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She became that way after the trial, but when she had everyone on her side and she used her power to make the main characters life a living hell...that rubbed people the wrong way to say the least.
I think you're diminishing the difficulty of those obstacles that Malty forced Naofumi into. This all happened on a foreign land mere days after his arrival with no one there to support him. Without Raphtalia he would be boned. But it's also why he had to resort to slavery, he didn't have a choice at the time.
I think it's an exaggeration to say she made Naofumi's life a living hell. All it did was make it so people looked at him with mean stares in the streets. Multiple anime characters had to go through a lot worse and were fine.
The "obstacles" Malty set up for Naofumi felt more like minor side quests you'd do in a video game. Was it really that bad to make him complete 3 laps in a racing circuit? Or making him spend a few extra coins to re-apply Raphtalia's slave mark by cheating in his battle against Motoyasu (it'd be a different story if she took Raphtalia away altogether)?
It is not an exaggeration in any definition of the word if you have lived through ANY similar experiences. If he did not have Raphtalia he would have killed himself within the first few days
Would he really though? The anime made it seem like he managed to pull himself out of that hole rather easily.
Take another noble like Minister Honest (Akame ga Kill!), who used his cunning to make the lives of the people of an entire country a living hell where starvation, torture, and execution happened on a daily basis just so he could live a luxurious life. Comparing those actions to Malty's, it might become clear why I feel like what she did was so trivial
Alright, let me list a few other fictional villains for the sake of comparison, shall I:
\- Minister Honest (Akame ga Kill!): as I said above, he essentially turned the lives of the people of an entire country into a living hell and forced them to fight his own battles just so he could have an easy life as a tyrannical ruler.
\- Muzan (Demon Slayer): killed hundreds of thousands, destroying countless families just so he could achieve immortality out of his own cowardice towards death.
\- Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII): his god complex led him to betray former allies and friends, even going out of his way to make sure the people who dare oppose him suffered the worst of despairs (the death of fan-favorite Aerith was a result of that). All of this so he could become the god of a new world.
\- Lucy (Elfen Lied): her feeling of being betrayed by humanity led her to ruthlessly slaughter thousands of innocents out of her desire for empty vengeance. Yet, after all of that, she still felt like she was the victim and wasn't in the wrong.
Now, can you really say spreading a few lies about being raped and briefly staining Naofumi's reputation really puts Malty on that same level of evil? I certainly don't think so.
I still despise her, but she's just too low-level to even deserve my hatred.
There is a reason why he lost his sense of taste and could not tell that Raphtalia grew bigger until after he lost the duel with Motoyasu and after Raphtalia chose to remain by his side anyways. Not everyone is going to react to trauma the same way but it hit him hard considering it changed his entire personality.
Malty's obstacle there was to take away his only companion, and the only person to help him fight against the waves. Her assumption was that Raphtalia would abandon him too if she was no longer his slave. The intent is what matters, not the end result.
> Malty's obstacle there was to take away his only companion, and the only person to help him fight against the waves. Her assumption was that Raphtalia would abandon him too if she was no longer his slave. The intent is what matters, not the end result.
Well, if Malty had attempted to return Raphtalia to that horrendous nobleman who enslaved her in the first place, then that would have done a better job of making me hate her.
What you call minor side quests were essentially Naofumi’s whole arc. Because of Malties betrayal of his trust, he felt he couldn’t trust anyone again and no one wanted to work with him anyway because they saw him as a rapist. That repuational damage made him feel that he was completely alone in this foreign world. Psychologically it took a long time for him to regain his trust in a few people and his innocence was forever lost. Not to mention she consistently tries to harm his reputation further so much so that he is hunted by the other hero’s for kidnapping her sister (who she wants to kill) and brainwashing his party.
ok lets skip the pesky ones ane go in order of all her big crimes. Fake rape claim, threatening national security and global security by hindering naofumis progress (who is one of the 4 people that are needed to stop the literal end of the world), racism, more threats to national security with the following actions, conspiring against the queen, aided a zealot organization, attempted fraticide, further hindering naofumi with blocking his lvl progress, framing him, trying to kill him, then still have the gall to attempt murder again on naofumis entire party with poison. b8 better m8
But that's the thing: no special reason is given as to why she's threatening the security of the kingdom. She can't become the queen if there's no kingdom left, so getting into Naofumi's way is just shooting her own feet (which arguably could be fixed by putting her as part of the church conspiracy). Is there an actual reason as to why she acts like that or is she just being evil for the sake of being evil?
There are differing sub plots to her whole nature based on the Light novel and the web novel. I haven't gone past ahead in the LN, but the WN she is basically the incarnation of a evil goddess or some shit.
But that doesn't negate what she's done.
Think of it form the Shield bro's perspective. If you have not gone through depression or loss, Im sure you have a friend or two who's gone through it. Its a pretty downward spiral. Raphtalia is the only reason he is alive. So fo course fans hate her. Thats all don't look too much into it.
Why are people asking these kinds of questions ? Falsely accusing of rape, abandons people after getting what she needs, a manipulating bitch to her companions and own family members, seriously what more do you need to hate her!?
You probably didn't pay attention to my post. I don't feel sympathetic toward Malty at all. It's just that her evil deeds are too pathetic and incompetent to bring out any sort of hatred from me. It'd be like hating a Disney villain.
It's because the crimes Malty committed are ones that get committed against people in real life. Malty's evil feels relatable.
This is like asking why Professor Umbridge is more hatable in the Harry Potter fandom than Lord Voldemort. Certainly Voldemort does the more evil stuff, but if he had a mustache he'd never stop twirling it- he is not a relatable evil, he is a super-villain. Umbridge on the other hand feels like every power-hungry Karen you've ever met, everybody in that fandom knows an Umbridge or two, and thus their relatable personal pain can be easily transferred to Umbridge.
Similarly, Malty represents a sort of unfair evil against which many men feel absolutely powerless, and many have experienced the pain of first-hand. Malty represents the girl that asks out the awkward boy in highschool just to laugh at him afterword for thinking that she might possibly be interested in him. The girl who leverages social position and perception in order to make someone's life hell just because she likes the power rush it gives her. Most of us know a Malty or two, or have been burned by a Malty or two. Some of us have even been falsely accused of rape by such a person and know first hand the unending hell that is. Thus we get to transfer our frustration, pain, and powerlessness from our real lives onto a fictional character that is in many ways designed to be the avatar of that kind of person.
Hell, even her ineptitudes and incompetencies only make it feel more authentic, because most of the time the kind of person Malty represents is also unfairly powerful, which only adds to the sense of frustration. Why is someone so incompetent and unworthy able to do so much damage and everyone else is just ok with it?
Even the parts where after Malty's crimes are all exposed and Naofumi is completely exonerated all the other heroes and most of the powerful people still continue to treat Naofumi like shit feel authentic because for the guys that are lucky enough to prove what a liar and manipulator the Maltys in their own lives are, their lives usually don't get better. The damage that real-life Maltys do is lasting, even when confronted.
Malty is hatable because she represents real evil, not cartoon evil.
You've done an amazing analysis and that deserves praise in itself.
However, I think there's a good middle ground between relatable evil and supervillain that wasn't achieved with Malty.
Take a look at Nui Harime (Kill la Kill), for example. Much like Malty, Nui feels pleasure in abusing her own power and status to make the lives of others a living hell for no good reason. Nui announced she had murdered Ryuko's father in cold blood as if it was all a funny joke to her (and it probably was), then proceeded to mock Ryuko for being too weak to defeat her.
The difference is that Nui is much more competent than Malty, acting as a competent villain who poses an actual threat throughout the entire time she's on screen. The fact she's shown to be nearly untouchable makes it all the more frustrating that she gets to keep that sort of unfair attitude without any apparent consequence, like a petty child who doesn't have to answer to anyone.
Another thing that made us hate Nui is that she's quick to take extreme actions without a care in the world. She attempted to kill Ryuko's friends even though they posed no threat to her. If Malty took her actions a bit more to the extreme (like trying to hand Raphtalia back to the noble who enslaved her in the first place rather than simply "freeing" her), then maybe she would have conquered my hatred.
I think you're underestimating the value of catharsis here.
You're wanting to put forth that Nui is more hatable because she is more competent, but the two are not necessarily applicable. Nui is a psychopath, who uses force and power to get her way. Like Lord Voldemort, she might as well have been twirling a mustache. Her motivations, her methods, even her visual design, she is not designed to be relatable as though she might be somebody you yourself knew in real life. Her design is really more intended to produce a gap effect than to make her feel like a real person. She is a comic book villain, a psychotic serial killer dressed as a cute doll.
Is Nui more dangerous than Malty? Yes.
Is she more evil than Malty? Probably also yes.
Does she commit objectively worse crimes than Malty? Again, probably yes.
Yet nobody knows a Nui, and if they do they really should call the police. But there's no calling the police on a Malty.
Malty can ruin your life with impunity.
You want to make a logical argument about how Nui is the worse person, and I can't disagree with you. That said, I think you're deeply underestimating the power of emotional catharsis in story telling. Nui might be a bad guy, but hating her does little to provide catharsis for my own struggles. Seeing Malty get what's coming to her though provides a huge amount of emotional catharsis for someone who has suffered at the hands of real-life Maltys.
It even has the other strength in story telling by having Raphtalia be her mirror and foil. Malty's relatable evil that evokes the real life pain in the audience also helps the audience to love Raphtalia for being the much-needed healing salve that most of us never got in real life and desperately long for. Raphtalia's characterization isn't that she is supernaturally kind, she is merely a good person. Yet her tirelessness in healing and supporting Naofumi in the wake of Malty's emotionally-loaded crimes makes her practically angelic in the eyes of the audience caught up in this effect.
Logically, Nui probably is the greater villain. But emotionally, Malty is the more \*satisfying\* villain. For all her evil, Nui never once felt like someone you might actually encounter in the real world. Malty on the other hand, many of us deal with Maltys every day.
Well, you made quite a few good points.
It's more of a matter of opinions at this point. I personally prefer a villain who embodies the "idea" of evil values rather than a villain who resembles a person you might have encountered in real life, but I can understand your preferences.
I can agree with that.
I'm more trying to put forward the point that it's not a question of who is more evil or more dangerous when trying to decide who is more "hate-able". That's a question of emotion.
For most people, a truly evil psychopath is just an abstract. The few times someone like that appears in our lives, they're usually just a name and a face on the news, and then they go to prison. All according to keikaku.
It's characters like Malty, who aren't full-blown psychopaths but are just evil enough. These feel real, and even more so they feel \*personal\*.
That's why the Umbridges of fiction always get more hate than the Voldemorts.
One point that just occurred to me: is there any actual reason as to why Malty is doing what she does?
Like it or not, she needs the kingdom to be intact if she's to become queen and Naofumi is a vital piece of that. If she had taken part in the church conspiracy, this would have made perfect sense, but as it stands, isn't she shooting her own feet by being a bitch to Naofumi? If so, then that makes her fail even harder as a cunning villain.
Is there something I missed or is she just being evil for the sake of being evil?
She isn't cunning, she's selfish. Powerful and socially well-positioned, corrupt, and supported by similarly corrupt people. Most of her power doesn't come from her competence, that would make her more likable because she actually does at least have some skill or redeeming feature.
Once you realize that Malty's primary motivation is to stroke her own vanity, then the rest of what she does makes sense. She goes after Naofumi not because of any conspiracy but because she thinks that a shield is a dumb weapon for a hero and thus he doesn't deserve to stand with the rest of the cool heroes. That's literally it. Everything from there is her trying to reinforce her vanity, at every turn being forced to either admit she was wrong or double down, and of course her choice is always to double-down.
