I actually found this episode to be one of the more interesting lately, since it wasn’t focused primarily on the action, and featured (in addition to some mechanical exposition) some good growth and exploration of our characters. Not Bam, but I’m coming around to the idea that this is one of those stories where our lead is more or less supposed to be a window into the cool and creative things we’re going to see while personally staying on the more bland end in order to not throw the audience out of their element or upstage the actual feature.
And this week, that actual feature is
two for one. We see something of Rachel, of course, given how the
previous episode left off. She asks Khun to lie and say that it
wasn’t really her in the crown game. Her reasoning is that if she
and Bam are together, they’ll act as each others weaknesses. Khun
doesn’t quite buy the idea that she’s requesting this for her sake
and his rather than just her own, but in my opinion the ending of the
Crown Game does sort of show that she has a point, seeing how each of
them got nearly killed sticking their necks out for the other.
Khun, however, does follow Rachel’s
request for his own reasons: he doesn’t want Bam to suffer the same
that he did (clearly betrayed by a girl he loved), and so his
personal goal doesn’t have a conflict of interests with Rachel’s
request. When Bam comes to and gets told as much, he at least
doesn’t accept it easily, and takes some convincing to believe that
either that wasn’t Rachel or if it was he’s best off not trying to
contact her right away. Rachel, meanwhile, gets a lot of shots where
she’s writhing in sorrow in her bed with all the chocolate bars in
the world, so clearly even if she’s not talking about the scenario
with anyone, it’s tearing her up inside. That’s something I would
like to know more about; we understand what Rachel means to Bam but
less of what Bam means to Rachel. There are hints this episode,
though, so I’m willing to be patient with it.
The mechanical details are of the next
test, which is based on a tower climber’s role. Yeah, hints of “RPG
Mechanics” but those trying to climb the tower are separated into
five classes with your Melee Tanks, Ranged DPS, Tacticians, Scouts,
and Casters. Bam has been automatically filed as a caster, which
since its primary competence is manipulating Shinsu and we saw the
torrent of red Shinsu hell he was able to unleash, makes a lot of
sense. Apparently, one must normally make a pact with some entity on
each floor to use Shinsu. When Bam uses his black hole PDA to forge
his contract for the second floor, he’s warned that it’s more of a
shackle. Granted, after the previous display, he seems to need a
shackle at least until he can learn better control.
But the real second bit of meat has to
do with Anak, Endorsi (the brunette from Rachel’s team), and the
Princesses of Jahad. Over lunch, Endorsi lets us into a few facts
about that whole scenario: Jahad’s princesses are not the offspring
of the king, they’re chosen. They are also forbidden from romance
(unless that’s something with Endorsi’s biological family, but I
doubt it for reasons that will become clear). This combines with a
discovery that Khun makes (That Anak is supposed to be much older, a
Ranker, and dead) when Endorsi and Anak come into conflict in their
class test. It’s a king of the hill sort of match, and Endorsi
taunts Anak (once again) about being a faker while Anak furiously
comes after her.
As it turns out, the Anak we’re meeting
is not the Anak Jahad who was made a princess and awarded Green
April; instead, this is her daughter. Anak Jahad Senior married a
commoner and was later assassinated by Jahad forces, and so now Anak
Junior (who I will just call Anak from now on) has come to the Tower
with her mother’s sword to kill everyone who bears the Jahad name and
avenge her family. And she intends to start with Endorsi, seeing as
she’s right here.
The episode cuts before the conflict is resolved, but I highly doubt that either of them is going to be in mortal danger in the current test: Endorsi seems largely capable of outplaying Anak and has an option to ‘tap out’ if Anak seriously looks to get a murderous upper hand. This is, however, something of what I meant when I talked about Bam not upstaging the really interesting things: Anak’s backstory and motivation is traditional protagonist, but following from her point of view would have required getting all the details about Jahad, the Tower, the Princesses, and so on in a single episode, because the character we’d be following would know and act on that. Instead, by following Bam, we get to see and even experience Anak’s vendetta, but do so at a much more controlled pace. It also gives the author the opportunity to move from one plot to another, rather than staying laser-focused. While Anak seems like she could support a story on her own, if she did it would be all about princesses and revenge. Bam wanders into her story, but he can also wander out of it, and in to other stories of other weird and interesting characters we meet in the tower. Working with an ignorant waif (even if one who looks to be rapidly gaining competence as a mage-type) lets us focus on the breadth of the experience, as opposed to depth.
If that is what’s being done with Bam,
and it’s by no means set in stone that he must stay this generic
observer type, that isn’t necessarily a wrong choice. When engaging
with a fantasy universe, especially a particularly bizarre one like
the universe of Tower of God, we the audience typically want to see
breadth and scope as well as depth and focus. I can hope Bam’s own
story will develop in an interesting and engaging way in its own
right, but I’m also willing to except if it’s more of an excuse to
see the weird and wonderful things going on in the Tower.