The Orville

[CharlesPhipps]

The Moclans seem to be the planet of toxic masculinity and misogyny.

Which is awkward given it's probably the most prominent gay depiction in scifi since....well, ever.

I also kind of love them as the Anti-Asari.

[Sir Will]

They're doing the whole bigotry thing in reverse. Their people clearly have females and males who like females. They're rare (supposedly) but they exist. But for some reason they've decided to snuff them out. Change them or imprison them just because they're different.

Klyden was forcibly changed and seems deeply indoctrinated in their ways. Probably emphasize even more that what he was was wrong and they fixed it. When, if they'd left him alone, Locar is the kind of person who would love what he was.

Bortus is a bit rigid given his species, but he's actually pretty open minded by their standards. Even before all this happened, he didn't turn Locar in after learning what he was the was Kylden wanted to do.

[Madner Kami]

Is it actually mentioned, whether Bortus or Klyden laid the egg?

[Zoinksberg]

When Bortus told Ed he said "I have laid an egg."

[Madner Kami]

Thanks. Well, how many species do we know of, where the males actually create or lay the eggs? There are plenty of examples where the males carry the eggs or care for the eggs in one way or another, but to my knowledge, no male actually produces the eggs.

[CharlesPhipps]

Thanks. Well, how many species do we know of, where the males actually create or lay the eggs? There are plenty of examples where the males carry the eggs or care for the eggs in one way or another, but to my knowledge, no male actually produces the eggs.

It's hardly Star Trek's worst science.

[Madner Kami]

I know it's done for the comedic value, but it just draws more attention to the fact, that the Moclans just are not all-male. Can't be all male. Not by our nomenclature anyways.

[Zoinksberg]

I guess technically they would be hermaphroditic, but with an outwardly male appearance. Assuming their anatomy is not completely alien to our own (Ja'loja seems to support that it isn't) then the egg bearer is likely decided by the exact role they are playing during sex.

It's possible that the females are not hermaphroditic and would always be the egg bearer in a mating. Perhaps in their distant prehistoric past the race was more equally male and female but males realized they were capable of mating with each other. If a male-female coupling results in roughly a 50/50 chance of a male or female child, but a male-male coupling will nearly always result in a male child and this type of mating is considered normal then it would not take long for the ratio of male to female to quickly snowball until the females mostly disappear from the species. If this all happened in prehistory then it would not be unreasonable for the species to consider themselves an "all male species" based on all written historical records. Much like we once shared the world with other hominids, they would likely consider the female Moclan as foreign as we consider Neanderthal.

[clearspira]

Shall we just call it for what it is? Bad writing.

[CharlesPhipps]

It's not bad writing any more than the Asari is.

It's also a deliberate parody.

I know it's done for the comedic value, but it just draws more attention to the fact, that the Moclans just are not all-male. Can't be all male. Not by our nomenclature anyways.

Given the way this show is writen, they might do an episode where a Moclan sues his government for the right to refer to himself as a hermaphrodite.