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Obelix ( ; ) is a cartoon character in the French comic book series Asterix. He works as a menhir sculptor and deliveryman as well as one of the primary defenders of the Gaulish village, and is Asterix's best friend. Obelix is noted for his obesity, the menhirs he carries around on his back and his superhuman strength. He fell into a cauldron of the Gauls' magic potion when he was a baby, causing him to be the only Gaul in Asterix's village who is in a permanent state of superhuman strength. Because of this already enormous strength, Obelix is not allowed to drink the magic potion ever again, a ban he regards as being tremendously unfair. Other characteristics are his simplemindedness, his love and care for his dog Dogmatix, his anger when someone refers to him as being "fat", his enthusiasm for hunting and eating , and beating up Romans. His catchphrase is: "Ils sont fous ces romains", which translates into "These Romans are crazy!", although he considers nearly every other nationality, even other Gauls, to be just as strange.
The character was portrayed by actor Gérard Depardieu in every Asterix live-action film until 2023's .
Obelix's favourite food is roast wild boar which he usually hunts with Asterix, but he has a voracious appetite, and will try eating nearly anything with few exceptions; in Asterix and Obelix All at Sea and Asterix in Britain he seems not to like boiled boar. In fact, he eats nuts and oysters in the shell, and is completely oblivious to drugs, spicy food and poison, possibly due to the permanent effects of the magic potion. However, when he consumes ethanol, he gets very drunk very quickly, as seen for example in Asterix in Britain where he enjoys sampling different barrels of wine trying to find a barrel containing magic potion, or in Asterix and the Laurel Wreath, where both he and chief Vitalstatistix get drunk during a banquet, much to the shame of the latter's wife Impedimenta. Although he has his own house, Obelix is occasionally shown staying overnight at Asterix's.
Obelix owns the quarry where he chisels the menhirs himself. It is never directly stated what the menhirs are mostly used for aside from being Obelix’s personal blunt weapons. It is hinted that they are also just oversized knick-knacks; however they are probably a running-gag regarding the origins of the mystery surrounding Menhirs in ancient Europe, with the joke being that Obelix delivered them. Obelix usually trades the stones away for whatever he needs, resulting in the village having a literal field of menhirs.
Obelix is kind-hearted, but socially inept—possibly because his strength means that others have had to adapt to him instead of vice versa. He is still not completely aware of his own strength and almost invariably breaks any door he gently knocks on, making him a human battering ram. He is frequently used as a human battering ram for opening locked doors or breaking through walls. Similarly, he is unaware that others do not share his superhuman strength, and shows great surprise when others are crushed by what he calls "a little menhir", or when Asterix attempts to explain to him that a small dog like Dogmatix cannot lift a menhir. He also has little interest in subjects of formal education or intellectual pursuits, since sheer strength usually solves his problems; he generally leaves any decisions to Asterix. However, Obelix is not completely stupid. In Asterix and the Normans he deduces from various clues that Cacofonix the bard has gone to Lutetia to pursue a career in popular music: this unusual display of intelligence on Obelix's part surprises Getafix. He also surprises Asterix in Asterix and the Black Gold by reeling off a dictionary definition of wild boar in conversation (including the Latin taxonomical classification). He can also be quite dangerous when angered.
While cheerfully violent and enjoying a good fight, Obelix is far from brutal or sadistic: he tends to view fighting as a game and is generally friendly and polite (to the point of inappropriate courtesy) towards his opponents. He extends this benevolence even towards the Romans, whom he rarely seems to view as oppressors but more as less-willing participants in his rough-housing (The Romans themselves seem to view him as a terrifying ogre, whose infamy has spread across the entire Roman army). His other favored pastimes are dancing (which he apparently is very good at), and occasionally drinking goat's milk to excess (as he rarely imbibes in alcohol).
Like Asterix, Obelix is a bachelor, but he is easily smitten by a pretty face. He harbours a hopeless crush on Panacea, the daughter of Soporifix (one of the other villagers), and occasionally other young women, most notably Mrs. Geriatrix (which enrages her husband). However, one may think that he will eventually find a mate and have children since in Asterix and the Class Act, he is shown to be the founder of a long dynasty of French warriors that lasted well into the 20th century.'Obelix's Family Tree' in Asterix and the Class Act
Obelix's trademark phrase is "These Romans are crazy" ("Ils sont fous ces romains": in the Italian language translation, it is "Sono pazzi questi Romani", which can be shortened to S.P.Q.R., Rome's motto), although he has applied a variant of it to nearly every group he's met in his travels: "These Britons are crazy", "These Corsicans are crazy", etc. This remark is followed by him tapping his forehead. It is a parody of the quote "These Gauls are crazy", which Julius Caesar famously said while describing the Gauls' fighting style during his conquest of the region.
Although it has been clearly stated by both Getafix (in Asterix the Gaul) and Asterix (in Asterix and the Laurel Wreath) that the magic potion does NOT grant invulnerability (Getafix has a potion for that but it is only mentioned in Asterix the Gaul), meaning that they could be injured by the Romans in their fights but their raw strength generally prevents the Romans getting the chance to do so, the same does not seem to be true of Obelix. He does not even notice when attackers attempt to knock him unconscious with blows to the head, when Roman spearheads are stuck in his bottom in Asterix in Corsica or when anyone else attempts to harm him in any way. This may imply that Obelix, either by stupidity or ignorance, simply does not notice or react to the pain that should be inflicted, or that the potion has enhanced his overall strength, since it has been shown to increase the drinker's endurance allowing them to run faster, to such a point where his muscles allow him to effortlessly absorb the attacks in question. Most of the occasions where Obelix demonstrates invulnerability include him being attacked physically rather than with sharp objects, as in Asterix and the Magic Carpet, when an arrow accidentally hits his bottom and he yells in agony, and thus showing that Obelix is not above physical pain.
Obelix does sometimes display twisted views, especially when it comes to the relationship between the Gauls and the Romans. As far as he is concerned the more Romans he can beat up the better and nobody should deny him this, not even the "selfish" Roman victims themselves:
In the live action films, Gérard Depardieu played Obelix until Gilles Lellouche took over the role for . The English dubs for these films have featured Obelix's voice being provided by Terry Jones, Dominic Fumusa, and Paul Bandey.
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