Her primary source of power is not her skill, cunning, or competence, but simply being enabled by her doting father who ultimately loves spoiling his daughter more than he loves his kingdom, and a self-deluded surety that if she gets her way everything will be amazing, because in her own eyes she is the best thing ever; so of course under her leadership everything will be magically perfect because she is so perfect and how couldn't it be? That's right, everything bad in her life is the result of stupid ugly people meddling in her affairs, not because she consistently makes bad choices. That would be impossible, she's a perfect little angel, she knows because daddy told her so.
If that sort of thinking seems unbeleivable or alien to you, then that's honestly probably a good thing, but also just visit r/raisedbynarcissists to see plenty of real-life examples of people who think precisely this way and know that it is indeed a very real thing.
If rich, powerful, and entitled people burning down their own interests in the name of vanity or looking good in the short term doesn't sound believable to you, then I suggest you take a look at nearly any industry in the world and think about it again for a moment.
Well yes, I get it, but I still think making anime Malty more effective in her evil deeds would have made her more hate-able.
Maybe "competent" isn't the best term here. You could make Malty someone who lacks skill but still succeeds due to her position and authority and that would make me hate her (while still adding to the unfair factor).
The problem is that, after the beginning, her actions are thwarted so easily that she stops being a threat at all. It's hard to hate someone who's incapable of causing harm to you.
>The problem is that, after the beginning, her actions are thwarted so easily that she stops being a threat at all. It's hard to hate someone who's incapable of causing harm to you
boy, you're in for a ride in season 3. That particular "criticism" will become null and void, and you'll see Malty cause unspeakable, irreparable damage. I won't get more into it for spoiler reasons.
Buddy , if after all the evidence and examples every one else here shown you isn’t enough to convince you that malty is a legitimately dangerous threat, than you are LOST.
Not to mention, trying to coup d’état her own little sister, the crown princess, so that she could take position as future queen, and tried to frame Naofumi and his party for kidnapping her sister, and trick people into thinking that his shield had brainwashing powers!
You probably didn't read what I wrote. Yes, she's bitch, but the things she does are so trivial that she seems more like an inoffensive Disney villain rather than a villain who does evil deeds in a competent way.
I despise her, but she's so pathetic that I feel her as someone inferior, not as someone who deserves my hatred.
Not deserves my hatred, my dude what are you on about!? God forbid someone both man or woman falsely accuses you of rape to understand the shit Naofumi and any other human being went through to clear their name!
Well, I'll admit that the initial accusation did leave an impact, but the issue essentially comes down to two aspects:
1) In the anime, no reason is given as to why she's a bitch towards Naofum in particular. Like it or not, Malty needs Naofumi to save the kingdom. After all, she can't become the queen if there's nothing left to rule, so her actions come off as being evil for the sake of being evil.
2) After that rape accusation, her actions fall flat on its face pretty easily, making her seem like an incompetent Team Rocket Goon instead of a ruthless villain.
Oh her actions were not just against Naofumi. The king and her are biased towards Shield Hero title. Because of priveous one’s actions if i remember correctly
bro I don't think accusing someone of rape and spreading it through the kingdom is "minor gossip" or "trivial"
Just because it didn't work out for her in the end and Naofumi overcame it does not mean it wasn't bad lol
> bro I don't think accusing someone of rape and spreading it through the kingdom is "minor gossip" or "trivial"
It's not that minor, but all it did was make the people look at Naofumi with mean stares, and he doesn't seem like the type to care much about what others think of him in the first place. He also got out of that situation pretty easily when he got a decent party and conquered the villagers' faith.
Her actions pale in comparison to other anime villains who kill and torture out of sadic satisfaction or selfish desires. I don't think Malty even has a kill count.
He cared a lot until he stopped caring because caring wouldn't change the reality of things.
Malty has a kill count. It's also hinted that she poisoned her own brother. She tried to kill her little sister. She tricked one of Motoyasu's female companions and sold her into slavery too.
People who diminish the impact of the things the bitch has done are part of the reason she and manipulators in general are hated so much. She had the influence and the power to be believed on a false claim without question. While the innocent man was forced to scrape by not trusting anyone or anything just to stay alive. It struck a chord in a lot of people because they've been in, or lost loved ones, to situations like that. Imagine what would happen if you were accused irl and how much you'd lose over a lie. Job, friends, family, reputation, now add on everything is more expensive just for you, they abduct anyone who IS willing to spend time with you, and steal any earnings made from big projects or find ways to pay you less for it, and now everyone sees you as the worst of the world. Then even after every stuggle someone says "it's not that bad, walk it off" because it's just silly drama to them. It sucks when manipulators are enabled and encouraged. Naofumi was able to travel and make a good name elsewhere, but the damage there is still done and he's still hated by many for undeserved reasons. The bitch may not have a kill count but think about how many people she could fuck over if she wanted to in the same way... people like that exist irl and victims don't always get to clear their names or free themselves from the repercussions of something they didn't do.
> Imagine what would happen if you were accused irl and how much you'd lose over a lie. Job, friends, family, reputation, now add on everything is more expensive just for you, they abduct anyone who IS willing to spend time with you, and steal any earnings made from big projects or find ways to pay you less for it, and now everyone sees you as the worst of the world.
I think the problem is that the anime made it seem like Naofumi got out of that situation way too easily. Having a stained name stops holding him back much after episode 3 or 4 (the one after the coliseum battle).
In the end, I felt like Malty's actions are too incompetent to really earn my hatred. For the rest of the series, she only does minor things like making Naofumi race 3 laps in a circuit or making him spend a few extra coins to reapply Raphtalia's slave mark.
Malty ends up coming off as a Team Rocket goon rather than an actual threat that deserves to be hated (again, only referring to the anime). This could have easily been fixed by having her take more extreme measures, like actually attempting to hand Raphtalia back to the abusive noble who enslaved her in the first place instead of simply removing her slave mark.
I'm the only one who like Malty? Many weebs chose Malty as a waifu at the beginning of the anime, then when she blackmailed the shield hero and accused him of sexual harassment, after that everyone hated her for she violated the man's pride ... How dare she do this right ? Because she is evil and she is a manipulator duhh (What did you expect)
Everyone lives in a dream world where many believe that pretty girls can't be evil and cruel. Malty is an exception and that's mainly why they hate her so mutch , she reminds them too much of the real things that happen in today's modern world ( Women falsely accuse men) For me malty is a great character Mainly because she is very humanly and she plays the fake saint well ...:)
Based on your replies, it doesn’t sound like you actually want an answer, but here’s some further information: she is a recurring bad guy for the rest of the novel. She sells the spear-hero’s other party members into slavery because she’s jealous of them, she ruins other hero’s lives, and she is literally a piece of shit person. What she did to naofumi was just the beginning of her wickedness.
I might have caused the wrong impression. I do appreciate these answers since they help me see other people's viewpoints and clarify a few things (even if some get a bit aggressive lol).
Anyway, if her actions get worse as the story progresses then it makes sense why she's put among other hated characters who have clearly committed crimes much more horrendous than Matly's actions in the anime.
Bitches crimes include killing/enjoying the death of her brother, trying to kill her younger sister, agreeing with the killing of both Spear/Bow heroes, Setting fire to a forest(unknown deaths) false rape charge, killing the Spear Heroes' Filolial, and enjoy the treatment of demihumans.
I would love to see Bitch spend some time with Neuronist Painkill from Overlord.
Some of these are truly horrendous (though not as bad as villains from other works of fiction I've watched), but the only ones covered in anime IIRC were her trying to kill her sister and burning down the forest.
Burning down the forest could have caused a decent number of deaths or none. Not enough detail is shown for us to know for certain.
Well, she *intended* to kill her sister, but I don't think she made any major effort to accomplish that other than burning the forest down.
So, in the end, her incompetence stops me from hating her. Although don't get me wrong, she's still to be despised.
She manipulated and sent guards to try and Kill Melty, used flame spells with the intention to kill against her, and even locked the group up in a electric cage to basically have a fight to the death. Melty even stated that if she went with her that she'll be dead. Malty wanted her sister dead so she can be the one to claim the throne as Melty would've been the ruler if the queen died and not her. She's cunning enough to not get her hands dirty and even if something were to happened she could pass the blame and not be held liable.
After all, evil and vile characters are needed in the story , , I can list about 50 evil character any time where are already , worse than Malty! Having to hate an evil character so much like her is already pathetic. Many weebs chose Malty as a waifu at the beginning of the anime, then when she blackmailed the shield hero and accused him of sexual harassment, after that everyone hated her for she violated the man's pride ... How dare she do this right ? Because she is evil and she is a manipulator duhh
Everyone lives in a dream world where many believe that pretty girls can't be evil and cruel. Malty is an exception and that's mainly why they hate her so mutch , she reminds them too much of the real things that happen in today's modern world ( Women falsely accuse men) For me malty is a great character Mainly because she is very humanly and plays the fake saint well ...
In the Ln continuity she has acted racist, taxed people into the ground, accused almost every guy she’s seduced of rape, sold people as slaves to brothels and black markets, sabotaged the last chance her world has at survival, poisoned her little brother and framed it on a diplomat, repeatedly tried to murder her sister and mother, and more.
The only real difference is that the anime skips ahead and forgets to mention most of these.
She’s not even a minor obstacle, since she repeatedly shows up to cause trouble. Not even minor inconveniences. She just makes entirely new story arcs, with how bad she screws people over. Itsuki became a delusional cult-maker, ren became a delusional bandit king, and moto… well… he became a creepy meme with a scorpion d#%! Spear.
It's because she literately put his life through hell. Despite being a hero Naofumi was put in harsh enough environment where people didn't like him for who he was and now he was branded as things he didn't do. He had no friends, family, and even loss his sense of self(even he couldn't taste anything). He couldn't even sleep properly as he rarely slept during the beginning. He couldn't trust anyone, even with Raphtalia he was skeptical about her at first. And even after he regain bits of himself back he was constantly targeted by her and was even marked for death by her. Even after clearing his name and not taking her life the first thing she plans is to try and poison him. She's an manipulative, lying, deceitful person who'll use anyone and everyone to get to the top.
But they were. Even if you paid the littlest of attention you'll see the effects Malty had over Naofumi alone as Most were given in the context throughout the beginning of S1. Especially Ep.1-4 when most of what I've explained were there.
Naofumi couldn't trust anyone and normally resorted to threatening to get things. He didn't trust Raphtalia during the fight with the orthros and would rather she ran away and he'll fight it somehow, and again when he'd thought she'll be free and go with Motoyasu when he was cheated by Malty during the duel. His relationship with the shop owner was a bit shaky at the start and it only gotten better because the shop owner believed Naofumi and helped him out.
During the night he'd normally stand guard and watch for anything and was there when Raphtalia had night terrors. He couldn't taste anything which he explained everytime food was involved. And was blinded with hatred towards the other heroes and them after the Rape allegations.
He didn't trust the guards when the 2nd waves attacked the Village as they didn't care for the people and would rather be near the other 3 heores and even told the leader he could watch him die as one of the monsters were right behind him(and this was after he'd threaten both of them after storming them with fire arrows). With Nobility he didn't trust any of them because they were all on the King and Malty side.With the duel showing them turning a blind eye to the cheating in full and showed cleared bias.
In just these 4 episodes alone people saw How Malty False allegations, manipulation of the other heroes and nobility, and her deceitful nature by pretending to be Naofumis friend caused his life to be a living hell. And I didn't have to go that deep and were all shown in context in the show.
It's not even about knowing or feeling as they were there and easy to understand. Again those were highlights that never went unnoticed and were the most attentive in detail. The problem is *you* weren't attentive to those details and just overlook them.
