It's fun to compare Rudeus and Subaru (Mushoku Tensei and Re:Zero)
\[Spoilers for Mushoku Tensei S1 and S2 & Re:Zero Seasons 1 to 3\]
I really like Subaru and Rudeus and think they're very well written characters as well as being the perfect protagonist for their respective works, so I thought I'd make a little post like this as tribute. Though, since there are so many possible ways to compare them, for this post, I'm looking at things primarily from the lens of how they're used in the narrative.
Anyhow, when I was thinking about why the two works feel really different (it has become something I do ever so often now), I came to a realization that the world of Re:Zero is far more chaotic than the world of Mushoku Tensei. They both have a lot of personal drama, but the physical conflicts and rapid-fire obstacles are much more dominant in Re:Zero. And it's not just the villains that reflect that, but also Subaru himself-?
So when it comes to Rudeus, his entire journey feels more akin to cultural assimilation. Rudeus can go through months or maybe even years of your basic adventure stuff and not deal with something as insane as-- the Hydra for instance. The world that Rifujin built feels a lot more compact and orderly, so dropping Rudeus in to slowly assimilate into that feels natural.
When we bring Subaru in, by comparison, from the moment he's summoned to Lugunica, he always, in every turn, challenges and breaks some kind of status quo. Of course, we can point to the big ones like melting the ice in Rem's heart, pulling Beatrice out of the library, calling out the ego of the knights in the royal selection, and so on where these issues have existed long before he arrievd, but there are also lots of tiny moments sprinkled throughout. When Subaru first met Felt, one reoccuring motif is that Felt would try to act like how a slum-thief would, negotiating, playing tough, just living out what you'd expect of her, but Subaru keeps making her break character. It's a funny little thing where Subaru's such an anomaly in the world by the very nature of how he acts.
Rudeus doesn't do that at all. Instead of being out of place, he follows the lines and rules and social customs of that world. Even when we reach extreme things such as slavery which I think we can all agree now is repulsive, instead of setting them free or becoming some kind of activist to change the political and social landscape, he just lets things be. The story, or rather Rudeus himself, does not view the world as something to challenge, but something to live in. I am very aware of the controversy regarding Rudeus' character from a moral standpoint, but that's not really the point I'm trying to make here, just that he chooses to live in the world based on how the world is, versus Subaru actively being the chaotic trigger that rattles the established "order" in Re:Zero's world.
But of course, this isn't really a one to one comparison. The reason why I prefixed with "how they're used in the narrative" instead of "how they react to the culture/society of the world" is because... Re:Zero doesn't really dwell on it as much. Outside of Subaru challenging the Knights (which wasn't the full focus of the scene), it's rare find Subaru challenging Lugunica society in any clearcut way, at least from what I remember, but he still breaks status quo in other areas. Meanwhile, we see a lot of how Rudeus reacts to the culture and sociatal norms, but not a lot of emphasis on changing status quo.
Even by Season 3, after a whole year, Subaru doesn't seem to have acclimated to the world itself but rather just finds comfort being with other equally eccentric characters. And even though he lives with them now, the characters like Emilia are just as influences as Subaru it feels like. Emilia couldn't have become the hero towards Sylphy and Regulus' other wives without Subaru's long influence on her throughout the seasons.
I guess if I wanted to summarize everything, it'd be that "Rudeus lives with the world, Subaru challenges it."
I think this is a good place to stop for now or I might just start deviating and rambling off from the original point. If you made it here, thank you for taking the time to read.
I really like Subaru and Rudeus and think they're very well written characters as well as being the perfect protagonist for their respective works, so I thought I'd make a little post like this as tribute. Though, since there are so many possible ways to compare them, for this post, I'm looking at things primarily from the lens of how they're used in the narrative.
Anyhow, when I was thinking about why the two works feel really different (it has become something I do ever so often now), I came to a realization that the world of Re:Zero is far more chaotic than the world of Mushoku Tensei. They both have a lot of personal drama, but the physical conflicts and rapid-fire obstacles are much more dominant in Re:Zero. And it's not just the villains that reflect that, but also Subaru himself-?
So when it comes to Rudeus, his entire journey feels more akin to cultural assimilation. Rudeus can go through months or maybe even years of your basic adventure stuff and not deal with something as insane as-- the Hydra for instance. The world that Rifujin built feels a lot more compact and orderly, so dropping Rudeus in to slowly assimilate into that feels natural.
