Fridge / Monster Hunter

As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Fridge Brilliance

• The ecosystem of the world of Monster Hunter actually makes a lot of sense, and is practically tailor-made to produce an Adventure-Friendly World filled with monsters, while being the polar opposite of a Death World. The herbivores of the world are not only incredibly friendly and docile, but reproduce at an ungodly rate, judging by their omnipresence throughout the world. They can likely do this due to the fact that Elder Dragons produce huge amounts of bioenergy which supercharges plant growth and evolution, so they will always have a food supply; resources are literally not a problem. Thus, with the prey neither being a threat nor a limited supply, the only thing that pushes predators (including human civilization) to evolve is conflict with each other. This is why the world is absolutely saturated with thousands of species that have evolved for nothing but combat, including the occasional new subspecies with some new weaponized adaptation. Every organism has been honed into an apocalyptic killing machine because it lives in a world of apocalyptic killing machines.
  • No doubt this has also shaped human culture, hence why everyone joyfully participates in the tradition of being a Proud Warrior Race. Rivalry is literally the foundation the entire natural world is based on, and those rivals are endless species of Living Weapons.
• Monster Hunter Tri had a bit of one regarding Moga Woods/Deserted Island. Same layout, same resources, different names. Why? Then I read the spoiler on the main page under "Chaotic Good" and it hit me - the Guild was already aware of Ceadeus' presence near Moga Village and had issued the condemnation order in advance, but the bureaucratic maze between Guild headquarters and Moga Village kept the news from reaching the islanders! You were called in to handle the Lagiacrus report, which was also delayed for the same reason. Ah, the joys of bureaucracy...
• While in the city in online mode in Tri, you can't type any messages while eating to obtain food boosts. You can't talk while eating, because that's bad manners!
  • Also, an excellent way to get food lodged in your windpipe.
• Normally, when you play a game with Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, fire is trumped by water. Here, water is weak to fire. At first, someone might find this unusual. But think about it. What does water do in the presence of intense heat? It evaporates. Why do aquatic animals avoid those same temperatures? Because it makes the water in their bodies evaporate. When you use fire attacks, you deprive the monster of the moisture it needs to survive.
• Given its brethren, you'd think the Great Wroggi is weak to Fire, but no - it's weak to Water and Ice instead. This doesn't make sense until you realize that ice attacks chill the poison into a solid or gelatinous mass, which makes it harder to spray as a fine mist, and water dilutes the poison and weakens it.
  • Plus, having a big solid mass of frozen poison in your throat is probably pretty painful.
• Many forumites have wondered why the Agnaktor doesn't simply move to the areas of the Vocano hunting grounds with no lava, allowing its armor to harden and prevent being a Tactical Suicide Boss. The reason? Simple: Other monsters can survive contact with magma. But the Agnaktor? It lives in it. Odds are, it probably can't risk cooling down that much for that long, or its body simply won't function properly.
  • That lava covers a good portion of its body. It's possible that without repeated reheating, the lava will solidify so much that it restricts the Agnaktor's movement.
• The Lagiacrus' weakness to fire could be explained above. However, the most weak part of the lagiacrus to fire is the back, or the crystals that it uses to conduct electricity. One could wonder why, as it is the most hard looking part on the whole body, until one knows that increased heat reduces the electric conductibity of materials. Then it makes much more sense.
• Why are there no Rusted Kushala Daora materials? Simple, the hunters carve off the body parts and then scrape off the rust. After all, who wants a weapon that's naturally rusty?
  • Jossed in 4 Ultimate, as the Rusted Daora now gives unique materials labeled as "Steelrust". Then again, the smiths might have only recently discovered how to work the "rusted" materials, plus the Steelrust parts are described as being taken from Daora right before its molting period, so they may yet be supple at that point.
    • However, the RKD weapons all have terrible Affinity ratings, because they're covered in rust.
• The "minions" keep on attacking the hunter even when s/he is fighting their natural predators (aka the "boss" monsters). Well, think about it, what's the most dangerous enemy there? Their natural predator, or the superpredator who regularly massacres everything on a map, skins their corpses, and uses the body parts to make him/herself even more dangerous. If they help the "boss" kill you, then the "boss" will likely go back to preying on them, but at its own pace. If you kill the "boss", you're quite likely to go on and kill the rest of them to make hats. Then come back to do the same thing over and over again. Long story short, Hunters are dangerous.
