LFGTBT – You Think You Know Sooba?

Given how many questions still surround Sooba after all these years, it is appropriate that her catch phrase is “you think you know me?”

Why does she hang around with Cale? Is it out of habit or do they have a mystical bond?

Is she sentient? As readers, we have heard her thoughts plenty, but could they indicate a deeper meaning? Especially when the punchline of the first appearance of her iconic line turned out to be prophetic.

What colour is she? Purple? Blue? Black?

At one point, even her gender was unclear. Really, the only thing that’s always been certain about Sooba is that she’s a panther… right?

What’s A Panther?

If you’re anything like me, you though you had a good idea what a panther was. It’s the SUV version of a jaguar, right? A type of big hunting cat?

Ends up, panther is a category of large cats that includes tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, and snow leopards. There are animals called adjective panther, like black panther and Florida panther, but they’re subtypes of jaguars and cougars, respectively. Pink panthers are, not surprisingly, purely fictional.

So while Sooba’s been called a panther in the comic, that’s accurate but vague. What kind of panther is her?

From the Script

As I’ve gone into a few times on LFGTBT, there are a few interesting mysteries hidden in the early LFG scripts. The most mysterious was Sooba’s introduction.

This struck me as so odd. Tigers are known for their stripes, right? So “black tiger” feels incomplete. Like, Battle Cat isn’t a green tiger, he’s a green and yellow tiger. Sure, white tigers exist, but their stripes are still black so they don’t need to be called out.

Ends up, black tigers exist too, and they’re awesome.

I asked Sohmer what the original intent for tiger Sooba was. “I didn’t want Cale to be too much Drizzt,” he explained, adding “I kind of pictured Sooba as a giant black Hobbes.”

And you thought you knew Sooba.

Bring Sooba Home

Our Sooba plush is sold out, but that doesn’t mean there’s no Sooba merch for you to get your hands on during the Blind Ferret Shop blowout. She’s prominently featured on the Violent Femmes t-shirt (available in ladies cut). She’s a playable character in the Orphans & Ashes expansion More Phun. And of course, she stars in the kid-friendly bedtime story, Good Night Sooba.