I've been reading mushoku tensei but ultimately dropped it once I reached a point where the protagonist engaged in polygamy. The protagonist has lots of flaws but polygamy is where I personally draw the line. Too bad, was actually a very compelling story up until then.

[–] NineSwords@ani.social 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Don’t get me started on MT. I hate it with a passion. Maybe it would be better if I only watched the anime, but I started with the WN as one of my very first LN/WN experiences and the fact that MC starts off as a pedo who spies on his nice with a spy cam almost made me drop Light novels entirely. Just think about it. That’s just the status quo of that character. Later I picked up the LN version since everyone was hyping this series up. So I thought maybe give it a chance and everyone was saying that it’s a redemption story… So I really tried. Read 4 or 5 volumes waiting for him to change but that never happened. Another while later I did see a later volume in a bookstore and I thought I just skim the first few pages and he was just hating the most misogynistic shit I’ve ever seen on a printed page and then started to pray at a pair of panties he stole from the mage teacher girl. I was done with the series at the point and I don’t care anymore how people try to convince me otherwise. The only other point of contact was the first 2 or 3 episodes of the anime out of curiosity.

Anyway, yeah I wrote entire dissertations on reddit about how terrible that story is, pointing out all the instances where the fucking meta is the most incel bait ever and how this should be dropped by the publishers, but that’s like talking to a wall. My favourite was when I argued that bad actions don’t get negative reactions and are played down as “haha just Rudders shenanigans haha”. I gave the example of Rudeus groping a sleeping girl and the girl with no real punishment other than a slap or something. The guy on reddit then argued that the book did in fact portrait sexual assault with a negative reaction because Rudeus was denied what he wanted. That was his argument. Not getting to further grope the girl was what he thought was punishment. At that point I also stopped arguing about it. There is just no point anymore after that.

[–] ludrol 4 points 4 months ago

MT has two planes of the plot. One is Rudeus being most lustful being in the world and gathering a harem of wives just because. And second was Rudeus being powerful mage and saving the world. As I saw recommendations on reddit it was always that if you can't stomach Rudy as a bastard then you won't enjoy the adventure aspect.

[–] ludrol 3 points 4 months ago

It was clear from the start that Rudeus will be a deranged morally character. If you can't stomach polygamy then that's ok. But for me the most important moment in the whole series was end of Volume 14. So just after second marriage.