Act Like a Boss Monster, Mr. Swallow!
- Thread starter MangaDex
- Start date
I keep trying to read this. The premise is something I should like.
Boss who destroys towns because they interrupted his nap? Check
The world thinks they are the be all evil when if they just left them alone nothing would happen? Check
Actually alien and eldritch boss that lives up to the hype? Check
Loving dungeon environment that outsiders find horrifying? Check
There is something broken about this story. It flits between serious and goofy, teen romance drama and international politics at the drop of a hat.
The writer needs to pick horror with a dash of comedy or comedy with a dash of horror. There is a balance that could be reached here. Horror and comedy are sister genres after all, but this isn't it. Hell, the teen romance bullshit in the first 20 chapters made me stop reading for a month. Now we are seeing signs of inter dungeon warfare mixed in with national conflicts and conspiracies AND a teen love triangle and I just can't anymore.
They "defend" the human town in their territory. At no point is it ever explained why. That's a fundamental missing piece of the story. Without that piece nothing makes sense. If the town was gone, there would be no convenient location for dungeon raiders to rest and restock, forcing them to travel for longer through hostile territory and therefore decreasing the number of raiders that even make it to the dungeon. Why did they not only defend the town, but are hellbent on making sure it says part of the empire, with all the support that implies.
Why did they spread the story about their dungeon specifically to bring people in to raid it? Especially since the boss is lazy and doesn't want visitors, but is guarding what is starting to look like some variety of world crystal. You know the thing that destroys the world if it's broken?
It feels like entire chapters are missing here. Especially the first one. We needed more of the early day to day dungeon life no matter what direction the story goes. More world building as well.
I wanted to like this. I really did. The panels of Swallow just unable to hold human form are fantastic. But not even amazing art can paper over this plot.
Boss who destroys towns because they interrupted his nap? Check
The world thinks they are the be all evil when if they just left them alone nothing would happen? Check
Actually alien and eldritch boss that lives up to the hype? Check
Loving dungeon environment that outsiders find horrifying? Check
There is something broken about this story. It flits between serious and goofy, teen romance drama and international politics at the drop of a hat.
The writer needs to pick horror with a dash of comedy or comedy with a dash of horror. There is a balance that could be reached here. Horror and comedy are sister genres after all, but this isn't it. Hell, the teen romance bullshit in the first 20 chapters made me stop reading for a month. Now we are seeing signs of inter dungeon warfare mixed in with national conflicts and conspiracies AND a teen love triangle and I just can't anymore.
They "defend" the human town in their territory. At no point is it ever explained why. That's a fundamental missing piece of the story. Without that piece nothing makes sense. If the town was gone, there would be no convenient location for dungeon raiders to rest and restock, forcing them to travel for longer through hostile territory and therefore decreasing the number of raiders that even make it to the dungeon. Why did they not only defend the town, but are hellbent on making sure it says part of the empire, with all the support that implies.
Why did they spread the story about their dungeon specifically to bring people in to raid it? Especially since the boss is lazy and doesn't want visitors, but is guarding what is starting to look like some variety of world crystal. You know the thing that destroys the world if it's broken?
It feels like entire chapters are missing here. Especially the first one. We needed more of the early day to day dungeon life no matter what direction the story goes. More world building as well.
I wanted to like this. I really did. The panels of Swallow just unable to hold human form are fantastic. But not even amazing art can paper over this plot.
I have to say, some of your points are valid, but some seem to be questionable.
Firstly, there IS an explanation for the protection of that human town in Ch. 21. They need the town so that they can gauge the length of subjugation efforts to the dungeon, as it is implied that the Empire is advocating for such. If it were to be conquered, or discarded, they would lose that intel point, and would have to travel several times further access it. Of course Swallow is very powerful, but if the empire suddenly launches a well-prepared attack, his comrades, or even the dungeon, may fall.
For the tales-spreading, I have a few solid guesses. Even though the dungeons do have merchant suppliers, they are not enough to sustain it. They'd need spoils from raiders, like gold, armor, weapons, etc. to even deal with the merchants in the first place. If they become the main source of information themselves, they can control the accuracy, and lure more raiders for more spoils. Most of the time, the raiders won't even reach Swallow himself.
There really isn't any sign of a love-triangle. You can very well assume that it is only due to Renae's obsession with Swallow that leads someone, if there is at all, to think that there'd be conflicts, despite it being almost non-existent.
I agree that the series would be more enjoyable with more world-building, but I really need to get this off my chest.
Thanks for the reply. It cements a few of my issues with the story.
I reread chapter 21 because you mentioned it and it actually perfectly exemplifies everything wrong with this story.
This first little bit is the “teen love triangle” I mentioned. The two of them are fighting on who gets to be physically close to him. Like teens. It’s very childish and exhausting to read from beings that are that old. Only one of the trio has an excuse to act that childish. And swallow could shut it down super quickly with a few words but doesn’t because somehow talking is more effort than being unable to sleep.
I didn’t go back and re-read the whole story, but the excuse of “town needs to work well so we can find out how big the parties are” is garbage. If you have evidence that they need raiding parties to function that would be fantastic. It would solve one of my biggest issues with the story.
As far as I can tell, they need raiding parties to invade or there is no story. And that’s the only reason. Standard explanations are usually some combination of life force/equipment/food but I can’t recall even a token excuse. If they don’t need people to live, they wouldn’t go raiding, no attacks on people means that the dungeon would be very quickly forgotten. And swallow would get to sleep as much as he wants.
That’s what’s rubbing me the wrong way about all this. The fact that without an in universe need for invaders, the only reason people invade the dungeon is because the dungeon itself told them to. And the reason the dungeon told people it needed to be invaded was for there to be a story. And that’s just lazy writing. Makes almost every conflict (I seem to recall inter dungeon war having benefits) their own fault, so when they complain about people invading all I can think is “then why did you invite them?”
My memory of the details is starting to fade a bit now, but rereading the intro to chapter 21 killed any interest in trying again.
Reading it again, your points do make sense, but I really have no recollection over anyone trying to get close to swallow—for affection or romantic reasons—other than the maid. Personally, the problems with the plot doesn't really bother me that much. I still find it enjoyable. Thank you for your reply.
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- Jan 10, 2023
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It really doesn't read like a love triangle to me, melz really just reads like ad admirer and not romantically interested in him. I really can't recall many parts when melz fights with renea, so even if it's actually a love triangle, it really doesn't take up much content of the story.
Doesn't seem like swallow is the type of person to heavy handedly command his underlings, your suggestion would've been out of character.
The reason why they raid dungeons is pretty simple tbh, for treasure. There's also a certain level of brainwashing that leads to sth along the line of "for the empire". Dungeons also get stuff from invaders in return after defeating them, like how renea went to sell gemstones at the beginning of the series.
