Norn is the worst sister (and worst character)

I prefer Aisha, but Norn is the best written sister

Norn was the only character with multiple brain cells when Rudy came home with Roxy. Norn's real for that.

Norn is easily one of the best characters in the entire series, certainly the second best in the Greyrat family after Eris. Seeing her go off at Rudy near the end of Season 2 was genuinely one of the best moments in the show

Regarding a lot of your points, I find them rather… unfairly petty? Like, particularly the first point, on account of the fact that Norn herself didn’t have any context of the context the viewers had for the sight of her father getting punched by Rudy and was also, you know, six years old at the time.

Let me preface this by saying what you mentioned can be viewed as objectively true. That being said, you give off strong only child vibes. The brocon/siscon stepsis or bro taint that the internet has instilled in you makes me believe you don't know how annoying and taxing a siblinh relationship can be. I don't think it was even a contrived way to push adversity onto Rudeus. I also think her contrast to Aisha serves a purpose in comparison to his past life (if you recall the beginning when he refused help from a sibling) and to not make the same mistakes again in that regard. There's a lot about Mushoku Tensei i don't like but Norn is not one of them.

"Aisha by comparison is basically the best sister, far smarter, capable, mature, and can actually assist him with administrative work."

The con refrence. The assumption would be that because Norn (the literal younger sister) is less smart, capable,mature,able than Aisha, that in some way makes her inferior. At most i'm confusing realistic characters with likable characters because any person with a sister can tell you that is a fictional view of them. I don't particularly like really anyone in this story besides Sylphie, i'm just making an observation that Norns' traits doesn't necessarily make her the worse sister by default.

If Rudeus had disowned Norn his life would not be a net positive. It would be a significant negative.

Remember, Rudy is coming from being a 💩 himself. How he learns to treat family, especially in hard times and when they are being difficult is a significant part of His growth/story. Someone else might be able to rid themselves of Norn and call it a net positive, but not Rudy. It would be not only a failure in becoming who he's trying to be, but much worse, it would signify giving up on who he's trying to be. For as much as Rudy has improved, it would be a huge loss for him to give up over the difficulty that is Norn (a child acting reasonably for her age and circumstance, that we are for some reason comparing to her prodigy sister and prodigy brother).

I have nothing else to do today so I’m going to rage bait. Spoilers at the end of my mini rant I guess. For the whole series not just anime. Nothing major tho. If you don’t like the series (W opinion) then read away.

Norn is Lwk the best character in the series other than Rujierd and Orsted. She hates Rudy (as should everyone) and for good reason. She’s a child, she doesn’t understand everything about life, even younger when she saw Rudy beat her father whom she only thinks is trying his best for them and was in a tough spot. Like idk man how tf do you hate her. If you’re to hate one of the sisters maybe hate the one that takes advantage of Rudy because all of y’all love Rudy so much. Or maybe that didn’t happen much yet in the anime I don’t remember. I’m here just to hate so yeah also the show and novels suck don’t waste your time if you want a redemption story he doesn’t redeem himself his actions are enabled. He’s a creep, he’s a weirdo, he wants to be special. (Queue guitar thing you know what I’m talking about, Radiohead reference… ok sorry) And yeah that’s about it.

His character isn’t even a character it’s self fulfillment of the author’s fantasies. And also just escapism for people who are like he was in his past life. He’s a loser written for losers. His mistakes outweigh his good deeds because nothing feels genuine from him. And he’s literally done unforgivable things, and also just escapes from his past instead of maturing. Like Rudy is just poorly executed. He sucks as a character in every sense of the word. I’m too tired of thinking about this disappointing ass series to keep on about it tho hating isn’t my thing I like to be happy. Keep enjoying your series gangy.

Holy shit and also I’m not talking to someone with “incest legalizer” in their bio bro that’s insane.

@ImNotChiefKeef Predictable ad hominem counter.

