Summary
Quick Links
Writing overpowered characters can be an arduous task. It’s hard to keep the story dynamics engaging with the audience since they know the outcome of every fight will end with the protagonist’s inevitable victory. Unfortunately, the story may soon reach that point in the anime adaptation ofSolo Leveling.
While Sung Jinwoo’s initial journey involved a lot of struggle, he essentially romped his way through season 2 without too many speed bumps. In the final fight against Beru, he won this highly teased fight with little difficulty, not even having to use his shadow army to defeat the Ant King. Now that Sung Jinwoo is far and above most other characters in theSolo Levelingworld in terms of strength, will the story start to become less enjoyable?
The Story Will Need to Inject More Depth
How to Write an Overpowered Character
This is not a criticism of having overpowered characters in anime, per se. Overpowered characters, even main characters, can create a fun and engaging story dynamic while satisfying a wish-fulfillment aspect for power fantasy enjoyers. However,the catch with overpowered charactersis that if they do not struggle externally, there often needs to be more of a focus elsewhere to keep the story engaging after they get familiar with their powers.
Characters like Saitama inOne Punch Manare so strong that victory over their opponents is guaranteed. Despite this, the show can still remain engaging because the focus of the story’s conflict is found elsewhere. Saitama struggles with an internal battle to find the meaning and happiness that has been stripped away from him by his immense power. Some stories like this choose to focus more effort on other character’s struggles, shifting attention away from the overpowered main character for a time to allow conflict in the story to build up. This raises the stakes for the moment when the MC swoops in to save the day.
“Hey, I’m here to close the gate…Let me solo it.” Sung Jinwoo, completely unphased by danger at the end of season 2
Solo Levelinghas attempted some of these methods to keep the story engaging, but as more characters become obsolete in power, much of the narrative weight will need to be supported by Sung Jinwoo in the future. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation seems topush aside the internal conflicts Jinwoo has, letting questions about what he is losing at the expense of his power mostly resolve themselves. His quest to save his ailing mother from mana sickness also ended rather easily, leaving his character without a clear direction aside from continually getting stronger for the sake of it.
Solo Leveling’s Way Forward
What the Later Seasons Need to Watch Out For
While there are still moments of struggle for Sung Jinwoothat can be adapted from the source material, they will come at fewer intervals for the overpowered protagonist. At the end of season 2, Jinwoo’s arc as a character has essentially ended, meaning the story must introduce a new dynamic to keep things moving.
In the manhwa, this is done by introducing bigger and bigger villains and uncovering more of the world. The anime should take advantage of the opportunity to dive deeper into worldbuilding, exploring facets briefly touched on in other adaptations to give Jinwoo something to discover and explore. In the story, Jinwoo must still discover the mystery of the system, the gates, and the other secrets of theSolo Levelingworld.
The show could also try making Jinwoo struggle a bit more than he normally would, which is something that seemed to be attempted in season 2. During his fight with Beru,Jinwoo appeared to be caught off guard by his speedat one moment, needing to upgrade his fatal strike to overcome the attack. However, the effectiveness of this may be limited, especially if Jinwoo is never shown to really be defeated in any meaningful way throughout the series.
In essence, for the story to remain engaging in later seasons, more needs to be done to add additional layers to what we’ve seen so far. If something is not done, it’s possiblethat Jinwoo merely coasting on his overpowered abilitiescould feel empty and repetitive, while making for a disappointing ending.
