The Greater Demon’s Hand

Goblin Slayer II Episode 12 turned out to be better than I expected. I assumed that since they defeated the goblin priest, this episode would be more of a wrap-up. You know, they’d suddenly be back in town and we’d get a recap of the season.

Well, that’s not what we got, and I’m glad. The Dungeon of the Dead still had one more surprise in store for us. The goblin priest may have failed to summon a Dark God, but he managed to summon part of a Greater Demon.

Consider how difficult it was for Goblin Slayer’s party to take down his Greater Demon’s hand. Then, think back to the flashback of Sword Maiden’s adventuring party from Episode 9. From what I remember, her party was fighting two Greater Demons at the same time. That shows you how much stronger her party was than Goblin Slayer’s.

In the end, Goblin Slayer’s party was able to take down the Greater Demon’s hand. And, it was mostly thanks to Priestess, which I didn’t see coming. But, the way she defeated the Greater Demon’s hand reminded me of what we’re missing out on.

There was a brief discussion about whether the party should fight or flee. I expected them to flee in the end. And when Priestess activated the elevator, I was pretty excited. I thought this meant that they were going to end up fleeing deeper into the dungeon.

That would have been a great way to end the season, with the party trapped in the depths of the Dungeon of the Dead. With an ending like that, I would have been looking forward to next season. But, as things stand, I’m in no rush. I like Goblin Slayer, but there are better fantasy anime.

Hammer and Anvil

By the time Goblin Slayer’s party reaches the exit of the Dungeon of the Dead, a hoard of goblins is waiting for them. And, despite how used to fighting goblins they are, this isn’t good. They’re already worn out and there are a lot of goblins.

Luckily, Goblin Slayer always has a plan. And this particular plan is one he set in motion before the party even left for the Dungeon of the Dead. He told Sword Maiden that he’d handle rescuing the Princess, but that the rest is up to her.

So, Sword Maiden showed up at the entrance of the dungeon. And, she didn’t show up alone. She has a dragon of some kind, as well as an army of holy warriors. The Kingdom wasn’t going to send its troops to help Goblin Slayer. But, that doesn’t mean the church can’t send its troops.

This might have been my favorite part of the episode. I also liked seeing Goblin Slayer’s party figure out how to handle the Greater Demon’s hand on the fly. But, what made this scene so good is what it means for Sword Maiden’s character.

We know she’s terrified of goblins. It’s not a phobia because it’s not an irrational fear. But, her fear of goblins is so extreme that it can leave her paralyzed. And yet, she faced her fear in order to help Goblin Slayer’s party. I doubt having an army behind her made that any easier mentally.

I don’t think this is going to be a major turning point for Sword Maiden. It’s not like she’s suddenly gotten over her fear of goblins or anything like that. It’s another step in her healing process. She may never recover completely. But, she’s making progress.

The Knight of Diamonds

I don’t know who needs to hear this. But, the Knight of Diamonds is the King. We don’t have confirmation of that. But, it’s pretty obvious that it’s the case for a number of reasons. So, let’s go through those reasons.

First, we know that the King used to be an adventurer. So, if we found out that he’s still an adventurer in secret, that wouldn’t be the biggest surprise.

Second, the Knight of Diamonds appears directly after the villains derided the King for being a former adventurer. And, when the Knight of Diamonds shows his face, he has the same hair color as the King and they recognize him.

And third, the woman who appears alongside the Knight of Diamonds has the same hair color as the King’s maid. We don’t get to see this woman’s face. But, it’s a pretty safe bet it’s the same person.

Alright, so I’m convinced the Knight of Diamonds and the King are the same person. But, if this is the case, why didn’t the King help rescue his daughter? He wouldn’t have had to go to the Dungeon of the Dead as the King. He could have gone as a masked adventurer.

Well, one reason why he didn’t do that is pretty simple. This was a dangerous quest. If the King wants to fight corruption in the capital as an adventurer, fine. But, as the Ling, he can’t be taking on potentially fatal quests.

On top of that, as far as I remember, we don’t know what rank the Knight of Diamonds is. He’s probably pretty strong. But, I don’t see him being a gold-ranked adventurer. He could have been silver. However, as we saw, even a party of silver-ranked adventurers had trouble on this quest.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of the final episode of Goblin Slayer II? Were you expecting Goblin Slayer’s party to retreat deeper into the Dungeon of the Dead? What do you think about the dragon creature that was with Sword Maiden? And, is there any doubt in your mind about the King being the Knight of Diamonds?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

The Hero’s Party

Goblin Slayer II Episode 11 might have given us the most Hero’s Party content of any episode, so far. So, let’s talk about them. After all, as I mentioned in my review of Episode 8, Hero is the protagonist of this world.