When we bring Subaru in, by comparison, from the moment he's summoned to Lugunica, he always, in every turn, challenges and breaks some kind of status quo. Of course, we can point to the big ones like melting the ice in Rem's heart, pulling Beatrice out of the library, calling out the ego of the knights in the royal selection, and so on where these issues have existed long before he arrievd, but there are also lots of tiny moments sprinkled throughout. When Subaru first met Felt, one reoccuring motif is that Felt would try to act like how a slum-thief would, negotiating, playing tough, just living out what you'd expect of her, but Subaru keeps making her break character. It's a funny little thing where Subaru's such an anomaly in the world by the very nature of how he acts.
Rudeus doesn't do that at all. Instead of being out of place, he follows the lines and rules and social customs of that world. Even when we reach extreme things such as slavery which I think we can all agree now is repulsive, instead of setting them free or becoming some kind of activist to change the political and social landscape, he just lets things be. The story, or rather Rudeus himself, does not view the world as something to challenge, but something to live in. I am very aware of the controversy regarding Rudeus' character from a moral standpoint, but that's not really the point I'm trying to make here, just that he chooses to live in the world based on how the world is, versus Subaru actively being the chaotic trigger that rattles the established "order" in Re:Zero's world.
But of course, this isn't really a one to one comparison. The reason why I prefixed with "how they're used in the narrative" instead of "how they react to the culture/society of the world" is because... Re:Zero doesn't really dwell on it as much. Outside of Subaru challenging the Knights (which wasn't the full focus of the scene), it's rare find Subaru challenging Lugunica society in any clearcut way, at least from what I remember, but he still breaks status quo in other areas. Meanwhile, we see a lot of how Rudeus reacts to the culture and sociatal norms, but not a lot of emphasis on changing status quo.
Even by Season 3, after a whole year, Subaru doesn't seem to have acclimated to the world itself but rather just finds comfort being with other equally eccentric characters. And even though he lives with them now, the characters like Emilia are just as influences as Subaru it feels like. Emilia couldn't have become the hero towards Sylphy and Regulus' other wives without Subaru's long influence on her throughout the seasons.
I guess if I wanted to summarize everything, it'd be that "Rudeus lives with the world, Subaru challenges it."
I think this is a good place to stop for now or I might just start deviating and rambling off from the original point. If you made it here, thank you for taking the time to read.
Commentaires
I understand the uncomfortable part of it though
That's like one of the more tamer offenses of the show 😭
the growth - it's coming anyyyyyyyy day now......annnnnnnny day noooow......
growth??? you there? hello??
I thought it was **fun to compare Rudeus and Subaru**
Edit: Unrelated, but since you mentioned discussion, did you know people can change flairs now? Crazy. Someone below changed the flair to essay instead of discussion.
Do you mean the guy saying *"Please don't talk about the lolimancer like that!"* because you know they were making a joke right?
And if you read the entire thread you can see the same commenter explaining the joke, what do you want me to reply - "neat joke"
Ah, don't worry, your discussion is allowed btw. I'm not a mod or anything, not in a position to enforce anything.
And what would you enforce if you were? People discussing the very thing that your post promoted discussion of on a public discussion platform on an open subreddit?
Maybe in future you should add a disclaimer to your post that you only want discussion you agree with.
I feel like the main difference between the two is their background story.
Subaru was just your average cocky teenager with an ordinary life (if not a rather happy one). When he isekai-ed he took it as if he was the chosen one (maybe he actually is idk). I always believe that's why he started off really really, like frustratingly arrogant. Perhaps that's what's behind his challenging of the ways of the world.
On the other hand, Rudeus' life was mostly in depression. When he isekai-ed he just wanted to finally live a good life (literally the title). Like at the beginning he didn't even care if there was magic or whatever, he was just happy to say goodby to his old shitty life. He only got hooked when he witnessed magic. But Subaru, upon landing in the new world, thought about using magic first, and I think it's because he actually expected a special treatment.
Now you've mentioned his change, I just remembered that in Season 3, there was a small section in the beginning where he had been ticked off by one character. If it was him earlier on, he would have lashed out, but after growing a bit, he became more level headed and not just jump with his emotions. Still, he called it out and Julius later thanked him for it because the Knight's order that he upholds wouldn't let him do that.
Totally agree with what you say though, maybe outside of Subaru just being *just* a cocky teenager (since he's also dealing with depression and social anxiety), their backstories carry a lot of weight in how they act now. And It's realistic too. Young people are always the one with fiery passion to change the world, and most older folks just want to relax and live stress free.
Rudeus was born into his world, so it's hard to start arrogant as a baby. He has a place, he has a reason to be. Their apparent circumstances upon arrival is as big of a differentiator as their background.
