English Dub Review: Goblin Slayer “Wishes and Prayers and Chants”

The best gift this for holiday season is Thoughts and Prayers!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Goblin Slayer dreams of training with his master as a child, involving riddles and endurance training, as well as learning he needs Luck, Courage, and Wisdom to survive, which is a weird version of the Triforce from Zelda. He awakens with Priestess lying naked next to him, along with a (unfortunately) clothed Sword Maiden, having helped heal him with a spell that requires lying with a virgin. Sword Maiden does not qualify, having been violated and nearly blinded by goblins ten years ago. Even worse, someone as famous as her, part of the group that defeated the previous Demon Lord, is still afraid of goblins.

After Priestess wakes up, the Elf, Dwarf, and Lizardman go to patrol more of the sewers while she and GS spend some quality time beefing up their gear and seeing the sights. This gives them a chance to talk about how far they’ve come and what each of them are scared of, as well as how they’re aware of dangers that most people don’t even think about. They also get a delivery from Witch and Spearman, who bring a bag of flour from the Guild town.

The use of the flour becomes apparent soon enough as the rest of the party inform GS and Priestess about their next obstacle: a giant floating eyeball that can disintegrate anything that comes in its path and de-spell any magical object thrown at it. To counteract this, GS sends Elf and Dwarf to distract it while he disperses the flour. He then asks Priestess to put up a barrier so that, once the eyeball uses its disintegration attack, will ignite the flour and destroy it in an explosion. With the monster defeated, the party moves on, this time encountering a giant mirror.

OUR TAKE

No surprise to anyone that Goblin Slayer survived last episode’s fight, though maybe some surprise for how he woke up. I’m kind of mixed on a few things regarding that first scene, one of which being how Goblin Slayer (the show) seems to be rather willingly falling back on some pretty predictable tropes of light novel adaptations, one of those being giving the protagonist a pretty sizable collection of female admirers very early on. Cow Girl, Guild Girl, High Elf Archer, Sword Maiden, and very possibly Priestess after this week.

They’re all interesting characters in their own right, obviously, but it feels a bit like the story is having its cake and eating it too, trying act like it’s subverting typical fantasy show cliches while also feeling free to divulge in rather fan-servicey stuff. Same with having Sword Maiden talking at length about her own rape while the camera pans over her bouncing boobs and fully erect nipples. I like these things as much as the next person who likes them, but there’s a time and a place, so the writers and directors should really pick a lane and stick with it here.

Though that’s about it in regards to gripes and nitpicks this week, since the rest of this episode was actually very solid in its further development of GS and Priestess’s friendship, which makes sense considering these two have known each other the longest out of the group, and so should be getting special scenes about they are both helping better the other as people and adventurers. The fight against the Giant Eyeball also adds to this quite well, allowing Priestess to redeem herself from her blunder last week and have a pretty neat battle that feels like it was ripped right out of a D&D campaign.

Next week seems to be the conclusion to the arc in Water Town, where the party will find the core of the goblin problem and possibly learn more about themselves in the process. I’ve been enjoying these last few episodes and their way of putting our heroes in increasing danger and stakes, but I’m also just as much looking forward to seeing what segment of the books they choose to close out this season. For now though, it looks like it will be time for the party to start with the man in the mirror and ask him to change his ways.