(L+CR) Goblin Slayer

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

The problem is nobody but Goblin Slayer himself knows about the Goblins life cycle and growth rate.

The common adventurer dismisses goblins as small pests not worth the time because besides being "weak" they also aren't rewarding in turn aspiring adventurers take their word as fact which leads to episode 1 results.

This made me wonders if there are some shortcut to be an adventurer.
Like something similar to taking an exam for driver license. If you finished it then you're qualified to deal with overlords and dragon?

I mean, if they're starting as a poor with some of them have less likely promising career while they do need to eat; with fact that goblin burn some villages down. They're bound to deal with goblin even with some of them not paid well.

How could such information, if not basic gist of 'goblin is dangerous creature', is still belong to exclusive people that traumatized like GS? Unless they all died after knowing that while also dragging good amount of them to hell, its hard imagining such issue is still seen as 'insignificant' to those 30-40 years old adventurers.

[xeviouses]

Originally Posted by Tactics

This made me wonders if there are some shortcut to be an adventurer.
Like something similar to taking an exam for driver license. If you finished it then you're qualified to deal with overlords and dragon?

I mean, if they're starting as a poor with some of them have less likely promising career while they do need to eat; with fact that goblin burn some villages down. They're bound to deal with goblin even with some of them not paid well.

How could such information, if not basic gist of 'goblin is dangerous creature', is still belong to exclusive people that traumatized like GS? Unless they all died after knowing that while also dragging good amount of them to hell, its hard imagining such issue is still seen as 'insignificant' to those 30-40 years old adventurers.

Greed and fame are primary motivators for adventurers, information sharing is likely not happening because well, nobody wants to talk about it and one more dead aspiring adventurer is one less rival down the road.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Tactics

This made me wonders if there are some shortcut to be an adventurer.
Like something similar to taking an exam for driver license. If you finished it then you're qualified to deal with overlords and dragon?

I mean, if they're starting as a poor with some of them have less likely promising career while they do need to eat; with fact that goblin burn some villages down. They're bound to deal with goblin even with some of them not paid well.

How could such information, if not basic gist of 'goblin is dangerous creature', is still belong to exclusive people that traumatized like GS? Unless they all died after knowing that while also dragging good amount of them to hell, its hard imagining such issue is still seen as 'insignificant' to those 30-40 years old adventurers.

Adventurers cannot take quests that have higher requirements than their own rank. As such, no adventurer could immediately take a quest to slay a dragon or an overlord, although that's only when it comes to the guild obviously. Of course, it is possible for adventurers to be promoted to much higher ranks depending of certain criteria.

Also, it has to be noted that goblins are not the only quests that are suited for porcelain adventurers. There are other quests such as cleaning the sewers from giant rats and other pest, patrols, deliveries etc etc.
Most of the time, goblins have a skewed risk/reward ratio compared to the rest, so those who pick goblins either don't have any choice left or want to climb ranks ASAP.

Once they are done with goblins, they pretty move on to something else. Unlike GS, most will not gain enough experience regarding goblins, so they don't know certain tactics required to deal with goblins.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by XFire

Those are bigger threats because we lack an effective means of both combating them and restraining their movements.

Goblins are almost entirely restricted to the edges of the frontier and can be butchered en masse anytime they do more than kill some chickens.

Even a zombie isn't a big threat if taken alone, less than a goblin for sure. But the moment you underestimate them and let them outnumber you 1000 to 1 you are screwed.

Right now in this world if goblins aren't seen as a priority is probably because there isn't a short supply of new adventurers that will take the job of culling them, and that's fine.

However in spite of GS' efforts it seems goblins are still increasing in number. If the trend doesn't change, sooner or later they are going to become a serious problem.

[Kafriel]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

Question:
Any expert on elf&dearf lore mind telling why they're not friendly to each other or is it something recent authors came up with and readership accepted it becoming a norm?

Elves live their first couple hundred years in passion, they are possessed by wanderlust and value beauty and emotions; dwarves live in very segregated clans,
live most of their life underground and value mostly their own clan, man-made works of industry and money. So it's natural for the two races to not really get along well, although it's not impossible - everybody loves a good drink!

Like something similar to taking an exam for driver license. If you finished it then you're qualified to deal with overlords and dragon?

One adventurer was actually talking about exp, so I assume the guild registers a number according to every adventurer's completed quests, basically promoting them to the next rank whenever they meet the prerequisite number. Remember, although the story is heavily influenced by games, adventurers are only separated by rank, at least for the moment.

[Tactics]

Originally Posted by xeviouses

Greed and fame are primary motivators for adventurers, information sharing is likely not happening because well, nobody wants to talk about it and one more dead aspiring adventurer is one less rival down the road.

That's another questionable part as well.

