In fairness to them?

Absolutely none of that has actually been shown in-story so far.

They've had a few hints (His requests to manipulate the world and then the increased manipulation, the way others react to seeing his use of magic, Yutia's currently unexplained obsession with him that goes so much further than what the other Sins had for seemingly much less of a start, etc) but without knowledge from further ahead, so far this adaptation has left much of what's actually going on a mystery as it's still laying groundwork.

That said, the fact this adaptation is still laying groundwork means they should be expecting a lot of "nothing" to setup events and plotlines further on.

Don't you love having a higher chance to get your level to drop AND potentially 5 level drops daily while only being able to get your level to go up once a day if you're lucky?

Makes losing all your progress real easy!

Our guy here just casually talking his opponents into giving him way more info than they should, then blasting them the instant they realize maybe they shouldn't be just giving everything away.

Classic.

Doesn't need to. We got Sherry around Chapter 40ish and we have been setting things up for future stuff too rather than running in circles doing nothing.

Plus this doesn't have a lot of the risks associated with adaptations from unfinished storylines, so they can afford to properly establish character dynamics, setting intricacies, personal and historical quirks, and all that good background lore stuff instead of trying to speedrun plot progression. Which just helps strengthen the overall work compared to being left with a harem of cardboard cutouts.

Not any more or less than any other meat the way media likes to portray it.

Much like the water thing, it comes down to the preference of the individual and how it's presented. Especially when it comes to domesticated cats where if you just dumped a raw fish in their bowls most would just be confused about what they were expected to do with it compared to the processed stuff they're used to actually eating.

No matter how this goes down....

Kiska is about to be in for another round of suffering.

Remember, folks: They'll be even more grateful to you for saving them if you let them hit rock bottom first and have a reasonable excuse for why you weren't stepping in before that so they won't resent you in the future!

That's how you maximize slavish devotion LOYALTY!

Can't wait for everyone to completely misunderstand whatever BS Cid makes up in the final round and thus completely change the results from what he was trying to do in a way that winds up ultimately benefitting him.

... And yet said benefit will be something he hates because it won't be the sort of benefit he actually wanted.

https://i.postimg.cc/Dw5XfKtb/i.png

Where have I seen this before? I wonder what it could possibly be... Oh, right!

https://i.postimg.cc/HnHY7rMj/i.jpg


Guess this means Aina's taking her loss well!

LN was a lot less light hearted in how things went and how they were resolved.

It's less about Christianity and more a stand-in for religions in general and the incredibly screwed up stuff that's been condoned and allowed by them allowing for both an easy proxy and symbolism in stories. It's the same reflection of reality that leads to the government always being corrupt (just look at all the things governments are doing lately for a clue where THAT inspiration comes from), nobles always being power hungry assholes (No points for guessing how people feel about the rich and powerful ruining things for everyone else IRL), the self-serving military organizations (Police brutality, anyone?), immoral scientists going too far, and so on and so forth.

It's honestly not entirely common... but that's a relative thing and there are just such a massive volume of stories where some or all of the usual suspects are at fault that they all bleed together to the average reader/viewer and appear to dominate everything. 1% of a hundred million is still a million, after all. Combine that with the impressive branding success that makes a normal cross so iconic and obviously known and it's no wonder you'll see some obvious expy of it when a work needs a religious antagonist. (seriously, take a step back and try to think of another religious symbol that would instantly be recognized by nearly as many people with religion as the primary connotation. Then consider how long it took to come up with even a few of those if you were able)

Bit of an unfortunate aspect of art imitating life. For every work within a genre where the ones mentioned in the top paragraph are legitimately good, working for humanity's best, and actually reliably doing what's right, there's just as many where the opposite is true and it's human nature to recall the bad far more easily than the good. My advice if it gets too overwhelming for you: take breaks from the genre in question or look into works that specifically have whatever group you feel is being misrepresented cast in a better role. Most things where the saint is the main character and is obviously supported by their (insert organization here) in saving the world from evil will usually portray the Church as a whole in a positive light, even if there may be a corrupt individual or two to overcome, as a relevant example here.

Gendo Ikari smirking at her father's utterly ineffectual method of harming his child.

"...."
"Um... ooops?"
"... We'll talk later."

Nei Li sweating in his panda fur lmao.

Yep. We didn't even know what she had before so this is extra awesome to see it finally in action.

Makes you wonder just how much of that clan was corrupt/complicit in things his first time around.

This is the "No work only sleep" arc and I am all for it.

We don't know what, if anything, they paid because we don't get their PoV.

And the rules have always relied on a hidden undercurrent of, "Don't get caught by someone you can't handle or someone your backer won't bail you out against". Even the corrupt Goblin Manager had to pretend to play by the rules to an extent because if he screws up (as he's done before) then the guy above him will take it out on him (as has also been shown). But anyone that can get away with cheating absolutely can and will try to do so.

Remember, once you reach a certain level of power and influence paying the costs become trivial. That and forcing someone weaker than you to pay instead like the demon guy watching MC for entertainment did a while back on the island where another demon that was about to kill MC showed up. Basically, as long as you have plausible deniability or no one that's against you is paying close enough attention, you can get away with a lot of crap that wouldn't fly the instant someone who can smack you around actually noticed. Just look at how that Egyptian God was planning to murder MC early on regardless of what he was oath bound to do but then backed off because he was around peers at the time and couldn't afford to deal with their retaliation if he did that as another example.

They always threaten the guy's stuff without realizing that they may as well paint a giant neon target on their own backs when they do stuff like that.

Some folks never learn, eh?

Lilith consented.
Lilith's tentacles also consented.

Seems pretty consensual to me.

Really shows just how much things have changed from what he experienced. All of those tiny and nearly insignificant details that he's changed are adding up more and more to result in a massive snowball long term.

The fact so much of it has caught even him off guard just shows the sheer scope of his changes.