Pregnant Jotun

7 years ago #9687931          

So they were like seahorses?

7 years ago #9681564          

I could live with that.

7 years ago #9674415          

Would the baby come out of his butt?

7 years ago #9681565          

@mojojojo #9674415

This is a divine spirit that exists on another plain or reality. So, maybe? However he chooses, really. That's my take on the matter.

7 years ago #9673472          

This reminded me of Oglaf's Son of Kronar story.
I hadn't noticed before, some correlation between Jotuns and the modern concept of Barbarians.

7 years ago #9688357          

@Koradji
That is a good point. Those Oglaf stories were good. Mostly seeing one page stories these days, but occasionally we do get recurring characters.
But as I remember it, it was his viking husband who gave birth. ;)

7 years ago #9673034          

I would like to take up a few points on the use of pregnant male jotun from a story telling point of view.

Firstly, it depends on the lore your going for. Over the years that have been many different versions of jotuns (and basicly any other fantasy/mythological creature). And considering the pregnant male jotun is mainly a part of the old style jotuns (and kinda obscure too) it does make sense to ignore this for the most parts. And that is not to mention the role the jotuns might play in the lore.

Secondly, the question is what it would add. How would it add to the jotun's character and/or the story as a whole? You should not have a character being pregnant if it doesn't have any purpose for the character or story, regardless of the gender. Generally speaking it is quite foolish to make a character be something specific without it having any purpose for the character or story.

7 years ago #9673040          

@docterzero

The counter point to the "What does it add" though is that that line of logic is what leads to the cookie-cutter protagonist. Why should someone be anything but white, straight, male? Everything about a character is created, and can exist for its own sake.

The fact that pregnant male jotun exist in the mythology seems reason enough for one to appear outside of it to me.

7 years ago #9673069          

@Austellus

The counter counter point is there's a difference between the physical appearance of the character and its traits. A character can look however an author want him to look unless there's an important reason for such a thing, like the scars of Inigo Montoya in Princess Bride. A trait, like pregnancy, needs to add something to the story otherwise its superfluous. Think of Marge in Fargo. Her pregnancy makes her vulnerable and impede her ability to catch the bad guy at the end. Whenever there's a trait like that in a story, ask yourself what would be different if it wasn't there. If the answer is nothing, then its superfluous. There's some homosexual undertones in the relationship between Frodo and Sam (whether it was the authors will or not) but its never stated if Frodo is gay or not because it doesn't add anything to the story.

7 years ago #9673552          

@Austellus The issue is not why a character should be something rather than something else, but why that character should be something at all. The issue here, from my point of view, is to forcing a character to be something without it really adding anything to that character or his/hers/it's story. It is pointless and generally leads to bad writing.
For example, let's say we have this viking character. You could make him gay, but it would be completely pointless if it doesn't have any point (major or minor) to his character or story. Instead, you could just leave his sexual preferences completely out of picture if it has no effect on the story anyway.
Generally my point being is that you just should have a good reason for a character being how they are, be it male, female, genderless monster, straight, gay, so on.

As for the pregnant male jotun, the point of the lore still stands. You can interpret everything mythological and fantasy different ways. If pregnant male jotuns doesn't make sense in the lore your using, you should have one. If it does, you can, bringing back to the point of it adding something to the story (which isn't too hard to do)