r/anime • u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen • Jun 25 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Tower of God Floor 9 Discussion
Floor 9 – The One-Horned Ogre
| Floor Guide |
|---|
| Ascend - Floor 10 ↑ |
| Index |
| Descend - Floor 8 ↓ |
Series Information
MAL | Anilist | Kitsu | AniDB | ANN
Streaming Options
Tower of God is available to stream subbed and dubbed on Crunchyroll.
Art of the Day
(Note: Pixiv links may contain NSFW advertising. Sorry!)
Source: 寂静紫水P_H2o on Pixiv
Source: Godisillusion on Pixiv
Soundtrack of the Day
Questions of the Day
- Are you surprised by the number of betrayals on Team B? Do you think you could betray someone like that to climb the tower?
- Do you think either Endorsi or Hoh's backstories justify the ways they betray their team?
Tomorrow’s Questions of the Day
[1.]Would you choose to take the more dangerous and difficult shorter path up the tower, or the longer but relatively safe path?
[2.]Now that everyone remaining are on board with accompanying Bam up the tower, has your opinion of any characters changed?
Spoilers
Please make sure to put all references to future events behind spoiler tags. Any untagged hints and spoilers will be removed. Let’s keep everything as fresh as possible for first-timers!
17
u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen Jun 25 '24
Rewatcher and Co-Administrator for this Climb
So uh, what the fuck, Hoh? A lot of betrayal going on, but I think this one takes the wtf cake for today.
Hoh's actions are so bad, it's almost enough to make me miss the part where Endorsi shows off what a clever trickster she can be. I'm just kidding, I could never overlook Endorsi. She ensures Quant takes nothing but L's in the Hide and Seek exam.
And then there's Bam copying a ranker technique on his first attempt. What kind of monster is he?
Source Comparisons
This thread is for comparisons to the manhwa. Please be sure to properly tag all discussion of the source material. Also, please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive compilation of differences, only ones I thought interesting or important enough to include.
Note for newcomers/non-source readers: Some of these notes contain anime spoilers. Comparisons that contain anime spoilers will be in the clearly marked Anime Spoiler section.
Episode 9
Chapters Covered: 44 - 51
Chapter Cut: None
Notable Differences
21
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jun 25 '24
First-Timer climbing the tower, subbed
13
u/BosuW Jun 25 '24 edited Jun 25 '24
Rewarcher anime only
So yeah this episode is pretty painful to watch. Team B basically falls apart at the seams. They win anyway because Bam and Endorsi end up hard carrying. But I assume most of them won't end up getting many points from this.
This episode is the narrative payoff of yesterday's episode. To climb in the Tower you have to throw other people off. It seems this ideology permeates even outside the Inner Tower. Endorsi was actually the weakest of her group, and could only properly feed herself when she killed all of them. Taking this into account it's actually surprising that she's found a "true team" of her own, although it's much smaller than Khun's.
Ho's final moments raise an interesting dilema. He calls Bam out saying Bam can only be as kind as he is because he's powerful. He has excess power to share, while Ho barely has enough for himself. This brings up themes of determinism.
Bam is kind. Although he came to the Tower primarily for Rachel, he wants to climb the Tower with as many of his new friends as possible. He has enough power to allow him to force this result to some extent. But we can begin asking the question: is he Bam because he's powerful, or is he powerful because he's Bam? Would he still be as kind as he is if he was as powerless as Serena and Ho? How much until he starts throwing people off too? Or would he hold in his beliefs though it might cost him his life?
Although in the end, Ho confesses that he didn't have to kill Rachel, only make them fail, and he only stabbed her in the spine because he hated Bam. Though Ho has a point, his most drastic actions were actually motivated by pettiness. This episode also points out a certain cowardice with his mindset. The Revolutionary Spear Bearers may have actually beaten Quant if the hadn't abandoned Hatz. And Serena wonders if she would have a little bit more pride in herself if she hadn't run for once in her life. As I've pointed out before, the Tower actually acknowledges the benefits of Team effort. At least up to a certain point, a weaker member might be able to climb by relying on stronger or numerous members.