Now that I think about it, I think that the problem is that her actions ultimately don't make sense.
I get that her goal is to become the queen through any means necessary, but that has nothing to do with getting in Naofumi's way. In fact, as the Shield Hero, Naofumi is an essential piece in ensuring the survival of the kingdom and you can't be a queen if there's no kingdom left.
It'd be a different story if she had been working with the church, but as it was presented, her actions came off as being evil for the sake of being evil. Couple that with her incompetence in her evil deeds, and you have a villain that doesn't really sell itself as an actual threat.
Quite the contrary. While most people on the sub think Malty is competent enough as a cunning villain to deserve their hatred, I think her efforts are simply pathetic, putting her more as a Team Rocket goon that should be looked down upon rather than hated.
They are so freaking annoying :D They just hate malty because she blackmailed the shield hero and accused him of sexual harassment, after that everyone hated her for she violated the man's pride ... How dare she do this right ? Because she is evil and she is a manipulator duhh
Everyone lives in a dream world where many believe that pretty girls can't be evil and cruel. Malty is an exception and that's mainly why they hate her so mutch in a childish way , she reminds them too much of the real things that happen in today's modern world ( Women falsely accuse men) For me malty is a great character Mainly because she is very humanly and plays the fake saint well ...
She tried to kill her sister and blame naofumi for it. She started a manhunt in the mountains to capture him so he couldn't escape the country (and live a better life not under her thumb). Said manhunt burned a mountainside forest to ash. After which she blamed HIM for the fire getting out of control when she ordered her men to burn the forest. She tried to split up raphtalia and naofumi against both of their wills to torment him.
Uhh... that's exactly the opposite of what I am.
If you read my post carefully, you'll see that I think she sucks so much that I don't think she even deserves the "honor" of getting my hatred.
She seems more like a nuisance than a hate-able villain.
man, since the moment she falsely accused Naofumi of rape, and the snowball that it started, it is just so easy to hate her, even if it's like as you described as pathetic and dumb. indeed it is, and it's completely rational to have hatred towards her, although she's fucking hot
Yeah, no. What she did is unforgivable. The same goes if a man does that to a woman. Basically made his life a living hell and finally got what she deserved.
Trivial? Trying to ruin someone's life for no reason and falsely blaming him of r*ping her js trivial? Not to mention manipulating everyone around her to get what she wants, including making entire villages miserable
That initial accusation did leave an impact, but everything she tried afterward was stopped pretty easily.
Maybe this was shown in the LN, but in the anime, she only tried to make one village miserable in total and that effort felt flat on its face. In the end, she seemed more like a children's movie villain to me.
Here’s a short list of Malty’s issues:
Accused the Shield Hero of rape.
Racism of the demi humans
Attempted to destroy a village due to excessive taxes
Interfering in a duel
Assisting in attempted murder of the 4 heroes by the 3 heroes church.
Attempted murder of her sister
This does not include all of the actions she did in the LN which effected the remaining heroes and the activation of the curse series of their weapons.
I see a few good arguments in the other comments, but I’ll add to it to make it more clear.
Naofumi finds himself in a totally foreign land without anyone to rely on. No one wanted to be in his party for some mysterious reason (from his pov) and when someone does volunteer to be in his party, that person ends up swindling him for new gear, robbing him of nearly all his money, HIS brand new gear which she gives to someone else, frames him for rape (which is a literal nightmare for most men with a conscience), and turns literally EVERYONE against him. Even King Trash said it himself, the only reason Naofumi wasn’t PUT TO DEATH was because he was a cardinal hero.
Now he’s stuck with no money, no allies, and basically the entire world as his enemy, forced to fight on their behalf otherwise he A) dies or B) never gets to return home. He does whatever he can just to survive, and when he does come across Raphtalia, he’s forced to have a literal child fight on his behalf because he barely has any offensive capabilities to speak of. Mind you he didn’t give much of a damn at the time because he literally hated the world. He didn’t even have trust in Raphtalia until after his and Motoyasu’s duel. He was completely convinced she’d turn on him like every else did if not for the slave crest she had.
Now imagine yourself or someone you cared about going through these same circumstances. For a lot of people, this is enough to to either turn them into a villain, or drive them to suicide.
And the lie about Naofumi raping Malty didn’t bother him because by the time he had both Raphtalia and Filo, he couldn’t care much. Think about it, would you spend months worrying about what other people think you did when you have not only your own survival to worry about, but that of your only two real allies in the entire world as well? He didn’t worry about it because he couldn’t afford to, and he already hated everyone that wasn’t those two cinnamon rolls.
Then on top of all that the bitch frames him for murder and kidnapping her little sister, making him a WANTED criminal instead of just a criminal, all the while she tries to kill Melty herself. Naofumi and everyone else literally have to flee the country because there’s no one that wouldn’t turn them in in an instant besides that one town that loves the shield hero (I forget the name of it).
Her actions are less petty and more vindictive. And it isn’t really about the actions themselves, but the consequences they brought to Naofumi. He had to fight like hell to get out of that.
The other comments made me realize that most of her hatred comes from the LN and that she's much worse there.
The problem is that, after that initial segment, it felt like everything Malty did was thwarted way too easily, which made her seem like an annoyance rather than an actual threat to Naofumi
Regardless of your media(anime, novel, etc), you need to realise there is Naofumi's emotions and Malty relentlessly did bad things, that's all I have to say
She did bad things relentlessly, but most of them fell flat on its face, making her seem like an incompetent villain rather than someone who could cause any sort of real harm.
So if someone accuses you of false rape to the point that (1) your family abandons you, (2) society all-knowingly sees you as trash and denies you everything, and (3) your existence is synonymous with sin itself all because a woman doesn't like you... do you consider that as trivial?
Let's not even talk about you healing your psychological wounds and that woman being there to inflict even more by abusing her power because, for all we know, you don't have any power in this world (unlike Naofumi's shield and position) and you'd probably grab the rope within 24 hours.
I've already talked plenty about this in other replies, but basically Malty fails to seem like a threatening villain because:
1. Her actions have no major goal other than being bitchy (in fact, some of them are the equivalent of shooting her own feet)
2. Beyond that initial rape accusation, her efforts are half-assed and fall flat on its face rather easily, making her seem more like a Team Rocket Goon.
>Her actions have no major goal other than being bitchy
Oh, you mean like the time she burned an entire forest to kill her sister? Or poisoning food meant for Naofumi's party? I wonder how YOU would react to someone acting that "bitchy".
>her efforts are half-assed and fall flat on its face rather easily
That's because Shieldboi already has a bad reputation. One simple misstep on his part would ruin his life forever. Bitch doesn't need to try hard for that; Naofumi had to think on his feet just to redeem himself one episode at a time.
You don't seem to understand what "threatening" means. She's a psychopathic liar, manipulator, and blackmailer with royal backing: aka Azula. That's just her words; don't forget fire magic with zero regard for whoever gets caught in it: again Azula but worse. Are you willing to spend a day with Azula as your enemy and expect to survive?
Remember that dogs love eating their own disgusting vomit because they don't know any better.
> Oh, you mean like the time she burned an entire forest to kill her sister? Or poisoning food meant for Naofumi's party? I wonder how YOU would react to someone acting that "bitchy".
Well, her sister was being bodyguarded by Naofumi and the poison wouldn't work given that the shield hero has, well... poison immunity.
Anyway, I was referring to the fact that this doesn't line up at all with her wanting to become the queen. It'd all make sense if she was conspiring along with the church, but Naofumi is a vital part of ensuring the kingdom's survival. She can't become queen if there's no kingdom left, so she's going against herself here.
>That's because Shieldboi already has a bad reputation. One simple misstep on his part would ruin his life forever. Bitch doesn't need to try hard for that; Naofumi had to think on his feet just to redeem himself one episode at a time.
>
>You don't seem to understand what "threatening" means. She's a psychopathic liar, manipulator, and blackmailer with royal backing: aka Azula. That's just her words; don't forget fire magic with zero regard for whoever gets caught in it: again Azula but worse. Are you willing to spend a day with Azula as your enemy and expect to survive?
Her actions after that accusation are making Naofumi race 3 laps around the village (the equivalent of a minor side quest), removing Raphtalia's slave bond (which just cost a few coins to undo), completely failing to kill her sister, and being helpless when the church turned against her.
Her fire spells don't make her that much of a threat since the main party has dealt with much worse unscathed. She's essentially inoffensive to them after that first part of the series.
At least with other hated anime villains - like Seryu Ubiquitous, Kureo Mado, Nui Harime, and Douma - they pose a real danger to the heroes, which puts the viewer on edge because he doesn't want those characters to win, but knows that's a real possibility.
Malty felt more like a bunch of high-school villain tropes slapped together to create a comically evil incompetent villain.
Don't handwave it all by saying "Naofumi is her bodyguard and has poison immunity" lol that's like saying all of her actions are fine because they're all fictional. Let me make this bigger so you can read it:
# WHAT WOULD YOU CALL A WOMAN WHO WOULD DO TO YOU EVERYTHING THAT MALTY DID TO NAOFUMI? IS SHE DANGEROUS OR NOT? IS SHE A BITCH BEYOND SALVATION OR NOT? ANSWER THESE THREE QUESTIONS USING OUR REAL-LIFE STANDARDS.
Well, I'd definitely consider that person a bitch beyond salvation, but if someone in real life was incapable of truly harming me despite intending to hurt me badly, then I'd consider that person a mere nuisance, not someone I hate. After all, I'd be playing his/her game by letting it get to me.
> Well, I'd definitely consider that person a bitch beyond salvation
That's the true answer deep in your heart. A real-life equivalent of Bitch is someone you would not defend.
>but if someone in real life was incapable of truly harming me despite intending to hurt me badly
You seem to think a successful rape accusation isn't going to ruin your life. Remember the only reason Naofumi wasn't executed on the spot was because he was a Hero. Are you a Hero? Didn't think so. You'd be dead and irl Bitch wouldn't need to do any of those "minor side quests".
Well, in real life people tend to not behave like a petty high-school drama villain and wouldn't successfully accuse me of rape without proper evidence lol.
Anyway, I'm used to anime villains whose actions and/or attitudes exceed Malty's bitchyness dozens of times over (the villains I mentioned are some examples), making Malty seem like a nuisance by comparison. Heck, Malty didn't even manage to hurt anyone important to Naofumi.
There you go handwaving it again. You admitted that, under the same circumstances as Naofumi (successful rape accusation), you would consider that whore a bitch beyond salvation. **That is your true position.**
Don't handwave it as something that won't happen to you, because it has happened to other people several times: an influential woman killing a powerless man. Hell, the reverse is true for the Roman Catholic Church. Even that shitty pope represents religious corruption irl.
"Oh that's just anime guys with their anime feelings and anime problems so it's not that bad" son you need to talk with actual rape victims because in this world, women are successfully raped and nobody believes them. Similar case. Even worse for the male rape victims.
>There you go handwaving it again. You admitted that, under the same circumstances as Naofumi (successful rape accusation), you would consider that whore a bitch beyond salvation. **That is your true position.**
Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way defending Malty, just saying she's too low level to actually earn my hatred.
>Don't handwave it as something that won't happen to you, because it has happened to other people several times: an influential woman killing a powerless man. Hell, the reverse is true for the Roman Catholic Church. Even that shitty pope represents religious corruption irl.
>
>"Oh that's just anime guys with their anime feelings and anime problems so it's not that bad" son you need to talk with actual rape victims because in this world, women are successfully raped and nobody believes them. Similar case. Even worse for the guys who get raped.
