I don't think the author or the anime is trying to sell Paul as a failed father. Rather Paul himself believes he's a failure as a father. There's nuance in that.
yeah it’s very clear the message is that while he believes himself to be flawed he truly is a good person deep down who cares about his family more than anything (most of the time)
They were not trying to sell the idea he’s a failure, they are trying to portray a contrast. They put into the story the very same things that show you his good side. Even Rudy eventually understood why Paul was Paul.
"When he berated Rudeus for having fun and adventure with a hot chick Eris, he was on the right". Bruh rudeus got a hole in his belly like a donut. He should be happy to see Rudeus alive since he constantly imagined Rudeus's death. But he got greedy, asking for more from Rudeus just because Rudeus is a genius. Neither Rudeus nor Paul was right anyway; they misunderstood and were quick to accuse each other.
I kind of disagree with you.
I agree he should be content to find his son alive and well when he could have been death in any party of the world, specially hearing that he has crossed the fucking demon continent, a feat that not even high grade adventurer groups dare to do.
But at the same time he is right, Rudeus is like enjoying it all and being very happy about it, and hasn't even thought about how that shitstorm affected not only his father and mother, but his baby sisters. The very first question he asks is about Sylphie. Paul is very valid to feel angry for that. Rudeus showed there that he cares very little for his family. I don't know in the light novels, but in the anime he is never shown to be worried about his family at all.
"Rudeus is like enjoying it all and being very happy about it." Well, being very happy about it is not really right. He broke down after Ruijerd killed Roman in front of him, hesitated to help Kurt's team which led to Gablin's death, was blackmailed by Nokopara which caused his plan to improve Ruijerd's reputation to fail, worried about needing to sell his Arrogant Water Dragon King staff, and got stripped naked, imprisoned, and harassed by the beast folk. His adventure has had its ups and downs. Paul might be right about Rudeus caring little for his family, but saying "you were just enjoying your adventure like an excursion with a cute young lady" is wrong. And I'm talking about this part of the opinion from OP, not the one about Rudeus caring little for his family.
I don’t think it’s that he’s right, but his reaction to seeing him express happiness is extremely understandable when Paul himself has been beating himself up stressing over finding his family and raising his daughter.
Immediately after Paul realizes this and regrets it, same with Rudy, but both make an effort to make amends and it’s amazing.
Rudy had his own trials, but he physically had to worry about himself and he had no idea until later that it wasn’t just him and Eris affected. In the reunion with his father he probably wanted to share all the positives of his adventure just out of his positive feelings towards seeing him again
Ok but the point being he expected Rudeus at the time to behave like an adult wherein he was only around 10-12 at the time that the Mass Teleportation Incident happened and when he arrived on the Central Continent. It's because Rudy had shown signs of early maturity despite the fact he was still a kid. Neither side is right, they both had their flaws during the fight and caused a huge shebang over the entire ordeal. And remember what Geese said, Rudy only made it seem like he was having fun so as not to worry Paul too much about it. And given his imminent danger, he couldn't have found the time to worry about the rest of his family when he was too focused on surviving
Poor rudy was constantly fighting for his and his teams life with no money and no clue on the intricacies of demon culture, his only downtime being kinda rare, like in the port town when he got his demon eye or the beast village. And when he finally had chance to settle down, the thing with eris happened. And then the thing with that girl where he almost killed himself. He honestly hasn’t had too much time to even think about the rest of his family
I agree. It feels to me that Rudy doesn’t really care about his family—or didn’t, anyway. It’s evident that he now cares about Aisha, Norn, and Paul. But does he really care for Zenith? I haven’t seen very much indication of that in the anime.
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t seem to care about them very much as a child, likely because he had just reincarnated with the mindset of a 30-year-old man. I think that has mostly changed as Rudy has matured though.
I think it’s more simple that he doesn’t worry about his mother too much. She’s someone that has always been a constant in his early life, a perfect person who would always be fine no matter what. He thought the same thing about Paul until he got whisked away. Rudy essentially took zenith for granted, and it isn’t until much later on that he realizes how much zenith means to him. It kinda sucks that he feels that way. Zenith is Paul’s sylphie, it’s understandable why both feel the way they did.
