Originally butler to Bluebeard, Hobbes the goblin stayed on to work for Prince Charming after the Prince slew his former master. Calm and dignified, Hobbes is nevertheless a formidable fighter and fought savagely during the Battle of Fabletown. Hobbes worked tirelessly in Charming's election campaign and has generally proved invaluable to his master. He possesses a glamour for use in public, presumably provided by his masters, and notes proudly that he maintains an unblemished record of reliability with it. Hobbes was a great help, along with Grimble and Beast during the March of the Wooden Soldiers arc, where he and Grimble made a bet on who'd get the most wooden soldiers.

His great expertise as manservant leads him to be apparently very well paid; when asked about it, Prince Charming dryly noted that Hobbes was better paid as a servant than he was as Mayor himself. When it appeared that Frau Totenkinder had defeated Mister Dark by enclosing him in a golden statue, he makes an unfortunate discovery. He notices that the gold covering Mr. Dark is cracking. He is also the first to fall to the now freed Mr. Dark. Willingham said that his name was taken from Thomas Hobbes and that he chose it because he was amused by a character who symbolizes order being named after a philosopher who wrote about the difficulty of maintaining order. It is also, of course, a pun on the word Hobgoblin.