@Jon-Mitchell said in Campfire Cooking Vol. 16 Discussion!:
@AliceCheshire said in Campfire Cooking Vol. 16 Discussion!:
@karasutengu said in Campfire Cooking Vol. 16 Discussion!:
The gluttonous four really get on my nerves. They treat Mukohda like a servant instead of an equal individual in the party with their ceaseless demands for his cooked food. I wish he would grow a pair and go on strike, demanding that they treat him better, and at least let him enjoy eating a leisurely meal with them instead of working him to exhaustion. Fel in particular needs to be put in his place.
The most irritating part about all of it, in my opinion, is how Mukohda is constantly getting in trouble with other people because of the actions of his familiars (Fel and Gon in particular) and the lot of them basically abandon him to it every time it happens. And the people he gets in trouble with don't listen to a word he says to try and defend himself. It's like he's basically this world's punching bag despite the fact that he's actually done a lot of good for a lot of people.
yea, 2 things:
Mukohda is responsible for his familiars (the system is set up for familiars to be more like pets and less like calamities) he is supposed to keep them on a metaphorical leash
Most of the people around Mukohda have seen just how strong-willed and arrogant his familiars are. Many of them have even seen the results of him trying to put his foot down and should be well aware that his attempts to keep them in line frequently blow up in his face.
And at least some of them are also aware that the nature of his contracts with his familiars is actually different than normal familiar contracts. Normal contracts are a matter of outright domination over the familiars, compelling the familiars to obey their master. Mukohda's contracts are much different, however, in that his familiars are allowed far more free will than other familiars would be capable of. And I know that there's multiple characters who are actually aware of this fact. I want to say Elrand is one of them.
Besides, when Mukohda is visibly trying to wrangle his familiars and people still get pissed at him when they disobey him, it's really not very funny if you have a strong sense of empathy. I can confidently say that in those cases, I always end up feeling pretty bad for Mukohda.
as @Paul-Nebeling noted, one of the running gags of the series is that the MC is a victim, the butt of the jokes, and more the servant of his 'pets' than the other way around. So you are frustrated with the central conceit of the story?
Yes, actually. The story has frequently been far more interesting and enjoyable when the in-universe world wasn't taking turns making a joke of Mukohda. As it turns out, 16 volumes of making the same exact jokes in the same exact way nearly every single chapter ends up running the joke into the ground so it stops being entertaining.