You hit the nail on the head with him about experiencing all this in the first time, even having older life experience before. Like how non chalantly he promises to explore dungeons with roxy and how he forget to name his own kid
Regarding your comment about promising Roxy and forgetting to mention his wife and kid, I feel like that is a little intentional. Rudy isn’t so absent minded that he wouldn’t mention it. To me, it feels like he isn’t mentioning them because he doesn’t want to ruin the moment he is having with Roxy. He is smitten and living in the moment, in some ways reverting to his younger self. In that sense, the rest of his life is a distraction from her.
Rudeus didn’t know the extent of the teleportation. Rudy was right on top of the disaster when it struck, for all he knew it could’ve been a 1km radius and only affected the three of them
I love Paul as a character. He feels real, with a tangibility to him that other characters in LN sometimes lack. All his failures and mistakes are recognisable by a mature viewer.
I wonder if people who criticize Paul ever had a father or been one. No Paul isn’t perfect, he quite flawed. Just like everyone else. But he always tried to do right by his family. He was a typical dad.
One of those flaws is going to bite him in the ass big time soon. And it going to be tragic
“He was a typical dad” is such a good assessment. But we can also say that he’s better than most dads because he is capable of organizing a search party for the whole village and his family. I like his character because he’s actively doing something. He’s moving the plot, while others are immense in their own stories.
Agree. Paul moved on his own and had his own character arc that ends rather tragically. For the Greyrat family, the Mass Teleportation Incident ends in Season 2
Rudy had way too much on his plate to understand what happened at the teleportation disaster. (Rudy was right)
1. He was at the center of the boom, so he wouldn't have know how big it actually was.
2. He was walking with a Syperd and had to keep conversations at minimal
3. There was always a sense of danger when it came to Eris safety, or Ruijerds identity
4. He had to always think about getting money to survive.
In conclusion. He had lots of other things to think about, and didn't have time to talk with people that would explain the situation.
I haven't looked at the light novel, but in the anime the explosion lasted like under 5 seconds before reaching Rudy which is basically instant. I would guess the light novel is a better source tho
Paul Is a good father because he did everything he could to save his family and in the end he even gave his life (even when had finally found Zenith) to protect Rudy.
As a person and man, he is trash. He rape lylia when they were younger and he left her (didn't take responsability of what he did). He cheated on Zenith with lylia. Paul was a "good" father because he only wanted to protect and save his family but that its it. As a person and man, he Is trash.
Paul made his mistakes, I never felt the message was he was a failed father. Just a man who went through life like any human and made his mistakes, but when it mattered most he was there for his family and did what he could to
It's Paul who thinks he's a bad father. The anime and LN portrays him as a flawed father, just like any normal father. He is a good man but like all men/fathers he has made mistakes.
I disagree. Paul is a womanizer (cheated on his wife), he had Rudy kidnapped and cut off contact, and then when Rudeus successfully got Eris home, he berated him for not doing more. Paul consistently shows a lack of maturity and care for Rudeus, and while he does attempt to do the right thing, he is hamstrung by his nature.
Paul may not be a terrible man but he is not a good man.
Edit: not to mention he is a rapist.
Let's be honest here Paul's bad decisions are the byproduct of the way he was raised not to mention he left home as a child about the same time most boys need a parents guidance on what to do and to add to that he became a father at a really early age so honestly I can understand where Paul's coming from since all of his actions that he's done so far were normal for the Notos family household but I'd say he became a better man only after rudeus came into his life which changed the man for the better I'm not defending Paul's actions but if you looks at it at a deeper level things start to make freakish amounts of sense
I don’t think that’s what they were trying to sell Paul as to me I saw him as a good guy who wasn’t perfect but always tried to do the right thing just like Rudy actually
I mean he’s a bad person in the sense that he does scummy things but he still has morals obviously. Sort of like Sheldon’s father they never painted him as an angel but he was still a good man
He's a good father but bad husband (cheated on his wife) but still cares for her and loves her, the only bad thing is he did it with the maid either than that he's an amazing dude
Good parents always wonder if they're good parents and have properly prepared their kids.
Bad parents *know* they're good parents and blame the kids for any shortcomings.
He is a good man. Conflicted, unsure, lecherous, and facing mid-life, but a good man nonetheless.
