Discussion Characters / TowerOFGod

I'm not sure that Ja Wangnan belongs in Main and Core Characters — it feels like a lot of fans leaped on the fact that he was presented as a focus character in the first plot arc of season two, and assumed that he was the "new" main character.

But his importance basically seems to have evaporated once that plot arc was finished — since then, he's pretty much been just another generic member of that team. There might be more done with him later (we still don't know what's up with his Zahard ring), but it's all a bit speculative, and most other characters have their own plot arcs, too. So I'd suggest just moving him to the Season Two regulars section.

That is to say — he seems like a character who has his own plot arc (like the Zahard princesses) but there's no indication yet that the narrative's main plot arc between Baam and Rachel involves him yet (not the way it involves, well, Baam, Rachel, and Koon, anyway.) So he probably doesn't belong in the top section yet, though later events might put him there.

Akryung is definitely not an Irregular; he isn't actually taking the test at all. He is a person Headon prepared as an escort for Rachel. By process of elimination (and from the fact that Headon flat-out said she wasn't chosen), we know Rachel is an Irregular. (According to the wiki — if it's accurate — Rachel is the first known Irregular to be assigned the Light Bearer position.)

However, that doesn't mean that Baam isn't an Irregular. Part of the issue is that there's really two conflicting definitions for Irregular that have been given at different points: One is anyone who takes the test without being invited (as Rachel is) and the other is anyone who forced the test's door open themselves, indicating that they're freakishly powerful (as Baam did.) Since both of them seem to be treated as Irregulars by the tower's social structures, they should probably both be listed as such here.

I'm also not sure that the 'chosen by the tower' that Headon talked about is the same thing that makes someone a Regular. The way other characters have talked about it implies, to me, that there's usually more to it than that — people assumed that Baam would already have learned about the tower in the process of being chosen, say.

In any case, I suspect that the fanbase places way more stock in the 'status' of an Irregular than it's actually worth. Being able to force the door of the tower open is significant because it means you have incredible power, and taking the tests without permission is disruptive to the existing social structure of the tower (as established by the king) because it means you are operating outside it. Beyond that it doesn't mean very much in and of itself.

Aha! I was reading over translations of the author's blog, here, and I came across something that made it suddenly make sense to me. It says:

A long time ago, King Jahad came into the uncivilized Tower and taught the inhabitants civilization and ruled over them. He had said, "This place is too boggy."

For us, who were born and raised inside the Tower, it is statement that makes no sense. But for the people outside the Tower, the "irregulars", it is something they know very well. Surprisingly, there's no Shinsoo in their world, and something called "air" fills their world instead. They said that the Tower filled with Shinsoo is too boggy and uncomfortable for them.

...as soon as I read that, I got it. Basically: People are misunderstanding what the 'door' means and what it divides. First, a reminder: the tower is divided into the inner and outer tower. Regulars are selected from the outer tower and send to climb the inner one. (Everyone assumed Baam would know this, because as far as they know, everyone comes from the outer tower.) But the 'door' of the tower doesn't lead between the inner and outer towers — it lead to the OUTSIDE. That is, an Irregular isn't really someone who forces the door or who takes the test without being chosen (though they're usually both those things, by definition.) An Irregular is anyone from outside the tower! The reason this hasn't been stated explicitly is because most people in the tower don't even understand that an outside exists. That's why the quote above has to explain the concept of air, and that's why everyone was so confused at Baam's ignorance — people understand that Irregulars come through the door, but they don't really get that there's a world outside the tower.

At least, that's my understanding.

Two other things related to this:

In this page, Androssi implies that she knew Akryung from before the game started. That (as Lero-ro says in the previous chapter) isn't supposed to be possible — normally, divisions are set up so you don't meet anyone you knew from before in the test.

She also says that Rachel felt like 'someone from another world', which fits with the idea that Irregulars are actually people who come from outside the tower, and that most of the people in the tower have only a vague understanding that there's actually anything outside the tower at all.

Anyway, I guess it's still just a theory, but it seems to match with everything that's been said and what's in the author's blog.