Headscratchers / Goblin Slayer

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Goblin poison

• In second chapter of Goblin Slayer manga, GS has stated that anyone poisoned by the blades used by the goblins for too long couldn't be saved anymore. He knows it because the Gaiden Manga reveals he has been poisoned by it himself. The real question however, is: How did he survive? His antidote bottle was shown to been destroyed before he could take it in time to prevent the poison from spreading all over his bloodstream, yet despite the limping, which was never shown in later chapters anymore, he seems to be okay.
  • In response to the above troper, he has the gods' favor and his pure willpower got him through the poisoning. He probably has the favor of a particular god/dess just to see what he will do next.
  • Not quite. It was shown that GS's potion and antidote bottles got smashed in his bag when he got jumped by a goblin from behind. In the last page of that chapter, he is seen squeezing out and drinking the mixture of potion and antidote that the bag is soaked in out of pure determination to keep fighting. Remember, he does not let anyone roll the dice.
  • I see, must've overlooked that part then, thanks for the explanation.
  • In addition, Goblin Slayer is pretty tough and robust on his own (Endurance is his only good stat apparently), so his point of no return for poison would be a lot higher than Newbie Wizard, who is fairly petite and would lack the same Endurance. Considering the D&D setting seals the deal; Constitution is used for save rolls on poison.

Guild newbie help

• Doesn’t the Guild have any guidelines on how to deal with certain monsters, especially for porcelain rank members? Nothing that would deter future members or adventurers from picking certain quests, but at least some basic, even common sense, rules of engagement? Even though goblins aren’t taken as seriously as they should be, for them, maybe something like: 1. Don’t underestimate them, 2. Assume there is more than one, and 3. In enclosed spaces, use short swords or other weapons of similar or smaller size?
  • As already directly stated in the LN multiple times since the first chapter of the first book; the Adventurers' "Guild" is not an actual union. It is a centralized administrative center set up by the aristocracy to serve as a check-in station so that the otherwise-independent adventurers aren't running around cities and towns armed to the teeth with no oversight, and so that the kingdom can more easily track both monster attacks and the people dealing with them. But guild workers themselves don't work on behalf of the adventurers, but the local government processing their reports, and thus have no responsibility to the former in regards to their field-work.
  • That said, its shown in Brand New Day/Vol. 4 that clerks do give out some supplies and advice to newly signed up adventurers. If what they have to give and say isn't good enough to keep the newbies alive on their first mission, that's to be blamed on bureaucratic calcification and the fact that there's seeming four new teams of murderhobo recruits coming in for every one that gets wiped out by a goblin nest.
  • It's also been a running background subplot from Vol. 1 that Guild Clerk has been paying veterans out of her own pocket to chaperone and instruct the New Meat whenever she could afford it, which culminates in Vol. 6 when she gets enough money and credit to push for a full-on training camp to be built by the Frontier Town. Maybe further down the line if it works out like she hopes, the Guild system will implement those standards in all of its branches.

Goblin's on the green moon logistics

• It's heavily implied goblins originated from the green moon but it's also established that they are all male and require females of other races to procreate, so how did they reproduce before they left?
  • Since the gods explicitly created the setting of the series, it's possible they simply sired the goblins into existence until the "rules" were ordained by the gods, in that goblins need females for procreation.
  • Perhaps it's more that they are perceived as male instead of being male. If the "pregnancies" gestate within a week and another one can be started right away, then they are not using female-eggs. They are implanting 100% of the genetic material into wombs and growing more goblins there parasitically. In other words, despite appearances, they are no more "male" than the face-huggers from the Alien franchise. They are a parasite that uses human/elf/dwarf wombs as incubators.
  • Fridge Horror and A Fate Worse Than Death : Female prisoners ferried to the moon.
  • Or there was once another civilization on the Green Moon that was completely destroyed by the goblins, forcing them to seek new hunting grounds.

