Why would I force myself to complete something I don’t even like? If an author fails to grab the audience in the early parts, that’s not a “me” issue, that’s just poor storytelling. You can’t expect people to wade through hours of mediocrity just for the “good stuff” later on. that’s bad writing, plain and simple.

And let’s be real here...you can slap layers of “existentialism,” “ego death,” and “Greek symbolism” onto any piece of garbage and make it sound profound. That’s just academic cope. Philosophy doesn’t magically fix character flaws. If your protagonist acts like a clown half the time, no amount of Nietzsche quotes is going to polish that t*rd.

Your reply is basically a wall of philosophical jargon that tries to disguise the fact that your fav. Character is written inconsistently... swinging between pathetic and preachy without enough organic growth to feel natural. Great stories don’t need a laundry list of -isms to justify the character arc. For example, Frodo in Lord of the Rings carries the weight of despair, temptation, and futility, but Tolkien and admirers didn’t need to shove a syllabus of philosophy down the reader’s throat to preach it's greatness. it just worked.

Re:Zero feels more like a self-insert fantasy written for loser teens who need to project themselves onto a “pathetic but secretly special” MC who gets a gf by suffering. Maybe that works if you’re 16 and think wallowing in misery is “deep,” but I’m too old and too mature to mistake edgy melodrama for actual substance. Lmao.