@Zarutaku It is an ad hominem sure, but also my judgement of your character decides whether or not I truly believe arguing about a piece of fiction I think is ass is a good use of my time... and it isn't... but I will anyway because I have nothing else to use my time today for so thanks for waiting an hour or so for my response.
Let me rant again. Rudy, sure, does some good things, but as I said already, I don't think those out weight the bad. I'm not trying to change your mind, because the weird shit about you is obviously so deeply rooted within you that it would be pointless to attempt that. However, for you, or any possible onlookers, I would LIKE to make my point clear, and it's that Rudy is scum of the Earth, and just because he did some good things, does NOT mean that he is a good person. Nor am I in the wrong for thinking he is scum of the Earth (or well of his new planet) and thinking your favorite piece of fiction isn't good because of him. Let's mention the fact that he introduced sexuality to multiple young girls too early, and just because he is physically young doesn't mean that he doesn't know better with the 40 years of life he had prior. That is grooming. He groomed two young girls into becoming his wives, one of which is his second cousin. (Not that you'd find that gross, since you want to "legalize incest") He multiple times throughout the novels explicitly states he thinks his sisters are cute but the only reason he won't do anything to them is because he has three wives now and they nor his sisters wouldn't like him anymore if he sexually harassed them. He has to try to hold himself back from thinking about his little sisters sexually, that is fucking weird in my opinion, I don't think that someone like that should be a father, or have a wife let alone three, and yet look at what happens. Because of the type of person he was written to be in his first life, I personally, as a reader or viewer, am forced to believe that this is for people who are like that in real life. That this series is escapism for people like... well... you. I personally, view people like that, as fucking weirdos. Hence, the "predictable ad hominem counter." I think that fiction that caters to audiences such as that, and that have nothing interesting about their characters (though I know you disagree) is bad. I think that the author wrote a perverted series that unfortunate souls were told would be a redemption story. Main characters don't have to be perfect, just make them face backlash, or at least make it obvious you don't think the main character you wrote is a good person. Take the Sopranos, Tony Soprano is not a good guy, nor are the other mob members. The whole point of the show is to be entertaining, and show a somewhat realistic depiction of mafia life. You should not romanticize Tony Soprano's life. Or let's take Monogatari Series, a series that is heavily character driven, written by
an author who is very meticulous and loves implementing irony or things that are meta. You can pick apart so many things about all the characters, and while it isn't all happy and sweet, it's interesting. It's fucked up, but it isn't romanticizing, and you can definitely read those novels and think "hey that's bad... I don't think the author thinks those things are good either." Or at least that's how I interpreted Monogatari, I know it's easy to interpret that series multiple ways so I'll admit it isn't the best example nor did I fully flesh out my idea there.
Instead, the author wrote a weirdo, and then decided to keep him that way and reward his bad actions and never make it clear we weren't supposed to like him because he is the man that all of you weirdos want to be. That's all I got right now.

This whole debate is rather stupid in my opinion. If you were just gonna say that Norn is the worst sister, then I would understand you to a degree, but saying that she is the worst character is another thing. Norn is a very well written character; and clearly you agree that she is well hated. But what if that was the author’s purpose? What if the author decided to write Norn with the purpose of making her hated? Wouldn’t that mean that she was well written because you hate her? In that case itself, it already proves she’s well written, but I have another standpoint I want to convey. Lemme provide some context before I respond to the points you made about Norn.

Let’s say you are Paul Greyrat before the Teleport Incident occurred. You are happily living with your 2 wives and 2 children in a nice house in the countryside. You have a prodigy of a son who went out to learn and explore more. Out of nowhere, this big beam of light rains down on you: half your house is gone, along with majority of your family. All you’re left with is one of your infant children, Norn. Now tell me, if you were Paul in this scenario, is your first thought to protect Norn and try to find the rest of your family, or provide Norn with education of magic, all while being a person who knows nothing other than his sword? If you choose the second one, then that just shows how clouded your basis is for one of your arguments. If you choose the first: stay with me now. Having an infant in hand, Paul is desperately trying to find clues about his family, while taking trips to dangerous areas in search for them. All Norn could have learned during those 6 years, would be bare minimum self defense for a 6 year old, and possibly how to wield a sword. Meaning she has no experience or knowledge of magic, and is pretty much a kindergartener in that aspect. Also during these 6 years, she is told about her brother, Rudeus, as someone who is ‘perfect’ and can take care of himself despite is age. Keep in mind, Rudeus appears to be a 10-15 year old kid, but he is mentally a 34 year old. That being said, let’s move onto the points.

