Well said I've been telling people this is not a show about redemption for the longest time. It has elements of redemption in it but as you have pointed out it's not really about that. And that's not a bad thing.
One thing I have to say is that the scene between Rudeus and Eris in the light novel includes a little bit more context as to the thoughts going through Rudeus's mind and how he viewed it afterwards. He calls the part of him that wants to lose his virginity his worse part and his thoughts are more about the relationship he can now has with Eris and even says that he knows in his mind that he loves her. Rudeus is not very different in the light novel but there is more of a conflict between his perverted side and his moral side that is in some parts missing.
What I don’t understand is how you or anybody can say somebody like Rudeus in his past life, somebody that was a neet shut-in, had the mental maturity of a 30-40 year old. We literally went through a pandemic that forced us to become shut indoors. Look at how messed up our generations of kids, teens, and young adults have become just because of that pandemic. Every single one of these groups I listed have lost 2-3 years of mental maturity after only 2-3 years of being forced to be a shut in. Rudeus in his past life became a shut-in when he 14-15 years old and it’s implied this happened when he was a freshman in high school. This means he was a shut-in for 19-20 years before he died. Imagine how mentally unstable he is compared to the freshman of today who are extremely mentally unstable and only had to endure 2-3 of being a shut-in. You literally can’t be saying that Rudeus is mentally an adult, it’s literally just not true, and if you genuinely believe Rudeus is an adult man before S2 then you seem more like a creep than Rudeus because you’re trying to justify how much you don’t support p3do’s and how much you hate Rudy when you can’t see the facts for what they are. Also Rudeus has the brain of a child. If anything, Rudeus is just an adult with the mind of a mentally unstable teenager but has the brain of a child. He understands life based on the experience he had in his past life so obviously he does stupid stuff sometimes, it’s not like he was reincarnated in his first life either, his experiences were that of a child, Rudeus is a fucking child, the person he was in his previous life was an adult with mental maturity of a mentally unstable child, we have studied this in real life and this is a real thing that had happened, people like this in real life aren’t classified as adults either, so therefore again, Rudeus is a fucking child, get that through your head.
People like this should stop watching isekai. Cause everyone in the world would be too old for the main character. Rudues should have dated an old granny when he is 15.
0:41 Orsted Spoilers: The reason why Orsted attacks Rudeus when they first meet despite summoning him through reincarnation is because Rudeus took the place of a stillborn who was suppose to inhabit Laplace and Orsted recognized it instantly. Orsted wanted to rid of any major disturbances of peace even if it means killing an innocent person in the process.
There is an amount of redemption but the turning points are points that change a rudus life and the Paul and rudus argument wasn’t a rudus change it was a Paul change… of course if you want a big moment of rudueus character growth… turning point 4 is the biggest change in his life and ideals. Minor note: the whole Paul grey rate is the excuse is technically not true for the perv times of rudues it’s just a greyrat thing… don’t think too hard about it.
If you read the Novel you'd know about the many internal dialog in many characters and many other cut content I recommend it Rudy shows alot of restraint in the novel
You seem to be under the delusional belief that adults make better decisions than children. Adults are twisted by their culture in so many ways that are counter to their own well being and most people will never be able to pull away from these beliefs by the time they are in their twenties just because of the way our brains age. Your prefrontal cortex locks behavious and social rules in place to some degree. Young brains are more plastic and this is not a bad thing. It allows you to adapt to changes and change your mind about things that no longer or perhaps never made sense more easily. This physiological reality defeats much of your argument about Rudeus being an "adult". He has a new physical brain after all.
What you said at 21:18 is kind of the point of Mushoku Tensei. It’s Rudeus constant struggle between these 2 mindsets. Sometimes, he sees himself as his past life and other times, he see himself as Rudeus. I think the anime makes it more difficult to understand that because his narration is always in the voice of his previous life.
