Goblin Slayer: A Broken Hero

The term anti-hero is bandied about quite often these days, often inaccurately.  Goblin Slayer is accurate to say he is the epitome of Anti-hero, part of a new trend in Japanese manga and short stories turning the standard trope of fantasy world with a hero with a calling on its head.  Often with the heroes betrayed by those they thought they were fighting for causing them to take a darker path. Goblin Slayer is simpler tale, one whose main inspiration was a what if the hero were normal human with no powers, just a guy who gets by with training and single minded pursuit.

Goblin slayer is a broken man who knows he is not OK, he knows he is just as nasty and barbaric as those he fights. He doesn’t expect forgiveness nor want it. He does not expect redemption either, although he might be surprised before his story ends. He is down in the muck with the goblins and knows it. I’ve read reviews attempting to explain Goblin slayer as Japans answer for the Punisher, which is true, Batman could be another valid comparison. Think of Goblin Slayer as Batman without the first world problems like unlimited resources, an over doting butler and trivial questions about where to lock-up all the criminals captured with none lethal methods. Criminals who by the way will escape at some point.

I was surprised when I found out goblin slayer would become an Anime, since it was a brutal story which to be told faithfully would have to be equally brutal anime.  However the snowflake anime community reaction was more of a surprise, after all there are more brutally violent stories out there with Berserker, Overlord, and Cry Baby Devil, Goblin Slayer is tame compared to those standards. Still these attention seekers were shocked, shocked Goblin Slayer does what it say on the tin. #DoesWhatsItSaysOnTheTin

The start of the tale is a ten years after Goblin Slayers village was destroyed by Goblins, he is the lone survivor who witnessed the brutality first hand and in many ways cannot forgive himself for surviving. For not being capable of defending his sister. Almost immediately after crawling out of his burning village and feebly fighting a few goblins he is taken in by a mysterious master who beats is training into the boy who will become Goblin Slayer. (BTW his master is basically a dark mirror version of Bilbo Baggins)

In this world goblins are not a problem for the government or armies, they are left alone as resources of government are funnelled for the fight against bigger enemies. No way would this fly in today’s world where average citizens call 911 to report cold McNuggets.

This fantasy world is inspired by the Lord of the Rings series. With the exception it is a world filled with creatures who know they are competing for the gods amusement. The gods play dice, the roll of the dice is something even the gods are unsure of. If the characters become big enough to get the gods interest on an adventure the rattling of dice can be heard.

What makes Goblin Slayer unique in this world is he has no special skills, is not blessed with holy weapons tossed at him by a watery tart. He has the skills any human can hone and plans anyone of average intelligence can conceive of. The books describe him as appearing on the board the gods watch, as they argue over creating new characters like a dwarf shaman or Elf archer the gods never notice the Goblin Slayer character moves on its own accord. The tag line especially in the early books was “he doesn’t let anyone roll the dice”. He survives because it is not up to fate or the whims of the gods. This also gets him the interest of the gods which was described as not pertaining good things for him.

The introduction to Goblin Slayer is through the eyes of a young priestess, who on her first beginner’s adventure falls in with a group of other beginners taking on a goblin slaying quest. Long story short things do not go well for them, they fall in to an ambush and their inexperience shows. The priestess struggles to help one of her new friends but is quickly over taken, the novel makes it brutally clear she will be violated then allowed to die after she is no fun to the little monsters. Her friend she is trying to save is paralysed with a poison made from the goblins own excrement. Just as things look the darkest torchlight appears in the tunnel, a grimy looking suit of armour looking like a undead knight comes towards her. This is Goblin Slayer. She is more afraid of the new comer than the goblins, the sheer brutally which he disposes of the goblins adds to her fear.

After the fight Goblin Slyer tends to her injury then examines the young woman the priestess was trying to save, he refuses to give the girl medicine saying it was already too late. The poor young woman then mutters something to Goblin Slayer who then dispatches her with a knife plunge fulfilling her request.  Further adding to the horror of the priestess. Eventually they make it out after much carnage and the slaughter of baby goblins as well.  The priestess continues adventuring with goblin slayer, one reasons is to learn from him, the other is she feels he cannot be left alone. She is trying to return the favour and help him become a little more whole.

This theme continues in later books as his companions, Dwarf Shaman, Elf Archer and Lizard priest continue to party with him after their one quest is over. His companions know well how awful Goblin Slayer is, often taken aback at his horrible strategies and brutal actions. Much of their interactions with him is in hopes of dragging him up out of the sewers to see the world as they do.  The Elf Archer especially realizes how awful goblin slayers path is, she is revolted by it, adventuring should be fun, not a slog through a cave murdering goblins with extreme prodigious and extreme methods that could bring a city down. The Elf Archer wants for, all of their sakes, to help save him. She wants him to see adventuring should be fun, dragging him along on adventures in exchange for her help slaying goblins.

 Through their interaction he slowly begins to change.  He opens up little by little, realizing very slowly their might be more to the world than waiting to die when he finally hits a quest he can’t kill his way out of.  But the Goblin slayer is still Goblin Slayer, he is fixated on a target. So much so he has no interest in things that are not goblins often to the chagrin of greater monsters he kills because they were in the way of him killing goblins.

The essence of the stories are always the same, goblin slaying, what makes them interesting is the people surrounding Goblin Slayer, what they think of him and how they deal with his tunnel vision. Also interesting grander scale of places and people he interacts with while giving it no more thought than what is and is not useful, and what is and is not a goblin. He meets town leaders, high priestess, nobles, knights, and kings with the same direct straight forward attitude most wish they could do in real life.

The anime reordered some of the timeline from the books and Manga, over it was pretty faithful to the original material. Although it was toned down for a wider audience. It was still brutal enough to shock the millennial fans who were expecting light hearted romp with elves and magic. Of course there was nothing magical about bulging a goblin to death with a torch in the first few minutes of introduction to the character.

What started out as a web novel then lights novel went from shaky but constant first chapters trying to establish Goblin Slayer’s world, to consistent story telling. In fact it is so thought out there are all kinds of side stories and spin offs. Including Goblin Slayer Year One, which I am usually opposed to because very few origins stories get any of it right because the writers are accustomed to the story they are currently writing in a series and often take short cuts to create the same characters and settings, or just make connections in origin stories that do not belong there. So far Goblin Slayer Year One has not made any egregious errors.

So if you like your heroes a bit damaged, and don’t mind a bit of gore, then Goblin Slayer might be the hero that you deserve. Just like in the series, where Goblin Slayer knows saving one girl or saving on town nothing will change, nothing will change because you read or didn’t read it. Aside from possibly enjoying the read.