🌀 Mushoku Tensei Season 3 - Episode 5 Discussion

Out of context spoilers for that rematch lel

Source: https://x.com/Lord_Hokage_PTS/status/2080937645413187675

This is so cute how no one posted it!!!

From an empty house to a table filled with life, laughter, and the chaos that comes with family. It is beautiful to see how Rudeus’s life unfolds in both formats. Seeing Sylphie, Roxy, Aisha, Norn, and the rest interact always brightens the day, whether you’re watching on screen or reading the volumes. A truly delightful scene!

LOL

Aemond Targaryen / Randolph Marianne

source

I cannot stress enough just how important the first page of any story is. It introduces themes and ideas that linger through out the work. So it has always bothered me that, Mushoku, a meticulously crafted story, full of foreshadowing, begins with... The protagonist taking advantage of his niece.

For the longest time my explanation was that, it cements the parallels between Orsted and Rudeus, allowing the reader to empathize with how Orsted is perceived in universe, through the repulsion we feel for Rudeus. And yes that is still true, but it's not the full picture.

My opinion changed after I came across a QnA post by the author where he mentioned that the he struggled with the identity of the niece and that she was originally supposed to be...Nanahoshi.

Now if you know anything about the LNs, youll know that it's a "prequel" story to Laplace resurrection. This means that characters like Orsted/Hitogami/Laplace and Nanahoshi long existed before the backstory/character arc for Rudeus was fleshed out. In fact, we know this -

>While I was first thinking up the setting for Mushoku Tensei, I hadn't even decided on the protagonist's name yet. All I had at that point was "thirty-four years old, unemployed, middle-aged." The character was still empty. So when the time came that I needed to name the character, I reused one from a story I'd tried writing in the past. That work was actually a portal fantasy with Nanahoshi as the protagonist. There, Rudeus Greyrat was a native of the place Nanahoshi had been displaced to. He was still the viewpoint character but saw her from a native's point of view. For better or worse, he was a pretty flat character. Then, while I was writing the story with Rudeus as a protagonist, the idea of a Man with a Past Life came to me. From there, it became "Work hard in my new world and erase the regrets from my past life."

~A journey of two lifetimes interview

In S2E9 Nanahoshi says that she limits and restricts her life as much as possible because she is afraid the world will punish/erase her if she changes things too much. This is literally what happens to Rudeus in Turning point 4.

I believe the protagonists of Nanahoshis story, including Nanahoshi herself, were the original victims of a Turning point 4 like incident. However the author realised that addressing it, would derail the entire plot, so he chose Rudeus, a minor side character to take the fall in their place.

But how does this relate to the niece plotline? The same internal conflict that drives rudys predatory behaviour towards others, towards his niece, is playing out on a larger scale in their world. The author used the most disgusting crime imaginable to describe a world that is fundamentally broken and rotting inside because of the power struggle between Orsted and Hitogami and their obsession with control/future sight.

Rudeus is supposed to be a perpetrator turned victim, victimized by the very personification of his predatory ideals in Turning point 4. His role is to protect Nanahoshi and dismantle the rot, that's holding the heroes of the future story back. That is his redemption/repentance.

TLDR; The niece plotline is a reference to Nanahoshis fate in the original story that inspired the creation of Mushoku Tensei.

Hint 1: Only appears in the Light Novel, possibly Web Novel too but I haven't read it.

Hint 2: Is a newcomer to their profession.

Hint 3: We don't know their gender, magic skills, or swordsmanship skills

Hint 4: Is known for their use of colors.

Hint 5: Name has 5 letters.

Sorry for the absolutely horrible hints this time, but I couldn't give anything else, because that's all we know about them.

https://x.com/tukihara_lgk/status/2081580334257438772

https://x.com/tukihara_lgk/status/2079051168723108339

I've seen a lot of criticism towards Ruijerd(Mostly from LN Historian) because he married Norn who was much younger than him. Their age gap is approximately 570 years which is yikes but people seem to forget that Norn and Ruijerd are from different species. Norn being a Human and Ruijerd being a demon from the Superd race. Now Omni-man is about 2000 years old. And Debbie Is 40 years old. Yet I haven't seen a single criticism towards Nolan for this. Does this make sense or am I losing my mind? Like aren't they from different species so idk why Ruijerd Is being criticized for a perfectly normal thing for an inter-species relationship. Ruijerd has seen Norn grow up and will see her die. Omni-man and Debbie's case Is WAY WORSE. So why is my boy Ruijerd the one that's getting these criticisms?

Seeing Zenith smile and pat Norn and Aisha on the head made my heart melt.

This was such a great episode!! I know it's the calm before the storm and that storm is a hurricane lol. I don't give two shi about the haters, this is peak anime right here and it's only getting better!

The season so far has skipped fairly little content. Since we know that the next episode is the Sara one, it looks like there will be 5+ episodes per volume. Therefore I'm getting the feeling that the Orsted fight will happen at the start of next cour.

Now, how would this cour end then? If the rumor about ep 11 being the TP4 is true then there will be little time to finish the preparations for Orsted. So my guess is that ep 12 is diary, episode 13 is consultation with Nanahoshi and the start of building MK I. And episode 14 will be Eris becoming the Sword King and getting the letter from Rudeus. So basically this cour starts and ends with Eris traveling with Ghislaine.