It is a terribly evident point in almost all replacement / isekai stories. The Young master is a no good individual. Now here is the thing honestly are these former young master's that bad. If you consider them as a political leader or holder of substantial authority or power than yes. The situation though is always they are mainly in a position to potentially inherit these things. Not yet having taken over, im getting kind of sidetracked. The point is the demerits that are often listed are they truly points that make them so unqualified they should just disappear. The main traits that are often cited are being sexually overly active, excessive use of funds (Which often is not to the extent that it puts the house at risk unless it is already destitute from a prior issue that had nothing to do with them originally. At worst they could be accused here of making the worst situation financially worst still) also obesity / out of shape derived from overindulgence. Being timid in nature lacking war like decisiveness as a leadership model. Out of control subordinates that often prey on the more vulnerable in the replaced individuals name. These theme's and more somehow seem to justify why it was a good thing the original personality disappear and be replaced. Honestly though it seems excessive. How many people work for shit bosses that give you a hard time because they are just not that good at their job. If one day the boss just is gone replaced by a regular super genius that makes all boss related job difficulties alleviate would that be the best thing ever or just messed up?
I think this is why most stories like this have the "I suddenly remembered my past life" trope. It isn't that the personality was replaced, it is that this person suddenly learned the consequences of their actions while being instilled with a different set of values.
Well, here's the thing about the shitty boss. Most workers likely don't know anything about the boss other than the fact that they're, well, shitty. If my boss became a wonder genius who isn't so damn shitty anymore all of the sudden, I'd probably feel a little suspicious, but also pretty damn happy. I don't know much of anything about this person. I don't know their family, their outer relations, their personality outside of work. To me, all I see is a boss terrible at doing boss things. And regarding the overly sexually active thing, aren't a lot of the "young masters" sexual offenders? Like, most of them, if they're really so fat and drunk, then it's highly unlikely there are many women who want to sleep with said young master, other than the few who are in it for money. That means a lot of them could have been coerced with his status and title. Of course, this is a speculation regarding a certain type of character so eh And I'm also only taking a few of the examples because I don't have time woo-hoo
I'd say it's excessive if the person being replaced is just a shitty person in the sense that they're mediocre at something they should be good at because it provides them with privileges they don't deserve... but if they're a shitty person in the sense that they're actively abusive, then may Truck-kun's aim be true and isekai a competent cutie into that person's body.
And I just thought of something regarding Let's bump up the severity if this. If a wretched, timid king did nothing, and knew not what to do while his kingdom begins to rot from the inside out, defiled by the scheming nobles who wish for nothing but benefit only for themselves, what would be the right course of action? Is the king, unknowing and timid, not to blame? Then what about his people? The ones that suffer at the hands of such nobles, the ones that starve and struggle to feed themselves and the ones that they love. Those who are helplessly assaulted and mugged for no good reason. What about them? Perhaps, yes, the king doesn't deserve to be killed, merely replaced, but in the end, the king doesn't deserve to be in that seat. He is an incompetent, useless, sniveling fool who can't help his people. If a king who is meant to live for the people can't help them, what are the people meant to do?
They are often the "Young master" as i stated before they are very rarely the primary authority. Still in the scenario your talking about you make it seem as though it is rational to assume that a simple change is personnel is all that is needed to fix a collapsing organization. let's not let preconceived novel notions define reason in these scenario's it's very rarely one persons poor behavior that sinks the ship it had chinks the entire time. If you notice in most of the novels when the kingdom or organization is in decline it is often inherited that way by the predecessor (Not the former body owner). The MC is often just filling in for the person the people find it most easy to point fingers at and blame. You think bandits don't operate in the time of prosperity? the nobles are only showing depravity when the monarchy looks weak? these all are impossible the MC make it seem so easy just get rid of the bad people and put good adaptable individuals in to fill the role's. this should be impossible it's like saying the secretary for the CEO is fully capable of being the CEO because they are adaptable and not corrupt. More to the point your kind of missing another issue here are the depraved nobles who act terribly better or worst for the country? If the noble is embezzling but does his job well that the kingdom see's financial increase so the monarch looks the other way as the country prospers in this capacity this is a sign of corruption and yet if a righteous man is put in and takes almost the bare what he should be afforded in his position doing the job sufficiently but the kingdom observes significant financial loss is it truly a benefit to be "Clean" for the citizens who get less from the government.
I see what you mean. In fact it is mess up. Even thou I said best thing ever. The mess up part to me is they actually stole this other persons life. It doesn’t matter if their good or bad, but… Even with all that being said. It is still relatable. As the saying goes. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” 19th-century historian Lord Acton. Even now people in power tend to be more corrupted than the common man. So knowing a noble was bad is not so far fetched. Besides that most MC are the common man verity and know history, but even more he knows the common man plight. So it’s not unreasonable to see the MC being a better person than the last SOB. At least that’s what I believe
that's a good point! most transmigration or isekai stories give the protagonist a body that was not their own or that they are dying. the authors never go over the issues of weather the now protagonist is a bad person for do it things with a body that they don't own.
