Given how garbage the overall episode of Mushoku Tensei was last week, I'm suitably impressed with how telling Norn went. Actual decent writing, natural reactions from Norn, and good acting of it.

Norn was probably the highlight of this episode for me. Even if people generally hate her, I think she had very natural reactions to the circumstances in this episode and it was refreshing for a character to be upset when she should, unhappy about the results, but understand that her father went out valiantly protecting his family. Rudeus missing an arm alone proved that the whole group went into a fight that surpassed their capabilities and paid the corresponding price.

Norn didn't immediately back down from being upset because of it, she only calmed down after they gave her the play-by-play of what led to the pyrrhic victory.

Norn is finally starting to feel like a complete character.

Quote Originally Posted by MFauli View Post
That aside, I'm not sure whether the 2-wives-situation was done plausibly. I think it'd be best for NOBODY watching this to draw any real life-comparisons, because not only is this a fantasy world, we also had Sylphie explicitely give her okay for Rudy to fuck around, and Roxy was okay with it before they arrived. So, in this specific situation, it was a good resolution. I'd have preferred a little more Paul-references, more than they did. Some more jokes about how Rudy has become Paul for real now, lol.
I think it did go plausibly. Sylphie is still a boring doormat of a character, so her accepting it was a given. Norn got to voice the expected opposition and was the perfect character to do so given how normally righteous she is. Rudy didn't deny any of what Norn was calling him out for, so we didn't get an obnoxious harem style speech about how being a pervy douche is okay behavior because of some bullshit or another. He knew he could get potentially criticized for it and did. They even nicely tied back in Norn's previous depression and to try to placate her, but while it didn't fully work, they even had Norn acknowledge that she was being a bit unreasonable and that not one of Paul's children is a follower of Millis.

It annoys me that Slyphie is such a passive character with very little spark to her. But it is consistent with her bland character.