Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

Episode 20

With all the action, character development, and world-building this season, it can be easy to overlook how the series has been steadily expanding its main mystery in the background. While humanity at large has adapted to a planet full of gates, hunters, and monsters, none of this is natural. Someone or something is behind the chaos afflicting our world—and, as this episode shows, other worlds as well.

In the first few episodes of the season, we learned that not all monsters are mindless beasts. The more humanoid ones can converse and have their own thoughts and emotions. While the ice elves were evil sadists, they weren't acting fully of their own accord. There is a voice in their heads commanding them to kill any humans they encounter—as well as a force stopping them from revealing too much about what's going on with them.

The interesting fact revealed back then was that Jinwoo is not seen as a human by humanoid monsters in the dungeons—they don't feel the need to kill him. This almost certainly comes from the fact that Jinwoo is a “player” as opposed to a normal hunter. While being a player grants Jinwoo the ability to level up, it also comes with a ton of mysteries and implications. If he is a player, then this must be a game. But what is the prize of the game and how do you win? And if leveling up is so important—and the system constantly gives Jinwoo missions to kill monsters—why make it so that humanoid monsters don't feel forced to try and kill him?

All this brings us to this week's episode where we meet Esil. Esil is a demon, yet the voice in her head is different from the one the ice elves and orcs hear. She is told to “protect this place” rather than “kill humans.” This puts her in a position we haven't seen before: she is a monster who can befriend Jinwoo.

Of course at first, Esil is simply biding her time to attack the intruder—why wouldn't she try to kill the guy who killed her soldiers and has performed a floor-by-floor genocide of the past 79 floors of the castle? However, once she sees she is utterly outmatched, she “protects this place” by helping Jinwoo to get to the top as quickly and directly as possible (and without killing any more of her people and family). In return, Jinwoo treats her as he would any human—having her take the spot of Jinho on this expedition.

It's clear Esil has a bit of a crush on Jinwoo as things go on, but that's not why she decides to go with him to the top even when he tells her she can return home. Demons follow the strongest, so it makes sense that Esil would follow Jinwoo when he is winning repeatedly. However, in the final fight against Baran, Jinwoo is the weaker—though only by a hair. Her instincts tell her to side with Baran, but at the critical moment, she helps Jinwoo instead. Her emotions swayed her—she would rather serve a kind person than a simply strong one.

All this serves to re-contextualize humanoid monsters in this series. They are the same as humans. In a vacuum, cultural issues aside, they can be reasoned with and understood. However, something has enslaved them—pitted them against humanity and/or the players—for reasons they aren't even allowed to think about. They are the enemy, yes, but also victims.

Luckily, our next villain seems to be a mindless swarm of ants so we don't have to worry about the moral implications of Jinwoo's upcoming killing spree—but something tells me this is going to come up again.

Rating:

Random Thoughts

• While cultural context might be a bit lost on Western audiences, the idea of Korea and Japan working together so openly and earnestly is a way of showing just how dire the ant threat is.

• So the ant extermination plan is for the Japanese hunters to act as bait while the Korean hunters take out the queen. Yeah... I can't imagine it being that easy.

• Cha is as excited to see Jinwoo again as she is to stomp some ants.

• Poor Esil. Jinwoo can't even be bothered to remember her last name.

---

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