Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

Episode 17

Much like the past two weeks, part of this episode's main focus is on world-building. We've seen more than once how low-level groups of Hunters are run. In the last episode, we saw what it was like for a major guild party with an overpowered S-Rank in the lead. In this episode, we see the in-between—a group of A and B rank hunters and how they work together. Simply put, they are highly professional and aware of their surroundings. Everyone knows their job and doesn't need to be micromanaged. There is none of the discord seen in lower-level groups—and the team leader makes the smart calls, not the greedy ones.

As the episode further fleshes out its world, we get another look into Jinwoo as a person—and how oddly considerate he remains, even now. The moment Jinwoo's spider sense starts tingling, he can take control of the situation. And pragmatically, he probably should. After all, he can single-handedly ensure everyone makes it out alive and his secret S-Rank status is out of the bag.

The reason he stays in the background is out of consideration for his party. This dungeon is Kihoon's final job interview. If he succeeds in clearing the dungeon, he will be seen as the strongest guild's third in command—the man who leads when the two S-Ranks are busy. It would be a real dick move for Jinwoo to reveal himself and hijack the party, ruining the whole test and potentially Kihoon's future. Thus, he only helps the bare minimum to keep everyone alive—using his stealth abilities to level the playing field to what the dungeon should have been like based on its recorded power level.

The interesting twist to all this is that Jinwoo overestimates himself. He assumes he is so much better than the party he is with that they won't notice it was him helping out. However, Bora straight-up sees through his stealth and knows exactly what he did. She keeps quiet out of gratitude and Jinwoo has no idea he's been exposed. This is a clear error on Jinwoo's part—and serves as a counterpoint to how he almost effortlessly handles the High Orcs. It shows that he is not perfect—that for all his power, he is still just a normal person like you or me.

Of course, even with all that said, it's pretty clear that Jinwoo should have revealed his true power once the party was officially trapped in the dungeon and the spell casters suffered from the barrier curse. Instead, he simply watches as they resign themselves to their impending deaths—instructing him to flee once they begin their suicidal battle.

Here, we loop back thematically to the start of the episode, Jinwoo outside of the boss's room—wanting to head in and face the boss for no other reason than the love of the fight. It's likely the same thing is happening here. If he lets things play out, he should be able to face the dungeon boss, kill it, and get all the loot—all while protecting the party. He's letting his wants be more important than the party's emotional suffering—and likely justifying it to himself as okay since he's planning on saving them.

This episode shows that Jinwoo is both considerate and selfish—and more than capable of making mistakes. Or to put it another way, he is still human—with all the good and bad that entails.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Imagine everyone you work with having such bad B.O. that you have to carry around a scented handkerchief to cover your nose constantly. Then imagine meeting one of them that smells good. You'd probably get an instant crush too.

• While the barrier prevents people from exiting, I wonder if it would prevent Cha Hae-In from going in.

• This is not the first time we've met Bora and Gina. In season one, we saw a scene of them having lunch with Park (the B-Rank that partied with Jinwoo in the first two episodes of this season). Kudos to the anime for introducing so much of the extended cast before they become important parts of the story.

• I like that the whole “What is a player?” mystery continues to be brought up in interesting new ways.

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Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.