Why I Dropped Tower of God.

[@keralindsay3553]

I think the biggest problem with this series is that, when you binge read it, it works really well and is highly enjoyable. When you follow it weekly, it extremly slow paced and feels like nothing happenes for extended periods of time. This problem was only exaserbated by the frequent and long hiatuses. I understand Siu had to take the breaks and I don't fault him for it, but it is undeniable that the breaks hindered people's enjoyment of the story greatly.

[@xgerra16]

Tower of God is meant to be BINGED and watched animated. I think the story and everything will feel much better when we’ll have separate chunks of animated Seasons.

[@okluminous566]

yeah you are absolutely right. You shouldn't be following it weekly. It's like reading a book and reading a chapter every other week, you wouldn't do that.

[@Green-Bean1]

Hard agree with this, the pacing is slow for weekly releases. The broader picture of the world itself along with the mystery of bam is top tier. If it was done a little more professionally it would be one piece level.

[@animan-ti7qt]

Eh

[@SaumyaSiddhant]

@@Green-Bean1agreed

[@SchoolVideosGoHere]

@@okluminous566 Animated? Hard disagree the anime adaption has been lackluster and slowly adapted tbh

[@Elena-gj6ow]

I feel like most people criticising TOG generally just suffer from a lack of patience, which is fine. But it's not really a fault of the story, maybe just ill-fitting of the medium. Most comics are simpler and more streamlined, but I'm glad there are series as ambitous in their world building and wealth of characters as TOG. Feels more like actual good fantasy that way. A common complaint is all the time spent on side-characters people don't care about, but all good fantasy stories with grand world building does that, otherwise it'd suffer. Just think about how much time series like ASOIAF or Stormlight archives spend on their plethora of "side" characters. It's how you build a cohesive and complex world properly, you need many differing perspectives. If you diminish that the world becomes so much narrower and simpler, and the story suffers for it. Usually simply ending up as a basic hero's journey. These people just want to read a different genre, it's not genuine critique of the story imo. Complaining that a "high fantasy" has a large world and too many characters and POV's is like complaining a romcom has too much romance. It's like... that's the point. Stories like this are made for those of us who *want* a grand world with tons of complex connections. It's not for those who want a shounen about a boy becoming stronger until he finally wins, or whatever.

[@kindmoonmushroom2146]

the characters have to bring something to the "world-building". if the readers say that the character is boring, then he does not add, he drags the timeline. all good stories are well directed from this point of view. In one piece, for example (early one piece), side quest characters interacted with the unchanged(!) main backbone of the team. from these interactions we better understood both the world and the mugivar team. Here in tog, random characters interact with the same random characters. the reader doesn't know who to follow besides Baam, Rachel, and Kun, because everyone else appears and disappears without much of a system.

[@sunilkmaurya2893]

Tog has one of the worst art for me that's why I dropped it😅

[@Elena-gj6ow]

@@sunilkmaurya2893 The art starts off pretty ass, yeah. It does get a lot better with time though, the difference between the first and the latest chapter is massive.

[@sunilkmaurya2893]

@@Elena-gj6ow it's bad compared to manhwas compared to now to ... Yup it's better than earlier tog but latest one is still bad when compared to manhwas coming nowadays

[@Elena-gj6ow]

@@kindmoonmushroom2146 But the characters in TOG absolutely do add to the world-building? Bam's POV alone teaches us next to nothing about the world, it's all the other POVs that expand on it and creates connections. And the characters aren't "radnom" most of the time. They're simply side-characters, and they also do interact with the main cast and main story-lines. Without them the story wouldn't make sense, they're necessary for the political landscape to take shape. They're supposed to appear and disappear, they are their own characters with their own lives within the massive world created. This isn't a isekai hero's journey where every character that matters ends up joining the main team for said journey. Tbh you kinda just underline my original arguement, you're reading the series as a character-driven one, expecting a hero's journey, instead of a world-building driven one. You're not supposed to just follow consistently appearing characters, you're supposed to use their POVs to follow the storyline of the world itself. Like all high fantasy. I do get that that's uncommon and possibly jarring for the manga/manwha format, and not what readers are expecting. But that's not a fault of the story, it's an issue of expectations.