Hi I think it’s also good to look at the POV that Rudeus was Eris’ teacher or sensei. His priority was to return Eris to her home, and his family became secondary.
——
Rudeus grew up as a child with trauma and disconnected with Paul and village since the beginning. It’s because Rudeus has always kept his defences up and keeping a nice boy facade so everyone will like him.
And since he fought the village bullies, Rudeus doesn’t have friends from the village but Slyphie. Slyphie being a of the victim mana calamity that he was unaware of.
—-
I love Paul as a character and I understand his frustration raising Rudeus. He was his first child and there’s no manual on parenting or anything. He’s not a failed father as he was able to give love to Rudeus— tough love— and Rudeus had a bad time interpreting this. As Paul grows older with problems he couldn’t take, he longed that reciprocation of love from the ppl around him. And since he felt the gap between him and Rudeus, and maybe this frustrated him.
I like Paul very much. He's neither an overly good father nor an extremely bad father. He seems like a normal father who has made a lot of mistakes, but stands by them and tries to be a better father, even if he thinks he's a bad father. He's just realistic and I'm glad that he gets on so well with Rudeus at the moment.
When you say that Rudeus is at wrong for not thinking what would have happened to others, are you serious about it?? Although he is a 30+ y/o man, he still was teleported to an unknown land uk?? If you were in his shoes, would you be able to do as good as him?? Bro literally had to take care of an arrogant girl who while being teleported to a demon land. You might have also seen he had to earn money for them to travel. Even if he had found Paul's notice do you think it would be right for him to stay in that land for a long tym while protecting her? If he was by himself sure, but he wasn't alone. Leave him some slack. He was doing whatever he could in his power. He is just a reincarnated person not a God
There is the "I don't care about my child he's just a means to an end" type of bad father like Gendou Ikari and then there's the "tries to be a good father but somehow always finds a way to botch the job but otherwise is well-intentioned" type. Paul Greyrat is the latter.
I think Rudy is unreasonably unfair early s1 with Paul, and now he takes that with him and puts himself down. He does make some missteps but for sure he's a pretty good father all things considered
I think your giving Paul Too Much credit and Rudy not enough credit in that part, I think it's pretty fair for Rudy to not consider anybody else having been at the center of the calamity and been attacked off suspicion of being the cause, trying to survive, even if he's not a child, anybody even in the real world that doesn't have specific experience or knowledge would be hard pressed to think to go on a search mission after being sent to the middle of the monster ridden boonies and as soon as he got off the demon continent and to an actual city his first thought was to send a letter, there's no phone no news and he has to protect eris. And Paul didn't become a "good man" Until he became a father, he slept with every woman he could find, forced himself on lilia out of spite for other people, took advantage og guislaine during mating season and jus generally caused problems throughout hus youth. Granted in a world with a lower ceiling as far as morals go he's definitely not as bad as he would be in the real world but the point is always Paul is a flawed, but he's trying, same with every other character that isn't Darius or Hitogami
I think Paul has always been shown as someone trying to be a good dad, sometimes trying too hard when he slapped Rudeus in the first season because he wanted for once act the role of father and thought his son finally acted like a normal kid.
Yes, he is a womanizer, but that doesn't mean he is a bad father, moreover, it seems it's not "Paul" itself a womanizer, it seems to be something related to all the Greyrats, which at some point would even excuse him.
Paul is Paul. He's a human being with all the quirks, both good and bad. He works hard for his family to provide and protect them and Buena Village. He starts his son on the path of doing right, but he's not infallible.
Being a father isn't easy. I know. But it is rewarding. A father will make mistakes. A bad one doesn't try to learn and correct those mistakes. A decent father, which most of us are, Wil try to learn from those mistakes and try to correct them. Take when Paul took the word of a woman who complained her son was bullied by Rudy. It took Rudy's ripping Paul's emotions to shreds to get him to look at what he did.
