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Goblin Slayer Discussion Thread

M

MediumGatoKatr

This has been a recurring tangent recently in the "what are you watching" thread so I decided to make a thread for it.

Goblin Slayer is a light novel followed by manga and anime adaptations. Upon initial examination it appears to be a grimdark satire of the recent Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy trend, or at least that was the intention stated by the author in interviews. It is notable for its extensive and detailed violence, particularly the sexual violence and mutilation directed exclusively toward young attractive women.

To put it bluntly, Goblin Slayer promulgates harmful myths about rape (aka the original sociological definition of "rape culture" before that term was co-opted by SJWs into incoherence) and is generally insensitive toward rape survivors (who, as everyone should know, make up to a third of the global population of men and women alike). Specifically:
  • Gratuitous rape: The series uses rape (and mutilation, cannibalism, etc) for shock value, to disgust the audience and motivate the main characters before discarding the rapees themselves like dirty laundry.
  • Women in refrigerators: The series focuses solely on the trauma of characters were not and never will be subjected to any degree of sexual violence but at best only witnessed it. The protagonist's backstory is a textbook case of women stuffed in refrigerators.
  • Objectification: Only young attractive women are ever raped, but never the old, ugly or men. Any such woman who is raped immediately turns into a traumatized, voiceless object before vanishing from the plot forever.
  • Rape monsters: All rapists (in this case the entire goblin race) are depicted as more or less literal demons who must be exterminated, and never anyone who was known and trusted by the rapee. In fact, goblins reproduce solely by raping women of any sapient race because magic.
  • Male gaze: While men are shown dying screaming, the most sadistic violence and mutilation shown is directed toward women. There is copious amounts of female nudity (censored in the anime), but men are always depicted fully clothed even after death.

Due to incompetence at Crunchyroll, the anime was mistakenly labeled as family-friendly so a firestorm of controversy ensued on Twitter before it was fixed. Many rape survivors complained that they were triggered (remember that they make up to a third of the global population, men and women alike, so obviously they will be consuming media). Many SJWs complained that the anime promoted misogyny, rape culture and racism with variable degrees of logical support. Since no publicity is bad publicity, this resulted in the show exploding in popularity among the anti-SJWs. Surprisingly, no mention of this has appeared in the popular media yet.

Most tellingly, if you try to have a rational argument with fans about how the series really does promote harmful myths about rape then the fans will deflect or ignore your argument no matter how reasonable. The most reasonable defenders will tell you that it gets better or that the light novel or manga are good, which is qualitatively wrong because the light novel and manga still promulgate those myths without any self-awareness. The idiots will shut you down as an SJW or feminist or whatever the popular term is these days.

Aside from the misogyny and gratuitous rape, the plot is the same painfully generic byronic redemption story we have seen a bazillion times before.

Have fun!
 
Yeah no, the thread already lost its purpose when you complained about SJWs.

Nothing good will come out of this. Just lock and delete the thread.
 
Macros said:
I don't know, I heard the name and wondered if I should give it a try, and now I know I won't. seems good enough to me.
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It's largely overblown. If you are content with the usual quality of LNs then it's nothing more than a redemption story of a byronic hero. We don't get too many of those and the character interactions of the party members make the story worth enjoying despite some controversy of other aspects of its subject material. The story is a lot more character-driven than what naysayers might have you believe and the relationships of the characters to the protagonist are generally done well. Goblin Slayer isn't really trying to say anything profound or do anything unique, and its a relatively fun read if not for the sole purpose of seeing GS open up to his party members. You don't really get character development like that in popular LNs because most of the time the protagonist is a blank slate for the audience to project themselves onto.

I think the best way to describe this work is that it's a story about a min-maxer who has to learn how to RP.
 
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This is just a shit series. I almost never say this but this story is absolutely miserable and awful without qualification or redeeming qualities. Character-driven? None of the characters even have fucking names. It is a power fantasy made at the expense of women and another cookie cutter dime a dozen dark fantasy besides.

Even GS' opening up just cheapens his character, turning an exterminator way too into his job into a blank otaku SI bait complete with tragic backstory to justify his raging goblin mass murder.

