Cave wyvern ecology : Khezu and Gigginox in Monster Hunter
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- Опубліковано 3 чер 2024
- It's time to take a deep crawl into the caves of theory and science to explore the ecology and behaviour of the most bizarre wyverns to date: khezu and gigginox!
- Ігри
I personally think Khezu and Giggi are some sort of bizzare amphibian, but convergently evolving to resemble Wyverns
It's something I really do consider as well. For now the canon claims they're wyverns but them actually being derived salamanders isn't unreasonable.
Return to Monke
Or
Advance to Wyvern
I kind of got the sense of them being convergently evolved annelid (worm) or maybe even a mollusk
That seems logical and considering that the guild is a scientific body moving from a phenetic style approach ( early idea of it looks alike it is related, this approach would put birds and bats in the same group) to a phylogenetic approach so grain of salt
Keep in mind that Monster Hunter is a world where ancient genetic engineering projects are everywhere. Hell, every Hunter that exists today is a descendent of the super soldiers created from aforementioned genetics projects. Monsters were messed with, too, which might explain why there's so many divergent physiologies in such a broad category, and why the basic wyvern template (vaguely reptilian, four limbs, non-prehensile tail, bipedal, penchant for having 'breath weapons' consisting of elemental discharges of some kind) can adapt to so many varied environments.
one of my theories is that there might be an entire sub-terrain ecosystem in the monster hunter world just waiting to be explored. With how many massive creatures that can dig there are, it wouldn't surprise me that there could be massive cave systems that house many exotic troglobitic organisms, and Khezu and Gigginox are just the gatekeepers of a much more bizarre underground.
I'd love a proper cave or similar underground map someday, with it's weird and unique monsters. Like the sunken hollow but actually done properly.
we already got kulve and shara
hopefully they expand it even more
I know this is an old comment but a mh deep underground abyss would be cool. We already have blight town at home with the veil so that would be cool.
I imagine Dalamadur leaves quite the expansive cave networks in his wake when he burrows through an area.
I am completely in love with Khezu and Giginox, the leech/lampray design is so awesome.
Agreed, they're fantastically unique designs. We just don't have enough cave monsters.
After watching this it dawned on there’s a possible explanation as to why giginox sometimes freezes meat and why bold giginox might stick with their clutch, since they have lamprey like mouths I’d imagine gigi’s ripping off chunks of meat from a carcass left by their mom, the carcass could begin to melt while the eggs are incubating inside of the sack as it’s most likely warm and damp as you said, and by the time they hatch they would have some food to help them through childhood, I’d also like to bring up why gigi’s might hatch faster when close to their mom and that might be pheromones possibly from her poisonous glowy thingy’s on her head and tail or just simply from the poison, this could be a trait given to giginox that are likely larger or more aggressive so that their offspring can have a better head start than shy giginox which would only leave a carcass for her baby’s, idk tho but great vid I can’t wait to see more.
Offspring provision in gigginox is a good point and one I didn't consider, especially as lots of small caterpillars are a tactic used by some wasps that would provide a nice contrast to khezu. And thank you!
*insert Khezu battle theme joke*
Jokes aside I'm glad I stumbled upon your channel, very rarely do people ever do content like this.
Thank you! I'm glad I was able to fill the niche!
@@unnaturalhistorychannel pun intended? :)
I personally suspect that Baleful Gigginox is an (extreme and fantastical) example of a gigginox that has undergone atavism, where a gigginox has abnormally developed more ancestral traits, with said ancestor likely closer resembling Khezu than Gigginox.
Characteristics:
-The Electricity (even the way it's conducted is similar to Khezu)
-The coloration, being that they have the same color when enraged as Red Khezu, if Red Khezu being the standard khezu color is correct.
-The reason why Baleful Gigginox is so rare is because, although mutations by nature tend to be rare in producing individuals this drastically different, they seem to be sterile. Again this isn't that unusual with mutations, but I don't think it's that odd to assume that there's some abnormal khezu-like internal anatomy that, while not fatal, would interfere with reproduction given that the two seem to lay eggs very differently.
Khezu being the more basal of the two can also be supported by the giggis, which (at least to me) seem to closer resemble khezu in their jaw anatomy than gigginox, and more basal traits are usually more apparent earlier in development.
A fantastic point I'd not considered at all. Very good link between the giggis, khezu and baleful.
I wonder if baleful could be a cross breed from desperate kehzu and giganox becoming sterile as you said effectively being a mule
Seeing that both Gigginox and Khezu seem to be from the same genus, it's highly possible that Balefuls are mules, yes.
