Sung Jinwoo’s Shocking Reason for Skipping the Jeju Island Raid

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In this discussion, we will be discussing spoilers from Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, specifically Episode 10 titled “We Need a Hero”, which can be found on Crunchyroll.

Summary

  • Jinwoo’s decision to sit out of the Jeju Island Raid has massive repercussions on both his personal life and geopolitical dynamics.
  • Jinwoo becomes a Hunter to support his family, tirelessly working to provide for them despite the challenges he faces.
  • Content with achieving his main quest of reviving his mother, Jinwoo opts for a peaceful family life over continuing to chase power and strength.

The Jeju Island Raid Arc of Solo Leveling, perhaps the series’ most significant in terms of relative impact on the Solo Leveling story, and by far the anime’s most anticipated arc. With that knowledge, fans who have only seen the anime may have been surprised by the revelation made in Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow-, episode 10, when, after watching and participating in the Japan vs Korea sparring match at the Hunter Association HQ, Sung Jinwoo made the decision to sit out the 4th Jeju Island Raid operation. This is especially intriguing, given how he has never refused an opportunity to level up and gain even more strength ever since the Cartenon Temple Double Dungeon Incident.

The situation on Jeju Island is by far one of the biggest stains on the reputation of the Korean Hunters, and the threat is now no longer restricted to the island, so what reason would Sung Jinwoo have to refuse to participate?

The Reason Why Jinwoo Became a Hunter

There’s No Need to 100% the Game

Sung Jinwoo’s family was quite badly affected by the changes brought onto the world due to the emergence of the Gates. With more money flowing into what eventually became the Hunter economy, Jinwoo’s father, Sung Il Hwan, quit his job as a firefighter to become a Hunter. However, he went missing at some point ten years prior to the events of the series, only to emerge during Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- episode 3.

Sung Jinwoo also awakened as a Hunter, but unlike his father, this was after the establishment of the Hunter Ranking system, which appraised Jinwoo’s abilities as E-Rank. The rest is history; he soon developed a reputation for weakness but never once gave up because he had no choice but to persevere to provide for his family. While his father’s disappearance definitely affected the family psychologically, it would be the consequences of awakening that would add to their suffering. Due to exposure to magic, Park Kyung Hye soon developed systems of the Eternal Sleep Disease, an uncurable condition caused by certain individuals’ incompatibility with magic.

Jinwoo’s mother fell into a coma four years prior to the events of Solo Leveling, and since then, Jinwoo has been pushing himself, suffering all kinds of horrific injuries and facing visceral fear, all to make the little bit of money he could as a Hunter. He was greatly impeded by his Rank and his reputation to make any real money, but despite that, he kept working to put his sister through school and pay for his mother’s hospital bills. Even after encountering the System, becoming its Player and soaring to new heights, the motivation behind doing all of it – the Daily Quests, the Instance Dungeons, the occasional smurfing (in-universe, they are called “false rankers” and have a bad reputation as it is believed that they lie about their Ranks to serve nefarious ends), and the killing – it was all to put food on the table and keep his mother hooked up to the machines that have kept her alive for the past four years. When he defeated Baran and successfully crafted the Elixir of Life and administered it to his mother, who promptly woke up, Jinwoo had effectively completed his Main Quest.

“Winners Know When to Stop”

Jinwoo’s Decision is a Big Marker of Contentment

After the pivotal emotional moment that was the reunion between the Sung children and their mother, Jinwoo finally gets to enjoy the kind of home life that he’d last experienced in his childhood. For the first time in years, Jinwoo doesn’t have to fight horrific monsters and suffer terrible injuries; not because he’s grown insanely powerful, but because he has secured the life that he dreamed about. He can put his sister through school, and revive his mother, making her the first recorded case of someone waking up from the Eternal Slumber.

When Jinwoo got home from watching Japan vs Korea and totally traumatizing Ryuji Goto (read the manhwa), he arrived to a meal cooked by his mother and his sister in good spirits. There’s no mistaking it: Jinwoo’s contentment in the daily life that used to be the stuff of dreams for him is the reason why he opts out of Jeju Island. Initially.

A Different Reason to Fight

National Hero: Hunter Sung Jinwoo

In Solo Leveling Season 2 -Arise from the Shadow- episode 10, shortly after the Korea/Japan sparring match, Jinwoo sends his soldiers into the shadows of the Korean Hunters participating in the Jeju Island Raid: Cha Hae In, Lim Tae-Gyu, Baek Yoonho and Ma Dongwook. When the Ant King threatens them as the Jeju Island Raid operation comes off the rails, Sung Jinwoo uses the Shadow Swapping Skill he used to return to Seoul after conquering the Demon Castle Dungeon to swap places with one of the soldiers he sent to Jeju Island, and engages the enemy in a battle that changes the landscape of not only the delicate balance of the Korean Guilds, but also places Korea on the map as the country harboring a new lethal weapon.

Jinwoo’s fight against the Ant King is broadcast for all to see, cementing his status as one of the strongest Hunters in Asia and inciting a geopolitical shift in which global superpowers vie for his signature. There’s also a fraction of the population who resent Jinwoo for not having accompanied the raid party from the beginning, instead of letting 8 of the 16 S-Rankers die horrible, gory, painful deaths, which is fair criticism. “With great power…” and all that.

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2025-03-16 17:44