This is one of my favorite arcs in the story. Despite my disdain for Rudeus at the start, I began to like him in a way. His efforts to help the people around him in the best way he could, despite his obvious flaws, made me realize that he was not inherently a bad person.

It made me realize that Mushoku Tensei is a sort of cautionary tale about how a person can become both "non-functional" (for lack of a better term) and degenerate when they hide away from their problems and indulge in their perversions.

A person who shuts themselves away from the outside world as a whole, only interacting with the absolute dregs of the internet, such as in "Eroge" forums and the like, for 15 years, will become both unable to function and develop a twisted sense of reality.

Rudeus very obviously thought that what he was doing, saying, or thinking was "normal" at the beginning because his sense of normalcy had been poisoned by the media he exclusively indulged in: "eroges, pornography, and self-indulgent fantasy web novels and light novels."

Throughout the story, the author takes jabs at these things in very obvious ways. For instance, Rudeus mentions that the only "books" he read were light novels, or how he thought that his practice in Eroge visual novels would help him talk to women—only to have those notions and beliefs completely shattered by reality.

When he was attempting to apologize to Sylphie, he wasn't able to articulate himself at all. When he tried to leave the walled garden he was in, he wasn't able to do so without outside help—contrary to how most power fantasy web novels and light novels might have led him to believe.

"If only I were powerful, all my problems would disappear." Despite being able to use powerful magic, he was still affected by his trauma.

Isekai is generally targeted at people who want to hide away from the world and escape the problems that come with "real life." This anime as a whole shows what that can lead to, and this arc, in particular, shows that a "start over in another world" is not going to mitigate or prevent your shortcomings and failures.

This show also gives me hope, in a sense. "If a person as broken and perverted as Rudeus could become a better person and actually manage to strive for a better life for himself, then what is stopping me?"

"The people around me in real life have tried their best to help me. I never went through extremely traumatic bullying like Rudeus did, and I have not shut myself away for that long."

These thoughts, brought about by my interaction with this story, helped me to get out of my shell and shut-in lifestyle.

In short, I love and appreciate this series.