just here for fandom stuff really. mostly my thoughts on manhwa (cuz too many of them are too niche for fandom content) with the occasional pjsk reblog
Okay. The thing is. The thing that Gets me about Solo Leveling
(disclaimer: I have only read the manhwa and it is entirely possible that my torments are due to an adaptation not doing justice to the source material)
is how determined it is to be an uncomplicated power fantasy despite being absolutely fucking riddled with ominous foreshadowing. It's basically a cosmic horror story where both the protagonist and the narrative itself flatly refuse to think too hard about anything that's going on. You know that post which I'm too lazy to hunt down about a Bertie Wooster-esque character coming out of a Call of Cthulhu campaign with a higher level of sanity than he started with due to being oblivious to The Horrors? That's the Solo Leveling experience.
"Hm, I just killed eight people with about as much emotion as you'd feel when swatting that many flies. Should I be worried about the psychological effect the System is having on me?"
Apparently not, because it's never brought up again.
"Also, I was railroaded into doing that by the System, which clearly only has my best interests at heart insofar as I'm useful for carrying out its agenda, which it has not bothered to share with me. And speaking of hearts, fun fact! It apparently has the power to stop mine at will!"
This is never brought up again.
"Huh, the monsters are all mind-controlled into acting this way. Also, the 'King' of the demon tower was a shade that was being controlled by someone else. The 'God' from the double dungeon that started this whole mess? Mindless automaton that was being controlled by someone else, who was himself someone else's puppet. It sure seems like nearly every apparently all-powerful being I encounter has very little agency in their own life!"
This goes nowhere, largely because Jinwoo seems only vaguely aware of the pattern.
"Heyyyyy, Jinwoo buddy, it's me, Min Byung-gu. You know, the guy whose spirit you enslaved with your necromancy powers? Anyway, huge fan of the way my best friend and a bunch of other people didn't die, so no hard feelings. But also, you get that that's a really fucked up thing to do to someone, right? Like a really, really, really fucked up thing to do to someone? I'm so concerned about this that I went to great effort to reach out from beyond the grave to tell you to please for the love of god think about what you're doing."
And in another better story, this would be a callback to the whole "gee whiz, these godlike powers seem to be having a devastating psychological effect on me!" thing. But since this is Solo Leveling, it is - say it with me, kids! -
never
brought up
agaaaaaaaaain!
This story fucking torments me, and I have no idea if the author was doing it on purpose
I know realistically Lennart wouldnāt want a tattoo and probably wouldnāt even be able to get one because regular tools would just break on an S-Ranks skin but still. I think itās a fun idea for all of the Scavengers to have a tattoo
or maybe Iāll just say thatās actually a soulmate au and thatās his soulmark fr (hm I wonder who it could possibly beā¦)
I donāt think I, as a Lennart enthusiast, have talked enough about how fascinating his family situation is
like, Lennartās mom is never really mentioned. actually, the only mention we get of her at all is in Lennartās Dossier where it says his father had another woman in his life besides his mother. so shesās in the picture to some capacity, probably married. but youād think his relationship with his mother would have at least some standing in Lennartās backstory given his estranged relationship with his father, but maybe netmarbleās story team just didnāt want to get into thatā¦.
but since they didnāt, I will.
(full text under the cut)
because the Niermann family is implied to be a prominent one on the shoulders of Lennartās fatherās business, I imagine his mother found out about his mistress when Bjorn was born but agreed to keep quiet and stay with him to avoid scandal. I doubt their marriage was very loving to begin with, not with what we see of Lennartās father. he probably paid Bjornās mother off and maybe even gave her some kind of child support (paying for his schooling, perhaps?)
