Post — Aaron Ngo

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

On September 12, 2020, I started and finished Tower of God Volume 2: The Hell Train’s fourth story arc: “Wooden Horse”. This arc had a heavier focus on the new characters—Daniel, Boro, Saichi, etc.—and their past with Hoaqin 600 years ago. Hoaqin’s character does seem interesting though now that he’s awake, but I’m not really invested in the other new characters.

The arc tried to make us care about their dead comrade Roen—Daniel’s motivation to wake up Hoaqin was for her resurrection—but she was no Rin from Naruto. Tower of God presumably thought we would grow to care about these new characters quickly, but they just weren’t clicking like Team Sweet and Sour. Speaking of that team, Ja Wangnan’s screen time had been reduced tremendously since The Workshop Battle ended, and I don’t like that personally.

Honestly, the arc didn’t click for me until Baam, Khun, Rak, and the rest of his team showed up on the Wooden Horse—the 37th Floor Train Station. Baam and Hoaqin fought each other, but they didn’t finish their duel because a new game was forced upon them to decide who would become the “true Slayer nominee”. Baam tried to resign the position because he wasn’t involved with FUG, but then his friends were threatened…

Hoaqin’s character was the most fascinating to read, and the “squashed rice cake comment” was a hilarious dig on his beautiful snow-white color design. He is apparently known as the “King of Hell” who enjoys consuming souls and watching people kill each other on The Hell Train, but he also acts like a child occasionally like whenever he interacted with Rachel’s team.

Speaking of that bitch, Rachel had been quiet throughout this arc only talking whenever she needed to suck up to Hoaqin by showing him Emile. She also confirmed—once again—that she does not value true friendship, and will only use people to suit her needs. Her character design is also intentionally becoming “uglier” in the sense that her true personality is starting to show up through her freckled face.

Overall, this arc was a drag to read because it focused on characters I didn’t care for, but the ending set up the inevitable game match between Hoaqin and Baam in addition to another twist with Hoaqin when Wangnan and Yihwa met someone unexpected. The winner will see who is worthy to become FUG’s Slayer nominee.

Thanks for reading this Webtoon review, everyone! Let’s keep it climbing up the Tower!

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