Pros:

Good power fantasy
MC struggles and fights through problems, his growth is pretty well orchestrated and his prowess in combat is a huge selling point
His journey type of thing to the top, really

Qualms:
Side character writing; nonexistant
They make you think other characters are important in terms of, yknow, their character, but it's become clear to me that everyone is only introduced to make mc look good. It goes past just looking up to him, but rather the point of moral good IS him. And their position in their story is directly proportional to their interactions or importance to him. I honestly feel deceived since the way they were doing world building was so nice and felt like a breath of fresh air, but it doesn't go beyond that.

They'll layer up background occasion after background occasion and you think "oh, they're fleshing out people other than him, showing the events that occur around the game world and giving life to the story" when in reality I'm pretty sure it's only there to make saying "he beat the HELL difficulty ALONE, withOUT the need of all of that very important development in the background, because he's just THAT cool!" and let me tell you it's not even done in a fun way, imo.

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It's not just lightning kid though, his gf is justified in being absolutely impulsive and quick to judge, just because he is his girlfriend. Like he wrote in a subplot in which she's very very clearly drunk on power, but doesn't look like he plans to do anything with it, and just wants to show off mc's ability to judge character in the heat of the moment. Likewise, the only other individual not completely controversial rn are the ones that directly submit to (archer) or associate with (bandana man) mc. Which hurts because the international competition was a very potentially fruitful way to bring in unique faces that could serve as a foil to the mc, a rival to the rebel organisations or allies as a whole, but instead all of them were reduced to meatbags or glorification for mc. I'm not even mad about the korean superiority complex that goes along here, almost every sort of fictional media portraying a representative of their own country is going to be written such that their own country is in a much better light in regards to political confrontation, from western series (dont read comics so think, movies with america's military might) to manga, to manhua and manwha.
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But the idea that good characters both in future and present are willing to be ruined just to save mc's face, even in the fcking hyped up battle they couldn't make mc losing seem normal, it had to be out of the ordinary trickster tactics, author literally COULD NOT swallow his pride and properly say that mc is outclassed in combat here, they didn't show a fight that was fully prepped they showed aone sided beatdown and tried to justify it, even with the tidbit of not using revive at the end. I was aight if it was solely because they wanted to show that mc would do anything it takes but they hardly even made him struggle, the mental voice was great but too much of the fight was just nonsensical.
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Anyways yeah, for my own mental health I need to drop this. Every single scene involving a social group is just dog. I had my qualms form the start and was hopeful that they would be addressed as proper subplots, but seeing as THESE are the kinds of subplots I'm in for moving in the future, it's just...man.
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Absolute waste.

Infact, give me a good reason why mc had to beat him up there? Why not "teach him a lesson", explain the various ways the dungeon can attack someone and how it's not good to be overtly cocky (even if mc is, since in his mind he responds to lightning boy's provocation in the same manner, as if not to say "it's not good to think like that", but "I'm still better than you so you can't say that").

MC could have alluded to the various moments across his hell trip, even ones shared by lightning boy, and showed him how these things are dangerous. How an opponent can close the distance faster than his spell goes off, or if their defences resist the lightning,. or if their reflexes can adjust to predictable pathing, the usage of unique and creative weapons or opposing magic by themselves, there was alot of ways they could have showed mc's skill and even more ways they could have "humbled" (the amount of humbling subplots in this manwha has hurt it greatly) the lightning boy , since his demeanor is perfectly reasonable for someone who's grown to that extent, but instead they did this.

I can't anymore, this writing is shit.
I was watching out because the moral ambiguity of everyone's characters meant there was room for growth and development, but it's becoming more and more clear that author simply doesn't intend to solve any of the sociological or moral conflicts that he's proposed in the story, and it's all to brimg mc to the limelight.

Idk what you call it, when the story bends and warps so obviously to make the main character the saint, the epitome of goodness and all encompassing against everything evil, and that anyone who even slightly opposes him is with major fault, I absolutely abhor that kind of writing.

So far mc has made use of authoritarian leadership styles (not in an elaborated upon way, not without properly addressing the issues despite mentioning them), excessive violence on both allied members and foreign competitors, crude remarks, and has demeaned or alluded to violence per almost every single encounter.

How the hell is what he just did to lightning boy any different from what that australian fella did to the other guy a few chapters ago? It was so bad that he, and anyone who defended him deserved death, right? But when you use excessive violence to beat up by NO EXAGGERATION a kid who is very naturally drunk on power, to the bloody pulp point, somehow it's justified in the sake of reprimand? Everything is justified when it doesn't negatively affect mc, huh?

The idea that criminals are punished by death because there's no means for subjugation in the dungeon was an interesting premise, since it put into question the authority and validity of their reprimand in the public's eye, but author turns blind to that because he's creating this huge inconsistency, that mc can get away with excessive violence simply because the character he's fighting is seen as "bad" at the time, and that is beyond an issue.