For me personally, I classified Khezu and Gigginox as amphibians. Moist smooth skin, lack of claws, gelatin like eggs, have to keep moist all scream amphibian. I’d imagine that the ancestors convergently evolved the wyvern body plan independent from true wyverns. And their cave adaptations is derived from these strange amphibians seeking shelter or food, got stuck, and had to adapt to a new habitat with limited food options.
Personally I think the wyvern body plan evolved several times in the monster hunter world. Piscine wyverns being derived from fish, Barioth and Nargacuga descending from Synapsids, most other flying wyverns and flying bird wyverns descending from theropods, Akantor and Ukanlos basically being huge lepidosaurs, and Khezu and Gigginox being amphibians
One thing I would like to bring to light is the mentions of the idea that the suction cup on Khezu's tail (which is used as a ground if im not mistaken) is actually a sort of proto mouth in their stages of life as a whelp. I dont remember where i heard it from or read it but its an interesting idea to think about especially with the Whelps latching onto the insides of popo and their rapid growth inside their bodies. Its outlandish but I dont think entirely unfounded especially with Hardcore Khezu actually showing more residual traits of this earlier feature with its tail being shown to have small teeth along the inside of its ridge. Just thought I should mention it : )
And I appreciate it! It's an interesting notion and would also suggest that khezu undergo quite a lot of development from whelp to adult too.
and gigginox's ring mouth matches the khezu tail mouth/toothy anus to a T, too. it's possible that gigginox got its start from khezu whelps that failed to reverse, and having the later development start from the incorrect "head" might explain the very different end result.
I know this comment is two years old, but it's basically confirmed now that Khezu's tail is a weird proto mouth that's very lamprey like
I really hope more people find out about you, since this is genuinely a really creative channel.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. More to come too!
@@unnaturalhistorychannel channels like you have definitely peaked my interest recently, since giving fictional animals and characters real-world connections became a big interest of mine. I've kind of done it with my own worldbuilding, although to a more fantastical degree.
A turf war between these two would be interesting. I'd also love to see what an elder dragon cave wyvern would be like.
I thought of the white khezu as a mutation that became more succesfull than the original red khezu due to being less visible in the snow, red as a color is one that blends in with dark colors pretty good so the red khezu might be better adapted to live in the caves of swampy areas while the mutated white khezu outcompeted them in the snowy areas due to better camoflage, thus the white khezu became known as the normal species because they where encountered more often then the red ones.
I'd also like to add that Gigginox is likely a hermaphrodite, with the harsh environment making mating difficult, and how they lay eggs pretty much constantly
This was something that was partially cut, and I may come back to in a future vid discussing hermaphrodites and parthenogenesis.
love your pfp
Of course the freak would think that lmao
@@bennygohome4576A little Pot calling the kettle black there buddy? Your a degenerate😂
This very quickly became one of my favorite channels. Fucking fantastic work
Thank you so much!
God, I love this channel. This is exactly the type of content I like from monster hunter, and not only is interesting, but it’s also funny. Can’t wait to see your future content, as well as any non monster hunter related stuff.
Thank you for your kind words, and future content is definitely coming!
So glad I saw someone talk about your deviljho video deep in some random comment section cause the content has been fire.
Thank you much! Glad the word of mouth is spreading even if slowly.
Literally the same way I discovered this channel. Someone in another comment section mentioned the deviljho video
@@DiamondAppendixVODs Interested to hear this, what video was it?
@@unnaturalhistorychannel at this point I don't remember. maybe it was a fatalis lore video that I got randomly recommended?
Wonderful vid as usual. I myself personally suspect both Khezu and Gigginox are somewhat neotenic, which would be rather helpful when you live in a cave with rather little resources, being, say smaller would help to be able to use resources more effectively. Perhaps, their lack of eyes could have started with them just having closed eyes, smilar to some altrical bird young. Who knows really, this may be true, may not be.
Some cave salamanders like the olm do exhibit neoteny, and it's quite likely with these two. It's also not unreasonable to suggest they may even be weird amphibians too. There's still a hell of a lot of mystery around them!
I always liked Gigginox more than Khezu, hes simply way more fun to fight and looks a lot better in my opinion. If Khezu actually needs a redesign is up for debate tho.
This was a more damaging attack on khezu than any fire weapon.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
I, for one, would be a bit upset if the thundering-death-willy were to be redesigned. It is also possible I am suffering from a Stockholm syndrome like affliction, as I been playing since 2004 with Monster Hunter
The penis shall stay as it is.
Khezu's theme is better though.
khezu will always be one of my favorite monsters, mainly because of how terrifying he was when I first met him.
when I first got into the series I had gotten generations on the DS and had been playing for a while without even knowing he existed.
so there I was, in the marshlands, mining in the caves for some malachite, when all of a sudden I turn around and see the pale, fleshy khezu, at 3 in the morning.
no noise as I had my sound muted, so i had 0 pre warning.
needless to say I didnt get much sleep that night
Dude these videos are incredible, I love the comparison from game to real world biology, you give a lot more insight into how these creatures are outside the hunt.