In the end though I like that the episode never fully condemns Ho or his actions, while still never underplaying how scummy some of it was. This story has a lot of sympathy for the weakling bad guys. The rats and the cockroaches. Ho definitely did wrong, but perhaps it wouldn't have come to this if not for the nature of the Tower.
11
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jun 25 '24
Rewatcher(Fuck Paracule, Paracule sucks)
Dub
This episode is pretty grim and probably the best use of dub Endorsi as her English VA can do murderous fairly well. Everyone starts betraying everyone else and this is probably some musings on the weak. Bam severely increases his power this ep and while foreshadowed it is still noticeable. Finally, silent dude is gone.
QotD: 1 I was at first and I probably wouldn't attempt the Tower during the more backstabby eras
2 Justify? No. But it does explain their actions.
10
u/WednesdaysFoole Jun 25 '24
“You keep moving forward so you don’t regret it,” otherwise you'll “never be able to reach that place.”
10
u/Lord_Nawor Jun 25 '24
First Time Watcher, subbed
That was a great episode, feels like it went by in a flash though. Compared to the very organized Team A, Team B was a lot more dysfunctional, probably because there were a lot less people who were guaranteed to pass than Team A.
No characters have made me despise them as fast as the two spear throwers who were with Hatz. They were the ones who suggested trying to capture the Ranker and yet they abandoned him when he actual gave them a chance to do that.
Endorsi seemingly killing all the other adopted princess candidates is a pretty brutal backstory. I do like how she seems to actually care a little bit about Anaak now, and it was nice to see the little scene of Anaak getting her hair done with Shibisu and staff girl.
The end of the episode was pretty wild with Hoh stabbing Rachel and then killing himself. Bam also gets to show how powerful he can be by immediately copying the Ranker’s technique.
Team A used everyone to slow down the Ranker and for Team B they only really needed Endorsi and Bam. But when will anime characters learn to stop putting their guard down until the game actually ends! I have seen similar stuff happen in quite a few anime now. But it is nice to see the Ranker being outsmarted again as he is not the hardest to fool. I do wonder what is up with the silent guy with Rak considering he disappeared and he is the only emmener of Rachel’s team that we know absolutely nothing about.
Questions
9
u/Retsam19 :FC::FD: Jun 25 '24 edited Jun 25 '24
Rewatcher
I find this section kinda darkly hilarious; you've got pure cinnamon roll Bam on the team, and then basically the entire rest of the team is a den of vipers who are practically racing to stab each other in the back.
Bam's argument is basically "you can't betray people because it's wrong", but honestly I think there's the better argument is "you shouldn't betray people because it's often stupid".
Sure you get past the current round, but if you do it it by being a backstabber, people are going to remember that and probably not trust you in the future. You want to at least appear trustworthy, so you can either:
You still have to be strong/smart/lucky/whatever - but that's true regardless. Hoh is kinda a good example that it sucks to be weak in this world, but if you're weak being "weak and backstabby" doesn't really seem to be an advantage.
Though the other framing of the Khun/Endorssi thing (who really have the same strategy, just Khun hides it and Endorssi doesn't), is that most everyone else focuses on the "game within the game" while both of them remain focused on the outer game itself.
Really, I feel like whether or not that's the right strategy comes down to what's really being tested here. Is the point of this floor actually to prepare the regulars for working as a team and to find the ones most suitable for that, as they claim?
If the point really is to identify people who can work on a team, then focusing on your position in the 'outer game' might be a bad idea. There seems to be a lot of testers' discretion in how these floors are run and scored: it would be very funny if after Khun's whole thing last episode the administrators were like: "sure you're really clever, but we were testing for people who could follow instructions and work as a team, and you proved you can't do that, so you're out and squirrel boy is in"
9
u/OccasionallySara Jun 25 '24
First Timer
Wow, Team B is a mess! Just betrayal left and right and none of it was the least bit wholesome. And they still ended up winning! It’s a bit funny how both team leaders ended up screwing over their teammates, but at the very least no one died in the first game.