First, just to reiterate, Hero is the sole platinum-ranked adventurer right now. There have been others in the past. But, they’re very rare. And, this isn’t a rank you can work your way up to. She’s a platinum-ranked adventurer because she was “chosen by the gods” or something.

She also seems to be very young. I don’t know if we ever got her age. But, my guess is that she’s not even 20. She’s probably around the same age as Priestess, whose age I also don’t know. But, again, Hero is a prodigy with a legendary sword. That’s why she’s platinum-ranked and Priestess is steel-ranked.

Hero’s party has two other members, both of whom are gold-ranked adventurers. That puts them on par with Sword Maiden’s former party. And, it means they’re stronger than Goblin Slayer’s party members. Though, I believe Goblin Slayer himself is on par with them.

I could be wrong. But, I remember something being said about Goblin Slayer’s rank in Season 1. I’m pretty sure that he’s on par with gold-ranked adventurers. But, since he only ever takes on goblin slaying quests, the guild can’t give him the next rank up.

Anyway, Hero’s comrades are Sword Saint and Sage. From her title, I assume that Sword Saint is some kind of holy swordswoman. That’s not what Sword Maiden was, though. She was a priestess. Since I’m not familiar with DnD stuff, I don’t know how a sage differs from a priestess or shaman. But, Sage is a spellcaster.

Dungeon of the Dead

I know there’s only one more episode in this season of Goblin Slayer. But, I was hoping that the Dungeon of the Dead “arc” was going to last longer. And, this is an issue I’ve had with the series all season.

This is, apparently, the first dungeon Goblin Slayer’s party has entered. And, when Sword Maiden mentioned the name of the dungeon to the King’s court, things got serious. So, my expectation was that this would be a significant arc. That doesn’t seem to be the case.

In this episode alone, Goblin Slayer’s party entered the dungeon and saved Princess. All they had to do was fight some goblins, go down an elevator, and fight some more goblins. Next week, we might see them escape from the dungeon. But, it seems more likely that it’ll cut to them back at the capital city instead.

It’s been a while since Season 1, so I don’t remember how arcs were handled back then. But, this season has felt like it’s been speedrunning through arcs. Even the adventure into the mysterious temple in the Elves’ domain only lasted for an episode.

I’d like Goblin Slayer a lot more if it spent more time on each of these quests. The light novel might. I don’t know. But, as things stand in the anime, I’m always left disappointed. I want more dungeon-crawling content. And I want more world-building via quests.

Like, what was the point of hyping up this dungeon if it’s going to be over in half an episode? Hopefully, the final episode of the season proves me wrong and we get to see more of the dungeon. But, I don’t have high expectations. I’m preparing myself for disappointment yet again.

The Goblin Priest’s Sacrifice

While the quest arcs are short, the overarching arcs aren’t. For example, we still don’t know what’s up with the black hand goblins. And, I doubt we’ll get all the answers in the final episode of the season.

But, at the very least, we know the goblins in the Dungeon of the Dead and the black hand goblins are the same. The goblins in the dungeon had those same tattoos — as we saw when Goblin Slayer sucked some of them into the sky.

Oh, and the goblin priest that was performing the ritual on the fourth floor of the dungeon had a black hand staff. It’s unclear if this is the same “clan” that was operating in the Elves’ domain. But, at the very least, it’s related in that they worship the same deity.

Alright, now let’s go over what the goblin priest was doing. According to Priestess, he wasn’t performing a normal ritual. He was attempting to perform a sacrifice. And, this may imply that the goblins specifically targeted Princess. She was wearing Priestess’s robes. Did the goblins target her because they wanted to sacrifice a priestess?

Also, why was the goblin priest performing a sacrifice? Unless I missed it, I don’t believe we know. Would this sacrifice have led to something happening? Would it have summoned whatever deity the black hand goblins worship? This is the kind of stuff I want to know.

But, I can understand holding off on giving us that information. As long as we get it eventually, I’ll be happy. What I don’t want is for it to never come up again. Before all this stuff with the black hand goblins comes to a close, I need some answers.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Goblin Slayer II Episode 11? Should the Hero’s party be more balanced? Were you expecting the Dungeon of the Dead content to last longer? And, what do you think the goblin priest was trying to do by performing a sacrifice? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 12 is available now.

