Goblin Slayer Episode 8

Whispers and Prayers and Chants

This week’s episode of Goblin Slayer opens with a flashback to Goblin Slayer’s childhood after his village has been decimated by goblins. It appears to be winter, and Goblin Slayer is in a mountain cave receiving training from his master, who I don’t believe is human.

At first I thought this “master” may have been a goblin himself, but that doesn’t make any sense due to Goblin Slayer’s situation and the fact that he isn’t green like the other goblins. Instead, he more closely resembles the monster rats from the anime From the New World.

It’s unclear for now whether or not this person taught Goblin Slayer how to fight, but it seems obvious that he’s the one who instilled the idea that you need to be both physically and mentally strong into Goblin Slayer. His riddles are probably the foundation of Goblin Slayer’s outside-the-box thinking when it comes to combat.

The final riddle he asks is what’s in his pocket, which I can only imagine the author picked up from the Hobbit considering he’s confirmed that Western media highly influenced this series. For now though, we don’t know the answer to this final question, since it’s at this point that Goblin Slayer wakes up.

I’m hoping that the answer to this question will be answered in the near future, such as the next episode, and won’t become the “Eren’s basement” of this series. My prediction right now is that there’s a knife in his pocket, and he’s going to attack young Goblin Slayer with it to teach him to trust no one.

Priestess and Sword Maiden

When Goblin Slayer awakens, he finds himself stripped of his armor laying in a bed next to a naked Priestess. The Sword Maiden then enters the room and explains to him that he spent the night with both of them and that this is what healed him of his wounds.

There’s quite a bit going on in this scene, so we’re going to go through all the new information we’re given one item at a time.

For starters, we know that Priestess and Sword Maiden now know what Goblin Slayer looks like under his helmet. We can then assume that the rest of the party (Dwarf, High Elf, and Lizardman), have now seen Goblin Slayer’s face as well because his helmet was probably removed when they were trying to save him.

However, none of these characters comment on Goblin Slayer’s appearance. I assumed High Elf would have said something to him about his looks, but even she acts as if nothing happened. However, her silence may also imply that she doesn’t know about how Goblin Slayer’s wounds were healed.

We aren’t explicitly told how Goblin Slayer was healed, but it’s heavily implied that it was through sex with Priestess, and potentially Sword Maiden as well. If High Elf knew this, she definitely would have said something, so she probably assumed they needed privacy to heal him.

At first I was confused as to why Priestess was naked while sleeping next to Goblin Slayer, because I assumed she was simply there due to not wanting to leave his side while he rested, but it all made sense once Sword Maiden explained it.

Apparently priestesses have a special skill which allows them to trade their “purity” in order to heal someone. The word that was used was “resurrection,” which implies Goblin Slayer was dead or dying when this occurred.

If you think about it, this is a pretty strange and extremely specific ability to have. By having sex with someone who recently died, priestesses can resurrect them one time. This seems like a pretty good trump card to have, but the one-time use and possible necrophilia aspects of it are major downsides.

So, we know that Priestess traded her purity for Goblin Slayer’s life, but what about Sword Maiden? She implies that Goblin Slayer slept with both of them, but then also acknowledges that she’s not pure anyway so she couldn’t save him.

It’s possible that she was the one who taught Priestess about this ability, but that doesn’t explain why she seems to have slept with Goblin Slayer as well. It seems to me like Sword Maiden just felt like joining in on the fun.

We also learn that Sword Maiden isn’t impure due to using this skill to save someone in the past, but that it’s actually due to her being raped by goblins when she was younger. The goblin attack is also how she got her scars and lost her eyesight (mostly).

Apparently she is able to see, but only barely. When she takes off her bandage we see that her eyes are glossed over, and she explains that although she can see Goblin Slayer right in front of her, she can only vaguely make out his shape.

I said previously that Sword Maiden could probably have wiped out the Goblins if she tried, but it’s her memories from this attack which are stopping her. She’s afraid of the goblins, and because of that is unable to confront them.

When she asks if he wants to hear what happened to her, Goblin Slayer declines because he already knows what happened. It’s something he’s seen before and has had burned into his memory. It’s also possible that Goblin Slayer was the one who rescued Sword Maiden from the goblins, although he would never know it.

Due to his obsession with killing goblins, I doubt he actually pays much attention to who he saves. If they’re still alive, he saves them, if not, he moves on. Once the captive is safe from the goblins, they aren’t his problem anymore as far as he’s concerned.