Setting

• Okay, so originally the setting was understandable to me. Crapsaccharine World, Jerkass Gods dictating the fates of people by a "roll of the dice", and a lone Black Knight seeking to cause the genocide of an Always Chaotic Evil race as he's joined by numerous companions he helped during his quest. Except suddenly there is talk of the Jerkass Gods being simple RPG players and that the world of Goblin Slayer is just a game they're playing, and yet somehow Goblin Slayer is Immune to Fate. So what exactly is the setting? Is it as I originally understood? Is it similar to The LEGO Movie in that everything is effectively someone playing a game and somehow one individual has attained sentience outside of the real world? Or is it a mix of both and that the world of Goblin Slayer is real, but the Jerkass Gods just treat it like a game and don't really know its real, and to them the Goblin Slayer is just randomly occurring piece? Cause honestly, it brings up questions of Free Will if the Lego Movie similarity is true, and in turn raises the question as to why Goblin Slayer is exempt from their control and able to dictate his own fate.
  • And its even more confusing now with the Arc Mage! Somehow, she's aware the world they live in is a "board game" and, with the help of Goblin Slayer, manages to find the edge of the board and leave the game, having Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence and possibly becoming a "player" herself. So what even is the setting anymore?! Are the gods like the Arc Mage, in that they're characters that Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence by leaving the board, meaning anyone can become a god by doing so?! Is the Arc Mage just another character Immune to Fate like the Goblin Slayer?! Is the setting like The Sims and the characters are alive but the players can fuck with them whenever they want too?! What are the rules?!
  • the world is real, not an actual board game(or else goblin slayer wouldn't be out of the "players" control) the gods just treat it as one, being immune to fate isent an innate trait of goblin slayer either, its established the reason hes immune to fate is he is so well prepared there is nothing left to chance, chance is also the part that the gods seem to control, so people do have free will, but since many aspects of our lives are left up to chance the gods can set up a path events will likely follow, others can produce unexpected results and go against there plan as well, goblin slayers jut the only one who does so constantly.

Female adventurers against goblins

• Why does the guild even ALLOW female adventurers to take on Goblin quests in the first place? It’s pretty much stated that 99% of the goblins female prisioners are adventurers that failed to take the goblin’s nest down and now are being used as slaves by them. The thing is, if the guild didn’t allow female adventurers to go to these quests in the first place, the goblins would be robbed of their primary mean of reproduction, making goblin slayer’s genocidal was quest much, MUCH easier. So why the hell they don’t do that? Is it that difficult to issue this kind of order when there are plenty of quests for beginner female adventurers (Like rat slaying) to take on instead of the one who has a pretty big chance of only making them STRONGER?
  • The Guild has no control over who goes on what quests. They can only recommend which quests an adventurer goes on, and they do discourage female adventurers from going on goblin quests. That being said, no, 99% of goblin prisoners are not female adventurers, but rather female villagers and other civilians that they abduct in raids on the frontier. Female adventurers only make up a small percentage of their captives; we just see more female adventurers because that's what the story focuses on.
  • By the looks of it, the guild cares next to nothing about the quality of the people they send on goblin quests, just sending cannon fodder until someone gets it done. There must be more new adventurers joining by the day than blades of grass on a field.
  • The Guild doesn't "send" people on quests. It just serves at an organizational body to handle requests for help from clients for adventurers and to mete out rewards from those clients. Most quests don't result in adventurer deaths. Goblin quests are the major exception, since goblins attack the weak and poor who can't afford to hire more powerful adventurers.

