(L) Goblin Slayer [Light Novel]

[Breimn]

Vol 4 limited edition cover.

[Ophis]

Man, I really like the art of the LN. That Elf looks way better than in the Manga version.

[WERERABBIT]

she looks so cute

[El Rue]

They're both charming in their own ways I think.

Hah, you'd never think of how terrible things can get looking at how clean, bright & detailed that artwork is.

[Blankdom]

lol, they both look the same to me :P -- Mind enlightening me on the differences?

[WERERABBIT]

Oh, I meant the little priestess...

[durack]

Not sure why this LN seems to be popular.

Basically Gods are playing a board game, dice and all. and our characters are the pieces. This is how LN starts but this is not in the manga for some reason.
Unless there are some major twists coming up I am not super impressed by the world building...it's literally a Dungeons and Dragons game.
With a setting like this it is hard to take grimdark seriously.

[pervypig]

^ It's not about the settings, but the deconstruction of the setting that draws people in. How often do you read a story, whether modern or fantasy setting, that actually give a logical conclusion to chainmail bikini? It's not even trying to make you feel for the characters: I mean, the characters ain't even given names. You can even insert your ex-wife(s) name(s) into the characters just about to be raped by gobs.

I liked this story because it tried to point out all the flaws in game and fantasy mechanics: like how you can't possibly use the same bastard-sword to kill through 100 goblins without all the guts on it getting it so gooey that it won't be able to stab the 101th. You notice that the entire premises in games is that you want the biggest, strongest, baddest weapon and nobody really gives half a damn about armor because killing monsters give you experiences to level up. Who cares about armor if you can hit and kill them first? GS takes that setting and turn it on its head - you can use anything to kill goblins or even orgres, but if you ain't properly protected with the right armor, you're asking to be skewered by poisonous goblin arrows even before you can kill a single gob. That - at least, is what I liked about this series.

[dragon1412]

to put it more simply, the story is realistic. It's like a normal RPG vs Souls game. You don't come into battle expect any single of your opponent scrub going to die in 1 hit and deal absolutely no damage to you. If your head is hit with a hard stone, you are going to die, if you are stab by a sword, who care if it a legendary weapon or a normal sword, stabbed = bleed and eventually death. Even the goblin, who is the weakest it still poses itself a lethal threat to those who are new to battle, and with numbers, poses themself as strategic threat. The armor and shield are there for a reason

[Lhklan]

Originally Posted by Breimn

Vol 4 limited edition cover.

Nice, though does anyone know what happen? I sincerely hope nothing happen to Guild Girl.

Originally Posted by durack

Not sure why this LN seems to be popular.

Basically Gods are playing a board game, dice and all. and our characters are the pieces. This is how LN starts but this is not in the manga for some reason.
Unless there are some major twists coming up I am not super impressed by the world building...it's literally a Dungeons and Dragons game.
With a setting like this it is hard to take grimdark seriously.

Originally Posted by pervypig

^ It's not about the settings, but the deconstruction of the setting that draws people in. How often do you read a story, whether modern or fantasy setting, that actually give a logical conclusion to chainmail bikini? It's not even trying to make you feel for the characters: I mean, the characters ain't even given names. You can even insert your ex-wife(s) name(s) into the characters just about to be raped by gobs.

I liked this story because it tried to point out all the flaws in game and fantasy mechanics: like how you can't possibly use the same bastard-sword to kill through 100 goblins without all the guts on it getting it so gooey that it won't be able to stab the 101th. You notice that the entire premises in games is that you want the biggest, strongest, baddest weapon and nobody really gives half a damn about armor because killing monsters give you experiences to level up. Who cares about armor if you can hit and kill them first? GS takes that setting and turn it on its head - you can use anything to kill goblins or even orgres, but if you ain't properly protected with the right armor, you're asking to be skewered by poisonous goblin arrows even before you can kill a single gob. That - at least, is what I liked about this series.

Originally Posted by dragon1412

to put it more simply, the story is realistic. It's like a normal RPG vs Souls game. You don't come into battle expect any single of your opponent scrub going to die in 1 hit and deal absolutely no damage to you. If your head is hit with a hard stone, you are going to die, if you are stab by a sword, who care if it a legendary weapon or a normal sword, stabbed = bleed and eventually death. Even the goblin, who is the weakest it still poses itself a lethal threat to those who are new to battle, and with numbers, poses themself as strategic threat. The armor and shield are there for a reason

Plus, the protagonist isn't just your standard "slash and smash" kind of hero, nor is he a Chosen One with special powers. What he use is a combination of skills, experiences, imagination and the willingness to fight dirty as hell to achieve his goal.

I mean, have you heard of a typical RPG protag burn a corpse then throw it to their compatriots? Or using a protection spell to prevent his enemy from getting out of a burning down fortress thereby suffocating to death?

