48
"bad year for Asia"
gives North Korea missile test and Xi ending term limits as examples
Extremely suspicious of anyone that watches and likes this garbage. I remember someone I work with recommending it and they talked about the first episode and I'm just like, people actually keep watching it after seeing that?
I liked it once I got past the absolutely atrociously bad first episode. But not because of the whole "kill all goblins" shit.
The thing that makes it good is the DnD party style combat, where combat is genuinely high-risk, the combatants all have reasonably down to earth skills/abilities, and they could all easily die with one mistake made. The combat itself is extremely DnD-like, in particular with the kinds of DnD parties that invent cheese methods of beating encounters. For example this Beholder fight scene is VERY DnD party in style.
I think there is a real audience for combat encounters written and played out in this way, and that anything would be popular without the whole genocide-the-goblins narrative if anything else were like this. A lot of combat in anime is just whoever screams loudest or whoever has the highest power-level instead of intelligent application of the powers to a scenario. You could see this exact scene play out in a BG3 encounter or group tabletop game and it rocks.
That doesn't sound like any game of D&D I've ever played lol. Since 3rd (ie since 2000), combat is very much a game that is focused on abilities on character sheets, and balanced such that the PCs should win every fight. This is also very true of Baldur's Gate, where just by playing the game as intended you can easily win every fight with little to no trouble (I will concede this may not be true on Tactical difficulty, but that is a departure from 5e rules anyway).
Maybe it's just the DMs I've had then, although I've had 4 and they all played like this, including our Numenera games, or even especially our Numenera games... We always end up in absurd extreme scenarios either through our own fault (aggroing entire town guard) or some other thing. Perhaps I'm the influence causing it? Who knows. Either way I like extreme situations that call for utilisation of tools in a way that is extremely creative to cheese situations that would otherwise end in instant death. It just feels good.
Combine Mcguyver with DnD abilities and physics. Break the universe. Create infinite energy machines. That kind of thing.
(I will concede this may not be true on Tactical difficulty, but that is a departure from 5e rules anyway).
I'm definitely thinking of Tactical difficulty, which is honestly the only way I've played the game.
Lol, I keep getting into hijinks where I end up with like 20 enemies at once
DnD party style combat, where combat is genuinely high-risk
D&D hasn't been high risk for decades, especially not at high levels where it's nearly impossible to take enough conventional damage in one round to be dropped from full HP with conventional balanced CR encounters, no matter how bad the rolls.
I like it because it's obviously someone's AD&D campaign that one guy derailed with a bit character.
I wouldn't recommend it obviously because of all the shitty parts, but the later show has similar vibes to my first experiences with TTRPGs.
Also the opening and ending songs are generally pretty catchy.
Had a 
user once recommend me Goblin Slayer after I complained about all the disgusting isekai out there these days. His explanation? "Um, it's technically not an isekai because they don't go to a different world. It's just a fantasy anime."
Fantasy anime used to be so good. Escaflowne and Rayearth and all that. Now it's all adaptations of violent fetish manga written for 13-year-olds that don't go outside.
Anime and manga realized there's more money to be made pandering to a modern otaku's taste which is violent hyper sexualized nationalistic shit.
Not to mention the system of anime production committees making it ridiculously difficult to make anything new or creative. Here's a short post that kinda explains it.
Thanks to these groups of companies, all expecting a share of the profits, only extremely safe IPs are chosen to be adapted. All that hyper violent, hyper sexual garbage is determined to be a "risk-free" investment (thanks to the legions of basement-dwelling otaku), so those are the only anime that are made these days. As an added bonus, almost none of that money goes to the animators that actually make the shows (which is only to be expected from a creative industry under capitalism). Writers, directors, and animators all genuinely want to make more creative content rather than trash, but their hands are all tied. Death to the modern animation industry for real.
It's sad. Makes me reflect on Record Of Lodoss War, such a great anime fantasy epic and how it wouldn't survive today without the otaku baiting.
Record Of Lodoss War
I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but I wanted to mention I still remember that one character I was so sure was the protagonist (replete with troubled history, brooding, inner darkness that he uses for power, and the visual design of your average anime protag) only to have them be killed in a fight a few episodes later.
I tried watching it again but it hasn't aged well. The visuals weren't so much the problem (I still like the way old anime looked) but the pacing felt....slow. Also I don't think I found the story all that entertaining.
goblin slayer? that was the harry potter game, right?
We need a game, like red faction, where we play as a goblin and lead the goblin revolution in the wizardry world.
we'll call it Goblin Mode
Man, this is so much worse than I thought. The first episode was enough to make me drop the series as just "not being my cup of tea".
Makes me worry a bit for my friend who is so enraptured by the series.
But according to the lore the goblins are not sapient and are more like a fungus, a fungus that needs sexual violence to reproduce and cackles all the while. This totally justifies a funny unlimited genocide 
In that way they are obligate paracites like mosquitos, or a fantasy version of the aliens from aliens. Or I guess the most accurate analogy would be like a terrantula wasp which exists and who's life cycle is so terrifying it made Darwin question his religion.
It's a garbage excuse so creepy writers can have titillatingly presented sexual violence and a plot contrived justification for retributive genocide.
Hentai is an option. We can compare what that looks like. To me this just does seem to be edgelord stuff they didn't pull off well. If it was ment to be fan service they could have just gone with it like in any other anime. No one would complain and the sales would be better. This is anime we are talking about here. The bar is very low but it is still intresting to see an attempt to clear it even if they don't stick the landing.