  • Though Fridge Logic re-applies with the above when you consider, if Jaggi are smart enough to recognize the small biped as a legitimately greater threat than the truck sized Rathalos, why are they so dumb that they have no problem fighting you solo at full hp?
    • There's a one in a million chance they can Cherry Tap you and then whatever little Jaggi that managed to do that would become a great Jaggi. After all, Jaggi aren't the only ones who can do something really stupid and just go YOLO!
  • This goes hand-in-hand with humans in the real-world being at the top of the food chain. Sure, other species might be able to eat their prey alive, run at speeds rivaling a car in a city street, and secrete poisonous fluids, but humans have comparatively ridiculous amounts of endurance and more importantly, they can make advanced tools and weapons that trivialize the hunting process.
• tri- and 3 Ultimate are the only two games where you can travel underwater. They are also the two games where you get Shakalakas as companions rather than Felynes... because Cats Hate Water. Just to reinforce this, Portable 3rd (being a spinoff of tri-), Generations (Ultimate), and Rise (Sunbreak) use several of tri-'s maps but areas that would normally be swimming areas are either dried up (Flooded Forest) or off-limits outright (Deserted Island), and they give you Felynes as hunting companions.
• The Frenzy Virus by itself doesn't seem to do anything to you, aside from stopping your health regeneration. How do you recover, and get some offensive boosts that come with the recovery? Attack! Attack! Attack! Think about it: Those two incentives encourage you to attack anything that moves, and that in itself is the infection-induced hunger for monster blood.
  • Intended Player Reaction, given that infected monsters attack much more aggressively as an in-game effect of the virus (and also when they overcome it and become Apex monsters)? Hmm...
• The Guildmarm in 4U calls you 'doodle' because she's constantly scribbling and drawing monsters!
• After you've beaten the Rusted Kushala Daora in 4 Ultimate you're treated to a humorous video showing the fate of the opening CGI hunting parties. They failed spectacularly, and even though this seems like a funny reminder of what can easily happen in unstable environments, it dawns on you that both parties really grabbed the Idiot Ball when it comes to hunting. Neither group was geared to fight the things they were going up against, the Diablos especially seeing how they've been relegated to a G-Rank only monster. The hunters taking it on were clearly decked out in High Rank armor at best and, aside from the archer in Rath Heart gunner gear, were all in smaller monster's armor. They were doomed to failure from the start. And then the Seregios shows up...
  • Although it's important to note that the party in the desert at least prepared well for the fight: using a Pitfall Trap and pre-placed Barrel Bombs, they managed to snap off one of Diablos' horns and deal heavy damage to him in the process. Sadly, none of them counted on either the Cephadrome tackling Diablos or Seregios showing up, which threw a couple wrenches in their plans, and even then they drove Cephadrome away with a Sonic Bomb, which at least shows that they thought of what stuff to bring. There's no excusing the other Hunter stalking Tigrex, though; who on earth goes into a fight with an ill-tempered pseudowyvern wearing only starting gear and only popping a Might Seed to make up for his weaksauce Bone Staff?
    • You may want to note that the color of his Kinsect's shell indicates that it could be the upgraded Bone Staff+ or Bone Glaive. Furthermore, he could be using the Derring S armor set.
  • Looking back, a lot of Monster Hunter hunters in the cinematics are ill-equipped for the monsters they fight. Who can forget the hunters in the first MH opening having their weapons bounce off Rathalos' shell?
• The Oroshi Kirin's name seems non-indicative at first glance, since Oroshi is Japanese for "wind blowing down a mountain". However, what kind of wind would go down a mountain? Hot air goes up, while cold air goes down.
• At first, it seems silly for Hunters for Hire to fail quests that they should be all but guaranteed to clear given their equipment and Hunter Ranks, such as a Low-Rank delivery quest. But consider that there may have been reasonable causes as to how they failed. That High-Rank Great Jaggi? A Deviljho showed up and proceeded to do what Jho does best. Simple delivery quests, especially High Rank ones that tend to have Unstable environments? Maybe they tried to take on an optional monster and got suicidally overconfident. Or they ditched the quest on purpose to spite you, because let's face it, many players don't like scouring the map all day for gathering points when they could be beating up huge monsters instead.
• Nerscylla wearing Gypceros skins makes a lot more sense when you look up their elemental weaknesses. Gypceros is completely immune to Thunder due to its rubbery hide. When the Gypceros skin is broken off, Nerscylla gains a large weakness to Thunder, suggesting it's aware of this weakness and wears the Gypceros skins specifically to cover for this weakness. The same applies to Shrouded Nerscylla's Ice weakness and Khezu's immunity to Ice. Just don't ask where Shrouded Nerscylla gets the Khezu skin, seeing as Khezu never appears in the Dunes.
