Dog-headed Soldiers

I recently ran into a particular character in Elden Ring and his appearance brought up some old memories from the distant past.  Specifically, there is this reoccurring theme of RPG characters who have a dog heads.  It's not especially common, nor am I talking about full-on anthropomorphism.  To illustrate what I'm talking about let's look at three examples.

Blaidd the Half-Wolf is...well...tall for one thing.  Starting with Bloodborne, it has been pretty typical for From Software games to have NPCs and enemies that stand a good head-and-shoulders above the player.  Blaidd, on the other hand, is about twice the height of the player.  Even so, that is not his most outstanding trait.  Rather than stature it is his head that is the most striking feature about the character.  He also has a small pair of tusks which is perhaps a subtle nod toward the cursed prince from the fairytale "Beauty and the Beast."  In an interesting bit of trivia, his name is actually the Welsh word for "wolf" and he is supposedly Ranni's step-brother.  Considering that she has a human head but four arms, I can't even begin to imagine what the family tree must look like.

Ridley is one of many characters found in Suikoden II.  For all intents and purposes he looks like a human with the head of a dog.  In-game he is one of a race of demi-humans called "kobolds."  Kobolds, for those who are unfamiliar, are little mischievous sprites from Germanic folklore.  However, when first edition Dungeons and Dragons came out they were reimagined as a small, weak and numerous foe to throw at first-level adventures.  Appearance-wise the looked reptilian with canine-shaped heads.  In more recent editions of Dungeons and Dragons they have basically taken on the form of diminutive dragon-kin, but I guess a Japanese artist working at Konami back in the day looked at the artwork and thought they were dog-headed people.  There are a few other examples from the series aside from Ridley - "Gau", "Gon," and "Gen-gen."

Lastly is Captain Saladin from King's Quest VI.  Unlike the previous two examples (in which the exact breed of dog head represented on the character is a bit vague), Saladin is definitely sporting the head of a collie (which gives him a rather regal looking appearance).  Also unlike the previous two examples, Saladin has a bushy tail and leads a unit of royal "guard dogs" that look like either basset hounds or pugs.  In the context of the game Captain Saladin and his men aren't the sharpest, but are very loyal to the crown.  In fact, this theme of loyalty (a trait often associated with dogs) applies to all three examples.  What's more all three of these dog-headed soldiers experience a betrayal of sorts during the course of their respective stories.  I won't go into details because doing so would inevitably lead to spoilers, but needless to say I think there is a reoccurring theme happening here.

On a final note, I always wondered how any of these characters are able to speak.  Normally dogs lack the ability to communicate verbally beyond barks, howls and yelps.  Although, as anyone who has been around a Siberian husky can attest, they can sometimes yowl in ways that almost sounds like words.  I also find myself wondering if everything looks black-and-white for them...do they have an enhanced sense of smell or hearing?  When they get hot do they start panting or do they sweat?  I gets kind of funny the more you think about it...