Hoaqin’s Origin
Our glorious villain Hoaqin is actually an extremely interesting character when looking at the grand story of Tower of God. One of the main narratives that is presented is how the society of the tower is completely lacking in morals. The Tower is very much a competition and a power struggle. Within such an environment, there is little to no room for emotion. To succeed, one has to step on others. To go up, one has to do so in place of another. It has been heavily emphasized how brutal the climbers can get and the only reason that we have seen fairly little of this close up is that our main cast is so idealistic. S1 had just a few antagonistic characters while everyone else had changed their mindsets because of Baam. Because we primarily follow Baam, we usually see the lighter sides of the Tower and the grim is hidden.
Hoaqin is a character that DEFINES the horror of this Tower. The horror of having lost your very humanity for the sake of achieving a goal. He is a character that was already “fallen” before even beginning the climb. Let’s go back to his origin a little. This will also be food for the readers that enjoy theorizing about characters that have not made a canon appearance yet.
Hoaqin started out living in an extremely competitive and prestige Arie family environment. One of the very first things that we found out from the flashbacks was that the Arie children were made to spar each other and this can be taken as an active attempt by the family to promote COMPETITIVENESS in their children. They were being trained to become regulars from the very, very beginning. In this case, you could say that Hoaqin’s ORIGIN is already being promoted towards that of a fallen. This level of competitiveness should be taken as a given in EACH child of the family. Now Hoaqin’s close brothers and sisters with whom he made the devil pact were people that had developed a different mindset and wanted to actually oppose the father. Here is where I am slightly theorizing: in my opinion, what happened was that Hoaqin’s “clones” were the children that did not want to reject their humanities straight up and did not sense the same level of competitiveness and thirst. They had found their own interests and so they opposed the ideals that the Head of the family was enforcing on them.
Hoaqin, however, was different. His talk with Arie Hon was what sparked a change.
This set of panels is the key
Essentially, Hon has taunted Hoaqin to surpass him. He had shown him everything that he had achieved and just straight up said that it all belonged to him. He had renounced the importance of Hoaqin’s existence. To say that to a child… Quite cruel. However, this set of panels are Hon saying that if Hoaqin gives up his humanity entirely, he could achieve it. That he could have purpose as a person and be able to overcome the one figure that decided to pin him down. This was a challenge. Children love challenges.
What followed was Hoaqin giving in and rejecting his humanity by accepting the demon’s offer. He had gather the group of children that did not harbor that same sense of power, but wanted to be free and had been the odd one out, by having rejected his humanity and having only a single fixated goal in front of him. To surpass his father.
This is where theorizing can begin: Did Hon intend for this to happen? The eyes give me a very clear nudge that he did. On top of that, the demon felt a bit too convenient. It feels like Hon wanted Hoaqin to take this power and to grow into a monster. To become the perfect regular. A being that shows no remorse and only sees his own goal in sight. One that does not consider other humans as humans, but as bugs. Playthings. This is what it means to reject humanity. Why did he do this? What is the motive to create something that might eventually come back to kill you?
Rachel’s Origin
When talking about Rachel’s origin, it is, of course, the case that we don’t know the very start of it. It is not known what she did before entering the tower apart from hanging out with Baam. The hypothesis that I have is that Rachel lived in some sort of prestige place, but had no status there. Her outfits and look have given me a very strong sense of a maid. Like she was a maid in the palace. Only able to see the beautiful princesses running around. It has been my theory that Rachel used Baam as a sort of stress-relief with whom she could feel as someone important. Baam treated her as a queen and she enjoyed it. She taught him the things that she saw as traits that a noble, kind person would have. It’s very possible that she had belief in those same traits too at first. However, at some point, it is clear that she was told of the existence of “Stars” which could be taken as a way for her to become a heroine. As was stated in her conversation with Ryun on 2F. She had felt constrained just as Baam, but in a different way. She had felt like a person that no one cares about, except for Baam and wanted to become someone of importance. So she took a tip and entered the tower using Baam. She got tempted by this prospect of getting “Any wish of hers come true”. Her conversation with Haedon is proof of this. Delusions of getting all her wishes come true. These wishes have been so strong that she was willing to abandon Baam for them. That’s how much this goal means to her. She has entered the tower in pursuit of a goal, which could be theorized to become a heroine. I am basing a lot of this by considering her monologues and conversations with Haedon, Ryun and Khun as legitimate thoughts with a lot of weight.
Within the Tower – Rachel
So upon entering, we have a very clear parallel. Hoaqin has already rejected his humanity and is set to be the perfect regular. He wants to go up and will use any means to do so. His very existence banks on surpassing his father. It’s like a drug. He cannot stop.