Dude... I haven't heard this music from furi for about 3 years now... You opened my nostalgia from this music at the start to 0:15 I need to go to Furi again
Mushoku Tensei is about people's ability to change if they choose to, but also about how love and support from others is an immense help in this process. Rudeus decided to change, he saw the flaws in himself and actually went through a lot of work to become a better version of himself, and a better person overall. Its not so much redemption, as it is rehabilitation. Rehabilitation of his depression, his perversion, his insecurities, etc. He tries, and you see that. No one is meant to like him at first, we arent even meant to like him, he isnt written to be liked, he represents people's ability to change. That's why the show is so well written, all the characters feel like real people with genuine flaws and the way they grow is slow, methodical and well in line with their personalities. People need to realise that just because you hate an MC it doesnt mean the show is bad.
Saying its about redemption is the comment You give to all the entitled, easy offended virtue signalists and ideologues. The ones that You just know will not respect freedom of expression or speech, and that think narratives cant hurt ppl (cause You know You cant just not read/watch/listen to works of media) especially those about str8 white men and mentions of their sexuality
Not deaf but took 3 years of ASL. It is unfortunately common for parents of deaf children to not learn it. They can be on their death bed and not be able to talk to their child. It’s also common for deaf kids to be sent to schools that don’t use sign language and try to teach them to lip read and speak.
Yeah I looked into it a bit while I was editing and that did seem to be the rhetoric I found, which I thought was depressing. Thank you for confirming this though.
The story of Yubisaki to Renren handed Yuki everything on a silver platter. That's why it's hard to connect to her despite being in her POV and more focused on romance. To be honest, I find both Itsuomi and Oushi creepy. Sure, Itsuomi is more supportive of Yuki but he has no sense of space. There's no real person who wouldn't be comfortable with that. I guess that's the romance tax even if the cast was compromised of young adults. On the other hand, A Silent Voice was very mature in handling the issue despite having a group of kids/minors as the main cast. They're not too on the nose about it either.
Yeah Itsuomi's invasion of space was another thing that got romanticised which I didn't enjoy. I only actually began to like his character in the final episode when they showed where his spark for learning new languages came from. That was really cute imo
Thank you for watching for so long, Salma! I do have some plans for streaming over summer so hopefully I will be able to and it'll be at a good time for you to watch :D
The only thing I think you missed is his development in the old world. You a couple of times mention how rude us still sees himself as a 40 year old man and how he has lived for 30+12 years, however I don’t think that’s fair. In his old life he bwithdrea from the world when he was 14-16. After that his whole life was in his room. He had no friends after his brother and best friend stopped visiting him, he had no relationships romantic or platonic or professional after that point. All development be it emotional romantic professional or interpersonal ceased shortly after he isolated himself. He’s not a 42 year old man who has grown up And had relationships of any kind, he’s a scared traumatised isolated immature child who spent 15 years wasting time and doing nothing productive. That’s why when eris is Coming onto him and everything up till then he’s so focused on sex. He was stunted from the age of his trauma and as such still had the mid of a horny child who is obsessed with sex as he’s never had it. I honestly belive that’s why he goes through the ED arc. He finally achieves all that he’s desired for all that time and then looses all of the emotional relationships that he has built up across his whole life. His immature teenage mind associates sex with loss and masturbation with misery and isolation, so it stops him from having access to either. (Spoiler alert from here on for S2) and that can oly be fixed at the magic university after he spent years building new friendships and relationships (not romantic) and is only cured once he once again has a person from before his new trauma come back into his life. Once he relaises who silfe is his brain realises that no all his past relationships (of all kind not just romantic) aren’t gone forever and that he can open himself up. That’s why Sara couldn’t help him; because as far as his subconscious knew it he crossed that bridge that relationship would be gone forever. Point being redudeus may visually see himself as a 42 year old man, but that because his inner view of himself (in the man gods realm) is one of hate. He hates who he was and how he lived and as soon as he remembers that this life is not all that he has had, he remembers how he hates his past. And I’m doing so sees himself as his worst version of himself. I feel like I’m season 2 I don’t recall much of Rudeus rember his old life. Yes he’s searching for a cure for his ED but he’s not remembering his old life he renting his life in his new world. The only times he even thinks about the old world is with nanahoshi. Even then though, with exception of the first time he meets her, he he’s to king about her and sending her back. The only times he