(CR) Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3

[Master_Yoma]

Just to save her family she got to say goodbye but at least she said goodbye to everyone individually

That is one hell of a magic spell she cast

8/10 To be continued

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Nice new father Myne got. He was going to have her entire family killed and only reconsidered because it would have cause Myne to go berserk.

Honestly, that was one of those moments where I hate that world. Get fucked, Sylvester, for even entertaining thoughts like those.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Honestly, that was one of those moments where I hate that world. Get fucked, Sylvester, for even entertaining thoughts like those.

To be fair, our own world wasn't much better during the middle age & pre-industrial revolution.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, true that. Although at least partly is wasn't always that arbitrary. But then again, in other parts it was.

[larethian]

Best season of the show so far. I didn't expect this series to be so good after season 1. I finally understand why it's ranked so highly in Konorano. Myne has developed a strong heroine presence and unlike previous 2 seasons, I am more excited about what's going to happen next in its continuation.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Honestly, that was one of those moments where I hate that world. Get fucked, Sylvester, for even entertaining thoughts like those.

I want to point out that Sylvester's thoughts were perfectly logical and perfectly justified. He's in charge of the Duchy, and has to consider its safety and stability before anything else. Compared to that, unfortunately the life of a few peoples, and especially the life of a few peoples that have no mana and therefore occupy no key role in the Duchy, don't weight that much.

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

I want to point out that Sylvester's thoughts were perfectly logical and perfectly justified. He's in charge of the Duchy, and has to consider its safety and stability before anything else. Compared to that, unfortunately the life of a few peoples, and especially the life of a few peoples that have no mana and therefore occupy no key role in the Duchy, don't weight that much.

It's not like I don't understand that, but his thought process did jump pretty far there to me, though I suppose it's because as commoners, their lives really have no intrinsic value to nobles.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Nice new father Myne got. He was going to have her entire family killed and only reconsidered because it would have cause Myne to go berserk.

For what it's worth, his inner monologue made him seem much more sympathetic than the anime apparently has. He felt really bad about taking Myne from her family, and blamed Ferdinand's advice for the times he's appeared cold blooded.

I think the threat was mostly to impress upon them the seriousness of the situation. No one must suspect "Rozemyne" isn't a noble daughter. From now on, they all must live the lie.

Though I have no doubt that if it came to it, he wouldn't blink at exterminating a family of innocent commoners. Being one of the most soft-hearted nobles doesn't mean much.

[Tenzen12]

If nothing else I do think he considered it for sake of protecting Mein.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by Endscape

It's not like I don't understand that, but his thought process did jump pretty far there to me, though I suppose it's because as commoners, their lives really have no intrinsic value to nobles.

I mean we're talking about an incident where he has to execute and jail nobles as well. Yes, these nobles are actually deserving that, contrary to the commoners. Even so, it hurts the Duchy on several ways. It's especially bad because one of them is not from their own duchy as well so the lie they just made up about Rozemyne has to be solid enough to be swallowed by the other duchy. If anything go wrong by keeping them alive, a ton of noble heads could roll, and the whole duchy, including commoners, could terribly suffer of the result.
There's no better way to keep a secret AND make sure that those knowing that secret cannot be kidnapped than to kill as many peoples knowing that secret as possible. It may seem cold blooded, but leaders have to know how to sacrifice a few to keep the many safe.

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

I want to point out that Sylvester's thoughts were perfectly logical and perfectly justified. He's in charge of the Duchy, and has to consider its safety and stability before anything else. Compared to that, unfortunately the life of a few peoples, and especially the life of a few peoples that have no mana and therefore occupy no key role in the Duchy, don't weight that much.

No, that is the thought process of a psychopath. Executing innocent people because it is a bit convenient more than keeping them alive is not justifiable by "safety and stability".

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

I mean we're talking about an incident where he has to execute and jail nobles as well. Yes, these nobles are actually deserving that, contrary to the commoners. Even so, it hurts the Duchy on several ways. It's especially bad because one of them is not from their own duchy as well so the lie they just made up about Rozemyne has to be solid enough to be swallowed by the other duchy. If anything go wrong by keeping them alive, a ton of noble heads could roll, and the whole duchy, including commoners, could terribly suffer of the result.
There's no better way to keep a secret AND make sure that those knowing that secret cannot be kidnapped than to kill as many peoples knowing that secret as possible. It may seem cold blooded, but leaders have to know how to sacrifice a few to keep the many safe.

I mean if we're talking about sacrificing the few for the benefit of the many, Veronica and Bezewanst should have been sacrificed long ago, no?

There were plenty of other methods Sylvester could have potentially used to minimize the secret leaking, he just wanted to kill them off because it was easier.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Endscape

I mean if we're talking about sacrificing the few for the benefit of the many, Veronica and Bezewanst should have been sacrificed long ago, no?

If he could have, maybe. Ferdinand didn't spend years working tirelessly under Bezewanst just for fun, though.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

No, that is the thought process of a psychopath. Executing innocent people because it is a bit convenient more than keeping them alive is not justifiable by "safety and stability".

Sorry, but trying to minimise the stakes for the sake of preserving your argument is not really going to cut it. We're not talking about "convenience" here. They want myne. She's precious to her both from the mana perspective that is crucial to their duchy, AND for all the inventions that as an isekai'er she can bring to make the duchy and allow it prosper once again in many ways : education, trading, food production, influence, etc. to a degree that no one else can bring to them.

