“ | Keep 'em laughing while you die, won't you? | ” |
– Malak introducing the Goliath Clowns. |
The Goliath Clowns are the fifth boss enemies in Dark Deception and Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals. They appear in Chapter 3, in the level, "Crazy Carnevil". They share the level with the Clown Gremlins and Clown Cars.
Appearance[]
The Goliath Clowns look and appear just like their smaller counterparts, the Clown Gremlins, except they are far larger than the player. Unlike the Clown Gremlins, Goliath Clowns do not have hats and collars, have a much darker skin color, being almost black though this might be due to lighting. They are wearing black clothing with visible red pom-poms and black boots with red bottoms. They have strange glowing cyan-colored striped arms, lips, and slashes down their eyes and two small red eyes.
Personality[]
“ | Goliaths will replenish beaten Clowns back to full numbers. Use their tactics against them! | ” |
– a Death Tip, from the Goliath Clowns' boss fight |
The Goliath Clowns, similar to their smaller counterparts, are chaotic, insane, and often sadistic in behavior. As seen several times throughout the Circus, they take great joy in doing whatever they can to intimidate their victims, most often by waving, laughing, or just simply staring them down to scare them.
Unlike the Clown Gremlins, however, the Goliath Clowns are far more confident in their efforts thanks in part to their brutal strength and size, showing no hesitation in killing Doug if the situation calls for it. Even when Doug stuns them or has taken out a lot of their cohorts, they still refuse to back down. They do, of course, retain their reckless and overconfident behavior, as they will not only destroy the nearby environment or fellow enemies if it means killing Doug, but their efforts in attacking leaves a lot of blind spots for exploitation by targets.
Abilities[]
Spawning[]
The Goliath Clowns are capable of spawning swarms of Clown Gremlins via a blue liquid in their mouths. During their boss fight, they're shown to spawn a total of 2 - 5 clowns, and they can use this repeatedly if needed.
Brute Force[]
In compensation for their fragility, the Goliath Clowns possess a frightening strength power. In just one hit, their fists can level a small area and kill anything within range of the shockwave.
Levitation[]
An ability exclusive to Monsters and Mortals, the Goliath Clowns are capable of levitating high off the ground, allowing them to attack targets on the Obstacle Courses.
Relationships[]
Malak[]
As with the rest of Malak's minions, the Goliath Clowns obey him and his every command. Their relationship to him seems positive in some way since they take great joy in getting to kill Doug when Malak orders them to do so.
Clown Gremlins[]
The Goliath Clowns seem to be bosses for the Clown Gremlins, as the latter will work together with the former without showing their cowardly sides, not to mention that the Goliath Clowns are responsible for keeping them alive during their boss fight.
Murder Monkeys[]
Despite both sides being loyal to Malak, the Goliath Clowns seem to not care about at all, even going so far as to destroy any monkeys still within their killing range.
Dread Duckies[]
Similar to the Murder Monkeys, the Goliath Clowns don't seem to care much about the Dread Duckies, even when they're trapped in the Clown Gremlins' cages.
Behavior[]
“ | The more Goliath Clowns you destroy the more minions they spawn, beware! | ” |
– Another Death Tip, from the Goliath Clowns' boss fight |
Act 1[]
The Goliath Clowns are first seen during the roller coaster ride, waving and laughing at Doug as he passes by. In this encounter, they are harmless and only serve as a cosmetic effect.
Boss Battle[]
Upon collecting the ring piece and heading back to the portal, Malak will block the exit and initiate a cutscene with Doug. Malak will summon the four Goliath Clowns behind the carnival booths, initiating a boss battle.
The Goliath Clowns only have two attacks. The first is summoning multiple Clown Gremlins by spitting them out through blue orbs in their mouth, and the other is pounding the ground with their fists, creating shock waves that can kill Doug upon contact and destroy nearby structures. The latter is essential to defeating them. During the battle, Doug will always be equipped with the mallet used at the beginning of the level, and he must defend himself from the summoned Clown Gremlins while also killing all four Goliath Clowns.
Each Clown Gremlin can be killed with a single swing of the hammer, but each swing must accurately hit them to kill them. A bad swing could very easily end up getting Doug killed by a Clown Gremlin. Using Primal Fear will instantly kill each Clown Gremlin in the vicinity, so it is best used when fighting swarms of gremlins though this has more chances for the Goliath Clowns to summon more Clown Gremlins.
In order to kill the Goliath Clowns, Doug must wait for them to pound their fists on their ground and hit them with the mallet to damage them. Whilst he's nearing one, a light will flash on the ground, and the Goliath will pound its fist at him. In easy mode, Doug can kill a Goliath Clown in one hit; however, in normal mode, Doug must kill a Goliath Clown in two hits. In normal mode, after the first hit, it will be temporarily stunned. After being hit twice, the Goliath will perish in a blue flash. With each Goliath Clown being destroyed, the Clown Gremlins will start to spawn more often. When stunned (After each mallet attack), the Goliath Clowns will share the same stun animation as the Clown Gremlins.
After all four Goliath Clowns have been defeated, Malak will appear, devastated at their deaths, and will proceed to pursue Doug until they escape through the portal.
Monsters & Mortals[]
Goliath Clowns return as a secondary boss in "Crazy Carnevil" level of "Monsters & Mortals". Like other bosses, they only appear when a player activated the "Boss Time" item from a portal box. When they appear, they can be seen floating on both of the platforms of the zone. During this time, they'll smash whatever beneath them. After one minute, they'll disappear.
