History Characters / GoblinSlayerGoblinSlayer

* CanaryInTheCoalMine: Buys one to check for poison in the Water Town sewer, then gives it to Cow Girl as a pet.

* CanaryInTheCoalmine: Buys one to check for poison in the Water Town sewer, then gives it to Cow Girl as a pet.

* CoolHelmet: The narration insists its cheap-looking, but can you deny it's thus trope after seeing what it actually looks like? Among other things, they possess distinct nubs at the side [[spoiler:that used to be a full pair of horns, [[ScarredEquipment but has since been broken off]]]].

* BigGuyRodea: He hops on the Water Town goblin champion's back and strangles him with a hair rope, grimly holding on even as it freaks out and starts slamming its back against a wall.

* CoolHelmet: The narration insists its cheap-looking, but can you deny it after seeing what it actually looks like? Among other things, they possess distinct nubs at the side [[spoiler:that used to be a full pair of horns, [[ScarredEquipment but has since been broken off]]]].

* NoSympathy: Goblin Slayer's trauma and tutelage under Burglar have left him breathtakingly callous. He harshly dismisses Sword Maiden's attempt to evoke BirdsOfAFeather because he sees little commonality in their experiences with and reactions to their respective traumas, and won't even pretend to try to empathize with her, his last second comforting words saving her from DespairEventHorizon being tossed back as an afterthought. He also doesn't particularly care for other adventurers going into goblin quests and getting in over their head, and if anyone in his team looks like they are about to have a VomitingCop moment, he simply tells them to get over it or bail before they become dead weight.
-->'''Goblin Slayer:''' This adventurer appears to have been ambushed. One blow to the head. Not even time to draw his weapon. [[RobbingTheDead Good]].

* NoSympathy: Goblin Slayer's trauma and tutelage under Burglar have left him breathtakingly callous. He harshly dismisses Sword Maiden's attempt to evoke BirdsOfAFeather because he sees little commonality in their experiences with and reactions to their respective traumas, and won't even pretend to try to empathize with her, his last second comforting words saving her from DespairEventHorizon being tossed back as an afterthought. He also doesn't particularly care for other adventurers going into goblin quests and getting in over their head, and if anyone in his team looks like they are about to have a VomitingCop moment, he simply tells them to get over it or bail before they become dead weight. [[CharacterDevelopment This has lessened overtime]]; by volume 8, he is deeply bothered if one of his friends is distressed. By volume 10, he can read expressions well enough to tell someone is in a bad mood and has enough concern for others to (haltingly) ask what is wrong and if he can help.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: His one special talent beyond his ridiculous durability and extreme out-of-the-box thinking is his throwing arm; he can chuck anything at hand and land a critical blow. And because he knows he's good and sees all his equipment as utterly disposable, he ''will'' throw anything at hand to score a kill at first chance. He also [[ShowingTheirWork practices proper weapon launching technique]] using a javelin throwing for straight swords and only flings things end-over-end if they are design for it, like his mambele.

* AntiHero: Of the pragmatic variety - while it's clear that his hunting of goblins comes from a very angry and unhealthy hatred of the creatures, over the usual wish to keep the peace and save the world like typical adventurers, the simple fact is that he's the only Silver-ranked adventurer willing to take the poorly rewarded goblin contracts, which are numerous due to the many goblin outbreaks and the unfortunate fact that most experienced adventurers won't touch them due to the low pay and high risk.

* BerserkButton: Goblins, so much so that he's dedicated his entire life to hunting every single one of them down for what they did to his sister and refuses to accept quests that do not involve them. Perhaps his biggest berserk button is to watch goblins attempt rape. To the point that he would shred them with his bare hands. [[spoiler:His sister being raped to death before his eyes might have something to do with it.]]

* ImprobableWeapon: Items that proove to be deadly instruments in Goblin Slayer's hands include, but are not limited to; discarded helmets and pieces of armor, severed limbs, and a coinpurse packed with stones.

* ItsAllMyFault: Volume 7 reveals that, in addition to [[ILetGwenStacyDie watching his sister get butchered in front of him]], he blames himself for forcing her to remain in their hometown to take care of him. High-Elf Archer and Dwarf Shaman try dissuading him from the notion, but he remains unconvinced.

* NoSympathy: Goblin Slayer's trauma and tutelage under Burglar have left him breathtakingly callous. He harshly dismisses Sword Maiden's attempt to evoke BirdsOfAFeather because he sees little commonality in their experiences with and reactions to their respective traumas, and won't even pretend to try to empathize with her, his last second comforting words saving her from DespairEventHorizon being tossed back as an afterthought. He also doesn't particularly care for other adventurers going into goblin quests and getting in over their head, and if anyone in his team looks like they are about to have a VomitingCop moment, he simply tells them to get over it or bail before they become dead weight.

