count.
RIP modern sci-fi)
Love your videos, since I am one of those guys who likes to hear about the evo as much as the spec part, if not more
Good stuff! You presented your points well, and I'd love to hear more from you on the topic.
Anjanath still my favorite fictional animal in video game, not only does it reflect what Dinosaur would look like alive, but at the same time the simplistic design almost made it as a Flagship.
I love your videos. They're exceptionally educational and insightful to the design of fictional creatures. I'd love to see a video on Valstrax or Nergigante since they're such odd animals in the MH world. Hope you have a good day and good luck in the future!
Your videos are great, I’ve made a few monsters inspired by monster hunter myself as well as google docs trying to explain their ecology and why they’re the way they are, your videos have really helped me design these monsters because I always try to consider what would and wouldn’t make sense, but of course I’m no expert so my reasonings could be horrible
12:40...this is what players of the isle and other dino games and even basic dino nerds need to realise...alongside not needing bone crushing to KILL...to be able to use that much force on an attempt never happens...a crocodile or hyena doesnt use its full bite on the kill...only once the animal is dead can they actually begin the bone crunching...so all these fights about rex being stronger than X dino cuz his bite is waaay stronger just doesnt stand up...or that trike or other herbivores couldnt help but die cuz rex bite is again super all powerful
Except rex fans dont just use "rex has a strong bite" to win debates anymore, at least not the educated ones
There are so many other factors to rex being objectively the strongest theropod in history that we know of. Its twice as agile as similarly sized non-tyrannosaur theropods, its one of the fastest for its size category (arguably faster than Giganotosaurus), its actually enormous out-weighing even the largest Giganotosaurus specimens by 2 tonnes, its scarily intelligent regardless of the "SmArT aS a BaBoOn", its senses were archaic and aeguably second to none among theropods, and very well so much more
When Triceratops is Tyrannosaurus' biggest prey competitions, Tyrannosaurus needed adaptations to deal with an actual monster of an herbivore.
You tell them, Unnatural!
It's nice to have a video so soon after the previous one. Hope you're having a good rest between 'em.
Something I feel is a lost oppportunity regarding Magnamalo, game descriptions describe him as being a skilled fighter rather than just physically stronger or larger, with that description I picture a monster using his 1 weapon in skilled and varied ways, rather than Magnamalo having 3 weapons and using them pretty normally compared to other monsters, if it only had its spear tail and used it skillfully it wouldnt feel nearly as overdesigned as it is
Is extremely hard to explain even the most basic forms of this concept to the average monster hunter fan. I'm glad you laid this out so nicely.
One thing that *might* (maybe?) explain why monsters are like this would be the theory that you presented in the Deviljo video, that the world has somewhat recently gone through an ice age or something like it, and in the same way Deviljo themselves have yet to fully adapt to the new state of things maybe the current top carnivorous monsters used to be lower on the... Uh, "power scale", and there used to be some mega-super-12yo'sOC-tier-carnivores that forced them to evolve the defences they did. This also comes with a whole lot of problems, but I feel would make a bit more sense than competition... Maybe?
I always thought brachydios uses less slime against small annoying target(the hunter) as a way to save some energy and have an area denial advantage against nimble hunters.
Then, fighting bigger target using their "angered mode", when the slime explodes almost on contact to be effective and quickly be done with a risky fight. Seeing the nose and jaws, looks like it could immobilise a prey with a bite, cover it with saliva before punching it away or while being held.
Sadly, no document talks about it, just me interpreting my MHtri gameplay as a kid.
Maybe the T-Rex thing is also good explanation of brachyodos. The caustic compounds might be good for physically breaking down food, with pounding down being a good substitute for impressive jaw muscles. Maybe the horn then coopted the mechanism for display purposes.
Brachydios' explosive slime could be for foraging for minerals rather than meant for combat.
Man, i was hoping that Mattpat did a dumb again and was ready for a verbal smackdown.
Alas, i’ll just have to settle with your hyper specific knowledge on animal ecology 😆
But that's just a theory
An EVOLUTIONARY GAME THEORY!
Seriously, had no idea that was even a term.
Many evolutionary biologists regard John Maynard Smith as the original MatPat
@@unnaturalhistorychannel at least many of Matpat’s theories are meant to be comedic and non-serious.
5:31 I have to object to this point. You're forgetting Brachydios has an incredibly durable shell shown capable of withstanding even the extreme heat of Agnaktor's attacks. He's more than capable of avoiding injury long enough for the slime to detonate.
