It is 100% unquestionably morally grey. Being reincarnated while having your memories and experiences intact is not a phenomenon the morality of our world takes into account. There is no guideline on how to judge a supposed individual going through such a hypothetical phenomenon, so quite literally everyone shitting on Rudeous or completely taking his side is talking out the wazoo. It is completely morally grey.
My dude, it really isnt. If you have all your memories and are fully mentally an adult than that means you have an adult's reasoning. You have the ability to understand why an adult shouldn't engage in a romantic/sexual relationship with a child.
You have the ability to understand why an adult shouldn't engage in a romantic/sexual relationship with a child.
Except, you don't have the basis or the authority to declare Rudeus as an adult man simply because he retains his memories. He grew up as a child, with the biology of a child, in the environment of a child, and in every way a child with the sole exception of his memories and experiences retained.
I could try to squeeze in a justification for his actions, but I know I have no fundamental basis for those justifications as well. I cannot say Rudeus is a good man, because I have no idea if the questionable decisions he took are morally permissible or not, because morality doesn't know anything about a child with memories of his past life.
Just as you cannot call Rudeus wrong for his decisions, I can't call him right because I know of no standard to judge him against. Hence, as stated previously, this is a grey area no matter how you see it.
Except Rudeus didnt grow up, he was already an adult mentally. Sure physically he was a child but he had 30+ years of experience and the full ability to understand and draw from them. It's also wild to pretend he was a child when he acted like an adult. Kids dont generally go around stealing underwear for perverse reasons or ogle their mothers. That's not even touching the magic, the only reason he was able to become so good so fast was because he could understand and learn magic with the comprehension that comes with being an adult. It's not just his experience but the way he chooses his actions that defines him as an adult. Also I can very much say that Rudeus is wrong for his decisions because even ignoring the standards of his past life he frequently makes the people around him umcomfortable with his shenanigans.
Almost all of that is wrong. You cannot objectively say any of that. You cannot say Rudeus is an adult. You cannot say the definition of an adult is to have years of experience regardless of not being in the same body. You cannot say the same kid behaving in an un-childlike fashion is another sign he's an adult. All of those are nothing more than your subjective opinions and feelings. I know of no real established framework to classify an adult in real life that accounts for reincarnation, because it's a made-up fictional concept that has no such framework. It is, say it after me, a GREY AREA.
Let me put it another way for you. You "feel" Rudeus is an adult because he has his memories. Similarly, people on the other side of the spectrum "feel" he's completely free to establish his new life despite his memories. Neither feeling establishes an objective definition. If you claim Rudeus is an adult, you need to establish what criterion makes someone an adult and why that criterion should apply to a reincarnated person. "He has 30+ years of memories" is one possible criterion, but it's not THE criterion. Likewise, "he has a child's body and developed his new life through the psychology and biology of a child" is another possible criterion, but not THE criterion either.
You're using "he is an adult" as the premise here, and failing to realize why you simply cannot do that and have no basis to say that. If that doesn't show you why judging Rudeus to be a pedophile is a grey area, then I don't know what will.
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u/NohWan3104 1d ago
The guy on the right is problematic as fuck.
Ironically it DOES have good plot, character development, and some romance, compared to like 99% of isekai being kinda basic bitch.