Team | Bosses |
Health | Unkillable |
Speed | Stationary |
Damage | 100 |
Themes[]
Symbolism[]
Going by the theory suggesting that each nightmare portal is tied to one of Dante Alighieri's Nine Layers of Hell, with the monsters inside them being manifestations of sin, the Goliath Clowns and their underlings, the Clown Gremlins, might symbolize Heresy. They embody the souls of small, vile cowards who engage in mean-spirited pranks and trolling in life, reveling in others' misery. Their transformation into vicious clowns mirrors the sadistic and mischievous nature they embodied in life. Even in their new, more monstrous forms, these bullies and pranksters will always continue antagonizing, provoking, and tormenting their victims with twisted pride. It is unknown whether the Goliath Clowns were never mortals, being simply monsters created by Malak, or was indeed mortals or amalgamation of mortals that gained their position for having done the same sin as the Clown Gremlins, but to a far greater extent. Assuming the latter theory, the Goliath Clowns are likely a group of sadistic, mischievous bullies and harmful pranksters who targeted weak and vulnerable people with their trolling or collection of trolls, who thought that making their victims suffer as much as possible was the most hilarious joke in the world, which inevitably caused them to take their pranks too far and became famous for doing dangerous pranks that potentially harmed others. It's one thing to troll someone and cause their death in an indirect way, but it would be an entirely different ball game to go from emotional torture to emotional, mental and physical torture, thus crossing a line that even the smaller clowns weren't willing to cross. Their large size could also mirror Doug's narcissism and ego, viewing himself as above and superior to everyone else around him. At the start of the level, Bierce directly mentions coulrophobia when questioning the inspiration for the nightmare, implying that Doug may have a childhood fear of clowns.
Though heresy merely involves rejecting common beliefs, typically within a religious context (for instance, it would be considered heretical to identify as Catholic yet disbelieve in God), it can be brought into the modern world through bold contradictions that provoke discourse. This notion is perhaps exemplified by the behavior of the Clown Gremlins, who, as the embodiments of trolls and bullies, employ such tactics to psychologically torment others and spark arguments for their own cheap amusement. Furthermore, the insanity of the Clown Gremlins, combined with the psychedelic and surreal ambiance of their circus environment, appears to symbolize Doug's descent into madness following certain undisclosed actions involving his family. Unable to bear the weight of responsibility even with how much he tried (taking medication, praying, doing charity work, etc), Doug spiraled into madness and committed various crimes due to his recklessness.
Phobias[]
As with most monsters in Dark Deception, Clown Gremlins also likely represent various phobias.
Phobia | Relevance |
---|---|
Coulrophobia Fear of Clowns |
TBA |
Trivia[]
- The Goliath Clowns' name and their achievement were leaked before the release of Chapter 3. This also happened with the Doom Ducky.
- The Goliath Clowns are considered to be the largest enemies in the game so far.
- However, this may not be the case anymore considering that the Titan Watcher is taller than them.
- Defeating the Goliath Clowns in under 8 minutes unlocks the achievement "The Last Laugh".
- When the first Goliath Clown shows up during the boss cutscene, its jaw clips through the frill around its neck.
- This was "fixed" in the Enhanced version as they were given a unique model that lacks a frill.
- A similar error occurs when one of the Goliath Clowns smashes their fist on the ground, as its arm is clipping through one of the game booths. However, this was later fixed in the Enhanced version, as the game booths will be destroyed.
- This was "fixed" in the Enhanced version as they were given a unique model that lacks a frill.
- The Goliath Clowns are the total opposite of the Clown Gremlins in numerous ways.
- They are black in color while the Clown Gremlins are white.
- They have much brighter clothes such as their glowing arms whereas their cousins have dull colors.
- They have huge bright blue slashes down their eyes while the Clown Gremlins have small black slashes.
- They have cyan lipstick on their face while the gremlins have red.
- They act as brute type enemies whereas the Clown Gremlins act as swarm type enemies.
- They are giant while the Clown Gremlins are small.
- The Goliath Clowns are the third bosses to have a voice actor.
- The Goliath Clowns are the first boss characters that can be vanquished in battle.
- Interestingly enough, there are six Goliath Clowns in the ride sequence, and yet we only fight four of them during their boss fight. This means that the remaining two are left to perish when the nightmare collapses like the others when their ring piece is taken away.
- However, when asked in the Q&A, Vince confirmed they planned to add Goliath Clowns from 4 to 6 in boss fight. It was not used because it was too cramped and made the fight harder. He also stated they might get added in Hard Mode.
- Goliath Clowns are the second enemies that can be killed by Doug, with the others being the Clown Gremlins, the Reaper Nurses, the Joy Joy Gang and the Trigger Teddies.
- Goliath Clowns are also the first bosses that die.
- With a total of four Goliath Clowns to contend with, they are to date the largest number of boss characters to attack in a group.
- Goliath Clowns are 1 of 2 bosses that can attack the Monsters in Maze Escape intentionally
- The others are the Boss Brutes with their fireballs only and Clown Spiders
Voicelines[]
The Goliath Clowns are voiced by Christopher Corey Smith.
Voiceline | Used | Audio File |
---|---|---|
*Echoed Laughter* | During the slide sequence, heard after passing by the clown faces. | |
*Chaotic Laughing* | Heard as Doug passes by them during the coaster ride. | |
*Laughing* | Heard at the start of the fight. |
|
*Roaring* | Heard when attacking Doug and spawning Clown Gremlins. |
|
*Ground Punching* | During a punch attack. |
|
*Pained Screech* | Heard upon attacking a Goliath Clown. | |
*Shout* | Heard upon their death. |