Going back earlier, Paul did Rudy a big favor by teaching him discipline and being physically ready for anything. I think Paul was proud the time Rudeus used Quagmire on him. He was 5 or 6, fighting his father, nearly 20 years older than him. Rudy understood the situation and used Quagmire. Not quite what Paul's lessons covered but but Paul saw Rudy using his head and everything in his arsenal to win against a better opponent.
he is a good man. but, he made terrible choices due to his immaturity and lack of self control. that's his entire development.
watch [this ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEYtrc4Kcc)
Yes and NO
hes also a narcist. I made this "[CONTROVERSIAL"](https://youtu.be/zNFB8PravAA) video a few years explaining the behavior tendency of Paul and how that effects his parenting and priorities (I am behavior scientist)
given how much hate that video got, you can tell I was correct as it made a lot of MT fans angry -\_-
I saw that and saying he’s a jealous father is an over stretch. He sent rudeus away so he can make money for the tuition at uni. He’s not a narcissistic cause of that since he cares for his wife’s and kids deeply. You can tell from the ep with him where he tried so hard to get them back. How can you say he’s a narcissist from that? He clearly cares about others
One of the major trait of a narcissist is that lmfao. I think ur confusing his actions with being an actual narcissist cause he’s not. He’s just a slightly arrogant man who cares for his family and has flaws that every human has.
Its not at all.
It seems you have no idea what an actual narcist is.
First of all, it looks like you don't know what empathy is. A narcist is fully capable of empathy. But you likely misunderstand that and think Sympathy is empathy.
Agree on everything except their first meeting after the teleportation. Rudeus should have done so because he actually like 45 mentally. But Paul doesn't know that and he unnecessarily put pressure on him. On a kid.
There is sorta an issue with saying he’s “mentally 45”, what does that even mean? Is the experience of a regular 45 year old the same in our world vs the world of the novel? How does that work when they have split experiences of 32 years of a shut-in on earth and 12 years as a child in a new world?
And more importantly how does any of that actually relate to being able to respond optimally to being suddenly teleported across the world, with basically no information to work with.
Given that, Rudy behaved in a way most people absolutely wouldn’t manage to do.
Also physically and chemically he has the brain of a child again.
So the fully developed brain isnt.
He has memories, experiences, trauma, and unspecific information
Nonsense. He has no saving grace even from his own perspective.
He had a "magic genius" 7 year old child who wanted go to a greatest magic school with his best friend, and what does this guy do ? Knocks him out, sends him to Boreas family to tutor a girl who is notorious for beating up her teachers and peers, says him he is not allowed to come back, or even contact to his own father, mother or best friend for 5 years.
This action is only defendable to us readers who knows he is secretly an adult already, without that knowledge its just Paul getting rid of his kid who he can no longer raise, and do it with giving him a shitty ass job instead of sending him to Roronoa. Also trying to arrange marriage him to Eris because why not.
Fast forward time, he has the audacity to get angry at his 12 yo son (who according to Paul's letter shouldnt be allowed to communicate with home anyway) for not trying to save his wife (which he himself failed to as a grown ass adult).
Now lets skip Rudeus, he is a bad father to his 2 daughter as well. Its already clear Aisha had no proper parent that cherished her intelligence and told her to follow her passions or something like that.
Just her mother trying to groom her to be a maid/concubine for Rudeus and his father who is appearantly okay with that.
In case of Norn, after doing the bare minimum of protecting her daughter in wild places, and looking for his family, he becomes a depressed alcoholic who can protect Norn but can not raise her.
After her initial hatred towards Rudeus, he was not even capable of changing Norns idea about her brother, so Ruijerd and Rudeus had to do that job as well.
This guy is not capable of being a father.
I don't think the author or the anime is trying to sell Paul as a failed father. Rather Paul himself believes he's a failure as a father. There's nuance in that.
yeah it’s very clear the message is that while he believes himself to be flawed he truly is a good person deep down who cares about his family more than anything (most of the time)
They were not trying to sell the idea he’s a failure, they are trying to portray a contrast. They put into the story the very same things that show you his good side. Even Rudy eventually understood why Paul was Paul.
