One man born every 100 years is a myth?

[Dio]

Now in OOT we are told that only one man is born to the gerudo tribe once every 100 years.
However this seems unlikely to be true. There is no biological reason for an entire tribe to only have one member give birth to a male every century. Because Hyrule Historia leaves most of the questions about the series unanswered I have thought of my own ideas, some of how this one man every hundred years could become an accepted tale.

Idea one. All Gerudo are in on perpetuating the rumor but in truth they actually discard their male offspring except for every hundred years when one is allowed to live.

Idea two. All males are segregated trained and brainwashed, becoming Iron Knuckles. These serve Ganondorf and Twinrova and bear the gerudo design on the cloth part of their armour. Nabooru became an iron knuckle when Twinrova brainwashed her. Also the character models of iron knuckles in OOT contain gerudo. Yes they are female but it just shows there is someone meant to be in there.

Idea three. Kotake and Koume demand male children be handed over to them and they make a delicious stew from them because that's just what crones tend to do. It is possible they give it to their surrogate son which would explain why he is so big and strong when the tribe seem to live off a single cow.

What do you think about it. Why do they only have one male born every hundred years? Is it a magical curse or is one man born every 100 years just the story told and not the truth behind it?

 

[Pen]

Idea two. All males are segregated trained and brainwashed, becoming Iron Knuckles. These serve Ganondorf and Twinrova and bear the gerudo design on the cloth part of their armour. Nabooru became an iron knuckle when Twinrova brainwashed her. Also the character models of iron knuckles in OOT contain gerudo. Yes they are female but it just shows there is someone meant to be in there.

This is actually an idea I've had myself while thinking about this in the past. It would make sense since there has to be someone underneath that armor.

However, ultimately I think it's all just the work of magic. We know there are numerous unanswered questions in the Zelda universe and since it's a very fantasy based world I'd say magic is likely to be the cause. With magic we don't need any logical biological explanation to this. Instead we can just simply accept the fact that there truly only is one male Gerudo borne every 100 years.

 

[Dan]

Kotake and Koume making stew of them seems to be the most promising theory, not to mention an idea for a cooking mama spin off.

 

[AncientPoe]

Idea: females who give birth to males are brainwashed by Koume and Kotake, and turned into Iron Knuckles (so they can't tell anyone what they birthed). Male bodies are discarded into the wastes. Their spirits become the Guide Spirit, leading you into the desert so that you can kill those Servile Serpent Sisters and bring them peace.

Edit, afterthought: Your first idea is highly unlikely, as it implies that your average Gerudo woman is aware of the deceit. However, Nabooru is genuinely surprised to learn the evil intentions of Ganondorf and the witch sisters, which to me implies that their society on the whole is not going along with some grand lie. Additionally, I don't believe that 100 years worth of mothers would discard that many children without creating some sort of unrest in their society. It would be much easier to deal with such matters in a clandestine fashion, and blame the disappeared mother-to-be on death during childbirth.

Additionally, on the matter of iron knuckles, it's possible that the body serves for so long that it dies, leaving behind only the spirit and armor, the flesh long since turning to dust inside. That might be why no corpse is visible as the Iron Knuckle does. (just a cool bit of flavor, not a real theory)

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/threa...-only-one-male-is-born-every-100-years.48739/

I posted a similar thread awhile back which I have linked, it contains some interesting discussion on the matter. My theory was that males probably are born but killed to keep the whole idea that only one male is born every 100 years alive. Either that, or a male is born as some sort of divine gift by their dieties - it is a videogame afterall.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Gotta ask, if you claim that the males are being turned into Iron Knuckles (which i doubt) then why were the gerudo's imprisoning the carpenters? Also no i don't believe there are any males for a 100 years otherwise one of the Gossip Stones wouldn't state that they go to hyrule market seeking boyfriends

 

[Justac00lguy]

I've never taken it literally, I've always thought of it as a tradition of even some kind of law. Here's a post of mine around a year ago:

I don't think we can solely rely on that one quote; for all we know it could be just to please their relationship desires. The quote, mentioned by the Gossip Stone, doesn't refer to any male being born, In fact--if you analyse it closely--it doesn't really fall in line with one male being born every hundred years. First off it says "sometimes", which seems kind of random to me. It doesn't seem like any special birth, but just that they occasionally find partners in Hyrule. Also notice the plural: "boyfriends". The fact that they search for multiple doesn't seem like any special one off birth to me.

Anyway here is another quite which refers to a male being born:

Nabooru: A kid like you may not know this, but the Gerudo race consists only of women. Only one man is born every hundred years... Even though our laws say that lone male Gerudo must become King of the Gerudo, I'll never bow to such an evil man!

Ok so I think it's pretty well established now that only one male can be born every century and this seems to be subject of some sort of law they have adopted.

Here's another quote and a slightly more detailed one:

Nabooru: Once every 100 years, a special child is born unto my people. That child is destined to be the mighty guardian of the Gerudo and the desert. But this child, its heart grew twisted with every passing year. The child became a man who hungered for power at any price.