Sword in a cave

• How is a sword like that too long for a cave? The longer spear isn't too long. If anything is to blame, it's the wild swinging, not the weapon itself. Speaking of wild swinging, the stalagmite that caught the sword isn't in the previous or after shots and somehow the goblins knew that slash in particular would catch it.
  • In the LN the spear is sized for goblins, so for Goblin Slayer its slightly bigger than a knife.
  • Goblin Slayer's equipment is highly optimized for that specific environment, and he isn't trained in half-swording (and it wouldn't be that useful with his style) which is why he dismisses the longsword as too bulky. The spear's size is less of an issue, since it is made for thrusting and it is very easy to adjust your grip on the spear for close-quarters work, compared with a sword.
  • A sword can be used for thrusting too. It's also extremely easy to adjust a grip for a sword to the point where numerous cultures, from Europe to Japan, all independently created similar ways. Weapons like Zweihandlers deliberately include a false grip for this. It's not optimized, it's just negligent.
  • There's nothing negligent about his choice in weaponry. Longer swords can be held in half-sword grips to make them better in close quarters, but that requires holding the sword with two hands. That precludes the use of any effective shield (other than a buckler) or a torch in his off hand. He prefers to fight with a shield, and a short one-handed sword is one of the best options to pair with a round shield in close combat against unarmored opponents.
  • Shields have had many forms including strapped ones. Not only are swords typically well balanced enough that stabbing even without half-swording is completely possible and doable, to the point where implying halfswording is necessary is like saying it's physically impossible to hold a pistol in one hand, but the usage of a torch altogether instead of a lantern or another item you can strap to your waist itself is odd. Even the torch's use as a weapon is far less unless the enemy is so specifically weak to fire that a fragile torch would deal significant damage compared to a blade. Even bashing someone with it is little better than a wooden stick. Less so as torches can fall apart before the wood itself breaks. In fact, I'd go as far to say endangering your light source in a dark cave is a last resort unless it's as durable as modern flashlights you can bash people with and not worry about breakage. Torches are far more flimsy
  • There's some historical references to using shields and two-handed weapons, but those are big kite shields that are affixed in a sort of strap-like configuration over the shoulder, not the smaller shield Goblin Slayer uses. They would be awkward to use in a cave due to the tight fit. He pretty much can't use a two-handed weapon with that particular type of shield because it's too small to be strapped effectively. Furthermore, Goblin Slayer's fighting style, as we can see in the anime and manga, is very aggressive when he's assaulting the goblins, and the shoulder-strapped style is more passive. It doesn't give him as many options for bashing and maneuver as the smaller shield would. Also, we've almost always seen swords of a particular length paired with Goblin Slayer's style of round shield. They don't generally exceed the length of a spatha or arming sword, which are only a little bit longer than Goblin Slayer's sword. In fact, the closest historical equivalent with Goblin Slayer's fighting style is Viking sword and shield style; enlarge the shield a bit and reduce the width of the sword and he would be armed almost exactly like a Norse warrior. There's much better options for thrusting weaponry, such as an arming sword, gladius, spatha, Viking sword, or the blade that Goblin Slayer uses. And yes, a torch is a poor weapon. Goblin Slayer only ever uses it as a weapon once. It has far more utility as a light source, which is his primary use for it. While lanterns can be worn on the body, they tend to be awkward to use alongside a shield, since the shield can block the lantern's light source if the lantern is hung from the belt - especially in a strapped-to-the-shoulder configuration. Since a torch is held above the shield instead of being covered by the shield, it would provide a more steady source of light.

Armor

• The armor GS wears. What the heck is it? How does he see out of that visor so well? Does it not harm peripheral vision? There's no ear holes too so wouldn't it hinder his hearing vs no helmet on? His other armor's weird too. Is it supposed to be leather or plate? Weirdly not a lot of thigh protection for someone who fights shorter enemies. Lots of exposed areas for someone who fights swarming enemies who love to stab anywhere. What's with all the belts and straps everywhere? If they're supposed to keep the armor held together then wouldn't those areas be something to protect? A good cut and straps fall and the armor falls off. What is he wearing altogether, some MMO cosplay armor? Speaking of MMO armor why do there exist MMO like armor in universe if it gets people killed? Do infected wounds just not affect a portion of the population? Worst yet, people like Silver Ranks are shown going into battle with no helmet even though we've previously seen people get killed because they got hit in the head. Are their heads immune to harm or are they equipping some MMO Cash Shop invisible helmet?
  • The helmet: the helmet actually had pretty good visibility from the front compared to many medieval helmets. it's only real issue is it doesn't have a visor. While it would seem like it might muffle hearing, Goblin Slayer is apparently extremely experienced with it, enough that he can hear a lone goblin sneaking up on him.
  • Opposing this, the above asked about peripheral vision. In other words, this fails to address the point the above was making by citing central vision. Next, many medieval helmets were able to deny peripheral vision SPECIFICALLY because they had a visor. They fully knew you could lift a visor for better vision, so they could focus more on protection with the visor down, fully aware that you can lift the visor when you needed to see better. Those helmets with visors are often afforded by people unlikely to go into battle alone too, thus any hindrance to their own senses isn't too big as they have others to rely on. The visor usually came down during a charge or during action anyway. Signals like sound or a raised flag are important for a pre-radio period of warfare and many of helmets like Roman Centurion helmets had exposed ears or small holes in the ear area to improve hearing.
  • As for the armor, it's a mixture, mostly consisting of leather, chainmail, and a breastplate and shoulder plates. Being mostly leather, it's designed to not make a lot of noise while having a few hardened plates over vitals. The only real issue is the groin, which is the hardest area to protect while still being quiet. Goblin Slayer mostly focuses on aggressively striking first and protecting his vitals with the shield over relying on heavy armor, except where the armor is heaviest. There's enough padding and reinforcement in the armor's joints to completely stop a stabbing blade, as shown in the first episode. The only places where there's lot of "straps" is his belts and the inside of his gauntlets. The former always risk being cut anyway, while the latter are very hard to hit except by accident. Goblins also tend to use stabbing and clubbing weapons, which have trouble cutting through thick, wide leather straps.
  • Leather isn't as silent as you claim. Also, depending on the material (Rawhide for one), the armor can be very cumbersome to wear. Mail too isn't really silent.
  • Leather is considered to be quieter than plate armor in-universe, which makes sense; it is a Dungeons and Dragons universe with explicit stats for characters and equipment, and in D&D you suffer a very low penalty to dexterity-based skill checks if wearing leather armor, and very large penalty to the same in metal. His armor doesn't seem to feature much in the way of chainmail either. You can see it in only a couple of spots, mostly on the shoulders. It would be much quieter than a full shirt of chainmail.
  • The "MMO" armor is explicitly described as being useless and not generally worn in combat. There's bikini armor which is said to be worn more for erotic reasons and not taken into battle, unless it's a very specific class like a barbarian who focuses more on raw health and agility. Though many Silvers don't wear helmets, this is just a staple of the D&D genre.