thinks about himself other than this is to feel remorse (not hate) for how he treated his brother. He’s living his new life, he’s relying on his experience of his new life, and he is more moulded by his new life had his relationships than he ever was in season 1. I was really disappointed in turning point 3 as I had noticed this and was really hoping that he would view himself differently in the man gods realm. Point being hue emotionally stunted himself at 15 by the time hes 12 in the new world he has lived ages 1-12 twice. You don’t develop emotionally and mentally baisied on how long you’ve been alive, the mud doesn’t work like XP points. It works of moment in time that shape you forever. It works off turning points. All those big. Said Paul’s reaction is 100% right. No one else has seen redeus’s true maturity and nature, but Paul has. Paul saw himself scolded by his child acting like his peer after he knocked Lilia up. He saw rudeus leave all he had behind to go earn money for his future and the future of the ones he loved. He knows Rudy is mature and more than intelligent, and in that way he probably sees Rudy as a peer if not a superior. He saw Rudy was u harmed (body still intent) he has eaten and slept well visably, and was angered by the fact that one he looked up to in a way didn’t live up to his potential. Rudy was capable of so much more and that’s why Paul was right. But treating him like he’s a 40 year old man wasn’t. No matter what Trudy can’t be emotionally and mentally more mature than he was when he was 16. And mind you that’s 16 In our world, where people develop much slower. We do t age to fight monsters or start working at 10. We aren’t considers adults till 18 not 15 and I think most people don’t consider us full adults till we are closer to 21-25. Rudy is immature but Paul has known his potential since he was 8 and now that he’s 12 he expects more of him. More that Rudy should’ve lived up to
My only critique of what you said is that Rudy did kind of surpass what Paul could have reasonably expected of him when coming back from the demon continent. Paul was actually prepared to be teleported at anytime which the anime glossed over he also did not consider the possibility of anyone else getting teleported except himself and Norn until he got back to the fatoa region. But he kept a sizable amount of money, his sword, and his S rank adventure card on himself at all times. So he could deal with being randomly teleported. Rudy on the other hand landed in the demon continent with no money no rank as an adventure and no survival skills. He had to try to build his base to be able to get back from scratch with eris who couldn’t speak the local language and ruijurd who should his actual identity be found out will be chased out of any town so he had to take on responsibility for both of them in that situation while not being mentally developed enough himself.
There's three types of maturity physical, mental, and emotional. He got older but didn't get to grow on the mental or emotional side of things. Being a shut in will do that to you. Being smart logically without life experience doesn't do much for ethical Behavior, nor emotional growth. Depression and suicidal ideation warps your mind in a lot of ways and keeps a negative state of mind, not to mention obvious PTSD on Rudeus's part. He never had a chance to get better before his new life, in a lot of ways he still is a child just now getting the love and support he needed for so long and can develop the proper skills needed to navigate life. Not saying he is right or excusing his behavior, just trying to give perspective.
I’ve read punisher comics, Vader comics, even redo of healer. MT makes me genuinely sick in a way none of the others do. It’s not because it’s sexually devious like ROH or has a morally bankrupt mc like Frank. It’s that there is infinite charitably given to Rudeus through the world without any hint that what he’s doing is wrong. Like “Oh he’s a little pervy teehee ;)” doesn’t work when he has sex with a 13 year old. Every other story I mentioned tries to justify their characters actions or show that the character isn’t supposed to be morally grey or good. He doesn’t give a shit about having sex with kids it’s always just something that happens, it is not about “how he needs to change” because he doesn’t give a shit, the author doesn’t give a shit, and the people who fall for the pedo bait don’t give a shit
This always irks me. He didnt become a lolicon they werent anime girls in his world in the word hes in they arent fictional. He becomes a pedophile. He spies on a real girl
Also he doesnt have the mental maturity of a 30 something. He was stunted and now has the maturity of a teenager at best. Rudeus sees himself as his old self this is true and its also him being wrong. He sees himself as a grown ass man he isnt that anymore. He reacts like a child he acts like a child he feels like a child he is a child. He has memories not maturity. Hence why the moment at the end of season 1 when his inner voice changed to his true self for just a moment when thinking of his mother. I dont know why people think he isnt a child. If he didnt care for his family he would have just abandoned Paul and his family. But he doesnt. Cause even if he wont accept it even if he hates himself because he sees himself as the failure in his heart that is his father