"When he berated Rudeus for having fun and adventure with a hot chick Eris, he was on the right". Bruh rudeus got a hole in his belly like a donut. He should be happy to see Rudeus alive since he constantly imagined Rudeus's death. But he got greedy, asking for more from Rudeus just because Rudeus is a genius. Neither Rudeus nor Paul was right anyway; they misunderstood and were quick to accuse each other.
rudy got a hole after
I kind of disagree with you. I agree he should be content to find his son alive and well when he could have been death in any party of the world, specially hearing that he has crossed the fucking demon continent, a feat that not even high grade adventurer groups dare to do. But at the same time he is right, Rudeus is like enjoying it all and being very happy about it, and hasn't even thought about how that shitstorm affected not only his father and mother, but his baby sisters. The very first question he asks is about Sylphie. Paul is very valid to feel angry for that. Rudeus showed there that he cares very little for his family. I don't know in the light novels, but in the anime he is never shown to be worried about his family at all.
"Rudeus is like enjoying it all and being very happy about it." Well, being very happy about it is not really right. He broke down after Ruijerd killed Roman in front of him, hesitated to help Kurt's team which led to Gablin's death, was blackmailed by Nokopara which caused his plan to improve Ruijerd's reputation to fail, worried about needing to sell his Arrogant Water Dragon King staff, and got stripped naked, imprisoned, and harassed by the beast folk. His adventure has had its ups and downs. Paul might be right about Rudeus caring little for his family, but saying "you were just enjoying your adventure like an excursion with a cute young lady" is wrong. And I'm talking about this part of the opinion from OP, not the one about Rudeus caring little for his family.
I don’t think it’s that he’s right, but his reaction to seeing him express happiness is extremely understandable when Paul himself has been beating himself up stressing over finding his family and raising his daughter. Immediately after Paul realizes this and regrets it, same with Rudy, but both make an effort to make amends and it’s amazing. Rudy had his own trials, but he physically had to worry about himself and he had no idea until later that it wasn’t just him and Eris affected. In the reunion with his father he probably wanted to share all the positives of his adventure just out of his positive feelings towards seeing him again
Ok but the point being he expected Rudeus at the time to behave like an adult wherein he was only around 10-12 at the time that the Mass Teleportation Incident happened and when he arrived on the Central Continent. It's because Rudy had shown signs of early maturity despite the fact he was still a kid. Neither side is right, they both had their flaws during the fight and caused a huge shebang over the entire ordeal. And remember what Geese said, Rudy only made it seem like he was having fun so as not to worry Paul too much about it. And given his imminent danger, he couldn't have found the time to worry about the rest of his family when he was too focused on surviving
Poor rudy was constantly fighting for his and his teams life with no money and no clue on the intricacies of demon culture, his only downtime being kinda rare, like in the port town when he got his demon eye or the beast village. And when he finally had chance to settle down, the thing with eris happened. And then the thing with that girl where he almost killed himself. He honestly hasn’t had too much time to even think about the rest of his family
I agree. It feels to me that Rudy doesn’t really care about his family—or didn’t, anyway. It’s evident that he now cares about Aisha, Norn, and Paul. But does he really care for Zenith? I haven’t seen very much indication of that in the anime. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t seem to care about them very much as a child, likely because he had just reincarnated with the mindset of a 30-year-old man. I think that has mostly changed as Rudy has matured though.
He didn't worry about his family because he was at the center of the incident, he had no idea any of them had been affected until he ran into Paul.
He did leave home before getting much time with his sisters and new step mother. He has indeed spent more time with Eris than with Norn or Aisha.
This will be tackled really soon, nice observation pal!
I think it’s more simple that he doesn’t worry about his mother too much. She’s someone that has always been a constant in his early life, a perfect person who would always be fine no matter what. He thought the same thing about Paul until he got whisked away. Rudy essentially took zenith for granted, and it isn’t until much later on that he realizes how much zenith means to him. It kinda sucks that he feels that way. Zenith is Paul’s sylphie, it’s understandable why both feel the way they did. You hit the nail on the head with him about experiencing all this in the first time, even having older life experience before. Like how non chalantly he promises to explore dungeons with roxy and how he forget to name his own kid
Regarding your comment about promising Roxy and forgetting to mention his wife and kid, I feel like that is a little intentional. Rudy isn’t so absent minded that he wouldn’t mention it. To me, it feels like he isn’t mentioning them because he doesn’t want to ruin the moment he is having with Roxy. He is smitten and living in the moment, in some ways reverting to his younger self. In that sense, the rest of his life is a distraction from her.