  • Something else interesting about Nercylla is how it reacts to you falling asleep, it almost looks like it's checking to see if you're dead or not. Given it's favorite prey is Gypceros, who are know to play dead, this explains quite a lot.
• The Charge Blade gaining an exceptionally strong defensive block during its Guard Point move with Element Up Mode active^note accessed by loading up the weapon's phials, performing the level 3 Amped Elemental Discharge, then canceling into a sword roundslash seems like just another gameplay mechanic to encourage the use of Guard Points alongside regular blocks — unless one is familiar with the concept of Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) Plating, which involves dampening the impact of ballistic weapons by using shaped directional charges to deflect or destroy projectiles. Charge Blade users are therefore carrying human-sized explosive ballistic shields with them at all times, one of the weirder examples of Shown Their Work present in Monster Hunter. Of course, there's the matter of why the shield isn't blown apart each time a Guard Point is successfully used...
  • If one considers the fact that the shield also forms the axehead by sliding apart, that is actually easily explained. As the explosion occurs, the shield opens up slightly (which sadly is not shown) and in fact directs the blast towards the monster, damaging it.
• In 4 Ultimate, once you're cleared to visit the Elder Hall for G-rank quests, the guardian posted at the steps to the Elder Hall tells you to be on your best behavior inside. While it's meant to refer to the fact that you're going to be in the presence of His Immenseness, it's also a reminder to G-rank players to be on their best behavior towards each other, because a player who is in G-rank, unless they get to G-rank by soloing quests, should be well-acquainted with essential Monster Hunter etiquette at that point.
• Even the basic premise of the series makes total sense when you consider how humanity evolved to be at the top of the food chain in real life. How did we deal with all of our predators and hunt down our prey? We outlasted them through endurance hunting, which is (in compressed form) exactly how Hunters beat Monsters. They don't need to overwhelm a target; all they have to do is wear it down over time. Cherry Tapping it might be, comparatively, but it's exactly how we made it to where we are.
• The Caravan Crimson Fatalis in 4U being way easier than its Guild Hall counterpart makes much more sense if you pay attention to the NPC dialogues, which basically say that it just hatched from its egg not so long ago and therefore is pretty much a child, so it being weaker than its Guild Hall counterpart, which can be assumed to be an adult, makes a lot of sense.
• The Mizutsune all being male in Generations seems odd at first, but becomes brilliant if you think about it for a moment. The game states that it's breeding season for the species, which explains why you're only hunting the males. For one thing, it would make sense that you'd be hunting them when they're at their most aggressive and are a danger to others. Second, it'd be morally wrong for you to go out and essentially kill (or capture) a mother Mizutsune, especially since she'd likely be too exhausted to fight back effectively. Third, hunting the males helps keep the population in check without having to cull any females or pups (Cubs? Kits?).
  • During the hunts, the Mizutsune will flash his fins red when he's enraged. However, they're also said to flash their fins red during breeding season to attract a mate. Seems weird until you think about it for a moment. The males are hopped up on testosterone and other hormones and see anything else as competition. To them, you are a danger to their territory and their chances of mating. Their fins changing red isn't just them warning you to get out of their turf. It's also their way of telling the females "Look at me! I'm a strong healthy male! Watch me drive this puny human out of my turf and then we'll start making babies!".
• World's movesets tend to involve a lot more fluid movement and agile steps than in the past. This makes sense when you consider a loading tip that points out there's a rigorous selection process before one is allowed to join the Commission. Unlike previous games, which tend to involve the story of an up-and-coming greenhorn, these hunters were already the best of the best back home, and have the strength and experience to use unorthodox, more mobile weapon techniques.
  • This can be seen in cutscenes as well. While other games (4 especially) often show the weakest monsters getting the drop on a fledgling hunter, World's player character hunter will patiently observe monsters from a distance and sometimes set up traps and ambushes. Their good reaction times and general accuracy with their Slinger are usually showcased, and it takes something truly unexpected to have them get hit by an ambushing monster (such as the new species in the New World).
• Why do the Research Commission's fleets only come in the wake of an Elder Crossing? It's mentioned numerous times throughout the series that an Elder Dragon's mere presence can disrupt the weather. This is potentially catastrophic, but at least it's predictable. The fleets rode the wake of the Elder Dragon's weather effects, leaving them with just the reefs and landing to worry about, less so the currents that normally make travel near-impossible.
