Tsuihou Suru Gawa no Monogatari - Vol. 3 Ch. 20 - Mirialia

[Rex_Nichts]

What I believe is pretty simple, Daru is at no point a bad person, he's just poorly written, as is everything else.

Don't forget that a lot of people here created an entire narrative of how he's some evil manipulative scumbag who wanted to ntr Est, that's what I always argued against, sure it was funny for a while, but it got old fast.

I don't think that was funny in any time the narrative existed. Everybody just hated Daru. Because even if he's not intentionally doing it, he still created a massive rift between Est and Athena. And even if he knew the incident in its entirety, he refused to look in the mirror and see the whole picture. He only focuses on what he wants to believe. And that belief doesn't include having goof faith in Est and giving Est any benefit of the doubt. Even if he's not intentionally doing all these things, the result is there. It can be felt. So even if he's not intentionally evil, he's still evil nonetheless.

And honestly, if Daru was deliberately evil, this manga would be infinitely better. Then we would have a clear antagonist to the story. Instead of this stupid gray zone where the actual antagonist turns out to be a mindless demon, and isn't introduced until a third into the damn story.

 

[Rex_Nichts]

just goes to show how no matter how good the idea, execution is everything for it to actually end good or bad.

And AGAIN, jesus fucking christ, YOU were the one who said this. YOU said it.

 

[T-sama]

I don't think that was funny in any time the narrative existed. Everybody just hated Daru.

It's funny cause people are taking it way too seriously.

Because even if he's not intentionally doing it, he still created a massive rift between Est and Athena. And even if he knew the incident in its entirety, he refused to look in the mirror and see the whole picture.

You mean lack of communication like thousands of mangas did before?

He only focuses on what he wants to believe.

Yeah because no protagonists ever do that...

And that belief doesn't include having goof faith in Est and giving Est any benefit of the doubt.

The "good faith" Daru had in Est is that he would realize he misunderstood the situaion instead of being butthurt over it and assume the worst, maybe, because the writer possibly didn' really think that far.

Even if he's not intentionally doing all these things, the result is there. It can be felt. So even if he's not intentionally evil, he's still evil nonetheless.

Nothing he did was "evil" so don't be dramatic, at worst Daru was a patronizing asshole who treated Est like a kid.

And honestly, if Daru was deliberately evil, this manga would be infinitely better. Then we would have a clear antagonist to the story. Instead of this stupid gray zone where the actual antagonist turns out to be a mindless demon, and isn't introduced until a third into the damn story.

Well unfortunately that's not the story the writer wanted to tell, so we'll have to live with that.

And AGAIN, jesus fucking christ, YOU were the one who said this. YOU said it.

English must not be your first language, at no point I talked about Daru as a character being good or bad, I talked about the story in itself being good or bad, the story is poorly written, it's bad, we all know it, you're reading way too much on what i said.

 

[Puck2]

What I believe is pretty simple, Daru is at no point a bad person, he's just poorly written, as is everything else.

Don't forget that a lot of people here created an entire narrative of how he's some evil manipulative scumbag who wanted to ntr Est, that's what I always argued against, sure it was funny for a while, but it got old fast.

I think the biggest problem all the readers have with Daru is that he is not good or bad but more like a ... gap filler like all the other characters in this story. They are supposed to be good people but still have the function of the evil banishing party. As you already mentioned, at no point in the story Daru shows evil intentions. But on the other hand, his actions speak a different language: lovey -dovey-scenes with Athena, doing nothing to clear up the misunderstanding, hiding his powers when it't not for the sake of female party members, kicking out Est and getting another female party member => harem party.
Even though he is not supposed the "bad hero" he fulfills the role with his actions (which is not his fault but the author's as he's written like that).
This can also be seen as he is often confused as the leader (you did the same in previous comments). Actually, Athen is supposed to be the leader. With Daru being the MC and the leader at this point, Est's banishment makes even less sense. Nobody of his team members becomes stronger. Daru has to come to save the day and Athena still has no idea what happened during the whole story (misunderstanding, Est's feelings for her, smurfing party members) and is still weak. The only one who became stronger is the banished person (Est) like in all the other banished-stories, which wasn't the intention of the banishing-party's leader (Daru).

To put it in a nutshell, the problem with the story is, that it's exactly the same like all the other banishing stories except that the banishing party has "good intentions" and instead of actual cuckolding everything is a misunderstanding. The outcome is still the same (it's also hinted that he has a chance with two girls after banishing . The intentions and the actions of the characters are contradictory (their actions aren't good), thus the readers have to fill the gaps. Regarding Daru's actions, despite his intentions, he still fills in the role of the bad party leader.

PS: I only read the first chapters of the webnovel (couldn't take any more) but in the misunderstanding scene Daru appears even more indifferent: "It's Est fault because he ran away, he should have punched me." Also in the following chapters there's no compassion for Est. So I guess he's supposed to be that kind of character.

 

[YamiryuuZero]

"Athena became weaker."
Yeah, we have already established that Athena's strength wasn't her own, it was because of Est's buffs.
What you fell in love with, her strength, was never hers to begin with!

"Daru, who had always seemed to take a step back until now, has started supporting the party."
The guy who could have prevented Est from being heavily injured has never done anything in order to make himself look as incompetent as everyone else until Est got kicked out of the party, a decision he fully supported. He was just playing dumb until he could get rid of the only other male in the party to begin making the girls fall in love with him, the psychopath!

"And changed their way of thinking."
Frey maybe, but Athena is still the same she was in chapter 1, unaware of the truth and blindly following her desire to get stronger as quickly as possible. She's still reliant on a male adventurer to pick up her slack, it's just that now it's not Est whom she relies on but Daru.