Thank you so much!
Another great vid. Having started hunting with Tri, I've always preferred Gigginox. It absolutely terrified me as a kid, and the booming theme of the Tundra didn't help that fear. And having fought Khezu much more now in following games, I still prefer Gigginox. From what I can tell, Japan just really like Khazu, and so it's prioritized whenever they want a creepy cave dweller. It's a shame because with Psuedo-wyverns back in full force in Iceborne and Rise, they still haven't taken advantage of having the skeleton back to have Gigginox again.
I'm surprised you didn't make any observations on their roars, as both are incredibly load. While it's probably amplified by being inside caves, they still have to have a loud roar to begin with, as both require High Grade Earplugs and are usually the first monsters you encounter that need them for roar negation. Also a note about how Gigginox uses it's tail as a false head in order to confuse hunters and predators too. And I wonder if Khezu have traditional sexual reproduction, while Gigginox are more potentially hermaphroditic. Hell I wouldn't be too surprised if Gigginox could be fully asexual given the sheer rate at which it can produce offspring, seemingly at any time it likes, even as a defense mechanism for it's own life.
As for future videos, I'm definitely looking forward to other brute wyverns, carapaceans, fanged beasts, and even elder dragons. I think Ceadeus, Nakarkos, and Valstrax could make for interesting videos moreso than the more traditionally fantasy elder dragons.
Yeah, I still quite like khezu but the flat refusal to bring gigginox back is a little surprising, as IIRC he's often still in the top 5 with khezu in Japan.
The roars I was quite undecided on as it's hard to envision them being used for intraspecific communication in caves, so my main thought was just they were to try and startle potential predators when grabbed almost like a bullfrog.
And it's quite possible Gigginox may be capable of parthonogenesis which I was also undecided whether to bring up too as a lot of the info around the two being hermaphrodites is dubious.
Old goat-whale is definitely one I've considered a lot, just the angle of where to go with him is what I'm still deciding.
And thank you as ever!
I love Khezu, one of my favorite monster in the game, always a gun fight, his roar is badass and the fact that it plays no music during the fight is a great touch. His armor set looks badass too.
Would it be possible that Gigginox uses its leech like mouth as more of a rasping motion on larger fanged beasts? Perhaps it pins down Popo that wander into caves and rasps a hole into their side after wearing them with venom. This provides both food for the Gigginox and a home/food source for nearby Giggi. Plus, during its pin attack, it doesn’t pick up the Hunter, more pushes its teeth against it.
Also, making me choose between the future Predator or King Kong’s critters?! That’s just mean! ...I vote Peter Jackson’s nightmares in that case.
It's quite possible yeah, especially for the younger giggis which may almost feed like lampreys or leeches and just rasp away at an opening on a kill made by the mother.
Skull Island ahoy!
I was new to the series when i played MHFU, used to go on hunts without the required items because i wasnt used to it yet and had to do with the suppliesin the chest or what i could forrage. One such time was when i tried my first Khezu hunt, tried cooking some Popo meat and found out this thing smelled the bbq across the map . It landed right next to me and i freaked out not knowing what to do.
Regarding Baleful Gigginox, my immediate thought is that it could very well have a khezu father. Aside from having obvious khezu-like features, it also (unless I am mistaken, it's been a looong time since I have played a game with it) doesn't lay eggs that actually hatch, which could point to infertility, a common trait of hybrids. They' two species are obviously very different morphologically and so realistically would likely be too derived to hybridize, but I feel that's one of the easily handwaved cases where realism is ignored.
There is a khezu whelp on a kushala daora scale/ dead body(?) on the very top of the mountain in MHF/U which makes khezu independent on caves but also spawns outside the caves. Also the rubbery skin and shape of the skeletons also suggest that they have common ancestor with gypceros.
Loved the video as always
Also, at the end I was literally wondering if you'd ever take a look at the MH3 "raptors" as I have a soft spot for all 3 of them, and just as I thought that the roars played and I was instatly like "YES"
JAGGI
Just making sure I post something on the vids from this playlist I watched early. I'm blown away every episode I learn so much here this is nuts
your work is incredible, thank you for all of your videos, im only a few in and i am obsessed with all your mh analyses, thank you!
I think an interesting thing to note that lends credence to Khezu having a weak bite but also indicates that it could feed on larger prey even before confirmation in Rise, is that it has acidic saliva. It could begin breaking down larger prey, making it easier to rip chunks of flesh from them and it also likely allow it to eat the tougher small monsters, like rhenoplos, as the saliva would help it get through the shell, similar to Deviljho's saliva. When Khezu "chews" I like to believe its mostly just using the saliva to start breaking food down, since it doesn't really have the teeth for chewing.
