@TheStuffedUnicorn
Well, you can't really call fair criticism "bitching" but thats ok. I will tepidly agree that the "scope" was big, but that doesn't really rationalize ignoring the "main character" for the sake of side characters. Its one thing to introduce side aspects of the story like the fight class 3 lore, other schools, etc., but the thing about this is you can do this while still bringing the focus back to your main character. MHA did this pretty well for a couple arcs and it hinted at a lot of future developments while still focusing on Deku. So just cause the scope is big doesn't mean you can't focus on your MC. I do agree with you that at this point, Jiu-tae isn't the main character, but even if we accept your idea that he's " going to catch the entire world by surprise" and for that to be meaningful you have to "establish the world as it is now, and recognize the strength and dedication the people who have been training YEARS more than MC, and how far he really is to even reaching the lowest rung of the ladder" there's actually a really simple way to do this. Have him lose. A lot. As it actually is, our pseudo-MC went 3 rounds with the best striker in his class after probably no more than a month of practicing MMA. Doesn't actually look like he's all that far down, he still has training to do, clearly, but he's obviously special. Second, even if we ignore that, how would you rationalize this
scene , and other side developments. Doesn't really look like the author spent time on this character to show how low down the ladder Jiu-tae is from the others. I mean, anyone can go into the octagon and get knocked out in one punch. There's also smaller things like spending pages elaborating on Hero's
background story, which is interesting setup for a potential fight, but by this point in the story he's had 0 interaction with Jiu-tae so essentially another character was introduced, and developed, without any involvement by Jiu-tae. Overall, I've previously mentioned this, but if the author wanted to focus more on the entire class rather than one specific character (not named Maria), I don't think introducing Jiu-tae's goals, and then spending 10 chapters preparing him to enter the fight class just to abandon him for a good majority of the remaining chapters was the most economical use of page space. There's a lot of things about Jiu-tae's background that I'm very curious to learn about, like why none of his mother's martial art master friends took Jiu-tae under their wing, but it doesn't seem like that's going to be elaborated on anytime soon.
Oh well, I'll enjoy the art and hope the author gets healthy so the art can return to its early glory.