AAaA Byron 1
If I had to guess, I’d say Phil was gratified to get a chance to use this species of monster in the Guilded Age text somewhere. The gelatinous cube is a mainstay of Dungeons and Dragons, and has been since the first edition of the game came out… 46 years ago now… so it’s filtered into general nerd culture a little bit, too.
Byron would’ve been better advised to whittle this thing down from the edges: if D&D handbooks are anything to go by, “slashing attacks do full damage.” I’m not sure how Byron got out of this one, but that was probably one of his undocumented berserkings.
(I kind of snickered at the phrase “difficult or annoying.” Harky is a difficult but non-annoying opponent, whereas Goblaurence is a difficult and annoying ally.)
(Almost used the somewhat analogous Tar Baby as the illustration here, a story I grew up with and still enjoy in the can’t-believe-Disney-produced-this sense, but I was concerned someone might take it the wrong way.)
Don’t feel bad about enjoying the animated parts of Song of the South. It’s all I really remember from that movie.
I never saw SotS but back when I was a kid there were still audiobooks of the animated parts so I too have had that issue. Generally the briar patch is the one my brain tries to go to for references, which is less of an issue in its direct material and more just by association. Still worth avoiding.
There ar many versions of that story going all the way back to India though there is dispute as to whether tis is th origin of the tale
https://themythologyproject.com/prince-five-weapons/
Africa is the likely source: https://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/saft/sft20.htm
Slimes, oozes and the like are indeed annoying opponents, but at least they’re plainly visible. Mimics, on the other hand, are always nasty suprises. Our DM attacked us with a mimic that pretended to be a latrine once. True story