we know Lennart is 10 years older than Bjorn and generally speaking, most parents would hide infidelity from their children if theyāre that young, so I think they both chose not tell him about his fatherās mistress until he was introduced to Bjorn. whether or not he suspected that of his father is unknown to me, but I think itās a possibility
we know their father already suspected something was off about Bjorn, so I think that was the reason he chose to take him in when he couldāve put him in foster care or handed him off to someone else to avoid scandal. and I think Lennartās mother, feeling wronged and humiliated now that her husbandās scandal has been exposed, decides to divorce him. thatās why sheās never shown, and part of the reason why taking care of Bjorn fell to Lennart
without his mother, most of the household managing (besides housework and other chores. they have maids and butlers and such for that) fell to Lennart as well, hence why he took naturally to managing the Richter Guild and its Hunter once it was founded
Lennart lost contact with his mother when she left because she changed her number and moved to another city when she cut ties with her father. he has no idea how she is now, but sometimes he wonders where she is and what sheās doing and if heāll ever get to see her again
is this how the meme is supposed to be used? no. do I care? absolutely not lol
this is just for funsies (and an excuse to sneak peak my choibaek shadow designs). Iām gonna make a tholenn one thatās actually accurate to the meme lol
I was thinking about what element I wanted Hadrian to have if he was in arise and then I realized I probably needed to come up with a color for his manaā¦.
so anyway my boy is a fire-type. his regular mana (like normal attacks in-game ig?) is blue but when he transforms and uses fire it turns a deep red color
and since heās a fire dragon guy he wants to visit South Korea very much because thereās not only a fire dragon mage but also the most well-known (?) beast-type transforming hunter (when I was making him I didnāt even realize I basically fused their abilities. it was not intentional in any way and I think thatās very funny lol)
the guild/hunter system is actually quite fascinating to me and i wish it was more elaborated? like ok. if there are only the five major guilds in sk (six now ig), and theyāre doing the majority of the raiding, i presume theyāre headquartered in seoul but split up the rest of the country so each guild has a portion to cover? i guess it would be proportional to guild size/strength, ie the hunters would have the largest territory. we know thereās a bidding system for gates where u can buy them to raid, but when it comes to dungeon breaks or emergency gates that need to be cleared asap, whatās the system for that? would that then fall under the jurisdiction of the association instead of any independent faction? in my eyes they automatically take control of the situation and send out emergency calls. whoever can get there gets there; no regards for territory in that situation.
i also wonder if the party size protocol has exceptions. if itās an emergency, can a single s-rank try to solo it? ik jin-woo does that shit all the time but ignoring him. could an s rank comfortably do a b rank gate alone in an emergency? would it depend on the s-rank? and what happens when thereās a dungeon break; are there alarms? designated shelters??? what even happens
based solely on that one time when Jin-Woo came out the Kasaka instance dungeon and there was a dungeon break with hunters that werenāt qualified to take on the dungeon, I think they might just like. send out a distress signal to all hunters in the nearby area and hope theyāre good enough? which is stupid in my opinion why donāt they have a better system but thatās the only way I could see something like that happening. personally I think it would make more sense to have guilds handle it since they have higher ranked hunters but ig they donāt idkā¦
I think most S-Ranks could solo a b-rank gate they just probably wouldnāt want to since you never know what could happen. most hunter classes have some kind of weakness that the enemy could exploit (like how most mages canāt move very much when casting), especially since they donāt know what kind of monster it is until they go in
tbh youād think that they would have alarms and shelters and all that 10 years after the gates appeared but considering that during the post-Kasaka dungeon break there was just like law enforcement directing people away and a whole crowd gathering to watch I feel like thatās unlikely. which is stupid. I say we throw all of that out the window and do our own worldbuilding since the author clearly neglected it
Characters I think should be added to Solo Leveling: ARISE
1. SR D-Rank Elena Renault
Iāve talked about this before, but her model is literally in the game already, they changed her design so much that said model is just rotting rn, and a new SR hasnāt been added since like the beginning of the game so
2. Bjorn Niermann
Iāve also talked about this before. I just think itād be cool, and it would make sense given the story and everything
3. Park Kyung-Hee
if Jin-Ah can get a what if character I think their mom should too so we can have the full family on one team
4. Choi Jong-In
now you might be asking, isnāt Jong-In already in the game? and you would be correctā¦. or would you? he has NOTHING that almost every other SSR character has. he doesnāt have any outfits or even a chroma, heās one of the five that still donāt have a Hunter Archive, and he doesnāt have a Hunter Origin either. this is my petition for netmarble to either give him all this stuff or make a au version of him like PSP Cha Hae-In
5. Sung Suho
I think itād be cool if the game continued on into Ragnarokās story after it makes it to the end of the main story but I donāt think it will. either way, Suho is canon to regular solo leveling too so he has a chance to be added
6. Siddharth Bachchan
heās probably the most likely to get added out of all of these, essentially since we have 4/5 of the National Level Hunters in the game now. I think the reason heās last and hasnāt been added yet is 1) the other four are way more hyped up and 2) apparently he was buried under a pile of corpses and thatās why we never got to see his design (meaning they have to make one from scratch, and as far as I know, heās never shown up even as a cameo in anything so they either havenāt made one yet or are waiting to release it)
7. Ashborn
this one is probably the most unlikely, but I do think it would be cool to have a costume for Jin-Woo that looks like him. speaking of Jin-Woo, that should also give him a skin resembling his shadow armor and one resembling his old self pre-System
8. Norma Selner
I just think itād be cooler to have a really strong support in game. idk if they would add her though based on the 2nd anniversary events revolving around her making everyoneās characters strong and everything
9. Friedrich Brandt
I actually think this guy is the most unlikely since I named him lol. for those who donāt know Iām referring to the Richter Guildās Vice Guildmaster, and I think itād be cool to have him in the game idk
10. The Knights Guild
this is technically several characters but I think they should add a few of the main people from the Knights Guild just to have at least a few characters from all the big Korean Guilds. the reason they havenāt is probably because Iāve never seen anyone whoās a fan of them specifically lol
I want to put Lennart and Zhigang in a room together.
