Got recommendations for this manhwa however it ended up being a major disappointment.
Transmigration story with a slight twist. I do like how the setting & premise is quite different where in other manhwa, transmigrators are heros but in this manhwa denizens and transmigrators are enemies. The geopolitical situation is unique in its genre. Also helps that the artwork is good. Character and environmental designs are gorgeous. The battle sequences are eye candy.
The narrative though is cliche, predictable and ultimately boring. The plot basically expands on the setting and reveals things are not what they seem, due to hidden 3rd party agendas and forces manipulating everyone; WOW, i sure did not expect that, its sarcasm by the way, because it was super obvious. I was really hyped up for great storytelling and a grand reveal but was let down.
The narrative direction is unsurprisingly throwing endless obstacles at the heros, brute force through it and off to the next obstacle. A very reactive type of storytelling where it is a linear sequence of events, which is sign of bad writing. No intriguing and masterfully crafted plots. Its just horrible.
Manhwa centers around the main characters wanting to unite everyone to live in peace together, typical shounen plot. There's also the 'nakama' troupe where the characters feel like they're too weak or too dangerous that they put their friends at risk so they want to leave the party but have a change of heart and choose to get strong together. This trend keeps repeating till it became stale.
The characters all fall into the cliche one dimensional shounen archetypes; the airhead, the edgy, the overprotective, the comic relief etc. The protagonist was inspired by Guts from the Berserk manga but author made him the stereotypical all brawn but no brains, happy-go-lucky barbarian who brute force his way to victory. This is probably one of the biggest flaw because having a protagonist who is an idiot is really annoying.
The character growth is there but its so uninspired. The biggest problem is the manhwa keeps repeating the same character development arcs & dilemma. Literally, they go though personal growth and come out stronger, only to RELAPSE into the same issues as before. Its the same fight against the same inner demons for the entire manhwa. In other words, the characters never actually overcome their inner demons, they keep going back to square one, so the character arcs are basically pointless regurgitation.
The manhwa characters also suffer from a disease called altruism. This ended up becoming an hilarious plot point as one companion saves the other and tells them to save themselves only for the second companion to do the same with the third companion, turning into a spiraling altruism of stupidity. Just absolute ridiculousness its laughable. Its a recurring theme in the manhwa. Its funny because the author can't seem to come up with better writing or character development narratives.
And there's the dumb bottomline where they cannot or refuse to kill, using a cheap plot reasoning at that. They're in an extremely dangerous world, their enemies literally massacred thousands. But hey it works & makes sense because plot armor and author magic. The stupidest rule ever implemented for a manhwa. Its a poorly implemented version of the berserker effect in the Berserk manga. I guess the author wanted to juxtapose the ethos of the main characters and their ideals of humanity against the evil, ends justify the means of the antagonists but it ends up becoming a glaringly hypocritical plot element. Add to the recurring trying to turn enemies into your allies, it became an incredulous narrative in a dog eat dog world. Bro, i'm an ex-military with combat exp, if i don't shoot my enemy and wanted to 'talk' to make peace, me and my entire team will be the ones coming home in body bags. If South Korea gets invaded by North Korea, can the author afford that pacifist mentality? A lot of his countrymen will be slaughtered if they do not defend and fight back.
At the end of the day this devolves into an idealistic hero journey where they are always the winners and everyone wins, no matter how ridiculous and unrealistic it is. Because plot armor absolves all bad writing. No difficult decisions, no consequences, no losses and trying tribulations to learn from and mature. There are portions where a dilemma is introduced, choosing between the lesser evil or sacrificing one for the many but the author disrespects that later and pulled plot armor out of his ass to open a 3rd path where you can save everything and everyone ends up happy. All that set up becomes pointless and meaningless. This makes the writing & narrative monolithic and satirical.
All in all everything from the narrative to the characters, they are just mediocre and bland with linear storytelling. I honestly expected much more because of its unique setting but it turns out to be so average, a run of the mill shounen manhwa. If you just want something to read to time then by all means read this. If not, there are way, way better stories out there.
