Line #50 Manhwa/SoulCartel


1	[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soul_cartel_cover.jpg]]
2	''Soul Cartel'' follows Si-un Cha, a young Korean boy who is able to see the spirits of the dead. He is taken care of by his older sister, and comes from a family of powerful mediums and exorcists. Sadly, Si-un Cha himself is lacking in any spiritual abilities whatsoever aside from his ability to see spirits. Despite this, he tries to help his sister catch weaker wayward ghosts. When chasing after one of these ghosts, he runs into a very powerful demon.
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4	The demon claims to be ''the'' Mephistopheles, who wants Si-un Cha to teach him of the modern human world and bring him books about his exploits. He states that if Si-un Cha tries to run away, he's done for. Si-un Cha does have the common sense to consult his sister (without revealing that he's actually ''caught'' a powerful demon's attention), but he quickly learns that even his sister would be no match for Mephisto. After Mephisto finishes a copy of Myth/{{Faust}} he reveals that he came to Earth because Faust has been reincarnated. The ''real'' story of Faust was that Faust was an arrogant human who'd claimed that he would not be corrupted by Mephisto's temptations, so they'd entered a contractual wager, with God acting as the judge. However, God had unfairly intervened at the last moment and cost Mephisto his victory.
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6	Mephisto does in fact find the reincarnated Faust: He's now a TeenGenius, Damian Lia, with his memories left intact and of about Si-un Cha's age. Faust states that he'll enter a rematch with Mephisto. This time the bet is if Faust can get Mephisto to become a kinder devil within the Underworld, it's his win. The catch? Mephisto thinks that he'll be cheated again if God is the judge, so he appoints Si-Un Cha to act as one!
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8	----
9	!!Tropes associated with the ''Soul Cartel'' manhwa
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11	* [[ABoyAndHisX A boy and his super-deformed demon.]]
12	* AlwaysLawfulGood: Every Angel seen so far has been unambiguously good. The only only exceptions were two Asraels who were searching for Mephisto. That is, [[HeroAntagonist two angels who wanted to keep a very powerful and potentially violent demon out of the human world.]] [[spoiler: Uriel is the first exception we see, having sided with the Plutos and becoming a Fallen Angel.]]
13	%%* AnimeCatholicism
14	* BadAssLongCoat: All Azraels wear long, white, hooded coats.
15	%%* BigDamnHeroes: Mephisto in chapter 55.
16	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Mephisto has this in regards to his appearance. He thinks his small and short form is cool, and calls it a "Devil's aesthetics." [[http://mangafox.me/manga/soul_cartel/v01/c059/10.html Even the angel in their group is confused by it.]]
17	* {{Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce}}: Ddeokbokki, also known as spicy rice cakes, a super-spicy Korean dish. And Mephisto ''loves'' it!
18	* BurnTheWitch: This is how witches execute members of their clan who commit unforgivable crimes.
19	* ChivalrousPervert: One of the ghosts takes quite a liking to Su-in for her beauty and figure, so he follows her around on exorcisms and helps her out.
20	* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: All witches have both purple hair and eyes.
21	%%* CuteLittleFangs: Mephisto.
22	%%* CuteWitch: Airen.
23	* GenreSavvy: Si-un knows how ghosts and demons try to trick people, knows when he's in a fight he's outmatched in, and has the common sense to consult his sister after he's gotten Mephisto's attention.
24	* GuileHero: Faust shows shades of this, convincing Mephisto that the best thing to do in his favor would be to fight the Azraels in the Underworld in order to prevent any collateral damage befalling the physical one.
25	* HotWitch: Higher-ranking witches look like young, attractive women with purple eyes and hair.
26	* IGotBigger: [[spoiler: After the six-month timeskip while undergoing TrainingFromHell, Shi-Un goes from somewhat scrawny and useless kid who can barely keep himself alive in a fight to being a broad-shouldered badass the same height as his sister and Faust who can defeat a Pluto, a demon who survived fights with all four Archdevils and Archangels.]]
27	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Shi-un isn't very happy about not being able to fight spirits. [[spoiler: This gets remedied halfway through the series.]]
28	* LastOfHisKind: At frist [[spoiler: Gilgath turned out to be the only surviving Vampire, Valtje, who later managed to resurrect his brother Cheshua. Valtje then sacrificed himself to defeat the Pluto Kalnas, the one responsible for nearly wiping out the vampires, making Cheshua this.]]
