Goron biology

[Alita the Pun]

Ok, so I've been thinking recently. How do Gorons avoid becoming helplessly dizzy? You see, humans have a thing called an ear. This ear has many parts. One of them, is the eardrum. Now the ear drum contains a special sensory fluid. When it is disturbed by vibrations of sound waves, it translates that frequency into a recognizable sound. They determines the way we hear things. This fluid is also essential for our balance. If it tilts the wrong way, we adjust because it sends sensory information to the brain. When a human spins around enough, the fluid compensates by spinning along with the person so he/she will not lose balance. When that person stops however, the fluid keeps spinning because of the momentum the spinning caused. This makes us dizzy.

Gorons do not have any recognizable ears but for the most part, the humanoid creatures of the Zelda universe seem to keep in line with human biology.

The Goron Roll is on of the most popular and efficient means of transportation for Gorons. This rapid spinning would make a human extremely dizzy. But it does not seem to affect the Goron.

Snakes do not have ears, they have slits that revive sound waves and that wave hits their jaw bone in a certain way so that they can hear what is going on around them. Since they do not have eardrums, the cannot physically be dizzy.

So, do Gorons have this type of hearing ability or do they have gyroscopic eardrums? Perhaps they have another form of hearing. Let me know what you think!

 

[Dr. Plague]

I think that this is a great theory! I love bringing in real-world biology to make sense of things like this. It would make more sense to have a solid sound transmitter, i.e. bone, rather than a tympanic membrane and fluid. This would also allow Gorons to have extra-sensitive hearing because sound travels much faster and more acutely through solids rather than liquids or gases, like we have.

 

[Dr. Plague]

Similarly, Zoras would need something like the Gorons. Probably a solid sound transmission because they can have no air spaces within their body. As they dive down, those spaces would compress and cause them pain and probably biological damage. Think swimming down to the bottom of a pool, how your ears hurt. Humans can regulate this, however, because we can redirect air from our lungs into the air spaces in our ears and equalize them. But zoras, because in the water, they would breather through gills, or some sort of pulmonary oxygen-water extraction, would have no air to equalize their air spaces.

 

[Alita the Pun]

This is true! but you also see that Zora have ears, and quite large ones too! Why would they be there if they had no purpose? I think they have the same type hearing system as humans, but with a pressure release type mechanism. Think of a submarine, it has large pockets of air that it fills with water when need be. It subsequently sinks. Zora can breathe in and out of water. So they may be able to flood their lungs with water instead of using gills. This would allow them to dive because of the lack of air.

 

[Mipha]

I'm thinking they might hear from the volcano-esque opening on top of their head that they use to breathe underwater.

Either that or Nintendo didn't think anyone would notice the lack of ears

 

[Felixavier]

I'd be inclined to think that some part of their rock-like skin would be good at receiving vibrations and transmitting them to their "ears" which may be internal. I would imagine they have some sort of fluid (lava?) in their head that helps them balance. Definitely an interesting question though!

By that token, do deku scrubs have any visible ears? I can't recall.

 

[Mipha]

By that token, do deku scrubs have any visible ears? I can't recall.

no

 

[Alita the Pun]

Another question, Gorons are not affected by lava, but they can be burned by some fires. In MM Goron Link gets burned by fire that surrounds a treasure chest or switch. Also, all creatures can walk on lava like it's a stone floor in the Zelda games while in real life they would slowly sink. Are the properties of lava different in Hyrule?

 

[pyjamas5189]

I agree that maybe gorons have ears similar to that of a snake. As for the zoras maybe their ears are like cats in that they have a large pinna which focuses the sound down theear canal? Although I don't know how that would work with them underwater.
I was thinking for the fire maybe the fire surrounding chests have a magical property to them which is why its being used to protect something valuable and therefore it hurts even fir resistant creatures?

 

[Agent of Majora]

Fascinating indeed. Though it does make me feel even sorrier for poor Link seeing as how he would have to deal with all of that when he transforms.

 

[Mipha]

I agree that maybe gorons have ears similar to that of a snake. As for the zoras maybe their ears are like cats in that they have a large pinna which focuses the sound down theear canal? Although I don't know how that would work with them underwater.
I was thinking for the fire maybe the fire surrounding chests have a magical property to them which is why its being used to protect something valuable and therefore it hurts even fir resistant creatures?

Maybe they don't have ears and just hear like how fish do?

 

[Alita the Pun]

i don't believe Fish can actually hear, they have a strip that senses the vibrations in the water. This helps them sense what's around them and it is also how they move in schools.

 

[MrPsychoSlayer]

I think their inner ear is made of pixels and polygons that allow sound to travel within them.
In reality, I agree with your solid mass theory, other than the fact that sound doesn't travel more acutely through solids, but rather lower tones just travel further. You need air within it to be able to hear higher tones. Liquids allow sound to travel more easily, since their less dense, which is how we evolved this way. I could very easily be wrong, as I'm not exactly an expert. Just enjoy physics and biology.
My theory for the being able to walk in lava, but not touch the fire around chests is that perhaps the fire is just burning at such an intensity that it is able to burn hotter than lava would. It looks machine assisted, so there could be anything in it, in reality. Or perhaps it just fires out with such force, that it pushes Goron Link away.
Again. Just a theory.