Mushoku Tensei II: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu Part 2 Episode 4 Discussion

@Argonnant Nah he's definitely more of an EPUB tbh.

It is still a bit slow (someone hinted in 2-3 more episodes it could get more interesting) but the return of Ruijerd made it a lot better. Also a bit scenes from the school (not just boring husband + wife scenes with Rudeus and Sylphie) ... and there it seemed more entertaining. (Though the thing with the stolen underwear was just the usual perverted comedy. :D)

Blonde sister girl should maybe become attendant/servant for the princess.

Only the logic of the other sister (Aisha) was weird. When she complained onyl the other sister would get heir way - when in fact Rudeus first allowed her to do what she wanted. (Serve as a maid in the house.) Overly jealous because Norn got to do what she wanted with lower test results?

That Norn. Such a brat lol.

Aisha did get what she wanted by choosing not to go to school. If she also asked to live at the university, she would've probably got that too since Rudeus wanted her to go to school in the first place. She aced her exam and earned the choice to stay.

@SentiOnikawa it underlined it was "Not okay" in the same way it underlined it was "Not okay" when Eris comedy punched Rudy away after he molested Eris at age 10.

Same wavelength, same bullshit. This is just the author being weird again, nothing more.

@Tylaen Realistically speaking, what are you expecting? A verbal reprimand is as close to an outcome as you can get without brandishing a stick and beating the crap out of someone. I'll never understand the deranged minds of people who go "hurr durr the punishment needs to be more severe!" Do you beat the crap out of children for stealing from the candy store, too? Seems like you do.

And again, Lilia and Pursena aren't exactly the brightest people in Rudeus's social circle. He also has a bit of a reputation in his immediate social circle (mostly of his own doing, somewhat influenced by his friends/family) that would inspire such behavior from those two. It doesn't matter if he has layers and is a decent person beneath the pervert they know him as. As far as they're concerned, that is a part of his personality.

@SentiOnikawa I think you're confused. I'm not expecting the god police to descend down from heaven and arrest Rudy for his crimes.

I expect the series tone not to make light of his pedophilic tendencies, of which you people continuously downplay as being a "Pervert" just as the series itself does. Rudeus is also, not, a product of natural conception. He is a character, made by an author, in a story crafted by said author and that author decided that him molesting that ten year old girl was a funny moment, that tying two girls up for an entire day and having them piss themselves was a funny moment, and so on.

No amount of layers will compensate for the author's weirdness, because "being a decent person" is not an exonerating statement when you're talking about characters in a story, and neither is being a bad person. You won't find people here condemning shows for having morally gray, or out-right villain protagonists but maybe you'll eventually notice why Rudy doesn't qualify for this treatment.

Stop hiding behind Watsonian / In-universe excuses.



Lol. Lmao even.

Rudy is not a child.

This! Anime fans should stop deluding themselves and see Rudy for what he is.
His mental voice and episodes with Man-God clearly describe him as not a child.

@Shinola I don't take kindly to graybox accounts coming out of the woodwork to aid me.

@SentiOnikawa I think you're confused. I'm not expecting the god police to descend down from heaven and arrest Rudy for his crimes.

I expect the series tone not to make light of his pedophilic tendencies, of which you people continuously downplay as being a "Pervert" just as the series itself does. Rudeus is also, not, a product of natural conception. He is a character, made by an author, in a story crafted by said author and that author decided that him molesting that ten year old girl was a funny moment, that tying two girls up for an entire day and having them piss themselves was a funny moment, and so on.

No amount of layers will compensate for the author's weirdness, because "being a decent person" is not an exonerating statement when you're talking about characters in a story, and neither is being a bad person. You won't find people here condemning shows for having morally gray, or out-right villain protagonists but maybe you'll eventually notice why Rudy doesn't qualify for this treatment.

Stop hiding behind Watsonian / In-universe excuses.



Lol. Lmao even.

Rudy is not a child.

This! Anime fans should stop deluding themselves and see Rudy for what he is.
His mental voice and episodes with Man-God clearly describe him as not a child.

@Shinola and @Tylaen here is that fucking essay I promised.

First and foremost, let's address your primary argument, which is that Rudeus is an adult when, in fact, he isn't. Not physically. Not mentally. Spiritually, it's arguable, and again, Shikogami makes it clear that that is how Rudeus perceives himself. I couldn't even begin to describe to you how utterly gut-wrenching that reveal was, even post-Mass Teleportation Incident. Rudeus had spent much of the Demon Continent being more adult than he ever had been. He observed advice given to him by a higher being, made decisions that benefited his group, and even faced death knowing that was probably where his story would end. And after all that, how does he see himself? Still as the jobless, friendless shut-in sack of crap he was in his past life. No amount of external praise or goodness could alter the crappy image he had of himself.

Rudeus suffered trauma during his adolescence and in his past life. That being chained up incident? Believe it or not, that's a glimpse of what he experienced. It's uncomfortable because it's a microcosm of how utterly devastating it can be to be bullied so severely. Rudeus was a broken youth who regressed and shut himself away. He stopped trying, and despite the best efforts of his family, he rejected all aid because at his core, he believed himself unworthy. He didn't want to be saved. He saw the world at its cruelest and like any other victim of abuse, chalked it up to him deserving it. He then engaged in behaviors which helped him further validate that opinion he had of himself.

For further insight: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187546/

Particularly, Masch (2006) wroter that,



In other words, adverse experiences can confound the most surface-level understanding of how victims choose to interpret their trauma and how they behave going forward. Only within the last 10-ish years have we had a better understanding of how trauma can cause victims to escalate into more criminal behavior. This actually ties into how Rudeus behaves, but it's a small part of it.