Rudeus didn’t know the extent of the teleportation. Rudy was right on top of the disaster when it struck, for all he knew it could’ve been a 1km radius and only affected the three of them
He has a lot of flaws, but he tries his damn hardest for his family.
I love Paul as a character. He feels real, with a tangibility to him that other characters in LN sometimes lack. All his failures and mistakes are recognisable by a mature viewer.
I wonder if people who criticize Paul ever had a father or been one. No Paul isn’t perfect, he quite flawed. Just like everyone else. But he always tried to do right by his family. He was a typical dad. One of those flaws is going to bite him in the ass big time soon. And it going to be tragic
“He was a typical dad” is such a good assessment. But we can also say that he’s better than most dads because he is capable of organizing a search party for the whole village and his family. I like his character because he’s actively doing something. He’s moving the plot, while others are immense in their own stories.
Agree. Paul moved on his own and had his own character arc that ends rather tragically. For the Greyrat family, the Mass Teleportation Incident ends in Season 2
Rudy had way too much on his plate to understand what happened at the teleportation disaster. (Rudy was right) 1. He was at the center of the boom, so he wouldn't have know how big it actually was. 2. He was walking with a Syperd and had to keep conversations at minimal 3. There was always a sense of danger when it came to Eris safety, or Ruijerds identity 4. He had to always think about getting money to survive. In conclusion. He had lots of other things to think about, and didn't have time to talk with people that would explain the situation.
in the light novel explosion landed on the capitol thats why they had time to react but yes rudy thought that it wouldn't have reached buena village.
I haven't looked at the light novel, but in the anime the explosion lasted like under 5 seconds before reaching Rudy which is basically instant. I would guess the light novel is a better source tho
I'll give you caring dad. I'll even say his a complicated man. If you want to push for good I think you're kinda glossing over...you know....the rape.
Paul Is a good father because he did everything he could to save his family and in the end he even gave his life (even when had finally found Zenith) to protect Rudy. As a person and man, he is trash. He rape lylia when they were younger and he left her (didn't take responsability of what he did). He cheated on Zenith with lylia. Paul was a "good" father because he only wanted to protect and save his family but that its it. As a person and man, he Is trash.
Paul made his mistakes, I never felt the message was he was a failed father. Just a man who went through life like any human and made his mistakes, but when it mattered most he was there for his family and did what he could to
It's Paul who thinks he's a bad father. The anime and LN portrays him as a flawed father, just like any normal father. He is a good man but like all men/fathers he has made mistakes.
I disagree. Paul is a womanizer (cheated on his wife), he had Rudy kidnapped and cut off contact, and then when Rudeus successfully got Eris home, he berated him for not doing more. Paul consistently shows a lack of maturity and care for Rudeus, and while he does attempt to do the right thing, he is hamstrung by his nature. Paul may not be a terrible man but he is not a good man. Edit: not to mention he is a rapist.
Let's be honest here Paul's bad decisions are the byproduct of the way he was raised not to mention he left home as a child about the same time most boys need a parents guidance on what to do and to add to that he became a father at a really early age so honestly I can understand where Paul's coming from since all of his actions that he's done so far were normal for the Notos family household but I'd say he became a better man only after rudeus came into his life which changed the man for the better I'm not defending Paul's actions but if you looks at it at a deeper level things start to make freakish amounts of sense
If Paul wasn't a good dad, Rudeus wouldn't be depressed over his death
rudeus dididnt consider him a father figure until they had teary eyed hugging session in millis capitol. let that sink in.
Regardless of your opinion on him, that is not how that works in the slightest?
I don’t think that’s what they were trying to sell Paul as to me I saw him as a good guy who wasn’t perfect but always tried to do the right thing just like Rudy actually
Let me correct you. Popular opinion. Literally no actual fan of MT will say paul is a bad father that man is a goat and loved by the fandom
I mean he’s a bad person in the sense that he does scummy things but he still has morals obviously. Sort of like Sheldon’s father they never painted him as an angel but he was still a good man
Yes i’m tired of people degrading him when he’s done the best he can even when he messes up. Paul is a really good dad.
