The following contains spoilers for the Solo Leveling manhwa.
Sung Jinwoo is very obviously the lead protagonist of Solo Leveling, but he undergoes drastic changes in the first two seasons of the anime that make him seem anything but heroic. Due to his connection with the enigmatic System, Jinwoo is forced to commit atrocities he never would have otherwise, and he even begins to question his own humanity. As Season 2 continues to slowly raise the veil on the System in subtle yet shocking ways, it has become increasingly apparent that Jinwoo could very well be becoming the very thing he sought to fight.
Jinwoo undeniably inches closer toward villainy throughout the first two seasons of Solo Leveling, so it wouldn’t be unrealistic to presume he could actually become the villain by the end of the series. As the manhwa shows, there is surprisingly some truth to that. Jinwoo comes to embody the very thing that the villains of most series seek to bring upon the world. However, it’s, ironically, his closeness to the source of what most consider evil that makes him the one most suited to stop it.
RelatedSolo Leveling Episode 23 introduces Jeju Island’s main villain amid a mixture of action and horror that makes up for Jinwoo’s absence.
Jinwoo Devolves Into Questionable Morality Early in the Series
The System Pushes Jinwoo Toward Villainy
After being awakened by the System, Jinwoo fights to get stronger and levels up exponentially along the way. He quickly surpasses the E Rank he once was, even managing to beat a C Rank boss in his first instance dungeon. His newfound strength allows him to stand up to nearly any opponent he faces, and that doesn’t just mean Magic Beasts. Solo Leveling Episode 6, “The Real Hunt Begins” marks the infamous moment when the System pushes Sung Jinwoo to fight and kill humans for the first time.
While Jinwoo was forced to kill Hwang Dongsoo’s group of lizards anyway purely for survival, if the System weren’t involved, it’s entirely possible he could’ve let some of them go. Dongsuk even begged for his life, but Jinwoo had no choice but to kill him under the System’s orders. Most concerning of all is that, underlying his actions, there was always a sense that he enjoyed what he was doing as well. This is because Jinwoo had been bullied and pushed around by stronger people his entire life, so he took a sense of satisfaction in teaching Dongsuk the ultimate lesson. If that had remained Jinwoo’s single moment of moral weakness in the series, it might’ve been excusable. Unfortunately, his villainous tendencies don’t end there.
Since the reawakening. I’ve crossed a line I don’t think I can come back from.
RelatedWith an arsenal of shadow soldiers and ground shattering abilities under his command, Sung Jin-Woo would prove to be a potent threatーand easy win.
Sung Jinwoo goes on to kill yet another person during the Red Gate arc; this time without being ordered to do so by the System. In fact, in the manhwa especially, Jinwoo is shown planning to turn Kim Chul into his shadow soldier, making his crime premeditated. He even kicks Chul a sword to give him an excuse to attack him. The anime removes this moment of Jinwoo obviously planning it ahead of time, and even includes an added scene of Jinwoo lamenting his actions afterward. Nevertheless, unlike the lizards in the C Rank dungeon, Kim Chul never really had to be killed by Jinwoo – it was his own decision.
Very quickly in Solo Leveling, Sung Jinwoo develops a history of killing other people, often in cold blood while showing little remorse. This is especially the case in the manhwa, which depicts a much more merciless Jinwoo who has even less regret over his actions than the anime version. In one manhwa scene which the anime omitted from the Jeju Island arc, Jinwoo even faces a serial killer and tells him that he “gets” his desire to mess with people that are weaker than him. Jinwoo makes it clear how difficult it is to “return to an ordinary life” after succumbing to that feeling which he had first felt when bringing down the gavel on Dongsuk’s gang.
The thing that makes Jinwoo’s actions different from a straightforward villain in these instances is that he’s always killing people who can themselves been seen as villains. Because he does so in the interest of his own safety, it makes his actions seem slightly more redeemable. Nevertheless, it’s troubling that so much context is required to provide a valid excuse for Jinwoo’s actions from the very outset of the story. As questionable as Jinwoo’s own motivations are throughout the early arcs of Solo Leveling, what makes him seem most villainous is that all the signs point to a potentially evil power lurking within him.
