Forum - View topicSolo Leveling (TV).
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ACｘS
 Posts: 978 |
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7:
You know, it's funny. I was hoping that it's about time someone figured out that Sung has the ability to level up. It was already common knowledge that he was awakened, but his ability to level up remained a secret. When Baek noticed how much stronger Jinwoo was than when they last met, he finally figured out the secret and I thought "Cool, it's about time". I'm trying to see how all the chess pieces are falling into place now: ・What's the point of Minsung's subplot? A narcissist who gets snubbed (boohoo) by Jinwoo and... that's it? There has to be more to it. ・An unfamiliar dungeon creature lands on the mainland from (which I assume) Jeju Island. Choi learned that the creatures at Jeju Island had evolved to fly, so that wasn't unexpected. ・Yoo's father was afflicted with the same thing as Sung's mother... an incoming dilemma for Yoo to choose between his father and Sung? ・Sung deployed some of his summons in the real world for protection while's he on an expedition. But at the risk of not having them on that expedition? Did he feel like something bad was about to happen while he was away? I don't think it's creatures; must be all the human enemies he had made while leveling up. Another funny thing is that Sung wondered if the creatures could feel fear, which is what I had previously asked. I just wonder why they have emotions in the first place, especially if they are part of an artificial(?) system. Part of the same evolution as to how they gained the ability to fly, perhaps? I feel like there is a lot going on that is not obvious on the surface level. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 280 |
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One thing I forgot to post previously about the end of the episode, specifically about the remaining demon knight that Jinwoo has cornered. This is only speculation on my part, but I'll tag it just in case, because if I'm right, it would end up being a spoiler. spoiler[In looking at the armor and frame of the cornered demon knight, it seems like that knight could be female. I'm pretty sure that this would be the first time a female "magic beast" has appeared so far. Except of course for one who appears in the opening, which makes me think this might be her.]
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3071 |
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The OP indeed shows both Baran and Esil, the location of the fight was thankfully not in the middle of a modern city (especially seeing that last attack). Given how the episode ends the Radiru family is now an ally of sorts though I am unsure if that will have any influence going forward (I assume that the hell dungeon is a one and done). It was interesting to get a bit more information about the demons but the system once again prevented too much information from being shared.
Ant situation wise I would like to say that so many S-rankers working together should be enough to handle the situation fairly easily. This is Solo Leveling though and thus I am expecting it to turn into a massacre and Jin possibly needing to step up. I would not mind being wrong on that. Finally, I like the brisk pace instead of having every dungeon take several episodes. |
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1956 |
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Welp, if nothing else, people who have been wanting to see Jin Woo have to sweat a little should have been satisfied by the latest episode.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3071 |
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Yeah, Baran did make it an exciting fight. Jin really needs something like a gain mp on kill type of skill since chugging potions is difficult in a high speed fight and his army sure drains a lot.
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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What he usually does is keep a bank of experience points in reserve so that he can pour them into whatever attribute or skill he might need in an emergency. In this case, he cashed them all in on strength right before that fatal uppercut. He could have conceivably raised his mana level instead.
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11521 Location: Frisco, TX |
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At this point, I feel like Jin-woo's fights are "all or nothing," so he'll either win and gain a bunch, or lose and die. But to make things dramatic, he's gotta' have some kind of wild card up his sleeve, and by definition, making all fights winnable. Maybe if he ever fights along side a person or group who can actually keep up with him, he won't seem quite as overpowered. Then again, if he's the only hunter who can actually progress upward in level and skill, it probably doesn't even matter, and he'll continue to be the top dog.
Anyway, the whole demon clan/realm thing is a nice surprise. Here, I was thinking all dungeon instances were just filled with mindless monsters and/or malevolent beings. So it's nice to see some sentient people who have feelings and can think for themselves. The presence of that can do wonders for world-building and potentially give us some back-and-forth presentations of the real and fantasy worlds. The system continues to be super enigmatic, and I feel like every time it uses a creature to spout some cryptic nonsense, it detracts from the aftermath of Jin-woo's badass fight. I think the afterglow of these fights are integral to the aesthetic of the show, which is more style over substance (and the style has been pretty gnarly this season). Unless the narrative actually gives some kind of meaningful information about who/what the system is, at some point, anything system-related is becoming a bit cumbersome. I'm more interested in seeing Jin-woo kick ass and gaining stuff, even if they're fangirls and not skills, items, or souls for his necro-army. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 280 |
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Well, Esil seems to have become pretty attached to Jinwoo. I wonder if she will say that she wants to leave the dungeon with him. JInwoo could try to pass her off as someone he summoned, and we could have "Welcome to Korea, Ms. Demon Knight!". 