[@minibubblegum5108]

As a person who just picked it back up this week, it's at it's peak and worth it.

[@samuek607]

I really want to trust you, but that's a lot of chapters you're telling me to read😔

[@minibubblegum5108]

@@samuek607 I get it, one day I may read and finish one piece. Also taste varies per individual.

[@thewillofd4417]

@@minibubblegum5108how you feeling about it nowadays, should I catch up? I’ve read season 1 and 2.

[@wock3476]

Cap, hard cap

[@Noname-e9k7k]

Please, just tell me that the drama between the Great Family leaders is worth it. I'll forgive literally everything if only we get a worthwhile payoff for Gustang's schemes.

[@KonaduKofi]

completely understand. Yet i can't stop following the story for some reason

[@LightCombat00-ej6em]

Oh ya i gotta follow the story

[@samuek607]

Maybe when I'm not as busy anymore I could make the time, but I'm just not sure right now

[@Fenix00070]

While i still think tog Is Amazing and i follow It religiously every week, i do agree with your points, and i think that issues like the pool character juggling has only gotten worse (my favorite character his wangan, and we haven't seen him in more than 4 years), so i can't in good fairh reccomend you to pick It back up.

[@okluminous566]

My favorite character is wagnan as well he has so much importance behind the scenes of the story. it's like one piece it's a slow burner and we def are gonna see wagnan later on in the story. It's one of those stories you have to binge in batches of chapters and not weekly as the pacing becomes unbearable.

[@Elena-gj6ow]

It kind of is an actual high fantasy story though, so characters being gone for a long time while remaining important is completely normal. Just think about how many years pass without reading about a certain character in high fantasy book series like asoiaf. People just aren't used to that being the case in comics, as they expect a hero's journey with a mainstay cast as the focus instead of the world itself being the focus.

[@hermi1-kenobi455]

I have faith in wangnan returning soon 🙏🙏 I can feel it in my bones.

[@DEATHxTHExKIDx1]

I just started over now that it has physical releases. Your points are valid tho. 100s of chapters without seeing some of our favs

[@HistoryNerd129]

In my personal opinion, the correct way to read ToG is to read it, wait at least 6 month, and then reread it and catch up. Rinse and repeat.

[@DDB5]

The real problem is they are TAKING TO LONG TO MAKE A SEASON 2 of this Anime and actually get the Animation right this time!! It’s killing its own popularity and hype because of how long of delay it’s been since the first season. Give us at least a OTA or something, I want to see the action on the screen now I’m tired of rewatching the first season!!

[@hermi1-kenobi455]

It’s been *four years* 😭😭

[@DDB5]

@@hermi1-kenobi455 Right😭😭

[@melkormorgothbauglir.4848]

Tomorrow bro remember.

[@DDB5]

@@melkormorgothbauglir.4848 I know right excited man.!!

[@Miggus7362]

I completely agree with your points. Way too many characters, neverending battle arcs and any peacfull moment is time skipped but without those I cant bond with these randoms so idonggiveaf whether they live or die.

[@the25thphoenix79]

While i have it top 10 manhwa in my book personally even higher , i get where you coming from and while i think there is a way around this issue i get it Tog is one of those series where you should really binge the arc to enjoy it not weekly read because if you are reading weekly you start think about the games and characters more than you should so it all seems complicated (me personally didn't give many of them that much of a thought while binging) The other problem with characters i understand , we all want wang , rak , khun etc arcs cause honestly they are great main cast that have the potential to be everyone's fav characters but at the same time some characters' povs are important to build up the world and add more liveliness to it , if it were centered around main cast honestly i wouldn't enjoy as much as it is rn (not saying it is the best by any means) because it makes the other characters also likeable not just npcs , i think it would be better if you went into each arc with a fresh mind and accepting the characters of that arc as main cast of the arc But your opinion is completely vaild tbh

[@J.D.J.D]

I read it weekly a longer time ago, but when some of the more recent games started, the tower rules kinda got on my nerves, especially when there are so many sidequests with exceptions to the game rules, I basically forget all the rules. Same reason I don't like JJK that much.