For this, they're ready to sacrifice a lot. They're already sacrificing nobles that were in the way. And by doing that, they're making other, potential enemies move. The last thing you want is to leave an Achilles heel by being too complacent. Leaving commoners that know about Myne, and that Myne cares a lot about, even if those commoners are under magical contract, IS extremely risky. They may not only lose Myne, but even undergo a new purge due to that crap, that would literally condemn the whole duchy to maybe decades of misery. Choosing the lesser danger for the territory you rule used to be a trait of a fitting monarch, that properly rules. And in fact, it still is a trait of rulers across the globe.

[Anh_Minh]

I think it's ok to say she's Sylvester's mother, so the personal cost to him, at least, is not small.

[Zefyris]

...And where in the anime did they ever mention that as a "cost" or did they mention that she was involved in the whole affair?

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

Sorry, but trying to minimise the stakes for the sake of preserving your argument is not really going to cut it. We're not talking about "convenience" here. They want myne. She's precious to her both from the mana perspective that is crucial to their duchy, AND for all the inventions that as an isekai'er she can bring to make the duchy and allow it prosper once again in many ways : education, trading, food production, influence, etc. to a degree that no one else can bring to them.

For this, they're ready to sacrifice a lot. They're already sacrificing nobles that were in the way. And by doing that, they're making other, potential enemies move. The last thing you want is to leave an Achilles heel by being too complacent. Leaving commoners that know about Myne, and that Myne cares a lot about, even if those commoners are under magical contract, IS extremely risky. They may not only lose Myne, but even undergo a new purge due to that crap, that would literally condemn the whole duchy to maybe decades of misery. Choosing the lesser danger for the territory you rule used to be a trait of a fitting monarch, that properly rules. And in fact, it still is a trait of rulers across the globe.

Since Sylvester decided to keep Myne's family alive, your whole argument falls apart right from the start. He obviously did not need to kill them, but that he had to convince himself not to do it anyway because it would make things a little easier shows that he is kind of a psychopath. Only that he'd surely lose Myne as a ressource seems to have stayed his hand, not common empathy or even morals.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Since Sylvester decided to keep Myne's family alive, your whole argument falls apart right from the start. He obviously did not need to kill them, but that he had to convince himself not to do it anyway because it would make things a little easier shows that he is kind of a psychopath. Only that he'd surely lose Myne as a ressource seems to have stayed his hand, not common empathy or even morals.

Incorrect. He wants Myne's inventions and mana. So he needs her cooperation. And he knows that he won't get it if he kills her family. So he considered the best way to preserve the secret and protect myne, which was clearly to kill all commoners involved, concluded that he would lose Myne's cooperation doing so and therefore that it would literally make the Duchy lose what he was trying to acquire, and decided against it.
And just so you know, Sylvester HATES to have to do that kind of crap like ordering to kill peoples and the like. He has responsibilities and he needs to consider all possible paths before taking a decision.
So you can cut the whole psychopath thing considering that he hates having to do/say that. Common empathy or morals, he has it, but if he needs to ignore them for the sake of his duchy, he'll attempt to do so.
You're clearly not understanding that in that room, it's not Sylvester the man that was talking; it's the Aub of Erhenfest, the authority and protector of the Erhenfest Duchy.

[magnuskn]

Dude, your argument still fails on the sole fact that he was able to just leave them alive and still seriously considered killing them nonetheless.

[Huh...?]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Since Sylvester decided to keep Myne's family alive, your whole argument falls apart right from the start. He obviously did not need to kill them, but that he had to convince himself not to do it anyway because it would make things a little easier shows that he is kind of a psychopath. Only that he'd surely lose Myne as a ressource seems to have stayed his hand, not common empathy or even morals.

Here the big factor is that, what Sylvester said regarding killing Myne's family and anyone related to her past, is actually a standard norm for the Nobles in that World.
"Anything that is inconvenient has to be removed from existence."

All Noble follow that rule, and even Commoners know that (which is why even people like Benno is scared of Nobility).
So, what Sylvester did is actually different from norm.

If you look in our history, you would find many similar situation of Ruler's killing off people because of inconvenience.
Heck, i am 100% that even in our current era, Government's around the world also follow the same policy of secretly killing-off people to remove inconvenience.
And that wouldn't really be counted as psychopath, because as per definition, a psychopath has to be "a mentally unstable person", which Sylvester isn't.

As for the case of leaving Myne's acquaintances alive.
Its mostly to keep Myne mentally sane.

If they had killed her family and friends, she would have definitely gone berserk and caused a huge damage before her death.

Even if she was suppressed somehow, it would have been hard for them to keep her alive, considering her "Devouring" condition, which can easily kill her, if she even wishes to.

In a situation, were they are in a severe lack of Mana (forcing them to even agree to the deal to allow a Commoner to become an Blue-Robe Shrine Maiden), and the benefit the industry that Myne would bring them along with her Other World knowledge.

Its obvious they would chose the more simpler (though complicated) option, to keep Myne happy (to a certain extent), and get willing cooperation from her.

Originally Posted by magnuskn

Dude, your argument still fails on the sole fact that he was able to just leave them alive and still seriously considered killing them nonetheless.

Its actually the opposite.
He considered killing them first, but left them alive after meeting Myne.
Don't confuse the order (since both mean different).
Why do you think, he decided to kill of that Noble Knight (from Season 2, who hurt Myne) and his Uncle. Its mostly to avoid future complications.

Just because he is informing the stuff after deciding to keeping everyone alive doesn't change the thought-process.

Finally, don't compare standard Modern Era norms to stories set in different Era setting.