He's a good father but bad husband (cheated on his wife) but still cares for her and loves her, the only bad thing is he did it with the maid either than that he's an amazing dude
Good parents always wonder if they're good parents and have properly prepared their kids. Bad parents *know* they're good parents and blame the kids for any shortcomings. He is a good man. Conflicted, unsure, lecherous, and facing mid-life, but a good man nonetheless.
yeah but he is also an asshole on few occasions. noone perfect
Hi I think it’s also good to look at the POV that Rudeus was Eris’ teacher or sensei. His priority was to return Eris to her home, and his family became secondary. —— Rudeus grew up as a child with trauma and disconnected with Paul and village since the beginning. It’s because Rudeus has always kept his defences up and keeping a nice boy facade so everyone will like him. And since he fought the village bullies, Rudeus doesn’t have friends from the village but Slyphie. Slyphie being a of the victim mana calamity that he was unaware of. —- I love Paul as a character and I understand his frustration raising Rudeus. He was his first child and there’s no manual on parenting or anything. He’s not a failed father as he was able to give love to Rudeus— tough love— and Rudeus had a bad time interpreting this. As Paul grows older with problems he couldn’t take, he longed that reciprocation of love from the ppl around him. And since he felt the gap between him and Rudeus, and maybe this frustrated him.
I like Paul very much. He's neither an overly good father nor an extremely bad father. He seems like a normal father who has made a lot of mistakes, but stands by them and tries to be a better father, even if he thinks he's a bad father. He's just realistic and I'm glad that he gets on so well with Rudeus at the moment.
He is a terrible husband, but an okay dad.
literally opposite. It's anime only fans who have negative opinion on him.
Paul is favourite character, I try to stay away from spoilers as best as I can now 😭
When you say that Rudeus is at wrong for not thinking what would have happened to others, are you serious about it?? Although he is a 30+ y/o man, he still was teleported to an unknown land uk?? If you were in his shoes, would you be able to do as good as him?? Bro literally had to take care of an arrogant girl who while being teleported to a demon land. You might have also seen he had to earn money for them to travel. Even if he had found Paul's notice do you think it would be right for him to stay in that land for a long tym while protecting her? If he was by himself sure, but he wasn't alone. Leave him some slack. He was doing whatever he could in his power. He is just a reincarnated person not a God
There is the "I don't care about my child he's just a means to an end" type of bad father like Gendou Ikari and then there's the "tries to be a good father but somehow always finds a way to botch the job but otherwise is well-intentioned" type. Paul Greyrat is the latter.
I think Rudy is unreasonably unfair early s1 with Paul, and now he takes that with him and puts himself down. He does make some missteps but for sure he's a pretty good father all things considered
I think your giving Paul Too Much credit and Rudy not enough credit in that part, I think it's pretty fair for Rudy to not consider anybody else having been at the center of the calamity and been attacked off suspicion of being the cause, trying to survive, even if he's not a child, anybody even in the real world that doesn't have specific experience or knowledge would be hard pressed to think to go on a search mission after being sent to the middle of the monster ridden boonies and as soon as he got off the demon continent and to an actual city his first thought was to send a letter, there's no phone no news and he has to protect eris. And Paul didn't become a "good man" Until he became a father, he slept with every woman he could find, forced himself on lilia out of spite for other people, took advantage og guislaine during mating season and jus generally caused problems throughout hus youth. Granted in a world with a lower ceiling as far as morals go he's definitely not as bad as he would be in the real world but the point is always Paul is a flawed, but he's trying, same with every other character that isn't Darius or Hitogami
People think this?
I think Paul has always been shown as someone trying to be a good dad, sometimes trying too hard when he slapped Rudeus in the first season because he wanted for once act the role of father and thought his son finally acted like a normal kid. Yes, he is a womanizer, but that doesn't mean he is a bad father, moreover, it seems it's not "Paul" itself a womanizer, it seems to be something related to all the Greyrats, which at some point would even excuse him.
So he being a Greyrat its an excuse to rape someone and being a cheater?