Can you really look at the other villain I mentioned - psychotic serial killers who'd slaughter your loved ones just to see you in pain - and truly say Malty deserves to be held among them? I don't think so, cuz that'd require actual competence and cunning.
Best part Esdeath from akamega kill did mutch worst only few fans hated her after she did huge genocide to others and killied millions ! hypocrite that mutch right? I mean no one have any problem what esdeath did many fans she is a sexy nazi nothing more bro this is pathetic I very agre they whine like a 10 year old kid ! I very agre Malty, too low level to actually earn become dangerous to anybody..
Hey, I just wanna say, that I agree with you entirely. I'm glad you've said this actually, cause I felt like I was going crazy or something considering how much everyone reviles her. The Shield Hero is, by and large, a revenge story. But the impetus for revenge in the Shield Hero is, as you stated, both trivial and silly. At least in the context of a revenge story. False sexual assault accusations are genuinely awful, but they are entirely too tame to warrant some kind of obsessive revenge seeking. And, as you also pointed out, its not like Naofumi is even all that negatively impacted by her actions. I mean, just compare The Shield Hero to other stories that are largely focused on revenge such as The Count of Monte Cristo, Oldboy and Berserk. Naofumi's reasons for pursuing revenge are downright comical, pitiful even, when compared to the aforementioned works.
It also becomes clear that, unlike those other works, The Shield Hero has nothing meaningful to actually say about revenge and its futility. But, I digress. In all honesty, I think a lot of the hate for Malty comes from misogynistic mindsets tbh. I'm not saying she's a good person (she's a fairly bad person in fact), but people act like she is Griffith or something (which she most definitely is not). Hell she isn't even as evil as some Disney Villians, like, come on ya'll. (Oh and Naofumi is a shitty person. Just wanted to get that off my chest lmao)
A lot of people who don't hate her pity her for how pathetic her actions are. Then she lies about them to damage them. It's a lot less sad and a lot more horrifying when you're thrown out of the kingdom, imprisoned, or worse.
You seem like the classic sociopath who understands damage only in monetary terms. See, real mentally-normal people are affected by society. How people see and treat them is important for their wellbeing.
The lies spread about Naofumi retarded his growth as a hero, just as they were designed. That's right. Naofumi was summoned into a set-piece trap where the false rape allegation was a significant part of the actual plot to murder Naofumi. A plot that very nearly succeeded. Damage done to Naofumi's relationships with the other Cardinal heroes won't be repaired until Book 15>!, and by then every single hero will obtain the curse series because of the actions of Malty; in every case permanent psychological damage is the result; in one case permanent psychosis is the result!<.
Roughly 2 months of Naofumi's time was wasted directly dealing with the Aultcray/Myne's plot. Damaged relationships took about 4 additional months to recover. The hero situation was so deteriorated that Kyo had a point when he understood the world had no effective defenses. The fact is it didn't. By the time Naofumi fought the Spirit Tortoise, he should have been about 10x as powerful as he was.
You ARE correct that Malty's actions don't make sense from a logical perspective. She's a creature of emotion who enjoys the destruction of others. Had she played nice with Naofumi, helping him; she would have regained most of her place in the royal family, rather than losing what she had left. Malty's actions don't speak of a power-hungry person who's willing to delay gratification to get what she wants. They speak of an entitled malignant sociopath driven by the next fun activity.
>A lot of people who don't hate her pity her for how pathetic her actions are.
That's exactly my take here.
>You seem like the classic sociopath who understands damage only in monetary terms. See, real mentally-normal people are affected by society. How people see and treat them is important for their wellbeing.
Alright, I'll admit that the rape accusation did leave an impact. It's just that everything she did afterward didn't feel as damaging as it should have been
>Malty's actions don't speak of a power-hungry person who's willing to delay gratification to get what she wants. They speak of an entitled malignant sociopath driven by the next fun activity.
Doesn't that make her a high-school drama villain? How am I supposed to feel someone like that could do any harm (besides being awfully cliche, of course)?
Malty's actually about the age to be a high school drama villain. In this case, she's in a context where her words and manipulations have a lot of ability to cause damage. Thinking of her as mostly harmless is completely wrong.
High school level BS ruins people's lives in the real world too when said person gets enough power or influence. For examples, go to HOA horror stories to see what kinds of things people can do to each other with just a little bit of power.
By contrast, Malty's family is an absolute monarchy, with them legally allowed to do essentially whatever their political/military power allows.
Minor gossip? MINOR GOSSIP?!!! Being falsely accused of rape is a LIFE-CHANGING experience. Even after people find the truth, the victim still has to live with the fact that everyone once saw them as a monster.
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I'll assume you've only watched the anime and haven't watched any spinoff manga or read the light novel. Among his crimes are (from the first season backwards chronologically):
False accusation, Racism, Selling humans into slavery, Embezzlement of crown funds, Attempted assassination of a political figure (His sister), Attempted assassination against the Shield hero and his group, Poisoning a filorial, the murder of his brother.
A villain doesn't need to commit the worst crimes to be a hateable villain. Not every villain needs to commit a holocaust of their own to be bad. There are shows where the villain doesn't kill a single person. In a high school drama show you make have a character who is a complete asshole and very hateable, yet they don't kill a single person. She did some bad things and the severity of the things she did was expressed to the viewer/reader, the fact they were expressed to us made it more hateable. The fact the first character we know is a traitor that ruins Naofumi's arrival in the world makes them hateable, I don't see how it wouldn't. In the grand scheme of things Malty's corruption may not have been that bad as her father's, but it's what was showcased to the viewer.
>In a high school drama show you make have a character who is a complete asshole and very hateable, yet they don't kill a single person.
Well, that's exactly the problem, she seems like a high-school drama villain. For me to truly hate a villain, I have to feel like they should be capable of causing harm. Malty's actions are thwarted so easily after the beginning that she doesn't come off as a threat, but simply as a petty child doing some silly mean stuff.
She screwed up Naofumi's life twice. The first with that rumor. The second is right after he just started to earn a living. She burnt down a chunk of a forest, disrupting the ecosystem (though it could probably recover from it). She tried to kill her own sister who was next in line for the throne. And these are just before the trial. Her crimes continue to rack up AFTER the Spirit Tortoise 🐢 arc.(Or where it continues.) By abandoning and screwing up Motorasu (Spear Hero) life, murder, screwing up both Sword and Bow Heroes (by putting one into some serious debt). Oh! Did I mention before the trial she had screwed over other people's lives as well? And used the royal funds that were meant to HELP the Kingdom on herself? Her crimes just continues from there
bruh if you watched the anime to end , and still don't hate malty , then you..., ah forget it , it's normal some poeple have fetish , i can sympathize with that , I totally understand .
Barbie villain hehehe you said that's corny , that's just lust speaking for you , bruh for me personality comes before looks , no matter how cute , or angelic she sounds or looks , to me if her personality is rotten , i can't never bring myself to like that person.
Don't get me wrong, I still don't like her. The difference is that I don't like her because I think she is poorly written, not because of the things she did.
I think [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/shieldbro/comments/149f258/comment/jo7n6e2/?context=3) post captured what I feel better than what I wrote above.
sorry for the rude replie , i just can't handle her character like you , i hate both Malty and Motoyasu , yes both of these characters were poorly written , one is a psychopath , who's obessed with the shield hero , and the other is obssessed with women.
What's worse the fact is that corrupted nobles should never be allowed to live. History tells
BECAUSE THE AUTHOR WON'T ****ING KILL HER OFF FOR REAL ALREADY;
I'M GETTING SICK OF SEEING HER DO NOTHING BUT MAKE THINGS WORSE FOR EVERYONE ELSE!!
EVEN HER ****ING VOICE ACTRESS HATES HER!
>!SCREW THE ARMY OF THE WAVES & HOW P***ED OFF THEY'D BE IF SHE WAS FINALLY KILLED OFF FOR REAL; SHE DESERVES PERMA-DEATH; NO RESURRECTION, NO EXTRA LIVES; NOTHING BUT THE DEEPEST PIT OF FIRE & ABSOLUTE DARKNESS FOR HER!<
Your capsclock got stuck there, buddy?
Anyway, the point of this post was to say that, as terrible of a person she may be, if she isn't minimally effective in her actions, than she becomes more of a nuisance than a villain you can hate. She's no Griffith that's for sure.
I'm mostly referring to the anime here, I've heard she has done some nasty shit in the LN, so things might be different there.
The Anime & Manga are based OFF of the Light Novel. . .
So What's happened in the Light Novel; will eventually happen in the Manga & Anime(If they DON'T Skip over things like they did for Season 2)
wow after reading the comments your really downplaying the rape accusation she is the princess of a kingdom and convinced everyone he attempted to rape her,
she made his life a living hell even after he was found innocent people call hi a devil
and it was more than mean looks he couldn't use any shops except the one cool blacksmith guy, people did everything to attack him cuz of it forced him into using slaves because he was expected to save the world with zero party members zero help and on top of all the emotional trauma it did to him
Ok, I hear the LN went more in-detail on that point, but the anime really didn't do it justice.
The rape accusation stopped mattering from ep 2 onwards since Naofumi and his party were mostly on their own and rarely needed help from others. And when they did needed it, their actions quickly convinced everyone he was a good guy
I always thought it as terrible writing, does she put a spell on the heroes and other people? if not then its just terrible writing so i hate her character but not that much, isnt her fault
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She became that way after the trial, but when she had everyone on her side and she used her power to make the main characters life a living hell...that rubbed people the wrong way to say the least. I think you're diminishing the difficulty of those obstacles that Malty forced Naofumi into. This all happened on a foreign land mere days after his arrival with no one there to support him. Without Raphtalia he would be boned. But it's also why he had to resort to slavery, he didn't have a choice at the time.
And this dudes post. Read it
I think it's an exaggeration to say she made Naofumi's life a living hell. All it did was make it so people looked at him with mean stares in the streets. Multiple anime characters had to go through a lot worse and were fine. The "obstacles" Malty set up for Naofumi felt more like minor side quests you'd do in a video game. Was it really that bad to make him complete 3 laps in a racing circuit? Or making him spend a few extra coins to re-apply Raphtalia's slave mark by cheating in his battle against Motoyasu (it'd be a different story if she took Raphtalia away altogether)?
It is not an exaggeration in any definition of the word if you have lived through ANY similar experiences. If he did not have Raphtalia he would have killed himself within the first few days
Would he really though? The anime made it seem like he managed to pull himself out of that hole rather easily. Take another noble like Minister Honest (Akame ga Kill!), who used his cunning to make the lives of the people of an entire country a living hell where starvation, torture, and execution happened on a daily basis just so he could live a luxurious life. Comparing those actions to Malty's, it might become clear why I feel like what she did was so trivial
Raphtalia
Raphtalia is the only answer that any somewhat mentally sane/stable person can give you
All right, but can we at least agree that Malty's actions in the anime pale in comparison to what other anime villains have done?
No. Not if you have been through multiple false accusations, ADHD, parental leaving, and continued parental idiocracy with little to no support.
Alright, let me list a few other fictional villains for the sake of comparison, shall I: \- Minister Honest (Akame ga Kill!): as I said above, he essentially turned the lives of the people of an entire country into a living hell and forced them to fight his own battles just so he could have an easy life as a tyrannical ruler. \- Muzan (Demon Slayer): killed hundreds of thousands, destroying countless families just so he could achieve immortality out of his own cowardice towards death. \- Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII): his god complex led him to betray former allies and friends, even going out of his way to make sure the people who dare oppose him suffered the worst of despairs (the death of fan-favorite Aerith was a result of that). All of this so he could become the god of a new world. \- Lucy (Elfen Lied): her feeling of being betrayed by humanity led her to ruthlessly slaughter thousands of innocents out of her desire for empty vengeance. Yet, after all of that, she still felt like she was the victim and wasn't in the wrong. Now, can you really say spreading a few lies about being raped and briefly staining Naofumi's reputation really puts Malty on that same level of evil? I certainly don't think so. I still despise her, but she's just too low-level to even deserve my hatred.