  • That's also how the gathering hall ended up where it is: much like the Fifth getting surprised by Zorah Magdaros, a previous Elder Dragon swept it up there, and when it turned out to be stable, Astera just incorporated it where it is.
• In World Aloy’s Bow has the poison and paralysis coatings available for it. Why? They’re meant to imitate two of the status effects from her game. The poison coating gives a damage-over-time effect just like the fire status effect from her game and the paralysis coating keeps the monster still so you can unload into them just like the status effect for electricity also from her game. The ice status effect, which amplifies subsequent damage on the machine you used it on, doesn’t have an equivalent status effect in this game, though you could sort of do the same thing by eating a Mightnut or drinking Demon Drug.
• The Deviljho's appearance in World is a case of Gameplay and Story Integration, as the very monster arrived way past when most players had already gone through story mode, where the research team decided to stay either for a challenge and/or to continue researching the new world after Xeno'jiiva has been slain. Not long after in the MHW World, a nasty green pickle pops up when the hunters are doing a quest/expedition.
• Of Course Behemoth in World is a lot harder than Rathalos in Final Fantasy XIV. One is a High Fantasy monster invading a Low Fantasy world which doesn't really have magic, while the latter is a Low Fantasy monster who's not much stronger than any typical dragon invading a High Fantasy world, flooded with it.
• In Generations Ultimate, at first it seems like an odd choice for the Pub Manager to assign you a Diablos to hunt for the G Rank promotion. After all, Nakarkos, who you needed to hunt to get to HR 8, the final HR level of High rank, is a much more durable and more gimmicky fight, and in 4 Ultimate you at least had a "single area, no capturing allowed, monster is huge" quest for upgrading to G Rank as opposed to "hunt a pretty standard monster". A later reveal from the Pub Manager and Questender shows that this actually makes perfect sense: They hunted a very strong Diablos — the Deviant monster Bloodbath Diablos — and failed. The vanilla Diablos that they put aspiring G Rank hunters up against is a basically a test to see if they can one day handle the same threat that Lavanda and Wehner couldn't defeat.
• Fatalis as a species harboring a unanimous hatred for humanity (and seemingly everything else) makes a bit more sense when you consider the species's regenerative properties. The Hunters probably haven't been using the brain for much of anything, yet the "new" Fatalis comes equipped with one. In other words, the "multiple" Fatalisi are actually all clones of an "original" Fatalis—with all its memories. And grudges.
  • Or they don't actually hate humanity, they're just minding their own business like hunting, making a nest etc, and the humans/civilization just happen to be at the place some of them pick, and of course a conflict ensues, and being as powerful as they are, they have no problem wiping out the people who inhabit their would-be nests (just like humans wiping out/forcing other animals out of their habitats to build housings etc.). So in other words, the whole "Fatalis hates humans" thing is just a folktale made by the survivors of the Fatalis attack or the people close to them, and because humans tend to fear what they don't understand (especially in the ancient times, where knowledge about animals are very limited), they paint the Fatalis as this evil, malevolent creature who attacks human out of hate. Admittedly it does have a habit of licking its lips malevolently when faced in battle.
  • The revelation that Fatalis emerged to challenge Safi'jiiva to see who's the strongest puts this in a new light. Fatalis hates humanity because it sees itself as the stringest, the apex predator of the entire Monster Hunter world. Humanity, however, challenges that due to how they're constantly able to hunt creatures bigger and "more powerful" than them, including other elders. Of course it hares them, they threaten its status as "the strongest."
• In Stories, despite Cheval's obsession with power, he primarily uses Speed attacks when fought as a boss. This makes sense, as in the Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors in Stories, Speed beats Power. He wants to have as much power as he can, and this can be achieved through defeating those who have power, by targeting their weakness.
• The reason Raging Brachydios cannot be captured, despite being vulnerable to traps, is because the Guild has no means of safely confining one. While Brachydios would already be hard enough to contain, Raging Brachydios is twice its size and causes much stronger explosions, making it all but impossible to contain. Additionally, the creature is also biologically immortal, meaning that the Guild would eventually have to release or put it down, since they couldn't keep it locked up forever. Making slaying it the only reasonable course of action.
• The final boss of Generations is a creature that uses the discarded remains of monsters. the final boss of Generations Ultimate is a creature that uses the discarded remains of humans.