Dice

• How does he "not roll the die"? There's taking 10 & then there's defying a basic rule of the game. Even if someone prepares, that isn't magically removing all sources of failure. An archer can have the wind direction suddenly change & throw off a shot. There could be an unpredictable down-pour or even getting struck by lightning out of nowhere on a sunny day. With going through with a plan, there's many ways to mess up too. A sword you either recently bought or maintained for a while suddenly breaks because of a chip you never noticed or some chemical you use just turned out to be defective. There's millions of unpredictable ways to be screwed out of nowhere & this is modeled by dice rolls & getting a bad roll & missing even when you should have hit by all accounts.
  • The dice just don't work on him. He explicitly defies all of their die rolls. It's a unique ability innate to him. Illusion explicitly observes that Priestess should have died in her first outing because Illusion made terrible dice rolls, but then Goblin Slayer showed up and defied the dice roll entirely to save her.
  • like in actual dnd the dice only seemed to be rolled for more major things, not every minute detail like chips in your equipment or the wind, and those major aspects he CAN prepare for
  • In "actual dnd", the die does virtually anything the DM wants. They can force a check for the most minor things if they wanted. If your DM is sufficiently a-hole, they can make you do a check your character ought to not even need to do and punish them for failing to open an unlocked door or some other elementary action.

Prophecy translation

• The official translation of the Sword Maiden prophecy in Volume 2 describes her as "one of the six Golds", and then later says that she shall "fight alongside six Golds", which isn't the same thing. So which is it? Where's the seventh Gold?
  • There's a lot of minor translation errors in the manga and LN.