Look at some of the wording used here: "special", "destiny", "guardian" - these words all seem to imply that this birth isn't exactly a natural birth by a Gerudo mating with a Hylian. Nabooru also says that this male child is "born unto my people" as if it is a gift and not just any old child being born.

Finally I guess we could also look at the one male Gerudo we actually know of, Ganondorf. Look at him, he doesn't seem to resemble the typical Gerudo and he definitely doesn't resemble a Hylian. All signs point at an extra-ordinary child which fits the description of a special, destined child being born. Also, where is Ganondorf's actual mother? Why would he need to be adopted by his surrogate mothers, Kotake and Koume? Sure I guess there could be an explanation, but all this doesn't add up. I just can't imagine a special birth coming from random visit to Hyrule from the Gerudo woman, it seems too informal. A mighty guardian born into monarchy seems like a special occasion. I guess I could reference what little I know of the Bible here. Jesus was in some ways born to lead and it was completely fabricated by a greater being which isn't beyond what happens in Hyrule mythos that's for sure.

Overall we don't know for sure what exactly happens so most of my theory is speculation based on small details; however I think it's slightly more fitting for a special birth than the whole male Hylian kidnap theory.

 

[Dio]

Gotta ask, if you claim that the males are being turned into Iron Knuckles (which i doubt) then why were the gerudo's imprisoning the carpenters? Also no i don't believe there are any males for a 100 years otherwise one of the Gossip Stones wouldn't state that they go to hyrule market seeking boyfriends

Well the Gerudo themselves dont practice magic. Only Koume and Kotake, perhaps even Ganondorf can brainwash someone. So if that was their intent to turn the carpenters into iron knuckles.(Which I dont think it was as they are not physically trained to fight. They were probably going to be eaten or something) the carpenters would need imprisoning until either Ganondorf or Twinrova arrived to cast the spell. As we know Ganondorf was in his castle and Twinrova was hanging out at the spirit temple so therefore unable to do anything about the carpenters at the time link saw them.

Gerudo need to make their numbers up dont they, so of course they need to have a male impregnate them. Ganondorf can't be the only one to give the tribe children or else eventually they would all become inbred. Nor can they use the other Gerudo males who I am saying would be killed at birth or taken to become Iron Knuckles and of course segregated from regular female members of the tribe. Therefore they use Hylian men to breed with.

Look for boyfriends is a polite way of putting that they go out and rape Hylian men or at the least just use them for sex. As the Gerudo in the game clearly despise men and dont respect them, apart from 'the great Ganondorf', they aren't going to be entering into a relationship with one.

 

[ReveredPartisan]

Idea 1 is pretty much exactly my line of thinking. Here's my theory:

The Gerudo likely originated as a collection of different nomadic clans scattered throughout the desert. With little resources, such as water, life was a bitter struggle; their way of life couldn't sustain any more than a small family.

As desertification occurs, as referenced in Skyward Sword, the Gerudo population becomes so pressed for sustenance and so thinly spread that, eventually, parents start leaving their newborns to die in the desert, specifically the males. Why the males? Well, one man can have multiple children across different mothers with ease; whereas one woman would struggle biologically to birth an entire clan, and would at least suffer severe physical consequences. In a society where every hand is needed, this would be unacceptable.

So essentially, we now have a collection of clans each with one man and many women. While this is merely for practical purposes, as the centuries, possibly even millennia crawl by, this practice becomes engrained in Gerudo tradition, and eventually even theology. The Gerudo come to revere their sole male leader as a divine figure, and see it as their sacred obligation to dispose of other, "worthless" males. The initial sense of practicality is, while still present, lost in the eyes of the Gerudo. The male comes to embody the identity and the sovereignty of a clan; and any who would challenge that are challenging the sacred order.

Eventually, the Hylians return to the Surface following SS and establish their own kingdoms. Consequentially, trade routes and exchanges are opened across cultural boundaries, and the Gerudo are no longer forced to carry out the harsh lives they had for millenia. Exposure to new technologies (especially new weapons) and economic revolution allow the Gerudo to unify under a single assemblage of clans, the Gerudo Tribe, and new forms of sustenance (and mating oppurtunities, wink wink, nudge nudge) render the need for multiple males useless. As a symbol of his divine right to rule, and for the sake of his consolidation of autocratic power, the new Gerudo King would likely have all males other than himself executed; and the practice of leaving newborn males to die in the wastelands would, of course, continue on religious principle. Only once every hundred years (approximately) would a male be truly "born" to the Gerudo, endowed with the right to rule.

Obviously, explaining this encompassed a lot of material other then the initial question, but ultimately it was necessary to support a lot of the concepts.

 

[Random Person]

We can't assume something is false simply because it doesn't make sense in our reality because Hyrule doesn't exist in our reality. If we go by this logic, we must also assume that Deku Scrubs are really people disguised as plants because plants can't talk; or that Farore's wind must be some type of advanced science because teleportation hasn't been invented. If a continuity says "a male once every 100 years." there's no reason to assume it's lying unless specific evidence of this world is brought forth against it. Especially when you take into account that this is a world of magic which makes anything possible. In magic realms, magic is often automatically endowed in its creatures. There just could be something magical that ensures only one male is born.

Bottom line, proof is required before reasonable doubt of existing canon can be made.