* ScarredEquipment: He breaks the horns off of his helmets, those only the most basic maintenance on his under armor, and lets his over armor stay covered in blood and filth to disguise his scent.

* ShovelStrike: Uses a short shovel to great effect while fending off the goblin paladin's horde in the climax of volume 5.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: His one special talent beyond his ridiculous durability and extreme out-of-the-box thinking is his throwing arm; he can chuck anything at hand and land a critical blow. And because he knows he's good and sees all his equipment as utterly disposable, he ''will'' throw anything at hand to score a kill at first chance.

* ImproperlyParanoid: The light novels have included a few instances were his overestimation of goblins was detrimental, writing off non-goblin monsters as less of a threat only to get overwhelmed each time. He also refuses to teach any of his anti-goblin strategies or allow any notes of his techniques for fear that goblins will get their hands on them, when not one goblin in 10 volumes has demonstrated literacy and he himself has already stated the case that goblins are all too much a bunch of SmugSnake to be concerned about enemy tactics, let alone interrogate for information on them.

* ReverseGrip: Is frequently stated to flip daggers and such around in his hands and wield them backwards, the better to [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks pitch them in a flash when he needs to]].

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: He brushes off any praise from villagers, feels unsuited for his Silver rank, is dumbfounded whenever Priestess or Guild Girl insist he is a hero and makes a difference, and doesn’t consider himself a proper adventurer, just an exterminator. When Dark Elf fights him in the climax of volume 3 and rated his combat strength as closer to an Emerald or Ruby ranked adventurer, Goblin Slayer remarks that he’s always seen himself as no stronger or more skilled than an average ''Obsidian'' rank. In ''Year One'' he regularly berates himself for being foolish and underprepared in his earliest missions.

* {{Idiosyncrazy}}: A rare heroic example. He's Goblin Slayer, it always has to be about slaying goblins for him. All goblins must be wiped out with extreme prejudice. All goblin stragglers must be purged. All nests must be burned to the ground, flooded, gassed, whatever will get the job done. Even the slightest hint of goblins must be investigated. If a request isn't about killing goblins, it isn't worth even a glance. Goblins today, goblins tomorrow, goblins 24/7. [[CharacterDevelopment Goblin Slayer appears to be getting better though]], to the point where he'll consider other options if there are no goblins to slay, if his team-up with Spearman and Heavy Warrior to take down an evil wizard in ''Brand New Day'' is of any indication.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Virtually anyone who has ever laid eyes on him can tell that this man is simply not well. He has a flat affect, no sense of sarcasm, no care for his self-image, limited social skills and sense of tact, and his work ethic is more machine than human, not to mention his complete lack of a libido. Whatever's afflicting him more than likely stems from his FreudianExcuse, as he was suggested to have been a completely ordinary boy until then. He ticks off boxes in at least obsessive compulsive disorder, PTSD, and old-fashioned psychopathy.

* CoolHelmet: Can you deny it? Among other things, they possess distinct nubs at the side [[spoiler:that used to be a full pair of horns, [[ScarredEquipment but has since been broken off]]]].

* DestructiveSavior: Goblin Slayer ''will'' kill all goblins in a given area brutally and with no regard for collateral damage, and has if anything demonstrated [[NoKillLikeOverkill a preference for wide-sweeping and excessive environmental warfare]], to better catch stragglers in the crossfire and hinder repopulation assumedly. His teammates, even High Elf Archer, have mostly given up trying to break this habit, and come Volume 6 it’s down to the narrator to call out how flooding a goblin cave with saltwater will have [[InferredHolocaust rendered the soil of the surrounding valley barren and damage the local ecosystem for years to come.]] Later that volume he completely drains a lake to drown some goblins, renders the soil around it into mud, and makes further construction on the training grounds almost impossible to continue.

* PetTheDog: As standoffish and manically driven as he is, he does care for the welfare of others, and always does try to save people if he can do so. He even makes the occasional attempt to show it. In Volume 2, he buys a canary to detect gas while his party travels deep underground. He nevertheless protects it from harm, and by the end of the novel he is shown to have kept it well-fed and cared for.

* ProperlyParanoid: Never takes off his armor even during his downtime, and refuses to go into detail about his techniques lest the goblins overhear and learn from them. Sounds rather extreme, but there's a reason why he's still alive after years in the goblin-slaying business.