they just. they carry so much guilt. they both have such a sense of duty to the people around them. they both donāt think theyāre good enough to be a role model to said people yet. they both lived under their families expectations until that was all they were. they both left their families behind to become hunters who lived by ideals. they both drew people to them by standing by their ideals. they both carry their past mistakes like a burden that weighs on them everyday pushing them to be better.
assuming Thomas and Jin-Woo still fight because of Hwang Dong-Soo in my Scavenger Lennart AU, Lennart is the one who takes care of Thomas while his arm heals
the fight happens after they end up moving in together, so helps Thomas wash his hair and cooks for him and does all the things that are hard to do with a cast on
mm solo leveling characters as fantasy creaturesā¦
Jin-Woo is a Cryptid. which one? idk. he could be a Wendigo maybe? but honestly heās just kinda his own guy I guess. I only really added him because heās the main character and I felt obligated
Lennart is 100% a Griffin. he was the very first one I thought of when I was making this and now that I think about it his guildās logo has an eagle on it and his name means ālion strengthā. itās literally perfect
Thomas is a Manticore maybe? I feel like heād definitely be something with a lion in it and I think a manticore kinda works (him and Lennart are both lion creatures lol)
Jong-In is 1000% a dragon. no question about it. HOWEVER. I raise you: Garinafin. theyāre basically herbivorous dragons with deer antlers who click their teeth to breathe fire (this is not a very good description, I would look them up if you wanna know more. theyāre from the Dandelion Dynasty Quartet by Ken Liu)
Yoon-Ho is definitely something with a tiger but heās basically already a weretiger so I didnāt wanna give him that. instead, Iām giving him the Tusked Tiger, also from the Dandelion Dynasty Quartet. I always imagined them to be similar in appearance to saber-toothed tigers like the name might suggest, and they have the ability to stun their prey with āsilentā roars that utilize vibrations. theyāre also the natural enemies of Garinafins, which I think is fun for him and Jong-In
Alicia is a Frostwyrm (mage trio is all flying creature lol). ice dragon for the ice witch
netmarble is trying to bait me into replacing my og fire dragon guy (jong-in) w their shiny new fire dragon guy (liu zhigang). unfortunately i am stubborn and will choose my babygirl over meta any day. meta is temporary blorbo is eternal. howeverā¦ you have played ur cards well liu zhigangā¦ i do like a guy who can summon a dragon. you shall be built semi decently and be my secondary fire dps
long haired jonginā¦. zhigang outfit swap jonginā¦.
also
real. my main team that I made when I didnāt know how meta worked is still the one I use for almost everything. it is still just my favs (Lennart Jong-In and Thomas) and no I donāt care if they have zero synergy or if the boss has weakness to one of them because then the other two can carry
question for my fellow tholenn shippers. how you pronounce the ship name.
Iāve been saying it in my head like itās spelled (with the th digraph and the o as an [oŹ] sound) but then I realized because of how Thomas is pronounced it could totally be toe-len or tah-len. or even though-len if youāre really weird ig. idk that was a just weird thought I har
