Summary
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The hunters we see inSolo Levelingare extremely powerful, capable of incredible feats, and also superhumanly resilient. Given how strong they are compared to the average person, you would expect them to hold positions of great power in the story’s world.
However, even the S-Rank hunters we see are still subservient to the various world governments, leading us to question if there is something keeping them in check. It wouldn’t be unusual if the setting for the world ofSolo Levelingincluded a chaotic time when powerful hunters, especially those with terrible personalities, seized power in society for themselves.Just why do hunters seemingly follow society’s rulesso carefully when they have the potential to create their own paradigm with their overwhelming strength?
Hunters Seem to Be Tightly Controlled
A Missing Bit of World Building
It’s strange that the sudden emergence of incredible powers among the populace of Earth inSolo Levelingdidn’t cause more social upheaval than we have seen. At the start of the series, it has only been around a decade since humans started awakening as hunters, yet the landscape seems to have barely changed. This situation could have been somewhat comparable to theintroduction of Quirks in theMy Hero Academiaworld, which was followed by a period of rapid social change as the world adapted to the new norm. Why is this so different inSolo Leveling?
“The weak will always lose, no matter what. That’s the way it is.” -Sung Jinwoo in Episode 6
It’s possible that the governments in this world had much more control over individuals who awakened compared to Quirk users inMy Hero Academia.InSolo Leveling, gates are a limited resource, and hunters are publicly known and registered after a mana examination. Because there are limited access points to gather gear and earn money with a hunter’s powers, hunters rely on being officially recognized by the government or guild organizations. In this way, the hunters who are already part of the system keep in check any potential rogue awakeners. A bit of evidence to this is seen in Season 1 with the B-Rank hunter Kang Taeshik. Although Taeshik enjoys being a murdering psychopath, he has to do it from within a respectable position in the Korean Hunter Association. If it were possible for him to operate as a rogue hunter, it seems it would be more in his character to do that instead of keeping up his respectable facade.
If social control somehow managed to be so strong as to be able to handle the awakening of hunters, then that may be one reason that hunters never got the idea to band together and overtake the rest of humanity with their powers. This social control could also come down to a numbers advantage. Hunters, particularly those in the higher tiers, seem to be a tiny percentage of the human population. It’s possible that hunters, as an overwhelming minority, simply don’t have the people necessary to restructure society with them at the top of it.Hunterscan still be killedif they let their guards down, and taking over the world would likely require coordination with non-hunters and building up large armies willing to subjugate their fellow normal humans in the name of their hunter masters.
Moral Responsibility
Hunters Are Facing an Existential Threat
Another reason that could explain why hunters are not concerned with ruling the world with their power is that humanity itself is facing a terrifying threat in the form of dungeon gates and monsters. A common trope in stories is that nothing beats an outside threat for resolving differences and uniting different groups of people toward a common goal. It’s possible that hunters feel an increased moral weight on their shoulders to act toward a shared good in this world since they are the only ones who stand a chance against dungeon breaks. Even if a powerful, evil hunter wanted to take over the world, they wouldn’t have anything to rule over if they dismantled Earth’s defenses in the process.
In the anime so far, we haven’t met too many hunters from countries outside of Korea, but the ones we meet in the future story seem to be totally servile to a host nation, despite possessing capabilities that make them as strong as an entire country’s military forces. It seems odd that certain National Level Hunter characters have not been tempted to use this power equivalent to national military strength to their own benefit at least in some way. An explanation for these particular hunters not acting out may be due to the revealed source of their powers, which has not been touched on in the first two seasons of the anime yet. Hopefully, we get to see more examples of hunters going rogue, as it could be an interesting dynamic for the story to introduce andgive Jinwoo an enemy that feels closer to home.
Solo Leveling
Cast
A-1 Pictures' Solo Leveling is an anime based on Chugong’s popular web novel. Set in an unforgiving fantasy world where hunters explore dungeons filled with monsters, the vulnerable Sung Jinwoo gains a significant power boost after he is picked to be a solo player by the System.