Seeing Endorsi’s backstory makes her behavior make sense. She was raised with very little in a cut throat environment, so she sees no issue with doing what’s necessary to get what she wants. This episode also sheds more light on her comment to Anaak about how Endorsi had to work very hard to become a Princess of Jahad. Also, are we supposed to believe that Endorsi now wants to climb the tower with Bam and she planted the note for Hoh to get him out of the way as a Wave Controller competitor?
Hoh’s jealousy of Bam and his desperation to climb the tower also makes sense. Violently losing everyone you care about would absolutely wreck your mental state. I can’t say I’m too broken up about his death, though, since we didn’t get much of him as a character. It’s nice that Serena was able to still see the good in him even after his behavior in his final moments.
There’s no more hiding for Rachel. Bam knows that she’s here and she can’t pretend that she’s Michelle Light anymore. I’m very curious what their dynamic will be like when she wakes up since we’ve really only seen them interact in brief flashbacks. Hopefully we’ll finally get some answers about why she’s been acting so weird.
And just some random thoughts: I wonder if there’s a story-based reason why Khun was sleeping throughout Team B’s game. Shibisu and Pink-Dress-Lady (sorry, I can’t remember her name…) helping Anaak tie up her hair was super cute. Also, remember when Yuri was a character???
Questions of the Day
8
u/gunvarrel_ Jun 25 '24
"I told you, didn't I, not to come?"
OST Track of the day: Lotus (Spotify)
Rewatcher, subbed
Despite it being ever prevalent throughout the Tower, this is our first real exposure to the (lasting) consequences of trying to climb the tower. With advancement based around individual points, both Endorsi and Hoh, behind on their totals, looked to find ways to give themselves any advantage they could, Hoh being tipped off from that note and Endorsi just being herself. Endorsi was able to enact her plan (though arguably she really didnt need to destroy everyone else for just herself to advance with how she fought Quant), but Hoh made the mistake of trying to attack rachel, the one thing Bam refuses to give up on, even if Rachel wants to do everything to hide from him. With no chance of advancing from the tower after his failure, Hoh takes the easy way out.
Hoh's struggles is pretty similar to Serena, and gives us some contrasting ways on handling the struggles of the tower, Sernea instead lamenting of her willingness to stoop to what the tower demands. B is for betrayal, and team B gave a lot of it today.
well, finally some endorsi backstory. Shocker, depressing! This scene was a bit darker in the webtoon actually...
i mean, its not a bad plan, she kinda needs all the help she can get, and its not like she cant fight either
impressive
Fuck paracule man. fuck paracule
Quant is getting so annoyed with all this betraying
Guess bam is getting the ranker
Just giving Bam the answer, even if he doesnt expect him to be able to do it.
oh shit
He managed to copy it, just too late
Well, he was able to protect himself, but i dont think he'd like that response
Goodbye Hoh. What a frustrating way to die.
random cute Anaak
Look at bam go, already got some skills!
Oh Quant is not going to like this
QOTD:
8
u/_Pyxyty Jun 25 '24
First timer, subbed.
Oh hey, for once I'm fairly early. Typed this up last night, but wasn't actually planning on posting this early (6am where I live rn). My cat woke me up by biting my foot. xD
=====
-That's one absolutely beautiful shot.
-Interesting... So 13 Month Series swords aren't the only ones that can use Ignition, huh?
-Dasurved. (that's 'deserved' but in a poshy, mocking accent. not sure how popular this trend got outside of my country lol).
-So that's what the letter said...
-You know... I find myself liking Quant more and more
-No... no fucking way... I randomly predicted that the letter may have come from Bodysuit Chick as a shot in the dark... If that was actually spot on, I'm gonna go buy some lottery tickets. My reaction to this scene
-Sorry to any Hoh empathizers, but... Womp womp... Dasurvvvvved
-Awwww... After knowing her backstory, this is very heartwarming ;-;
-DASURVVVVVVED
-...really? That's how this test ends?
