In the WN Paul rapes Lilia, a fellow student, in the academy and gets kicked out as a consequence. He then starts a family with Zenith. Lilia, on the other hand, somehow did fall in love with her rapist and seeks him out to insert herself into his family, where she knowingly creates a situation where Paul would cheat with her (leaves the door a slit open while masturbating). Once Zenith finds out, they enter the harem route, with the consequences being that Paul has to sit on the floor in the hallway. I remember this written in a way that made it sound like it was slapstick (haha, look at that pitiful man that has to sit on the floor haha).

I’m not a prude. Rape happens. Cheating happens, and harem routes are an anime staple. The problem I have with Paul’s story is the message between the lines. If you rape a girl, she will fall in love with you. If you cheat on your wife or are a home wrecker, you will enter the harem route, where everyone is happy. And all that without any bad consequences for the bad behavior. And this was something I’ve seen in all aspects of the series throughout. Sure, bad things happen to people, but it’s as a consequence of unrelated factors instead of their shitty behavior (i.e. the displacement is bad for Paul, but it’s not happening because of his raping and cheating, etc.).

In earlier discussions about this, I’ve seen the argument that it is just realistic and that bad actions don’t necessarily come with bad consequences in reality. And while this is infuriatingly true and can’t really be argued against, it still rubs me the wrong way in entertainment, even more so than MC being MC.

It’s not just uncensored loli porn. It got censored in the LN from spy cam footage of his niece in the shower (the main reason why his brother gets so violent). In the anime adaptation, you can actually see that they have gone back to that plot point.

The Redundancy Chaper 25 make this canon again in the LN run:

I had brothers and sisters. Brother was married already. And had kids. Two of them. Both girls. They look different from Norm and Asia. They’re Japanese after all, but they shared in their innocence. Brother’s house and my house (that is, our parents) are close by, so they’ll stay over often. Along with his wife and kids. I took advantage of that. Set up a hidden camera in the bath for my niece. In other words, I took voyeur shots.

And here are some more choice quotes from the LN:

Underage. Scornful eyes. Socially awkward. That right there was the trifecta. She was perfect. I wanted her to be my bride.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that my teacher was a junior-high-aged girl at the budding edge of sexual maturity. That was kind of an awesome situation. In my old life, I could have gotten off to that mental image in three pumps.

When talking about Sylphie:

So why couldn’t I just stay here with Sylphie until we were old enough to get by on our own? Sounded pretty good to me. We’d grow up together…and she’d grow up into my perfect woman. Hikaru Genji style, baby! Gweheheh.

Hikaru Genji fell in love with a 10-year-old, kidnapped her when her guardian died, raised her, and then married her.

…Crap! No. No. Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts. What happened to the whole ‘oblivious’ thing, buddy? You’re getting way too far ahead of yourself. Hm. Well, that said… there’s nothing in the rulebook that says an oblivious protagonist can’t brainwash their childhood friend, right? Gah! What am I thinking?! But… ugggh. The girl was only six years old. She was clearly very fond of me, but she wasn’t capable of feeling romantic love yet. So, uh… yeah. Let’s put all that on hold. For how long, though? Now that was the question. Did I need to wait until she turned ten? Fifteen? Even older…? What if she ended up hating me for wasting her time? Her affection meter was at max for now, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way forever. Could I live with myself if it dropped to zero? No. Hell no!!! I’m a man who knows my limits, damn it! Seriously, she’s so soft and warm and fluffy! And she smells so freakin’ good! She’s baring her soul to me right now, and I’m supposed to just sit here slack-jawed?! That’s so messed up! We both know how we feel, so we should just take this to the next level! Why force myself to waste precious time? Why not just admit I made the wrong call?! That does it. I’ve decided! I’ll make her into my perfect girl! I’m…I’m oblivious no more, Sylphieeee!

About the mental age argument you sometimes hear people make to excuse his actions:

I had to keep in mind that, while I might have been a jobless high-school dropout, I also had the mental age of a person in his midthirties. I could do this!

But now I knew all of my missteps. With all the knowledge and experience from my past life, I could finally do it. I could finally live life right.

A man more than a decade my junior had gotten married, had a kid, and was now struggling with how to raise him. Given my thirty-four-year-history of indolent joblessness, you wouldn’t think I’d be able to outdo him at much of anything.

And in LN3 the Man God is directly addressing his mental image of himself:

Well it’s not just a dream. I’m speaking directly into your mind right now. Hard to believe your mental image of yourself is so different from your body…

Some more quotes from later on when he is supposedly be all changed:

Don’t tell me this guy is a true-born lolicon who somehow witnessed Julie doing something perverted. I mean, the two of us might have something in common then, but I definitely don’t want him coming anywhere near my daughters in that case.

That’s from volume 18.

Basically, there is a lot of mental gymnastics going on with a lot of people to paint Rudeus as anything other than a pedophile.