Jinwoo’s Father Hints at a Greater Evil Within His Son Early in Solo Leveling
Sung Jinwoo Contains a Power That Most Anime Villains Only Dream Of
Image via A-1 Pictures
During the Demon Castle arc in Solo Leveling, Sung Jinwoo’s father, Ilhwan, is introduced. Because of the suspicious nature of how he was discovered, Ilhwan is captured by the American government and taken in for questioning by Hwang Dongsoo. Ilhwan reveals during this interrogation that he knows the truth about the Gates and Magic Beasts, and it’s far more terrifying than what anyone realizes. As Ilhwan tries to explain, “the power that poses the biggest threat has recently opened its eyes.” Given Jinwoo had himself just achieved an ability that no one else in the world had, it would be easy to make the connection there.
The anime takes this suggestion a step further than even the manhwa does. In Season 2, Episode 3 of the anine, Jinwoo’s dad mentions to Dongsoo that a new power capable of destroying the world has awakened just as he did in the manhwa, but he adds an extra detail that wasn’t in the manhwa. Instead of just claiming that the weaker humans will be “enslaved” as he does in the manhwa, the anime’s Ilwhan states that “numbers won’t help. Most will either be devoured, or enslaved and used against us.” This idea that the slaves will be used against them wasn’t mentioned in the manhwa, but it’s an important detail that connects Ilhwan’s claims to Jinwoo. After all, it’s Jinwoo’s specialty to enslave the souls of his defeated enemies and turn them against their masters.
RelatedSolo Leveling’s anime has remained faithful to the manhwa source material despite its flaws, but there’s still one major misstep it needs to address.
At this point in the series, it’s heavily implied that a sinister source of power lies dormant within Sung Jinwoo, and it might even be the evil that destroys the world. During the Jeju Island Raid, that fact becomes even more apparent. When Japanese S-Rank Hunter Goto Ryuji first faces the Ant King, he feels confident he can fight back. That is, until the Ant Kong unleashes his full power. In Goto’s final moments he recognizes the feeling the Ant King gives him, because it’s the same feeling he got when he fought Sung Jinwoo during their sparring match. What’s important about this is that what Goto actually felt in both moments is the same, but for different reasons. In short, he felt the impending arrival of death.
Against the Ant King, Goto realized his death was imminent, and it was something he couldn’t change. Against Jinwoo, Goto instinctually sensed death as well, though he didn’t realize at the time that it wasn’t just Jinwoo’s bloodlust. Instead, it was the fact that deep inside Jinwoo was the very power of death itself. Ashborn, the Shadow Monarch, has full control over death, and could be said to be one with death. Under the System, Jinwoo is slowly being drip-fed the powers of Ashborn with each new level he achieves. By the time he fights Goto Ryuji, Jinwoo is extremely close to level 100, which is the ideal level the Architect set up for Ashborn to take over his vessel. In this sense, Jinwoo is truly on the verge of honing the full powers of death.
The power over death is hardly an ability that seems befitting of a traditionally heroic character. If anything, being able to kill people and then raise them from the grave as undead minions is a skill that’s very befitting of a classic anime villain. Given his history of killing, combined with his dark abilities, Solo Leveling seems to suggest that Jinwoo is fated to become a villain. However, Jinwoo isn’t the type to blindly accept fate.
How Jinwoo Takes His Fate Back Into His Own Hands
Jinwoo Defeats the Architect and Devours the System
Jinwoo won’t ever become the actual villain in Solo Leveling, but he does have a “villain” inside him capable of destroying the world. Jinwoo’s father makes that fact very clear, and throughout Season 2, Jinwoo is subtly painted as a potential villain. The truth, as readers later learn in the manhwa, is that the power to destroy the world lies within him, and it’s a power that the System was created to help summon into the world. By the time Jinwoo reaches level 100 and is invited back to the Cartenon Temple, the stage is officially set for him to be completely possessed by the Shadow Monarch and become a monstrous deity of death. However, Sung Jinwoo won’t embrace that fate lying down.
Upon returning to the Cartenon Temple after reaching level 100, Jinwoo is faced by the Architect of the System. The Architect plans to kill Jinwoo himself, leaving his body ready to be overtaken by the king of death, the Shadow Monarch. However, Jinwoo won’t go down without a fight. After a difficult battle, Jinwoo actually defeats the Architect, forcing him to reveal the truth to Jinwoo. However, this places Jinwoo in a trance-like state that would allow for the Shadow Monarch to overtake his host anyway, allowing the Architect’s scheme to remain unchallenged. In just the moment when Jinwoo’s death seems imminent, the Shadow Monarch betrays of the Architect. Instead of carrying out his end of the deal to offer the Architect eternal life, the Shadow Monarch instead entrusts Jinwoo with even more of his power.