[@mejestin]

thank you skull dude. i feel you for not finding the words exacly... its hard to explain how story structure not work, its hard to point what not working when we only familier with some knowledge about the structure.. basicly tower of god is witty, its great with lores and secrets, positions and higharchy, but not necesserily with investment taward some of the characters, its having issues with power scaling, and the strory changed its face few times on us.. i still like it.. alot, since there nothing near to be perfect out there.. but i still hold my grudges about the bad sides within the story.

[@videogameseveryday]

I have felt this way before. It was my favorite series ever and then it become much harder to keep up with after the hiatus. Yasratcha and yama actually really engaged me because it was a moment to learn about and understand some complex characters, with some good fights. For some reason everytime Cha or hat girl that were freed from imprisonment, it gets way harder to keep going. did I miss their character development or something?

[@reaps2661]

Im watching and i understand, in fact im going through the same mostly lol, it's hard trying to force myself to catch myself back up and then read all the new chapters

[@blazekaizer9000]

Dude you are funny. Video liked

[@tofuaddict5946]

Dropped it bc of how many charas there are and i just couldnt keep track of the storyline anymore. Feels like theres no end when i feel like it was reaching the top, seeing the sky and the stars in the sky or going escaping out idk

[@hermi1-kenobi455]

So lack of patience… That’s okay, I don’t fault you for that. Just remember that ToG exists so you can come back in like 10 years and re-read it all haha

[@tofuaddict5946]

@@hermi1-kenobi455 i think ill just watch a yt recap video. As a one piece fan i dont think tog is that captivating of a series anymore, i like depth with media esp as long as tog and if its just fights with not much substance yea i think i can live without it

[@tyler-ee8vl]

​@@tofuaddict5946lol tog was tbat series for me I could never pick up one piece tbh, it's to goofy for me and the story bores me tog is like everything I want in a long running series.

[@tofuaddict5946]

@@tyler-ee8vl ah i see i get it tho i got into it with the live action series. U can watch in depth videos abt the characters and the world if ur interested since the world isnt just goofy and the anime drags the story lot of the time.

[@tyler-ee8vl]

@@tofuaddict5946 yeah defiantly watching the anime is courtesy just because of the dragging prob gonna read this month.

[@fritzhans3650]

The Pacing really fell of... its hard to read because nothing happens

[@igshpritzsay5243]

i tottaly get this video and i would mostly agree, but just saying for to date the manwha chapters are crazyy. i binged the last 60 chapters and was shocked with the story advancement. and i guess this sereis is going places again 😅

[@alliesteele6282]

I usually just stop reading if for a few months at a time so I can do a few binges a year but sometimes I'll just invest in fast pass if the current story arc is compelling enough week to week.

[@izaykayma9258]

so its fate with extra steps

[@Cyrax219]

Facts i always come back to it after many months to hinge at a time

[@jaunewota7332]

The way this video started summarizes how it feels like to be a Tower of God fan.

[@geogeo3733]

Also Bam is getting ridiculously overpowered

[@gege1178]

Oh absolutely he is, he climbed less than half the tower yet he stronger than a good number of rankers?!! The actual floor tests are barely an inconvenience to him now, REMINDER the whole premise of the comic is about climbing the tower and passing the tests. I liked it more when bam was yes OP but he still needed to use some ingenuity to succeed in the tests and just in fights with that are supposed to be stronger than him. REMINDER AGAIN the gap between rankers and regulars is spoused to be so vast that only one regular was ever able to defat a ranker and she was the highest possible rank for a regular. This might have been fine if there were more restrictions on his powers, making him only able to use his full power sparingly.