Rachel, on the other hand, enters the tower as a naïve girl. Her conversation with Haedon has made it very clear that she did not know of the atrocities within the tower. She had entered chasing her dream, but quickly found out that reality is not so kind.
What is extremely important is how she did not try to beat Haedon’s test, but kept arguing and looking for a workaround. This is indicative of her lack of strength and how she feels betrayed by the world. She then proceeds to see Baam take the same test with the opposite mindset and then gloriously pass the test after getting help from Yuri.
Rachel’s reaction is the key. She had started arguing how Yuri had helped Baam. She had focused on unfairness. On how it was unbalanced that he was given the Black March. Haedon pointed out how even though he had been given an advantage, he had CHOSEN to TAKE the test before it happened and proceeded afterwards. This is the greatest point. Baam had went in with his own meager strength, with no care for himself, while Rachel flat out rejected the idea.
This entire sequence gives me a very clear image of a person that has been living a life being thrown around by everyone. Living a life of unfairness. It is very common for a person living such a life to start to feel like others should have it like that too. She could not comprehend that Baam beat the test on his own. The fact that he even passed was a huge shock to her. The child that was bellow her all this time, has now, in an instant, surpassed her. She felt betrayed by Baam. She just felt extremely VULNERABLE. Haedon used this. He used this moment to take control and told her that there was a way to for her to reach the starts and set her up with a team.
Baam had told Haedon why he was going up. Haedon used this entire situation to his advantage and presented Rachel with a way to go up, while using her to make Baam chase after her. An incredibly sinister plan.
Proceeding to 2F, over the course of S1, we have seen constant glimpses of jealously starting to develop in Rachel. She said how Baam had everyone around him, while she had no one. Well, she did, but for some reason she could not accept Baam. The fact that she abandoned Baam to enter the tower before finding out about the inside situation shows that the boy was not of the same importance to her. Becoming the heroine was far more important. She had been numb to the emotion of feeling loved and simply couldn’t feel herself as a fulfilled person.
Ryun then gave her the grand offer of throwing Baam off the bubble to go up. This is the breaking point. Ryun told her that if she wanted to keep going up, she had to throw him off. She didn’t give her the choice. Maybe she wasn’t confident that Baam could bring her up. If she had faith, she would not have accepted that offer. She lacked the trust in him. Or maybe there was a different reason… One strong argument is that she really did feel that Baam was too nice of a person to keep going up. That he did not belong in this place and so she thought that by throwing him off, she would make him stop going up and he could live his own happy life. And finally, one last possible case and the one that I believe in personally: Rachel was told of the whole plan. Of how Baam would chase her as she went up, of how throwing him off would just be fuel. And after all that she still agreed to do it. I am basing this on the fact that Yura said that he has to keep chasing them. I do not think that that sentence was meant to be a secret of Yura and something that she has been keeping a secret from Rachel. She also knows that he is a slayer nominee and all. I feel like she knows it all and still lets it continue, because FUG told her that that is how she will reach her stars. She has now completely started to reject everything for the sake of her goal.
This was followed by her later cutting Dan’s legs, which has been implied as her jealousy of his ability to run. To have an advantage over him. This lead into her following conversations with Khun, which are super important.
One such conversation was at the Dallar Show game, when they did their coin flip. Thing is, Khun is a very smart guy who can read people really well. I feel like he had “cracked” Rachel as a person and came up with the idea that she has a sort of inferiority complex. The coin game has his making direct fun of her for being weak. He had told her how it was only a game of luck at which she could have a chance, but kept believing that she couldn’t have even that. The key here is that she agreed to ALL THREE rounds. She had become provoked by Khun’s words. In my opinion, she had confirmed all that Khun has been saying by accepting those rounds. She had really felt inferior and wanted nothing else more than to shut him up and win. She had not been winning for her entire life and wanted to start changing that. However, she could not see any ways of becoming strong herself and so used others to achieve strength. One theory that can be made is that she did not pick any of those people and that none of them follow her specifically. It’s possible that they all just follow FUG and she is just told to them as being an extremely important person, but not given the full reason. FUG has a goal of slaying the royalty and promised her the wish at the top for going along with their plan. She is just a cog to drive Baam up, but doesn’t care, because she will get her wish. However, this does not change the fact that she keeps getting provoked by Khun and making mistakes because of it.
