StrucciReads: Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the Dungeon Review

[Oceanographer's Choice plays]

"Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the
Dungeon" is a webtoon.

Or, basically, a Korean webcomic drawn
chapter by chapter in one long strip,

designed for vertical scrolling.

"Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the
Dungeon's" story follows a skeleton who

happily served a succubus until she was
killed in front of him.

The skeleton soldier was also then killed
but, for some reason, he wakes up alive,

20 years before he was killed!

Distraught at the loss of his beloved
uh... mistress, the nameless skeleton

soldier resolves to save her in the
future.

This resolve becomes more plausible when
the skeleton soldier realizes that every

time he dies, he gets a do-over.

And he's able to get stronger, and obtain
more abilities than he ever would have as

a standard skeleton soldier guarding a
dungeon.

As a reader, you slowly realize that the
skeleton soldier seems to be an NPC in

some kind of fantasy game. Not just a
skeleton in a standard fantasy universe,

but specifically an enemy NPC in a JRPG
style fantasy.

And for some reason he's been gifted the
ability to respawn, to level up, to pursue

quests, and to see the statuses of other
characters.

He uses these abilities pragmatically,
but is completely baffled by them.

The skeleton soldier has no idea where
these abilities come from.

I mean, he presumably has no idea what a
video game even is.

And step by step, he learns how to use
his new abilities to his advantage.

There's a genre of manga and anime called
"isekai" revolving around a normal person

being transported to, or trapped in, a
parallel universe.

"The subgenre can be characterized as wish
fulfillment, with the person being

transported often being a NEET, shut-in,
or gamer. In the new fantasy world, they

are able to succeed through the use of
their comparatively

unimportant-in-real-life genre knowledge,
or gaming skills through the use of a game

interface only they can access."

I'm far from an isekai expert. I'm sure
there are works in this genre that are

great, and some that are fun and
subversive.

I have friends whose opinions I respect
who really enjoy some of them, so I'm not

saying the genre is trash or insulting
people who enjoy it.

But, even as a teenager, I really didn't
have any interest in wish fulfillment

fiction.

Especially fiction very deliberately
catering to a certain kind of male nerd.

"Sweet Home," my favorite webtoon which
I also reviewed, centers around a suicidal

Korean equivalent of a 4chan NEET, but
it's a dark comedy horror series where he

is slowly learning bravery, and empathy,
and how to be a good person.

And while he's terrified and fighting for
his life, his change is genuinely moving.

And it's the opposite of a wish
fulfillment fantasy series about how

special and unique a nerd secretly was
all along because he was a gamer.

"Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the
Dungeon" has all the fun

meta-elements of isekai material without
the, to me, cringey pandering.

Skeleton soldier is not a human nerd
whose gaming abilities suddenly made him

a capable hero in fantasy world.
He is literally

a skeleton.

Many of the times I laughed at the comic
involved the fact that his character

design is realistically rendered skeleton
that is navigating a fantasy world of

stylized, expressive humans and monsters,
and the, I think, intentional absurdity

of his realistic skeleton appearance in
juxtaposition with those humans.

And he loved his succubus boss and was
happy to serve her, and that's it!

He has no desire to change the world or
be a hero.

And, apart from him slowly growing
stronger and being recognized for his

strength, he is not a hero or a
Chosen One.

He wears armor to disguise himself because
he wants to stay under the radar and

one day save someone he cares about.

He actually has information on the
political landscape of the future that

could change the course of history, but he
doesn't seem to care about that outside of

his one goal.

Additionally because he is a skeleton, he
seems to have no sexual or romantic

interest in anyone.

His relationship to the succubus seems
platonic, so the story isn't inundated

with the "horny teenaged boy surrounded by
big boob fantasy women" trope.

The only trope that I hate in this comic,
and it's my big hesitation when

recommending it to pretty much anyone, is
that it's extremely rape-y.

And uses violence towards women as a plot
device way too often, especially in the

first several chapters.

The clichéd, fantasy, "look at how dark
and evil this world is."

You can tell that the world is dark and
scary and evil because there's

a l- there's so there's so much rape.

Skeleton soldier himself seems
essentially asexual.

And he isn't misogynistic or sadistic or
anything like that.

But there are a lot of women he meets who
get raped, or murdered, or raped and

murdered to the extent that I stopped
wanting to get attached to any of the

female characters that he runs into.

I'm not opposed to sexual violence in
fiction, but it's a serious and heavy

topic that deserves respect and time
devoted to fully explore its

ramifications.

In my "Hannibal" video I quoted a great
Bryan Fuller interview on the subject

that I'll link in the description here,
and it feels completely inappropriate as

a repeated plot device in a fantasy RPG
skeleton comic.

And I mean so repeated, yet so out of
place to the point that it felt absurd!

It's extremely off-putting.

And it isn't a comic that otherwise
objectifies women or

poorly represents them.

I particularly like skeleton soldier's
female thief companion, who is a fun,

fleshed out character comparable to Nami
in One Piece.

She's underhanded and ruthless in a way
that is realistic and intriguing,

rather than a femme fatale stock character
or some kind of weird, gross

implication that women are untrustworthy.

And most female characters are interesting
and treated by the narrative as people and

there aren't over-long cringey fanservice
scenes, or rape scenes meant to

excited readers.