I read the manga well before the anime was made. It was unadulterated shit then, still is now. This is not an 'SJW' thing, it is just a bad, gross, formulaic story.
 
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Kokurokoki said:
I think the best way to describe this work is that it's a story about a min-maxer who has to learn how to RP.
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That's a good description, also for what it's worth, the debatable themes as it were are background, what im trying to say is an overall simplified take will be "the adventurers go and kill monsters and the monsters go and kill people and nothing of it is clean or fun" like... Many modern works just airbrush the violence that happens, this one acknowlodges it.

On a silly note, the fact that one tag is "isekai" is reeeeaaaallly misleading.... It is NOT. So i'm doubting if we are in the same page from the start....
 
The characters in Goblin Slayer are all cardboard archetypes. The plot lines are so formulaic you can literally call out story beats as they happen. It doesn't even do anything interesting with the scant few original ideas it does, and in fact seems actively against developing them in interesting ways.

Plus it's just plain gross with its attitudes towards women and rape. It uses rape for cheap shock value, while also eroticizing the act to an incredibly unpleasant degree.

The anime is bad, the manga was even worse. So just don't watch it. Its trash, but not even the fun kind of trash.

Priestess is still best girl though.
 
From what I heard the goblins seem to be adept in using women as equipment, like that part about tower shields and whatnot.
 
Nerx said:
From what I heard the goblins seem to be adept in using women as equipment, like that part about tower shields and whatnot.
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From what i heard, that was because at that point, the goblins was leaded by a goblin that is somehow smart and tried to use what you described, mostly as way for the humans to back off / scare tactic or something like that.

Do tell me if i am wrong, though, that's what i could remember so far, so i can be wrong.
 
Crilltic said:
Plus it's just plain gross with its attitudes towards women and rape. It uses rape for cheap shock value, while also eroticizing the act to an incredibly unpleasant degree.
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I remember the argument being used that the rape is just there to draw the watcher in and that it's not actually the focus of the series.

The genuine expectation that them admitting that it wasn't being treated with any sort of gravitas or tact and was just there for the sake of shock value to entice people to watch was meant to make me think more of the anime was a little confusing.
 
I don't know what this series is, but it sounds terrible. No need to bring up "SJWs" or politics, I think any vaguely rational person would find it disgusting and horrible that a series apparently objectifies women so much and treats rape so flippantly.
 
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Macros said:
It's not exactly a strong rebuttal of the OP, though. Reading this, I admit I automatically translate it in "well it's true, but it's not that bad", which doesn't inspire confidence.
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Well not really. The OP is obviously quite biased and misrepresenting the work by inflating aspects of it out of proportion. Goblin Slayer isn't the horrible rape and misogyny people make it out to be. The point is don't go in expecting something like berserk, but as far as LNs the author understands the narrative elements of his story and executes on most of them well enough to tell the story he wants to tell.

Gaz said:
I don't know what this series is, but it sounds terrible. No need to bring up "SJWs" or politics, I think any vaguely rational person would find it disgusting and horrible that a series apparently objectifies women so much and treats rape so flippantly.
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It doesn't though. The source material doesn't describe any acts of rape nor does he glorify it but shows them as they are, acts of sexual violence. And that's it.

The problem of the work isn't that there is sexual violence in it. The problem of the work comes from the author using violence against women as the only way to convey pathos to his audience. It's bad for the same reason that Made in Abyss has been criticized for using violence against children to get the same feels across.

Anyways that's all I have to say. Everyone here seems to know where they stand regarding the work and I hate repeating myself on the matter.

AWACS Sky Eye said:
From what i heard, that was because at that point, the goblins was leaded by a goblin that is somehow smart and tried to use what you described, mostly as way for the humans to back off / scare tactic or something like that.

Do tell me if i am wrong, though, that's what i could remember so far, so i can be wrong.
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Yes they use them as human shields to prevent the adventurers from shooting them as they advanced on the farm. Goblin Slayer knows that they do this because goblins will use prisoners or dead bodies as bait to get more victims and devises a countermeasure against it. But that's like only a part of the battle and a lot of other stuff goes on.
 