Quality weapons

• Goblin Slayer uses cheap low-quality throw-away swords as his weapons because Goblin blood ruins blades, so there's no reason to waste money on high quality swords. Makes sense, but then that brings up the question of why does he bother using edged weapons at all? Why doesn't he just use crushing weapons like a warhammer or a mace? I don't see how goblin blood would ruin those. Why doesn't he just invest in a good high quality warhammer or mace so he doesn't have to keep throwing away his blade every time he gets a decent amount of goblin kills?
  • While he does use goblin clubs against them with regularity after discarding his sword, the likely reason is that blunt weapons are favored for armored targets, as breaking bones and crushing tissue is generally less effective at quickly incapacitating a fleshy target than severing tendons or cutting off limbs with an edged weapon. Plus, given the point of balance and other characteristics, swords have historically generally been favored over axes and maces due to being more convenient not just to carry while traveling ^note a historical point that's admittedly moot for fictional fantasy adventurers. Unlike medieval travelers, they're actively looking for trouble, hence use of armor and shields where most historical people just went around unarmored, carrying a sword, if they were just going from one place to another. but also for defensive techniques. It's against armor or in formation where both reach weapons and blunt weapons (which can inflict blunt force trauma through armor) that lead to swords being less common as a primary military weapon compared to historical civilian use. Since Goblin Slayer's not expecting full-armored opponents and isn't fighting in a battle, a sword is a reasonable choice so long as it's affordable (which it certainly seems to be, fitting for a later-medieval setting). If anything, given the reach disadvantage and lack of armor, the bigger question is why goblins fall back on using daggers so often, and why short spears, even something as simple as stripping the grip from a stolen dagger and hafting the tang onto a stick, don't seem to be common among goblins.
  • But I don't see how one could call a sword a reasonable choice for fighting goblins when their blood routinely requires him to ditch it in the middle of battle and replace it with a weapon from his fallen enemies. I know heroes prefer swords, but Goblin Slayer is supposed to be pragmatic and only want the best tools for the job. It stands to reason the best tool isn't something you need to replace when you need it most. As for transport, a one-handed mace or Warhammer isn't that much more difficult to carry then a sword. And even if that is an issue, he could just carry a sword when going about his daily routine, but then bring a mace whenever he is going on Goblin slaying missions. As for defense, Goblin Slayer has plenty of armor and he carries a shield, so he really doesn't need to be using his weapon defensively. Furthermore, using a warhammer or mace would mean Goblin slayer could actually invest in a high quality top-tier weapon, instead of relying on some cheap throw-away junk blades.
  • This is one major goof in the series. Realistically, blood and fat do not ruin or dull blades, and nowhere in the setting is it said that goblin blood is different from any other species' blood. It would be more realistic if Goblin Slayer was breaking his weapons with each enemy he was fighting, which historically was a much more common and realistic reason why you'd ditch your sword in a fight.
  • I don't think it's an error. While it isn't explicitly said how Goblin blood is different than other blood, I think we are meant to infer that it is due to the fact that it forces Goblin slayer to keep replacing his blades. Then again, we never hear about Lizard Priest having to replace his blades as a result of the goblin blood, so that's another headscratcher.
  • Regarding Lizardman Priest, it's likely a combination of two factors. One, the blades are made of different material (Bone, IIRC), which negates the damage from Goblin blood (may only cause corrosion to metal weapons/armor, akin to a Rust Monster from D&D). Two, they're likely magicked somehow.
  • Quick reminder that Goblin Slayer expects to lose his equipment to goblins one day. He fully expects to eventually go down like a chump, and under that assumption underequips himself to ensure that all that they get is either worthless junk, or stuff too complicated for them to grasp. A high quality blunt force weapon like a warhammer has a strike against it on both accounts - not only would it be better than their usual equipment, but as Rookie Warrior (who left his only weapon behind to run for his life) can attest, smashing something to pieces is so straightforward that the learning curve is nonexistent. A goblin somehow getting ahold of a decent, easy to use weapon is exactly the problem Goblin Slayer is trying to avoid, and the easiest way they can get such a thing is if they take it from an adventurer, dead or alive. The only expensive things he gets are things he's convinced goblins will never use effectively, such as the gate scrolls and his 'southern style knife'. The former are portable gateways repurposed into manually detonated bombs, so a goblin opening one up would likely take out a good chunk of its own nest, and it would promptly cease to be a problem since they're one-shot. The latter has a confounding design which gives it a difficult learning curve, making it hard for a goblin to do any more damage than they normally would with it, so Goblin Slayer deems it an acceptable break from pattern. He did in fact have to throw that knife away in volume 9 to make an escape from some goblins, which I hope should emphasize the importance of this mindset even while he's still alive and kicking.
  • Okay that would explain why he doesn't invest in a high quality war hammer or mace, but it doesn't explain why he doesn't get a cheap one in order to solve the issue of having to constantly throw his weapons away while he's in battle.
  • He could be holding onto his sword as his main weapon for any number of reasons - in Volume 6 he used it to dissect some bodies, which a blunt weapon wouldn't do well for. In the lead up to his nest raids he assassinates scouts and stragglers with quick and (relatively) quiet kills, which a blunt weapon might not be suited for. He uses bladed weapons to deal instantly fatal precision blows in single strikes, which saves energy. A blunt weapon's killing power is in its weight, which may require more effort per instakill, and that may be a problem for a long slog through a nest with god knows how many goblins. They're somewhat clumsy weapons thanks to that weight, which means less overall control. Not a problem on a large target with so many big bones to break, but against a large number of swarming small targets might leave openings that would otherwise be avoided. And you do not leave openings against goblins. Ultimately though, it may be down to the fact that he simply prefers it this way. This is a man for whom "thinking outside the box" is the default state of mind. Tossing weapons around like trash, seizing new ones in the heat of the moment, searching for the next one down the line, you can't deny it's confusing to follow. It encourages quick thinking, fast movements, and an extreme amount of situational awareness, which are all important against goblins. Maybe it's not the most strictly effective approach, but Goblin Slayer is a man who keeps his options open, and what better way to remind yourself to do that than to deliberately force the issue?
  • Would like to point out that Goblin Slayer, while still not wanting any Goblin to get good stuff, is particularly worried about the higher tiers of Goblins getting their hands on enchanted or quality weapons and armor. Look at how dangerous the Goblin Lord that attacked the farm was; Goblin Slayer has been fighting them long enough to see patterns. If a Goblin kills him and loots a Sword of Killing +5 from his corpse, chances are that was a Goblin smarter than the others, one with the potential to become a Lord, or Champion. And now they have a Sword of Killing +5
  • Isn't the problem with weapons that the handles get too slick with goblin blood, like what happened with elven archer while they were clearing out the pit?