Oh, so that's what he did? I wasn't sure exactly what he said about applying points to his strength stat (as well as using his ruler's hand skill). I thought he was saying that now was the time to take advantage of the points he had applied before the fight, not that he had applied the points right then. I guess those must be from his daily quests, or bonus points, because the level up points have seemed to get auto applied: 1 point per attribute per level. . It was nice to see that Tusk appears to have retained at least some of the spells he had as Kargalgan. We've seen him use the fire spell, the shield spell and the anti-gravity spell. We haven't seen him use any curses (debuffs) yet though. I'm curious if there will be any extra rewards. There's obviously the Shadow Exchange skill, and the 30 bonus points which are the promised rewards he gets for killing Baran. I guess we'll find out what Shadow Exchange does next episode. There is also the final ingredient for the cure for his mother, which was obviously his motivation to enter the dungeon in the first place. Jinwoo hasn't been able to extract shadows from defeated demons in the tower dungeon due to "mana contamination", but I wonder if he could extract the wyvern's shadow? It wouldn't be much use in cave-like dungeons, but in open air dungeons (like the red gate and tower dungeons) or Jeju island it could be really handy to have. Also, he hasn't gotten any new melee weapons since his fight with Barca. I don't think that he has gotten any new armor since the job change quest dungeon either. I wonder if the S-Rank team will have already left for Jeju Island when Jinwoo finally exits the tower dungeon. If he missed the flight, I guess that would enable him show up later as the cavalry that saves the day. 
Last edited by minamikaze on Sun Feb 23, 2025 12:59 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24624 |
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Episode 8
So Jinwoo's goal has been achieved: he has conquered the Demon Castle dungeon. It's not quite over because he still has to actually physically obtain the Elixir of Life but I assume that is a mere bagatelle. Having achieved his adventuring raison d'etre, I wonder what's next for him? I liked Demon Girl but I wish they had played out the begging for mercy/sneakily trying to attack dynamic longer rather than pretty quickly converting her into a standard fangirl. Oh well. I guess Ant Island is gonna be providing some thrills, spills and chills soon. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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@Minamikaze Yah, when I say experience points, I'm just lazily channeling RPG terms. into the bonus points and, I believe, skill points that he accrues. Jin Woo usually leaves a stockpile of bonus points uncommitted for emergencies. So even though he couldn't drink a mana potion, he could have channeled his points into intelligence and increased his mana that way, or channeled them into whatever they call his Endurance or Constitution to increase his health. Instead, he upped his strength and also emptied his account, so to speak..
I'm pretty sure there are skill points that can power up system granted abilities like stealth too, but they're harder to get. I freely admit, I might be wrong though, since I've read half a hundred Urban Dungeon web novels and played a few RPGs since reading the book. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3071 |
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Given that Jin is getting more powerful minions and assuming those use up more mp to summon than ''regular'' troops just adding some extra points to mp is only a band aid solution. If we are talking game wise then his build is too reliant on mp potions and Jin needs an additional way of gaining mp to make it sustainable.