• Pukei-Pukei's extremely bright and loud coloring may seem like it's meant to make it look more goofy than it already is. However, this likely does have an additional application; remember, Pukei-Pukei is a Poisonous Person. Animals in real life that are poisonous tend to have bright colors as a warning to things that might try to eat them.
• Why can't you capture Elder Dragons (besides the obvious?) Because then they wouldn't be Elder Dragons anymore! Elder Dragons are explained by World to just be stuff that doesn't fit in with the rest of the established tree of life (the Guild's version of Linnean taxonomy) from collected evidence. Therefore, if a Hunter was to capture an Elder Dragon and the Guild had the chance to exhaustively study it up close, then it would have to be classified as a Flying Wyvern or such. That said, that doesn't explain why certain monsters are not classified as Elder Dragons despite also being non-cappable, such as Akantor, Ukanlos, and Ahtal-Ka.
  • There's another possible reason why Elder Dragons can't be captured. The majority of Large Monsters relies on physical attacks to harm hunters and they also use parts of their body (usually their mouths) to deliver elemental attacks. Upon capturing them, hunters have already weakened them long enough to allow researchers to get close in safety. The problem with Elder Dragons is that they can summon lightning, tornadoes, fire and blizzards depending on their mood without the need to move their body. Would you research a captured Elder Dragon (or worse, a Black Dragon) which could still blow you away and indirectly free itself from its restraints? The same applies to Elders whose size makes a capture logistically impossible.
• Effluvia (the bacteria) is a decomposer that's attracted to rotting biomatter. Vaal Hazak becomes weak to Dragon on broken parts, but immune to the element on intact ones. It's also a symbiote with the effluvia. So not only is the Elder Dragon wearing its signature corpse coat to protect itself against Dragon, which it's weak to, but also so that it can have a constant source of the effluvia it depends so heavily on!
• Safi'jiiva, despite being said to be phenomenally powerful, is pretty much a big red punching bag (aside from the "Sapphire Star of the Emperor.") However, it's also likely lived its entire life in the Secluded Valley, all the way from when it hatched as a Xeno'jiiva to when it matured; the only other inhabitant of the Valley is Alatreon, who willingly seals themselves away from as much life as possible due to its Power Incontinence, and thus Safi would never encounter it. Safi's so bad at fighting because it's never had to fight in its life!
• World is the first game in the series where large monsters are not instantly hostile to hunters and do not attack them on sight. Monsters in the Old World were hostile because they've been dealing with Hunters for centuries and know they're a threat. The monsters of the new world have not and regard hunters with caution rather than outright hostility in many cases.
• Rise introduces Silkbind techniques, which grant special effects and new moves when activated. One of them for the Bow is called Herculean Draw, which is pretty odd, while the word Herculean was named after Heracles/Hercules he's more well known for using his fists and club so why have the technique be for the Bow? But most people forget that he's a Master Archer with a bow so strong that only he could use it, and said bow was needed to defeat Troy in the Trojan War.
• There was a complaint with World having pretty lacking weapon designs, with weapons that look the same except with a different type of skin on the weapon and maybe a change in coloration. That's because they're mass produced. In previous games, hunters would have their own personal Smithy but in World, the Smithy supplies weapons for multiple hunters. They don’t have the time to meticulously craft every single weapon, they have to streamline the system if they want hunters to get their new piece of gear in a timely manner.
• While Hinoa and Minoto being able to hear the thoughts of Ibushi and Narwa may seem like a bit of an Ass Pull, it actually makes perfect sense if you look at the big picture. Wyverians are descended from the eponymous megafauna in a similar way to how apes evolved into humans. Most monsters are said to be able to communicate through vibrations in the ground they're specially adapted to hear, much like elephants. As shown by the First Wyverians in World, Wyverians can apparently hear these vibrations. And since Hinoa and Minoto are both Wyverians, of course they'd be able to hear the twin serpents crying out for each other! Course, their resonance is noted to include feeling the emotions rather than just hearing things, and combined with their eyes changing color during resonance implies there is still a mystical/magical element to it. Monster Hunter is Low Fantasy so magic in some sense does still play a part in its world.
• While it makes sense that the grounded monsters like Arzuros, Tetranadon, Great Izuchi and such would have to go through the village in the rampage, why don't monsters like Rathalos, Rathain, Khezu and the like not just fly over? Even Rakna-Kadaki, which should have no problem climbing over or around the Stronghold, goes straight through it. Then you realise that Ibushi - and likely Narwa - are just flying around anywhere in the skies. We even later see that Ibushi was right above the Stronghold during one of the rampages for who-knows-how-long. The flying monsters simply aren't going to risk the possibility of running into them, so take the safest route with the other monsters as low to the ground as possible.
