Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24431758-20140313050841/@comment-172.249.15.246-20141219010300

No, everything that Rachel did, she did for herself. She is out-and-out looking for Number 1, meaning Rachel. She is as exactly as she seems and has been portrayed by the webtoon/manhwa from the beginning -- one manipulative, scheming, lying, traitorous, ugly little bitch. Even Headon called her out on it the first meeting they got (Chapters 76 - 78) : " Don't try to fool me, lying little girl. You  know as well, don't you? How loathsome, dirty, and dreadful of a person you are. You have not been chosen." The only real feelings she had for Baam was that of jealousy (She responds to Headon's taunts with "Why was Baam chosen? That kid took everything from me."). {As an aside, Rachel is probably a LOT older than she looks if she refers to Baam -- who appears to be the same age she is -- as a "kid."}  She is NOT interested in helping Baam become a stronger Regular -- unless doing so would directly propel her up toward the top of the tower. And although she is manipulative and clever to a degree, she didn't have Koon's near-genius-level of strategic planning and problem-solving skills, which means it's not like she set out to do everything she did inside the tower so far just so she can get Baam to become a stronger fighter and fulfill whatever destiny awaits him. She neither has the motivation nor the skills to do any of that.

No. Her only REAL value -- as Headon himself recognized upon their first meeting -- is that she is the most important person in Baam's young life, and so the only real "bait" Headon could use to spur Baam on to climb the tower so that he could use Baam to fulfill his own agenda (which at this point we can only guess at). This is the only reason why Headon didn't kick her out of the tower, or why he is providing her allies to make her climb up the tower that much easier and speedier (Arkyung (?) the spear-thrower who out-threw Rak in the spear-throwing contest early in the tests was Headon's agent). This of course only fueled Rachel's jealousy and bitterness toward Baam.

People seem to confuse Rachel's repeated cries of "Don't go, Baam!" in the Rachel epilogues (Ch. 76 - 78), just as Baam was about to confront the giant steel eel, as genuine concern for his well-being or safety; it is not. Not for once did she say "You'll get hurt!" or "You'll die!" No, the only thing she said was "Don't go!" Not for once did she seem concerned that he wouldn't pass the test; she had already spent considerable time with Baam in Baam's cave so she would have been aware that he has some special powers. No, her repeated cries of "Don't go!" underscores her fear that as soon as Baam advances inside the tower, he would have had effectively stolen her dream from her. This is what she meant when she said "That kid took everything from me ..." because the only genuine thing she ever really had -- the one thing she genuinely cared for -- was her dream.

Now the thing I don't understand about Rachel is -- why couldn't she have simply asked Baam to climb the tower with her? I mean, yes, the tower "chooses" the Regulars that could get in, and maybe neither one or only one of them would be chosen, but at the very least they could have made the journey together to find that out. I think Headon really hit the nail on the head when she asked Rachel to "become the heroine of this story." THAT is Rachel's true motivation: to become the heroine of her own story. Except she neither has the looks, talent, family background (like the Zahard princesses), the heart (Headon said that the REAL difference between her and Baam was not that Baam had an awesome weapon like the Black March, but that Baam had the courage to face the giant eel head-on without flinching and even WITHOUT the Black March. Remember he was about to march into the fish tank armed with just a carving knife before Yuri made the jump on him?), or any of the other qualities we typically associate with a hero. The only REAL thing she has was ambition. This is perhaps why she did'nt want Baam to enter the tower with her or why she didn't want him to go through with the tests in the first place; if Baam is in the picture -- good-looking, crazy-talented-with-shinsoo, kind-hearted, charismatic, innocent, very hero-like Baam -- then she would be effectively shoved out of the picture: she would no longer be the "hero" of the story. I think this is the gist of why people hate on her so much: she wanted so much to be the leading lady of the story without first trying to develop the characteristics of what makes for an effective leading lady. We hate people like that in real life and we double the hate on anime/manga characters. What her real role in the story is that of the princess-in-distress-imprisoned-high-up-in-the-tower and she didn't want that either, which is why she hates having Baam chase all over the place after her.

Also, most people don't really mind anti-heroes who go after what they want even if they had to butt heads with the main characters; a lot of anime and manga characters started out as your stereotypical anti-heroes/villains and yet manage to top popularity polls year after year anyway. A very good case-in-point would be Hisoka of the Hunter x Hunter saga, or Vegeta of DBZ. We always love a good villain whose ambitions would directly clash with that of our heroes and heroines because it keeps the story exciting, but keep in mind that these villains we ended up loving always use their own means or enhance their own skills or train their butts off before confronting the main characters. We never saw that in Rachel. Not only is she a traitorous ugly little bitch, but she is LAAZZZYY as well! Geez, this is the girl who pretended to be lame for a good 6 years while others study and train their butts off just so they could give her a free ride up the floors of the tower! How can you NOT HATE that?!!

Again, I am absolutely positive that Rachel wouldn't waste any time trying to think up schemes to "give Baam the best chance at survival." As soon as Baam entered the tower with her the only feelings she had for him were jealousy, resentment, and bitterness. Remember this is the girl who viciously stabbed Speedster Dan on the foot because Dan managed to push her buttons when he pointed out that she discarded two of her friends already. He "provoked" her and that justifies her maiming him? How can anyone say that? The reasons why she did what she did to Dan was three-fold: first, since he wouldn't help her, he's no longer of any use to her, and so she made sure his legs -- where his one true talents lies -- wouldn't be of any use to him; second, since Dan saw past her "poor-little-can't-walk-me" act, she was embarrassed and further embittered by the fact that another person don't see her as a true "hero," and that's what activated her crazy-killer mode; third, she really is jealous of any one who seems to be blessed with a special talent, since she doesn't appear to have anything special about her, and the one thing she really wanted to feel more than anything is to be "special," to be a heroine, and that's basically what makes her feel bitter towards someone like Baam, and Speedster Dan.

In other words, someone like Rachel inspires both hate and a little bit of pity among most of us. We LOVE villains and anti-heroes who inspire awe and admiration despite their evil-ness; we cannot feel anything even remotely close to that towards Rachel.

However, even though I don't really like Rachel as a character, whether SUI is setting her up as hero or anti-hero, I LOVE the fact that SUI decided to turn someone like her into someone we ALL love to hate. Because she seems so -- ordinary. SUI didn't even bother making her pretty -- which is something else I love about SUI. And also, among all the characters in TofG, Rachel might be the most hated precisely because she is the MOST REAL. The most real in her ordinariness. In her plainness. The most real in her reactions. I like all the mystery surrounding her character and even though I absolutely HATE her and don't find one redeeming feature in her character, I am also very intensely interested in her story. I feel all the hairs on my body prick up every time she comes onscreen -- or on-frame, as the case may be. The author managed to make me feel very aware of her. It is a testament to the author's genius that he manages to make us feel this way about someone everyone loves to hate. And I think I read somewhere that SUI actually counts Rachel as his favorite character or that he finds her very charming; I don't think he's simply trolling. I actually believe he meant that.