I might be too old for Light Novels... (If It's for My Daughter... Part 3 discussion)
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Spoiler Warning - Spoilers for up to Book 3 in If It's For My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord
One way you know you are getting too old for children's movies is that you start to sympathize more with the adults in the story who are supposed to be the bad guys. Of course that teacher is hard on the class, they are constantly unfocused and misbehaving. Of course, he was sent to bed without dessert, they complained about dinner non-stop. Of course the old man is angry about the neighborhood boy and his dog destroying his garden. That is a lot of work for such an old person, pretty expensive, too, if they are only living off of social security. A bad dad? Are you kidding me, he is working insane hours at a job he hates to provide a house, food, education, and recreation on a single income. He missed your baseball game, suck it up.
I kind of felt that way during Latina's 'confession' to Dale at the end of book 3 (I'll explain the ' around confession later). After returning home from helping a friend whose loved one was attacked for unclear reasons, he waits for the return of his daughter. While debating looking for her, she shows up with a strange boy he has never met before. Dale wanted to trust her by herself at the festival, but after warnings by everyone (including the family dog), she didn't listen anyway. Upset that her trusting nature might hurt her in the end, he tells her to go inside so they can talk. Her response, 'You're not my dad. You were never my dad. You will never be my dad.'
Ouch, talk about a punch to the stomach. The girl you raised for the last seven years, who you showered with love and has only ever shown you love in return, now hates you. No wonder he took it so poorly.
The chapter is written from Latina's perspective, and I get the impression you are supposed to empathize with her point of view but understand Dale's. However, I find myself really hard-pressed to do that. I'm almost the opposite, empathizing with Dale completely while finding her view kind of childish. IRL if a 14 YO told a parental figure that they loved them (even if done well), the adult would only look at it as a childish infatuation that they will be laughing about in ten years.
I know that you should probably never bring in what would happen in real life with something like anime/manga/LN. That said, I get you are supposed to notice that disconnect, and that is Rudy's role as an audience surrogate. Someone who knows that Latina means 'you aren't my dad, because I love you like a woman loves a man,' and not 'you aren't my dad, stop acting like it.' He is dispassionate enough to realize that almost anyone, including Dale, would interpret her words to mean the former and not the latter.
From a structural standpoint, the author was trying to press the theme of 'if you ever want Dale to love you like a woman, you must be willing to destroy your relationship as his daughter.' So, it's not like I don't get where they were going with the comedy of errors. To be honest, I kind of hope there is a chapter in book 4 where Latina is talking to her friends and one by one, they give horrified looks as she describes the interaction. They then tell her she meant to say she loved him, but accidentally said she hated him. That would probably be too easy of a resolution, though.
