WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 36 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Rimuru Tempest was once an ordinary human salaryman, before he got stabbed to death and reincarnated in a fantasy world. Now he's the world's strongest slime and he has quickly risen to dominate in his new life. But, despite his great power, Rimuru has always kept is human heart, approaching even the most desperate situations with patience and thoughtful empathy. But now, during the mid-season finale, Rimuru's that same humanity is called into question.
It's clear that Rimuru won't ever be truly human again, despite his ability morph into a human. Rimuru can walk, talk and think like a human being. But he isn't one, and he leans into his monstrous nature unlike ever before in Episode 36.
The Trials & Sacrifices Of Rimuru Tempest
It's true that Rimuru was born into a violent fantasy realm where the many races and kingdoms feud nonstop. One of Rimuru's first adventures involved fighting off a pack of wolves to save a goblin village, which involving beheading the wolf pack's leader. But, from there, Rimuru brokered a peace between the two races and granted them all names in a show of humanity. Rimuru next recruited some dwarves to help rebuild the goblin tribe, then he befriended some human adventurers and even recruited an entire orc army. Time and again, Rimuru worked as a champion of cooperation, peace and understanding, uniting the monster races to form the Jura Tempest Federation. But this peace came at a price.
Rimuru's actions alarmed the Western Holy Church and the kingdom of Falmuth, two factions uninterested in Rimuru's attempts diplomacy. He fought off Hinata Sakaguchi in a duel, only to witness the destruction of his home city and deaths of his friends, including Shion, who had died defending her home. Enraged and grieving, Rimuru vowed to resurrect the dead by the most extreme means possible: absorbing 20,000 human souls to become a True Demon Lord and casting the same resurrection spell that a young Milim Nava had once used on a pet dragon of hers.
Up until now, Rimuru, having once been human himself, tried to make peace with humans. But after the attack on his kingdom, he embraced his monster side to avenge the fallen and slaughtered the invading Falmuth army. After gunning them all down with a spell, Rimuru absorbed enough souls to complete his transformation and revive the dead, as planned. His attack was merciless and as seen when he blasted off King Edomalis' arm, even spiteful. What's more, Rimuru used the fallen soldiers' corpses to summon three demons, one of whom tormented Razen the Falmuth mage before capturing him. Rimuru is now massacring armies, summoning demons and making enemies, making it seem as though the human he was is all but gone. But not quite.
Rimuru Seeks Peace Once Again
The Season 2 mid-season finale gives some hope that Rimuru hasn't completely gone to the dark side. Once he revived his friends and awoke from a three-day slumber, he was back to his old self, goofing off with Benimaru and Shion. Rimuru descended into darkness for the sake of all his monster friends, after all, and now that they're back, so is he. But, with the enemies he's made, Rimuru will need his newfound power, even as it seems like he's compartmentalizing what he's done to get it.
But still, it seems like Rimuru's finally achieved his original goal of creating a nuclear deterrent to prevent the invasion of his monster nation -- except, that deterrent is him. Rimuru isn't aiming for world domination; he wants to gain legitimacy among the nations and to establish ties with them. But it's clear that Falmuth and the Church still want the monster kingdom destroyed, and Rimuru's upgrade isn't likely to end that. To that end, Rimuru created a humanoid body for Veldora the storm dragon, who should do a fine job scaring off any potential enemies. But of course, there is still the matter of Demon Lord Clayman, who has Milim and Frey on his side, and Rimuru may have to harden his human heart once again to defeat him.