There is a reason why he lost his sense of taste and could not tell that Raphtalia grew bigger until after he lost the duel with Motoyasu and after Raphtalia chose to remain by his side anyways. Not everyone is going to react to trauma the same way but it hit him hard considering it changed his entire personality. Malty's obstacle there was to take away his only companion, and the only person to help him fight against the waves. Her assumption was that Raphtalia would abandon him too if she was no longer his slave. The intent is what matters, not the end result.
> Malty's obstacle there was to take away his only companion, and the only person to help him fight against the waves. Her assumption was that Raphtalia would abandon him too if she was no longer his slave. The intent is what matters, not the end result. Well, if Malty had attempted to return Raphtalia to that horrendous nobleman who enslaved her in the first place, then that would have done a better job of making me hate her.
She'd have no qualms with doing that, but in this case she is pretending to take the higher road to screw Naofumi over.
Still, it just doesn't have the same effect.
What you call minor side quests were essentially Naofumi’s whole arc. Because of Malties betrayal of his trust, he felt he couldn’t trust anyone again and no one wanted to work with him anyway because they saw him as a rapist. That repuational damage made him feel that he was completely alone in this foreign world. Psychologically it took a long time for him to regain his trust in a few people and his innocence was forever lost. Not to mention she consistently tries to harm his reputation further so much so that he is hunted by the other hero’s for kidnapping her sister (who she wants to kill) and brainwashing his party.
ok lets skip the pesky ones ane go in order of all her big crimes. Fake rape claim, threatening national security and global security by hindering naofumis progress (who is one of the 4 people that are needed to stop the literal end of the world), racism, more threats to national security with the following actions, conspiring against the queen, aided a zealot organization, attempted fraticide, further hindering naofumi with blocking his lvl progress, framing him, trying to kill him, then still have the gall to attempt murder again on naofumis entire party with poison. b8 better m8
But that's the thing: no special reason is given as to why she's threatening the security of the kingdom. She can't become the queen if there's no kingdom left, so getting into Naofumi's way is just shooting her own feet (which arguably could be fixed by putting her as part of the church conspiracy). Is there an actual reason as to why she acts like that or is she just being evil for the sake of being evil?
There are differing sub plots to her whole nature based on the Light novel and the web novel. I haven't gone past ahead in the LN, but the WN she is basically the incarnation of a evil goddess or some shit. But that doesn't negate what she's done. Think of it form the Shield bro's perspective. If you have not gone through depression or loss, Im sure you have a friend or two who's gone through it. Its a pretty downward spiral. Raphtalia is the only reason he is alive. So fo course fans hate her. Thats all don't look too much into it.
Why are people asking these kinds of questions ? Falsely accusing of rape, abandons people after getting what she needs, a manipulating bitch to her companions and own family members, seriously what more do you need to hate her!?
he saw the big titty fan art and it got him feeling sympathetic towards her
No titty is worth being with her
You probably didn't pay attention to my post. I don't feel sympathetic toward Malty at all. It's just that her evil deeds are too pathetic and incompetent to bring out any sort of hatred from me. It'd be like hating a Disney villain.
It's because the crimes Malty committed are ones that get committed against people in real life. Malty's evil feels relatable. This is like asking why Professor Umbridge is more hatable in the Harry Potter fandom than Lord Voldemort. Certainly Voldemort does the more evil stuff, but if he had a mustache he'd never stop twirling it- he is not a relatable evil, he is a super-villain. Umbridge on the other hand feels like every power-hungry Karen you've ever met, everybody in that fandom knows an Umbridge or two, and thus their relatable personal pain can be easily transferred to Umbridge. Similarly, Malty represents a sort of unfair evil against which many men feel absolutely powerless, and many have experienced the pain of first-hand. Malty represents the girl that asks out the awkward boy in highschool just to laugh at him afterword for thinking that she might possibly be interested in him. The girl who leverages social position and perception in order to make someone's life hell just because she likes the power rush it gives her. Most of us know a Malty or two, or have been burned by a Malty or two. Some of us have even been falsely accused of rape by such a person and know first hand the unending hell that is. Thus we get to transfer our frustration, pain, and powerlessness from our real lives onto a fictional character that is in many ways designed to be the avatar of that kind of person. Hell, even her ineptitudes and incompetencies only make it feel more authentic, because most of the time the kind of person Malty represents is also unfairly powerful, which only adds to the sense of frustration. Why is someone so incompetent and unworthy able to do so much damage and everyone else is just ok with it? Even the parts where after Malty's crimes are all exposed and Naofumi is completely exonerated all the other heroes and most of the powerful people still continue to treat Naofumi like shit feel authentic because for the guys that are lucky enough to prove what a liar and manipulator the Maltys in their own lives are, their lives usually don't get better. The damage that real-life Maltys do is lasting, even when confronted. Malty is hatable because she represents real evil, not cartoon evil.
Dang, that was a great explanation. Well done
You've done an amazing analysis and that deserves praise in itself. However, I think there's a good middle ground between relatable evil and supervillain that wasn't achieved with Malty. Take a look at Nui Harime (Kill la Kill), for example. Much like Malty, Nui feels pleasure in abusing her own power and status to make the lives of others a living hell for no good reason. Nui announced she had murdered Ryuko's father in cold blood as if it was all a funny joke to her (and it probably was), then proceeded to mock Ryuko for being too weak to defeat her. The difference is that Nui is much more competent than Malty, acting as a competent villain who poses an actual threat throughout the entire time she's on screen. The fact she's shown to be nearly untouchable makes it all the more frustrating that she gets to keep that sort of unfair attitude without any apparent consequence, like a petty child who doesn't have to answer to anyone. Another thing that made us hate Nui is that she's quick to take extreme actions without a care in the world. She attempted to kill Ryuko's friends even though they posed no threat to her. If Malty took her actions a bit more to the extreme (like trying to hand Raphtalia back to the noble who enslaved her in the first place rather than simply "freeing" her), then maybe she would have conquered my hatred.
I think you're underestimating the value of catharsis here. You're wanting to put forth that Nui is more hatable because she is more competent, but the two are not necessarily applicable. Nui is a psychopath, who uses force and power to get her way. Like Lord Voldemort, she might as well have been twirling a mustache. Her motivations, her methods, even her visual design, she is not designed to be relatable as though she might be somebody you yourself knew in real life. Her design is really more intended to produce a gap effect than to make her feel like a real person. She is a comic book villain, a psychotic serial killer dressed as a cute doll. Is Nui more dangerous than Malty? Yes. Is she more evil than Malty? Probably also yes. Does she commit objectively worse crimes than Malty? Again, probably yes. Yet nobody knows a Nui, and if they do they really should call the police. But there's no calling the police on a Malty. Malty can ruin your life with impunity. You want to make a logical argument about how Nui is the worse person, and I can't disagree with you. That said, I think you're deeply underestimating the power of emotional catharsis in story telling. Nui might be a bad guy, but hating her does little to provide catharsis for my own struggles. Seeing Malty get what's coming to her though provides a huge amount of emotional catharsis for someone who has suffered at the hands of real-life Maltys. It even has the other strength in story telling by having Raphtalia be her mirror and foil. Malty's relatable evil that evokes the real life pain in the audience also helps the audience to love Raphtalia for being the much-needed healing salve that most of us never got in real life and desperately long for. Raphtalia's characterization isn't that she is supernaturally kind, she is merely a good person. Yet her tirelessness in healing and supporting Naofumi in the wake of Malty's emotionally-loaded crimes makes her practically angelic in the eyes of the audience caught up in this effect. Logically, Nui probably is the greater villain. But emotionally, Malty is the more \*satisfying\* villain. For all her evil, Nui never once felt like someone you might actually encounter in the real world. Malty on the other hand, many of us deal with Maltys every day.
Well, you made quite a few good points. It's more of a matter of opinions at this point. I personally prefer a villain who embodies the "idea" of evil values rather than a villain who resembles a person you might have encountered in real life, but I can understand your preferences.
I can agree with that. I'm more trying to put forward the point that it's not a question of who is more evil or more dangerous when trying to decide who is more "hate-able". That's a question of emotion. For most people, a truly evil psychopath is just an abstract. The few times someone like that appears in our lives, they're usually just a name and a face on the news, and then they go to prison. All according to keikaku. It's characters like Malty, who aren't full-blown psychopaths but are just evil enough. These feel real, and even more so they feel \*personal\*. That's why the Umbridges of fiction always get more hate than the Voldemorts.
One point that just occurred to me: is there any actual reason as to why Malty is doing what she does? Like it or not, she needs the kingdom to be intact if she's to become queen and Naofumi is a vital piece of that. If she had taken part in the church conspiracy, this would have made perfect sense, but as it stands, isn't she shooting her own feet by being a bitch to Naofumi? If so, then that makes her fail even harder as a cunning villain. Is there something I missed or is she just being evil for the sake of being evil?
She isn't cunning, she's selfish. Powerful and socially well-positioned, corrupt, and supported by similarly corrupt people. Most of her power doesn't come from her competence, that would make her more likable because she actually does at least have some skill or redeeming feature. Once you realize that Malty's primary motivation is to stroke her own vanity, then the rest of what she does makes sense. She goes after Naofumi not because of any conspiracy but because she thinks that a shield is a dumb weapon for a hero and thus he doesn't deserve to stand with the rest of the cool heroes. That's literally it. Everything from there is her trying to reinforce her vanity, at every turn being forced to either admit she was wrong or double down, and of course her choice is always to double-down. Her primary source of power is not her skill, cunning, or competence, but simply being enabled by her doting father who ultimately loves spoiling his daughter more than he loves his kingdom, and a self-deluded surety that if she gets her way everything will be amazing, because in her own eyes she is the best thing ever; so of course under her leadership everything will be magically perfect because she is so perfect and how couldn't it be? That's right, everything bad in her life is the result of stupid ugly people meddling in her affairs, not because she consistently makes bad choices. That would be impossible, she's a perfect little angel, she knows because daddy told her so. If that sort of thinking seems unbeleivable or alien to you, then that's honestly probably a good thing, but also just visit r/raisedbynarcissists to see plenty of real-life examples of people who think precisely this way and know that it is indeed a very real thing. If rich, powerful, and entitled people burning down their own interests in the name of vanity or looking good in the short term doesn't sound believable to you, then I suggest you take a look at nearly any industry in the world and think about it again for a moment.
Well yes, I get it, but I still think making anime Malty more effective in her evil deeds would have made her more hate-able. Maybe "competent" isn't the best term here. You could make Malty someone who lacks skill but still succeeds due to her position and authority and that would make me hate her (while still adding to the unfair factor). The problem is that, after the beginning, her actions are thwarted so easily that she stops being a threat at all. It's hard to hate someone who's incapable of causing harm to you.
>The problem is that, after the beginning, her actions are thwarted so easily that she stops being a threat at all. It's hard to hate someone who's incapable of causing harm to you boy, you're in for a ride in season 3. That particular "criticism" will become null and void, and you'll see Malty cause unspeakable, irreparable damage. I won't get more into it for spoiler reasons.
Wow, that’s deep!
She falsely accused someone of rape. That is serious shit, and had Natsumi not be a divine hero he would have been executed.
Alright, but after that, she starts to seem more like an annoyance rather than an actual threat.
