Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Cockney goblins... Why?

I haven't checked whether this has been discussed already, but I must say I was very much annoyed that goblins in the game overwhelmingly speak with a cockney accent.

Goblins are violent, evil and vicious beings. Cockneys are usually working class people.
I find it a bit offensive that the two should be associated in the way it is done in the current version of BG3.

Why not use different accents for goblins?

This is an unexpected observation, you are the first to mention it. There are many UK residents on the forum, I would like to know their opinion too. Is this really a Cockney accent, or you may have thought

All I know about cockney is "Only Fools and Horses" sitcom (one of my favorites)

It came off a little more modern londoner than true cockney to me, but I'm in no way an expert...

But, the cockney/londoner accent is one of the 3 main Fantasy Accents (tm) found in every damn thing.

We got:
Posh Londoner
Rough Londoner/Cockney
and West Country/Rural Farmer

Throw in the occasional broad and unintelligible eastern european accent and you have every piece of fantasy media ever.

Edit:
Oh i forgot the unreasonably Scottish Dwarves.

Just like the same reason Dwarfs always speak with a Scottish accent, Goblins have to speak in Cockney. It's just the law.

But seriously, it's not really as much an unwritten rule as it seems to be for Dwarfs, but it's a trope too. In large part it's because of Warhammer Orcs and Goblins, which usually speak / are written in Cockney.



Well, they are one goblin society, it would make less sense that they spoke with different accents. Accents are usually socio-geographical in nature.
Beyond that, it's probably smart not to draw lines between a chosen accent and the culture the accent tends to be found in. Cockney is an dialect of the language English, much like Scottish and Irish is, so it's at least not some foreign accent they are applying.

The only possible answer is "Why not?".
They are awesome.

Because Warhammer and Shadow of Mordor ya gits

The goblins speak too much. They're supposed to be monsters you can kill without moral contradictions. They are too clean and groomed, especially the women with their hair-do's.

They make me think of the Kray Twins' henchmen, or at least the way they're often represented. Not really the salt of the earth type, more the "murder you first and chuck you in the river, ask questions later" sort.

And, I'm sorry, but can we please, please not get offended by everything? There are probably a multitude of reason why Larian chose it, or there might just be just one. Perhaps the voice actors for the goblins got together and just decided that the accent was appropriate. Who knows. But to be honest, I enjoy hearing them speak. For whatever reason there may be, it sound right to the developers. Larian doesn't mean anything by it, they are not trying to offend, or poke fun at anyone. It just sounded appropriate to them for whatever reason.



You are referring to the "old way" of viewing monsters in D&D in general. I too come from the AD&D days, where evil was evil and of course, must be smited by the heroes, at whatever cost. Where goblins snuck into towns and villages, stole and then ate babies of the "goodly races". Now, it seems we have to sympathize with them before we cut them down.

I will admit, it does add a bit of drama to whole RP experience. It has its pros and cons.

You could replace it with a scouse, manc or newcastle accent but nobody would have a bloody clue what they were talking about.

Alrhihgh larrr wana go't traffy to rob trakkkieeees?

Wu is off nar lef doon da ta cash ma giro?

Arkid got nicked innit bruv an is up in crown fo getin his nob out in the arndale?

In fact I think scouse would be perfect for goblins as they fit the stereotype. Oh and to be classed as "working class" you have to have at least have had a job once....your family history doesn't count otherwise you are a chavvy or chav.

Oi!

Admittedly the Newcastle types are from the wrong side of the river, though the quoted example seems more like Mackem. D:

I have a dm who likes to have their sentient monsters actually be people, and it really depends on the players as to whether this lands or not. One game we had a very new player who basically got into a big out of character argument with us about the morality of killing the goblins (despite the fact that the goblins were very much trying to kill us and not being wishy-washy about doing so). I personally like it, I feel it adds a bit more depth to things, otherwise i might as well be fighting cardboard cutouts with angery gerblin faces drawn on. But also, if I'm playing a character that would kill the goblins, then I'm going to try to kill goblins.

Is that... Klingon?

One of my best mates is from Walls end and when we go out in Manchester I basically act as a translator . Northern accents are more fun imo.

One of my favourite English artists is a group of Geordie folk singers called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset.

My maths teacher had such a strong Jarrow accent that my dad (from South Shields... all of a couple of miles or so away) couldn't understand a word she said when he met her at a parents' evening.

I went to Manchester once. It was dark.

Cool, haven't heard that before. Glad it's not too dialect-heavy as I haven't lived in the region for over 35 years...

I'm from Sweden so I just love recognising all the Scandinavian in the dialect -- bairn for example is barn in Swedish, and hyem is hjem in Norwegian

That sounds familiar: I understand that things like "gan hyem" are almost identical in e.g. Danish (I think that's the one it was likened to, anyway). The local dialect is a bit of a mix of that and Celtic and Angle (I think Jarrow, where I'm from, derives its name from their word for "swamp", for example) and various other things collected along the way; Geordie is sort of the linguistic equivalent of trudging across a muddy field and wondering what you've brought back with you. When I was younger I'd have difficulty figuring out a word-for-word translation for people who didn't understand what I was prattling on about but finally realised it's not really a thing.

I'm just embarrassed that I'm so entirely rubbish at languages. It's such an interesting subject but one where I really lack any aptitude whatsoever.

Like what?