[@neolordie]

@@gege1178 that's because right now the story is less about climbing the tower and more about the power struggle inside the tower, he needed to become that strong to be able to keep up at that high a level, but I agree, and he get so many seemingly unrelated buff too, it's weird

[@user-db2uj9vc7s]

Say that to MF enryu soloing a fucking floor guardian

[@jamesnotjam9391]

Thats the point. One of the main conflicts in the story is conflict between average people and very talented ones. The story provides bunch of characters who feel themselves miserable and weak(Rachel, Hollan, White, etc), who will never reach the level of someone like Mazino(who was compared to a whale in a pond with small fishes, that represent regulars). The Baam is in a group of irregular, special guys, whose fate is to do great deeds, shine bright. A lot of manga plots have their main character being unfairly strong, but they do not show reaction of other characters to that strength. Will they be jealous? Will they idolize or use the hero? Or maybe others see the hero as he is. And what about the strong one? How does power affect him? Baam being unfairly strong is the idea of the TOG, it's a story about a strong guy with great fate and how society and different individuals see him. And yes many power ups of Baam is basically part of his fate, which takes place in the tower as well

[@rodrigosuarezcastano732]

Anywhere where I can find recaps of this series? Dropped it about a 2 years ago but I genuenly enjoyed it

[@Green-Bean1]

Catch up again, it’s worth it.

[@tinysandwitch343]

Personally I dropped it because I couldn’t understand why these people even wanted to help Bam in the first place and I personally don’t like Bam and how they add very little to the lore and world building

[@lexter8379]

I have the same feeling with it. It started with interesting world, characters etc, but then it kept snowballing with characters, powers, etc. There were chapters that only explained power of one side character, like why should I care if this happened for the fifth time and I know they are not important. It felt like empty world building, like "I thought of complicated power let me show you", instead of following the story.

[@xkira2821]

It’s Been 2 year i wait the story about wangnan, some caracter développement for khun aguero and rack beside be some ban’s creewmate or the story of karaka Maybe but no i have to Watch à fight between a fly and some dude with an afro

[@feitan8745]

My one cent. Bam was meant to be this powerful if not more, and i have no problem with that, but the problem lays in he others, too many tokens which are then pushed to become strong for no reason other than being just convenient just like the old, your friend is too powerful, you got to be powerful as well, without adding nothing more to the history than just being randomly needed by the MC (like Bam struggling for no reason so he can be saved, thus "justifies" them being around and being "strong"). And also, too many plot conveniences. Rachel for example, for someone desciped as being unlucky, and to be hateful, she somehow got some pretty trustful allies, and her luck is off the charts, and doesn't seem to me as manipulative as the time goes on. Everybody (in the main troop) had they own strength and reasons to become stronger, but it seemed wasted in the long run and even after the time skip.

[@mrbag8683]

Had to read all the chapters and story 4 times just to find out what was going on

[@samuek607]

How do you have that much time?

[@mrbag8683]

I did this when i was in highschool

[@mrbag8683]

Algo i didnt sleep till 4 at night i had to finish it

[@SSJ8CODY6942O]

Great video as always Ken-chan your reasonings are always sound and I love the way you break it all down! 10/10!!!!

[@Seronas10]

Rachel should have ended long, long ago. But i guess siu cannot fathom another reason for bam to go up (like... his friends?) got tired around ch 270 or 370`? not sure, during the or directly after the wall arc, been a while. Like i keep complaining about every MC's plot armor, Rachel is the same. She keep getting away with everything because somehow everyone and their mother is helping her behind everyone's back. She should have been eaten on the train

[@michelangelo8156]

There's actually an in world explanation for why Rachel gets away with so much and gets so many people's aid, it's not just random luck. As for Bam ascending the Tower for Rachel, that ended a long time ago. His motivations changed. My biggest problem is how SIU constantly introduces new irrelevant characters while completely ignoring the main casts plot points and dozens to hundred if chapters of insubstantial fights between rankers. We still know nothing about Rak, Khun and Mascheny's relationship, That lizard girl who's name I forgot, Bam and Rachel's past, wangnang, and so many other characters. It's been years, like come on!

[@drewsnyder1436]

I feel the same way about tower of god, its one of the best stories ever in my opinion but I just don't feel like re-reading it cause I'm always so busy!

[@samuek607]

Whenever I consider giving it another read, the poor art early on is part of what deters me as well

[@amrovine4029]

​@@samuek607you can start rereading at season 2 with maybe a recap video of season 1 or something

[@InceptionStudiosHtx]

Episode one soon as they start talking about who the girl is her royal position the black sword and him going to go get eaten off rip .. I was turned off to many boring anime tropes to many words that just sounded dumb and the main character just meh … skipped 4 episodes in to give it another chance .. it still sucked

[@erde9790]

I don't like power creep in the TOG, aside from that, I dont really have a problem with it. and TOG most likely will end up longer than One Piece.