* TheStrategist: Due to his expertise in goblins, he is the party's go-to source for strategies and improvisation. Not only are they effective, but they cover a flexible range of topics and situations that wouldn't stray far from even traditional human warfare, from guerrilla tactics to skirmishes in an open battlefield. Some adventurers comment that how scary it is that he predicts everything the goblins would try to do, such as using women as a HumanShield, to the fact that they would probably use wolves and could be countered with a spear wall trap.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Due to the fact he never takes off his armor, it wouldn't be surprising to mistake him for an aged warrior, but in reality he's actually pretty young. In fact, volume 6, which takes place at least a year after the start of volume 1, revealed that he's only 20 years old currently and places him at only 19 in the beginning.

* CloseToHome: After rescuing a young child from goblins in the middle of a raid and learning that she was told by her older sister to stay hidden, Goblin Slayer becomes unusually heated and mutters repeatedly about how he dislikes the situation, a stark contrast to his usual unemotional assessments.

---> '''Priestess:''' A-About our last quest! I-I think destroying that cave with that fire mixture was too...too much! What if the whole mountain had come down?!\\

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: His reaction to Spearman making insinuating comments about catching him 'having a nice time' with Priestess? "We are shopping."

--->'''Goblin Slayer:''' I know eight different ways to kill goblins silently.\\

* DungeonBypass: When faced with a massive 60+ floor tower, get ready for a grand adventure of facing deadly traps and monsters on every floor-- or just skip all that by scaling the outer-walls and reach the top.
--> '''Goblin Slayer:''' There's no need to confront them directly. Let's climb the walls.
--> '''Spear Man:''' Whoa-- hang on.

* ExactWords: High Elf Archer forbids him to use fire, or water, or poison gas as an attack method. He used [[StuffBlowingUp dust explosions]] instead. High Elf Archer isn't amused. Later on, when she's amended the list to cover explosions, while surrounded goblins with no way out, he [[spoiler:has Dwarf Shaman use earth magic to ''collapse the entire dungeon'' on them. They only survive due to a magic mirror that swallowed all the debris that landed on top of them]]. Goblin Slayer proudly tells High Elf Archer that his plan involved no explosions or poisons of any kind. She smiles at him [[spoiler:then kicks him off a ledge]].

* FaceOfAThug: Not his actual face, [[spoiler: (which according to certain reactions, suggests him to be quite [[BeautifulAllAlong handsome]])]] but the helmet he wears on a near-permanent basis does little to garner positive attention. There are adventurers who scare themselves shitless just from sustaining their gaze with his expressionless visor.

* HumbleHero: He doesn't consider himself special just because he's Silver-ranked, despite being part of the third-highest tier of adventurers in the Guild and one who still takes ordinary guild contracts. Guild Girl is rather irritated with this attitude, but she also appreciates the humility.

--> '''Goblin Slayer:''' The imagination is a weapon. Those who fail to use it, die first.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Due to the fact he never takes off his armor, it wouldn't be surprising to mistake him for an aged warrior. But in reality he is pretty young, In fact volume 6 which takes place at least a year after the start of volume 1 revealed that he is only 20 years old currently and places him at only 19 in the beginning.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Due to the fact he never takes off his armor, it wouldn't be surprising to mistake him for an aged warrior. But in reality he is pretty young, not even past twenty yet.

* CripplingOverspecialization: He has spent literally more than half his life training to kill goblins ''specifically'', and bottle-necked himself further by specializing in ambush tactics and environmental warfare. The few times he is forced to engage in direct combat, sure he can knock out bog-standard goblins easily, but against literally anything even slightly stronger or more skilled? More often than not he proves [[PaperTiger shockingly weak for a fighter of his rank and track record.]] But then, this trope is also {{ZigZagged}} in that his out-of-the-box thinking and ruthlessness can lead to him devising and deploying devastatingly lethal battle strategies against hordes and even the occasional high-level monster, and when he's in his element he shows an undeniable degree of high skill in combat, so he's more of an overhyped mid-tier fighter than an out-and-out FakeUltimateHero.

* OneManArmy: Zigzagged. Played straight prior to meeting Priestess and the others, but averted once they start adventuring with him. Fortunately for him, their skills and abilities help to keep the team alive.

* TranquilFury: His default state. Goblin Slayer isn’t the most emotive of people and he tends to be blunt and to the point with anybody he encounters, but the sheer, relentless, unforgiving brutality that he shows when he’s out hunting Goblins makes his utter antipathy and disgust for them for all they have done all the more palpable. Another moment where this has come to the fore is his severe dressing down of Rhea Scout for his greedy, cowardly nature. The closest time we see Goblin Slayer nearly completely lose his composure is [[spoiler: when his band of adventurers nearly dies and High Priestess almost becomes Goblin food, and even then manages to maintain his stoicism to enough of a degree to calmly threaten the rest of the attacking horde into retreat.]]

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Due to the fact he never takes off his armor, it wouldn't be surprising to mistake him for an aged warrior. But in reality he is pretty young, not even past twenty yet.