I think you fell into the trap of, rudues is mentally 40 years old. But actually he is an immature man baby. His mental age, his maturity is stunted. He views the world a way a 15 year old would. Yes he is still mentally older than 10 year old rudu but by no means is he a mature adult. Locking himself in his room after being bullied left him at the age he was then, he never matures mentally and never learns how to be independent. Teenagers belive they know everything, when he critiques Paul he has no idea how to be a father, I think this is amplified when you see how powerless he is to norns dilemma. When it comes go real problems, he just dosrnt know what to do at all. He uses his past age to say of I was older than Paul.... nah not by far. Rudy was like a said a man baby. Edit. I do also have to stay you got 10th birthday very wrong. Eris wasn't in rudys room to comfort him. Hilda put her up to it (her own mom) she puts into her head that nobody else will ever want her. She runs back to his room out of fear. Fear that she will be punished
I just can't stand Mushoku Tensei. A series that pretends to be a path of personal growth and redemption, but essentially results in an obnoxious character, stained with terrible crimes who effectively never pays for his sins. Throughout the story Rudeus does not grow as a character; it is his victims who grow in age.... A character who, in addition to perpetrating his crimes, does not even try to redeem himself and moreover also disrespects the family that raised him (despite the fact that he took the place of a child who should have grown up in his place). Then yes one can say that the series has very sensitive content being a medieval-style fantasy and that can happen, but these excuses don't work with the main character (who is not original to that world). The series on its side has excellent secondary characters, detailed world building, and an interesting power system. Unfortunately, it is tainted by a pathetic protagonist who is glorified by fans who appreciate that kind of media (i.e., pedos).
I feel like there just wouldn't be a letter system between the demon continent and where he was from right? Its supposed to be this hostile location, so at the very least this is born out of a lack of understanding due to little communication from it or it actually is hostile and thus wouldn't have the pony express to easily send long distance letter. If it did exist than why wouldn't they just follow the delivery guys on their journey over? Also I think all the excuses he gets based on him being a child is a twofold thing. Yes he is basically a 40 something adult mentally in time, but most of that experience was stagnant in his room learning nothing of the world or perhaps even degrading from this experience, In many ways he is mentally a child because he never learned how to take care of himself and how to take responsibility. I think the excuses he gets because of his physical youngness is the safety net he needed to truly learn this stuff while also poignantly pointing out his shortcomings as he and we know he is actually an old ass man in a child's body. It separates societal pressures from his own internal drive and highlights his own willingness to improve rather than just conforming to what people expect of him. I think its point is to show that growth can happen at any point in time and that even though you're behind the curve, you perhaps should catch a break if you fail as long as you are still improving, and that's perhaps why he gets the thematic thumbs up in the scene meeting his father again.
mushoku tensei IS a story about redemption. its just that you have only seen the beginning. the end of season 2 will be the moment when rudy realizes that he isnt a kid, he will grow and he will realize that this isnt just a game, that there are things that he can and will lose. this character arc isnt something that will be solved in one season. season 2 will end at volume 12; there are 26 volumes. this character arc isnt something that will be completed until the end, and it will become obvious at turning point 4 and after edit) one thing i will give you, his perversion doesnt simply go away, but it does become controlled and focused onto someone consenting (his wife)
I used to be a hater of this series i won’t lie. but after thinking about it more, rudeus went from shut in degenerate to a genuine guy who cares and impacts the people around him. i believe he was redeemed in that aspect at least
Arguably Rudeus isn’t an adult , but a child corrupted by adult stuff , bullied into oblivion at 14 , stayed in almost absolute isolation playing game and looking at porn for 20 years don’t make you an « adult » , while the fact he doesn’t think if his family where taken by the catastrophe , it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t care , we see time and time again , his mind is focus on other stuff , he didn’t got it easy , he want to take responsibility of stuff like bringing home Eris and helping Ruijerd , and it’s quite altruist , he didn’t want to bring Eris hole for the pussy if I may say but because it.s the right thing , and Ruijerd still thank him after Rudy revealed helping him was man-god advice because he still choose to help and tried his best , + many occasion until the death that was his fault (the other do count but they are just shock scene and not his doing) because his « child » mind state and corruption from reclusion lakes in still disconnected and think of stuff as if it’s a game , a quest . Rudeus is childish , he never went through growth his previous life, despite reaching 34 , but only got trauma and corruption of his child self and while he at time think of himself as a grown man , acting all proud and mighty, it’s a delusion and what he is punished for .