Agnaktor can burrow through rock. It’s doubtful brachy can take that, let alone his soft underbelly
@@unnaturalhistorychannel Brachydios shell withstands powerful explosions so it's likely more durable then rock. Also, before Agnaktor emerges, it often shakes the ground violently and heats it up meaning Brachydios could just move out of the way to protect his underbelly as we've seen he's able to reposition very quickly using his pounders. Plus if Brachydios gets a hit in before Agnaktor can burrow (which takes it time) the slime would have more than enough time to detonate while Agnaktor's underground. There's other factors you didn't consider either like when Brachydios becomes enraged his slime detonates instantly and it doesn't take him more than like a second to prime his slime.
Honestly I enjoy this stuff you do, very educational and fun at the same time. Also i noticed you mentioned Xenomorphs within one of your previous videos and they actually are excellent examples of the quip about invasive species. Things that are native to a non Xenomorph infested planet haven't evolved to handle a extremely adaptable, acid filled organism with a Mesoskeleton that requires armor piercing rounds to really hurt it.
I know you might not cover them since it's most likely they were specifically created to be a Bioweapon by strange alien bois, but I just find them interesting. Very alien yet so very real, in the terms of certain traits its species has.
I know you were talking about an interim video until primal S2 but I wasn’t expecting it this soon what a pleasant surprise!
Just a thought, but maybe the high tier monsters evolved exceptionally powerful abilities not to kill or defend themselved from other apex predators, but simply to be able to stop their prey from getting stolen by wyverns? Species that have evolved both powerful ranged weaponry and flight to hunt, like rathalos, could theoretically heavily damage other grounded animals from a safe distance away enough that they abandon their prey much like a bazelgeuse without needing to put themselves in danger by flying in and attack at melee range. If other predators didn't have long ranged weaponry to counter that, they may well have to hand over their kill every time a rathalos spotted it. Of cause this doesn't explain monsters like brachydios, but it does do with ones like zinogre.
As for why rathalos evolved flame breath in the first place, that is more likely a hunting strategy against packs of aptonoth than for countering the abilities of other apexes.
I'd love to see more of these, full on.
That said, I knew there was a reason I didn't like Savage Kingdom and shows like it.
Though now I really want to re-watch that speculative documentarial take on "what if dragons had been real" and compare it to what I've learned from places like this channel.
Question for you: How come you don’t do ecology videos on more elder dragons too? Is it maybe because they are more fantastical than the other ones?
Edit: typo
I think so. But Chameleos' and Teostra's abilities are actually explained.
They're pretty hard to do! But the future remains open.
i see
@@unnaturalhistorychannel I’m glad to hear it!
well, I mean...
...to be fair, it's kinda difficult to find a real-world analogy for having f***ing JETS for wings (Valstrax). Or a never-ending, forever-respawning, rapidly-growing set of spines (Nergigante). Or literally, completely fusing at the molecular level with your mate (The Allmother, aka. Ibushi & Narwa). And I honestly don't even think there IS an analogy for Gaismagorm.
edit: grammar. Also, before anybody says anything, yes I do know Dragonflies fuse themselves together when they mate. What Ibushi & Narwa do is not even CLOSE to the same thing
INB4 Capcom says the over the top monsters are bioweapons created by the ancient civilization
Like the equal dragon weapon
I finally finished watching all your videos! One small suggestion might be to make a playlist for all your monster hunter videos, as the existing ones don't cover all of them. Love this channel and keep up the great work!
I'm glad for your work UHC!
I truly grateful for dedicated people like you trying to spread the truth!
I feel like MH designs are half Speculative Evo, and half Rule-of-Cool.
Also, unrelated to the video, but I've been thinking about the potential of Pseudo-magic having existed at some point during the history of Monster hunter's world(but died out somehow).
I KNOW that the main thing about MH and it's creatures is that magic is never used, but that doesn't completely rule out the possibility of it existing.
The kind of Pseudo-magic I'm thinking of would be things like bioenergy, or the twins resonating with dragons- things and abilities that can just Almost be explained, but don't have an exact parallel to our world.
Always thought of brachydios slime primary as a way to explode rocks and secondary as a weapon, but that's just my headcanon.
Also there's the fact that brachydios has overdeveloped arms, so when it punches other monster it may disorient them giving the time the slime needs to explode
makes sense, Brachydios is often compared to a boxer in how it fights with lots of ducks and weaves to disorientate the opponent, there's also the fact that multiple hits will of course get more slime on the opponent and once the fuse goes off for the first one it'll no doubt cause a chain reaction for the other slime patches too if they're nearby.
