I sometimes don't "get" this show/characters. Should I just turn off my brain? /up to episode 10 spoilers

The characters are only cheery and friendly amongst their own people. From the very start, we see Clay's lack of attachment to other people's lives and I don't remember if they explicitly state it or not, but it's heavily implied that she kills fellow adventures if they pose trouble for her. Belle was always ruthless, she is exactly what her dungeon master wanted her to be. The only people she's seen super-friendly with are Clay and Rangard. I would compare her personality to that of a human that was raised to be a God, which is why she is so indifferent, but still seeks company and explores her own interests. The rest are her employees or people that don't matter to her. I think your just struggling with the gap between art/appearance and actions, but their motives are quite consistent if you've paid attention from the beginning.

The dungeon is a place where people voluntarily risk their life for valuable items and getting stronger. Because people have the choice to enter the dungeon, Clay has no problem. However, r*pe on the other hand is fundamentally not consensual which is a large part of why it is considered so immoral. After the initial discussion upon entering the goblin's den, Clay shows her disgust at the goblin's breeding tactics, but swallows it. So when Belle mentions that they had a hard time kidnapping females, it doesn't shock her because this was accepted as the premise of the conversation.

If you voluntarily agree to a fight to the death, are you not consenting to die when you lose? Is it not the same for the dungeon?

I don't see how you can draw a real world analogy when concepts such as dungeons don't exist, except perhaps war.

@Quadruple_Oi What a ridiculous statement. If you voluntarily agree to be a soldier, are you consenting to die when you lose? Is it not the same in the dungeon?

I don't see how you can not draw a real world analogy when concepts such as serving in the military, going into space, working deep underwater exist. Hell, even working on an oil rig at sea is deadly.

You just sound as someone who sits in front of his computer screen all day and haven't worked or never had someone in your family work a job with a real risk of death onsite. They don't consent to death, at all. They acknowledge there is a risk, that is all.

@robertino129

The risk of dying in a dungeon, to my understanding, is considerably higher than all the jobs you've mentioned besides the military in an active war. But you're right that 'consent' was the incorrect term to choice, my apologies.

However, "acknowledging the risk of dying" = "Voluntarily risking their lives (i.e. voluntarily choosing to partake in an activity where one has a non-negligible chance to die)". They don't acknowledge the risk of rape because that isn't the nature of the dungeons. So that was the point I was trying to make in that comparison. I should be more careful with my word-choice.

Edit: On second thought, an appropriate real world analogy does exist in the form of hunting prey that is of similar strength.

@Quadruple_Oi What do you mean they don't acknowledge the risk? It's clearly presented in the anime as a teaching by the guilds and her father, shown in a flashback of her encountering it at least once in her life.

It is also a risk acknowledged by every person serving in the military, especially in the top 5 militaries in the world, US included. In certain western countries it is also a risk in the prison system, which you join unwillingly for something as simple as insulting people or being unable to pay a parking fine.

Once again, there is no feasible argument that you can make where killings are presented as the lesser evil, an unknown risk to guild members in this universe. Or ours for that matter.

@robertino129

Not arguing that killing is a lesser evil, just that it's not expected as risk in the context of the dungeon. I don't ever recall her father or the guilds informing Clay about the risk of r*pe in a dungeon, so I generalized to other anime dungeons that I've seen which don't address r*pe as an issue.

Considering that Clay thinks her father lost to Belle, it means that the plant-based goblin scheme was likely in place at the time since Belle should be the admin, so I don't think Belle allowed goblins to do that during this time period. At the end of the day, that is just speculation. If the anime did show that presented as a teaching given to Clay, then you're right.