‘Solo Leveling,’ I Did Not Need These Nightmares You’ve Given Me

Solo Leveling, you better explain yourself before you’re over. What kind of Attack On Titan-looking giant smiley monster BS is this? If you were trying to give me nightmares, too late. Attack on Titan already did that. But you’re certainly not helping me heal from my trauma.

What is the Statue of God? The giant smiley monster guy statue?

The Statue of God first made a freaky-deaky appearance when Jinwoo and his raiding party entered the Double Dungeon, also known as the Cartenon Temple. The Cartenon Temple wasn’t supposed to be there at all. Its entrance was nestled inside of a D-Rank dungeon that was much friendlier (as friendly as dungeons can be) to less experienced adventurers. Unlike most dungeons, which are populated by highly killable beasts, the Cartenon Temple is mostly populated by horrible laser-shooting statues that are totally not killable. What is a sword gonna do against a death ray-shooting mega rock? Absolutely nothing, that’s what.

Jinwoo’s raiding party learned the hard way that they were no match for the Statue of God, which was hidden within the depths of the Cartenon Temple. After seeing the statue, some unfortunate members of the party attempted to flee, only to be disintegrated by the heat rays that emanated from the statue’s eyes. Jinwoo was able to save his surviving party members by telling them to kneel before it. The safety didn’t last. The Statue of God decided to get up and start walking around, crushing any party member too slow to get out of its way.

Jinwoo was later able to destroy The Statue after reaching a high level. How? By punching it in the face. Turns out all this thing needed to go down was a fist in the stony kisser.

Where did the Statue of God come from?

Spoiler Alert: The Statue of God was created by The Architect as a graven image of the Absolute Being. Wait what? Who are both of those people? The Architect is a statue-like being resembling an angel that resides in the Double Dungeon. The Architect is able to build stone statues that it can then puppet to destroy unfortunate adventurers. The Statue of God is The Architect’s magnum opus. The Absolute Being is essentially the god of Solo Leveling. At the beginning of time, ol’ AB split light and darkness in order to create the Rulers and the Monarchs. Why? For yucks. The Absolute Being is actually just a total asshole who created conflict in the universe for his own entertainment. The Statue of God is made in his image, and his image his ugly as sin.

(Featured Image: A-1 Pictures and Crunchyroll)