#rotsh

i have a tendency to summarize what i watch to give an invisible audience context instead of actually conveying my thoughts so i’ll try not to do that here.

i remember being uncomfortable the entire time. society was vehemently against naofumi and his role— and it led him to take questionable actions. there were many points where i couldn’t suspend my disbelief, where i couldn’t just chalk things up to “anime logic,” even if it was portrayed as such. and i believe it stems from naofumi buying raphtalia from a slave trader. (and later on filo). it really is the stockholm syndrome and her getting her slave crest redrawn on her. this actually angers me more now than in the moment, but it felt so unnecessary for her to have it redrawn. and then her further rationalization of naofumi saving her and teaching her how to stand up for herself are convoluted. if anything, i just wish they had met under different circumstances. like if he were wandering the slums of the capital (assuming they’re there) and found raphtalia begging or under a haphazardly built shelter.

i think after typing all that, my real problem is the slave trader. i remember seeing it pop up in the subtitles and my heart sinking. and naofumi actually buying two slaves from this guy put a bad taste in my mouth. was putting the crest on filo necessary… it seemed like she already was attached to naofumi, so it felt more controlling for me. oh i just had the thought of that since they’re half animal they “nEeD To bE tAmEd!!” idk what happens in the manga, but compared to his relationship with melty, that’s how it’s coming off to me.

i know naofumi has grown to care for the girls, but at the end of the day, it still rubs me the wrong way!! lol!!

even with all that into consideration, i can’t bring myself to dislike naofumi. bro was obviously wronged in the worst of ways and had to build his success from the ground up while fighting tooth and nail with the other heroes.

god. the other heroes. no pun intended but they royally pissed me off. it felt like that’s what they’re meant to do but their lack of awareness was killing me, quite honestly. naofumi, begrudgingly, had to do damage control for these dumbasses!! 💀 and to the extent that he did it? bro i’d be pissed too, and they were STILL mad at him for seemingly no reason??? even after clearing his name, they act like they’re above him. perhaps because of his role? motoyasu was ignorant and too busy either trying to talk to a girl or being so far up of naofumi’s ass that he couldn’t see the bullshit happening right in front of him. itsuki and ren are birds of a feather. even if recognizing something felt off (and then going to investigate and nearly!!!!! dying!!!!!!!!!), they still mistreat naofumi— accusing him of cheating, patronizing him for not knowing elements of the game that they were probs told early on. gods, im so glad they’re fictional because if anyone tried that shit irl i would hope their shit would’ve been rocked. i saw a post mentioning the other cardinal heroes and it mentioned how shallow they were and yeah!!! they definitely were!!! as naofumi said, they let this hero shit get to their heads. tbf naofumi is the only realistic due to him being outcasted and facing significant trauma. i believe if the rest of them had gone through the same shit, they wouldn’t be so prideful.

anyway.

that was a lot of the stuff i was angry about. i’ve seen some users here say they couldn’t finish the anime, which is valid. but i think being uncomfortable helped me see things through until the end. it was worth seeing naofumi’s humanity come back bit by bit. i quietly rooted for him because his plights are similar to what some people are going through to this day. i stayed because i wanted to see how naofumi would handle being discriminated against for something he could not control, no matter how badly he wanted to. i also wanted to see more of the demi-humans. they remind me a lot of marginalized communities in the modern world.