Our Goblins Are Wickeder: Difference between revisions

Goblins are small, ugly creatures which tend to be [[Always Chaotic Evil|evil]], crabby, and/or mischievous. While they're smaller and weaker than [[Our Orcs Are Different|orcs]] (when they don't refer to the same creature) and [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] (most of the time), goblins may make up for this by being more clever or cunning than their larger cousins. They may manufacture clever traps to trip up the unwary foe, or overwhelm him through [[Zerg Rush|sheer numbers]]. Either way, goblins in folklore and fantasy fiction may differ almost as much as trolls do.

Still, goblins tend to serve as the lowest rung of the [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]], and are usually [[The Goomba|the first]] kind of [[Mook]] a budding [[An Adventurer Is You|adventurer]] must overcome. A stronger form of goblin (which may or may not be conflated with the orc) may be known as a hobgoblin, though the term originally denoted the ''friendlier'' variety of goblin (the word 'hob' being derived either from the shelf at the back of a fireplace and thus indicating 'hearth and home' or from a Middle English nickname for "Robert"). English Puritans later started using the word 'hobgoblin', originally meaning a friendlier variety of goblin, to mean 'demon', which probably is why Tolkien used the word 'hobgoblin' to mean 'a bigger goblin'. This usage of the word was then propagated, by ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. Generally if you have both hobgoblins ''and'' orcs, hobgoblins will be a more 'civilised' regimented evil while orcs will be dim, marauding barbarians -- though, aesthetically, goblins will be the ones who grab their stuff from the scrap yard while the orcs will buy their equipment. While annoying, goblins are also more likely to be comedic, bumbling, or simply harder to take seriously than their bigger relatives.

In folklore, goblins and especially hobgoblins were diminutive household pests, or at best wild creatures, and were typically conflated with whatever [[All Trolls Are Different|trolls]] and/or [[Our Fairies Are Different|faeries]] fit the trope. If they were viewed at all as a mythical race, instead of just [[Random Encounter|monsters]] or diminutive [[The Fair Folk|faeries]] of the nasty sort, they would be generally viewed as the "[[Dark Is Evil|dark]]" [[Evil Counterpart|version]] of [[Our Elves Are Better|elves]] or [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves]] in that culture.