Stupid minor questions (very small SoD tidbit)

[Conuly]

Occasionally, reading the comic, a tiny question comes to mind that has no relevance on anything and yet that niggles at me.

For example: What's up with goblins and hair? It's easy to think "Well, male goblins are hairless and female goblins have hair", but we've seen some male goblins with beards (Right-Eye grew a beard, and we saw a bearded goblin in the main comic once who was simply very old), and Right-Eye's son had hair when we met him.

Add that to the fact that the human slaves in Azure City are all bald, and you start to ask... do goblins just shave? And they shave their slaves too? WHY? Is it a cultural/religious thing? Or just the fashion? (And why do they care about their slaves being fashionable, then?)

And then we have Xykon. Xykon is a skeleton, right? So... why doesn't his skull match the headshape of anybody else in the comic? In fact, the other skeletons we've seen have that same issue. So, what, do humans in the Stickverse have cheekpads like orangutans? What gives?

I'm sure I can think of more inconsequential questions if I try hard enough. Any speculative answer would make me rest better at night.

[Meg]

With the slaves, it's probably a lice issue. That's a very good question about the other goblins, though. Most of the hair'd goblins we've seen are female, so I would assume its a fashion thing. Redcloak does mention "Having enough style not to grow a goatee," for whatever that's worth.

[Assassin89]

Two words. Artistic License. Rich just draws the characters like that.
As for the slaves, there is probably a monastery somewhere in Azure City explaining the baldness.

[Maximum Zersk]

I noticed that every male main character, except Elan, is either bald (Roy and Durkon), or has a very small stubble (Belkar).

[J.J.J-H-Schmidt]

i think that there are very few things one can actually do to show substantial difference when you are working with stick figures and a cast this size (to include minor NPCs)

hell, i thought o-chul was durkon the first time i saw him...kinda

[triple zero]

Well, Xykon's skull and Roy's skull (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0665.html) seem to be the same...or close enough, anyway. I guess it's the flesh and such that fills the head of a "meatbag" out to make the faces round. That's all I've got for an in-comic explanation. A spherical Xykon head would look pretty weird, after all.

As for the goblins, maybe goblin "warrior types" are bald, while those who are more "domestic" grow hair or beards. Right-Eye's beard helped to signal his transition to life in a village with a family and his move away from adventuring/villainy.

The Azure city slaves? Maybe they didn't have access to their usual supply of blue hair dye, so they shaved their heads. I dunno...

Most of these we can chalk up to artistic decisions. I mean, aren't goblins technically supposed to be around Belkar's height instead of normal human-sized? They are tall because the author chose to draw them that way. The same applies to hair, skulls, etc.

Yeah, yeah...that answer is no fun. Just ignore it and pay attention to my in-universe justifications, then.:smallwink:

[Nimrod's Son]

Presumably, most of the slaves were former Azure City soldiers, who were all bald since they all look like Daigo. Maybe it's a military thing. That for some reason only applies to men. Ah, I got nothin' here.

Though personally, I'm more interested in why Redcloak's mother has normal feet intead of three-toed goblin ones, than anything to do with their hair.

[Conuly]

Two words. Artistic License. Rich just draws the characters like that.

Well, duh, but where's the fun in that? Live a little before you shoot me down!


Though personally, I'm more interested in why Redcloak's mother has normal feet intead of three-toed goblin ones, than anything to do with their hair.

She DOES? (Hey, cool, SoD is RIGHT next to my bed! Aaaaaand... now it's in my hands!) *flipflipflip*

Hey, you're right! And she's definitely the only one. WEIRD. Maybe that means she's only part Goblin or something? Or she met up with a very weird Paladin in her youth who cut off her toes but let her live? Or she... um... hid out with humans for a while, spying or something, and had to mutilate her feet to wear shoes and hide out?


With the slaves, it's probably a lice issue.

That makes sense. It'd be pretty lousy if your slaves all got lice and spent their time scratching all the time.

[Keris]

Though personally, I'm more interested in why Redcloak's mother has normal feet intead of three-toed goblin ones, than anything to do with their hair.
I see two possibilities here:
Artistic goof on Rich's part.
She's wearing some kind of close fitting footwear, like Vaarsuvius and pre-#388 Elan.

[Conuly]

# Artistic goof on Rich's part.

No, she's in several different panels, and every one shows her with the feet, even ones where there's other goblins to compare too.

[rewinn]

No, she's in several different panels, and every one shows her with the feet, even ones where there's other goblins to compare too.Goblins don't discriminate against people with grossly deformed feet. Shame on you!:smalltongue:

[DarkElfGangsta]

they discriminate hobgoblins tho

[Keris]

They discriminate against hobgoblins, though.
There is a difference between discriminating against a deformed member of your own race and discriminating against a different species/subspecies/whatever. Some people are easily capable of discriminating against one thing and not another, so I assume goblins are similarly capable.

[rewinn]

There is a difference between discriminating against a deformed member of your own race and discriminating against a different species/subspecies/whatever. Some people are easily capable of discriminating against one thing and not another, so I assume goblins are similarly capable.

Maybe in a world where shapechanging is common, at least among the powerful, there may be less innate revulsion to differences in shape within one's own tribe (where "tribe" is meant inclusively, to include village, nation, species).

The problem would remain that inter-tribal disputes are as nasty as here on Earth, hence we have a plot.