  • Expanding on that, why are there very specific monsters of different biomes in each rampage quest? Why is the number and type of monster almost completely different every time? And if it was all the monsters, why isn't the village completely overwhelmed every time? Well its more than likely that Ibushi's constant roaming scares all the monsters in the land, but they don't all go in the same direction. When he flies over the Shrine Ruins, he'll spook all the monsters just happened to be near him, which will immediately run away, and then some just happen to go in the direction of the village. When he flies over the Dunes, the same happens, as it does with the other biomes. Because not all of them go in the same direction, the rampage eventually builds up from the random monsters from each area around, around 20-50 monsters from random environments that all just run in a single direction. Because Ibushi never stops until he's mated with Narwa, random monsters he flies over will continue to flee in that direction. It's also quite possible that the abundance of some monsters and the complete absence of others is likely due to the position in which Ibushi flies over them. If he's west of an area with popular with Anjanath, they'll go east, and if he's north of a habitat with lots of Rathian, they'll go south.
  • On a similar note, several people have expressed disappointment that large monsters in Rise have reverted back to always being hostile, whereas in World they had more complex behaviors and most wouldn't even bother Hunters unless they did something to provoke them. But the change back still makes sense as Gameplay and Story Integration; Ibushi and Narwa's effects aren't limited to just the rampage missions. It's already stated that monsters like Almudron and Rakna-Kadaki are usually content with keeping away from people and staying in much more out of the way locations, but the effects of the rampage cause them to stray to the in-game locales. So it's not a far stretch to assume that every other large monster is also constantly on edge, either due to the Snakes themselves or the mass migrations caused by the rampage, thus explaining the hostility. It's also noted that Ibushi and Narwa's activities have a simple "enhance violence" effect on monsters in general, detailed in a Mizutsune quest where its revealed that the extra aggression of the Mizutsune in breeding mode got enhanced even further. It could even be a case of redirected aggression, as in some real world animals, where agitated creatures that can't directly fight back against the source of their anger will instead take it out on other, seemingly weaker targets (i.e. Kamura village).
• In Rise it's noted the town walls are of course useless at keeping out flying monsters, so the village of Kamura has various special towers atop many of its buildings that constantly spew out a special, monster-repelling smoke.
• Master Hojo notes the Guild have been studying the Rampage for 100 years, yet it isn't until the events of Rise that Ibushi and Narwa are even identified as officially existing. Yet when one considers the scale of the Rampage (Fugen is notified of it long before it actually arrives in Kamura) and how patchy human populations seem to be in the Monster Hunter world, it makes some sense that that in past Rampages nobody qualified to identify Ibushi or Narwa actually saw them (or lived to talk about it at least). Perhaps by sheer coincidence in this case the Rampage's epicenter was close enough that Ibushi and Narwa actually were within sight of Kamura.
  • It may make even more sense than that. Namely Ibushi doesn't descend until the Rampage hordes have been repelled multiple times. It's possible in past Rampages people were simply never successful enough times at repelling them to warrant Ibushi coming down to take a look. Then along comes the player character who is as usual a prodigy and tips the scales in Kamura's favor, causing Ibushi to come see why the hordes it is driving have reversed course.
• From the perspective of Ibushi and Narwa their effects may make some sense as well. What safer way to raise your babies (or have them fend for themselves if no parental care is involved) than to ensure that every potential predator for many miles around is dead or has fled? The young are left with virtually uncontested food supplies and few threats during their most vulnerable stage.
• Aknosom has a number of elemental weaknesses including Water and Thunder element, the former of which makes sense since it's a fire-breathing monster. However its weakness chart in the Hunter's Notes have some funny details like stating its crest takes 0 extra elemental damage from Water and its body parts generally take more Thunder damage. Aknosom is based on the Karakasa, an umbrella-like yokai - of course, we all know umbrellas protect against rain and don't mix well with electricity.
• Remobras are noted to usually follow Elder Dragons as a Portent of Doom. In Rise, they're seen everywhere, being present on every normal map and in large numbers to boot. Why? Foreshadowing for the Elder Dragons Ibushi and Narwa being the true cause of the Rampage, which is noted to be affecting monsters across the entire region.
  • Their large numbers are explained even more by the fact that Remobra are scavengers, and Narwa plans to leave a lot of corpses in her wake.
