why you should give goblin slayer a chance

This is stolen directly from my own tumblr.

cw: talk of depiction sexual violence

---

Disclaimer:

This is not a defense of the series, but an encouragement that you make your own judgment on it, instead of seeing memes about the first chapter/episode and turning away in disgust.

The first chapter/episode is a lot, yes, I am not denying that. The series is flawed and I am not defending where it is flawed.

There is a horrific rape scene, and more aftermath/somewhat less explicit scenes throughout the series, and the art is mature. Yes, I wish that it wasn’t, and I am NOT saying that the series is perfect or a great example of anything.

The art can be pretty horny, also, in general.

But even with those two factors existing simultaneously, they aren’t glorifying the scenes involving sexual violence, and the scenes aren’t depicted in a horny manner. It’s shown as traumatic and abhorrent, like the terrible act it is. The victims are often depicted nude, but it’s not in an enticing manner; it’s uncomfortable, and it’s meant to be. It is always depicted as something that should not ever happen, and the story happens at all because the characters are so driven to help prevent any more women from being harmed. It’s not ‘just another fact of life’, either. You see the lasting effects of the trauma on individuals and how the overbearing fear has shaped society.

The story isn’t about the terrible things that happens in the world.
It’s about overcoming them.

Let’s kick this off.

Goblin Slayer about a party of adventurers in their D&D campaign growing and learning and overcoming their fears, hesitations, and traumas. Characters learning to overcome their prejudices and respecting those they once hated. Characters with shared trauma helping each other cope and heal.

The women in the series may breast boobily a lot, but they are strong. They aren’t seen as weaker or something only to be protected, instead they’re key players in major events, and strong warriors in battle, and they are respected for it.

And they’re all friends! Nobody is fighting anybody for anyone’s affections, or having stereotypical catty rivalries, even if they share the same interest. They love and support and encourage each other. There’s a whole chapter of one of the side stories where they all play an in-series D&D game, just for fun!

Priestess, who is physically small and weak, is incredibly smart and uses her limited spells (D&D mechanics) in creative ways. She is learning how to be a brave adventurer despite her horrifying start. Goblin Slayer trusts her with his life, and acts on that trust in many situations.

Goblin Slayer himself isn’t some mindless killing machine. He’s got clear PTSD from an unimaginably horrible goblin raid on his village, where he watched his sister get brutalized and killed along with everybody else.

He admits that it broke something in him, and in recent manga chapters he fights so that another young adventurer in a similar situation doesn’t go down his path.

His hyperfocus on his goal of killing all the goblins is
so that nobody else has to go through that.

But with the help of other adventurers in the guild, mentors he’s had along the way, and now his party - his friends - he’s learning that it’s okay to rely on others. It’s okay to let himself be vulnerable, and that with the help of others, he can heal. Throughout the series, he comes out of his shell more and more, learning to smile and laugh and share good times with his friends.

It’s not some awful, horrible, disgusting, rape-fantasy-fulfilling series for sick perverts.

It’s a story about friends, learning to live,
and allowing yourself to be happy despite it all.