Peter Pan Syndrome is described as,



Rudeus did not mature beyond his adolescent years. He's irresponsible, has difficulties in social and professional relationships as a result of both his irresponsible behavior and narcissistic properties. For the record, narcissists are considered to be persons with low self-esteem who present as highly competent and with above average confidence, but are also incredibly defensive. Rudeus, while I wouldn't say he is defensive, is rather arrogant and presents as far more competent than he actually is. At least, pre-Mass Teleportation Rudeus is.

The author is presenting the narrative as it is because it's presented from the perspective of a victim who regressed and withdrew from society. It killed him, first emotionally, then mentally, and finally, physically. The Rudeus we know before the Demon Continent is a person deeply damaged and given another chance to do better. He has all the support he could want. But, we see brief glimpses like with the bath incident where even though it was a misunderstanding, he still felt regret that he had betrayed someone so severely. Sylphie still wanting to be his friend must have made his inner self feel like it was reborn a second time.

People who are abused are often as likely to be perpetrators later in life. To quote,



(Lev-Wiesel R. Childhood sexual abuse: From conceptualization to treatment. J Trauma Treat. 2015;4. doi:10.4172/2167-1222.s4-016)


In short, Rudeus molesting anyone was himself trying to take back a power he was robbed of in his past life. It doesn't make what he does right, but it does enlighten one as to why he does what he does.

Rudeus, at his core, is a crappy person. You can't really empathize him without the greater context of his trauma, and the narrative gives it the briefest regard inasfar as it's necessary to comprehend what made him this way. The trauma is his main motivating factor for his more offensive behaviors because as far as he's concerned, it's the one thing he can control. Heck, our introduction to him is him jerking off inter-spliced with his parent's funeral. That should show you how depraved he has become that he's basically jerking off on his parent's graves. But, it's also the one part of himself he can control.

Assaulting Sylphie was a re-awakening of that trauma, but only in that he had now evoked the same harm that was done unto him upon someone he cared about. He probably wanted to die in that moment because it was a reminder of what had been done to him. Sylphie had no context, but forgave him regardless because their friendship was more important than a misunderstanding. Rudeus could go on living, but likely mistaking (like a child would) that his misdemeanors would be more readily forgiven in this world.

Through Eris, he learned there were indeed boundaries and crossing them had consequences. He learned respect for those boundaries, even if he might at times regress.It should be noted that from the onset, Eris was difficult to educate. She resented someone younger than her being in a position of power over her. Rudeus, in turn, resented that she was not receptive to his lessons and feeling powerless, likely desired to use the one thing he felt gave him power as a means of "taming" her. It clearly backfired multiple times.

Sex and sexual deviancy are a core factor of Rudeus as a character, but is not regarded favorably by the narrative. It's clear through his form when he meets with Shikogami that he regards himself as some disgusting, unwashed, abhorrent mass of wasted flesh that should be discarded immediately. He hates the form, but is inflicts it upon himself because at his core, he hates who he is despite whatever positive qualities he has acquired. The narrative considers Rudeus to be a terrible person given a second chance, and that's the kindest way of defining who he is. You have to imagine as he's written, how such a person might regard themselves, that they cling to that old, abhorrent self so desperately, yet desire to reject it just as much.

Which is why I have no respect for people who come into the MT fandom with their most basic, drooling infant understanding of media in general and proceed to make absolute asshats of themselves. You're not making a point by parroting the same ignorant idiocy of some dullard with zero subscribers on youtube. You're proving that critical thinking and effort into basic research is being replaced by mass stupidity because the dumbest opinion with the least insight can be parroted by a dozen fools who did even less research and applied even less thought to what they're consuming. I defend this show not because Rudeus is a good character, but because it took me multiple fucking google searches to do a basic character study of the main protagonist.

Hell, look at my forum signature. Not the one about Thorkell. Everyone knows tall people regard that as a highly-protected secret not meant for the masses. Imagine if short people learned how to do a seven-foot-high flying dropkick. Dwarfism would become a desirable trait.

I'm speaking about the Nanami Kenta quote. Being an adult isn't how you handle big situations. It's about control. Specifically, there are two types of control: internal, and external. Internal control is ourselves, how we react to things, how we interact with others, etc. It's personal, things we can influence. An example is doing a bit of extra studying before bed. You have the option to push yourself a bit further ahead than others, but there isn't a guarantee that your efforts will merit long-term benefits. But, it's something we can control.

External control are things we cannot influence. It's something like hairs falling out, or your favorite stuffed bread going out of rotation. Those are things we wish we could influence, but which we never can. We can choose to let it frustrate us to the point of action, or recognize that what once was is simple no longer. We can feel saddened briefly, but it is essential to acknowledge that those things matter little in the grand scheme of things.

Rudeus desperately desires to regain that control he lost and will regress in situations where he feels he has none. He's not doing it out of malice (not intentionally) or a general disregard for others. He's doing it as a way to cope with his trauma because it's the one thing he knows. Nobody in the fandom has ever said Rudy is a good person. We've all said he's a damaged person, even a crappy person, who does crappy things. But, the fandom loves the story because it's also a hopeful story of someone who was beaten and broken by a cruel world and saw his second chance as an opportunity to be more. It's a story about someone who was ruined finding a way to live for tomorrow.

And if that doesn't jive with you, well, kick rocks. This story is top-tier and your waifu is trash.

-Sylphie crew