Visiting Old Party Members

Goblin Slayer II Episode 10 featured some characters we haven’t seen in a while. Though, some of those “features” were more references than anything else. There are three I want to go over in this review: Wizard, Warrior, and Noble Fencer.

Let’s go through those three in order, starting with Wizard. This is probably the character you remember the most. Wizard was one of the other women in Priestess’s first party. Goblin Slayer was actually the one who killed Wizard. However, he only did so to end her suffering after goblins stabbed her with a poisoned dagger.

More importantly, Wizard was the older sister of Wizard Boy. He decided to become an adventurer to restore his sister’s honor. But, as far as I remember, he never learned about Priestess’s and Goblin Slayer’s connection to her. I wonder how that knowledge would change his opinions of them.

Anyway, Priestess visits Wizard’s grave in the capital city. And, afterward, High Elf Archer asks if she has anyone else she wants to visit. Priestess responds that there’s one more, and this is the only reference in the episode to Warrior. At least, we can assume that’s who she’s referring to.

Warrior was the other one of Priestess’s original party members who died. But, unfortunately for him, he’s not even important enough for us to see his grave. In fact, it looked to me like Priestess and High Elf Archer actually skipped visiting his grave.

The final character I want to mention is Noble Fencer from the Goblin’s Crown movie. She’s the girl we see attending the royal court. She introduced Goblin Slayer’s party to the King at the end of the episode. The last time we heard anything about her was back in Episode 1 of this season.

The Princess in the Bathhouse

Episode 10 doesn’t only mention old characters. It also introduces some new ones. The most important two are King and Princess. King is, obviously, the king of whatever nation the series takes place in. As far as I know, it doesn’t have a name.

I’m also not entirely sure how this kingdom and the elves’ domain are related. Do the elves live under King’s rule? It doesn’t seem like it, since they have their own king and customs. But, at the same time, it also does seem like it.

We saw a fair amount of elves within the capital city. The elves’ domain doesn’t appear to be that far away. And, High Elf Archer hasn’t ever said anything about them being separate. It may be that the elve’s domain functions as an autonomous zone within the kingdom. We don’t know, though.

Something we learned right at the beginning of the episode is that King used to be an adventurer. And, because of that, his younger sister, Princess, wants to be an adventurer, as well. But, King won’t let her, probably because he knows how dangerous the job is, especially for young women.

Of course, this doesn’t stop Princess. She’s dead set on becoming an adventurer, much like Noble Fencer was before her. The difference is that Noble Fencer actually knew what she was doing. Her issue was that she and her party got in over their heads.

Princess doesn’t appear to have any of the necessary skills for being an adventurer. She doesn’t have gear, training, or a party, and she’s not even registered as an adventurer. And yet, she thought it would be a good idea to steal Priestess’s identity and set out on her own. We saw how that went.

A Job for Goblin-Slaying Pros

As we saw, the goblins that kidnapped Princess are part of the black-hand group. And, as such, the location of their nest is unknown. But, Sword Maiden predicts that they’re likely using the Dungeon of the Dead as their home base.

Based on the reactions of everyone else in the royal court, this isn’t somewhere you want to go. And, King doesn’t want to send the military in to rescue Princess because it would become a scandal. He can’t have people finding out that she fled the castle and impersonated a priestess.

So, I naturally assumed that King himself would lead a party to save his sister. After all, he’s a former adventurer. But, this isn’t what was suggested. Instead, the other members of the royal court turned to Sword Maiden to save the day.

I don’t know what rank King was when he was an adventurer. But, we know Sword Maiden was gold ranked, which is the highest natural rank. You can’t just work your way up to platinum. Only heroes, like Hero, who were “chosen by the fates” or whatever can receive the platinum rank.

Anyway, it makes sense that the members of the court would want Sword Maiden to take on this quest. She has a proven track record. And, it’s probably not a good idea to send the king himself. But, there’s one small issue. Sword Maiden can’t deal with goblins at all.

What surprised me even more than Sword Maiden getting nominated was her response. She didn’t immediately recommend Goblin Slayer’s party. Noble Fencer had to be the one to do that. I was so sure that she was going to mention the fact that Goblin Slayer, a silver rank, is in the royal capital.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Goblin Slayer II Episode 10? Did you also assume the other grave Priestess wanted to visit was Warrior’s? What was your favorite part of the episode and why was it the entire bathhouse scene? And, were you surprised when Sword Maiden didn’t volunteer Goblin Slayer’s party? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 11 is available now.