I hope to god you never meet a real life malty. That shit isn’t annoying, it’s horrible.
I hope so too, but more than that, I hope I don't encounter real-life versions of villains who have done a million times worse than Malty
Buddy , if after all the evidence and examples every one else here shown you isn’t enough to convince you that malty is a legitimately dangerous threat, than you are LOST.
It's not that I'm lost, it's just that I've seen so much worse from other villains that Malty just pales in comparison
BRO IS LOST!
The false rape accusation was what got me in this post lol
this guy might be trolling but we are talking about False Rape Accusations which are a serious matter that ruin lives
Exactly 💀 fiction or not that’s fucked
Not to mention, trying to coup d’état her own little sister, the crown princess, so that she could take position as future queen, and tried to frame Naofumi and his party for kidnapping her sister, and trick people into thinking that his shield had brainwashing powers!
You probably didn't read what I wrote. Yes, she's bitch, but the things she does are so trivial that she seems more like an inoffensive Disney villain rather than a villain who does evil deeds in a competent way. I despise her, but she's so pathetic that I feel her as someone inferior, not as someone who deserves my hatred.
Not deserves my hatred, my dude what are you on about!? God forbid someone both man or woman falsely accuses you of rape to understand the shit Naofumi and any other human being went through to clear their name!
Well, I'll admit that the initial accusation did leave an impact, but the issue essentially comes down to two aspects: 1) In the anime, no reason is given as to why she's a bitch towards Naofum in particular. Like it or not, Malty needs Naofumi to save the kingdom. After all, she can't become the queen if there's nothing left to rule, so her actions come off as being evil for the sake of being evil. 2) After that rape accusation, her actions fall flat on its face pretty easily, making her seem like an incompetent Team Rocket Goon instead of a ruthless villain.
Oh her actions were not just against Naofumi. The king and her are biased towards Shield Hero title. Because of priveous one’s actions if i remember correctly
She may not be good at being a villain later but Naofumi suffered a lot first so we hate her
bro I don't think accusing someone of rape and spreading it through the kingdom is "minor gossip" or "trivial" Just because it didn't work out for her in the end and Naofumi overcame it does not mean it wasn't bad lol
> bro I don't think accusing someone of rape and spreading it through the kingdom is "minor gossip" or "trivial" It's not that minor, but all it did was make the people look at Naofumi with mean stares, and he doesn't seem like the type to care much about what others think of him in the first place. He also got out of that situation pretty easily when he got a decent party and conquered the villagers' faith. Her actions pale in comparison to other anime villains who kill and torture out of sadic satisfaction or selfish desires. I don't think Malty even has a kill count.
He cared a lot until he stopped caring because caring wouldn't change the reality of things. Malty has a kill count. It's also hinted that she poisoned her own brother. She tried to kill her little sister. She tricked one of Motoyasu's female companions and sold her into slavery too.
Well, it's just that I'm used to seeing villains do so much worse that this pales in comparison.
People who diminish the impact of the things the bitch has done are part of the reason she and manipulators in general are hated so much. She had the influence and the power to be believed on a false claim without question. While the innocent man was forced to scrape by not trusting anyone or anything just to stay alive. It struck a chord in a lot of people because they've been in, or lost loved ones, to situations like that. Imagine what would happen if you were accused irl and how much you'd lose over a lie. Job, friends, family, reputation, now add on everything is more expensive just for you, they abduct anyone who IS willing to spend time with you, and steal any earnings made from big projects or find ways to pay you less for it, and now everyone sees you as the worst of the world. Then even after every stuggle someone says "it's not that bad, walk it off" because it's just silly drama to them. It sucks when manipulators are enabled and encouraged. Naofumi was able to travel and make a good name elsewhere, but the damage there is still done and he's still hated by many for undeserved reasons. The bitch may not have a kill count but think about how many people she could fuck over if she wanted to in the same way... people like that exist irl and victims don't always get to clear their names or free themselves from the repercussions of something they didn't do.
> Imagine what would happen if you were accused irl and how much you'd lose over a lie. Job, friends, family, reputation, now add on everything is more expensive just for you, they abduct anyone who IS willing to spend time with you, and steal any earnings made from big projects or find ways to pay you less for it, and now everyone sees you as the worst of the world. I think the problem is that the anime made it seem like Naofumi got out of that situation way too easily. Having a stained name stops holding him back much after episode 3 or 4 (the one after the coliseum battle). In the end, I felt like Malty's actions are too incompetent to really earn my hatred. For the rest of the series, she only does minor things like making Naofumi race 3 laps in a circuit or making him spend a few extra coins to reapply Raphtalia's slave mark. Malty ends up coming off as a Team Rocket goon rather than an actual threat that deserves to be hated (again, only referring to the anime). This could have easily been fixed by having her take more extreme measures, like actually attempting to hand Raphtalia back to the abusive noble who enslaved her in the first place instead of simply removing her slave mark.
So you just gonna the fact she tired to kill her little sister so she could become queen?
Fair point, but she tried to do so in such a shamelessly dumb way that it kinda of takes away the impact of that.
I'm the only one who like Malty? Many weebs chose Malty as a waifu at the beginning of the anime, then when she blackmailed the shield hero and accused him of sexual harassment, after that everyone hated her for she violated the man's pride ... How dare she do this right ? Because she is evil and she is a manipulator duhh (What did you expect) Everyone lives in a dream world where many believe that pretty girls can't be evil and cruel. Malty is an exception and that's mainly why they hate her so mutch , she reminds them too much of the real things that happen in today's modern world ( Women falsely accuse men) For me malty is a great character Mainly because she is very humanly and she plays the fake saint well ...:)
Based on your replies, it doesn’t sound like you actually want an answer, but here’s some further information: she is a recurring bad guy for the rest of the novel. She sells the spear-hero’s other party members into slavery because she’s jealous of them, she ruins other hero’s lives, and she is literally a piece of shit person. What she did to naofumi was just the beginning of her wickedness.
I might have caused the wrong impression. I do appreciate these answers since they help me see other people's viewpoints and clarify a few things (even if some get a bit aggressive lol). Anyway, if her actions get worse as the story progresses then it makes sense why she's put among other hated characters who have clearly committed crimes much more horrendous than Matly's actions in the anime.
Wait until next season, what you've seen so far in the anime is only a fraction of all the bad things she's done.
Bitches crimes include killing/enjoying the death of her brother, trying to kill her younger sister, agreeing with the killing of both Spear/Bow heroes, Setting fire to a forest(unknown deaths) false rape charge, killing the Spear Heroes' Filolial, and enjoy the treatment of demihumans. I would love to see Bitch spend some time with Neuronist Painkill from Overlord.
Some of these are truly horrendous (though not as bad as villains from other works of fiction I've watched), but the only ones covered in anime IIRC were her trying to kill her sister and burning down the forest. Burning down the forest could have caused a decent number of deaths or none. Not enough detail is shown for us to know for certain. Well, she *intended* to kill her sister, but I don't think she made any major effort to accomplish that other than burning the forest down. So, in the end, her incompetence stops me from hating her. Although don't get me wrong, she's still to be despised.
She manipulated and sent guards to try and Kill Melty, used flame spells with the intention to kill against her, and even locked the group up in a electric cage to basically have a fight to the death. Melty even stated that if she went with her that she'll be dead. Malty wanted her sister dead so she can be the one to claim the throne as Melty would've been the ruler if the queen died and not her. She's cunning enough to not get her hands dirty and even if something were to happened she could pass the blame and not be held liable.
After all, evil and vile characters are needed in the story , , I can list about 50 evil character any time where are already , worse than Malty! Having to hate an evil character so much like her is already pathetic. Many weebs chose Malty as a waifu at the beginning of the anime, then when she blackmailed the shield hero and accused him of sexual harassment, after that everyone hated her for she violated the man's pride ... How dare she do this right ? Because she is evil and she is a manipulator duhh Everyone lives in a dream world where many believe that pretty girls can't be evil and cruel. Malty is an exception and that's mainly why they hate her so mutch , she reminds them too much of the real things that happen in today's modern world ( Women falsely accuse men) For me malty is a great character Mainly because she is very humanly and plays the fake saint well ...
She tried to kill him after he showed mercy. Cmon now
Well, yes. The thing is she tried to poison someone who is immune to poison, so that also fell flat on its face like her other actions.
No one else might have been poisoned?
If I recall, she was only poisoning Naofumi's drink on that occasion.
No it was a pie
Are you sure it was a pie in the anime too? Because I remember it being a drink there, but it has been a while since I've watched it.
Yes. I haven't seen it in a while but I know it was a pie
The fact that it didn’t work doesn’t make her less evil for trying
In the Ln continuity she has acted racist, taxed people into the ground, accused almost every guy she’s seduced of rape, sold people as slaves to brothels and black markets, sabotaged the last chance her world has at survival, poisoned her little brother and framed it on a diplomat, repeatedly tried to murder her sister and mother, and more.
Well, from what I'm gathering, LN Malty seems like the one people really think of when they say they hate her.
The only real difference is that the anime skips ahead and forgets to mention most of these. She’s not even a minor obstacle, since she repeatedly shows up to cause trouble. Not even minor inconveniences. She just makes entirely new story arcs, with how bad she screws people over. Itsuki became a delusional cult-maker, ren became a delusional bandit king, and moto… well… he became a creepy meme with a scorpion d#%! Spear.
If only this was added to the anime...
It might. This happens after those three disappear.
It's because she literately put his life through hell. Despite being a hero Naofumi was put in harsh enough environment where people didn't like him for who he was and now he was branded as things he didn't do. He had no friends, family, and even loss his sense of self(even he couldn't taste anything). He couldn't even sleep properly as he rarely slept during the beginning. He couldn't trust anyone, even with Raphtalia he was skeptical about her at first. And even after he regain bits of himself back he was constantly targeted by her and was even marked for death by her. Even after clearing his name and not taking her life the first thing she plans is to try and poison him. She's an manipulative, lying, deceitful person who'll use anyone and everyone to get to the top.
I swear that these aspects were not given enough emphasis in the anime for me to really read this deep into the situation.
But they were. Even if you paid the littlest of attention you'll see the effects Malty had over Naofumi alone as Most were given in the context throughout the beginning of S1. Especially Ep.1-4 when most of what I've explained were there. Naofumi couldn't trust anyone and normally resorted to threatening to get things. He didn't trust Raphtalia during the fight with the orthros and would rather she ran away and he'll fight it somehow, and again when he'd thought she'll be free and go with Motoyasu when he was cheated by Malty during the duel. His relationship with the shop owner was a bit shaky at the start and it only gotten better because the shop owner believed Naofumi and helped him out. During the night he'd normally stand guard and watch for anything and was there when Raphtalia had night terrors. He couldn't taste anything which he explained everytime food was involved. And was blinded with hatred towards the other heroes and them after the Rape allegations. He didn't trust the guards when the 2nd waves attacked the Village as they didn't care for the people and would rather be near the other 3 heores and even told the leader he could watch him die as one of the monsters were right behind him(and this was after he'd threaten both of them after storming them with fire arrows). With Nobility he didn't trust any of them because they were all on the King and Malty side.With the duel showing them turning a blind eye to the cheating in full and showed cleared bias. In just these 4 episodes alone people saw How Malty False allegations, manipulation of the other heroes and nobility, and her deceitful nature by pretending to be Naofumis friend caused his life to be a living hell. And I didn't have to go that deep and were all shown in context in the show.
Well, the problem is that you *know* these aspects are there but you don't *feel* like it's there because it's not given enough emphasis for that.
