Self-Esteem and Abs: How Solo Leveling is Making a Hero of Jinwoo

During his stint as a hunter, the hero of Solo Leveling Jinwoo takes on a mission in order to make rent on time. It is, like so many missions that the hunters of this world go on, riddled with danger. Jinwoo is pitted against a rogue C-rank group, which ostensibly recruits him as one of their team but actually, they’re using him as bait. The plan is to steal crystal worth millions once the spider-like super insect is in a slumber after ingesting Jinwoo. But Jinwoo not only manages to quell and eliminate the monster, he is also able to wipe out the entire team like it’s a piece of old tackle. The group’s money-grabbing appetite as well as cruel disregard for Jinwoo is in sharp contrast to Jinwoo’s values — he’s a hunter in order to provide basic necessities for his family. He’s also been the weakest hunter in any group, the one who is generally asked to “park it in the corner”. 

Solo Leveling imagines planet Earth as a place where monsters have become ubiquitous because of a rip in the dimension. In this ruptured reality, a new world order is established in which some humans, like Jinwoo, are able to switch up to become professional hunters — a coveted trade due its glaring necessity. There is a gin-clear division in the hierarchy of both monsters and hunters, ranging from E to S, lowest to highest. Jinwoo is an E-rank hunter, at the bottom of the social pyramid. Hunters of higher rank belong to guilds that give them access to vast resources. Intermediate hunters form self-made teams, arbitrarily bringing together those who aid each other’s self-interest. Both guilds and teams come within the purview of the Hunters’ Association. To Jinwoo, it seems self-evident that he belongs in a miserable, lowly rung because he is not good enough. But to us, it is clear that behind the citric rigidity of this neat hierarchy, there is an inconsistency: The system has blindspots that keep it from recognising the power of humanity and true talent.

“Weakest Hunter of all Mankind”

As an E-rank hunter, Jinwoo’s life is crowded by bills he has to pay for a mother on life-support, a sister who goes to college, and his crippling self-esteem issues. The kitchen-sink realism jolts him to pursue the treacherous profession of a hunter, where the lines between death and scraping at economic survival are so porous that he always returns as a “mummy” — the term that Jinwoo’s sister uses to describe post-hunt, because he comes back in bandages — rather than as a treasurer-gatherer. In contrast, his colleagues are able to find essence stones or crystals that prop up and bolster their economic status. From the little incentives he is able to gather, Jinwoo prioritises urgent expenditure like medical tabs and education fees, rather than investing in expensive armours, swords and equipment that would improve his chances of survival and help him acquire more essence stones. 

Jinwoo can only afford a cheap knife, which is a puny weapon to combat deadly monsters. His team indicts him as the “weakest hunter of all mankind”, and this is the excuse given for not sharing the loot with him. At one point, Jinwoo says, “It doesn’t matter how kind, creative or smart they are — the weak always lose.” The statement is as much a philosophical observation as it is an acknowledgement of how he sees himself.

Leveling Up

The chafing jibes of Jinwoo team members— generally of a higher rank, and presumably driven by lesser desperation — are internalised by Jinwoo because officially he cannot strut out of the dynamic on the field if he wants to work within the professional constraints of the Hunters’ Association. A festering wound, growing larger with every taunt by his comrades, drives Jinwoo to enlarge the theme within which he reckons with his profession — a foray for survival also turns into an extensive negotiation about his place within the new reality of the planet. 

Early on, there’s a twist in Jinwoo’s tale when a mission goes awry and all the team members, including Jinwoo, are trapped in Cartenon temple, where a set of ginormous statues begin tearing them apart. Despite Jinwoo’s spur-of-the-moment solutions — which make a clear case for intellectual agility being of greater value than brute strength — the majority of the team succumb to the murderous event. It becomes clear that of the survivors, one member has to stay behind so that others can scuttle to safety.

In one of the more wrenching scenes of Solo Leveling, a quaking Jinwoo is being crumpled by sentient statues. Having volunteered to sacrifice his life to protect those of his comrades, at this crucial and climactic moment, Jinwoo slips into despair when a brutal question pimples his heroism — was he exercising independent agency in order to feel the glory of being a saviour, or did he see himself as nothing more than collateral damage because he’s internalised the rebukes of his comrades? 

At the nick of time, Jinwoo is saved by a screen, which recruits him to a game reality where he constantly has to level up by forging strength, perception and ability, and carrying out solo missions against monsters of different ranks. As Jinwoo’s self-esteem (and abs) seem to experience a twinning growth, the tasks assigned to him transform the docile boy into a broody man who finds himself being flirted with because of the muscles, inviting an admiring nod or two, and inspiring fear in other hunters who are bewildered at how an E-rank hunter is exhibiting this extraordinary vigour. 

Second Awakening

In the world of Solo Leveling, there is the concept of “‘second awakening”, a phenomenon that sees hunters experience a rare and sudden influx of power, which catapults them high into the rarified A or S rank. This is the explanation that high-ranking hunters cling to when attempting to make sense of Jinwoo’s miraculous escape from the Cartenon temple because otherwise, his rise throws into question the basic foundation of this predatory world. However, a test reveals the holes in the second awakening theory — a diagnostic device is unable to detect any surge of power in Jinwoo. He hasn’t instantly become a vessel for superhuman strength or any other flashy magical ability. Instead, something more complicated is unfolding between Jinwoo and the screen that doles out quests and instructions to him on a day-to-day basis, each one adding a facet to his profile as a hunter. His levelling up and ability to take upon monsters that are D-grade and higher — above his perceived ability — effectively (and perhaps inadvertently) disrupts the very foundation of the ranking system.

Six episodes in, the discrepancy between Jinwoo’s rank and his actual powers are being noticed by all those around him. It’s too soon to tell what the ramifications will be of this discrepancy, but the questions raised strike at the system that governs the world of Solo Leveling. What does it mean to accrue strength in a way that pushes Jinwoo outside of the established hierarchy? Can Jinwoo still be subsumed within the system or is the screen setting Jinwoo up to become the target of the elite hunters and their guilds?