![]() As Shibisu put it, he’s jealous of that spark as well, but he wants to protect that, perhaps in order to reclaim the humanity he lost in the pursuit of power and riches: “…I don’t want him to lose what he’s got - I don’t want Bam to have what’s important taken from him.” Hoh was the first to succumb to jealousy, to see Bam’s kindness and ability as a threat rather than a potential ally. ![]() Everyone has their own reaction to Bam’s compassion and optimism, and the way he reminds them why they’re climbing the Tower in the first place. It’s the flip side of the reaction that we’ve seen from each of the main characters as they became familiar with Bam - but for the most part this has inspired people to protect him rather than hate him. ![]() While Rachel’s bitterness and underhanded scheme to use Bam as a stepping stone earned her quite a bit of fan hatred after the finale, perhaps Tower of God’s strongest accomplishment in its last episodes is in challenging the audience to empathize with her, even if her actions are despicable. Rachel claimed: “in your place, I will become a star.” Bam’s comrades, unaware of what happened, swore to help her on her journey as a tribute to their fallen friend. So she set out to fix this, pushing her faithful servant to his death so as to assume his place as the center of the group. To simplify it further, she despised him for being a shonen protagonist. All of Rachel’s past dialogue towards him was recontextualized by this revelation - her questions and compliments were both regretful and bitter, a push and pull between genuine affection and guilt towards Bam as well as quiet resentment. Plainly put, she was jealous - of Bam’s natural aptitude for “shinsu” (the water magic that powers the tower), as well as his affinity for making friends, his unceasing optimism, and his certainty of his place in the world - as well as an apparent higher calling. Of course, Rachel accepted, noting that Bam has everything she has ever wanted - without even trying or wanting it. In response, a sadistic offer was made: she could climb the tower, but only if she killed Bam herself. Drawn into the tower before him, presumably to bait him into following, Rachel witnessed Bam fighting the same giant beast that she backed down from, and the tower’s keeper Headon (played by Jiraiya from Naruto!) immediately noticed Rachel’s jealousy and arrogance. The motive behind Rachel’s actions was explored at length in the finale, going all the way back to the very first episode – but this time from Rachel’s perspective. It turned out that Hoh was just a precursor to the much deeper, more bitter envy being harbored by none other than Rachel herself, who pushed Bam into the Tower’s depths the instant they won the test in the 12th episode. ![]() To backtrack a little, in the 10th episode Bam resolved to help Rachel, who was paralyzed after being attacked and held hostage by fellow participant Hoh – who at that point had gone mad with jealousy, looking to remove Bam from the contest. In a manner that might be too complicated to explain here, Tower of God’s final episode revealed plans within plans, as the test administrator appeared to be manipulating characters like pieces on a board, for a purpose yet to be revealed. Her mother was killed by her fellow princesses, and so the younger Anaak sought not to climb the tower but to take revenge on its officials, something that didn’t go unnoticed. It turns out that Anaak is actually a name taken from her mother, one of the tower’s appointed “Princesses of Jahad.” By rule of the land, Anaak was an illegal birth, as accepting power from the tower’s ruler King Jahad essentially forfeits control over the body. But as the show found its rhythm, the established order of the tower slowly started to be challenged, most significantly with the reveal of the backstory of the lizard girl Anaak. The show’s starting premise was fairly simple - there’s a tower to climb, and a girl to save.
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