I also find it pretty interesting that Khezu is the only monster that seems to ground itself when using electrical attacks, which might indicate that it doesn't have the same resistance to it as other thunder monsters do or that it produces more electricity than its body can handle and it has no other method to vent exccess electricity like some monsters do. Monsters like Zinogre and Tobi don't seem to produce enough electricity naturally to utilise it despite having lightning sacs, (at least in Iceborne in Zinogre's case), relying on thunderbugs and static respectively to use it instead. Other monsters like Lagiacrus have organs to release the lightning like the shell shockers. Others still just don't produce the electricity naturally like Rajang instead relying on their diet.
I just think it's an interesting part of Khezu's ecology that it needs to ground itself while other monsters don't.
Sorry for the long comment, I didn't realise how much I'd written. I love these videos and can't wait for the next one, they're amazing! Thank you very much for making them!
Oh and also, I think an episode of the Future Predator would be really cool cause I loved Primeval when I was younger. (Atlhough both ideas sound great)
Yeah, it's a little detail I've always loved about khezu too. People often rag on the 1st gen monsters for their outdated movesets, but the attention to detail in each one was fantastic for little details like that.
And yeah acidic saliva definitely helps khezu overcome his likely weak bite.
I don't think Zinogre gave lightning sacs in iceborne.
Khezu is easily one of my favorite monsters so thanks for the insights
You never fail to make such informative but also entertaining videos. I really hope you blow up soon
Thank you! Despite the positive words I always get I do wonder if my videos are too formal for huge success, but we'll see.
Woah.. Speculative biology/zoology + Monster Hunter.. That’s like you combined my two favorite things here.. Keep it up though
Thank you! Hope you'll keep watching!
“Fatty meat from a Pale Khezu. Looks tasty, but cannot be eaten.”
I gagged a bit.
Khezu is unironically one of my favorite monsters in the series.
OH BOY, I Love The Jaggi and its subspecies!
Also, At 5:48 if Gigginox has reduced accuracy in how it locates prey maybe that's why its attacks are based around covering as much ground as possible. When it attacks with its head it makes huge sweeping motions and the poison attacks do spread out a lot.
Very good notion, it definitely makes sense as to why his attacks are so AoE based if it's struggling to locate you.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel Yeah, even Khezu does something similar with its stretchy neck.
Great Jaggi call is so iconic
In my top 5 roars for sure.
These two are among my favorite MonHun designs, as they stand out as feeling more like animals in an environment than magical creatures in a video game.
For Baleful Gigginox, I'd assumed it was just a partial evolution, probably influenced by getting the electricity second hand (via fulgurbug or thunderbug colonies, as a symbiote, perhaps) as a replacement for a poison that wasn't working as well, perhaps due to wandering into an environment with lots of other poison-using creatures. (While rather illogical in real-world biology, in MonHun's universe most poisonous creatures are also highly resistant to poison).
I just found this channel and love all the videos; good work on all of them. As for Baleful, perhaps it works off of some sort of Electroreception like a shark (and maybe the normal Gigginox does as well). I know very little about zoology, but if it works outside of water (or at least in damp caves) it could be a way to sense prey. Perhaps gigginox is an offshoot of baleful that relied less on electroreception/electrogenesis to get by, or vice versa.
Khezu was my favorite monster when I first started playing in monster hunter freedom.
It was so weird and creepy and different, definitely left an impressions
I'm so stoked you played Khezu's theme throughout the whole video.
Dude I can't believe it's taken this long for a channel like this to pop up!
I've stumbled upon your videos recently and I will say your videos are probably some of the best biology analysis videos for Monster Hunter. I really like your speculation on Khezu's pigment possibly from it just spending it's life in a cave rather than being an albino(which honestly I do lean towards now thinking about it). Both Gigginox and Khezu are pretty interesting monsters to their own right(even though Gigginox is a better fight and definitely should come back since she's been gone for so long)
Thank you so much!
I do fear if Gigginox isn't back in MH6 or its DLC its goose may well be cooked.
Another fantastic video, your interpretation of the pair seems really fitting all things considered. In regards to baleful I always assumed, if it isn't a propery subspecies, perhaps a mutation that retained the electric organs of its ancestors, assuming they share a common ancestor.
As for my personal thoughts, Gigginox is among my favorites and khezu my least favorites. Sure khezu's "creepiness" is fitting, but it just seems so poorly suited for its habitat compared to Gigginox, its body plan is just not made to be crawling around ceilings. Not to mention its fight is either really boring or really annoying and the lack of music makes the fight even less engaging. I do hope we see Gigginox come back at some point, give it some overdue love.