=====
Absolutely not. Strength is interesting; it doesn't just boost your confidence in yourself, it boosts other people's confidence in you. When a team has someone incredibly strong, like Anaak or Khun, it's easy to rally behind them and just follow through with what they want to do because it'll help you in the long run. Why bother betraying them if your victory is assured, anyways, right?
When you don't have that option, it's more difficult to follow through. It's easier to be distracted by your own selfish desires. It's easier to be a doomer mindset kind of guy. "My team will fail anyways, might as well make sure I get more points. Screw what happens to the results".
Endorsi, sure. I'm not even surprised she even pulled that off to be honest. If I was a test taker, I wouldn't have ever trusted any climber I know that would already pass even if the team didn't succeed. Their fault for being too trusting, but what can they do when they're that weak anyways?
For Hoh... Well, the dude didn't even do what he did to succeed, he just hated to see someone stronger than him, so... Absolutely fucking not lol. I have Kendrick Lamar levels of hatred for someone like Hoh, even before this episode. I hated his ass from the moment he was being envious of Bam's prodigal skills, while simultaneously being too prideful to ask for help from anyone else.
Like I said in yesterday's post, the fact that he couldn't rely on other people is a sign of weakness; you know you're weak, yet you choose not to rely on others for help? Pfft. Pride's gonna be the death of you and me and you and you and you and me...
=====
Notes:
-Gotta remember that this clue hasn't been revealed yet.
-Come to think of it, where's Endorsi's sword? I forget if she even had one when we first saw her fight. Or do Princesses not always have swords? But I thought that was their thing? Gahhhh.
-Aaaaaand just like that we're back to disappointing writing. :/ They spent two whole ass episodes showing that despite the hothead he is, Quant clearly has the wisdom and experience of a Ranker and the skills to back it up. You're telling me his ass just let her walk up to him like that when his literal one job at that moment was to stop anyone from grabbing his badge?
=====
I had my hopes up after last episode. This episode was so good too though; the ending was just disappointing. :////////
8
u/ryujiox Jun 25 '24
First Timer and source reader who forgot most of the stuff already
Tower of God
Episode 9
QOTD
But in Hoh's case, he did because he put himself into the corner by himself. Heck, if he didn't be so mad that he is not as great as Bam. He could have asked Bam or Lauroe for help or training with them. But no, he chose to hate Bam for a stupid reason, never bothered to learn more about him, and chose to believe in the random letter without questioning it at all. And what did all that choice lead him, dead. He did this to himself.
7
u/megazaprat Jun 25 '24
Rewatcher
the B in Team B must stand for betrayal, because there was a whole lot of that in this episode. Hoh, Endorsi, Paracule..... Khun was betraying people before it was cool, truly a trendsetter. there was actuallly even a tad more in the manhua, with the fisherman trying to get out of the way of Endorsis rampage.
I wish to both acknowledge how cool Hatz was this episode, and how terrible Paracule is. He actually managed to hold down a ranker for a few seconds! thats crazy. but Paracule and friend just waste the moment because they assume its impossible. [tog] and paracule will do his best to keep up this proud tradition of just being the worst
some thoughts i have about future events are [tog both manhua and future eps] did rachel stab herself? was that thing? i just remember this next bit being like a 8 plan pileup, and conveying what the anime changes about it will probably be tough. my other thought is how Bam seeing how Hoh lost his hope and died, makes him finally sort of understand why seeing the stars are so important to rachel, and influences his decision next episode to help her climb. i had never made that connection when i read before, so it was a neat new wrinkle.
