Those who have survived major abandonment are often crippled by the fear of further abandonment. I have this issue personally, so I get it. Tower of God‘s Miseng also knows the heartbreak and horror of being cast aside. That’s why she jumped at the chance to become more powerful. Her story continues in Tower of God season 2 episode 18.

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Episode 18: The Mad Dog and the Lizard

Episode Rating: 6/10

When Miseng and Prince woke up, they met Verdi, who begged them to become her puppets. When they refused, Verdi told them that they would gain significant power by following her orders. Prince was still adamantly against it, and didn’t even believe Verdi’s claim about how her power worked. But Miseng felt differently. She wanted power and she believed Verdi. So she followed Verdi’s directions and used two tokens – flower hairclips – to gain new strength.

Unfortunately, Miseng was unable to control all that power. She started going on a blind rampage and apparently beat the crap out of Prince for no reason. (By the way, the bruises that were all over the boy’s body in episode 17 are now completely gone. Yikes – that’s a pretty big animation mistake.) Now in the present, Miseng continues her rampage during the flag game tournament.

Prince and Arkraptor manage to stop Miseng by removing Verdi’s hairclips. She immediately returns to normal and almost faints. While Prince catches her and holds her, Miseng reveals that she’s afraid Prince and the others will abandon her. After all, she has no fighting power on her own. Maybe it was her weakness that made Kang and Viole leave too, she thought. Miseng can’t forget how her parents abandoned her. But Prince gently reassures her that he and the rest of Wangnan’s team would never abandon her. It was a very sweet moment.

The scenes with Miseng were definitely my favorite parts of the episode, but a few other important things happened as well. After advancing to the next level of the tournament, Wangnan looks over at Viole in the audience and shouts that he’s going to destroy FUG. This unofficial declaration of war was a crucial moment for the development of the friendship between Bam and Wangnan.

This episode also introduced a character named Varagarv, whose nickname is “The Mad Dog of Yama.” He is the strongest of all the E-Rank Regulars. After escaping an illegal fighting ring run by a slayer, Varagarv swore to kill any FUG members he encountered. In other words, he’s now out to kill Viole.

Varagrav isn’t the only major threat. Viole is also being targeted by Beta, an experimental humanoid weapon similar to Kang and Cassano. Meanwhile, Endorsi is researching Viole’s background in an attempt to prove that he’s Bam. Anaak also suspects Viole is Bam after she got a good look at the young man’s distinct golden eyes. A few other character interactions happened, but that’s the gist of episode 18.

I gave this episode 6/10 because even though I enjoyed some of it, the weaknesses were obvious. Besides the animation mistake, everything was way too predictable. There’s no room for unexpected actions or responses from these characters. Other weaknesses included lazy fight scenes, the introduction of yet another underdeveloped character, and bad writing for the female characters. (I’m really sick of the girls being pathetic most the time. Endorsi and Anaak are exceptions though.) That’s all for today.

~Thanks for Reading~

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