Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-

Episode 25

With this final episode of Solo Leveling's second season, Jinwoo lets his second-to-last big secret out of the bag—i.e., that he can resurrect the dead and force them to join his shadow army. Last week, I went into why he chose to do this. Whether he realizes it or not, he has a deep emotional connection to Cha that has made him decide to save her regardless of the consequences—and there will be consequences.

It's an old saying that the only way for three people to keep a secret is if two are dead—and way more than three people know this one. Among them, two are Korea's strongest guilds' leaders, and one is a literal reporter. While all present know that it's best to never reveal what they now know about Jinwoo, it's inevitably going to leak out someday for some reason.

While Jinwoo's were the key to saving the day—not only in killing the Ant King and saving Cha, but in protecting the Korean mainland as well—the implications of his powers are staggering. He is the strongest hunter in Korea by a large margin without his army of shadows. There is nothing to stop him from killing Korea's S-Rank hunters and making them into his undead slaves. And what if, one day, he decided to take over Korea or even the world? Who could stop him? Each death only makes his army stronger—the death of each S-Rank doubly so. He may be the hero of the day (even if some people blame him for not stepping in sooner), but if his resurrection powers were known, many would see him as a villain by default—especially in countries not on friendly terms with Korea.

But what's worrying about Jinwoo's resurrection powers is that not even he understands them. In the series so far, we've seen numerous former enemies become Jinwoo's shadows. Most of them are seemingly blank slates with no will or personality of their own—and this even extends to boss monsters like the High Orc, Tusk, and the wyvern, Kaisel. Some, like Igris and Iron, have a notable personality—though, in the case of Iron, said personality is quite unlike how he was before his death.

In this episode, we get two new shadows that throw a lot of what we thought we knew into question. When raised as a Shadow, Byung-Gyu doesn't only have his own personality but his own will. He goes and heals Cha immediately without being ordered to. This implies that he retains his memories from life as well.

This is shown clearly when we see the resurrection of the Ant King, or rather, Beru. With him, we get a shadow soldier who not only retains his memory and personality from life but also has the ability to speak. From his conversation with Jinwoo, it's clear his mind has been twisted to serve Jinwoo with complete loyalty, even as he remembers fighting him just minutes before. Suddenly, creating shadows feels a lot more sinister—more akin to brainwashing and slavery than creating ethereal zombies.

After this unsettling revelation, we get to see the final defeat of the ants as well as the aftermath. While the glimpses we get of how all the characters we've met over these two seasons are getting on in this “post-ant world” are great, Jinwoo's epilogue is rather weak. Jinwoo has decided to set up a guild with Jinho (and Song-Yi if she can force her way in), but we get no explanation as to why this is.

Up until this point, Jinwoo was dead-set on leaving hunting behind him and enjoying time with his family. He only stepped in this time when it became apparent that, if he didn't, the S-Rank hunters would die and Korea would fall to the ants (it's hard to spend time with your family when monsters are destroying society as you know it).

We're given nothing about why forming a guild is his new plan in life, and how he came to this decision. Given that it is the antithesis of his previous stance, we need to know why he has had this sudden change of heart. The fact that this is left completely unaddressed (and instead we spend our time watching him get pulled into another red gate so we can get one final bit of action) leaves the season on a confusing note. It's a baffling choice and more than a bit of a letdown for a series that's been so good about conveying Jinwoo's inner thoughts and struggles. Here's hoping that if we get another season, his new change in motivation will be explained right out of the gate.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• They made that massive stone monument for the fallen in “only a few days?” Damn. That's some fast work.

• While Cha can't level up her raw power like Jinwoo, she can improve her technique by learning and practicing various sword styles.

• Talking monsters that can open gates into our world at will… that's a dangerous revelation.

• I'm not sure if I buy that mysterious Chinese hunter as being able to take out the Ant King, even with the show of force we get. After all, we saw Chol Jong-In take out massive groups of ants in one shot as well, and the Ant King still dominated him.

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