Goblins should be silly little guys that don't give a fuck. Sucks that some shitty writers have turned them into an anti-semetic caricature.
I like silly little guys.
I want a fantasy thing where the goblin is the hero. Let goblins win for once.
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Goblins were uncool way before JKR would enter the scene. We are in a renaissance of goblin media if anything.
I’d say stuff like Warhammer making them silly little guys is the thing that started the goblin resurgence.
Agreed, someone lmk if I'm wrong, but goblin's being silly little guys came about because they make a great comedic foil to hooligan inspire Orcs
From what I remember from Tolkien aside from not really being a distinct thing(orc and goblin are used interchangeable a lot) they're just cruel with no humour
And the ones in the D&D Forgotten Realms novels are never real characterised
I can't thing of any silly example prior to Warhammer, perhaps there's some out there but they aren't on the popularity level of the above settings
But I do believe the money-grubbing goblin is a JKR invention, that position being held by some dwarfs, halfling or gnomes at least in D&D settings like Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk
edit: Just remembered while not particularly silly on a whole or predating Warhammer, T. Pratchett's goblins are great sorrowful stinky little guys
A lot of the fae folk are interchangeable up until national romance as a movement was trying to set things into canon (and then later still when we got fantasy nerds doing the same). So a gnome, brownie, pixie, goblin, elf, dwarf etc. could be the same thing. For example, the source for ‘dark elves’ is pulled from Prose Edda (Svartalfar and Dökkalfar) which literally translates to black/dark elf but most scholars agree that they are just synonyms for dwarf.
The most pervasive things associated with goblins is their mischief and greed, but it all depends on the story. So of course there are be many stories where they mirror antisemitic stereotypes, seeing as medieval Europe was pretty damn antisemitic.
There is mischief in a lot of the early ones, but I do think that the more ‘fun’ goblin archetype we see now is largely based on war hammer making them cheeky chappies. Kind of like how they gave dwarves a Yorkshire accent which then morphed into Scottish with the live action LotR and Warcraft.