Goliad (character)

Goliad is a character from the eponymous episode. She is Princess Bubblegum's "substitute" in case she dies. Apparently, she can live forever. She is able to control people's bodies with her mind and use them to her will.

Appearance
Goliad is a large, pink colored sphinx with a body resembling a feline. Her neck has feather-like protrusions, and she has the head of an infant,. She has a single dangling tooth and wide eyes. In the middle of her forehead is a mound which, when opened, reveals a third eye. She speaks in a British accent.

Biography
She was introduced to Finn and Jake by Bubblegum who held her in a laboratory room in a pool of liquid, the liquid containing all the mixtures of her creation. Goliad greeted the two and repeated their names, indicating she was in the learning stage. An exhausted Bubblegum left Finn and Jake up to the task of teaching Goliad the ways of a ruler, to do this they took her to the Candy Kingdom Pre-School. While there, Goliad became convinced that the best way to lead was to control people with her psychic powers, because everyone did what she wanted, really fast, and with no mistakes. Later, she reasoned that she shouldn't care about the well-being of others because she was the strongest.

A panicked Finn and Jake raced to tell Bubblegum about Goliad's behavior. Fearing her creation was already corrupted, Bubblegum's plan was to dissemble Goliad. However, Goliad read Bubblegum's mind and rebelled. As she rampaged outside the castle, Finn and Jake volunteered to stop her, but Goliad's abilities proved to be overwhelming.

It took another sphinx, Stormo, to put a stop to her rage. Both sit atop of the Candy Kingdom castle, locked in a psychic battle of the minds for all eternity.

Personality and traits
Goliad started off as being rather naive to her surroundings, but was eager to learn and attempt to duplicate what she had learned. She spoke in a polite manner and displayed a sense of curiosity. Her first lesson, however, was the result of her yelling at Candy Children to get them to do what she wanted. This came from her observations of Jake yelling at the children in order to show dominance and discipline. When Finn tried to explain that her actions were wrong, Goliad disagreed in a matter-of-fact manner, and proceeded to establish her dominance and show how much efficiency can be accomplished if she used her natural powers.

When trying to get Goliad to accept the differences and social rules, she made it a point to defy them and instead preferred her own ways. It was Princess Bubblegum who viewed Goliad as being the subject of corruption and saw it best to disassemble her. This only caused Goliad to become enraged and more determined to be the dominate ruler.

Abilities
Despite being at an infant stage in life, Goliad has high sense of intelligence, described by Bubblegum as "Mondo mama brains". She has psychic abilities which are visibly seen being produced from the third eye in the middle of her forehead. She is able to read the thoughts of others and also reanimate dead beings, she demonstrated this by crushing a bee between her paws and reviving it in the same instant. She is also able to distort or twist her neck.

Trivia

 * A Sphinx is an ancient Egyptian figure having a lion's body and a human or animal head.
 * Goliad seems to serve a similar function the Earl of Lemongrab would have had if he had been created as Princess Bubblegum intended.
 * Because a tooth was used in her creation, it shows in her appearance. This is similar to Finn's hair in Stormo.
 * The name Goliad comes from a town of the same name in Texas famous for its significance in the 1836 Texan Revolution. Tom Herpich thought the town had a cool-sounding name, so he decided to name the character after it.