hey so i'm currently obsessed with the movie goat, to the point i actually ordered the novelization... so!! here's some things i noticed in the book that are different from the movie / some neat little tidbits about the characters :)
• "On this court ... a horse could become the most dangerous animal in the world." literal first page okokok i see
• will uses freshly mowed grass for his morning nutrition shake (mowed by frank)
• the current thorns team was the starting roster of the team, the other players dropped due to "their losing record and tiny budget"
• olivia set a record in training camp on the 400 meter dash
• modo is a power forward on the court
• will kisses his hoof and presses it to a picture of his mom after every workout
• theo is the youngest (and cutest, according to will) of frank's sons
• "duck tape" exists; tape made by ducks, and apparently it's great tape
• whiskers diner has a life-size cardboard standee of jett
• jett's been playing 20 years
• will wears ankle weights
• the sizes are labelled "bigs", "mediums", and "smalls"
• chuck and rusty have been calling the thorns games "every week for his [will's] whole life"
• will knows the best route in order to watch the game on tv through windows/doorways while he delivers - some customers even let him come in and watch the game for a few minutes
• mane is apparently a favorite of most of the refs - they let him get away with "whatever", like blatant charging and fouls, etc
• hannah knows jett's stat line, favorite color, and every shoe she had ever worn
• the bigs at the cage "baa" when they see will, and daryl and hannah say he should reclaim it as a battle cry
• mane's won back-to-back championships and apparently brings up jett in his socials like every single day
• modo's dad used to put him in an empty shark tank and he insists he "turned out fine" (everyone else disagrees)
• the team literally forgets dennis exists because he hasn't been allowed to do his job since he was hired
• dennis also forgets he exists
• mane makes a game out of posterizing olivia (posterizing means to perform a dunk while over the other team's defending player, apparently), pulling off stunts and dunks "he hadn't even tried before" just to humilate her further (social media is calling her a poster child)
• will's "first warm-up" when he hits the cage is cleaning it up - he picks up the litter left by the last crowd and shoots it into the trash
• flo's office is in a hallway in the green house, hidden behind an elevator that needs "the highest-security pass the facility had just to get in"; the elevator only has one button
• the sneaker store is called sneads
• mane's outfit for the cage match is different in the book - he's wearing the magma's flame-themed shorts, but no top half to his outfit except for a platinum "m" chain
• mane and jett kinda share the same fear of disappointing the camera/fans, just in different ways - jett wants to live up to her own expectations, mane just doesn't want to look like a punk in front of people
• mane apparently never passes in games (hard to believe, i know)
• instead of making it rain, mane goes to spend will's rent money on fast food with p-dog and boogie
• mane actually broke one of will's horns when he knee'd him into the roarball post
• will cried both in embarrassment and probably pain from his horn after he lost :(
• he taped his horn back on
• flo "sort of gave the impression she might kiss you or eat you at any moment"
• hannah's video got 25 million views (and rising)
• jett's set a record in pretty much every stat tracked in roarball, except for assists ("and if she could have figured out some way to pass to herself, she would have done that, too")
• they got judge moody instead of judge judy
• jett bids in online auctions for sneakers
• jett insults mane's shoes instead of his hair like in the movie
• olivia loses her feathers whenever she's stressed (and counts them to see how many she's lost)
• archie's daughters climb lenny's neck (i imagine he doesn't mind)
• will is FOUR seven in the book, not five seven... idk why they added an extra foot (maybe the character lineup looked better that way)
• modo offers will a sleeping pill he "made himself", which is a canister the size of will's head
• selena gomez exists in this universe and is called hyena gomez
• the card game the team's playing (in the book at least) is booray
• archie's girls were originally doing dennis' make up and bedazzling his cpap machine as he slept
• jett hates the person the team thinks she is, but she can't really argue with them about it
• "Years of trying her best and coming up empty meant that she didn't trust anyone but herself"
• instead of "dream big", the motto will writes on his shoes is "change the game"
• jett's insult in the book: "I'm surprised you can talk so much with your teeth like that. Do they take turns holding conversations? Every time you smile it looks like a picket fence after a tornado. Did your dentist study abstract art?"
• modo lives "somewhere, deep in a cave", unsurprisingly
• jett doesn't praise modo like she does in the movie </3
• dennis pronounces meme as me-me
• dennis shows a photo of modo from a previous game where "the physics of what modo was doing didn't really make sense, but the defender he was up against looked absolutely terrified" and says "you do you, buddy", which makes modo proud
• jett gifts the whole team new sneakers
• they work with the vineland community to clean up the old thorns mural in town and do some volunteering/visiting with fans
• theo decided archie was his favorite player, and gets a jersey from him
• flo tells the whole team immediately about selling the team, rather than just telling jett
• jett has apparently never given a hug before (and she's very bad at it)
• mane calls jett "nana" and olivia "poster child"
• thorns have been playing roarball for 50 years
• will had a jett fillmore birthday cake for his 6th birthday instead of the roarball cake
• modo doesn't buy the team in the book!! they actually end up getting sold! surprising
