Topic: Question regarding Moblins

[Ian Sane]

In most Zelda games and their manuals Moblins are decribed for the most part as bulldog warriors and that's how they appear in most games.  However I've noticed that in some Zelda games (the Gameboy titles specifically) Moblins appear both as bulldogs and as pig warriors.  The Great Moblin in Oracle of Seasons looks like a pig for example.  The idea of pig warriors in theory makes more sense as warriors of Ganon they would be like "mini-Ganons".  In the manual for the first Zelda game on the NES the picture of the Moblin looks a lot like a pig but is decribed as a bulldog (check out a scan here)

So what I'm wondering is were Moblins initially designed to be pigs and NOA messed up and thought they were bulldogs and as a result they've appeared as both since?  Or are there for whatever reason two types of Moblins: bulldogs and pigs?

[VideoGamerX]

They're a mix. Moblins aren't supposed to be a typical creature. We don't have any in this world (do we?). I would say they are bulldog-like with pig features. Their ears and face are pig-like but can resemble more of a bulldog type of thing. They don't seem to really have snouts. And they don't have hooves, either.

Juding by the artwork, I don't think that thing even remotely looks like a moblin. I guess I have a different idea of what a moblin is thanks to the Zelda cartoons and other Zelda games.

[Gibdo Master]

Well I think the thing is is that they have snouts like a pig but they have jowls like a bulldog. If you look through all the art depictions of Moblins they all have the pig snout with the bulldog jowls. Actually the only bit of official art that doesn't depict them like that is the Ocarina art. That are depicts the Moblins as having strictly bulldog like heads. Even in Wind Waker though the Moblins have pig snouts with bulldog jowls. Interestingly though the Wind Waker Moblins have hooves instead of feet which is what all the Moblins in the other games had.

By the way my favorite art depiction of the Moblin is the one from The Legend of Zelda manual. It looks so evil and wicked. Not to mention it has a very horrifying nightmarish quality to it. Of course most of the enemies were portrayed that way in that manual.

[Ian Sane]

"my favorite art depiction of the Moblin is the one from The Legend of Zelda manual.  It looks so evil and wicked. Not to mention it has a very horrifying nightmarish quality to it. Of course most of the enemies were portrayed that way in that manual."

I totally agree.  Anyone who says that Wind Waker's design is more "loyal" to the traditional Zelda design then Ocarina of Time needs to look at the original game's manual.  Every enemy looks incredibly freaky.  Link is the only character in the manual that looks cartoony.  If a future 3D Zelda game had enemies that looked like they do in the Zelda manual the game would probably get a teen rating.

I guess the combination theory makes sense.  One arguement against that is that in Link's Awakening there are two different Moblin sprites: one that looks more like a bulldog and one that looks more like a pig.

Personally I can't stand the Wind Waker Moblin design.  They're supposed to be elite warriors of Ganon.  In Wind Waker they don't look even slightly intimidating or scary (judging by any footage I've seen that is).

[mouse_clicker]

Moblins are more like warthogs, similar to Ganon in OoT but scaled down. The monsters that charged at you in the Forest Temple maze were moblins, as are the monsters that charged you almost everywhere in LoZ.

[DevilishDude]

Are they really called Moblins? In that scan they are called 'Molblin'

[Mode 7]

I think in The Wind Waker, there will be varying types of Molblins, sort of akin to the different kinds of Space Pirates in Metroid: Prime.

In this guy's heart, there are only two types of Molblins for the time being: red and blue. Maybe the more pig-like Molblins are the red ones and the more bulldog-looking Molblins are the blue? Or the other way around?

I kinda like the new Molblin design in Wind Waker. One, they're more like bandits than hulking warriors (which makes sense if this incarnation of Ganon is a thief again), and two, because in the first LoZ manual they're kinda wiry anyway.

[Gibdo Master]

Quote
Originally posted by: DevilishDude
Are they really called Moblins? In that scan they are called 'Molblin'

That can pretty much be summed up to another wonderful miss-translation. Basically a lot of Zelda characters and enemies have had multiple spellings of their names and sometimes even completely different names. For instance in the in game intro for The Legend of Zelda Ganon is spelled Gannon with three Ns despite the fact that in the manual as well as every game and manual since it is spelled with only two Ns. Also Zoras were called Zolas in the first game. Fairies have had multiple spellings. As an example of going under completely different names the slime enemies have been called something different in nearly every game. Oh, and Moblins have been spelled "Moblins" in all the recent games.