29	* LivingMacGuffin: Faust, Si-un and Su-in are ''unfathomably'' valuable to demons because of their young human bodies. In Faust's case, they ''don't even have a number big enough for him''.
30	* TheLoad: Si-Un's status as this is lampshaded [[http://mangafox.me/manga/soul_cartel/v01/c015/18.html here.]]
31	** [[spoiler: Subverted spectacularly later on when Si-un turns into the third most powerful member of the group, surpassing his sister and the friends they made in the underworld.]]
32	* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Some of the angels, Michael especially, and Mephisto is a rather cartoony version [[spoiler: until he stops holding back, then he becomes a much straighter example.]]
33	* LukeIAmYourFather: It turns out that Bermut, one of the most powerful Plutos is [[spoiler: Si-un and Soo-in's father, who was forced to work for the Plutos in exchange for his wife's safety.]]
34	* MegatonPunch: Mephisto unintentionally does this to Si-un's punching bag and sends it flying into a mountain a few miles away.
35	* {{Mephistopheles}}: Mephistopheles is one of the main characters and a demon of immense power. In the past, he entered a wager with Faust, with God as the judge, over whether Faust could resist the demon's temptations. As God intervened at the end to save Faust's soul, Mephistopheles feels that he was cheated out of his victory and has returned to Earth to hunt down Faust's reincarnation. Again he enters a bet -- this time over whether the reincarnated mortal can make Mephistopheles kinder -- but, since he feels that God would intervene again if He were to judge, he ropes the main character into this role.
36	* OhCrap: Si-Un has this reaction when Mephisto claims that he'll be his next target after he's done with Faust.
37	* OneGenderRace: The Witches, who are all purple-haired, purple-eyed women. They don't reproduce sexually, but by magically splitting their life forces to create new witches, which has about a three-in-ten chance of death for the witches participating.
38	* PaletteSwap: All of the archdevils strongly resemble Mephisto [[spoiler: (both forms)]], but with different color schemes. For instance, while Mephisto is red and black, Beelzebub is blue and black.
39	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: [[spoiler: Vampires were a race on par with the Archdevils before some of the Plutos banded together and wiped them out. Gilgath (later turning out to really be named Valtje Aldmedihar) was one of their only surviving members, pretending to be a demon who wanted to become a Pluto in order to recover the body parts of some of his brethren and restoring their people's glory. As it stands, only two of them are alive and helping out Si-Un's group, with one of them (Cheshua Amedihar) masquerading as Xearheart. Later on Valtje sacrifices himself, making Cheshua the only surviving Vampire.]]
40	* PromotedToParent: Su-in Cha, Si-un's older sister, took this role after their parents' passing.
41	* ShoutOut: The ''translators'' do this upon finding out about one of Faust's {{Xanatos Gambit}}s.
42	-->''[[Manga/DeathNote All according to Faust's]] [[MemeticMutation Keikaku.]]''\
43	''[[Manga/{{Bleach}} Aizen has a lot to learn from Faust.]]''
44	* ShownTheirWork: Unlike most uses of Faust (which rely on the CommonKnowledge version), the author's description of what happened in the past between Faust and Mephisto is fairly accurate to Goethe's version; in particular, Mephisto's accusation that God 'cheated' in the contest reflects the way that Faust was saved at the end of Goethe's ''Faust'' despite Mephistopheles apparently winning the bet.
45	* SuperDeformed: ''Mephisto''
46	* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: Shi-un becomes one of the team's strongest fighters later on, even surpassing his sister and later going toe to toe with ''Mephisto!'']]
47	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Ddeokbokki for Mephisto.
48	* WeCanRuleTogether: While Gilgath, the demon sent to capture Si-un and co, states that he cannot save their bodies from being stolen, he can protect their souls and ensure that they have the choice of being reincarnated into either Azrael's or Devils if Si-un hands himself over willingly. He even adds that if Si-un chooses to be reincarnated as a devil, he'll take him on as his student because of how talented he is.
49	* XanatosSpeedChess: Faust is an expert player, as the Supreme Witch realizes. She lampshades his skill by being one of the few characters in the history of anime and manga to acknowledge the possibility of [[SpannerInTheWorks small setbacks and unforeseen factors]] that can derail such intricately thought-out plans. The scene is meant to display Faust's genius, because no normal being, be they witch, devil, or angel, can account for such possibilities.

Context Manhwa / SoulCartel