When you get around to Brachydios, unless you do him solo, you should pair him with Vaal Hazak as both seem to have a symbiotic relationship with microbial live used for both offense and defense.
I doubt he would do a brachy video as I remember him going in hard in one video about how the whole design and slime relationship was not too well done
"That one weirdo at Capcom who genuinely seems to think Khezu looks like an absolute snack." Okay, that killed me. Who the hell can look at Khezu and think, "Looks tasty"?!
You've done deviljho and serrigios, are you planning on tackling Bazelgause?
Absolutely!
Something I think Gigginox could do with the kill freezing for lardering is something like this:
1. Large prey is caught and killed, the cytotoxins in its venom partially digesting bite sites into slurry that the gigginox can slurp up.
2. Excess prey is stored high in their deep caves, keeping it closer to the cold of the surface but deep in the larder for protection. Stored prey and its partially digested body parts are preserved via freezing.
3. When Gigginox decides to feed upon it again, it brings its frozen prey down into the lower part of the deep caves, where temperatures are likely a fair bit higher than they are closer to the surface(even in deep winter, large caves can maintain a temperature of up to 55 degrees Fahrenheit). Prey thaws, and the thawing process softens the meat up even further due to the freezing process causing cell damage/bursting. Gigginox subjects the thawed food to more digestive fluids, softening it even further in the area it wishes to feed.
4. Prey is lardered again if it's still in condition to be fed upon, or left as refuse in the lower cave if not.
I'm willing to posit that the ancestor to Khezu was likely much, much smaller, and Khezu's present size is an example of insular gigantism. Much like an island, the cave habitat is highly secluded, and their tendency to swallow prey whole necessitated a larger mouth, and thus a larger body. Insulation against the cooler cave temperatures, too, would be provided by this larger size, and it would make them less vulnerable to trogloxene predators that they may encounter.
I also find it likely that their ancestor was, essentially, a weasel-like wyvern, at least in terms of build and predation habits. A body designed for pursuing prey into burrows could lend itself well to cave life. It may have started out as an outsider to the caves itself, simply finding the cave to be a favorable environment for hunting, similar to the evolution of marine mammals. A long, slender build with loose skin that allows it to slip in and out of burrows eventually gave way to the almost amorphous, blobby, and stretchy form of Khezu and Gigginox as it became isolated inside caves.
Glad I found this Channel! Its exacly what i was looking for!
I like Khezu! Hes awesome looking and hes fight is fun. I love how nothing plays during the fight aswell!
I like giginox and wish I could Fight Him but ive only played throw:
MhW
MhIB
MhRise
MhGenU
I hope you speak about insects aswell.
Thank you! A neopteran video is definitely on the cards.
Would love to see giant cave system maps in the future. Not only could we get more monsters like Khezu and Giginox but we could also have more monsters centered around mineral consumption like Dodogama and Uragaan, bat like wyverns, and maybe even more neopterans and temnocerans. A fanged beast with similar behaviors to that of moles would also be a fun addition.
Aww buttons. I was hoping to see Khezu and Gigginox interact in Rise. And/or I was REALLY hoping for a turf war where it punks a Deviljho by lighting up in its mouth.
Thank you again for these incredible, intriguing videos.
Also portia represent. Far and away my favorite invertebrate with fascinating behaviors whom I'd love to see as the inspiration for a temnoceran. (Though I also almost want a carapaceon based on the mantis shrimp.)
Khezu in rise is shown feeding at night where it's sightless nature gives it less of an disadvantage. Khezu may have adapted its electrical powers to sense electricity in its prey in caves, the darkness of the night, or blizzards.
I'd also like to note that khezu use "sacs" in their electrical nonsense, which to me implies an organic battery for mass storage of gradually-produced bioelectricity, and that battery acid would likely be the source of gigginox's toxin supply. the change makes sense given the differing sensory specializations too, venom derived from battery acid is likely to make a lot of very bad smells, but the heat generated would disperse through the ground/water rather quickly, while electric attacks are more likely to interfere with the thermal vision of the attacker, but produce fewer notable strong odors to confuse scent sorting.
I miss Gigginox quite a bit, on top of having a fun armor set. I enjoyed the fight a lot. It's a shame we have only seen them in 3.
Oh this is gonna be good!
@@unnaturalhistorychannel just finished and I LOVED this video! I really enjoyed your theory on the evolution of these creepy creatures.
Something I thought of regarding their morphology, Gigginox moreso, is how the tail of the animals makes for a rather convincing false head, if they're preyed upon by anything like say a Kushala, they might have evolved this trait to give themselves a reliable, if costly escape option
@@ganonsbaker3026 It's an interesting though, especially as if it received extreme damage to its tail end it would really neuter reproductive ability. I definitely think it's still a likely antipredator mechanism. And thank you once again!
