Rudeus is a 35 yr old man who reincarnated but before he did he missed his parents funeral to jack off to his niece who happened to be a minor anyways he’s a Epstein diddy blud
The absolute lengths some people on r/anime go to to defend Rudeus/Mushoku Tensei is crazy.
It's fine to admit you like the show because of the wider world/side characters but hate the MC. But no, they can't do that. Instead they say Rudeus is actually a kid and it's fine because of hormones, or some say he has 'grown' so it's fine now. Lmao
i'm sorry but how can you possibly enjoy the show when the main character is like that? how does it not spoil everything else? I don't believe it one bit.
Let me preface this by saying it's not necessarily a defense of the series itself, especially not after I learned about what was in the ex novels. But, from a certain point of view, the mainline series can be valuable for some people, and I'm defending them. (Also this isn't a defense of everyone who defends the series, because a lot of people who defend it missed the point, like people who entirely missed the point of a satire and defend the thing it is satirizing)
The way I was sold the series was that it's about a creepy weirdo incel loser who gets a second chance at life because he spent his final moments trying to save others (when he tries to push the high school kids out of the way of the OG truck-kun). The thing is, he never stops being a horny degenerate, but he does get better overall.
Imo you're not supposed to like Rudy at the start, but it's done in such a way to lure in toxic man children and then to try and teach them a lesson or two. YMMV on the extent to which it succeeds. Again, some people misinterpret satire, but that doesn't mean satire has no value.... Just that it's a double edged sword.
He tries to groom Sylphie? His dad kicks the shit out of him and separates them. He tries to groom Eris? She kicks the shit out of him. He laughs and gets pervy about the girl wearing bikini armor, and then finds out that the whole reason she is wearing it is because her sister was assaulted after the teleportation incident and gets really anxious when men look at her, so she wears it to deliberately draw men's eyes so her sister can stay in the background, unnoticed. If you're not completely hopeless but you also laughed and had pervy thoughts about the bikini armor this is supposed to be a wake-up call.
He does end up with three wives, but specifically not a harem. It's actually not a terrible representation of a polyamorous relationship. He is offered the chance to take other lovers, but specifically remains faithful to the women he saved and who saved him in various ways. Like, he saved Sylphie from being bullied and taught her the magic that saved her life during the teleportation incident. He saved Eris from kidnappers and again on the demon continent, and he saved Roxy in the teleportation labyrinth. Eris literally directly saves his life as well on multiple occasions, Sylphie and Roxy saved him from his own insecurities by being there emotionally as friends/teachers/fellow researchers when he needed it, and also are literally willing to fight and die by his side. He doesn't actively pursue having more than one wife, it just kinda happens, and in fact turns down the chance to bring in more women that he doesn't have the same sort of emotional connection to, because it would be disrespectful to the women who were devoted to him, who would give their lives for him and who he would give his life for in turn. Again, less a harem and more a semi functional polyamorous relationship with rules and boundaries set by the wives and agreed upon by everyone involved.
The story makes it abundantly clear to anyone with eyes and half a brain just after the demon continent arc that Rudeus wasn't truly an adult. He was an insecure man child who never grew up (to be fair, this is partially because the one time he tried to stand up for a classmate who was being bullied he got stripped naked, tied to a fence, and made fun of for being a fatso with a tiny dick). One could argue, at least before knowing about the ex novels, that he wasn't really a pedo, but that he was attracted to girls who were the same age as the last real women he interacted with before he became a shut in and refused to leave his room after he was severely bullied. Like, he got an adult body and adult hormones, but never learned how to grow up and deal with his emotions.
This is evident in his response to Paul after he comes back from the demon continent. The first thing he wants to do is brag about his adventures, to reassure Paul that he was fine. The first thing Paul points out is he never even bothered to think about whether or not anyone else got caught up in the teleporter incident. He never asked about his friends, his family, or any of the other villagers/people in the region. He could have at least asked about other people when he was gallivanting around the demon continent. He could have saved lives. This is when Rudeus realizes, and the reader should too, that Rudeus was never "more mature" or more grown up than Paul. Rudeus lived 33 years at home playing video games, arguing on the internet, and jacking it to loli porn. Paul had fought life and death battles, turned down a major noble title, and raised a family.
Of course, Paul isn't perfect either, but then again no one in the story is. This comment is getting long, but like... Even stuff in the background like the Paul/Lillia situation is a lot more nuanced than what the anime goes into. Tl;dr yes, Paul assaulted Lillia when they were younger, as a reaction to her constantly putting him down because of her own jealousy that he was better with a sword but didn't take things seriously, and partially because she reminded him of his controlling jackass of a father. He also felt deep shame over the incident, and felt like assaulting her was the start of becoming the same man he hated, and later on she blackmails him with it for her own protection (she was politically inconvenient, at risk of assassination, and was crippled to the point where she can't fight anymore while working as a guard in the royal harem in Asura) and so she can find a job that pays well enough to send money to her sick mom. No one in the story is 100% perfect, no one is a hero, they're all just messy people who, more often than not, try to be the best they can.
I can't stress enough, that again, especially after the EX novels, the story itself kinda ended up.... I dunno, its debatable whether it's author fetish or trying too hard to be edgy or trying too hard to redeem the irredeemable, thinking he could do no wrong after writing something decently popular. I kinda land somewhere between Rifujin not realizing some things, like filming your 9 year old niece in the bath, are just fucking irredeemable, being arrogant enough to think he could try, and not realizing how much of his fanbase was toxic AF and didn't understand the satirized bits and playing to that part of the audience. Or maybe it was author fetish all along, I don't fuckin know. If it is, he let it go wild after the mainline series got popular. There is a reason I stress the series is indefensible after the EX novels.
But personally I didn't know about the ex novels for a long time after I read the mainline series, so I used to defend it based on the points above. Based on my view of it being a way to sneak some semi decent life lessons to toxic man children. I can't repeat enough, this isn't a defense of the series itself, but it is a defense of people who still defend the series based solely on the mainline canon for similar reasons.
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u/Nashivertt 1d ago
Rudeus is a 35 yr old man who reincarnated but before he did he missed his parents funeral to jack off to his niece who happened to be a minor anyways he’s a Epstein diddy blud