1. I think you may have approached this scene with the standards of our society in mind. Since this is a totally different world, polygamy and abusing your children may be somewhat common, or more accepting (emphasis on ‘may’). So keeping this in mind, if abusing your children was common, maybe Paul went through this himself when he was a kid. He may have been taught by his parents that hitting your child is the best way to make them listen. In a normal circumstance, this would work, but his child is none other than the MC, and technically an adult himself. So when Paul hit Rudeus, he wasn’t expecting any form of retaliation, so when he did fight back, it confused him, and they fought. So when a 6 year old Norn who had never seen Rudeus since she was an infant, sees someone she doesn’t recognize beating her father, the only person who was taking care of her for the past 6 years, she gets mad and tries to fight Rudeus. You can’t blame a child for having the instinct to protect their parent, despite the lack of context.

2. She was forced to live with someone she despises because they brought pain upon someone she cares for. As she slowly integrated into his life, she more and more realizes that Rudeus is not perfect, (no one is), and despises him for it. She was raised to believe that her brother was someone who could do anything because he is so perfect, so to see him commit attempted polygamy, which she already has past experience of, she is mortified. I’m sure Paul has told her before that he himself wasn’t perfect, and people know he isn’t because he committed polygamy. The only ones accepting him were his family. So to see her ‘perfect’ brother commit the same ‘non-perfect’ action her father did, deters her from her image of him, causing her to despise him. Also, how can you expect a 6 year old to know what break ups are?

3. Like I said before, Norn has no prior experience or knowledge of magic, so when she is admitted to the largest magic academy in the world, she is dumbfounded. She has no idea what’s going on, and she is constantly being compared to her genius brother. Remember that Rudeus was born with all of his knowledge and intellect from his past life, and he was also born with an affinity with multiple magic types. Norn on the other hand was born a normal baby. Athough Norn and Rudeus may appear around the same age, their mental age has a far bigger gap, where he is way smarter for his age because of his overpowered MC isekai starting hand, and Norn is way dumber because she was never given any form of education prior to the academy. Let me phrase it like this: if you were to give a 30 year old a question paper with calculus on it, they would look at it and be able to solve it because they were taught that before. Now give that same calculus question to a 6 year old and see if they can solve it. Now bombard that 6 year old with expectations of reaching the same intellect level as the 30 year old because they are related to each other. This is what Norn was constantly going through at the academy. Teachers and classmates heard ‘Greyrat’ and expected her to be ‘perfect’ and a genius like her brother. It’s obvious she was gonna fail from the start. As to why she ran away, that’s a typical instinct for humans. If you encounter a problem you can’t solve, you run away from it. She was constantly held high with expectations she can’t reach, and had enough of people calling her brother ‘perfect’ who she knew wasn’t.

4. It isn’t really guilt tripping, more like applying the same expectations that Norn endured onto Rudeus. She was told multiple times that he was a genius and super strong, ultimately ‘perfect’. So, in a sense, she wanted her brother to prove whether he really is ‘perfect’ or not. There isn’t anything for Norn to empathize with Rudeus. When he heard that his father found his mother and that Paul needed help, Rudeus was ready to go, with the lingering feeling of leaving Sylphie behind (but ultimately still gonna go). He only changed his mind to stay because GOD told him that he would regret going or staying, but staying would be the better option. You can’t expect Norn to sympathize with information only Rudeus was given.

5. Again, applying expectations. “If you’re so perfect why couldn’t you save dad? Why couldn’t you bring mom back perfectly? Why couldn’t you do it without losing anything?” This is ultimately what she was trying to convey. This may seem like guilt tripping, but it’s her way of getting back at all the people who tried to make her live up to this ‘perfect’ version of Rudeus. It’s her way of saying, this is the perfect guy you were talking about? Doesn’t seem so perfect to me.

6. Kinda ties back to the second point. You have to think of this in the point of view of an 11 year old. Your brother left for a long time to rescue your mom with your dad. He returns home with no dad, mom whose mind is gone, one arm missing and proclaims he wants a second wife. Any 11 year old (in fact I would too) would see this as confusing and revolting. “How could someone as ‘perfect’ as my brother, not only couldn’t save our dad, bring back our mom in this state, but wants to actually commit polygamy?” This messes up her brain and she goes off, which I can’t complain about because that is a valid reaction.

7. Really nothing to say about.

With this all said and done, in the sense of a sister who can’t help/provide help for a brother, Norn might be the worst, but she is merely a projection of those who see his ways of thinking rather absurd. She speaks on it rather than blindly accepting his reason. We as the audience can sympathize with Rudeus because we know everything, but you can’t expect that for someone who wasn’t there for majority of the show, and most importantly, a kid.