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AWACS Sky Eye said:
From what i heard, that was because at that point, the goblins was leaded by a goblin that is somehow smart and tried to use what you described, mostly as way for the humans to back off / scare tactic or something like that.

Do tell me if i am wrong, though, that's what i could remember so far, so i can be wrong.
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Don't need ya to be right, just interested in some discussion is all.
 
When I first read Goblin Slayer way-back-when because my local Discord server was losing its shit over it, I formulated my review thusly:

It's basically Fantasy Discount Rape Vidya Game Freakonomics.

I say thus because its key worldbuilding concept is based on a very basic understanding of supply-and-demand economics that doesn't exist in real life, but is more reminiscent of that seen in a video game, with the entire world being populated by complete morons who don't communicate with each other about the dangers of the goblin menace, and...

Well, you know, the rape. All the rape. The rape which is drawn and depicted in an erotic manner much reminiscent of pornography, i.e. with the intention to titillate, not to disgust, and them follows it up with hardcore revenge fantasy gore.

And then it demands to be taken seriously, which is just laughable because it's childish as hell.

The world doesn't make sense, the characters are pretty one-dimensional, and the way it tackles its "themes" is superficial as fuck. @Cetashwayo has it right when he says that the story would be better if it was more of a parody instead of trying to be po-faced serious.
 
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Kokurokoki said:
Everyone here seems to know where they stand regarding the work
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The thing is, I'm really not. All I know of this show is from this thread. Before that, I knew it existed.

Now, the OP paints a dire picture. But I must say, your defence actually convinced me of staying away. You didn't say "it is wrong", you said "it's exaggerated". By your own admission, it seems to use gratuitous violence against females as the main mean to induce conflict. and saying "it's better than your average light novel plot" is damning with faint praise.

You say it's supposed to be a fun read, but I don't get the feeling that "fun" is the main emotion around here.
 
Macros said:
The thing is, I'm really not. All I know of this show is from this thread. Before that, I knew it existed.

Now, the OP paints a dire picture. But I must say, your defence actually convinced me of staying away. You didn't say "it is wrong", you said "it's exaggerated". By your own admission, it seems to use gratuitous violence against females as the main mean to induce conflict. and saying "it's better than your average light novel plot" is damning with faint praise.

You say it's supposed to be a fun read, but I don't get the feeling that "fun" is the main emotion around here.
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There are like 2 scenes in the first volume none of which are all that graphic and one out of the two which contains men and women being murdered by goblins. And we don't get anything more afterwards. If you don't like depictions of violence against women then don't read the work, but to say they are gratuitous or everywhere in the book or that the book is about them is a misrepresentation since you're making that claim in the absence of all the other elements the story has to offer.

You can read it, or don't. I have my own problems with it but I otherwise enjoy it because it handles the character relationships well and they carry the narrative enough for me to enjoy the story.
 
Because apparently seeing Goblin Slayer going all murder on gobbos was fun. The other half also think reading the rape part was fun.

That can be blamed on the manga though, since it does shows most of things like the rapes uncut and bare, LN version doesnt really going to details.

Either way, we could try discuss stuff like say, why the people in this damn world doesnt realized the problem of the goblins and just being too damn lax with things.

If the newbies doesnt knew about the gobbos strength and the guild does knew and yet didnt stop them or tried hard enough to make them change quest, that's worrying.
 
Gaz said:
I don't know what this series is, but it sounds terrible. No need to bring up "SJWs" or politics, I think any vaguely rational person would find it disgusting and horrible that a series apparently objectifies women so much and treats rape so flippantly.
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The problem with that is that large numbers of people will watch it specifically because "SJWs" don't like it, and indirectly hurting people is the best thing they know.
 
AWACS Sky Eye said:
Either way, we could try discuss stuff like say, why the people in this damn world doesnt realized the problem of the goblins and just being too damn lax with things.

If the newbies doesnt knew about the gobbos strength and the guild does knew and yet didnt stop them or tried hard enough to make them change quest, that's worrying.
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You are talking about a world where things like wearing a helmet or practical armor seems to be a mindblowing idea, as opposed to wearing a cool outfit.
 
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