[Meg]

Though personally, I'm more interested in why Redcloak's mother has normal feet intead of three-toed goblin ones, than anything to do with their hair.

Hooray, I thought I was the only one who noticed/attached significance to that! :smallbiggrin:

[derfenrirwolv]

Bald is easier and faster to draw. And since they're nameless mooks who will die on the end of an adventurers weapon anyway, the less time it takes to draw the better.

[ericgrau]

Same reason nobody wears long pants?

[Atronach]

That would make sense, seeing how the updates are currently like.

[Nerdanel]

Rich has a system so that we can know the sex and approximate age of every goblin that appears.

Male goblin: Bald
Female goblin: Hair on head

Child: Small
Adult: Generic
Middle-aged male: Dark goatee
Old male: Gray goatee
Older females show their age with older-looking hairdos and gray hair.

Goblins in the venerable age category would presumably be visibly wrinkled, but I don't think we've ever seen any who've managed to live that long.

[thubby]

for the prisoner thing. it's a psychological tactic, and there's a good history of it with POWs (on top of the lice thing)

[Conuly]

Rich has a system so that we can know the sex and approximate age of every goblin that appears.

Male goblin: Bald
Female goblin: Hair on head

Child: Small
Adult: Generic
Middle-aged male: Dark goatee
Old male: Gray goatee
Older females show their age with older-looking hairdos and gray hair.

Goblins in the venerable age category would presumably be visibly wrinkled, but I don't think we've ever seen any who've managed to live that long.


Okay, so why do some Goblins have hair? (Also, not very interested in "It's the art style" answers anyway. They're absolutely no fun at all.)

[Kish]

It's the art sty--

I mean, it's related to the reason they're Medium.

[Conuly]

It's the art sty--

I mean, it's related to the reason they're Medium.

A wizard did it?

[Meg]

A wizard did it?

A spooooky wizard!

[HotAndCold]

Goblins in the venerable age category would presumably be visibly wrinkled, but I don't think we've ever seen any who've managed to live that long.

Redcloak probably has! :smallbiggrin: Yes, I know, I know, leave me my silly semantics.

[Conuly]

Yeah, but Redcloak doesn't count. And let's see... he was somewhere between 13 and 18 when he got his cloak (I'm guessing 15, right in the middle) and it's been 34 years between then and the start of the comic, so add... let's say another year for events from the start until today. That would make him technically 47 at the youngest, maybe as old as 55. But he doesn't age, so whatever.

[HotAndCold]

And ~50 is apparently the goblin age cap, so he's the right age to be venerable, but, yes, he doesn't actually age. Try giving my previous post a highlight.

[Nimrod's Son]

Hooray, I thought I was the only one who noticed/attached significance to that! :smallbiggrin:
Hold on, I never said I attached significance to it - just that I find it more interesting than their hair. :smallsmile:

It could just as easily be an oversight. I deliberately avoid speculating about this comic; that way madness lies. :smallwink: Plus, I find it much more fun to shoot down preposterous theories than come up with them myself...


Rich has a system so that we can know the sex and approximate age of every goblin that appears.

Male goblin: Bald
Female goblin: Hair on head

Child: Small
Adult: Generic
Middle-aged male: Dark goatee
Old male: Gray goatee
Older females show their age with older-looking hairdos and gray hair.

Goblins in the venerable age category would presumably be visibly wrinkled, but I don't think we've ever seen any who've managed to live that long.
Goblin Dan (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0326.html) has a white goatee and eye-wrinkles, but not liver-spots such as those on Eugene or Shojo. In his final scene, Right-Eye is liver-spotted and wrinkled too.

Your system doesn't account for Redcloak's nephew Ridiziak, though, who is presumably about the same age as Redcloak was when we first saw him - but has hair whereas Redcloak did not.

[Conuly]

Your system doesn't account for Redcloak's nephew Ridiziak, though, who is presumably about the same age as Redcloak was when we first saw him - but has hair whereas Redcloak did not.

Nor RC's older brother, the one who gets whacked by the Paladins at the start of the book.

[HotAndCold]

Your system doesn't account for Redcloak's nephew Ridiziak, though, who is presumably about the same age as Redcloak was when we first saw him - but has hair whereas Redcloak did not.

My personal theory is that Redcloak when we first saw him was slightly older than Ridiziak was--just enough that Redcloak was over the goblin age of majority while Ridi was not. A 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, proportionately.

[John Cribati]

That makes sense. It'd be pretty lousy if your slaves all got lice and spent their time scratching all the time.

May I be the first to note the pun

[Nimrod's Son]

My personal theory is that Redcloak when we first saw him was slightly older than Ridiziak was--just enough that Redcloak was over the goblin age of majority while Ridi was not. A 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, proportionately.
But, as Conuly noted above, Redcloak's older brother has a full head of hair. So age doesn't appear to be much of a factor.

[T-O-E]

Two words. Artistic License.

Hoping this was unintentional.

[Conuly]

Hoping this was unintentional.

At the risk of repeating myself, it's a pretty lousy pun if it was done purposefully. (So I pun a lot. It's a compulsive tic!)

Actually, the only male Goblins we've seen with hair (aside from the occasional super-old beard of doom) so far have been RC's close family. So maybe there is something to my absurd little hypothesis of his mom being part non-goblin.