Hunters should hunt Magic Beasts, naturally. If he’s a Magic Beast, I will end him myself. But if he’s actually my father… I will protect my family even if it means becoming an enemy of all Hunters.
RelatedSung Jinwoo is definitely overpowered in Solo Leveling, but that’s less a flaw of the story than it is an essential feature of the narrative.
Jinwoo’s tenacity and his refusal to quit, even in the face of death, are qualities that the Shadow Monarch personally admires. It’s for these reasons that, instead of simply possessing Jinwoo’s body, the Shadow Monarch allows Jinwoo to “devour” the System, and awards Jinwoo with his Black Heart. While Jinwoo still technically comes up short of having access to the Shadow Monarch’s full abilities at this point, he is more than powerful enough to defeat the Architect once and for all, and emerge as the single most powerful Hunter in the world.
With that much power comes immense responsibility, but Jinwoo still doesn’t always promise to be on the side of mankind. During an international conference held between the world’s strongest Hunters and their respective governments, it’s revealed to Jinwoo that his father, Ilhwan, may be a Magic Beast. What’s worse, he may even be responsible for National Level Hunter Christopher Reed’s death. However, instead of just taking the side of the world, Sung Jinwoo chooses his family – for better or worse. Jinwoo asserts in front of all the world’s highest ranking government officials that he’ll gladly become an enemy of every Hunter in the world if it means protecting his family.
Jinwoo Has Villainous Tendencies Right Up Until The End
Jinwoo Isn’t a Villain, But He’s Definitely an Anti-Hero
Image via Chugong
For Sung Jinwoo, the thing that keeps him closest to humanity, but which he would also likely trade his humanity for in a heartbeat, is his family. Family is the single most important thing to Jinwoo, and he makes it abundantly clear that everything he does is for his mother, his sister and his father. In Solo Leveling Season 2, Episode 9, “It Was All Worth It”, Jinwoo outwardly questions whether he can ever really relate to his family again. Seeing his mother and sister just doing normal things around the house, Jinwoo thinks to himself, “I’ve crossed a line I can never come back from”. He realizes in this instant that, just as he told the serial killer in the mamba, he can never truly go back to a “normal life” again.
After the death he has witnessed and directly caused, Jinwoo genuinely questions whether he can ever enjoy his life with his mother, who he had fought so hard to save. As Jinwoo begins down this psychological rabbit hole, the one who inadvertantly pulls him out of it is, of course, his mother. In the midst of questioning himself, Jinwoo is brought back to reality by the sound of his mother’s voice, asking him a simple question about his father. In that small moment, Jinwoo was reminded that he could still live in the moment with his family, because they would accept him no matter what he had done or who he had become. That’s important, because Jinwoo would soon become the most powerful being on the Earth, and the only thing keeping him from leaving Earthly existence behind would be the people he cares about.
Someday… you’ll have to make a choice. When that time comes, please… please stay on the side of the humans.
RelatedSolo Leveling Episode 22 inadvertently confirmed that the anime’s Jinwoo will never be like the manhwa’s by removing a minor scene with a vital theme.
Sung Jinwoo technically gains the power of the literal villain of Solo Leveling, as the Shadow Monarch initially works on the side of the villains and plans to possess Jinwoo’s body to that end. However, it’s what Jinwoo does with that power that makes him genuinely heroic. In the end, Jinwoo is a true anti-hero, as he rebels against the Gods themselves to turn his world into a place that’s better than even they could envision it to be. Even though he saves the world, some of the things Jinwoo does to get to that point are questionable at best, and downright villainous at worst. It’s the fact that there’s no clear divide between good and evil in Jinwoo that makes him such an interesting character.
Jinwoo shows that death isn’t inherently evil, just as life isn’t inherently good. It’s how life and death are treated measures the person. Throughout Solo Leveling, there aren’t very clear heroes and villains between the Rulers and Monarchs, as both sides are to blame for the destruction of Sung Jinwoo’s world. Sung Jinwoo is a person who singlehandedly decides what is right based solely on his overwhelming power to take fate into his own hands. With the power of a god, Jinwoo becomes the judge, jury and executioner of his world, so the issue of “right and wrong” becomes entirely irrelevant. There is no greater hero in Solo Leveling than Sung Jinwoo, but for anyone who opposes his brand of divine justice, he has no problem with playing the villain.
Solo Leveling Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