If you're adventurer, then taking a rest on either inn or tavern, you might come across news that goblin burning down a village causing problem with food supply or something like that. Someone might even paid you in midst of your adventure just to make sure their village is free from goblin. Saying "No" to that can hurts your reputation more unless you're sure those people died by next morning, thanks to goblin (LOL).

Either way, you're bound to learn that goblin is dangerous creature if you're an adventurer.

While its not your priority if you're a high rank adventurer, the basic understanding that they need immediate response should be there.
With GS confirming they need some kind of leader, there is high chance you can find them as mooks for those high-rank like dragon and overlords that most likely have better intelligence compare to others, making such case like beginners on first episode potentially not limited to low rank; its weird knowing creature that can spawn like cockroach with capabilities to burn down a village, taking over an abandoned fortress with need to rape females isn't considered dangerous by common sense.

My reason asking about shortcut is because of that.
Not that I didn't understand there's some criteria needed to be fulfilled but seeing those kind of quest considered cheap just because the person making request is not some noble old man in glorious fashion make the entire situation very questionable.

Unless there's some kind of advertisement / propaganda on capital like, "Everyday 1,000,000 people killed by dragon. Let's wage war to them. Made them extinct" or something like Attack on Titan saying that outside world is dangerous, this situation of goblin not recognized as potential danger, especially on long term, is just weird.

[Twi]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Even a zombie isn't a big threat if taken alone, less than a goblin for sure. But the moment you underestimate them and let them outnumber you 1000 to 1 you are screwed.

Right now in this world if goblins aren't seen as a priority is probably because there isn't a short supply of new adventurers that will take the job of culling them, and that's fine.

However in spite of GS' efforts it seems goblins are still increasing in number. If the trend doesn't change, sooner or later they are going to become a serious problem.

Basically this. There's always new adventurers and always goblins and always poor villagers who have to struggle to get the necessary funds. It's a cycle that has to be addressed at some point, but right now as long as the status quo remains that won't change. And remember, Goblin Quests are common, but taking on a whole nest is near suicidal for the reasons that were shown in this episode and the first one: 1 vs ??? are hella bad odds. GS even points out you never go into one if you don't have to, you smoke them out instead.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Tactics

That's another questionable part as well.

If you're adventurer, then taking a rest on either inn or tavern, you might come across news that goblin burning down a village causing problem with food supply or something like that. Someone might even paid you in midst of your adventure just to make sure their village is free from goblin. Saying "No" to that can hurts your reputation more unless you're sure those people died by next morning, thanks to goblin (LOL).

"might paid you in midst of your adventure" is not enough. That's like taking a job where the pay is like twice/thrice lower than you usually get, but "you may get a bonus", just "maybe". From an adventurer perspective, the reward tied to goblins quests is too low, and unless the quest reward is definitely worth the trouble, they will ignore it, knowing that porcelain adventurers will take care of that instead, regardless if it is one party or several of them.

There is no issue in term of reputation either. It isn't like people can pinpoint fault to the loss of a village when adventurers are busy left and right anyway. More often than not, if a village was razed, it is because they didn't have resource to hire an adventurer, so it isn't the adventurer fault there.

While its not your priority if you're a high rank adventurer, the basic understanding that they need immediate response should be there.
With GS confirming they need some kind of leader, there is high chance you can find them as mooks for those high-rank like dragon and overlords that most likely have better intelligence compare to others, making such case like beginners on first episode potentially not limited to low rank; its weird knowing creature that can spawn like cockroach with capabilities to burn down a village, taking over an abandoned fortress with need to rape females isn't considered dangerous by common sense.

Not really no. Goblins are extremely selfish, and you very rarely see them associated with dragons and overlord at all. Even if they did, they would be steamrolled by high ranked adventurers anyway.

Their combat abilities are not considered as dangerous at all, because villages are by nature defenseless to begin with and even then, villagers can take care of goblins provided they aren't outnumbered. The thing is that more isolated villagers don't have the manpower or resource to deal with the goblins, hence why they need help of porcelain adventurers. Even if they fail another party will ultimately clear the quest. That's why high ranked adventurers wouldn't really need to take care of that.

My reason asking about shortcut is because of that.
Not that I didn't understand there's some criteria needed to be fulfilled but seeing those kind of quest considered cheap just because the person making request is not some noble old man in glorious fashion make the entire situation very questionable.

Unless there's some kind of advertisement / propaganda on capital like, "Everyday 1,000,000 people killed by dragon. Let's wage war to them. Made them extinct" or something like Attack on Titan saying that outside world is dangerous, this situation of goblin not recognized as potential danger, especially on long term, is just weird.

