Post — Aaron Ngo

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

From October 1, 2020 to January 7, 2021, the “Tyrants Arc” of the Webtoon unOrdinary—written and drawn by uru-chan—rampaged like a magnificent wildfire dancing through the halls of Wellston Private High School. The events of this arc were a long time coming. Now without further ado, let’s dive into my thoughts on unOrdinary’s “Tyrants Arc”.

After episodes on episodes of build-up, the arc blasted off with the exposition, character development for Blyke, John, Seraphina, Remi, Arlo—and strangely Zeke—and how the world of unOrdinary truly functions as a society that values the strong over the weak. Let’s start with Arlo’s role in this arc, and I’ll keep it moving from there.

Arlo had a supporting role in the arc, setting up a meeting between Remi and his Aunt Valerie, a member of the Authorities. Arlo is resisting the truth of what’s going on with EMBER because of his trust in the Authorities, his Aunt Valerie, and the structure of the hierarchy or it would mean accepting what he was taught growing up was a lie. It isn’t going to be easy on Arlo once his world falls apart.

Things got tense when Remi recognized Aunt Valerie as Volcan, the villain she faced off against in the epic climax of the “Vigilante 2 Arc”. Volcan was also the one who killed her older brother Rei. The tension became more palpable when Remi decided to debate with Aunt Valerie, believing the Authorities and the Vigilantes should be working together against EMBER instead of being enemies.

Arlo is offended by Remi’s behavior, and reveals Aunt Valerie’s ability is Barrier like his. This new information catches Remi—and all us readers—off guard, as it apparently is debunking the fan theory. However, we’re not going to rule out someone having more than one ability or ability swapping or borrowing similar to John’s ability.

So, Aunt Valerie is probably (100%) Volcan, and the Authorities are obviously corrupt.

After Remi excuses herself early from the conversation, Arlo and Aunt Valerie have a conversation about him needing to focus on his studies instead of the Authorities. It honestly was a form of gaslighting to distract Arlo. Of course, it worked because Arlo neglected his duties with the Safe House and formally quits the club as well. He’s the kind of character who needs a structure and/or hierarchy to follow, even if it’s broken. Sound familiar?

As a result of doubt and uncertainty, Arlo is conflicted on what to do throughout this arc. Seraphina’s note and Terrance’s mysterious new mission aren’t making things any easier for him either. Arlo doesn’t make a decision until the end of this arc, so let’s discuss some exposition in the meantime. unOrdinary doesn’t usually give us this much information in one arc, so this was a real treat.

Thanks uru-chan for that spicy exposition!

After the events of the “Vigilante 3 Arc”, the story also addressed the teachers’ response to John’s tyrannical reign over Wellston. Apparently, they know about it but are ordered not to interfere whenever John attacked people. I questioned this “plot hole” a lot more while reading the “Vigilante 3 Arc”, but uru-chan took care of that problem quickly with that information. So, the teachers knew about John and did nothing to stop him. Worse, they are intentionally doing nothing. That sounds as real as it gets.

Headmaster Vaughn and Head of Wellston Security Keene have a meeting to discuss why Vaughn hasn’t taken any action to stop John. Vaughn is intentionally not taking any action because he prefers the students resolve problems on their own. His reasoning is like, “we must prepare them for the harshness of the world”. Vaugh is also treating the mess as an experiment because he has invested in John and his unique experience as a late bloomer, which caused him to embody the parasitic hatred, the cancer of today’s society. Allowing John to rampage like a magnificent wildfire dancing through the school is meant to show everyone the consequences of today’s society.

… I won’t argue with that one. This is true.

Let’s move onto Blyke and his character development in this arc, starting with how Remi and Isen reacted to his activities as a vigilante.

Remi, Isen, and Blyke are my favorite trio of unOrdinary, the true main protagonists in my opinion. At least I believe Remi is the true heroine of the series. Anyway, while they were out celebrating their first day of opening Safe House at a restaurant, Blyke was exposed—to Remi and Isen—on TV as “Nobody”, a new vigilante. Remi was deeply hurt by Blyke lying, going out, and the hypocrisy behind it after he instructed her to quit. In response, Blyke promised to quit, but he still had the ability drug amplifier.