And the Souls comparison is oddly correct. In fact, his armor set looks like it came straight out of one of the Souls game.

[WERERABBIT]

Originally Posted by Lhklan

Nice, though does anyone know what happen? I sincerely hope nothing happen to Guild Girl.

Me too. I need a decoy, I don't want him to end up with the little priestess.

[Kuroageha]

That's what Cow Girl is for.

[WERERABBIT]

I like to hope. 'u'

[Rasen]

Originally Posted by pervypig

^ It's not about the settings, but the deconstruction of the setting that draws people in. How often do you read a story, whether modern or fantasy setting, that actually give a logical conclusion to chainmail bikini? It's not even trying to make you feel for the characters: I mean, the characters ain't even given names. You can even insert your ex-wife(s) name(s) into the characters just about to be raped by gobs.

I think Maoyuu proves that, done properly, you don't need names to make wonderful characters.

[pervypig]

If you have to rant, I'd just say the harem part was somewhat unnecessary and forced. Cow-girl and priestess not withstanding... I don't relly see why Elf or Guild-receptionist should be tagged on. The tale's supposed to be a deconstruction right from the start and adding harem just to pander to the male base diluted the taste for me: much like how Hachi-nan went from 30 chapters of medieval exposition to instant happy harem. Siriously dude, if i'm looking for skirts, I'd have read Date-a-live or Highskool DxD instead...

[Lhklan]

Originally Posted by pervypig

If you have to rant, I'd just say the harem part was somewhat unnecessary and forced. Cow-girl and priestess not withstanding... I don't relly see why Elf or Guild-receptionist should be tagged on. The tale's supposed to be a deconstruction right from the start and adding harem just to pander to the male base diluted the taste for me: much like how Hachi-nan went from 30 chapters of medieval exposition to instant happy harem. Siriously dude, if i'm looking for skirts, I'd have read Date-a-live or Highskool DxD instead...

Personally, I thought it's rather normal. Considering that he at least saved those girls at least once, there will be part of them that is grateful and admiring him. Couple with the various circumstances that they interact with them, it's easy to see how they could fall for him. Let's recap a bit:

- Priest girl: Not only did he save her - by accident, true - but he continue to teach her the way of adventuring. Plus, she's a teenager, and teenager fall in love quite easy compare to adult.

- Cow girl: Childhood friend with a somewhat guilty conscience due to their big fight, plus him always helping around the farm. ALso, see teenagers above.

- Receptionist Girl: She implied that GS saved her once, and looking at her dissactifaction at the various adventurers that come and go, seeing someone actually go out and solve her dilemna is a big plus. Also, his personality is that of someone reliable, so as an older woman she is quite taken with that part.

THat's just my opinion. Also, it is still a deconstruction: In a normal harem story, the protagonist is dense because that's just who he is. Here, GS isn't dense, but rather he's been put through too much that it's really hard for him to feel human thus it's not that he doesn't know about their affections but rather it's hard for him to reciprocate.

So maybe it isn't that it's a standard harem story, but rather it's the love from multiple girls that help hold him back from becoming something worse than currently and maybe return to being a human instead of a goblin killing machine.

[Mirable]

yare yare people these day..they always blame eveything on harem.

It's not genre fault, it's the bad writing.

[pervypig]

^ imho, harems aren't bad if you manage to realistically portray them like those cloak-and-dagger Chinese imperial inner-palace political drama. Those harems live by a pecking-order with a gazillion back-stabbings and assassinations involved. Sevens did a pretty good job with it's harem insertion, as do many Chinese historical WN. But you'd have a hard time convincing me that a harem that get along with each other like in all those shounen LN/WN are realistic. Whether they be slaves or some poor sod that the MC had saved/shown some kindness to, neither men nor women take kindly to competitors for love-interests, least of all sharing them.

In GS tho, as long as the harem does not take center stage and the story just does wat it does best (i.e. deconstructing the RPG fantasy genre), I would still tolerate it.

[dragon1412]

pretty sure it's just your bias view towards harem, in real life, there exist many peoples with 2-3 wives and they all get along wells. And this is not counting Islamic or remoted religions. It's depend on, what kind of relationship each love interest have with each others, their view and the nature of the culture. I have seen a guy with 4 girls before and they all knew and actually quite all like each other amicably

[Sixth]

Originally Posted by dragon1412

pretty sure it's just your bias view towards harem, in real life, there exist many peoples with 2-3 wives and they all get along wells. And this is not counting Islamic or remoted religions. It's depend on, what kind of relationship each love interest have with each others, their view and the nature of the culture. I have seen a guy with 4 girls before and they all knew and actually quite all like each other amicably

And i knew a businessman married 3 sisters and live in one big house until today and a developer married 4 women and built 4 different houses in the proximity.

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Yeah, being rich helps.