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Hoard

2021-11-21 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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Hoard
Votey panel for Hoard
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Explanation

This comic subverts the classic fantasy trope of a knight confronting a dragon guarding a treasure hoard. The knight arrives expecting a massive pile of gold, but the dragon's hoard turns out to be "just smaller than I expected." The dragon has millions of dollars' worth of gold, but it's a modest pile rather than the mountain of treasure depicted in fantasy stories.

The dragon then rationalizes: "Gold is a very dense material. It doesn't really pile up like people seem to think. Also this is a lot of money." The humor comes from applying real-world physics and economics to a fantasy scenario. Gold is indeed extremely dense (19.3 g/cm3), so even millions of dollars' worth wouldn't fill a large cave.

The dragon decides to use the money practically -- "I'm gonna go buy someone else's cave" -- and notes that "most dragons my age are still paying off college loans." This final twist brings the fantasy creature fully into modern economic reality, where even a dragon with millions in gold faces the same financial anxieties as millennials. The comic pokes fun at fantasy genre conventions while commenting on modern wealth expectations and student debt.

View History (1) Original Comic