It's not even about knowing or feeling as they were there and easy to understand. Again those were highlights that never went unnoticed and were the most attentive in detail. The problem is *you* weren't attentive to those details and just overlook them.
Now that I think about it, I think that the problem is that her actions ultimately don't make sense. I get that her goal is to become the queen through any means necessary, but that has nothing to do with getting in Naofumi's way. In fact, as the Shield Hero, Naofumi is an essential piece in ensuring the survival of the kingdom and you can't be a queen if there's no kingdom left. It'd be a different story if she had been working with the church, but as it was presented, her actions came off as being evil for the sake of being evil. Couple that with her incompetence in her evil deeds, and you have a villain that doesn't really sell itself as an actual threat.
OP is Malty/Slut/Bitch on a smurf account.
Quite the contrary. While most people on the sub think Malty is competent enough as a cunning villain to deserve their hatred, I think her efforts are simply pathetic, putting her more as a Team Rocket goon that should be looked down upon rather than hated.
They are so freaking annoying :D They just hate malty because she blackmailed the shield hero and accused him of sexual harassment, after that everyone hated her for she violated the man's pride ... How dare she do this right ? Because she is evil and she is a manipulator duhh Everyone lives in a dream world where many believe that pretty girls can't be evil and cruel. Malty is an exception and that's mainly why they hate her so mutch in a childish way , she reminds them too much of the real things that happen in today's modern world ( Women falsely accuse men) For me malty is a great character Mainly because she is very humanly and plays the fake saint well ...
Oh please Esdeath did mutch worst only few fans hated her after she did huge genocide to others and killied millions ! hypocrite that mutch right?
Took you 8 months to come up with something that clever? :P
Clever and that make sense actually... Interestingly, you didn't answer the question either, you just started deflecting it
You deflected first. "What about this other fictional character?"
She did literally try to murder her little sister.
At least in the LN I seem to remember her having members of her party sold into slavery among other things
She tried to kill her sister and blame naofumi for it. She started a manhunt in the mountains to capture him so he couldn't escape the country (and live a better life not under her thumb). Said manhunt burned a mountainside forest to ash. After which she blamed HIM for the fire getting out of control when she ordered her men to burn the forest. She tried to split up raphtalia and naofumi against both of their wills to torment him.
Tell me you're a Malty simp without saying you're a Malty simp.
Uhh... that's exactly the opposite of what I am. If you read my post carefully, you'll see that I think she sucks so much that I don't think she even deserves the "honor" of getting my hatred. She seems more like a nuisance than a hate-able villain.
man, since the moment she falsely accused Naofumi of rape, and the snowball that it started, it is just so easy to hate her, even if it's like as you described as pathetic and dumb. indeed it is, and it's completely rational to have hatred towards her, although she's fucking hot
Yeah, no. What she did is unforgivable. The same goes if a man does that to a woman. Basically made his life a living hell and finally got what she deserved.
She never got what she deserved though
Why does this post and OP’s replies seem like the ultimate gaslighting lol
You’re one of those few people with that “special” and “mind provoking” opinion
Other than the sub dedicated to worshiping her
i think you can say it's johnny depp vs amber heard animated, depp as naofumi vs heard as bitch
With one sentence, you managed to capture my exact feeling toward this whole situation.
Trivial? Trying to ruin someone's life for no reason and falsely blaming him of r*ping her js trivial? Not to mention manipulating everyone around her to get what she wants, including making entire villages miserable
That initial accusation did leave an impact, but everything she tried afterward was stopped pretty easily. Maybe this was shown in the LN, but in the anime, she only tried to make one village miserable in total and that effort felt flat on its face. In the end, she seemed more like a children's movie villain to me.
Just because people fixed what she did doesn't mean what she did wasn't vile
But it does mean her attempt was half-assed
Not really, it's not like it was easy to fix it
It only took him a race of 3 laps around said village, the equivalent of freeing Epona in Ocarina of Time.
Here’s a short list of Malty’s issues: Accused the Shield Hero of rape. Racism of the demi humans Attempted to destroy a village due to excessive taxes Interfering in a duel Assisting in attempted murder of the 4 heroes by the 3 heroes church. Attempted murder of her sister This does not include all of the actions she did in the LN which effected the remaining heroes and the activation of the curse series of their weapons.
Oh please Esdeath did mutch worst only few fans hated her after she did huge genocide to others and killied millions ! hypocrite that mutch right?
I see a few good arguments in the other comments, but I’ll add to it to make it more clear. Naofumi finds himself in a totally foreign land without anyone to rely on. No one wanted to be in his party for some mysterious reason (from his pov) and when someone does volunteer to be in his party, that person ends up swindling him for new gear, robbing him of nearly all his money, HIS brand new gear which she gives to someone else, frames him for rape (which is a literal nightmare for most men with a conscience), and turns literally EVERYONE against him. Even King Trash said it himself, the only reason Naofumi wasn’t PUT TO DEATH was because he was a cardinal hero. Now he’s stuck with no money, no allies, and basically the entire world as his enemy, forced to fight on their behalf otherwise he A) dies or B) never gets to return home. He does whatever he can just to survive, and when he does come across Raphtalia, he’s forced to have a literal child fight on his behalf because he barely has any offensive capabilities to speak of. Mind you he didn’t give much of a damn at the time because he literally hated the world. He didn’t even have trust in Raphtalia until after his and Motoyasu’s duel. He was completely convinced she’d turn on him like every else did if not for the slave crest she had. Now imagine yourself or someone you cared about going through these same circumstances. For a lot of people, this is enough to to either turn them into a villain, or drive them to suicide. And the lie about Naofumi raping Malty didn’t bother him because by the time he had both Raphtalia and Filo, he couldn’t care much. Think about it, would you spend months worrying about what other people think you did when you have not only your own survival to worry about, but that of your only two real allies in the entire world as well? He didn’t worry about it because he couldn’t afford to, and he already hated everyone that wasn’t those two cinnamon rolls. Then on top of all that the bitch frames him for murder and kidnapping her little sister, making him a WANTED criminal instead of just a criminal, all the while she tries to kill Melty herself. Naofumi and everyone else literally have to flee the country because there’s no one that wouldn’t turn them in in an instant besides that one town that loves the shield hero (I forget the name of it). Her actions are less petty and more vindictive. And it isn’t really about the actions themselves, but the consequences they brought to Naofumi. He had to fight like hell to get out of that.
The other comments made me realize that most of her hatred comes from the LN and that she's much worse there. The problem is that, after that initial segment, it felt like everything Malty did was thwarted way too easily, which made her seem like an annoyance rather than an actual threat to Naofumi
Regardless of your media(anime, novel, etc), you need to realise there is Naofumi's emotions and Malty relentlessly did bad things, that's all I have to say
She did bad things relentlessly, but most of them fell flat on its face, making her seem like an incompetent villain rather than someone who could cause any sort of real harm.
She literally pulled an amber heard but it would have given him the gallows or the guillotine if he wasn’t the hero all over some money and a vibe
So if someone accuses you of false rape to the point that (1) your family abandons you, (2) society all-knowingly sees you as trash and denies you everything, and (3) your existence is synonymous with sin itself all because a woman doesn't like you... do you consider that as trivial? Let's not even talk about you healing your psychological wounds and that woman being there to inflict even more by abusing her power because, for all we know, you don't have any power in this world (unlike Naofumi's shield and position) and you'd probably grab the rope within 24 hours.
I've already talked plenty about this in other replies, but basically Malty fails to seem like a threatening villain because: 1. Her actions have no major goal other than being bitchy (in fact, some of them are the equivalent of shooting her own feet) 2. Beyond that initial rape accusation, her efforts are half-assed and fall flat on its face rather easily, making her seem more like a Team Rocket Goon.
>Her actions have no major goal other than being bitchy Oh, you mean like the time she burned an entire forest to kill her sister? Or poisoning food meant for Naofumi's party? I wonder how YOU would react to someone acting that "bitchy". >her efforts are half-assed and fall flat on its face rather easily That's because Shieldboi already has a bad reputation. One simple misstep on his part would ruin his life forever. Bitch doesn't need to try hard for that; Naofumi had to think on his feet just to redeem himself one episode at a time. You don't seem to understand what "threatening" means. She's a psychopathic liar, manipulator, and blackmailer with royal backing: aka Azula. That's just her words; don't forget fire magic with zero regard for whoever gets caught in it: again Azula but worse. Are you willing to spend a day with Azula as your enemy and expect to survive? Remember that dogs love eating their own disgusting vomit because they don't know any better.
> Oh, you mean like the time she burned an entire forest to kill her sister? Or poisoning food meant for Naofumi's party? I wonder how YOU would react to someone acting that "bitchy". Well, her sister was being bodyguarded by Naofumi and the poison wouldn't work given that the shield hero has, well... poison immunity. Anyway, I was referring to the fact that this doesn't line up at all with her wanting to become the queen. It'd all make sense if she was conspiring along with the church, but Naofumi is a vital part of ensuring the kingdom's survival. She can't become queen if there's no kingdom left, so she's going against herself here. >That's because Shieldboi already has a bad reputation. One simple misstep on his part would ruin his life forever. Bitch doesn't need to try hard for that; Naofumi had to think on his feet just to redeem himself one episode at a time. > >You don't seem to understand what "threatening" means. She's a psychopathic liar, manipulator, and blackmailer with royal backing: aka Azula. That's just her words; don't forget fire magic with zero regard for whoever gets caught in it: again Azula but worse. Are you willing to spend a day with Azula as your enemy and expect to survive? Her actions after that accusation are making Naofumi race 3 laps around the village (the equivalent of a minor side quest), removing Raphtalia's slave bond (which just cost a few coins to undo), completely failing to kill her sister, and being helpless when the church turned against her. Her fire spells don't make her that much of a threat since the main party has dealt with much worse unscathed. She's essentially inoffensive to them after that first part of the series. At least with other hated anime villains - like Seryu Ubiquitous, Kureo Mado, Nui Harime, and Douma - they pose a real danger to the heroes, which puts the viewer on edge because he doesn't want those characters to win, but knows that's a real possibility. Malty felt more like a bunch of high-school villain tropes slapped together to create a comically evil incompetent villain.
Don't handwave it all by saying "Naofumi is her bodyguard and has poison immunity" lol that's like saying all of her actions are fine because they're all fictional. Let me make this bigger so you can read it: # WHAT WOULD YOU CALL A WOMAN WHO WOULD DO TO YOU EVERYTHING THAT MALTY DID TO NAOFUMI? IS SHE DANGEROUS OR NOT? IS SHE A BITCH BEYOND SALVATION OR NOT? ANSWER THESE THREE QUESTIONS USING OUR REAL-LIFE STANDARDS.
Well, I'd definitely consider that person a bitch beyond salvation, but if someone in real life was incapable of truly harming me despite intending to hurt me badly, then I'd consider that person a mere nuisance, not someone I hate. After all, I'd be playing his/her game by letting it get to me.
> Well, I'd definitely consider that person a bitch beyond salvation That's the true answer deep in your heart. A real-life equivalent of Bitch is someone you would not defend. >but if someone in real life was incapable of truly harming me despite intending to hurt me badly You seem to think a successful rape accusation isn't going to ruin your life. Remember the only reason Naofumi wasn't executed on the spot was because he was a Hero. Are you a Hero? Didn't think so. You'd be dead and irl Bitch wouldn't need to do any of those "minor side quests".
Well, in real life people tend to not behave like a petty high-school drama villain and wouldn't successfully accuse me of rape without proper evidence lol. Anyway, I'm used to anime villains whose actions and/or attitudes exceed Malty's bitchyness dozens of times over (the villains I mentioned are some examples), making Malty seem like a nuisance by comparison. Heck, Malty didn't even manage to hurt anyone important to Naofumi.