Finally, we have our most recent chapter where she kills Arkraptor and later reflects upon in. Now when it comes to Arkraptor, it’s clear that she was not expecting him to run at her. She was not really completely ready to kill him. It all happened on impulse. And so the following chapter with her hands shaking and her hallucinating “having blood on her hands” is saying that she had not experienced murder before. She had slit Dan’s legs, but killing a person is an entirely different thing. The fact that she tried to control those hands and hide it all from Yura can easily be interpreted as her REJECTING this feeling and saying that murder is fine. You see, Rachel was still nothing more than a girl who had a pretty ****** life and then was offered a chance to turn it around. She was never a murderer. She was just following others. Heck, people argue how she thought she tricked Khun and all, but it can easily be argued that this was part of Ryun’s plan. She had told her to push Baam off and then when Khun offered to get her up, told Rachel to go with him. Once it was time to get **** rolling, they orchestrated Khun getting separated and grabbed Rachel back. You see where I am going with this? Rachel has been a pawn from start to finish, it’s just that while being a pawn, she has been allowed to do some small maneuvers and has made some small tricks happen. To be honest, it could be argued that other FUG members designed all of those plans too. Like, maybe Hoaqin told em to trace back their steps in chapter 226. The argument CAN be made.
So, from all these sequences we can now make a pretty good, albeit still theoretical, picture of her character. She is nothing more than a girl who has been jealous of others having better lives and has been granted a chance to have a better life herself and got so obsessed with this goal that she started rejecting EVERYTHING. Starting with Baam and ending with her own sense of morals and humanity in general. This tower has CORRUPTED her. And THIS is where the story of ToG suddenly gets a very strong meaning.
This “wish” that you can get fulfilled. This is the thing that drives people to madness. To savagery and to the rejection of their very humanity. A human should not have a way to gain anything they want by stepping on others. It is exactly what creates monsters in the psychological sense. Rachel is an example of such a person.
In my opinion, such a narrative is absolutely amazing and would greatly fulfill one of the main ideas of the story. It is why I have trust in my take on the character. Other theories, while having some sense, would simply not have the same level of impact as a narrative. It would not have the same amount of value. SIU is an author that wants to express a lot of complicated ideas about what it means to be an individual and a human being. He tries to tell the tale of how morals are of the upmost important and by reading his blog we can even see that SIU is exactly that type of warm person that wants to spread these ideas. My take on Rachel would fulfill this narrative in full and also allow to express others characters very well going forward. This is my argument for how I see Rachel.
Within the Tower – Hoaqin & Parallels with Rachel
Now taking all that about Rachel, let’s look back at Hoaqin.
We can instantly notice that they both share a very similar motivation in JEALOUSY. Rachel is feeling inferior and is jealous of the people around her that are showered by attention, love and respect, while Hoaqin is driven by his jealousy for his Father who has everything. The way they came to this point is very different, but the motivation is very similar. They are both made to feel inferior and are doing everything to fight that.
However, while Rachel is unable to achieve anything great by her own, Hoaqin has all the specs needed to do anything from the start.
Hoaqin has the capacity to achieve his goal on his own and so the moment he entered the tower, he started to put everyone else down bellow him and use them to become stronger.
Rachel, on the other hand, can only achieve her goal by relying on the tower’s “wish”. She is not strong and has to be taken up.
Now here one of the many parallels that is very interesting is how Rachel is a victim of the Tower’s temptation in the wish, while Hoaqin is motivated by surpassing his father. Rather than climbing the tower, Hoaqin had his entire country play and so there is this contrast of how Hoaqin is not chained down by the “wish”. Hoaqin can look at the regulars and laugh, for he sees them as idiots chasing a dream in a designed structure, while he is just there to kill a person and become all-powerful.
Another huge point is how Rachel is still in the process of letting go of her humanity, while Hoaqin has already spent enough time to become completely numb to it. He is already a person that does not care for any individual other than himself.
This set of panels is where we see the conclusion.
The point here is that Hoaqin is already at a point of no return. He has reached such a point where he can no longer see the world in a different way. He has completely given up his humanity and can only live by the rules set up by the Tower. The rules of the strong stepping on the weak.
However, Rachel has just now stepped into this territory of no return. She has now committed the act of murder – the most heinous act imaginable to a human. While Hoaqin has already murdered enough to not care anymore and see people as tools, Rachel just got here and so it’s an interesting situation to see how she ends up coping with the problem and if Hoaqin will react towards her. I feel like these two characters are very similar in this respect, with Hoaqin just having had the tools to take it all the way himself and actually doing it, while Rachel was supplied all the help and has only now stepped into that territory.
Conclusion
Rachel and Hoaqin represent everything that is wrong with the Tower. The later represents what monster can bore out of this horrible place, while the former is a look at this transformation happening in front of us. Greed, jealously and inferiority are all parts of these two characters and so it is very fitting that SIU has matched them together.
Series is great and i'll definitely be continuing with the manga. I'd say it's one of my favorite series out right now. along with Magi and One Piece.