Quests are considered cheap because of the reward, not because of the quest giver. If you get 10 gold for it, that's pretty low when you consider the guild will take a cut, that you need to split the reward among your party members and you will have to pay expenses for stuff like travel and equipment maintenance.

Adventurers are mercenaries who took such occupation exactly because they are looking for riches, fame and/or adventures. They aren't there to be heroes of the people at all, otherwise, they would have enrolled as soldiers or other actual occupations that is focalised on the safety of the people. That doesn't mean all of them are scoundrels, but most didn't became adventurers to help the farmers.

The world of GS is in constant turmoil, with dark gods, dragons, demons, sect etc lurking around their perimeters. That's not a "maybe": the frontier is constantly besieged by a new threat. That's why Platinum and Gold adventurers are even tasked to assist the army (national level threat), while Silver and lower take part of the more "mundane" tasks.

[zeando]

A bit of a shame they cut some parts which played well in the manga, like this one:

Spoiler for Elven Fortress:

Anyone who has read the light novel can confirm if that and other sassy lines from GS were originally in the light novel or if they're only a creation of the manga adaptation?

Or when the guild girl did reprimand goblin slayer about his ego trip (again, did that happen in the novels?).
Though the way they merged 3 scenes into one was impressive (fortress attack + talk at the guild(flashback) + cow girl thoughts)

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by zeando

Anyone who has read the light novel can confirm if that and other sassy lines from GS were originally in the light novel or if they're only a creation of the manga adaptation?

Or when the guild girl did reprimand goblin slayer about his ego trip (again, did that happen in the novels?).
Though the way they merged 3 scenes into one was impressive (fortress attack + talk at the guild(flashback) + cow girl thoughts)

That line wasn't in the LN, but most sassy lines were.

I wouldn't call that an ego trip, but GS explanation and Guild Girl's answer were pretty much the same in the LN.

[zeando]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

That line wasn't in the LN, but most sassy lines were.

I wouldn't call that an ego trip, but GS explanation and Guild Girl's answer were pretty much the same in the LN.

It seems the manga upped up some scenes and goblin slayer himself then, making him look/act/sound even more sassy than the original. (which in turn means the original was more gloomy)
The manga version of the guild girl's answer had more of a comedic shade too.

That aside, the anime following the light novel is a nice thing for who has read only the manga before, some things will be different so there is still some level of surprise left when watching the anime.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by zeando

A bit of a shame they cut some parts which played well in the manga, like this one:

Spoiler for Elven Fortress:

Anyone who has read the light novel can confirm if that and other sassy lines from GS were originally in the light novel or if they're only a creation of the manga adaptation?

Or when the guild girl did reprimand goblin slayer about his ego trip (again, did that happen in the novels?).
Though the way they merged 3 scenes into one was impressive (fortress attack + talk at the guild(flashback) + cow girl thoughts)

Speaking of, I do wonder why the elves thought it was a good idea to have such a flammable fortress. Or did they have counter-measures when they occupied it?

[zeando]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Speaking of, I do wonder why the elves thought it was a good idea to have such a flammable fortress. Or did they have counter-measures when they occupied it?

Maybe they had some kind of enchantment in place when the fortress was in use, dunno if there is some kind of spell to make things fire resistant, once the elves left any protection on the fortress expired too, making it just some big stump with rooms.

[Eclar]

Originally Posted by zeando

Maybe they had some kind of enchantment in place when the fortress was in use, dunno if there is some kind of spell to make things fire resistant, once the elves left any protection on the fortress expired too, making it just some big stump with rooms.

Nice deduction. That's exactly what happened in the novel.

[zeando]

Originally Posted by Eclar

Nice deduction. That's exactly what happened in the novel.

Not much of a deduction, i first heard that idea from the comments to the manga, which must mean there could have been some LN spoilers there too....


Elves having countermeasures for forest fires makes sense, since by general lore they often live in forests. Be it by magic or other means, they wouldn't have lasted long living on trees otherwise, or maybe elves avoid using fire at all.
(oddily, searching "elves and forest fires" doesn't return many relevant results )

[nojay]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

Anything that

a) can kill humans

b) has exponential growth

tends to die out quickly. The Goblin Slayer ecology isn't really well thought out in terms of real-world population booms and busts.

There are no female goblins, at least none that have been presented on-screen so the only reproduction process to make more male goblins is to rape and impregnate human females. Right now the local goblin population appears to be booming which will result in most available females being "harvested" and used up. It's unlikely that even with an accelerated gestation period (something I don't know about specifically but it seems to be hinted at) a captive human female can't give birth to more than a few goblins before dying, being killed and/or eaten given the treatment they receive.

