Toon-up: Tower of God

The webtoon that changed the game.

I’ve bitten off more than I can chew this time. I don’t ever want to hear crap again about how deep the lore is in Game of Thrones, I assure you it is nothing compared to Tower of God. 

The webtoon Tower of God, written and drawn by SIU is one of the flagship titles of the webtoon movement. This is the one that made the great breakout, this is the one that turned webtoons from a Korean niche for Manhwa fans into a worldwide Gen Z obsession. SIU* launched Tower of God in 2010. The series has accumulated over six hundred chapters, and is expected to take another decade to finish is viewed as a classic by the webtoon community.

Yes, fifteen years is long enough to establish a classic even in a new art form.  Only twelve years separate Edison’s The Great Train Robbery from D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation.  

Tower of God has millions of devoted fans across the world, three major stand-alone games, with additional appearances in other RPGs, and (if I’m being honest) an anime series that I found too indifferent to finish. It really needs to be seen in its native medium to be appreciated.

Here’s the basic premise.  There is the Tower and the outer world of which very little is known other than it is the source of the Irregulars. The tower itself is a mysterious structure where each level can be as wide as a continent. 

If you try to climb the tower you will almost certainly die and die in great agony.  But if you succeed in climbing the Tower you will gain whatsoever you desire.  It is a truly unlimited wish spell where you can turn yourself into a god. It’s been done before.

There are three main categories of people Regulars (people born under the control of the Tower who are permitted a chance to try to climb the tower and gain power), Rankers (who have reached the 134th level and have been given power and a rank) and finally the Irregulars, (those that can open the gates of Tower and enter from the Outer World). Irregulars are feared and hated by the current king of the Tower because he was one himself and it is another Irregular who is destined to kill him and end his rule. 

The story opens with a girl named Rachel and the boy who loves her Bam. Rachel vanishes before Bam’s eyes and his only hope of finding her again is within the Tower. He somehow manages to open the Gates and enters.  

Bam is a Korean word for both Chestnut and Night.  Chestnuts are kind of thing in Korean culture, they represent fertility and the Earth.  Consequently, 25th Bam’s name is a play on words potentially meaning rebirth coming out of night. The 25 is supposedly stands for the 25th night of the month he was born in.**  

This is at its core a Progression Fantasy.  Meaning that it chronicles Bam’s rise from a nothing to his acquisition of vast power.

The key themes of this saga are juxtapositions of power and ambition versus betrayal and loyalty, (there is a reason that Rachel is the character the fans love to hate).

The Tower itself is a vast empire ruled by its god-king, Jahad, and run by it’s complex system of Ranks and Regulars with huge numbers of warring factions among them. This is of course encouraged by Jahad. 

The Tower is also the only place where Shinsu exists, think of it like a mana system.  Shinsu is used in tests and combat.  The more you have the more powerful you are. Each level of the Tower is a place with tests unique to that level, puzzles, games, single combat, diplomacy, or open battle.  It depends on the level.

The principal characters, (at least at first), are; 25th Bam, our protagonist who goes from innocent, trusting, and helpless who blindly chased a girl he loved into the Tower, to a caring leader but a ruthless strategist. One whose growing power will threaten the king of the Tower.

Rachel, who keeps giving indications that she does love Bam, but not anywhere near as much as her own goals.

Khun, Bam’s friend.  A brilliant tactician who tries to preserve Bam’s innocence for as long as possible.  You knew from the start it would end in failure. Betrayal was guaranteed in the Tower.

Rak, comic relief and mini-kaiju. He’s a warrior whose loyalty is unwavering.

The Princesses; there are several women in the Tower who are the King’s Princesses.  They are not children of his body and they are not permitted to bear children SIU credit they don’t come across as cardboard cutouts. They should be throw-away characters but they aren’t.

One of the most compelling elements of this story is the eternal mysteries.  This isn’t mystery box crap. It’s an element of the story in its own right, rather like the mystery of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, you know deep down the story would be damaged if you were ever given a solid answer to the question of what was in the briefcase.  So it is with the Tower. 

The artwork is as ever, one of the most critical components to the success of any webtoon.  SIU’s art was truthfully just fairly generic manhwa but he has evolved as the story has progressed into a skilled artist who was refined with time into a creator of vibrant, detailed panels that enhance the tower’s grandeur.  He can handle the all-important trick of making static drawings dynamic and exciting. He can also manage to convey broken dreams in one panel. 

Let’s be clear this is a dark story, like Berserk or Hunter X Hunter. Its moral ambiguities and intricately detailed character studies for my money leave a Song of Ice and Fire in the dirt.  

That is its only real weak point.  This webtoon does not have an easy entry point casuals and flirts are likely to be put off by its complexity. You can’t just jump in the middle and work it what has been going on from there.  You have to start at the very beginning and start making your way through what is probably about 50,000 panels to get caught up.  

Tower of God’s scope is gigantic, the cast is memorable, the plot is unpredictable  I will probably have to revisit this this subject because I haven’t come close to finishing this story.

Discuss in the comments below 

*This is an acronym for Slave in Utero. There doesn’t seem to be a Korean word for Utero, so I guess it is the Latin term for uterus. 

**As yet there does NOT appear to have been 24 other Bams