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ACｘS
Posts: 978 |
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8:
I will be honest: aside from the climactic battle between Sung and Baran, I think the episode was moving wayyyy too fast. I don't read the original source, but I feel that this episode made a big time lapse. Things were moving accordingly when suddenly, Sung encountered a... humanoid demon? It shouldn't be that surprising—we've already met orc and whatnot—but to meet a demon girl and learn that there's an entire race out there that exists in a realm alongside the human world... what kind of universe are we looking at here in Solo Leveling as a whole? The existence of the System gave me the impression that Solo Leveling is a sci-fi genre with demons and humans being part of one big simulation (think The Matrix). But now, I feel like with the existence of demons alongside the monsters, all the living things are not simulations anymore; they are actually real. Now it feels more like a fantasy genre, so how does the System fit into this narrative? Maybe all living things are subject to the whims of an AI overlord(s)? It feels like two different genres being put together, which feels incohesive. For instance, the MCU took a longggg time in world-building, combining sci-fi (Iron Man) with Eldritch magic (Scarlet Witch) and mythology (Thor) and... well, you get the idea. How about Solo Leveling? The universe hasn't been explained so I don't quite get how the world works, but I guess that's the catch of the show. If there is a big reveal after all this, I hope it explains everything. Radiru as a character doesn't impress me. She's like the demon version of Yoo, but without any backstory or buildup to it. She could have been a lot more interesting even as a sidekick, so if there's more to her, I hope we get it eventually. Because right now, I don't even see the point of her as a character. Perhaps more importantly, we learn that 1) she exists, 2) she has a family, 3) Sung made a "bargain" with them to have her as a guide, and 4) he cleared all the levels needed with Radiru as the guide. All of this happened in this episode alone. 4) is already worth a few episodes by itself, with Yung realizing/expecting the last ten levels to be the hardest, yet we just speed-ran all that in just a few minutes. Feels like we skipped a few big steps along the way. In the human world, it is interesting to see Japan coming into the picture with the rise of a new threat. But I gotta admit: offering ten out of eleven S-Hunters from a single guild does seem incredibly generous. Trying to be on the safe side is a wise decision, but I can't help but feel like there's a catch. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 280 |
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Considering that the island that the flying ant landed on was Japanese territory and all of the people who were killed by it were most likely Japanese, I think the the offer was driven more by a sense of urgency to eliminate the threat as quickly as possible than one of generosity. The Korean Hunters Association has had 3 expeditions to try to clear Jeju island, and all of them have failed, so it makes sense for them to want to provide a significant increase in S-Rank fighting ability. The most recent expedition 3 years ago (as shown in the first episode of the first season) likely had 6 S-Ranked hunters (the 5 guild masters, although we only actually saw 3 of them, plus Eunseok - who I think is the S-Rank hunter who retired) not to mention what appeared to be at least a hundred of lower ranked hunters, and still failed to clear the island. It was one thing when the threat was limited to a single Korean island, but now that the ants are developing the ability to fly, there is the danger that more people in Japan (as well as Korea and other nearby countries) will be killed by them. If anything, I would think the Japanese guild would be more upset that the Korean Hunters Association knew that the ants were developing the ability to fly and did not warn them. However, the lack of complaints from the Japanese guild, seems to suggest that the Korean Hunters Association had shared that information with the Japanese guilds, even though they decided to not make a public announcement. That could be the reason why the two hunters, who were the first to encounter the ant, were patrolling the shoreline of the small island. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3071 |
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While Solo Leveling is not a show with particularly amazing writing I have to admit that episode 9 was pretty strong in how the mother was finally healed. Jin has had a clear goal for most of the show and to see it finally be achieved along with great animation and matching music made it quite the powerful moment. Esil meanwhile got a rather abrupt farewell and I would honestly be surprised if we see her again. The end bit was rather exciting in that a match up will show how strength between S class can differ.
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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I liked the touch where the apartment had been trashed by a supervision free little sister after 1 week. It gave the family reunion a touch of normalcy, especially after mom put her hand on her S-rank son and made him stop picking on her daughter. Of course, Jin Woo had no choice but to be the parent for some time, but that was kind of the point...move over junior.
I also liked the scene where Jin Woo's obsession with leveling up suddenly deserted him in the Hunter's Association office. The whole point of it all was to wake up his mom. People treated him like crap when he was powerless, literally left him to die, and he never forgot about it while he was powering up. He didn't go off on revenge sprees or start bullying people, but he never once really felt like he belonged as a hunter, and it wasn't just because of his unique gift. So, he has to ask himself...why bother now? Mom was also stepping up to guide her son. She went straight from seeing how much her son had suffered and how powerful he was to talking about how Jin Woo's father became a hunter to help people. Anybody think that's a coincidence? |
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