u/ComfortableWorry5908

>!​!<On a okayish Sunday morning I have absolutely nothing to do. My exams have all passed and I have virtually no revision to do. So what's a man to do well reread all off ascendance of a bookworm was an option that I had thought about. And upon thinking about the series again I was reminded of how I found the series and also the reason why I decided to stick with it. So for context now. Long long ago (covid time-ish) I became an anime fan but not just any anime fan nope. I became a harem loving isekai trash man. (No joke my first anime was fruits of grisaia. A harem anime) I watched many a series devouring them in all the free time I had. But one day I stopped. In my attempt to consume trash I had inevitably become poisoned gasp. I couldn't look at isekai anime again or any anime as I grew to understand the formula's and cliches built within the genre and became incredibly bored of anime. Many older anime fans would call people like me who came during covid, tourists but if you're saying that then you have no idea how much free time a kid with no school and no homework has on his time. Well that and it's been 6 years but moving on. One day I was bored (I know what a surprise) and I decided hmmm why don't I watch some anime again maybe I'll find something interesting so I scrolled through Crunchyroll and I saw it. Ascendance of a bookworm and I am not joking when I say that the only reason why I decided to stick with the anime that day was not because of the concept, the characters looking interesting or anything like that nope... It was because the anime only had three words in it's title that's why I decided to watch the anime. It was in fact for this reason that I decided to stick with the anime until I eventually fell in love with it because the title subverted the expectations of what an isekai title should be. I mean that especially because I didn't fully enjoy the first season except for select parts of the story as I felt it was quite slow paced same with season 2 and season 3 in fact I may have dropped it if I had known that I had already watched the first season because while I acknowledged the worldbuilding was good and the characters were too it didn't feel gripping enough of a story the only reason why I kept watching was due to how Crunchyroll had done ordered the anime. They hadn't separated the anime into it's three seasons it was all in one section so I actually didn't know that bookworm had three seasons and just thought that maybe it was a anime like one piece that came out yearly or something (don't ask me why I thought that I was a dumb kid who assumed many things about the world) so I thought that all 30 something ep were actually one season. It was only in the final moments of s3 when everything came together and we got the ending did I know that I had to revisit the series at some point. So that's what I did at some point I eventually got a phone and bought the series on the apple app finishing off the entire thing although I haven't read the spinoff yet.

So yeah there we go that's how I got into the series and why I decided to stick with it and if you read the question at the top which you had to why did you decide to read or watch the series and why did you decide to stick with it?

Btw - For anyone wondering how the exams went. I failed all of them all because and no I am not joking I spent all the time I should have been revising reading the light novels. Literally the only reason my teachers decided to keep me in the courses is because I am a nice quiet student who doesn't cause them headache otherwise my future would've been cooked long ago. Hopefully things go better next year.

Haven’t seen the Hannelore spin-off yet.

>!&#x200B;!< Just recently made a post about Wilfried and it gotJust recently made a post about Wilfried and it got me really thinking about him. I ended up thinking about what it would be like if he got his own series and I couldn't help think that Wilfried would do great in some marvel/dc something like alternate universe where he would be an anti hero like who joked around just like deadpool the only difference is he would somehow manage to be the butt of every joke.>!&#x200B;!<

>!&#x200B;!<TLDR: Basically I find Wilfried to be a really tragic character and his subsequent challenges throughout the series to be the product of negligence and I am mad at the characters who let this happen. I also go on some tangents but read them anyway please because I like conversation and I want to have a lot of it. Now my memory isn’t perfect so maybe I’ve gotten something wrong so feel free to correct me just don't be mean it was an honest mistake. In terms of spoiler I'm just gonna say you should probably have read up to part 5 v 12 I think also please don't spoil the Hannelore spinoff story I haven't read it yet. So whether you agree or disagree with me I would genuinely love to hear your opinion.

I find Wilfried to be absolutely infuriating a sentence that if you have seen the anime or gotten to part 3 you probably think you know what I'm talking but no when I say I find Wilfried to be absolutely I mean having to think about his character throughout the course of AoB makes me infuriated with every other damn character in the series. As just about everyone this boy has ever known has failed him this guy was given literally all the worst cards in life. Well not the worst worst he is still the archdukes son but as far as cards go bro’s hand was bricked from the very start

His retainers and Veronica

So as you know his retainers and Veronica  from the very start were a bunch of idiots. They failed him, turning him into a spoiled brat who has never worked hard a day in his life. Due to that he subsequently is also an idiot because he wasn;t raised as a proper noble his understanding of noble euphemisms is very low and he act in ways throughout the series that cause the other characters to wonder how he is the archdukes some because even after Florencia takes back his education he is still with many of the same retainers who failed and affirm many of the beliefs his grandmother taught him. 

