Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Tower of God Season Two Episode 04 – Quick Summary
In Tower of God Season 2 episode 04, “Ramen and the Great Big Sky,” Viole was in a bad way after Mule Love’s attack. Mule Love pondered whether he should just finish off the FUG agent. Meanwhile, Wangnan Ja tried to orchestrate a team-based victory in the test. But he didn’t count on the machinations of Kim Lurker – or how far the loan shark would go. Can Wangnan Ja overcome such recklessness? Or will he be forced to sacrifice his organs for the sake of his debt?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Tower of God Season Two Episode 04
Bam hasn’t given himself over to blind rage or revenge. That’s commendable. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Bam’s all-badass-FUG-agent, and he wears that mantle well. But you can tell it’s not Bam. He’s not blood thirsty. He’ll kill, sure, but he lacks the callousness of someone like Kim Lurker or the bloody drive of some like Rachel. And I think that my favorite quote in this episode is an indication of that.
It happened early in the episode. Mule Love had just blasted Bam/Viole into the wall. Mule Love (I’m still trying to get my head around that name) said that FUG had killed his parents, and that he had decided to go so hard after Bam because of that.
The administrator demanded to know why Bam joined FUG. Bam’s answer was typical of lots of people who want to climb the Tower: he wanted to find someone. Now, I’m thinking that someone is probably Rachel, so when Mule asked if Bam wanted to find this person for the purposes of revenge, I was very interested in the answer.
“I won’t know until I see them,” Bam answered (00:27).
That suggests to me that Bam wants to know why she did it, before he decides what to do about it. I can appreciate that approach.
Favorite Moment from Tower of God Season Two Episode 04
Wangnan Ja did something admirable – but it didn’t connect. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Setup: A Powerful Sentiment…
Some of you might know that I write science fiction books. I try not to bring that up randomly, because that’s not what this site is for. Instead, I only mention it when it relates to something anime-related. In this case, my favorite moment reminded me of something I’m trying to do in the next three books I’m going to publish later this year.
I want to stress that it’s not my favorite moment because I found it particularly effective. Rather, it’s my favorite moment because I see it as a cautionary note for writers. It has to do with turning a trope inside out, maybe to the extent of becoming an anti-trope.
Dude’s detestable. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Kim Lurker brutally murdered Nia Nya in this episode. I already detested the loan shark; I can’t say that act endeared him to me (that’s being sardonic; it did, in fact, make me dislike him even more). Wangnan Ja vowed to kill Kim Lurker in response. Pretty typical stuff – and it make perfect sense in context.
Later, after Some Stuff(™) happened, Wangnan Ja got the jump on the loan shark. Declaring that he was going to kill in the name of divine retribution and revenge, Wangnan Ja moved in for the kill.
That’s when the loan shark tried to tell his own sob story. At this point, I’m thinking that sure, fine, he had a rough way to go. But that had nothing to do with Nia. Kid was only trying to help some old woman he had adopted as his grandma. He tried to make the point that Wangnan Ja was just lying to himself; that they were all equally bad and should all just climb the Tower. And what’s a little murder among acquaintances?
Delivery: Needs to be Delivered Effectively
Declaring he would never forgive Kim Lurker, Wangnan Ja prepared to put the loan shark out of our misery. But he didn’t. Instead, hanging his head, he said (17:17), “Doing this would repeat the cycle of unjustness. So… I forgive you.”
And that was it. There was some more argument that solidified Wangnan Ja’s conviction to climb the Tower and in doing so, win the right to change it. The moment was powerful, because it touches on the critical idea that cycles of vengeance beget more vengeance; cycles of war beget more war. There’s a reason we’ve had peace for so long. Read up on the Marshall Plan and review (carefully, please, avoiding modern propaganda) the role NATO has played. The idea that Wangnan Ja laid out was sound. Probably inspirational. For that reason, it’s my favorite moment.
Nia’s dead! Oh no! Anyway, time for chicken. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
But it also fell flat for me. It felt more mocking than genuine. It also felt contrived. I hadn’t seen enough of Wangnan Ja to know if he would even say something like that; I’m still not sure, given how we’ve seen him act. I like how the scene played out from Bam’s perspective. For him, it was like a reminder of who he had been, and maybe who he still wanted to be.
But it was my favorite moment also because of its failure to land home with me. It reminded me that ideas alone aren’t enough. If I want the themes in my next series (called The Sword of Sirius) to work, then I need to make sure the characters and situations convey the emotion of the moment. I don’t want my readers to walk away from my story feeling the same way I feel about this scene. That’s a concrete example of how not to do the scene. I hope that my books will prove I’ve learned from it.
What did you think of Wangnan Ja helping Bam against Mule Love? What were your favorite moments? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Tower of God Season Two Episode 04: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Kami no Tou Season 2 • Tower of God Season 2 – Episode 4 discussion
- But Why Tho? REVIEW: ‘Tower Of God’ Season 2 Episode 4 — “Ramen And The Great Big Sky”
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 01: Last chance
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 02: The Strongest Regular
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 03: The Trustworthy Room
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 04: Ramen and the Great Big Sky
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 05: The Other Team
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 06: Zygaena’s Flower
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 07: Mazino Magic
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 08: Her Name is Emily
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 09: One-Winged Devil
- Tower of God Season 2 Episode 10: The Hand of Arlen
I thought Wagnan’s actions were perfectly in character; his words, though? “I forgive you,” feels either too cheesy or to serious. I often wonder, in cases like these, if there’s something in the original that doesn’t translate well, and here we have Korean -> Japanese -> English. So, I basically withold judgment. His reasoning is plausible, though. The later conversaiton between him and Bam was much better, though: brief and inconclusive, and what they don’t say is as important as what they do say.
One of the things, though: sob stories can only explain so much. At the end of the day, if Kim Lurker didn’t enjoy lording it over others he’d likely not have killed Nia, or at least not relished it like that. Given comparable back stories, different people react differently.
And with Wagnan the question has always been (for me): is anger enough to get him to kill? In fact, it’s possible that he wanted to but couldn’t and overplays that with the pathos of “I forgive you.” (I don’t think that’s the interpretation of the show; the acting didn’t suggest this to me – though maybe I missed something?) Basically, I’d have been more surprised if he’d actually killed. It’s no longer the heat of the moment; it’s been stewing too long.
So Lurker lives to kill another day (unless Wagnan actually made a big-enough impression on him; he certainly made an impression – that much we saw on his face).
Good point about the translation path introducing the dramatic speed bump. I can see Wagnan trying to take the high road, in general; but this specific act kicked me out of my suspension of disbelief.
I do honestly hope Lurker’s sob story background wasn’t supposed to elicit sympathy — for exactly the reason you articulated.
Wagnan’s character is growing on me, that one scene notwithstanding. I’m looking forward to how he and Bam interact.
I totally agree with you on forgiving Lurker. I mean, I’m all for forgiving people and finding peaceful resolutions in stories, but it has to be believable. There has to be an already shown reason for Wangnan Ja to make such an extreme reach for forgiveness, Lurker needed to be honestly sorry for what he did, rather than the 180 that happened for no real reason in the anime. And then at the end everyone just kind of shrugs off the murder and Lurker just walks away having learned nothing. I kind of want to read that scene in the manhwa to see if it played out like that in the original or is this just the anime cutting out too much of the story for time constraints.
I think I remember someone in the Reddit thread trying to explain their reaction, or lack of reaction, to the sheer amount of violence surrounding them — or to the fact none of them knew Nia very well. But it didn’t feel like the narrative prepared me for the moment or the following reactions.
Now that you mention it, I think I’d like to see how it played out in the manhwa, too.