• When Wyvern Riding, the monster you mounted can hit well above it's usual tier in the food chain, winning at least one round against monsters that otherwise always defeat it in turf wars and such. This makes sense given it has a human's Hunter's experienced and strategic mind commanding it, enabling it to use its abilities to their fullest and at precisely the right moments.
• Prior to the battle with Narwa, it's mentioned that the Guild sent an elite Hunter squadron to face her, and they were wiped out. This is hardly surprising when you consider the battle's heavy reliance on Wirebug usage to avoid her attacks and access hunting installations to use against her; non-Kamura Hunters would face a severe disadvantage.
• Teostra and Kushala Daora can show up for a Big Damn Heroes moment in the fight against Allmother Narwa, landing a few good shots in on the serpent and eventually letting a Hunter join forces with them and ride them. However, Chameleos, the other member of the trio, doesn’t show up for the climactic battle, with Magnamalo appearing in its stead. Chameleos is a Martial Pacifist who dislikes fighting, so it makes sense it wouldn’t want to fight the result of two extremely powerful Elder Dragons fusing.
• Almudron and Mizutsune do not have turf wars with one another, because both of them would lose what makes them formidable. Almudron would wind up getting all of the mud removed off of it, and as such would be forced to immediately get some more mud once again. Mizutsune can still use its water beam, but loses access to its bubbles, and loses a lot of mobility it gets from them.
• In World, Nergigante has the second lowest health out of all the Elder Dragons in High Rank (Kirin has the lowest), and that may have some players wondering why since the spikes serve as offense and defense. In actuality, the spikes aren't the problem; the problem is Nergigante's method of reproduction. Nergigante is an asexual creature, and reproduces through it's spikes. When it comes to evolution, it is necessary that there be two individuals of opposite gender to spread their genes, but Nergigante is unable to do so. As a result, it is a Glass Cannon due to it never passing on new mutations or genes, so as a result it stagnates. Other Elder Dragons could have been like this previously, but evolved to gain what they have, while Nergigante has never changed.
• It can appear rather baffling at first that Rajang is powerful enough to wrestle with Elder Dragons, considering it's just a ripped and very smart primate... but that's also what Hunters are! It seems the monster hunting business runs in the family.
• The cutscene where Malzeno attacks the player and Fiorayne after a hunt has the elder dragon fighting the latter. During this fight, Malzeno uses the actual attacks he uses against the player. This is to give the player a preview of some of these trickier attacks, including his extended tail attack, which has a follow up thrust that most elder dragons with the same tail attack don't have.
• Why do Rathians retain their ability to poison targets after losing their tails? It's not the tail itself what delivers the toxin, but the hair-like scales sprouting in the gaps between two or more plates.
• In Monster Hunter 4, the fishing minigame has you catching schools of fish that just happen to be there, right for the taking. This is very reminiscent of fish traps used by many indigenous peoples, which take advantage of tides and currents to corral the fish together for capture.
• Gaismagorm has a sort of odd gait where it drags its lower body behind it instead of using its hind-legs. This makes sense for an animal that spends most of its time burrowing underground, (Moles are similarly awkward above ground IRL) but it also works on another level - It literally crawls on its belly.

Fridge Logic

• World's narrative made a point of treating all new monsters from the New World as exotic and never-seen-before in the Old World, given that the New World had been previously uninhabited by modern humans or Wyverians before the arrival of the Research Commission. In Rise, Kamura Village is strongly implied to take place in the Old World (given its proximity to tri- locations) but somehow has New World monsters, yet none of the characters seem particularly interested in pointing this out. However, it should be noted that the Monster Hunter team is deliberately vague on the time-frame of this game compared to previous titles, especially World. For all we know, years or decades could've passed, and something could have caused them to migrate to the Old World for whatever reason.
  • Considering the origins of the Rampage, there's some possible Fridge Brilliance in this; some monsters are already outright noted to be displaced from their usual environments because of Ibushi and Narwa. It's entirely possible the Snakes' mating ritual spooked a few species into migrating towards the Old World.

Fridge Horror

• In real life mythology, Kirin are normally pacifistic creatures (so much so that they don't walk on grass) that only show agression to wicked creatures. Kirin in Monster Hunter attack all hunters in sight. The implication is horrifying...