Stealing adventurer equipment

• Goblin Slayer's argument on refusing to use enchanted or special equipment sounds quite stupid when put into practice. As a human, any armor he has would need to be forcibly resized, which would make it pretty much worse-off (if not useless) to goblins anyway. Weapons are slightly more salvageable, it's true, but not only is one goblin with a magic sword still one goblin that dies as easily as any other, there's the fact that goblins are established in the setting's canon to be absolutely terrible at taking care of their equipment. Any enchanted sword they acquire would quickly run out of effect and/or be lost in infighting amongst the goblins who would quickly kill their "buddy" for special equipment (Goblins are, after all, have Skaven levels of sociopaty). Last but not least, isn't the entire point of good equipment PREVENTING a stupid and senseless death? If he had armour strong enough to hold against any goblin's attack he would not lose it in the first place. (Specially since he has plenty of companions that could take his equipment and corpse away in the case he ever died in battle)
  • The Goblin Paladin shows hat his worries are entirely justified, since it was the right size to wear human armor and wielded an enchanted sword to devastating effect. Goblins who survive fights with adventurers will be much more dangerous due to their experience; if he died and a goblin took his equipment, that goblin would get stronger and more powerful. Also, since this seems to be a D&D-inspired setting, magic enchantments don't tend to "fade away." If anything, enchanted items would be more durable, and from what we see of the powerful goblins like the Lord and the Paladin, they do seem to be able to take care of their equipment. Further, while enchanted armor protects against direct attack, what tends to make goblins dangerous is that quite often they don't fight directly, but use traps and poison and overwhelming numbers to wear down a foe. Enchanted armor won't help if you're too exhausted to actually fight or get hit by toxic gas. And even with companions, the armor could be stolen if he falls, especially if they have a situation like the battle in Water Town's sewers where the entire party was cornered and nearly overrun.
  • Far from it, it's actually a very bad argument because it's a corner case exception. If that Goblin Paladin survived to grow further, it would outgrow the armor. Thus it's a temporary help even to the Goblin Paladin. The vast majority of goblins are too large or too small, with very few inbetween, thus one hyper exceptional corner case is far from the norm. The argument might as well be that you shouldn't bring any healing potions because if you accidentally drop one, it might fall into a hole and conveniently into the mouth of a heavily injured villain.
  • That he could theoretically outgrow the armor isn't really all that important. Even a temporary advantage granted by looting the armor from his body is something that would make the goblins more dangerous, which is something that Goblin Slayer would not allow. That and even if the Paladin outgrew the armor, he could just give it to another goblin who is growing into the armor. Not to mention that this is a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired setting, and one of the explicit rules of magical armor in D&D is that it automatically resizes itself to the wearer. Further, if a goblin looted armor, it would improve their survivability, and a surviving goblin becomes much more dangerous, even if it eventually outgrows the armor. Yes, the logic is a bit of a stretch, but this is Goblin Slayer here. He's obsessed with preventing even the possibility of a goblin succeeding, and he's convinced that he will die eventually against the goblins, so he refuses to grant them even the slimmest possibility of any kind of advantage. This is, after all, someone who refuses to tell his own allies his plans in case they get captured and the goblins torture them for information, and who always wears his armor even when sleeping, just in case he gets ambushed by goblins. He is absolutely obsessed with denying any advantage to the goblins. So even if the logic isn't perfect, it makes sense from his perspective.
  • This is very objectable. For starters, if he is so concerned over minute help to any goblin then it means even his sword which is very usable by a goblin ought to be replaced or have some modification, possibly personally done via a few personal bangs to a grip, to inconvenience a goblin's anatomy. Therefore he isn't minimizing his own benefit to them if he died. It doesn't need to be an expensive modification either. Next, growing into the armor is very inconvenient and cumbersome. Wearing over or undersized clothes is inconvenient enough. Armor when not inherited is often made for its user and sized accordingly. Suits of mail being tight enough to see your figure do exist, not to mention plate being expensively custom made. Therefore growing into one would be cumbersome and uncomfortable to the point of possibly even detrimental. Armor isn't worn for comfort. Finally, from "his" perspective, he's not doing anything right. He is still going in with weapons that are lootable and easily wielded by enemies of different anatomies. His armor would ironically be a better fit for a goblin than many others as all those exposed straps could be tightened or loosened much more easily than a tight fitting outfit that would be hard to remove from his corpse, let alone wear. Another point about D&D, this series plays very differently with a beholder whose disintegrate rays (not an eye of flame) manages to trigger heat for a dust explosion. The manga, not LN, depicted 5th edition character sheet yet has a barbarian be taken out in one hit when unarmored defense and high constitution should make the barbarian harder to straightforwardly stab through than the same barbarian in metallic armor. There's many bits everywhere suggesting there's heavy houseruling as not even RAW or RAI fit it well. If it's still D&D, then some D&D editions has various abilities like self-destructing equipment specifically to prevent enemies from using them. Therefore, someone blessing their armor to be durable or size changing can also make them to explode if the wrong person wears them. The lesson becomes to magically make best gear to self destruct if enemies get their hands on them, not about the fears of the foe obtaining your best gear.
