I love goblins. That itself is probably worthy of examination another time. But for today: why are goblins the way they are? I’m thinking particularly about goblins in the various flavors of fantasy RPGs I enjoy. In slightly older stories about goblins, goblins are like faeries, some combination of primordial force of trickery and metaphor, depending on the story.
But in modern RPGs, presumably drawing from Tolkien, goblins are earthly creatures that function ecologically.
I’m not sure where this came from, but I’ve had this thought kicking around in my head for quite a while, and it is time for it to be vomited forth: What if we apply a sci-fi-style “what if” lens to try to explain why goblins are the way they are?
What if goblin babies were completely self-sufficient from birth? Wikipedia tells me this is called superprecociality. A hatchling black mamba is capable of hunting prey the size of of a small rat. So too is the newborn goblin.
While a goblin could learn the value of community and care later in life, they do not begin their lives encountering these ideas through experiencing helplessness and dependence like a human baby. Nor do any goblins encounter these ideas due to the need for someone to parent baby goblins. What would this do to goblin society? Would goblins even have a communal society? Certainly I would expect it to be different than human society.
Can every goblin trope be explained by this superprecociality? Goblins as violent and untrustworthy? Sure. Goblins as bizarre and unique, each quirkier than the last? Sure! David Bowie as the Goblin King being fascinated by the helplessness of a human child? Absolutely!
Does this make goblins alien, tragic and morally ambiguous from a human perspective? Definitely. Does it take the easy, breezy fun away from them as quirky sidekicks or nameless canon-fodder? Probably. But that’s what you get trying to apply some trying-to-be-too-clever, sci-fi-style thinking to the lovable, horrible, little scamps!