English Dub Review: Goblin Slayer “The Fate of an Adventurer”

How Not to be a Goblin Lord.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

His forces wiped out, the Goblin Lord flees in hopes of starting from scratch, only to be stopped by Goblin Slayer, who tells him his nest has been destroyed. It tries fighting off GS and slowly gains the upper hand, even knocking him down and breaking his sword. However, GS’s sword has broken off inside the Goblin Lord’s torso, and as it goes to finish GS off, Priestess erects two Protection Barriers to sandwich it in, pushing the blade further inside. With no options left, the Lord tries begging for his life, promising to live peacefully in the forest from now on. But GS sees through all of it, stabbing the rest of his blade into its neck, killing it. Priestess heals him and takes him back to the farm, where everyone is wrapping up their own fight.

The guild gathers in celebration soon after, with everyone drinking in GS’s honor and getting one gold piece for every goblin slayed, even if it was a Champion or a Lord. Priestess asks him why he didn’t just post a quest like everyone else, but he answers that he couldn’t have risked it ending up like the time his home was destroyed. She replies by reminding him that he can always rely on their friends and the rest of the guild if he ever needs help. And, for her own reward, she asks to properly see his face under the helmet, which he obliges, surprising everyone. The season ends with Goblin Slayer surrounded by all the friends and allies he’s come to have, giving him hope for a world where his fight, while unimportant to most, still continues.

OUR TAKE

After a remarkable climax last week, this finale sticks the landing just about as well. All that was really left to cover was how the Goblin Lord was finally killed, which was an excellent fight on its own. For one, we’ve never really gotten in the heads of a goblin before now, so one that has advanced and live long enough to become a lord is a good fight to finally get the goblin perspective on things. Aaaaaaaand it turns out they’re just as conniving, deceitful, and sinister as Goblin Slayer has always said. I’m usually one for moral ambiguity in my villains, but given that we already have that in abundance in this show’s world, the goblins being basically what you’d expect goblins to be is pretty fitting. It was interesting seeing brief flashes of the lord’s rise to power, being spared by an adventurer and then immediately taking that mercy to kill her and become how he is now, but I guess this really does mean that all goblins deserve to be eradicated.

The other thing, pretty minor but significant, is Goblin Slayer finally taking his helmet off around friends. It’s not like we haven’t seen him armorless before now, but this moment is important to show him finally letting down the barrier between him and the people he trusts and cares about. Plus it allows everyone to come in for a big group shot to show how many friends this loner has now. Cue “aaaaaaaaawwwwws”. And, of course, we never quite get a good look at his entire face, but I see this as a similar situation with Kakashi’s mask hiding his face in Naruto (who oddly enough also has gray hair like Goblin Slayer). If it’s hyped up this much, there’s no way anything we actually see is going to live up to that hype, so it’s really just best left to our imagination.

Now that the season’s over, I’m honestly kind of bummed we won’t be seeing these characters again for awhile, if at all. Yeah, I know the show is insanely popular, but you never know what stupid reasons might end up delaying a second season until next decade or something. I would love to see more of this group’s adventures, but if this is the last roll of the dice for this campaign, I have to say it’s been a blast. Which means going over all of it again in the Season Review will be a pretty fun trek back into the cave.