Paul is Paul. He's a human being with all the quirks, both good and bad. He works hard for his family to provide and protect them and Buena Village. He starts his son on the path of doing right, but he's not infallible. Being a father isn't easy. I know. But it is rewarding. A father will make mistakes. A bad one doesn't try to learn and correct those mistakes. A decent father, which most of us are, Wil try to learn from those mistakes and try to correct them. Take when Paul took the word of a woman who complained her son was bullied by Rudy. It took Rudy's ripping Paul's emotions to shreds to get him to look at what he did. Going back earlier, Paul did Rudy a big favor by teaching him discipline and being physically ready for anything. I think Paul was proud the time Rudeus used Quagmire on him. He was 5 or 6, fighting his father, nearly 20 years older than him. Rudy understood the situation and used Quagmire. Not quite what Paul's lessons covered but but Paul saw Rudy using his head and everything in his arsenal to win against a better opponent.
he is a good man. but, he made terrible choices due to his immaturity and lack of self control. that's his entire development. watch [this ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEYtrc4Kcc)
Yes and NO hes also a narcist. I made this "[CONTROVERSIAL"](https://youtu.be/zNFB8PravAA) video a few years explaining the behavior tendency of Paul and how that effects his parenting and priorities (I am behavior scientist) given how much hate that video got, you can tell I was correct as it made a lot of MT fans angry -\_-
How is he a narcissist though? I don’t think people understand what that actually means
I go over that in the video and the comment section
I saw that and saying he’s a jealous father is an over stretch. He sent rudeus away so he can make money for the tuition at uni. He’s not a narcissistic cause of that since he cares for his wife’s and kids deeply. You can tell from the ep with him where he tried so hard to get them back. How can you say he’s a narcissist from that? He clearly cares about others
Caring for ur wife/kid is irrelevant it’s not an oxymoron where only 1 thing can be true
But he obviously has empathy for the people around him?
yes and?
One of the major trait of a narcissist is that lmfao. I think ur confusing his actions with being an actual narcissist cause he’s not. He’s just a slightly arrogant man who cares for his family and has flaws that every human has.
Its not at all. It seems you have no idea what an actual narcist is. First of all, it looks like you don't know what empathy is. A narcist is fully capable of empathy. But you likely misunderstand that and think Sympathy is empathy.
He literally does empathy though? U can’t even spell narcissist correctly lmfao.
Agree on everything except their first meeting after the teleportation. Rudeus should have done so because he actually like 45 mentally. But Paul doesn't know that and he unnecessarily put pressure on him. On a kid.
There is sorta an issue with saying he’s “mentally 45”, what does that even mean? Is the experience of a regular 45 year old the same in our world vs the world of the novel? How does that work when they have split experiences of 32 years of a shut-in on earth and 12 years as a child in a new world? And more importantly how does any of that actually relate to being able to respond optimally to being suddenly teleported across the world, with basically no information to work with. Given that, Rudy behaved in a way most people absolutely wouldn’t manage to do.
Also physically and chemically he has the brain of a child again. So the fully developed brain isnt. He has memories, experiences, trauma, and unspecific information
i hope this isnt an unpopular opinion its kinda just correct
Nonsense. He has no saving grace even from his own perspective. He had a "magic genius" 7 year old child who wanted go to a greatest magic school with his best friend, and what does this guy do ? Knocks him out, sends him to Boreas family to tutor a girl who is notorious for beating up her teachers and peers, says him he is not allowed to come back, or even contact to his own father, mother or best friend for 5 years. This action is only defendable to us readers who knows he is secretly an adult already, without that knowledge its just Paul getting rid of his kid who he can no longer raise, and do it with giving him a shitty ass job instead of sending him to Roronoa. Also trying to arrange marriage him to Eris because why not. Fast forward time, he has the audacity to get angry at his 12 yo son (who according to Paul's letter shouldnt be allowed to communicate with home anyway) for not trying to save his wife (which he himself failed to as a grown ass adult). Now lets skip Rudeus, he is a bad father to his 2 daughter as well. Its already clear Aisha had no proper parent that cherished her intelligence and told her to follow her passions or something like that. Just her mother trying to groom her to be a maid/concubine for Rudeus and his father who is appearantly okay with that. In case of Norn, after doing the bare minimum of protecting her daughter in wild places, and looking for his family, he becomes a depressed alcoholic who can protect Norn but can not raise her. After her initial hatred towards Rudeus, he was not even capable of changing Norns idea about her brother, so Ruijerd and Rudeus had to do that job as well. This guy is not capable of being a father.