But, going back to Priestess sleeping with Goblin Slayer to save his life, I’m really confused about this mechanic. I have no issue with Goblin Slayer being saved or even him and Priestess sleeping together, but the fact that those two things are tied together doesn’t make much sense to me.

Honestly, the only reason I see to have those two things tied together is so the resurrection mechanic can’t ever be used again, but this could have also been remedied in other ways. They could have said that only Sword Maiden is capable of this and that it takes a lot of her power to do so.

Also, does this mean that one could technically be immortal by having a harem of priestesses? Who needs good party composition when you could be immortal instead?

Making His Way Downtown

After coming back from the dead through the power of being an alpha male, Goblin Slayer hits the town with Priestess to get their equipment fixed while the other three party members scout out the sewers once more.

The first place they go to is the blacksmith/armorer. Priestess’s chain mail has been severely damaged, and although both Goblin Slayer and the blacksmith recommend buying a new set, she insists on having it repaired because it was the first thing Goblin Slayer ever complimented her on.

Meanwhile, Goblin Slayer needs his leather armor and shield repaired, and a new sword too while he’s at it. The sword he picks out is one made for slaying goblins, but it’s too long to use in tight spaces and so he shortens it himself.

I found it interesting that the blacksmith was so surprised to see that Goblin Slayer was a Silver-ranked adventurer. It’s very possible that what he found surprising was that a Silver-ranked adventurer would have such old, dirty armor, but it came across as him being surprised to even see a Silver-ranked adventurer.

I know that Silver is pretty high on the adventurer tier list, but from what we’ve seen at the guild, most of the adventurers appear to be Silver-ranked. Perhaps there just aren’t too many higher tier adventurers in Water Town because of how peaceful it supposedly is.

After leaving with their fixed gear, the pair head out for a leisurely stroll around town and come across and ice cream vendor. Ice cream is a new invention in this world, and so neither one of them knows what it is. However, Goblin Slayer correctly assumes it’s sweet because only children, and Priestess, are interested in it.

He then asks the vendor how the ice cream is kept cold, and then pays him for the information. This is the first time both the Priestess and we, the viewers, see how Goblin Slayer acquires his vast knowledge of random things. I can’t wait to see him freeze some goblins in the future.

EXPLOSION!

After their day of rest, Goblin Slayer and Priestess are ready to get back to work clearing out the sewers with the rest of their party. During their scouting mission, Dwarf, High Elf, and Lizardman found a strange enemy which looks like a giant, floating eyeball with tentacles.

The monster stays in place and only attacks things which enter the room it’s guarding. When something does enter it’s vicinity, it shoots a beam out of its eye which disintegrates anything it touches. The monster is also able to nullify magic, making spells useless for defeating it.

Since the monster only guards the one room it’s in, it’s easy enough to avoid if need be. However, Goblin Slayer and the gang can’t just leave it there because some low-ranked adventurer may come along and be killed by it later on.

Luckily, Goblin Slayer has just the thing to defeat this monster, a sack of flour.

You may recall that Goblin Slayer opted to write a letter instead of taking a bath after coming back from the party’s first expedition into the sewers. At the time I, and the other party members, assumed he was writing to Farm Girl, but this wasn’t the case.

Instead, he was writing to Witch and Spearman, specifically Witch, asking her to bring some fine-grain flour to him in Water Town. Despite how they’ve been portrayed up until this point in the series, it seems these two adventurers actually get along with Goblin Slayer, at least to an extent.

Goblin Slayer requested this package from them because the flour found in Water Town wasn’t fine enough to use in his plan.

Swapping back over to the eyeball monster in the sewers, High Elf distracts the monster while Goblin Slayer breaks the sack of flour, dispersing it throughout the air in the room. They then retreat behind Priestess’ barrier at the entrance, and Lizardman sends a dragontooth warrior into the room.

When the monster fires its beam at the dragontooth warrior, the flour in the air ignites and the whole room explodes, killing the monster within. Afterwards, Goblin Slayer tells High Elf that technically he used flour and it happened to cause an explosion, so it doesn’t break his promise of not using fire as a weapon.

Once the monster is dead, the party find a mysterious mirror-like object in the back of the room. The surface of the mirror ripples slightly, which makes me think it’s some sort of portal which someone is sending the goblins through.

Conclusion

What did you think about this week’s episode of Goblin Slayer? I liked the first half because we learned more about some of the characters and the lore of the world, but I found the latter half to be less interesting even though it included more action.

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My review of the next episode is available here.