Content warning: discussions of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and pedophilia
Spoilers for Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 and 2
Author’s Note: This article was written before the airing of Mushoku Season 2 Part 2 and thus does not explore that part of the show. Considering its track record, however, I doubt anything that happens in that part would change this article’s conclusion much.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, a novel series published from 1977 to 2013, is one of my favorite works of fantasy ever. It’s also infamous for having one of the most loathsome protagonists in modern fiction. The titular character, a misanthropic shut-in who gets transported to another world, sexually assaults a teenage girl in the story’s opening act. It’s a truly horrific moment, and while Covenant never does anything nearly that monstrous again, the weight of his sin hangs over his neck for the rest of the series.
I bring this all up to say that I see the value in stories where the protagonist is a horrible person. Handled well, a story with a main character like this can explore ideas and comment on parts of the human condition that more aspirational protagonists can’t. But there’s an important factor to that equation: consequences.
I don’t mean a moralistic “this character did a bad thing and should be punished by the author for it” mindset. I mean that when a character does something extreme, for good or ill, it should leave an impact on those caught in its wake. Thomas Covenant assaulting a teenager, for example, has far-reaching effects on her, on her family, and on himself, aftershocks that would naturally stem from such a terrible act. Any story that wants to explore this darker side of humanity must be willing to explore how doing horrible things affects the world and people around you, or it risks trivializing the true horrors of the darkness it depicts.
Mushoku Tensei, funnily enough, starts from much the same place as Thomas Covenant. A misanthropic shut-in transported to another world, Rudeus “Rudy” Greyrat is a pedophile given a chance to live a better life and repair his toxic patterns. Mushoku Tensei purports to be a story of redemption, exploring how even the most reprehensible person imaginable can grow into a respectable human being. But it undercuts Rudeus’ growth by constantly shielding him from the consequences of his actions even in his new life, twisting its world and characters however it wants to justify and excuse the horrible things he does.