Solo Leveling: 8 Characters Who Completely Ruined the Series

This article contains spoilers for Solo Leveling.

The anime needs its wide range of characters – hunters, monsters, ordinary people, and powerful beings – to truly succeed and create a vibrant world. While the story focuses on one hunter’s journey to become stronger, the supporting characters are just as important as the main character, Jinwoo. In fact, relies on the entire cast, not just him, to make it a compelling story.

Despite having many interesting characters, Solo Leveling includes some who actually hurt the story. These characters – whether underdeveloped hunters, ineffective villains, or people whose motivations don’t make sense – ultimately make the series feel weaker and lead some fans to believe the story would be better without them.

Sung Jinwoo

It makes sense that Sung Jinwoo, the main character of Solo Leveling, gets the most attention and growth. However, the story sometimes focuses too much on showing how strong Jinwoo is, which means other characters don’t get enough development of their own.

Solo Leveling quickly turned Jinwoo into an overwhelmingly powerful character, making his fights lack tension. Because he’s so unbeatable, even exciting villains feel like easy challenges. The story became predictable as Jinwoo consistently triumphed, always being the strongest.

Cha Hae-In

Cha Hae-In is often called the strongest female hunter in Solo Leveling, but the story hasn’t really shown us enough of her skills to support that claim. Instead of being a powerful fighter in challenging battles, her role was largely limited to being a future love interest for Sung Jinwoo.

The Solo Leveling anime is trying to develop Cha Hae-In as a love interest for Jinwoo, but in the original manhwa, her sudden appearance as a romantic partner felt too quick and unnatural. It would have been more effective to show Cha Hae-In as a capable fighter on her own, rather than simply pairing her with Jinwoo.

Hwang Dong-Soo

Throughout the series Solo Leveling, Hwang Dong-Soo is presented as a proud and forceful hunter who believes in his own abilities. However, when he learns his brother has been killed, his single-minded desire for revenge against Jinwoo reduces him to a simple villain, leaving no room for a more complex character arc.

What makes Hwang Dong-Soo’s desire to kill Jinwoo even more troubling is that it’s not about genuine grief for his brother. He’s driven by a need to feel superior and boost his own ego. Despite repeated warnings from Thomas Andre to leave Jinwoo alone, he continued his pursuit, making their conflict a drawn-out and tiresome part of the story.

Goto Ryuji

Leading up to the battle on Jeju Island, Goto Ryuji is considered one of Japan’s top-ranked hunters, and many believe he’s the strongest. Because of this, there’s a lot of anticipation to see how he’ll perform against the island’s most powerful creature, the Ant King.

The instant Goto Ryuji met the Ant King’s gaze, he collapsed and died – a shocking end for someone established as one of the strongest hunters in Japan. Despite being built up as nearly as powerful as the nation’s elite hunters, his skills proved useless. Instead of being remembered as a hero like the cameraman who documented the Ant Queen’s attack, Ryuji became a figure of ridicule throughout the story.

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Yoo Soo-Hyun

When the Ahjin Guild was looking for a third member, Yoo Soo-Hyun seemed like a good fit to Jin-Ho and Jinwoo. Despite being a powerful A-rank hunter, she wasn’t actively hunting monsters or exploring dungeons. She was focused on her career as an actress and model, which kept her on the sidelines and made her seem like more of an observer than a key player.

Yoo Soo-Hyun’s addition to the Ahjin Guild in Solo Leveling felt unnecessary. The Korean Hunters Association had already been bending the rules to favor Jinwoo, and Soo-Hyun’s appearance didn’t matter much – she quickly faded into the background after a popular photo with Jinwoo and Jin-Ho, mainly serving to make Cha Hae-In jealous.

Legia

The Japan Crisis arc started strong, introducing colossal giants appearing through mysterious gates and endangering cities around the world. It set the stage for an intense conflict, and Japanese hunters specifically requested help from international allies to combat the threat.

Despite Jinwoo successfully completing the Japan Crisis Arc and defeating a monarch, many fans found the ending disappointing. Instead of a big, exciting battle, the climax focused on a conversation between Jinwoo and Legia while the monarch was restrained. While this conversation explained more about the conflict between rulers and monarchs, it lacked the action viewers were expecting.

Liu Zhigang

Liu Zhigang is considered China’s top hunter, on par with Thomas Andre. However, similar to many hunters in Solo Leveling, he hasn’t had a chance to truly demonstrate his skills on screen. Although he briefly appeared during the Jeju Island arc and effortlessly defeated a large group of ants, this small feat doesn’t fully capture his impressive abilities.

Despite being introduced at the International Guild Conference and meeting Jinwoo, Liu Zhigang’s presence felt brief and underdeveloped. The story presented him as a powerful hunter who could have been a real challenge to Jinwoo, but he quickly faded into the background. Many fans feel this made him seem like a false threat – built up to be dangerous, but never actually given a chance to show his strength.

Park Kyung-Hye

Fans of Solo Leveling continue to debate the role of Sung Jinwoo’s mother in the story. Many feel she hindered his progress and made him emotionally weak.

She constantly made him feel guilty and anxious, particularly during the events on Jeju Island. Jinwoo’s hesitation about participating in the fourth ant raid led to Min Byung Gu’s death and left Cha Hae-In seriously injured. If he had joined the raid initially, many of these injuries and deaths could have been prevented.

2026-02-21 17:38