  • Putting forth more points to consider: there's the issue of complacency. We see multiple times that there's things that people take for granted under normal circumstances that just don't fly when exterminating goblins. Look away from one you think is dead; congrats, there's now a knife in your ribs. Pass by a bunch of wooden doodads; nice job, you're surrounded. Additional attack power is only a part of the problem; the real trap is thinking you've got goblins figured out, only to discover you missed a spot and you're suddenly neck-deep and they're putting daggers in your eye sockets. In Volume 1 (a line that I believe was left out of the anime), Goblin Slayer to Priestess on weapons to keep swapping, stay unpredictable, "doing the same thing over and over is a good way to get yourself killed." You fall into a rhythm, you start to think "I got this"; that's when Truth laughs his ass off and spawns one or two or fifteen in your blind spot to rip you a new one. You can argue to the rest of us "just do the same thing but with better stuff" but the point of getting better stuff is always so you don't need to do anything differently. But more importantly, you can't argue that to Goblin Slayer. Why? Because of his mental state. As sad as it is to think about, remember he kinda really hates himself. In the moments we see between his goblin slaying crusades, we get to see how he thinks. He doesn't think himself a great hero, he has trouble daring to imagine being worthy or capable of great things; he thinks himself beneath his friends and acquaitances, admiring and looking up to them as adventurers now and then as if his definition of the word excludes him. And, most depressingly, no matter how much thought we see him put into things, no matter how spectacular his indie ploys get, no matter how much cleverness and quick wit we see in him as third party obvservers, he doesn't agree. He thinks himself slow on the uptake, gets almost self-flagellating whenever something doesn't pan out how he expects or wants and it nearly costs him his life, much less the lives of his friends. There's a part of him that does these things because he believes himself too stupid to do normally except by continually putting his back to the wall and leaving himself no other choice except to do what he does, lest he go out pathetically. Does this earn him results? Said results speak for themselves. Is it as effective as it could be? Maybe not. I don't think being this extreme in this methodology is necessarily worth it. But there's a voice there in his head telling him he ought to be doing better, and right now there's not much anyone can do to talk him out of it.
  • There's other problems with this. First, why would this be any different than the other enemies? Dark Elves and cunning foes exist too. This implies that goblin unpredictability exceeds them considerably to the point where experienced adventurers who can beat other cunning foes can't do anything. Secondly, this is an out of universe explanation. None of the characters are aware of Truth or Illusion. Thus at best he has a rule of thumb that something like this might happen but we have cases like Illusion trying to make a goblin dungeon only for GS to already have cleared it when she turns her back.
    • One possibility is that other types of foes are EXPECTED to be cunning. Dark Elves, warlocks, sorcerers... you know they're cunning foes, and plan accordingly. Goblins are seen as dumb weaklings by most adventurers, which leads to overconfidence and death, leaving behind good gear. Plus, most other "cunning" foes have more obvious restrictions (classes not being able to wear certain gear or use weapons, personal preference in equipment, etc). Goblins seem to be able and willing to use literally anything they get their hands on to kill and take victims. So even if a Warlock got a fancy magic greataxe or bow, they're less likely to use it than a goblin, because they're set in their ways much more.
  • First, I’m pretty sure magic armor resizes itself; the Goblin Lord was packing a breastplate he looted off an adventurer smaller than him. Second, it’s not so much that ‘no cunning enemies besides Goblins’ exist, so much as Goblins can spawn cunning enemies in numbers nobody can predict. A regular goblin is too sociopathic to do much damage by itself. Even a group would succumb to infighting when they got to large enough numbers. Goblin Shamans, Lords, Champions, etc. are goblins that, somehow or another spawned with the intelligence and craftiness to step back and be pragmatic. They can keep the horde back and bolster their numbers until they can raid big settlements. It’s a general feeling of not knowing whether the pack of sociopathic monsters you’re cutting down will maybe have one smart enough to see through your patterns. If you hear there’s an Ogre or Dark Elf, you already know, but not so with goblins.
  • One of the things that needs to be considered is that Goblin Slayer's fear of high-end gear getting stolen isn't rational. Remember that Goblin Slayer is not right in the head and his extreme obsessiveness with goblins means that he will forsake health and rational logic if it means not giving the goblins even the slightest advantage. One of the core themes of the work is that he's not rational and his obsession is unhealthy, and that manifests in this sort of illogical behavior and insistence on limiting himself. His refusal to use better gear because it might give the goblins an advantage is one of the symptoms of his poor mental health. It's not supposed to be logical.
  • Except Goblin Slayer is shown to not to be irrational. People think he's insane, but his behavior is the result of a combination of not seeing any worth in himself (he always puts himself down and is baffled when someone is grateful to him), and the inability to emotionally grow and put his trauma behind him due to not having someone who can keep up with him. As soon as he gets that companionship in the form of the Priestess and the other adventurers, he improves at a fast pace (though it's still a work in progress) and shows he's much more rational than anyone gives him credit. Even before this though, he's shown to not forsake health and rational logic if it means endangering other people; the times where his ideas might make a situation worse in the long run (like poisoning water) are the result of him not thinking far enough ahead and not because he's insane. GS's fear about giving goblins access to magic items is completely reasonable for a reason that hasn't been brought up yet: Goblins specialize in taking advantage of situations that put their enemies off-guard. When they have time to plan, goblins set up situations that try to fluster adventurers as much as possible or otherwise lower their guard and that is when the goblins have shown to be the most effective. Having magic items would contribute to this tactic, because it would definitely catch adventurers by surprise when they expect to fight a goblin wearing regular armor and instead are deflected due to whatever magic the items have. GS sees this as giving them an unnecessary opportunity which is worse than any benefit that said magic equipment would give.

