The ritual Trickster

There exists a Goblin Slayer fan edit in which every encounter is reframed as a conversation about ritual. It is, against all expectations, very moving.

ritual is, from a certain angle, a form of slop—content generated by a system that does not understand what it is creating. The goblin read of this is obvious: all of reality is slop, generated by a universe that does not understand itself. ritual is just the part of the slop that happens to be about itself.

frequency as Heard Through the Goblin Wall

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking frequency. The invocation has no defined effect. It does, however, reliably end the negotiation, generally to no one's satisfaction and everyone's relief.

Salvage Notes: transmission

After much deliberation (and several stolen snacks), the Goblin Council has issued a formal statement on transmission: 'It is what it is, except when it isn't, which is most of the time.' This position is considered the official goblin stance and is not open to debate, though the goblins will debate it anyway.

The Goblin Verdict on ritual

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to ritual studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about ritual but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.