When it comes to Khezu and Gigginox having moist/wet hides it could be an adaption to allow for as much gaseous exchange in cave systems for such a large creature. This is considering caves in reality do have lower oxygen levels than when compared to being on the surface.
There is an average 4-6% less percent oxygen in caves than on the surface
Give us that Khezu vs Gigginox turf war Capcom
Ew indeed...
love this video and ur channel!!!
Seeing the suggestion for All Tomorrows b4 blew up as a video is kinda cool
Dude I would love to see the Gigginox again. I.. well I loved it's weapons more than it's armor set, but man... I love the Gigginox as a monster.
You sound like some kind of excentric English/French naturalist from late 1800's, idk if it is intentional, but i actually like it and think it fits the theme of your videos really well, keep up the great content!
My identity is busted...
I remember reading something about Gigginox catching a ride as babies on other life forms and dropping off latter much like the land sharks, Zamtrious. It could be that the mother helps they reach a certain size but then they find a prey item to stick to till they get big enough to fend for themselves. They do attach themselves to you after all. Up to three at a time. That last observation is from my own time hunting them.
I love Khezu's music, it adds to the fight
Yep, the Khezu Ecology video with the kelbi is still as stomach-churning as it was when I was a kid.
Your videos are outstanding and I will send my entire hunting squad to study them!
Much appreciated!
An idea about Khezu and the Kushala Daora in the Snowy Mountains: Since Khezu whelps are presumably placed with a live host (why bury your children within a frozen rusted husk) I wonder if their leeching off of the Kushala encouraged it to moult faster, either through the elder directly wanting to combat the whelps draining it, or through the whelps leeching minerals that the Kushala needed to maintain it's metallic skin. In the former idea maybe it was possible the dragon deliberately allowed it's outer coating to deteriorate so that it might rid itself of the whelps sooner.
If this isn't the case, and the Khezu whelps were placed in the shed skin after it had been discarded, then it could be evidence that they are much more cold resistant than first thought.
Or who knows, maybe some latent dragon energy helped keep them alive for longer, incubating them until the hunter in Freedom 2 had to deliver them.
I'm no Wyvernologist,
Ornithology and Entomology were more my thing in college.
I love Gigginox. I have been ever so sad they haven't returned, not even in the Stories games.
Gigginox was one of the first monsters I ever ran into. I immedietely liked it, it's so weirdly ugly cute. I think it was part of a demo where I was meant to hunt Lagompi? Was kinda sad when I found out how dang rarely it appears.
These two have always been intresting with how in a world dominated by dragons,dinosaur like creatures,mammals and all kinds of many leged beasties you have two odd balls in a cave,with their softer flexible bodies and their eyeless creepy smiles. Was fun learning more about them and how cave ecosystems are and work in our world. And dam are Caecilians metal, like I knew already some things from them that make them cool but I didnt know about the skin feeding thing.
Looking forward to whats next,as well as the Future Predator and World Of Kong talk,love seen spec evo talks.
Also I have a slight question. What do you think of the intelegence of Elder Dragons? Cause on one hand you have ones like Teostra and Lunastra who are pretty smart but act like animals and then you have Ibushi and Narwa who though the resonating with the Wyverian twins we technically get a translation of their thoughts and emotions, and the fact that they translate into things like "paradice" or "architect" dont really feel like they are just intelegent animals.
For one I personally don't subscribe to the theory of all elders being human-level intelligent. Whilst they may be smarter than most wyverns (possibly), they don't really display any major behaviours that suggest great cognitive abilities. It's hard to imagine them falling so easily to humans if they're that smart too.
And yeah with the wind snakes jesus christ I will admit I hated that. It's possible those are the human translations of such thoughts rather than the snakes having a language. Ignoring the telepathy BS, it's also just raises a lot of questions. Did Ibushi just want to die despite being so smart? Despite his intelligence is he unaware Narwa will eat him? Or was Narwa just cruel for her kind and being deceptive? Quite the mess.
From what a friend of mine speculates he sugested that Ibushi and Narwa are kinda similar to Rathalos and Rathin in that the male protects the nesting area from the sky,while the female is in the nest with the young,tho here after the eggs hatch they go their seperate ways only for the pair to meet again after another 50 years. Only this time in time Ibushi got the crap cicked out of him,and Narwa fell down a cave where she was probably starving,then the hunters show up again,and bring Ibushi to the brink of death and he falls down there as well. Here my friend paid close atention to their movements and sounds. With Narwa at first keeping her distance from both us and Ibushi,and after Ibushi makes a particular call he doesnt make usally,she starts moving closer but stays silent,and thats when the music starts. He sugests that this is when Ibushi realises his bassically dying,and his mate is weakend from the lack of food,and she and their potential ofspirng are in danger from the hunters,so he willingly sacrafies himself to Narwa so she can have a last chance at defending their young. And he also pointed out to me how she went for a clean blow that killed him almost instantly so he wouldnt be in much pain. After that in the fight proper her movements are more eratic and savage compared to her normal fight, as shes fuled with fury at the fall of her mate and the one who brought his downfall. Another friend was also able to find the sentence "Azure Dragon Father" in the lyrics so it can be interpeted as Narwa thanking Ibushi for his sacrafice?
