Elves: The Slothful People

[Omegonthesane]

If they could just split on their own, then one would've expect them to be everywhere by now.

That doesn't necessarily follow. If splitting reduces your size/power (as one would expect), you would only split if you were either very safe or very strong. Only the strongest Goron's might split because the 'parent' would still be strong enough to survive/defend the offspring.

For counterexamples, see every species that actually exists and reproduces asexually.

You mean like all the bacteria-based diseases that multiply like crazy inside our bodies as soon as they find a way in?

Or asexual fungi spore that are just thrown at the wind?

Or the fastest multiplying insects that spread all over the world?

Asexual reproduction is all about speed and quantity over quality. Sexual reproduction is the one that cares about safety and watching over your offspring, because it's all about spending extra resources for higher quality.

Extra fun fact: Some species reproduce asexually when something else breaks them in pieces and then each piece regenerates into a separate individual. So indeed asexual reproduction is the realm of the very weak and very vulnerable.

Besides, what is the point of several gorons using male pronouns if they don't actually have females? There's no such thing as a males-only species since by definition the males can't reproduce by themselves.

Mildly sexist writers plus a language where a gender neutral pronoun isn't in wide use, leading to a specific gendered pronoun being used instead. e.g. the Gem race in Steven Universe all use she/her even though the concept of gender has no place in their society.

[maglag]

No place besides said female gems beings explicitly getting pregnant from having sexy times with males, and then giving birth to viable offspring?

Heck, there's even a main character male gem to contrast with the female ones, the show's named after him!

[MGuy]

I don't watch that much Steve U (though I think it is probably a really good show) but isn't mentioned male gem an oddity since he's half human? I had thought that regularly the gems were all females otherwise or were there other male gems (purebred)?

[virgil]

By the show writers, it's confirmed that Steven is the first and only gem that has ever identified as male. The gems themselves don't care/know enough about gender to personally be confused or even surprised by this.

[Omegonthesane]

Steven's half human half gem, and Rose is the only Gem to ever get pregnant. Later revelations undermine the idea that Rose can be considered representative of Gems in being able to get pregnant, too.

A Single Pale Rose reveals that Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond, so probably isn't playing by the same rules as mere Gems.

[maglag]

You don't need to care/know about something for it to exist.

Both male and female gems are in existence. New gems are born from male-female relationships. The female gems even have tits and the males don't for the viewer's convenience.

[MGuy]

Cool. As far as the female gendered pronouns I think that's to service the American audience. The show is pretty progressive and clearly they want to normalize certain kinds of relationships in the show but you have to tip toe around delicate sensibilities here so the Gems aren't human but still using feminine coding and gendered words make it so the message still gets across without nailing the writers to the wall. At least that's my guess.

[Omegonthesane]

Amazing. Every word of what maglag just said is wrong.

We know how new Gems are made, and no sex is involved.

Steven is not a Gem. Steven is a half-human, half-Gem. Steven is not an example of reproduction because he is using Rose's gem, so that she cannot start existing as a full Gem instead of as the source of a human's Gem powers again until he dies, and it's not quite analogous to death in childbirth because once it's no longer surrounded by meat Rose's Gem will by all accounts be able to display Rose Quartz again.

[souran]

So as human lifespans extend and the amount of knowledge it takes to be considered an adult grows the age at which people are considered "adults" keeps getting pushed out as well. While in most industrialized nations the law recognizes people as adults sometime between 17-22, there are lots of other rules and social norms that have pushed adulthood back to 25 or 30.

In many places you can't rent a car until you are 25 years old. Think about how you were treated when you started your first job after getting your college degree. Your boss was probably the age of your parents (or older) and you may have been treated a little bit like a kid. This is because as humans age they concieve of their age as "normal" or "typical" and people younger than that are children even if they have children of their own.

Elven society would experience a very extreme version of this effect. Sure an elf is an "adult" at 20 years of age. However, most elves don't think you can really "know" anything worth hearing about till you get to be 100. Elves live so long and don't experience bodily aging so there is almost no advancement due to the older generation(s) aging out of the workforce.

The nominal reason elven goods are considered high quality by humans is because the individual craftspeople have more experience. However, even with craftspeople of roughly the same level of experience elves tend to take a highly detail oriented view. An elven sword may not be better made than a human sword but it will certainly have more detail and thought put into small touches. Elves will spend days or weeks on a task that humans complete. Basically instead of slothful make them detail oriented.