Paul didn't commit rape, stop saying he did

LostSpectre said:
It's weird how many people felt the need to defend it wasn't rape, even in the novels. It's not like Paul is supposed to be a good person this early on in the story. Plus, whether it's supposed to be just comedy/fanservice it's not like the MC isn't a grown man's reincarnation, lusting after children. It's clear that this isn't the sort of story that you can expect realistic/mature sexual themes, but being an anime fan means learning to process such contradictions.

MiiyoSon said:


A guy posted a passage from the the WN on reddit. Highlighted in the reddit thread
https://www.reddit.com/r/mushokutensei/comments/hxm9mg/paul_being_a_literal_scum_bag/fzqag64/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

This is from people who have also read the source material. That's from the OG source material. I'm not pulling any of this out of my ass here.

I think this is off base in a few areas

first off, he didn't actually rape Lilia as that was a story Rudeus made up to better convince Zenith from throwing Lilia out the house

it was actually Lilia who seduced Paul into the affair and there is also a sidestory that shows the time they had sex as dojo students was more of a seduction than rape

and second regarding the above, polygamy was hardly a taboo in the medieval type settings

heck - Arab society today still has the whole 4-wife thing

the third point with Paul having anger issues and lashing out on Rudeus stems from two different situations that actually humanizes the character

the first one happens when Paul believes his son - who he knows is a prodigy in magic - is abusing his power, something his father could hardly turn a blind eye to

now granted, he got hoodwinked by that kid, but it was still an understandable overreaction

the second one came from seeing his son alive in the Millis holy city and realizing Rudeus had zero idea of his family being scattered apart

this coupled with the despair he felt of losing 'everything' but Norn, his lashing out was hardly surprising in the face of his son's carefree ignorance

Paul's actions were of course wrong, but Rudeus hardly helped matters here with his cynical approach in reprimanding his father while making a false accusation of him sleeping around

I think the problem many readers have is they try to equate our modern values and ideals onto these fictional settings

you are talking an entirely different cultural setting here in a multi-racial world with magic