This is a very detailed video, unfortunately it's for a Rudeus. No matter what they say about Rudeus, I cannot view him as someone who changed. He still did things he was never appropriately punished. He even had incestuous and pedophilic thought and even acts. But hey, he is just a person, right? Why do we need to forgive him? Oh that's right, this isn't a story about forgiving a character, just a fictional character living his life. He may not be good, heck, he might be evil, so what? It's not like we should make half an hour video of dick riding him... Overall, i genuinely think we shouldn't look up to him. And yet, MT fans still paint him as a fucking perfect god which we all should follow (if you aren't one of that kind of fans, good job). That is what i hate to look at. Imperfect evil character who gets looked up to like an idol which I don't think the author wanted us to. But hey, my opinion doesn't matter, what matters is your opinion about this!
In the light novel, rudeus constantly chastises and belittles himself over his bad habits, because he wants to become a better person, and live real, full life, without the constraints that were placed on him in his old life, like, I mean, every time he does something weird, he either thinks about how he is a shit human being, or how he doesn't want to be like he was before, it's not redemption, it's recovery, change, and the first and most important step to recovery and change, is to understand and except the fact that you have issues, and how you need to change and rehabilitate yourself, to help yourself. That's why I love mushoku tensei, it's not cliche, and about the mc suddenly not being a shut in anymore, it's about the long and grueling journey to change oneself for the better, thought the anime is struggling to get that narrative across, which I believe is due to the fact that the anime can't go into as much detail on the thoughts of the characters as the light novel can.
I have not watched the video yet, but after reading the LN, I can confidently say that it is indeed about redemption and character development. Redemption is the state of being kept from evil or improving morally. The once morally questionable character, Rudeus, was a shut-in who despised people, feared them, hated them, and lost faith in them. He engaged in questionable actions that were seen as bad, disgusting, and outright wrong. He didn't care about his family, avoided talking to them, ignored them, and only cared about his well-being, finding entertainment in his activities in his room. However, Rudeus changes; he redeems himself from being morally questionable and from not caring about his family. He also begins to think about others apart from himself. He learns to care, to love, and to be open about himself to others. He redeems his wrongdoings and wrong mindset. Furthermore, he grows as a character. Redemption and character growth go hand in hand in this context. In my opinion, the story is indeed about redemption. Of course, it's not just about that. It's also about family, character development, AND redemption. I might want to add that it is no need for him to change completely. Staying a perverted character is part of his personality, he doesnt need to change in that regard, he just needed to change of how and when he is like that. And, he indeed accomplished that.
I thinj that you analysis of how rudeus views himself as an adult and therefore his standards should be kept at that higher bar is only half correct. While he does have all the knowledge nd experience that comes from having lived for 34 years on Earth, it must be taken into account first how those years were spent. We're shown precious little about his time in Japan, and basically everything is negative and honestly disturbing. Now accounting for the cuktural ifferences between the east and the west within our own world, it is still safe to assume that the man who became rudeus had a very questionable morak compas on good day. Then we enter into the culture of the six faced world, and when you see what passes for "morals" within the society of the asura kingdom, even rudeus seems mellow by comparison. Viewing the actions of a character who had a broken moral compass to begin with, further get influenced by a world with morals worst than his own, and have him still make a change towrards the better is actually something very impresive. Pauls arguments that rudeus was irresponsible by not searching for other fittoans was flawed to begin with. The fact js that there was no actual responsability on his part to go out of his way to do anything more than was necesary for him to stay alive. Could he have done more? Yes. Was he obligated to? No. The expectation that just because someone can do something means they have to donsomething is honestly unrealistic, though I guess thats a conversation for a video on Shiro Emilya. To sumarize: viewing rudeus' character and his actions through the lense of an upstanding western moral person is about as flawed a view as you can have, and actually shows poor understanding of what the author is trying to create.