[@user-db2uj9vc7s]

Dude, that is the whole point. The only thing it bothers me are the inconsistencies

[@kindmoonmushroom2146]

I liked the original team three (+ Androsi because she seemed great then. I still remember her backstory with how she and the other girls were starved so that they would try to kill the competitor). But what did I find when I returned to reading? The fact that there are too many characters! The original three are just not going to happen, we were cheated at the beginning! t's not the rise of these three together, it's the rise of Baam and a bunch of random nps.

[@dendenkushi]

Sick video. I dropped it too😢

[@samuek607]

This was an awful video bro, don't gas me up😭

[@andywarda1481]

I gave up because of Rachel. She is beyond redemption and frankly this is a feat I hate her more than Griffith.

[@hermi1-kenobi455]

I will never drop ToG although I do agree with all of your opinions. I don’t really like Yama and I do wish SIU would let him relax a little more and focus more on the main cast (which is what we’re getting in the current chapters). ToG is totally meant to be sat down and binged so the week-by-week does sometimes ruin the hype because SIU always solves problems in a different way to how one would expect and that always throws us off a little.

[@LilFeralGangrel]

I dropped it because I found it somewhat formulaic and contrived. Not bad, but it's negative qualities vastly overshadowed its good qualities for me.

[@AnisurRahman-fv2rj]

Tower of God is better than Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen.

[@LRibeiroH9]

I dropped it right after the second part. After seeing a blatant character regression and some contradictions, i realized that the autor didn't worth my time. In fact, i regret reading it. Are stuff still falling on a whim on Rachel's lap just to keep her in the story? (Rethoric question) Also, the Tower is over colonized, everything looks like a mall. For me, It strips all the sense of mystery and discovery generally attached to this kind of premise, and at this point is kinda late.

[@nooby165]

I'm not ALONE! I felt the exact same way way back like 10+ years ago now, shocked it's still ongoing tbh

[@Elena-gj6ow]

These are the kinds of takes people end up with when they haven't read far enough to grasp the reason behind what's happening. It's fine to drop it and not enjoy it ofc, but then your criticism also becomes kind of irrelevant. You get to learn more about Rachel further on, and why things keep "falling into her lap" (not what's actually happening, but it seems like that in the beginning). As for why the tower is so colonized, well duh, it's been densely populated for ages. A big part of the premise is that they've stopped climbing the tower beyond a certain floor and instead just populated everything below it, as per the rule of Jahad. Above said floor is where the real mystery is, and continuing to climb it by confronting Jahad is like, one of the main plot points. It's not supposed to be mysterious and empty on the populated floors, they've been lived in and explored for so long that would just be stupid. This isn't like the stories where a weird mysterious tower appears in an otherwise normal world, the tower *is* their world. The outside is the bigger mystery. Ofc it looks more like cities than wild, unexplored magical lands would. And that isn't a negative. You just have different expectations because you compare it to other, completely different "tower climbing" comics while disregarding the actual world building.

[@LRibeiroH9]

@Elena-gj6ow Not trying to dunk on your limited text interpretation skills, but "after the second part" means i went all the way until the third one. All details you've described are within the these two parts. "For me" means exactly an expectation of mine, so you're being redundant. And "generally" is me not generalizing what the story should be.

[@Elena-gj6ow]

@@LRibeiroH9 There wasn't an issue with my text interpretation lol, I just think it's bad/lazy criticism. It being your expectation doesn't mean it's more valid as criticism, as the premise you base your expectations on isn't the actual premise of this story. complaining that cities are overcolonized when they're literally cities is dumb. You just want to read a different story, it's not actually a fault of this one.

[@LRibeiroH9]

​@@Elena-gj6ow Seems you're a bit challenged. I'll help: My critic is in the first paragraph which you didn't addressed. The second one is an expectation and opinion. Which you are free to desagree. Making a strawman of them was quite lame. Hope you know what each one means and where it fits an argument. You're already said that it was a lazy criticism, and i already replied on that. You're repeting yourself, forcing me to do the same[…]