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Warning: Contains spoilers for Solo Leveling season 2, episode #9.Solo Levelingis well into its second season, and its latest episode is perhaps its most controversial episode yet. Soon after the episode aired, it was bombarded with over 1000 dislikes on Crunchyroll, more than any other episode to date, so it’s easy to see that it’s far from everyone’s favorite.
It’s impossible to deny thatSolo Levelingseason 2, episode #9 is a controversial episode, but the criticisms levied at it are entirely misguided. Any episode for an anime likeSolo Levelingreceiving that level of negativity is odd, but for this specific example,the massive controversy ofSolo Leveling’s latest episodeis for entirely superficial reasons and brings down what might be the best episode, by far. The dislike people have been feeling toward the episode says a lot about the attitudes ofSolo Leveling’s fandom, and overall, it’s not that good.
Solo Leveling’s New Episode Finally Fixes One Of The Anime’s Biggest Problems
Why Solo Leveling’s Most Controversial Episode Works
The main reason whySolo Levelingseason 2, episode #9 is because of the specific content within it. After spending an entire season on one fight after another, episode #9 slowed things down significantly to focus primarily on the final preparations for the assault on Jeju Island and, most importantly, Jinwoo finally freeing his mother from the Eternal Sleep. In short,Solo Levelingseason 2, episode #9 was a largely lowkey episode in an action-heavy anime likeSolo Leveling, resulting in an incredible amount of hate from fans.
All of those criticisms, of course, are misguided in the worst of ways. One of the biggest criticisms people have had withSolo Leveling, as a whole, is thatSolo Levelingis just a power fantasywith little to offer beyond cool fight scenes, and because of that,Solo Leveling’s focus on what few emotional beats its story has makes it the anime’s best episode for proving there’s some genuine depth to be found. People are hating episode #9 because of how different it is from its predecessors, but overall, that’s what makes it so great.
Solo Leveling Finally Proves The Biggest Criticism Of Its Hero Wrong
Solo Leveling’s Jinwoo Is Better Than People Give Him Credit For
Another reason whySolo Leveling’s new episode is so great is for what it does forSolo Levelingprotagonist Jinwoo. Much ofSolo Leveling’s perceived lackof depth comes from how Jinwoo is characterized as a cool and stoic hero who wins every fight with little difficulty, and to many, it makes the show boring to watch. However,the scene of Jinwoo crying as his mother finally reawakened from the Eternal Sleep, coupled with Taito Ban’s delivery and the stellar direction of the scene, showed that there’s still plenty of emotional depth to Jinwoo, and that was great to see.
The depth Jinwoo was given didn’t stop with his mother’s awakening, however. As Jinwoo’s mother finally returned home and he and his sister enjoyed having her around again, Jinwoo questioned if he was allowed to be happy when he had been killing people, marking the first time in agesSolo Levelinghad explored how conflicted Jinwoo was about his slipping sense of morality.One of the biggest reasons whySolo Levelingseason 2, episode #9 was great was that it’s a rare instance of Jinwoo not being a completely one-note protagonist, and it’s ridiculous that people would hate that.
Solo Leveling’s Latest Controversy Highlights A Major Hypocrisy With Its Fans
Solo Leveling Fans Might Be Impossible To Please
Solo Leveling’s latest episode is far better than most people are giving it credit for, and that highlights a major hypocrisy with its fans. As previously stated, one of the major complaints people have had aboutSolo Levelinghas been its lack of narrative depth as it devolved more and more into generic power fantasy, yet when the series tried to buck that trend, it was met with nothing but disdain.Solo Levelingfans are nothing but hypocrites for criticizing its latest episode for delivering what they’ve been saying the show was lacking, and that’s very unfortunate to see.
As much asSolo Levelingsuffers from its lack of depth, for many people, the incredible quality of its fight scenes more than makes up for that, soas misguided asSolo Leveling’s recent controversy is, it’s not inherently wrong for people to only want to watch it for the action, especially when moments like what was seen in the most recent episode are so rare.Solo Levelingfans are allowed to like the series in whatever way they want, but if it does do another episode like this, then hopefully, they won’t react with such palpable vitriol.