Sword Maiden’s Former Party

Goblin Slayer II Episode 9 starts off with a flashback of Sword Maiden’s party. This was pretty interesting to see. But, I have a few complaints about it. The first and biggest complaint is that a grainy filter was placed over this whole section.

I get that the point of this filter was to make it obvious that this was a flashback. But, there are so many better ways to do that. Why not just add a date or text that says something like “10 years ago” in the corner at the start of the scene?

There was no need to make the whole scene look like garbage to tell us it was a flashback. I’m not going to call it “lazy,” since my solutions are arguably even easier to implement. But, I’m going to say that this was the wrong artistic choice.

The other complaint I have isn’t so much a complaint as a want. I wanted to see more of this party. I know there’s a spin-off light novel that covers it. But, why couldn’t we have this entire episode dedicated to Sword Maiden’s former party? They and their adventure seem pretty cool.

Also, as far as I know, we were never given the “names” of Sword Maiden’s party members in the anime. But, since they exist, we can assume their names were revealed by this point in the manga. And, with that assumption in place, allow me to reveal them here.

Obviously, we know Sword Maiden was a member of this gold-ranked party. But, she wasn’t the leader. That’s Captain, the samurai guy. There’s also Half-Elf Scout, Female Wizard, Female Warrior, and Myrmidon Monk. I have no idea if these other party members are still adventurers or even still alive.

Escorting Sword Maiden to the Capital

Back in my review of Episode 5, I said I wanted this series to give us a map of the region. Maps are pretty important in fantasy series. They let us get a better understanding of where locations are in respect to each other.

Without a map, I have no idea where Water Town is in relation to Cow Girl’s farm. I don’t know how far away the Elves’ Domain is from the Capital. And where is the fortress from Goblin’s Crown? A map would make it easier to follow Goblin Slayer’s adventure.

Well, Episode 9 finally gave us the map I’ve been asking for. And, much to my dismay, it’s so low-resolution that we can’t really make out anything on it. We know there’s a small town between Water Town and the Capital. That’s about all the info we got.

Anyway, Sword Maiden hires Goblin Slayer’s party to escort her to the Capital. She does this because there have been goblin attacks along the route. So, who better to protect her from goblins than Goblin Slayer? But, to be honest, I didn’t believe her at first.

I thought Sword Maiden was just saying there were goblins so that Goblin Slayer would take the job. I forgot that she’s genuinely terrified of goblins and not only in love with Goblin Slayer. But, that makes complete sense when you consider what she’s gone through.

Does this mean that the goblins were the only reason Sword Maiden hired Goblin Slayer, though? Or, is there a bigger threat she hopes Goblin Slayer will help take down? As we know, she deciphered the ancient tablet Goblin Slayer’s party found. And, as far as I know, Hero’s party is investigating that lead right now.

The Black Hand Goblins

The most interesting thing to come out of Episode 9 is the “black hand” goblins. Not much is known about this group of goblins. But, let’s go over the things we do know.

First, these goblins all have a black tattoo on their back that resembles a hand. I say “resembles” a hand because Goblin Slayer points out that it might not be a hand. It certainly looks like one. However, calling it a hand could be an oversimplification.

Sure, it might end up literally being a handprint. But, what does it mean? That’s the important part. Why is this the symbol of this particular group of goblins? And why do they even have a symbol, to begin with? These are the things Goblin Slayer is thinking about.

Something else we “know” about these goblins is that they don’t have a nest. Though, I’m not convinced that’s actually the case. The goblins killed by Goblin Slayer’s party only had the remains of a few people in their stomachs. And, the implication here is that the other people they attacked are being held somewhere.

Are they with a larger group of roaming black hand goblins? Or, are the black hand goblins keeping them in their nest somewhere? For now, we don’t know. But, I assume they have a nest — or, at least a home base — somewhere. These goblins seem to be part of a larger organization.

There’s been a lot of weird stuff happening lately. There were the goblins attacking boats along the river. There were goblins controlling Mokele Mubenbe. And the gillmen said that someone was controlling the sea serpent. This is probably all related to the tablet’s prophecy that Sword Maiden deciphered.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Goblin Slayer II Episode 9? Do you want to see more of Sword Maiden’s old party? Did you believe Sword Maiden when she said the escort quest involved goblins? And, what do you think the significance of the black hand is? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

The review of Episode 10 is available now.