They're both depressed, they both hate themselves, one is an extrovert, one is an introvert, they're both nerds, one was born into a family in their new world, the other one appeared on a street in broad daylight.
Rudy sees a lot of himself in Paul, mainly the ugly bits, and he hates himself, so it’s way easier to direct that energy outward at someone who mirrors him than at people he puts on a pedestal. With most others he defaults to overly polite, overly careful, “don’t rock the boat” mode because he assumes they’re better than him and he’s one mistake away from being rejected again. With Paul he doesn’t do that. He’ll push back, he’ll call him out, he’ll get messy, because the dynamic feels more like looking in the mirror than “please don’t abandon me” social anxiety.
Arguably, Subaru isn't an extrovert either. He's an introvert imitating an extrovert (his father) because that's what he thinks is the solution to his problems imo.
Though, we don't really get to see a normal "Day in the Life of Natsuki Subaru," so it's hard to tell.
An introvert doesn’t invent radio calisthenics for a small village and learn everyone’s names in the span of a few days.
The term comes from the combination of "loli" (a term used to describe young, cute, or child-like characters in anime, though often used in a broader, more joking sense in the fandom) and "mancer" (like "necromancer," implying someone with power over something). So in this case, it's a humorous exaggeration of Subaru’s ability to attract or be surrounded by cute, often younger girls.
Lets take a look at Subaru a few chapters later from the viewpoint of... a citizen.
Subaru is someone who somehow defeated Sin ArchBishops, but when you see him he's always holding the hand of a 8/11 yr old looking Betty. Subaru is also seen protecting or being protected by several little girls: Tanza, Medium, Utakata, Ryuzu, Meili, and Petra.
Besides that he is normally surrounded by loli type characters: Emilia, Ram, Rem. Even though all the characters I've listed have vast different ages and history, from an outside view point you'd see a guy who literally commands and protects an army of lolis.
It’s all in good fun, and it’s not meant to seriously critique Subaru’s character, the fans are just poking fun at his sometimes awkward relationships with the female characters.
Also you mentioned a bunch of characters that haven't appeared yet in the anime, so they're all novel spoilers.
Subaru: "Sorry, Emilia. I love Puck."
The thing with is with Rudy is his default low-friction way of living is that way for a pretty grim reason because he did try to stand up for himself once but got traumatised and then spent years teaching himself that engaging with people equals pain. So in the new life he basically goes with the flow until said flow corners him and he’s forced to act.
You can see the missing “normal social development” really clearly with how handles or fails to handle rejection. End of S1 is basically him hitting a kind of rejection he never learned to process, because he never did the usual human thing of getting embarrassed, getting rejected, getting over it, and repeating that cycle a bunch. He didn’t build the calluses. So when Eris does what she does, he fully shuts down. Then in S2 he swings into this overly safe, overly formal “polite nice guy” mode that a bunch of characters clock as forced. It reads fake because it kind of is. It’s a defence mechanism that keeps people at arm’s length, including people he cares about.
To me Rudy always felt like a worst-case NEET/shut-in outcome in a way most media won’t touch honestly. If someone spends nearly two decades isolated, living in porn-heavy fantasy media, with no real feedback loop, they’re going to come out socially and sexually warped. The part that understandably loses people is that MT rarely does the clean, satisfying “and now the story teaches him a lesson and he becomes better” beat. You get moments like Paul lecturing him about consent and women (ironic), getting threatened by the bestman and Eris correcting him physically, but it’s messy and the “impact” isn’t always immediate or obvious.
I’ve always seen it like isekai-ing an addict and then expecting a neat recovery arc. There’s no rehab, no support system, and nobody in the new world really understands what his damage even is. They don’t see the original context, and as he grows up a lot of his weirdness just reads as “eh, he’s eccentric” or "eh he's a young man/boy" rather than “this guy is deeply maladjusted.” So who’s holding him accountable, exactly? If he improves at all, it’s going to be slow, inconsistent, and full of regressions. Which is rough to watch, but also kind of the point.
I honestly I think the stories vibe is basically “put a camera on Rudy and see what happens.” It’s not trying to do a tidy moral curriculum where he gets corrected, learns the lesson, and graduates into a better person on schedule. I think it’s more observational than that, which was never going to work for a lot of people, and that’s fine. I never liked how a lot of us shame others for not being comfortable with this story. It was never meant to be this easy to consume thing.
God I have so much more to say about this dam story. I love it so much.
Btw, I changed the flair to our new Essay flair, since I felt like it fit it better than Discussion.
Subaru feels like a character who *has* depth and one I also wanna cheer and root for.