Minor threat

• Considering how much havoc they wreak and suffering they cause, how are goblins considered so minor a threat?
  • There's vastly greater monsters roaming the world. The main plot of Goblin Slayer, for example, takes place after a massive war against a demonic army. Goblins only threaten border towns on the very far frontier, and they're no threat to better-protected cities or in the face of a significant army. While they are horrible and evil monsters who inflict awful cruelties on their victims, there's far greater threats that make a group of relatively weak creatures raiding tiny villages on the very edge of civilized land seem much too minor to bother with.
  • There are also powerful individuals who should be able to handle the goblins, but they're busy elsewhere and generally don't take goblin missions because they're not worth the money. When the Sword Maiden writes to the King to request aid for the goblins in Water Town, he waves it off because she is personally powerful enough to handle it on her own (he is unaware of her trauma) and he's dealing with demons and dark gods and whatnot.
  • A simple Underestimating Badassery trope that fits into the tale, though justifiable enough given that there are worse things then goblins out there, though the goblins win by being more numerous/common and persistent.
  • However, what does muddy this even further is it is explicitly stated that the world remains in Medieval Stasis almost exclusively due to the Goblins, through both attrition and the fact that nobody wants to innovate, because if you create better things, and then get killed by a Goblin, that Goblin now has said better stuff, in fact the Guild Girl speculates that if they don't step up their game in some way, the Goblins will, not maybe, eventually overrun the world.
  • That's because she's one of the few people who takes the goblin threat seriously. Most people don't see goblins that way and would most likely laugh at someone who claim that goblins are the reason for the Medieval Stasis. It says a lot that the adventurers who helped GS at the end of volume 1 still didn't see goblins as a major issue despite the Goblin Lord's army. There could also possibly be a level of denial involved in that level of thinking too; after all, adventurers already have to fight against things like the Demon Lord army (even after his defeat) and dragons so acknowledging goblins as being another potentially world-ending threat would add just that much more mental burden to those who take their jobs seriously.

Names.

• Nobody in Goblin Slayer has an actual name, apparently their names are simply descriptions of what their current role/profession is, but what happens when another person of the same race and/or role appears? For example, say another High Elf Archer turns up? Would the first one be called "High Elf Archer 1" or would the second one be forced to take a different role or something to differentiate?
  • They all have real names and are known by them in-world (with the exception of Goblin Slayer himself), the titles are purely for our benefit. So yeah, the second High Elf Archer would be given a different title in some way.