StellarTim

i consider the chances slim that this episode will include the return of the magic fish. If anything, me making this post will have caused fate to not make it this episode. And there was no point in asking tim.

anyway, I really like this little drawing. not just because i love the magic fish. and in any case, knowing that the magic fish appears in an episode beforehand would be considered a spoiler and these episode covers are definitely not supposed to have spoilers and therefore should not knowingly reference the episode's content.

(note: I'm writing this when 4 goblins episodes are out so i cannot account for if anything in later episode would change my mind or any characters that appear in them)

My initial thought was how the power dynamic between characters has been reversed from Stellar Firma.

David7 having been the trapped-in-a-bad-situation character in Stellar Firma, meanwhile this is exactly Elizabeth' situation in Goblins.

Hartro and Hooper both being the person in charge of the group, more or less.

Which leaves Trexel-Tripe. I'm not saying that Trexel and Tripe are the same person obviously. But maybe some people can follow where I'm coming from with this. I was thinking about what the actual situation even is in Stellar Firma. Typically the assumed duo is obviously Trexel and David. But thinking about it more, Trexel and Hartro are actually the two people in more similar standing and clearly Trexel at least in theory is in a position of power relative to David (given that David has 0 rights and all) and David is dependent on Trexel (and by extension Hartro). Equally Elizabeth is dependent on the goblins. It's not a perfect comparison obviously because the dynamic between Hartro and Trexel does not exactly translate onto what is going on with Hooper and Tripe.

I was also uncertain about IMOGEN ~ Elisar initially but the more I think about I feel it does actually make the most sense out of the options. Not necessarily wrt actual power dynamics but Stellar Firma is all over the place with those anyway including some reveals later on that kind of reframe everything. I shant go into that here. Elisar being a kind of unhelpful coworker who yet is kind of in a higher position than the others (due to being not only an elf but an elven prince) is the closest what we have to match IMOGEN I think. It is interesting to think about the dynamic of Elisar-Elizabeth vs IMOGEN-David7. It's easy to find differences there but this dynamic does repeat a bit of the "powerful beneficiary who is often a lot less helpful than they could be" situation. That's all I can go by really. You could also argue that IMOGEN is on the side of the company like Hartro and Trexel (based on the general dynamic and not whatever is revealed at the end) just like Elisar works in the Goblins office with Hooper and Tripe. Then also Elisar having more autonomy than anyone else in the office. But I do admit it is hard to really match that with IMOGEN's position in Stellar Firma. Another thing that is hard to match is Elisar's personality. Elisar not giving a fuck about anything does not really match well with IMOGEN's unending security alerts and threats. Then again, does IMOGEN actually care or does she just pretend to care? I gotta relisten to the finale I think but I also feel like it leaves a lot of open questions.

Nyx ~ Number 1 may be another desperate comparison. In general it is hard to really compare beyond the main SF characters since all other character show up a lot less and the Goblins podcast has a bigger main cast. Nyx and Number 1 are both outside of the main group that the show is about but act as outside adversaries that sometimes show up. I think I have to relisten to Stellar Firma properly in order to judge this and I feel like if I will this comparison will only get less accurate but it's the only one I have. You could also argue that Number 48 and Standards in general could fit the same role and I don't want to make it seem like I am only basing this off of Amy being the VA but I do believe Number 1 still fits better than those other options.

The Board and the Fairies match pretty well in that line I think, since they are both the often referred to ominous threat that hangs over the whole narrative. And yet you don't really see or meet them. They also both act as the law of the land. I was gonna say the executive branch but that would probably be IMOGEN in SF technically so it wouldn't match exactly.

Bathin and Dhruv is probably the least controversial match. Especially if Elizabeth is David7 it would obviously make Dhruv Bathin. The main difference is that we meet Dhruv before he becomes referenced as opposed to Bathin in Stellar Firma who is endlessly referenced before we ever actually hear from him. But arguably in the narrative they have the same position with how they are referenced. One may argue that Elisar would also fit the comparison but I feel like that would only be the case if Elisar was a side character or even just an almost exclusively just referenced one like Bathin. Also based on the little we heard from Bathin I feel like Dhruv also is a better match personality wise. That being said you could argue that Elisar is a mix of Bathin and IMOGEN in narrative roles. I didn't want to include compromises like that here to not complicate it too much.

conclusion:

what does it all mean? i don't know. 🤷

tbh I dont know what the point of all this is. just some thoughts that i needed to get out. where else is the place for niche and random unasked for analysis like this other than tumblr.

This post was focusing on the similarities of the characters and their narrative roles but with many I have also been thinking a lot about how they differentiate between Stellar Firma and Goblins. Who matches which role is kind of the first step to that in my opinion. Of course you can also compare Hooper and David7 or Hartro and Elizabeth, which I will probably still do, but I think comparing them based on their character roles rather than VAs is actually pretty interesting. Hence this post.

I do think it is interesting though how Ben and Jenny swapped roles in a way. It does make sense to me that they would swap with how they were on opposite ends of the story in Stellar Firma.

I'm genuinely curious if anyone is reading this far because part of me highly doubts anyone can be bothered to read this much rambling from me. Hello to you if you exist!