Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this Webtoon Review. Please read with caution.

On September 21, 2020, I started and finished Tower of God Volume 2: The Hell Train’s twelfth story arc: “The Hidden Floor”. There were good character payoffs regarding Rak and a surprise character from Volume 1—a data version of Yu Han Sung from the past—in addition to Khun being useful with his brains.

The storyline with new character Batis and his tragic backstory also fitted nicely. I didn’t like the separation trope—everyone was scattered at the start of this arc—but I understand why. Besides, this time Baam and Androssi were paired together alongside Yu Han Sung. I did like how everyone hated the data version for things the real one did to them during Volume 1. Rak and Khun’s friendship was also beautiful to see—they acted like no time passed since they last saw each other like true best friends.

There were a few negatives that I found with this arc. While I enjoyed the storytelling aspect of the “Sworn Enemy”, I didn’t appreciate how only Baam was the one who had to fight his Sworn Enemy—a clone of himself as Jue Viole Grace. While Rak had a Sworn Enemy to deal with too—for laughs—I wish everyone else had to deal with the Sworn Enemy, which probably would’ve helped with the lack of character development for the other characters like Khun, Boro, and Sachi. I want Khun to do more throughout the arcs.

The lack of Rachel was nice until the end. I also liked the theme presented in this arc about the Data people being treated as “not human” even though they’re clearly people who’ve become self-aware to a certain extent. While Basit was only introduced in this arc, his story was rather compelling and his raw emotional moments about being human were spot-on. I also liked his broken dialogue—distinctive way of talking—and how that tied into his tragic background.

The action sequences in this arc—Baam vs Jue Viole Grace and everyone vs Big Breeder—were beautifully drawn and colorful. The color scheme—apart of SIU’s style since the beginning—had been getting more distinct and becoming more associated with certain characters like Androssi’s shinsu being light pink. It’s similar to how uru-chan does unOrdinary’s characters and giving them specific colors to let the audience know whose doing or saying what. I’ve been noticing that the color scheme becoming more consistent lately, especially when I read the “Hidden Floor” arc.

I had a good time reading this arc—the massive Webtoon so far—and the cliffhanger has me diving into the next arc immediately. I have been losing sleep over Tower of God, and I hadn’t done that—aside from writing my novel, sometimes—since I started playing Dungeons & Dungeons. Thanks for reading this Webtoon review, everyone! Let’s keep it climbing up the Tower!

back to blog