Once the local area is cleaned out of available human females the local goblin population must crash as older goblins die off and can't be replaced. The bad news for goblinkind is that human females take a long time to reproduce, a minimum cycle time of twelve to fourteen years and half the births will be males. The goblins can migrate to find other human females to breed with but it's likely that those areas will already have goblins or the females will be better-protected by defensive walls and soldiers, more than simple villages can provide.

The bad news for humans is that Goblin Slayer himself is an evolutionary accelerator for goblinkind -- he's killing the stupider ones, generally and helping to breed for smarter goblins down the line as well as reducing the population pressures and making the local goblin bands more able to survive in areas where they would normally have grown too big to prosper. Smart goblins might not raid villages, just take an occasional female to breed with by stealth or make limited attacks, allowing the survivors to rebuild and produce more human females but they're not the ones the Goblin Slayer can hunt easily since he seems to rely on Guild requests, when a local village or whatever has had enough and petitions the adventurers to do something. He likes killing lots of goblins, he counts them out. Going after a few better-hidden smart goblins would be a lot trickier and less personally rewarding for himself.

[Tenzen12]

I don't think GS itself is one accelerate goblin kind, actually he make sure leave no survivors to tell tales, so surving goblins aren't smarter just ones that didn't meet Orcbolg yet.

Mind you, it's possible some bands can be careful and avoid getting caught (probably), but that's thanks survivors that escaped thus consequence of other adventurers then GS. And if he found about these, you can bet they would be first on his hit list

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by nojay

tends to die out quickly. The Goblin Slayer ecology isn't really well thought out in terms of real-world population booms and busts.

There are no female goblins, at least none that have been presented on-screen so the only reproduction process to make more male goblins is to rape and impregnate human females. Right now the local goblin population appears to be booming which will result in most available females being "harvested" and used up. It's unlikely that even with an accelerated gestation period (something I don't know about specifically but it seems to be hinted at) a captive human female can't give birth to more than a few goblins before dying, being killed and/or eaten given the treatment they receive.

Once the local area is cleaned out of available human females the local goblin population must crash as older goblins die off and can't be replaced. The bad news for goblinkind is that human females take a long time to reproduce, a minimum cycle time of twelve to fourteen years and half the births will be males. The goblins can migrate to find other human females to breed with but it's likely that those areas will already have goblins or the females will be better-protected by defensive walls and soldiers, more than simple villages can provide.

The bad news for humans is that Goblin Slayer himself is an evolutionary accelerator for goblinkind -- he's killing the stupider ones, generally and helping to breed for smarter goblins down the line as well as reducing the population pressures and making the local goblin bands more able to survive in areas where they would normally have grown too big to prosper. Smart goblins might not raid villages, just take an occasional female to breed with by stealth or make limited attacks, allowing the survivors to rebuild and produce more human females but they're not the ones the Goblin Slayer can hunt easily since he seems to rely on Guild requests, when a local village or whatever has had enough and petitions the adventurers to do something. He likes killing lots of goblins, he counts them out. Going after a few better-hidden smart goblins would be a lot trickier and less personally rewarding for himself.

I'm not sure you're entirely fair to Goblin Slayer. He's very thorough. Unlike other adventurers who may be tempted to leave survivors for one reason or another, GS will kill any goblin he can, as soon as he can. He doesn't leave a lot of survivors to learn from the experience. And he'd be quite happy to kill any goblin he comes across, even if that goblin makes an effort to stay stealthy.

It's true he can't do much against the goblins the guild never even hears off, but in that he's neither better nor worse than any other adventurer. And yes, I suppose he keeps goblins from the problems of overpopulation, but what's the alternative?

[Keila]

Something along the lines of 'learning from past mistakes'.

History is written by the victors, in the case of goblins though unless they have some sort of telepathy (or a telephone, or some other equivalent) it's unlikely that they get to share their experiences. I mean, Goblin Slayer explicitly kills 'child goblins' so they don't get the opportunity to learn, grow, share their knowledge (in addition to slaughtering all other goblins given the opportunity).


I mean, I don't expect there to be 'goblin schools' where they go around teaching the basics of 'how to be a goblin' (aka pillage and rape) and if you get to a scenario where there are no witnesses, no survivors, no-one to hand down their legacy then all knowledge is lost (which is why for humans in general books are so valuable, and why in the real world with most things now being digital humanity is royally screwed if something goes wrong).


If knowledge is not passed on to others (and that's sort of hard to do when you're dead) then others cannot learn from your experiences. Maybe goblin shamans can talk to the dead (who knows).

[moridin84]

You know, Goblins require human women to increase their numbers. They also need to steal food and weapons. So it should be pretty easy to tell if they massively increase in numbers.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

However in spite of GS' efforts it seems goblins are still increasing in number. If the trend doesn't change, sooner or later they are going to become a serious problem.

Wait, where did you get the idea that goblins are increasing in number? I assume you mean by a lot.