A lot of it is offscreen and heavily
implied and that kind of thing,

but there's so much rape!

I would absolutely prefer light-hearted
fanservice to so much rape!

That feels less exploitative to me than
weird, heavily censored rape scenes that

are still there.

Skeleton soldier's story has elements of
political subterfuge and explorations of

monster-human relations, but this isn't a
serious, adult web-comic that makes room

for content really exploring the
ramifications of sexual violence

in its universe.

"Man Bites Dog," for example, is one of
my favorite movies and it has repeated

instances of brutal sexual violence, but
it's a subversive and confrontational film

about consumption of media violence.

Not a goofy, fantasy-action series about
a walking skeleton.

When I was re-reading parts of the story
for this video, I did catch an at times

explicit thematic undercurrent where
skeleton soldier relates to women, or

women to him: being seen as just a body,
being seen as incapable, being seen as

an other. That is worth mentioning.

And most of the rape happens towards the
beginning of the comic, and the comic does

seem to get a little better about it as it
progresses, but it remains off-putting and

baffling to me.

Especially because "Sweet Home" is
forefront in my mind while reading other

webtoons, and sexual violence, if explored
there, would be handled with more nuance

and gravity, rather than a sledgehammer
reminder that people in this world

are bad. They're really mean... You know
that they're mean 'cause they rape women.

"Skeleton Soldier Couldn't Protect the
Dungeon" reminds me a little bit of

"Mogworld," Yahtzee's novel about a
character in an MMO which I enjoyed a lot

when I read it almost a decade ago.

But "Skeleton Soldier" is less satirical
and less meta, and at times seems

self-aware and plays with clichés, and
other times is kinda dumb and banks too

hard on them.

Like when you see another soldier who
refuses to take his helmet off...

The- the mysterious knight who refu- like
I wonder could it be a woman in disguise?!

I've never ever seen that- I've never
heard of that before!

G-genius... Genius plot twist.

Other times the way the narrative works
is neat.

Since skeleton soldier is an enemy NPC
and not some kind of hero, he has what's

called an "assimilation rate," and he has
to be careful with how much time he spends

in dungeons and completing quests and
clearing out monsters.

As a JRPG fan generally, it's fun to try
to figure out what tropes he'll run into,

what abilities and what quests he'll
get, and what monsters he'll either

befriend or fight.

Along with skeleton soldier's human thief
companion, I also really like a character

who is a shape-shifting slime.

The art shines particularly during fight
scenes, which are rendered fluidly and

gorgeously, and when skeleton soldier is
expressing a certain emotion

which the artist manages to pull off while
usually keeping his rendering realistic,

aided by great, often subtle, use of body
language.

This comic also has one of my favorite
titles out of anything that I've

ever read.

It's kinda silly and weird, but it's also
a reminder to the reader of the main

character's regret, and of the failure
he's always trying to make up for.

He really loved the succubus who took care
of him and her death was genuinely

traumatic for him.

There's no official English translation of
this comic, and I think the app that you

would use to read the Korean version isn't
even available in the U.S.

But I'm sure viewers could easily find
fan-translations if they looked for them,

though watch out for weird, shady,
scanlation sites.

I would like for more people to read this,
and would readily give money to support

the author or support an English
translation, though the series is, like I

said, a somewhat hesitant recommendation
from me.

Because the weird, absurd, and darkly
funny skeleton action is, especially in

the first chapters, overshadowed by
pervasive sexual violence.

Still, I enjoy it a lot. And it's one of
only three comics that I keep up with.

And it's un-pretentious, un-pandering
approach to a meta-video game story

is always engaging to me, and I'm excited
to see where it goes!

Especially what will happen with certain
recurring characters, whether or not

we'll get a full explanation for skeleton
soldier's powers I'd be satisfied

either way.

And if, and how, skeleton soldier will
one day protect the dungeon!

Thank you for watching.

If I missed anything about JRPG lore or
the way the story works, feel free to

point that out in the comments.

I've played a lot of JRPGs, but not always
a lot of the mainstream series and

they're- and I don't know anything about
current isekai shows or comics so maybe

there are more references to that that I-
that totally went over my head.

'Cause they would go over my head 'cause
I've never enjoyed the genre when I've

tried it or it doesn't seem like something
I would really like.

I prefer a One Piece-style thing where
it's just a really fun adventure with a

fun cast of characters rather than,
"here's a specific character that

you would be if you went to this
universe!"

'Cause, like, why would I wanna be a
nerd guy transported into a universe

when I could just be a part of the
universe?

If you would like to support me, I have a
Patreon and a ko-fi, and along with other

video essays and reviews I'm also on a
podcast called "Critical Bits."

It's an actual play podcast, a teen
superhero podcast, not a fantasy podcast

and we just put out the sixth episode.

As it's kind of long, um, it's gone from
just sort of a... a dumb, fun, slapstick

comedy su- teen superhero podcast, to more
of like a dark comedy, body horror podcast

that still has slapstick elements.

I'm really proud of how it's going, and
if- if that's something that you would

enjoy, as with a- a bunch of things in
this video, uh, link in the description...

And, thanks!
[Oceanographer's Choice plays]

"Well, guy in a skeleton costume
Comes up to the guy

In a Superman suit
RUNS THROUGH HIM WITH A BROADSWORD!"