The hentai-baiting beginning is bad but it isn't quite a bad as the "and this is why infinite unlimited genocide is cool, good, and funny" propaganda messaging afterward for the rest of the show's run.
In that it is no worse than any regular Tolkien or DnD media. Or even like cape shit. I dunno. Maybe I was being overly generous but I felt like everyone wanted a better solution and it was just one guy being an exterminator. I know Japan has that weird kinda class conscious streak but I really picked up on that element here. Like, if instead of goblins they were zombies I think the show wouldn't change.
In that it is no worse
Believe that all you want, but I call bullshit. False equivalencies are exhaustively common for people trying to justify whatever entertainment they consume and I know it's impossible to convincingly talk you out of yours so I won't even try.
People often talk about weird race essentialism in fantasy media. Orcs, gnolls, trolls, pick an evil fantasy race. There is a book or show where the goody two shoes heros kill countless of them. In this that we have a protagonist who is clearly suffering with PTSD and a broken man this seems more honest about it. I am not saying they do it well. It just really seems to me like they tried and it is fascinating as a bit of media history there
I already said I'm not interested in your sophistic excuses for why you enjoy a titillating sexual violence extravaganza with nationalist-genocide apologia.
The virgin Goblin Slayer
The chad Dungeon Meshi
In addition I recommend this I remember reading it and even learning a bit about Japanese history, its actually quite a good piece.
You can pick up from "Japanese settler colonialism then and now" if you don't care about the context and want the core of the argument.
I caught one of the later episodes of the abridged (shortened parody) version of this show, being told that it didn't have the episode 1 violence in it, and towards the later episodes it got pretty racist.
The parody VA for Goblin Slayer was going on a rant that came off less as intended to be humorous and more vulgar and hostile to goblins - which read as a stand in for some other real world people - as an ontological evil.
The abridged comedy series are all reallllllllly hit and miss. They tend to be really influenced by community jokes and memes which they tend to pander to, so they often do really awful content or jokes because the general anime audience sucks ass.
Holy shit the comments on that video are pure cancer
See the one about the @Civility@hexbear.net goblin that could theoretically "prove the Goblin Slayer wrong" by being raised by non-goblins and therefore becoming very civil? 
The Goblin Slayer justifies his extermination of the goblin children because they hold grudges and will simply use their survival to adapt to his methods, but TBH the most fitting way to turn this against the narrative would be to have a goblin raised by human who gets his revenge by proving the Goblin Slayer wrong, learning from the mistakes of all the other goblins.
Hear me out. Goblin slayer asks the question what if there were problems that effect poor and the government did nothing about? What would it look like for a person to dedicate their lives to solving it. Then they throw a bunch of edge lord stuff out that they have to walk back. Which I think they don't really do a good enough job of. However they do way better than you can expect of an anime. In the end it is one of the few anime that takes a strong position against sexual violence I think and that just is too much for people to accept.
In the end it is one of the few anime that takes a strong position against sexual violence I think and that just is too much for people to accept.
By using it to titillate their audience? I disagree. It is pandering to people with a violent rape fetish. The manga is worse for it, featuring rape, the threat of rape, upskirts and damsels in distress every couple of chapters. It is very much intended to engage the hentai doujin audience in the production of fanworks for it (and they do).
I've seen that kind of song and dance before. The consumer consumed the product and doesn't want to feel bad about what they consume, so after the fact excuses for the bad parts must be fabricated.
Yeah that definitely happens. I think people need to stop like moralising over consumer choices? I watched the show and will probably watch season 2, I enjoy certain aspects while also finding the show sus for these ones. It doesn't mean I'm bad for anything. We can be critical of art while also consuming it.
People wrap too much of their identities up in things that they enjoy, "I enjoyed this therefore there is nothing wrong with it" is a frequent occurrence I see on reddit. Happens with videogames more than anything else though.
I have problematic favorites too. I don't make excuses for them; I accept the bad parts exist and continue anyway.
The GI Joe's 80s cartoon was part of my childhood and is screamingly terrible US imperial propaganda, for example. I still glance at it sometimes for kicks, and Dr Smoov did some great parodies, and the PSA gags on Youtube are classics.
I really hate when outright right wing propaganda gets sophistically spun so someone feels less bad about consuming it.
I really hate when outright right wing propaganda gets sophistically spun
Oh boy you'd have loved the Attack on Titan discourse...
Oh boy you'd have loved the Attack on Titan discourse...
I was there. And I hated it everywhere I found it. Including on Hexbear. Hated the discourse. The goalposts were moved around in a sprint from "this is leftist actually" to "presenting something doesn't condone that something" to "let people enjoy things" to "you must be mentally ill because you don't like the treat."
Is it? Did I just fail to catch the nuances because of lack of cultural context?
I cna for sure point to shows where it is guro or fan service stuff. Look at that one healer show or maiden abyss. If they wanted to go all in they could. It really looks like, to me, they tried and had mixed results. Which is wildly better than most anime that never tries. I know I am not the only person I have talked to to have this take. Is there like secret anti-korean vibes I am not picking up on or something?
I think you must have missed it? https://youtu.be/zVv4TJus-1c?t=442
Watch this from here up to 12:50, it goes through a bit of it piece by piece explaining. Honestly there's probably better videos but it does a good enough job.
I dunno. I feel like he split it down the middle there. The scene wasn't handled well, granted. He did agree with me thst he rest of the show had intresting things to say and the source material was actually pretty good about the handling of it.
this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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