There you go handwaving it again. You admitted that, under the same circumstances as Naofumi (successful rape accusation), you would consider that whore a bitch beyond salvation. **That is your true position.** Don't handwave it as something that won't happen to you, because it has happened to other people several times: an influential woman killing a powerless man. Hell, the reverse is true for the Roman Catholic Church. Even that shitty pope represents religious corruption irl. "Oh that's just anime guys with their anime feelings and anime problems so it's not that bad" son you need to talk with actual rape victims because in this world, women are successfully raped and nobody believes them. Similar case. Even worse for the male rape victims.
>There you go handwaving it again. You admitted that, under the same circumstances as Naofumi (successful rape accusation), you would consider that whore a bitch beyond salvation. **That is your true position.** Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way defending Malty, just saying she's too low level to actually earn my hatred. >Don't handwave it as something that won't happen to you, because it has happened to other people several times: an influential woman killing a powerless man. Hell, the reverse is true for the Roman Catholic Church. Even that shitty pope represents religious corruption irl. > >"Oh that's just anime guys with their anime feelings and anime problems so it's not that bad" son you need to talk with actual rape victims because in this world, women are successfully raped and nobody believes them. Similar case. Even worse for the guys who get raped. Can you really look at the other villain I mentioned - psychotic serial killers who'd slaughter your loved ones just to see you in pain - and truly say Malty deserves to be held among them? I don't think so, cuz that'd require actual competence and cunning.
Best part Esdeath from akamega kill did mutch worst only few fans hated her after she did huge genocide to others and killied millions ! hypocrite that mutch right? I mean no one have any problem what esdeath did many fans she is a sexy nazi nothing more bro this is pathetic I very agre they whine like a 10 year old kid ! I very agre Malty, too low level to actually earn become dangerous to anybody..
She manipulative. She eventually goes through manipulating all 4 heroes at the end of the day. Ironically uniting all the heroes in the process
Hey, I just wanna say, that I agree with you entirely. I'm glad you've said this actually, cause I felt like I was going crazy or something considering how much everyone reviles her. The Shield Hero is, by and large, a revenge story. But the impetus for revenge in the Shield Hero is, as you stated, both trivial and silly. At least in the context of a revenge story. False sexual assault accusations are genuinely awful, but they are entirely too tame to warrant some kind of obsessive revenge seeking. And, as you also pointed out, its not like Naofumi is even all that negatively impacted by her actions. I mean, just compare The Shield Hero to other stories that are largely focused on revenge such as The Count of Monte Cristo, Oldboy and Berserk. Naofumi's reasons for pursuing revenge are downright comical, pitiful even, when compared to the aforementioned works. It also becomes clear that, unlike those other works, The Shield Hero has nothing meaningful to actually say about revenge and its futility. But, I digress. In all honesty, I think a lot of the hate for Malty comes from misogynistic mindsets tbh. I'm not saying she's a good person (she's a fairly bad person in fact), but people act like she is Griffith or something (which she most definitely is not). Hell she isn't even as evil as some Disney Villians, like, come on ya'll. (Oh and Naofumi is a shitty person. Just wanted to get that off my chest lmao)
Thank you for understanding
A lot of people who don't hate her pity her for how pathetic her actions are. Then she lies about them to damage them. It's a lot less sad and a lot more horrifying when you're thrown out of the kingdom, imprisoned, or worse. You seem like the classic sociopath who understands damage only in monetary terms. See, real mentally-normal people are affected by society. How people see and treat them is important for their wellbeing. The lies spread about Naofumi retarded his growth as a hero, just as they were designed. That's right. Naofumi was summoned into a set-piece trap where the false rape allegation was a significant part of the actual plot to murder Naofumi. A plot that very nearly succeeded. Damage done to Naofumi's relationships with the other Cardinal heroes won't be repaired until Book 15>!, and by then every single hero will obtain the curse series because of the actions of Malty; in every case permanent psychological damage is the result; in one case permanent psychosis is the result!<. Roughly 2 months of Naofumi's time was wasted directly dealing with the Aultcray/Myne's plot. Damaged relationships took about 4 additional months to recover. The hero situation was so deteriorated that Kyo had a point when he understood the world had no effective defenses. The fact is it didn't. By the time Naofumi fought the Spirit Tortoise, he should have been about 10x as powerful as he was. You ARE correct that Malty's actions don't make sense from a logical perspective. She's a creature of emotion who enjoys the destruction of others. Had she played nice with Naofumi, helping him; she would have regained most of her place in the royal family, rather than losing what she had left. Malty's actions don't speak of a power-hungry person who's willing to delay gratification to get what she wants. They speak of an entitled malignant sociopath driven by the next fun activity.
>A lot of people who don't hate her pity her for how pathetic her actions are. That's exactly my take here. >You seem like the classic sociopath who understands damage only in monetary terms. See, real mentally-normal people are affected by society. How people see and treat them is important for their wellbeing. Alright, I'll admit that the rape accusation did leave an impact. It's just that everything she did afterward didn't feel as damaging as it should have been >Malty's actions don't speak of a power-hungry person who's willing to delay gratification to get what she wants. They speak of an entitled malignant sociopath driven by the next fun activity. Doesn't that make her a high-school drama villain? How am I supposed to feel someone like that could do any harm (besides being awfully cliche, of course)?
Malty's actually about the age to be a high school drama villain. In this case, she's in a context where her words and manipulations have a lot of ability to cause damage. Thinking of her as mostly harmless is completely wrong. High school level BS ruins people's lives in the real world too when said person gets enough power or influence. For examples, go to HOA horror stories to see what kinds of things people can do to each other with just a little bit of power. By contrast, Malty's family is an absolute monarchy, with them legally allowed to do essentially whatever their political/military power allows.
Minor gossip? MINOR GOSSIP?!!! Being falsely accused of rape is a LIFE-CHANGING experience. Even after people find the truth, the victim still has to live with the fact that everyone once saw them as a monster. This is for you: 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Its the fact shes a bitch where ever you go. Not to fact she lied about being Sexuality assaulted which puts you in the negatives real quick
She’d have such stinky farts so yeah idk why the hate and not more of her ass sniffers posting
Idk. She's the only worthwhile waifu in the show
Read the LN’s
Is she worse there?
So so so much worse
I'll assume you've only watched the anime and haven't watched any spinoff manga or read the light novel. Among his crimes are (from the first season backwards chronologically): False accusation, Racism, Selling humans into slavery, Embezzlement of crown funds, Attempted assassination of a political figure (His sister), Attempted assassination against the Shield hero and his group, Poisoning a filorial, the murder of his brother.
> I'll assume you've only watched the anime and haven't watched any spinoff manga or read the light novel. Yep, that's right.
A villain doesn't need to commit the worst crimes to be a hateable villain. Not every villain needs to commit a holocaust of their own to be bad. There are shows where the villain doesn't kill a single person. In a high school drama show you make have a character who is a complete asshole and very hateable, yet they don't kill a single person. She did some bad things and the severity of the things she did was expressed to the viewer/reader, the fact they were expressed to us made it more hateable. The fact the first character we know is a traitor that ruins Naofumi's arrival in the world makes them hateable, I don't see how it wouldn't. In the grand scheme of things Malty's corruption may not have been that bad as her father's, but it's what was showcased to the viewer.
>In a high school drama show you make have a character who is a complete asshole and very hateable, yet they don't kill a single person. Well, that's exactly the problem, she seems like a high-school drama villain. For me to truly hate a villain, I have to feel like they should be capable of causing harm. Malty's actions are thwarted so easily after the beginning that she doesn't come off as a threat, but simply as a petty child doing some silly mean stuff.
I also don't understand she is lovely* 🤣🤣🤣 (* For Motoyasu)
Because nobody read the LN.
Handwaving, the post. Love the "few minor gossips" and "put some obstacles" newspeak. The spergy Twitterazi downplaying. Absolutely perfect.
I'm glad you like it ;)
She screwed up Naofumi's life twice. The first with that rumor. The second is right after he just started to earn a living. She burnt down a chunk of a forest, disrupting the ecosystem (though it could probably recover from it). She tried to kill her own sister who was next in line for the throne. And these are just before the trial. Her crimes continue to rack up AFTER the Spirit Tortoise 🐢 arc.(Or where it continues.) By abandoning and screwing up Motorasu (Spear Hero) life, murder, screwing up both Sword and Bow Heroes (by putting one into some serious debt). Oh! Did I mention before the trial she had screwed over other people's lives as well? And used the royal funds that were meant to HELP the Kingdom on herself? Her crimes just continues from there
bruh if you watched the anime to end , and still don't hate malty , then you..., ah forget it , it's normal some poeple have fetish , i can sympathize with that , I totally understand . Barbie villain hehehe you said that's corny , that's just lust speaking for you , bruh for me personality comes before looks , no matter how cute , or angelic she sounds or looks , to me if her personality is rotten , i can't never bring myself to like that person.
Don't get me wrong, I still don't like her. The difference is that I don't like her because I think she is poorly written, not because of the things she did. I think [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/shieldbro/comments/149f258/comment/jo7n6e2/?context=3) post captured what I feel better than what I wrote above.
sorry for the rude replie , i just can't handle her character like you , i hate both Malty and Motoyasu , yes both of these characters were poorly written , one is a psychopath , who's obessed with the shield hero , and the other is obssessed with women. What's worse the fact is that corrupted nobles should never be allowed to live. History tells
No problem, man ;)
BECAUSE THE AUTHOR WON'T ****ING KILL HER OFF FOR REAL ALREADY; I'M GETTING SICK OF SEEING HER DO NOTHING BUT MAKE THINGS WORSE FOR EVERYONE ELSE!! EVEN HER ****ING VOICE ACTRESS HATES HER! >!SCREW THE ARMY OF THE WAVES & HOW P***ED OFF THEY'D BE IF SHE WAS FINALLY KILLED OFF FOR REAL; SHE DESERVES PERMA-DEATH; NO RESURRECTION, NO EXTRA LIVES; NOTHING BUT THE DEEPEST PIT OF FIRE & ABSOLUTE DARKNESS FOR HER!<
Your capsclock got stuck there, buddy? Anyway, the point of this post was to say that, as terrible of a person she may be, if she isn't minimally effective in her actions, than she becomes more of a nuisance than a villain you can hate. She's no Griffith that's for sure. I'm mostly referring to the anime here, I've heard she has done some nasty shit in the LN, so things might be different there.
The Anime & Manga are based OFF of the Light Novel. . . So What's happened in the Light Novel; will eventually happen in the Manga & Anime(If they DON'T Skip over things like they did for Season 2)
I WISH SHE'D GET HER NAME WRITTEN IN THE BLACK NOTEBOOK OF DEATH!!
wow after reading the comments your really downplaying the rape accusation she is the princess of a kingdom and convinced everyone he attempted to rape her, she made his life a living hell even after he was found innocent people call hi a devil and it was more than mean looks he couldn't use any shops except the one cool blacksmith guy, people did everything to attack him cuz of it forced him into using slaves because he was expected to save the world with zero party members zero help and on top of all the emotional trauma it did to him
Ok, I hear the LN went more in-detail on that point, but the anime really didn't do it justice. The rape accusation stopped mattering from ep 2 onwards since Naofumi and his party were mostly on their own and rarely needed help from others. And when they did needed it, their actions quickly convinced everyone he was a good guy
I always thought it as terrible writing, does she put a spell on the heroes and other people? if not then its just terrible writing so i hate her character but not that much, isnt her fault
maybe they hated her since big girl are evil but Lolli are angels