The fact that they chose a character, reduced them to a cliche jerk for the moment, and have mc wrangle them just to show mc's power and skill is unacceptable to me, because it means that mc is going to get away with no consequences, and author is more than willing to absolutely ruin his characters and world building just to make mc look good...

The funny part is this wouldn't be hard to play off as normal. Just like how if mc is representing his school in a tourney, or his country in a raid, or his party in a competition, they're always portrayed to be significantly better than the others, with just one or two rivals, they could have done it here

but instead we're going through every possible thing to demean the structures of the japanese and australian servers, alongside the fact that even the characters meant to serve a good light are written to look bad, not to mention setting up gags that hit deeper into the servers' lore than needed narratively, it's just so...very blatant

unfortunately I like power fantasies so it's not like I can just not read it

on another note, is it like this in the novel too?

typeOU has a point tho

OMG FEMBOY SHOTA DRAGON?????????????
I AM BEYOND IN EXASPERATION

truly a peak series, god bless

oh, so someone has to be a saccrificial lamb...
ohhhhhh

No, it isn't an easy tell.

The fact is that there's almost no real transition, partly because this is a manwha, and so you're immersed in the story and before you know it, everything is confusing.

"Mhm Mhm, diety of adventure, yup, wait how did he get onto the 16th floor???? ohhhh"
Either you're too immersed and it becomes confusing, you're not immersed and honestly can't when it's split up like this, or you're broken out of your immersion by some pseudo flashback

at least there should be some symbolism or motif that more directly defines the scene change as a review of the past, something that goes beyond just saying they're on a different floor

Dying in the ultimate bliss to prevent the negatives that come later down in life

it's like how you remember the last thing as representative of the whole

what is rag

ooh rent

I mean be real
it's a weird mixup of platnoic protective feelings and confession pains

and honestly if I had a bf that was going out with some 30 year old adult in addition to the fact that I liked her, I'd be pretty weirded out

Imma be real I got lost the moment after they finished explaining ho3 aggyun defused the situation

having suspicious white hair guy be the one to save him is crazy, because he's actually the only unknown of that party
we don't know if he's in full support or against the knights, we don't even know what his abilities are, so it makes for a satisfactory out, very safe play by authorsir

it also realigs his position and refines the tone he was going for when he entered the scene, instead of us interpreting it as "najin is a masterclass strategist", we're thrown into the idea that najin is going to act as a catalyst in tandem with everyone else (being the connecting bridge between the knights and the east) to complteely de-unify the knights' organisation, and that is meant to happen by disarray induces in their hero figure; hippo

it gives meaning to everything we know, answered most of what we didnt' know technically (unless they never explain in the future how white actually saved bro from getting straight up, stabbed?) alongside taking us out from a very climactic, serious and influential fight without tripping over any plot points or punching inconsistencies

uhh iirc she was first demoted from the military because of the event with the children, then was stationed at some remote village where she could never properly work again, and where no one would hear of her or remind themselves of the situations surrounding her

afterwhich she gets poor building a house and managing an orphanage amt of children (the military's wages are not the best) and so resolves herself to joining a smuggling market and bandit chain, where she's eventually caught and dishonorably discharged

ofc

I mean, she garnered he reputation specifically FOR being someone so accepting of financial compensation she would even give up her military service, without shame, no?

and it's less like she feels shame for the country or even government, but for military management reducing itself to any means by which the emporer can be glorified, in addition to her own naivety

more importantly, it's important to sell yourself as valuable if you're in the mercenary industry, probably, so I'd assume simply having the jacket shows she's a strong and worthwhile asset

and finally, in terms of narrative development, it's clear she has alot of unresolved issues with herself, and is ridden with guilt that even prevents her from properly connecting with her children

in that regard, I think it's normal that someone who still hasn't forgiven themselves wears the symbol of her greatest blunder, and a representation of her old life
and then back to my original statement, none of these truly imply she's wearing it out of pride actually, infact I'd be more inclined she'd have lied if she ever said explicitly that is what she was doing, since it would be consistent with her character as of right now

okay well that's a good summary

I think it was in a comment that said something about "sometimes it's good for gatekeeping" but idek anymore man

no cus what am I meant to say if that's all there is to it :_:

apologies for anything that sounded like villanizing, I mean perceptually I don't see you in a bad light it's just I reaaaaally didn't want that to be the end all be all (because that would mean a wastage of a sea of text and like a good 2 hours) so was trying to steer away from this conclusion

must have read the comments and their replies in the wrong voice, I was sure you all would be deadset on defending a position

okay, well that's just a w

I can't sit here and argue that you don't have the right to defend your place,
esp if you've already gone "it's not a right vs wrong matter"

it's completely understandable as a human reaction, and it would be detrimental to your own interests eventually...
I'm completely lost on the other comments rn but I said the same thing, I clearly hard misinterpreted the convo (generalizing everyone who replied into one main argument)

it's def something I would do
albeit I wouldnt be as upfront as tsukino or gekk, very misleading imo (I very much thought you all thought you were saints, this is a serious blunder on my part)