Blyke was conflicted whether to use the drug or not against John throughout the whole arc. I didn’t want Blyke to turn into a drug user, and agonized for weeks about it. Luckily, Blyke realized he couldn’t allow himself to use the drug and accepted an ass beating by John instead. That decision made me so proud of Blyke. Like Blyke would rather take an ass beating over doing something he believed was the wrong move for the right reason. He refused to go down to John’s level.

I also enjoyed Blyke’s struggle to understand John and his valid reason for hating him, being the audience stand-in for those who have also lost sympathy for John. It’s really hard to root for / have sympathy for John right now, the alleged “main protagonist” of unOrdinary, but Seraphina is making it easier by explaining and understanding John’s side of things a bit.

Seraphina represented the opposite stance, who was still holding onto hope that some part of her friend was still in there somewhere. Unlike most other Shonen protagonists though, Seraphina does seem open to the idea of giving up on John. When Seraphina called John out on his hypocrisy, inability to reason, and his overall toxic behavior, boy was that satisfying. She ripped him a whole new one, and John wasn’t man enough to handle that look in the mirror. Not going to lie to y’all either though, I miss Seraphina and John’s close friendship, but I don’t think they can go back to that. The damage has been done, and that’s not easy to forgive or fix.

The action sequences in this arc were incredibly well-drawn and coordinated, more than usual with its DBZ-like atmosphere. The “Blyke versus John” battles were on par with the “Joker Arc’s” Royals versus John battles, the season one finale. John and Blyke’s epic blast struggle wave was essentially two Kamehameha Waves clashing with each other. John is insane for trying to blow up part of the school, but that’s where the arc began to close out with a full circled vibe. Headmaster Vaughn had to intervene and stop John from beating Blyke further.

Like we need to gel John’s hair stat! This kid tried to blow up part of the school!

Headmaster Vaughn was disappointed in the results of this experiment, and he also ordered John to stop attacking the Safe House. And that was it. I mean, Headmaster Vaughn did give John a lecture, but no suspension? No detention? No, nothing? Sera received worse for reading unOrdinary, a book written by John’s father! Like I—

Moving on here, Headmaster Vaughn also found Blyke’s ability drug amplifier, and plans on investigating this further. This will likely get readdressed in the next arc, hopefully, as it seems like the series is heading into a direction that will tackle this plot point directly.

unOrdinary’s “Tyrants Arc” was an amazing kickoff to answering all the burning questions we’ve been wondering about since the very beginning, or at least addressing them when it came to Terrance and those he worked for in addition to Volcan and Aunt Valerie being the same person. The ending of the arc, with Arlo deciding to accompany Seraphina for a meeting, was also effective in keeping us wanting to read more in the next arc. The latest arc is only two episodes at time of publication (213 + 214), but it’s already so good. There’s always more to explore in the world of unOrdinary. Episode 215 is going to be a great one!

The “Tyrants Arc” also started off with its 200th episode. Making 200 Webtoon episodes is a great accomplishment! unOrdinary deserves all the love in the world. Thank you very much, uru-chan, for doing the work to share this amazing story of yours with us readers. It’s one of my favorite Webtoons of all time. I’m consistently inspired and intrigued by the plot, characters, and themes. The “Tyrants Arc” exploring the tyrants in the story—Valerie, John, and Vaugh—and their strong reasonings for “maintaining the natural order” was also a major highlight of the arc.

Three different stories tied together by three different types of tyranny.

This 13-episode arc was one of the best storylines uru-chan delivered in a long time. The build-up is interesting and slow at times, but the payoff is always literally explosive 100% of the time. The context on the teachers not interfering with John’s tyranny, John’s desire to destroy the Safe House out of toxicity, Aunt Valerie’s harsh conversation with Arlo and Remi, Seraphina and John’s talk, the fight between John and Blyke, and Blyke’s character development were my personal favorites.

Thanks so much for reading this unOrdinary Webtoon Review, everyone! I appreciate the time y’all take out of your day to read them. I highly recommend checking out uru-chan’s Webtoon if you hadn’t done so already!

Let’s keep it reading! I’ll see you all when the next arc finishes out.

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