Monsters like Uragaan and Gravios are in an odd place in the food-chain too... they're big and powerful monsters who most predators wouldn't want to bother with due to the time and energy needed to take one down with their thick rock-like hides but they're also pretty docile and feed on rock-material/ore so they'll often leave most other beasts alone too unless threatened.... kinda like Volcanic Elephants in a way... so I feel like Brachydios was introduced as a bit of a counter to these sorts of monsters, to give them something that would actually pose a threat to them other than Elder dragons and Akantor which i'd imagine would be a meeting that'd never happen for the majority of the species too.... a monster like Brachydios would be a bit more feasable and give them something to look out for due to the slime explosions having a more powerful effect on their hides.
Your videos should be cannon cause they all make sense! But thank you for all your videos cause there’re all quite entertaining and informative!!
I always assumed that in mh the extremes were in part due to more energy/energy efficiency. Stuff like elements seeming to be an energy that is potentially more efficient to produce/magnify. Hence enabling the ecosystem on the scale we see. Doesn't explain everything but it helps framing I think.
This is so unbelievably late it's not worth saying, but it is worth mentioning there's 2 monster hunter teams. The "A" team that works on the main series, ergo Tri, 4, World, and their expansions.
The "B" team works on the "Portable" games and used to work on a couple of the sequels. They made 3rd Portable, Generations and it's expansion, and Rise and it's expansion. Those are where the bulk of the "anime hype" monsters come from, barring exceptions like Brachydios (Tri). They're obviously less concerned about realism, and that's not a bad thing IMO. Though obviously, fan favorites tend to leak over into the main series, like Zinogre or Glavenus.
So the real answer why there's these apparent lapses in realism is just that it isn't a priority for the "B" team.
You should make more of these shorts, they’re really good
more of these kind of videos would be great
Maybe brachy isn’t a top order carnivore. It is rather small for brute wyvern standards, so the slime could be a defense mechanism. And I don’t mean fighting, I mean anything that gets slime on it and is wounded by a blast is not gonna target another Brachydios for a long while afterwards.
One interesting thought that could *possibly* explain super lethal weaponry, would be a need to survive non-organic aggressive danger. This seems to be only possible in the case of fantasy magic, perhaps fantastical evolutionary response to technology (such as animals somehow evolving to monsters to be able to compete with modern humans and weaponry), or possibly aggressive flora? If for example, rock golems come alive in an area and animals require super-weaponry to fight off the things rather than compete with them for food, it seems relatively plausible to me. Even then that is a very specific scenario and not exactly similar to reality. It would still also be likely to be better to be fast and better at running away.
You are also thinking of constant ready for battle type evolutions. A constant upkeep of ready to fight would be horribly energy and efficient in regards to the noger as its body is still organic and needs a rest from constant electrical charge every now and then. Brachidios has the Speed and Agility despite its own size and bulk. The Slime that brachidious uses gets primed whatever it's enraged instantly detonating so brachidios whenever coming across a potential Challenger May pump itself up figuratively to Prime the Slime so that it detonates instantly in order to go tackle something much larger than itself like Gravios.
Not that I don't see the inefficiency of these super weapons though they are necessary in quotation at adaptations to survive in the world of Monster Hunter considering there are giant snake elder dragons that terraform mountains as a hobby it goes to say in rather realistic terms for a brachideos to use slime and wait for it to detonate
I'd honestly love a whole video of you discussing the many animals of Dougal Dixon
this
Just saying the whole speculative evolution theory is cool and I really enjoyed learning about trexs and how they weren't tyrannical
Could you do a video on the Qurio?
This is honestly a really good video 👍 it sure can help me with my creatures I really enjoyed your videos and gives me new ideas 😊
Gotta say I loved this video, it was very entertaining and a good subject matter! I think this format can work out, smaller videos with simpler subject matters between grand videos. I hope to see a video addressing the possible questionable taxonomy practices of the guild and here what monsters in your opinion might be misplaced.
YOOOOO NEW UHC VID!!!!!
Also notif gang
If monsters existed they'll be called animals, ask the box jellyfish and the Komodo Dragon
Theory discussions are fun, more of these would be cool!
I swear that the computer is reading my mind. I was recommended this after I wrote up a story where a woman is hunting several MH-level beasts. However, I have specifically lampshaded that they are unfeasible, rare and seem to suggest they have one alternative means of feeding and a much more dense energy storage. Specifically, their skin absorbs energy from the environment that most are not attuned for, however it is not that effective so they do need to keep a wide territory.... and even after this I propose that this is not some evolution, but an unnatural mutation.
Still, good to see someone taking on the subject. Practicality is exactly what nature maximizes on. Often you find animals becoming super-powerful if they require it to defeat their environment, and often that need not be just competition.
I would love a series of videos covering spec evo tropes in your style of comparing them to the real world