Granted this these theorys could be wrong and easly dissproven as soon as we get sth like the Rise Art Book or some other cannon trustworthy sorce so who knows.
And yeah I must say while I like Narwa and Ibushi they definetly feel like the most removed from the natural and animalistic aproach that the series is mainly know for when it comes to the creatures that inhabit it. Even Fatalis feels more normal then they do.
@@fang609 It's not a bad shout, and is certainly some good effort put into theory crafting, it's as good an interpretation as you could ask for without more info.
Yeah, that whole aspect of them just felt plain non-MH. It's a series that has always tried to remain grounded despite it's extreme elements and the telepathy + language aspect felt like pure and pretty typical fantasy, and not in any especially meaningful way. Eugh.
Yeah it kinda does doesnt it. Even with Rise taking a more,"mythical" aproach to the monsters,with many of the new ones been based on Yokai,and the monster and map themes. Also yeah its kinda disapointing they bring up this "resonating" thing all of a sudden and they dont try to explain it or even give us some implications of why it happens.Like I get that theres some more unexplained stuff like what the everstream or dragon element are kinda magicalish but still make sence in the world,and they arent as out there as "Wyverians can telepathically sence emotions and feelings of monsters now"
more people should subscribe in you man, this is awesome.
Thank you!
I'll never forget how chilling it was to fight the Gig for the first time, especially if I was only out harvesting resources. That THING would find me, like it had heat-seek (which it DOES have) and stalked me down silently. No boss music, no alert to its presence. It would simply see me, and the fighting would begin.
Reminds me of the Crawlers from the Descent.
Oh my god I just found this series and I think I’m in love.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, I tried to find info for it but Google couldn’t give me the answers I needed. What exactly is the difference between cytotoxic venoms and digestive enzymes? Is it classification? Is it just semantics? You mentioned some animals use it to help digest their food, so are they only similar in function?
Giginox was the first monster i knew with name and still my favorite
Thanks For The vídeo and How i didn't find your Channel earlier?
I believe the Gigginox' eating habits are similar to that of the velvet worm: using a circular row of teeth to saw through the tough parts and directly sucking out the softer tissue. This would explain the ice gnawing.
As far as the Gigginox parenting habits are concerned, I propose it's a matter of age. That is to say that perhaps younger mothers leave their young out in the open because of inexperience where as the more seasoned females have learned that keeping their offspring close is the superior tactic.
Interestingly, the opposite could also be true. That the younger females may be clingy or overprotective and that's why they keep their Gigglets so close while older females have learned that leaving their young exposed gives them the chance to escape predators and/or competition so that they may reproduce later down the line. Similar to certain marsupials who will drop their young or even give birth mid chase to preserve their own lives. The mother lives, the predator gets an easy meal, everyone wins... Wait
The hole in my logic being do the females learn from each other or does instinct kick in over time?
I love these videos do zamtrios next please
There's a schedule I'm going down right now but zamtrios is now on the list too!
according to the wiki, Giggi (the babies, not the adults) appear in game in the Deserted Island, Flooded Forest, Tundra, Sandy Plains, and Volcano (3rd), not just the tundra.
I remember that there are giggi in the deserted island, (although just about everything is there)
I remember seeing em in the Sandy Plains, not in the Flooded Forest but it has a cave so I can see it.
Yeah, I feel that was an odd oversight on the developers putting gigis everywhere. It's interesting to speculate they may even had escaped from traders or something.
To me, I love how the Gigginox's body looks mirrored, I like to imagine that its body is like this so any potential enemy/predator wont know which the head and tail are, even the tips of the wings look like fingertips thus creating more of the illusion
I'm reminded of the Khezu welp you can find on top of the snow mountain map inside a dragon carcass. the carcass isn't in a location khezu can get to. so the laying prey with welp eggs and them consuming the host from the inside might have come from that. you can pick up a whelp from the carcass and its a carry to cap quest item. your hp constantly goes down while you have it with you
I remember the first time I saw a Khezu, scariest moment of my life when one ran full speed at me
With the way monsters move through the ground in game I'm sure there are no shortage of monsters that fall into caves from holes they didn't know where there.
