As many LNs of similar genres this one too has absurdly overpowered protagonist. The important distinction here however is that William, the protagonist of Faraway Paladin, isn’t meant to be self-insert. How does the novel achieve this? Firstly, the power isn’t just given out for free. Unlike the usual case where the explanation of overpowerdness of the protagonist is given just few sentences or at best paragraphs, here we get a whole volume about how the power came to be. And none of it is by chance (beyond of course even being isekai’d in the first place), it’s all hard work of the main lead. This even ties in with how the protagonist’s character is developed further, as there’s certainly a difference in how one would use powers gotten as freebie and those earned by years of dedication.
Second reason is that the protagonist isn’t just a regular “gotta help everyone” goody-two-shoes or a regular nihilistic edgelord. No, while William’s goal is to fight against injustice, it’s with somehow zealotic attitude that is not one to be easily self-inserted into but one that is still interesting to read about. On topic of Will’s character, usually it’s left unexplained why the MC seemingly cuts of his ties to previous world and does not even attempt to find a way back. Here, it’s reasoned that the protagonist considers his previous life a complete failure and plans to give his all to the new life, which is a nice way to remove this question from the readers mind. It’s also nice how he’s confronted with how his huge power might inconvenience those around him, putting in some psychological baggage to contrast the easily won fights, although I wish the story explored this element more.
Side characters aren’t half-bad either and are given actual personalities beyond being just background to the OP lead. Not just personalities, but sometimes even development arcs. Also, the character of bishop is one of my favourite side characters in a while in regards to his philosophy and how his character plays around with what would audience expect based on tropes, though to explain further would be a spoiler.
While the world is mostly the usual fantasy setting, it does have more specific magic system to it that makes it stand out a tiny bit more, and also the presence of more worldly deities. It’s a nice change to see members of pantheon interacting with the characters in different than just holier-than-thou kind, especially the gods that are not on the side of good. On accord on worldbuilding, I also like that there’s a bit of lampshading thrown here and there about how William shouldn’t expect common sense from his previous world to apply in occasions such as customs or even laws of nature.
The weakness of Saihate no Paladin is that it’s first two volumes were great, but the series is continually losing its steam. It’s still enjoyable so far, but the strongest points are undoubtedly more towards the beginnings. The problem is that as the protagonist is fighting strong foes almost from the start (which admittedly is a spectacle to enjoy), one-upping the previous encounter gets harder to write unless the series wants to go the way of Dragon Ball and start pulling absurdly strong villains out of nowhere. The story could use more opponents that oppose Will in more crafty ways that don’t depend on powerlevel alone to keep it more entertaining. Thanksfully even now the story is not all about fighting as Will has to solve logistics problems too, so at least there’s that. Still, this combined with the fact that one important storyline element set in the first volume that has a deadline until which the MC has to do something was never mentioned again and that another hint of what could be following story arc was only mentioned once after its introduction makes it seem that the author is a bit lost regarding where to move the story next. This could be a possible explanation as to why is the novel currently on a hiatus.