  • This could just be the Kirin's take on things though. It's silly to think that Hunters don't sometimes take quests for sport just as much as the players do, but In-Universe the Guild also regulates such activities to avoid overhunting. That's why the Monoblos can only be hunted when it's threatening human lives (village quests) and not singled out for parts (guild quests) - it's endangered. Humanity might assert itself on the environment, but they respect it too.
  • There's actually some good news about this as of World: Kirin really are docile and will only attack once provoked (or unless you stand in their path for too long.) Seems hardware updating finally averted Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• The Monster Hunter world in general is one. Higher-end monsters are capable of massive destruction to multiple villages and such.
• The Guild. While a guild generally exists to ensure education and speak for its members, there's also the implication that if you are not part of the Guild, you can't go out and hunt or even gather items. How many low-rank quests are just "gather X items" that could easily have been done by the requester, had not the Guild stepped in and claimed demarcation?
  • Actually, it's quite likely that it's just too dangerous. Many of the missions in the earlier parts of the games are about how a supplier got sidelined after a monster showed up on their trade routes. In Multiplayer at least, even the "gather X items" quests have dangerous predators as potential obstacles. A Seltas may seem like easy pickings for even a greenhorn hunter, but to a mushroom forager with no combat experience? It's a sword-faced beetle the size of a car they'd have no hope of besting.
    • Hell, even a pack of Jaggi would be perfectly capable of literally eating a normal human alive. They're a non-threat to even a naked hunter, sure, but you have a monster-hunter-grade weapon and plenty of physical conditioning.
• The Guild's wingdrakes ferry Hunters to their destination by having them hold onto a rope attached to them. Sure, it's efficient, but the locations they go to are miles and miles away. It's highly improbable that the Hunters could hold on to a rope for that long. Therefore, one can assume that at least one Hunter's arms got tired and...splat.
• If you look at its mouth when it roars, you can see that Shara Ishvalda has a jaw consisting almost entirely of flat teeth. Herbivorous animals have mouths like that to grind up plant matter for digestion, much like a mortar & pestle. Therefore, it can be assumed Shara Ishvalda is a herbivore. In addition, it's also killed and carried off (presumably to eat) by Ruiner Nergigante, implying that it's a "prey" animal. Which begs the question; what the hell exists out there that would make this plant-animal-dragon-hybrid THING with the power to move tectonic plates, drive entire ecosystems into a frenzy and literally level mountains one of the LOWER rungs on the food chain?!
  • Even ignoring this, the implication that, if Shara Ishvalda is a herbivore who is also part-plant... does it mean that it might feed on it's own kind? And even if it doesn't, feeding on plants when you partially are one yourself is still pretty cannibalistic in a sense.
  • It's really only cannibalism if a species eats others of it's own species. Remember humans eat meat all the time.
• TheDive to Monster Hunter World: Iceborne sourcebook confirms that Fatalis emerged to challenge Safi'jiiva to see who was the strongest. Each if these Dangerous First-Class Monsters is destructive enough on their own, a battle between these two could result in a cataclysm of epic proportions.
• Goss Harag's behavior is outright terrifying if you consider what it must be like to the average person and why it has such an reputation as in-universe Nightmare Fuel. Imagine: you're going through the mountains when all of a sudden you're ambushed by a massive beast, getting a Megaton Punch to the chest that leaves you winded and sprawled on the ground, only able to watch as Goss Harag slowly approaches you, dragging its ice blade across the ground as it closes in for the kill...
• Once Narwa powers up into the Allmother, she has several spheres in her thunder sac. Once she dies, those spheres are suspiciously gone, and several bursts of light are emitted from where the orbs were. She transforms into the Allmother by absorbing Ibushi, which is a male of the species and thus can fertilize eggs. Put two and two together, and...uh-oh.
• In Sunbreak, armor made from Shagaru Magala now comes with a Set Bonus that basically infects hunters with the Frenzy virus. This means hunters with this armor are now walking around carrying the virus, possibly bringing it to places it hasn't been seen before and infecting monsters who've never been exposed to it.
  • Though given that the Magalas are running around in Generations (Ultimate) and this game but without causing another Frenzy Virus epidemic, maybe the Frenzy has evolved into a less-contagious form since 4 (Ultimate)?
• In Sunbreak, it's mentioned that something destroyed the unnamed kingdom that Kagero, Tadori, and Yomogi came from. Kagero's outfit looks a lot like the ones worn in Yukumo village. The monster that destroyed said kingdom is Amatsu from Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, where it serves as the Final Boss and Yukumo serves as the Hub City. So does that mean that Amatsu destroyed Yukumo after all sometime after the events of Portable 3rd??