Some do, but on average they do not. As an example a MC finally tells his parents that he transmigrated. It isn’t so simple in this regards because the MC was born that way. Not taken over. But the parents considered that maybe that their true son soul was denied and MC took his life/ future. Conflicted reflections to what if’s. Plagues the MC family. The sad part is the MC usually have no control over it, but somehow gets blamed for it. It’s a good moral question. That usually has no right answers
This question is way too generalized to make much sense to me, whether it is justified or not depends on the details of any specific story. The points brought up here is just way too broad, like what is "sexually over active" supposed to mean here?, like visiting brothels?, or actually being a rapist? Also rather than there being "out of control subordinates", I feel I more often tend to come across stories where the replaced character was willing to directly order them to harm people. Even if I generally do find these kinds of "replacement" stories rather messed up, there a decent amount of them where I have little to no sympathy for the replaced character. My main problem tend to be more just that the mc is often badly written or some kind of sociopath that doesn't even stop to consider how creepy it is for them to be pretending to be the original character in front of their friends and family.
I read somewhere that all of these transmigration into books don't really kill/replace the characters before. It's more like the world is a book so when the transmigrator takes over, that's the point when the world is born and becomes real. The previous events were all made up past or only exists in text form because the real world wasn't born before the transmigration. That's basically the logic unless explained differently by the author.
My description of the matter is broad, the question itself is simply "is it justifiable?" It is an opinion based question, In the first place simply yes or no is a bit lacking, but it will suffice. True yes for a few they truly do go to far in bad behavior, but like your using as an example "sexually over active" for example i could say is it right that the same general treatment is given among every case of sexual misconduct? I would be of the opinion, no. Further specifying it depends on the case.
It depends on the story but the ones I read usually have one of the following explanations: 1) The original owner died with regrets or unfulfilled wishes, and needed someone who could do what they couldn't by making a pact or sacrifice of some kind. Or if their original death was horrible enough their ghostly resentment is enough to summon someone to help them. Sometimes there is a direct conversation between the two parties, sometimes a system acts as a broker. 2) The original owner didn't make a deal, but died under circumstances that the transmigrator empathized with due to having experienced something similar. Basically they are similar enough that the transmigrator is able to take their place and avenge them. 3) They were the same soul all along, just the soul took a trip to another world in the middle and came back to deal with their original problems as a more mature person but missing their original memories until the reveal. 4) The world the transmigrator entered isn't real, or isn't real until they enter, or isn't able to function properly due to critical errors that the transmigrator needs to correct. In this case they tend to be playing a part in a script and the person they replaced had no free will to begin with. 5) The transmigrator transmigrated as a baby, or as a person with no established personality or family/friends due to consistently being out of the public eye (such as a homeless person, abandoned child, etc.), or as a person who seemingly did not otherwise exist until the transmigrator appeared. Basically, well, maybe it's just me but most of the isekai stories I read do go out of their way to explain the relationship between the transmigrator and the original body's owner. Whether it is actually justified depends on the writer. Sometimes it is exactly what it looks like, which is that the transmigrator replaced someone who wouldn't be missed.
you are projecting modern standards to these characters. If you think of it from the perspective of the families in the novels, you will think differently. For example, the dudes family is always powerful but they aren't invincible and they all have enemies who are just as powerful if not more powerful than them. In this situation having a weak or useless heir is a detriment to the family and its success or even survival. Remember these families aren't just 4-5 people but normally consist of hundreds to thousands of individuals, multiple generations, and all their workers and their families as well. As for your job analogy, if the lives of you and your family depended on the sucess of your boss, how would you feel if your boss was like "Oh yeah I'm going to quit and this completely useless guy who embezzles money is going to take over". you might not do anything but it's understandable that others would. Now let's use the other part of your analogy. Let's say you had a shitty boss and your life sucked then they got replaced by a super genius boss, everything turned around, and you suddenly got paid like 10x as much because your boss was a genius. would that be the best thing ever? Hell yeah it would. you might think differently but the majority of people wouldn't even think twice about the old boss that was useless unless it was to talk shit.
Damn, 'the majority of people wouldn't even think twice about the old boss that was useless unless it was to talk shit' probably true.
You're overthinking it. It can just be viewed as "the villain regained his memory from the past life" the majority of the time. The rest of the time, usually it's taking over a body that just died. In neither case is justification really necessary, especially since it's not like the main character tried to possess the villain's body.