Goliad (character)

Goliad is a character in the episode of the same name. She is Princess Bubblegum's creation, designed to be a fit ruler for the Candy Kingdom when she dies. Goliad is intended to be immortal. She is able to control people's bodies with her mind and use them to her will. She is made from "pretty standard candy creature soup," amino acids, some algebra, and a baby tooth from Princess Bubblegum.

Goliad is introduced to Finn and Jake by Princess Bubblegum, who is holding her in a laboratory room in a pool of the liquid containing the mixture used to create her. Goliad greets the two, and Princess Bubblegum explains that she is teaching Goliad how to rule. Because Princess Bubblegum hasn't slept in 83 hours, she leaves Finn and Jake to the task of teaching Goliad the ways of a ruler while she falls asleep. To do this, they take her to the Candy Kingdom Pre-School.

Jake tries to teach Goliad about the children, but in doing so he becomes furious with them for acting rambunctious by trying to attack him. He screams angrily at the children, who then follow his orders to go to Finn's obstacle course. Goliad supervises the children's actions on the obstacle course, and she angrily screams at them mimicking Jake's previous behavior using his words verbatim, including barking. When Finn corrects this by telling her to "use that beautiful brain, girlfriend," Goliad interprets this as using psychic powers and uses telekinesis on Finn and the obstacle course to pass through it effortlessly. She becomes convinced that the best way to lead is to control people with her psychic powers, telling Finn "This way's good. Everyone did what I wanted, really fast, no mistakes, calm like you said. This definitely is the way to lead. Definitely."

A panicked Finn and Jake race to tell Bubblegum about Goliad's behavior. Princess Bubblegum then meets Goliad in the castle courtyard and tries to explain leadership as a process of mutual benefit. Goliad then reasons that she shouldn't care about the well-being of others because she is the strongest. Fearing her creation had already been corrupted, Bubblegum plans to disassemble Goliad. However, Goliad reads Bubblegum's mind and rebels, claiming the castle as her own. As she rampages outside the castle, Finn and Jake try to stop her while Princess Bubblegum creates another candy sphinx of equal might to combat her.

Princess Bubblegum then creates Stormo to put a stop to her rage. The two fight briefly, and Goliad offers for the two to rule together. Stormo squawks at her, and she appears to understand what he says as declining the offer. The two then engage in psychic combat at the top of one of the Candy Kingdom's bent towers, locked in an eternal battle of the minds.

Goliad briefly appears in "Princess Cookie," still locked in mental combat with Stormo. She is in the background while Princess Bubblegum is considering Finn and Jake's plan to neutralize the hostage situation.

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.

Personality and traits
Goliad originally appears to be naive, but is eager to learn. She speaks in a polite manner with a slight British English accent, and displays a sense of curiosity to her environment and those in it. However, her first lesson results in her yelling at Candy Children to get them to do what she wants. This came from her observations of Jake yelling and barking in anger at the children in order to show dominance and discipline. When Finn tries to explain that her actions were wrong, Goliad disagrees in a matter-of-fact manner, and proceeds to establish her dominance and show the efficiency of powers by running Finn perfectly through his own obstacle course with telekinesis.

When trying to get Goliad to accept differences and communally beneficial values, she explains her values in what turns out to be a "might makes right" point of view. This appears to have developed purely from Goliad's sense that efficiency is ideal.

Goliad appears to reference previous situations strongly in her actions - she is a purely logical learner, trying to apply the actions of others to her own based on exact replication rather than principle. She repeats "Hi Finn, hi Jake" to herself, as if trying to make it "sink in." She also tries to repeat Jake's words exactly when leading the kids, though his words don't contextually apply. When Jake thinks about how gross her eye is, she is visibly upset, this could be distressing to her because Jake originally called her "cute." Finally, when she attacks Jake she does so by stuffing Candy People into his eyes and mouth just as the kids at the preschool had.

Abilities
Despite being at an infant stage in life, Goliad has a high sense of intelligence, described by Bubblegum as "Mondo-mama brains." She has psychic abilities which are visibly seen in a pink ray that is produced from the third eye in the middle of her forehead. Her psychic powers include telekinesis, the ability to read minds, the ability to direct the thoughts of others, and the ability to reanimate dead beings as demonstrated by crushing a bee between her paws and reviving it moments later.

Quotes
See Goliad (character)/Quotes

Trivia

 * Because a tooth was used in Goliad's 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.
 * Goliad's manner of speaking, and psychic powers may be a homage to the sci-fi film Village of the Damned and John Carpenter's Village of the Damned, a movie about evil children with psychic powers. Coincidentally, the eyes of these children also glowed when they used their powers.
 * Another reference to Village of the Damned may be the scene where Goliad tries to pry Princess Bubblegum's plan from Finn's mind, but he keeps throwing up mental barriers; similar to how the film's protagonist, Gordon Zellaby and Alan Chaffee, used the mental image of a brick wall to shield himself from the children's psychic powers.