Rozemyne’s compassion and lack of compassion

One of the things I love about the series is the way it really digs deep into topics and ideas. In a normal story, Rozemyne's compassion would be a good thing. It would be the driving force of revolution and change and while it may be challenged and some traumatic flashback shown where compassion failed the hero ultimately realises that the compassion they show is a good thing and to have an unbreakable will. Here though Kazuki criticises Rozemyne's compassion both in subtle and large ways such as her sympathising with Gervasio because he was a sympathetic man who also had a lot of charisma she got swept away by him and it’s only through Ferdinand that Roz realises that Gervasio isn't someone at the very least to be shown mercy to. Kazuki shows that compassion can lead to gullible tendencies as we wish to believe the best in everybody; this can also lead to us getting tricked and taken advantage of. Kazuki also shows how compassion can also be cruel at times when Wilfried is failed by his retainers. It's because of Roz that Wilfried keeps his retainers but this later has drawbacks as we see Wilfried be manipulated by his retainers. If they had been more harsher acting the “noble” way then Wilfried may have had a better chance down the line as he wouldn’t still retain so many of the former Veronica faction beliefs. Later on though he is similarly then failed by Roz’s lack of compassion she herself is going through it at that point we see her lack of compassion towards Wilfried because her problems seem so large compared to Wilfried he is put to the wayside leading to his problems only exacerbating. Many of the problems Wilfried has with the people around him I think is that he feels that they don’t truly care about him. Roz cares about books, Charlotte always wanted to be the archduke but now that she’s not from Wilfried’s pov she seems jealous of his position as she criticises him. While many of these criticisms are valid they are also part of a larger problem with Wilfried which I will talk about later. Melchior is probably the best out of the lot in this regard but due to being raised in different factions it's likely (just speculation) that Wilfried feels somewhat alone and perhaps unable to understand his brother as well. With Sylvester and Florencia he feels failed by them even if they couldn;t interfere with the first part of his life in the later part after Veronica’s arrest he may feel that compared to Roz people don’t care about him enough. This is also partly Roz’s fault her compassion only extends to the people she cares about and that’s it Kazuki through Wilfried’s character criticises that selective compassion because she essentially washed her hands of him after the first incident with the switch up after that though they may have helped each other it was always with some added strings attached like raising the grades of Ehrenfest she’s not just helping Wilfried she’s also doing it for her books. By the end of the series Wilfried realises he doesn’t want to marry Roz because he realises that to a point compared to Ferdinand she doesn’t care about him leading him to likely feeling inferior but if Roz had shown more compassion then the relationship would have never become so strained she didn’t need to care for Wilfried like a lover it was a political marriage but she needed to care about Wilfried because they were in it together because Roz really does essentially abandon Wilfried for the most part going to the temple and leaving him to it. Many times when she realises Wilfried has a problem like his low understanding of noble euphemisms she never says anything she just leaves it be for some reason because Wilfried isn;t someone she cares about enough to say anything she feels Wilfried is unreliable “a stool” a chair you’re unable to ever truly rest on but then never proactively tries to change that just talking about it with Ferdinand and Justus who equally also don’t give much of a shit about him.

The treatment of the archduke’s son and criminals

One thing about Wilfried’s situation is the way they treat him because he is a criminal he is criticised many times throughout the story for his behaviour. Of course the most infuriating thing about it is that it is done all behind his back many times when character wish to complain about him they will do it behind his back at time actively being hostile towards him and because he has the reputation of a disgraced noble all the while being the archdukes son nobody ever says anything about towards his face until it’s too late at which point he is completely listening to only his retainers and no one else. Throughout the series we see Kazuki criticise the indirectness of noble society through Roz who has to deal with being unable to understand certain situations as people don’t properly explain themselves but it is also shown through Wilfried who the nobles never call out for his behaviour until he meets the Liesegang’s by which point it’s too late and he basically becomes emo. It’s because of his treatment as a criminal that he becomes so close to creating a new Veronica faction again as he feels segregated by everyone and while I understand the hatred that the others have for him especially the Liesegangs, many of the things they do are so openly hostile. This can be seen as Kazuki essentially criticising the cycle of hatred and how by spreading hate we end up becoming the very things we hate. The Liesegang nobles after the Veronica faction fall treat them horribly despite the fact that that very hate was the reason why they were abused in the first place. I also think Kazuki through Wilfried kind of critiques how idiots come to power because they already hold power. People do not criticise them leading to a subsequent worsening of the situation.

Anyway I probably have more to say but my memory is not nearly that good and I am not nearly that concise to remember it all but yeah I find Wilfried[s character infuriating and his actions infuriating. Yes some of the decisions he makes are ultimately his own such as meeting with the Liesegang's for spring prayer leading to his depression. Although the subsequent lead up to some of these horrible decisions I feel are due to the people in his life essentially leaving him out to hang compared to Roz who they carefully guide and look after not to say they both needed the same treatment but that I feel Wilfried was heavily overlooked until he became an actual problem something that could have been prevented.>!&#x200B;!<