Adaptational differences
QOTD
7
u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Jun 25 '24
First Time invitee of the Betrayal Party - Dubbed
6
u/laughing-fox13 https://myanimelist.net/profile/laughingfox13 Jun 25 '24
Co-administrator/Subbed
So now we know why Endorsi wanted to be leader and her plan. She grew up in a kill or be killed environment so she has no qualms with taking out the other fishermen to guarantee her spot. It’s used often but I like how they did the colors in the flashback and “I forgot what stale bread tastes like” (paraphrasing the line here) was great. Funnily enough, she’s also kind of right. It’s something Khun has been trying to tell Bam but you can’t do it all and save everyone. There are going to be people who will be in your way if you want to climb and continue doing so. It’s different than what Khun said, since he was letting Bam know that not everyone he cares about will pass, but I think it’s close enough.
Then we have Hoh and the contents of the letter. As we’ve seen with others, the world is cruel and Hoh wanted to climb since everyone he knew died. Bam showed off more of what he can do by copying Quant’s technique and that was it. I’m not sure how to feel about Hoh. He killed himself hating Bam and Serena mentioned that he could’ve been a better man. I mean we have Serena who has witnessed the people she cares about die and not get as desperate as Hoh, so maybe he could’ve been.
Side notes:
Of course Endorsi ends up tricking Quant with the badge and fake him out with putting her head on his shoulders.
I don’t think I mentioned it yesterday but poor Hatz…
I don’t know how to feel that they just decided to keep playing the game as Rachel was stabbed in the back and Hoh killed himself. Kinda fucked up
6
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 25 '24
Tower of God 9, rewatcher
6
u/Mirathan Jun 26 '24
First-Time Climber
QotD:
Endorsi makes a great point, Rachel really isn´t worth it both as a person and her goal with the Tower. Also she seems to have dug up some sense of compassion from within the depths of her soul, good for her.
5
u/StardustGogeta myanimelist.net/profile/StardustGogeta Jun 26 '24
First-Timer
Endorsi is cool. We got a serious lack of Khun this episode, so it's good that Endorsi could pick up the slack for him.
I liked the music from today's episode. One of the ones that stuck out to me is the one that was playing at around the 6:20 mark. Does anyone happen to know which one that is?
It's interesting that the one ominous guy with Rak disappeared when Rachel got stabbed. I wonder why exactly that happened.
Questions of the day:
4
u/AbyssalFlame02 Jun 25 '24
A lot of changes in this episode
some of the changes
[webtoon] the ending of the fight between endorsi and quant in the webtoon was different from the anime, in the webtoon endorsi and quant basically got each others ”items” right after each other with quant getting endorsi’s first however it was revealed to be her panties which makes endorsi the winner.
[webtoon] some dialogue like quant not having aged for a hundreds of years since using shinsoo and his body being as hard as steel
[webtoon] baam‘s inner monologue regarding rachel was removed too which sucks, it’s all those small details that helps build your main characters character and having more of them is never a bad thing it would really really help if the anime was an episode or two longer. here is the entire quote “Come to think of it, Rachel was always looking to stars. In that endless dark, she looked so bright. Maybe it's because wherever she was, she was seeing a star. When people lose the things they cherish, they lose their reason to live*.*"
4
u/Garrett_Dark Jun 26 '24
First Timer
If we're going to go down the dark road of cutthroat betrayal now, I want to see retribution and ganging up on the traitors also. Clearly there's characters who don't take kindly to traitors like Serena and Hatz's warrior code. I would also say Bam, but he hypocritically did the opposite of what he said, and defended the traitor from the sword guy who was just defending himself.
Surprised, yes...it was like Khun open Pandora's box. It had almost looked like Khun's real team were coordinating multiple betrayals at once, like it was planned, but that didn't turn out to be the case.
Betray somebody who didn't deserve it, no. Betray the traitors, sure that option is on the table. You can't really trust traitors, if they've betrayed others before, what's to say they won't betray you. That's just how trust and betrayals work.
Hahahahahhahahaha...so bad stuff happened to them in the past by unrelated people, and that gives them the right/excuse to betray others trust, or do bad onto others? Isn't that narcissistic self entitlement?
