Climbing the Tower: Episode 4
You don't mess with Anaak's hot pockets.
Originally published in “The Webcomics Weekly #106: I Could Really Use a Magic Soda (9/29/2020 Edition)” at Multiversity Comics.
Tower of God
Tower of God: Season 1, Eps. 16-23;
Episode 4 - “The Green April”
Updates: Mondays
By SIU
What do you desire? Money and wealth? Honor and pride? Authority and power? Revenge? Or something that transcends them all? Whatever you desire—it can be yours if you climb the tower.
“The Green April” is the first time we’ve had a test last more than one episode. Since the creators are adapting around 6 chapters to every episode, this isn’t surprising and, in fact, I wondered if the anime had to expand the scenes in order to stay at that pace. Turns out, the opposite is true and Tower of God drastically cuts down on the events of “Tower of God,” removing whole sections of exposition and entire characters’ speaking lines, shifting events around as well.
I think even I read a whole fight that’s technically in episode 5 because a pivotal reveal from the episode didn't happen until after in the comic.
Remember that nameless asshat with a gun who got dunked on in episode two but not in the comic? In chapters 21-22, he’s part of the team that attacks Khun and Co. but in the anime, he's nowhere to be seen. It’s a minor change but considering how much I dislike the character, a good one.
This gets to one of the places that “Tower of God” has the potential to be better in the long-run, thanks to it being a webtoon. 6 people can all talk “at once” in the same amount of space and time as it takes for one person to talk in the show. When the three teams are preparing for the latest test to steal the crown from the chair, the anime can’t have them all talk over each other but in the comic they can.
They can also talk far more extensively without breaking the flow since the time it takes to read two sentences in one’s head is far shorter than actors reading those lines aloud. Because the webtoon can use space for dialog rather than audio, more characters and details can be included, which means that as the cast expands, it’s able to, and has already done, the work to make them feel included such that later arcs can be more personal for the wet noodle of a main character, Bam.
Since the whole fight with Khun is in the final four minutes of the episode, Tower of God cuts the character’s speaking lines down to preserve time. The pros are that the fight is far snappier and isn’t bogged down in your standard “Action-reaction-commentary” cycle of shonen/superhero fights. The cons are we lose some of the characters’ strategies and thoughts, as well as their damn names, in favor of a quicker and far more entertaining fight. The anime makes up for this by infusing facial expressions, vocal performances, the music, and environments with the lost exposition of motives, communicating them far more effectively.
I know I say this a lot, and it’s not exactly fair to the webtoon, but the anime crafts the narrative more succinctly and consistently than the webtoon. Character motivations are clearer and when they’re deliberately obtuse, it’s easy to tell something more is going on. The sense of drama and the weight of the competition is more present in every aspect and, most importantly, the show trusts its audience to infer from the information given and trusts itself to convey that information effectively.
SIU in these early chapters trusts, it seems, neither, and so they front load exposition and overload us with explanations and descriptions instead of letting the art and speak for itself. That’s a fine technique for a comic with art that, truthfully, requires much of it, but it would be a glaring flaw in the show to simply reproduce it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, just that it’s far less common. Looking at you, Shibisu’s Bendis dialog during the “Anaak gets all murdery at Bam” scene.
There are some other small differences, most of which stem from SIU not really being consistent with his characterization and the anime correcting for it. Some examples include Hatz threatening Laure for not participating, Khun doubting himself, or Rak not chomping at the bit to go fight in round two and Khun having to bribe him to wait one round because strategy.
Others are details that change the dramatics of a scene and what is accomplished in it, like Lero Ro invoking Yuri, or Laure being the only one to explain the “which round is best to enter on” strategy, which better shows Khun’s strategic mind in addition to making it a less static scene. The original works well in the webtoon but TV requires something different.
The biggest change between the two is the aforementioned final fight. A whole chunk of back and forth exposition is cut (thankfully) and the fight after Khun throws the “real” crown in-between everyone doesn’t happen. . .yet. I presume it was switched because the episode had to end and it’s a far more effective image to have Bam suddenly be sitting on the throne with Khun pulling a crown from his bag and looking smugly at the other crown the rest of the characters were just fighting over.
That and he didn’t straight up monch a character with his bag in Tower of God, which. . .I dunno if it’s a good or neutral adaptation choice but it’s certainly noteworthy.
Oh, and Rachel’s betrayal speech in the comic is a lot more forceful and out of nowhere and her centrality is lessened. I wonder if that’s an important change or not. Maybe we’ll find out next time in “The Crown’s Fate.”
