Rereading Solo Leveling and I must have missed how it is buck wild. It’s an unapologetic power fantasy, but it absolutely owes me an apology.

  • HarkMahlberg@kbin.socialOP
    1·
    8 months ago

    It’s portrayal of women made me legitimately uncomfortable. I’ve woefully missed some bad female character writing in the past, but even Cha Hae-In did not escape my “has this author ever spoken to a woman before?” radar. “Subservient wife material but can totally kick my ass in a fight” is not a strong female character… And it doesn’t even apply to Cha because she can’t even beat MC in a fight.

    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.socialOP
      1·
      8 months ago

      Actually, because nobody can beat MC in a fight, everyone either eventually becomes subservient or they die. Not a single rival or antagonist or villain bests the MC with a method for which his powers are useless. For example, promoting a negative public image of him and sowing distrust between him and his allies? Never happens.

      • HarkMahlberg@kbin.socialOP
        1·
        8 months ago

        It’s uh, got a weird mix of racism/nationalism too. There is a general charicature of Americans being arrogant cowboys who “steal” other nations’ hunters with promises of extravagant wealth, and Japanese hunters being treacherous backstabbing glory chasers… While South Korean hunters go from scrappy underdogs to world leaders entirely on the back of the MC.

        Like I know why South Korea has bones to pick with these countries, I’m not saying those reasons aren’t justified. But those reasons aren’t in the text, nor are they subtext. It just invents politics to portray these countries negatively, to drum up drama among the magical institutions in-universe. It’s strange.

          • HarkMahlberg@kbin.socialOP
            1·
            8 months ago

            This is a totally insignificant point but like… You can look up what the name of the desert is in the US. You don’t have to just call it “Desert Area.”

            If Ace Combat’s universe can have proper names for its geographical features, you can too.