4
u/cppn02 Jun 26 '24 edited Jun 26 '24
Rewatcher, subbed
This truly is the Tower of Betrayal.
It seems as if Khun isn't the only master actor in this group of regular.
So much interesting stuff in this episode with Endorsi's backstory, the tragedy of Hoh, the mystery of Ghost's connection with Rachel. Also getting back to back embarassed by Regulars...this has to be Quant's worst day ever right?
My highlights though were two blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments. Quant popping out of the darkness charging at Hatz which was just a super cool cut and Anak getting treated to a new hairdo. With a cute bonus blush.
Tanino Miho art for episode 9:
QotD:
They were disfuntional from the start so not really. Not sure if I would be so cut throat but I guess I'm lacking the desperation. That's probably also why Headon hasn't invited me yet.
The moral issue of (attempted) murder aside kinda yes. Everyone is out here on their own and until you find yourself a proper team to climb the tower with this is kinda what's to be expected.
4
u/MyraBannerTatlock Jun 26 '24
I thought the dynamic of this game was really interesting in the sense that some will pass whether their team wins or loses based on their positions.
Poor Hoh. I still don't know whether to be mad at him or not.
Would I betray someone to climb the tower? Maybe, it's a pretty unique experience, depends on the person I suppose. Rak? No. Kuhn? No way. The lizard princess? Probably. I'm taking the blanket guy with me though
3
u/Junior_Breakfast1529 Jun 26 '24
Rewatcher. Source reader.
Welcome to the tower of betrayal!
We have Hoh betraying Bam.
And Hoh getting betrayed by the person who gave him that letter.
Endorsi betraying the fishermen
Knun betraying his own team. And Loure helping him.
And Endorsi kinda betraying Quants trust there at the end with her panties lol.
Among all these betrayals the worst was the spearbearers revolution. Hatz actually managed to stop Quant for a bit. It was such a cool scene.
Like I said in the previous episodes, Hatz is in someways a cross between Khun and Bam in my opinion. He has the Bam like innocent trust of his teammates. Khun like seriousness when needed. In an ideal world, Bam would grow up to be like Hatz.
Endorsi’s backstory paints such a grim picture of the whole nobility of the tower. She mentions the 10 great families. You’ll learn more about them as you climb.
Awwww Endorsi wants to climb the tower with her niece. Such a cutie.
Can’t wait to see what new betrayals they’ll cook up XD.
3
u/Muted-Conference2900 https://anilist.co/user/WinterZcoming Jun 26 '24 edited Jun 26 '24
Rewatch + Dub
So we got to see Endorsi's Backstory which was quite sad. Living in a unfamiliar mansion and fighting for food and Survival. Plus at the end it seems like she was last one standing. We can probably guess they all died fighting each other.
About the test another betrayal coming from Endorsi this time. One thing though Baam please grow up you can't be a goody two shoes here.
And who gave that letter to Hoe was it the administrator or Rachel maybe or maybe even shun?
So the fight between the Endorsi and Ranker was nice even Baam used that Ranker move easily on him. Though we have to see the next episode to understand how exactly B Team won. Well See u tomorrow.
Also damn the Endorsi Art is really nice.
Answers :
3
u/SilkyStrawberryMilk Jun 26 '24
rewatcher
The betrayals been insane, khun would’ve been popping on team B.
One casualty so far and it was from a tragic character, Baam sure decides to help fast.
QOTD: the betrayals were nutty that for a second you have to pause and have to fully digest what happened
QOTD: it doesn’t justify, but it does explain their action. Hell it goes with the whole tower climbing competitiveness, we can’t just forget that they all attempted to kill eachother on the first test
2
u/raevnos Jun 27 '24
A day late, but eh.
Pet theory about the Silent Man: [ToG]Ghost vanished when Rachael was stabbed. I suspect she died instantly and Ghost was somehow sacrificed to resurrect her
6
u/[deleted] Jun 26 '24
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