Monster Hunter fans on reddit are having a blast trying to answer an important question: Do the Wyverian people lay eggs?
Admittedly, it’s been a hot minute since the last major content update for Monster Hunter Rise. With Sunbreak being announced, it’s safe to assume that, at best we’re only getting sticker quests and remixed old ones until then.
It all started on Twitter, with fans asking the seemingly-innocent yet somehow sinister-sounding question: Do the Wyverian people of Monster Hunter, descended from Wyverns, lay eggs?
The logic was sound- Wyverns lay eggs. Many of the worst quests in every Monster Hunter are dedicated to you having to carry these eggs all across the map. Using what’s called phylogenetic bracketing, it’s safe to hypothesize that anything within the Wyvern family would, in fact, also lay eggs (Much like how housecats giving birth makes a prehistoric cat giving birth a pretty good shot).
Here’s the problem- when applying real-world methodology, it’s easy to do so with two housecats because they look similar. Wyverians and Wyverns don’t actually look all that similar, considering one of them is an anime girl.
There’s also the platypus problem: By all accounts, a platypus is a mammal. Against all odds, though, they lay eggs. In the fictional corner, there’s also the Palamute problem: despite being dogs in every aspect, the Canynes are shown to also hatch from eggs.
So, Do Wyverians Lay Eggs?
The discussion on Reddit is largely circular- alternating between “Yes because [real world example]”, “No because [more real world sample]” and my personal favorite, “Why does this thread exist”-type answers.
The discussion has ramped up enough that community influencer Kogath even roped in Capcom’s localization team to give their personal thoughts on the matter.
“Man… I have no idea either but I refuse to believe my beloved Hinoa and Minoto lay eggs…“, write Aizo Yurei in a tweet, before changing their Twitter bio to confirm that Hinoa and Minoto from Monster Hunter Rise are not platypuses.
😤😤😤😤 pic.twitter.com/ZMz3tgFr9i
— 🍡aizo yurei 🍡 (@aizoyurei) December 29, 2021
Tim Van Ingen even came up with his own answer, bound to make everyone happy:
Of course, none of this actually matters. The Monster Hunter subreddit has had a field day making egg memes, all while people who are here just to share their builds look on in horror as the cute quest givers biology continue to be speculated on.