Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation III ‒ Episode 12
This entire season so far has felt more like an epilogue than anything. Rudeus has been tying up loose ends and reveling in his victory. While not without cost, he has regained not only the family he lost but has also built an even greater one—including an extended collection of friends. Even his short journey to help Nanahoshi is but a temporary thing, and he quickly returns to his normal life.
With the appearance of Future Rudeus, we learn that this was the moment that Rudeus would ever truly be happy. This night, the simple action of opening a door would cause a chain reaction that would lead to the deaths of not only the three women Rudeus loves but many of his friends as well. Moreover, it would lead Rudeus into a lifelong—and ultimately futile—quest for revenge against the Man-God. In the end, the only thing Future Rudeus could hope to do was to turn back time with an incomplete, untested time travel spell, and hope he could convince his younger self of his sincerity—guide current Rudeus to avoid the same mistakes.
Among them, the first big one was ever trusting the Man-God. Regardless of whether or not the Man-God has lied to Rudeus up to this point, the fact remains that he has constantly been manipulating him. But with this episode, a pattern emerges that reveals at least one of the Man-God's goals: He wants Roxy dead.
While last episode the Man-God said Paul and the rest would have saved Roxy even without Rudeus, this is almost certainly a lie. We saw last season just how close Roxy was to death—and without Rudeus' magic, it seems next to impossible that Paul's party would have found her in time. Therefore, listening to either of the Man-God's last two recommendations—1) not to go on the Zentih Rescue mission and 2) to go into the basement—ended in Roxy's death.
But why Roxy? This is a little more unclear, but the episode does provide a potential explanation: Roxy's pregnant. There is every chance that the Man-God, with his clairvoyant powers, is trying to pull a Skynet—trying to kill the mother of the one who will one day cause his downfall (and using that child's father as the instrument of his vengeance just to twist the knife).
This leads directly into the next big regret Future Rudeus had. Upon figuring out that the Man-God was behind Roxy's (and Sylphie's) death, he spent his life seeking revenge on the Man-God. However, this proved to be a waste of effort—and even with the power to turn back time, Rudeus couldn't even confront the Man-God, much less beat him. Thus, it's better to deceive him rather than outwardly oppose him—pretend all is good between them while being careful of the Man-God's manipulations—and then look for outside help like Orstead.
The final big regret involves Eris. In his grief and pain, Future Rudeus was never able to patch things up with her—was unable to understand her viewpoint until she was already dead due to protecting him. Rudeus needs to get over himself—to accept that he shares responsibility in the rift that has formed between him and Eris. While her letter was poorly worded and easy to misunderstand, his reaction (thanks to his past life's trauma) was over the top. He never put himself in her shoes—never put in the hard work to understand why someone who so obviously loved him would disappear on him. And now, even months after Ruijerd told Rudeus he was misunderstanding things, he still hasn't—so caught up as he was in his current happiness. More than anything else, these two need to have a calm and open talk (no matter how hard that may prove to be).
With all that, Rudeus is left with a new goal in life: to topple the Man-God while protecting those dear to him. Along the way, he'll need to patch up old relationships and build new ones—lest he falls back on time travel once again in his despair. But before we get to that, it's time to get all the information we can about the now-aborted timeline—and something tells me it's far worse than even Future Rudeus had been hinting at.
Rating:
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation III is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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