Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"The Monarchs continue their hunt for the Rulers' vessels in the human world, murdering one in Brazil and another in Korea, and seemingly kill Jinwoo too after he unintentionally makes himself a target. However, their arrogance costs them their lives when they underestimate his powers and failed to destroy his corpse in time."
The Monarchs War Arc is the 19th arc in Solo Leveling, a webtoon adapted from the web novel by Chugong, with art by DUBU (REDICE STUDIO) and story by h-goon. This arc collects chapters 150-166 of the webtoon.
This arc sure was...something. And by something I mean something really good because, my days, this was intense (and emotional).
Let's get into the details.
PLOT
Leading up to this arc, we already have all the context need (at least for now). We have learned about the grand war between the Monarchs and the Rulers, as well as what Jinwoo's role in all of this is. Now though, it is time for battle.
We have several battles in this one, one of which should have been longer as I have been anticipating it for a while. That is admittedly a fault of this series. While there are a lot of fight scenes, they do tend to be on the shorter side, especially when it comes to side characters.
Towards the end, it did get a bit chaotic and confusing as well, but I did end up giving this 5-stars, so I clearly enjoyed myself nonetheless.
WORLD-BUILDING
As we are coming up to the end of the series, we finally get an explanation for what is going on, and what the war is a result of. We also learn how Jinwoo got tangled up in all of this. So, all in all, we get a lot of context in this arc.
It was also revealed that the monarchs have been going after what it called the 'fragments of brilliant light'. In all honesty, it took me a bit to fully understand what that meant since it wasn't explained particularly well.
This arc did get me wondering though, why does Jinwoo not have a defensive ability? He has a bunch of intelligence, sense, and defensive abilities, but does not have a shield for offense.
CHARACTERS
As this arc is called 'Monarchs War', we are naturally introduced to the monarchs that we have yet to meet. That bunch also includes the original Shadow Monarch, Ashborn, which was a pleasant surprise.
We, yet again though, have the return of questionable Jinwoo. You would think with all those intelligence and sense stats that he would actively be trying to where the Monarchs are, but no, he decides now would be the perfect time to go to a theme park.
This arc also, like the many before, reveals the lack of dedication put into building the side characters. Because the gap of strength between Jinwoo and the rest of the Monarchs, and the rest of the characters is so wide, they are all pretty much rendered useless. I do wish that the side characters had a more prominent role in the battle, especially since there are so many interesting characters.
Another criticism I have is that the author didn't really know how to send off characters at the right moment. Same goes for the Japanese characters in the Jeju Island Arc, character arcs are completed before we got to properly get to know them.
Criticism #3, Liu Zhigang. While he does make an appearance in this arc, it is a very short one. I honestly don't get why he was barely included in this series, considering he is probably the strongest character aside from Jinwoo.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
This arc ended up ending on a cliffhanger, and this makes you immediately want to dive into the next arc.
With all that was revealed during this arc in regards to the war, we do get a hint as to what the possible ending for this series is.
Now, time for some spoilery thoughts. If you don't want to be spoiled, you can stop reading now.
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD - PROCEED WITH CAUTION
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I have been waiting for Chairman Go to go off, cause you know the old man character is always strong as hell.
Kind of devastated that Chairman Go died, he was a surprisingly supportive character for Jinwoo.
Yess, Jinchul became the new chairman.
Thomas keeps pushing the German hunter aside, poor guy 😂
I would 100% read a spin-off about these two
Beru is devastated that Jinwoo told him to lay off the historical dramas lol.
So Jinwoo is kind of like Midoriya then?
Ashborn saw this human who kept putting himself in near-death situations, and he was like yes, now that is someone who can handle my powers
Well...the dad ends up dying like right after they meet, and the mom knew he was gone because she finally suggested they move out...
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