I miss the gigginox, last game he was in was MH3U. Meanwhile the khezu has been in just about every main game that came out after 3U, its just not the same
I always thought that similar to bee queens gigginox kept producing eggs and have very little controll over laying them given that they just sit there and lay them even when attacked in critical conditions, some invertebrates tend to mass preduce as a survival strategy.
You should consider that in MH the caves seem to be filled with a lot of animals from small herbivores and insects, to other wyverns. Therefore, although it doesn't make much sense for them to be huge in our world, perhaps the nutrients they need to be large is available in MH.
Alternatively, they could also leave their caves at night to hunt. I I do remember Khezu in 3G electrocuted either a Popo or a Velociprey in its opening cutscene.
21:50 I understand your opinion on this however I think witchever you prefer maybe because of the culture and region you're in.
Most Japanese player I have played with prefer khezu while many veterans from the west prefer giginox.
I find it's weird because I found no religious reference or folklore that has depictions that can make people has different preference between the two.
What bother me more is the fact that I'm doing these kind of research for an entire day instead of anything else that can benefit me because people in the community are having different preference between this two monsters.
I'm a western veteran (started in 2005 with the first game) and overall I'd say I'm 50/50 on the two, although this seems to make me more favourable to khezu than most other westerners who often hate him.
Perhaps it's just that the western classic-MH community is more nostalgic for MH3, while the Japanese crowd started from the very start? Not that I have numbers to back either claim up.
On the old games we had missions to get Khezu whelps and some of them could be got from a Kushala Daora sheded skin. Is this something related to the Khezu biology of finding sustainable growth from such thing or Kushala leaves lots of meat and blood behind?
I'm not sure about where Khezu Whelps are stored but I'm not sure about them being stored in living animal bodies. You can find Whelps living around in bushes or some cover. I think that instead whelps latch themselves onto their prey and absord what they can get as reference to how you can collect some and how it will slowly eat away at your health
Could you do one with monster using other animals to it's advantage, mostly zinogre?
I think they are Troglobiont, Giginox at least. Because even though the adults can venture out, the young rely on caves for their growth.
Khezu definitely gives me strong cave salamander vibes, and it and gigginox are probably either a very very distant relative of modern day reptilian wyverns that just hasn’t evolved, or some sister branch of the tree that’s only tangentially related like tuataras and lizards.
Made me spit out my coffee. Goddamn Gigglits
I saw a khezu irl in a cave in Guatemala in 1986
Khezu is absolutely Subtroglophile. Khezu primarily live in caverns in cold regions, but frequently venture outside for food before returning to their favorite caverns. They can also spend prolonged time outside of a cave in warmer seasons or warmer climates (they'll inhabit bog caves just as readily as tundra caverns), and they even migrate between caves without trouble. Gigginox I have much less experience with, so I can't really speak to their status.
Khezu are known to use electroreception to help locate prey when they're in their rage state. Their skin crackles with live electricity, and they can likely feel faint electric arcs between them and nearby electrically-conductive creatures. Khezu are much more accurate with their attacks when enraged, and are much less likely to miss a target unless it moves very erratically. It's this electroreceptive sense and their ability to generate powerful electric shocks that allow them to hunt actively as well as from ambush.
Cave wyverns don't really need a specialized scenario. In the monster hunter world, Khezu is among the smaller flying wyverns, barely bigger than some of the largest bird wyverns. Since larger insects like Hornetaur, Bnahabara and Vespoids exist, all it would take would be an electrically-capable wyvern native to cold regions to take up a cavedwelling lifestyle for safety and shelter and become subtroglophilic thanks to evolutionary pressure. In fact, Khezu may have been eutroglophilic or a true troglobiont - long enough to lose its eyes and pigment - before returning to its current subtroglophile behavior. And electric wyverns that eat insects primarily are known to exist; that's Astalos in a nutshell. Who knows, maybe Astalos and Khezu share a common ancestor at some point before one became an active hunter and the other a cave ambusher.
just want to say really like your videos, I find them quite interesting in their explanations. however may I ask if you will be making one about the pseudo wyvern class of monsters? just want to know.
I'll be making one for each pseudowyvern! And thank you!
thank you for the response sir. the pseudo wyvern are my favorite monsters:)
In tri its mentioned that Gigginox has thousands of little teeth it uses to grind down frozen prey like a popsickle
Khezus grandma always calls him handsome
while giginox may see via pit organs.
I still think Khezu works more similar to... sharks,I think?
sensing the electromagetic flow coming from all living things.
Rise kinda giving a bonus nudge toward this theory in how if you get paralized Khezu is more likely to specifically hunt you out first.
i love khezu fight where as i hate gignox fight most of the time. but khezu will always be best boi. kinda glad my first cart in rise was to khezu tbh even tho hes super easy in rise but i didnt have green shaprness yet and bounced to my death.