#straw head

Today's drawing is Sanji from One Piece.

Art by Lokirias "LoKy" Kyle

Name: Hobgoblin

Debut: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Oogity boogity boo!! Welcome back to the Triple-Feature Hallowe ‘en Extravaganza: Part II! And for this post, I’d like to draw your attention to the classics, because whatever happened to the nasty little men of Halloween? The imps, the gremlins, the boggarts and brownies? 

Of course, when it comes to silly names, the Hobgoblin has to take the cake! It’s actually a combination of the names of two other mythical rascals: the Hob and the Goblin! But on top of that, it’s just really fun to say. It makes me think of hobnobs. Mmm... Hobnobs. Actually, I’m not much of a fan of Hobnobs. 

But er, where was I? Hobgoblins! Even though Christianity makes them out to be nasty spirits, in a lot of old stories, they’re actually portrayed as helpful! Which brings us to today’s enemy, who is, of course, a helpful support enemy! He supports other enemies, to be clear. Not you.

What a lovely little specter, though! Of course, he’s carrying a little lantern, like any mysterious ghoul who’s worth his money. The bag on his head, which sort of looks like a skull? Mwah! Belíssimo!  And the nose hole? It looks mammalian, I guess. Isn’t that strange? 

Clearly, though, I’m not the only one who loves this guy’s face! Computer, zoom in:

On Hobgoblin’s pendant(?) is... another Hobgoblin! Hobgoblin wears his own face on his clothes. Presumably, this is a detail you can’t even see on the sprite, which makes you wonder why they did it for the render. It’s really funny, though! 

Actually, speaking of the sprite, it feels oddly different to his render. I wonder if this is just a limitation thing, but it seems a lot more eerie! Like a genuine zombie, or something. 

And of course, I can’t talk about Hobgoblin without bringing up his obligatory RPG reskin: Straw Head! There’s not much to say about him, except the fact they’re supposed to be scarecrows, and can use the S'crow Funk move which turns YOU into a scarecrow! Man, sometimes I take Mario RPG for granted. 

His render is also lower quality, but you can just about make out the picture of his own face on the pendant. Or... is it even his own face? These pictures are in black and white, after all! Could it be that Hobgoblin has a picture of Straw Head, and vice-versa? Are they perhaps... long lost lovers? Their Japanese names, Pierre and Edward, seem like they’d have some kind of connection... maybe it was their names in their former lives! How sad! 

Well, judging by his Psychopath, Pierre doesn’t seem too upset by the matter. In fact, he seems pretty happy just to be alive! Let’s hear Edward’s thoughts on the topic, shall we?

Straw Head

A nice break from animating. I've felt cooped up, so being able to scratch something out felt nice.