With the very exciting news that Tower of God will soon return (30th of May on the Webtoon app), I figured it would be a good idea to read the entire thing from the start again. It’s been over half a year since I read it, and I’d been looking for an excuse for a while now. For those of you who have read it before and just want a bit of a recap, well look no further. Today I’m here to recap everything that is considered season 1. This is the material that the anime covered as well. I plan to cover more in the near future, so make sure you drop a like and a follow for more content like this. Just so I’m clear, this spoils things from the entire first season, as well as some mild spoilers for later chapters due to being more aware of certain characters’ motivations. I’ll try to keep the latter to a minimum though. For longevity sake I’ll divide this into two posts. The first one mostly covers up till the end of the crown game, and the second part covers the crown game until the end of the test floors.

What would you desire at the top of the tower? The 25th Bam doesn’t have any big desires like that. He just wants Rachel, his one friend, to stay with him in the dark underground cave that he lives in. Unfortunately for him, things aren’t meant to be like that, as Rachel is summoned through a doorway into the tower. Bam quickly follows her, opening the door himself. Immediately jumping ahead to the end of the first season we learn that the door actually opened for Bam instead, and Rachel entering was a mistake. This makes me a little bit confused as to why Bam is an irregular if he was invited like other regulars, but I suppose him opening the door after it took the wrong person might count for that. I digress though. 

Here we meet Headon, the Administrator of the first test. Now Headon confuses me a little bit and if people can tell me a bit more about him and his position and allegiances in the tower then I would love to know. Is he the big boss of the tower? Either way, he’s not on team Yuri, as he clearly doesn’t like her interfering with Bam’s test. He capitulates though and lets Bam use the Black March. This definitely helps him over the edge and he manages to succeed at his test. What neither Bam nor the reader know at this point in time, is that Rachel is actually looking on at the test. She was too scared to fight the fish and Bam did not hesitate. I love this scene later on in the prologue, because it perfectly shows us why Bam is so likable. He goes after what he believes, scared or not. Either way, both are sent on to the group test floor in their own ways. Headon leaves Rachel with a parting gift in the form of Ghost though. 

I’m going to keep the first few tests short since anything before the crown game isn’t particularly interesting for the long term story. It introduces many interesting characters. Bam meets up with Khun and Rak, the former two tricking Rak into being on their team. We also find Hatz and Anaak squaring off, then joining up immediately with Shibisu managing to sneak in. Shibisu is shown to be a bit of a joke, but over the course of the test arc definitely impresses. Endorsi is with Rachel and Ghost in the other test and doesn’t show up until later. The shinsu wall introduces the magic concept to the world and keeps out the weaker leftover candidates. At this point we’ve trimmed it down a lot, but we’re not quite there yet. The next test tests characters’ guts and ability to trust others. Khun clearly fails this test. Rak and Shibisu shine (as well as the religious guy). It’s the next part where things get a bit more interesting.

The crown game is when we really start to focus on the important characters. The main ones left at this point are Team Anaak (Shibisu & Hatz), Team Endorsi (Ghost & Rachel), Team Laure (Serene & Hoh) and obviously Team Bam (Khun & Rak). All teams compete for a bonus game. There are five rounds to get on the throne. The later you join, the less fights you have to win, but sitting on a throne already gives you somewhat of an advantage. The teams need to decide when to fight. Anaak is ready to go and they end up on the throne first, with Anaak lazing around until she finds out that Bam possesses the Black March. I forgot to mention this before, but Anaak has the Green April, a weapon of similar notoriety to the Black March. She confronts Bam and they eventually agree that if Bam’s team ends up on the throne he gets both weapons, but if they don’t the weapons go to Anaak.

We then have a chaotic final round in which team Laure, team Endorsi and some randoms fight. Khun’s trump card was the squads he managed to sneak in in his bag of holding. During this fight we get to see Hwaryun for the first time as she gets hurt. We don’t know a lot about her at all until later this arc. The fight goes chaotic but it ends up with Bam getting seriously hurt protecting Rachel and no one ending up winning the crown game. At this point the motivations of the players in the game seem fairly straightforward still. There’s no sign of any trickery going on except for the fact that the random team with Rachel and Endorsi was suddenly added to this test group. As a reader we get a hint at something going on, but not quite enough to worry about it.

We’re down to the last big group that’s going into the final tests, and this is where several of the characters can really shine. But that is for next time. I hope you enjoyed this little summary and if you did, please leave a comment and a like, and consider following this blog as well, it means the world to me. Until next time!