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What's So Special About Chaos In Ragnarok: Into The Abyss Manhwa?

Sunday, January 26, 2014
ragnarok: into the abyss, manhwa, chaos
Chaos is the main character of Ragnarok: Into The Abyss. He is the reincarnation of the god Balder. What do you think about the manhwa's resident protagonist? And what exactly is so special about him?

An alternate title for this post is, "Why is Chaos the only one capable of saving the world?" because, apparently, he is the only one capable of saving the world.

This supposed fact is told to us a lot of the time, particularly in the character handbook thing that appears in every volume of the manhwa (though, admittedly, it only starts in the third volume). Here, we are told that Chaos is the key to saving the world.
chaos, ragnarok: into the abyss, manhwa
This is again reiterated to us in Chapter 22 of Volume 3. This is where Frigg herself (the former queen of the Norse gods and the mother of Balder) tells her son that he is apparently needed to protect this world and that this is his destiny from the very beginning. To this, the one word I can say is 'why'?

No, really, seriously, why does it have to be Chaos? Why does the fate of the world rest on his, on one person's, shoulders? Sure, he's the graphic novel's protagonist, he's the main character, the hero or whatever you want to call him. But is that enough reason to say that he's the only one who can save the world?

Can his status as the main character be enough of an explanation as to why he's so special that he's the only one who can save us all? Do you think this sounds believable? After all, there are other characters in this comic like Fenris Fenrir, for instance, or even Frigg.

To illustrate, Fenris was apparently present a thousand years ago when she and Balder fought against Freya (don't ask me for the details. Until now, the manhwa hasn't explained this properly in the least. Don't you wish we'd at least get a flashback of sorts?), so what's wrong with her also being the one capable of saving the world?

chaos, frigg, balder, norse mythology, ragnarok: into the abyss, manhwa
Besides, she was the one who set everything into motion by looking for Balder's reincarnation and telling him about what he must do.

You know, she might have made for a better hero (or heroine, in this case). She's certainly more interesting than Chaos.

No, but, really, it doesn't matter if it's Chaos or Fenris Fenrir or some other character who's the key to saving the world.

What matters is that we get a reasonable, logical and believable explanation as to why this particular character (whoever he or she may be) is so special and amazing that the fate of the entire world rests solely on his or her shoulders and that no one else can possibly be able to save the world from all the evil and danger threatening to destroy it.

Unfortunately, we don't get anything at all. There is no explanation whatsoever about all this. I guess we'll just have to go with the 'Chaos is the main character, so of course he's the only one who can save the world' explanation (if you could even call it that).

ragnarok: into the abyss, manhwa, fenris fenrir, chaos
Anyway, I've also searched around, to be sure, but there doesn't seem to be any references in Norse Mythology as to why Balder should be the main hero. In fact, the most well-known myth about this god is his death.

Yeah, he does die (it's a long story and Loki actually had something to do with it) and it was said that his death is the sign that Ragnarok (the end of the world) will soon come.

There's nothing about him fighting during Ragnarok though. It's only said that he will be reborn after the end of all the fighting into a new world.

So, what do you think of all this? Do you think it's believable that Chaos is the only one who can save the earth and that the fate of the entire universe rests solely on his shoulders? Do you think the manhwa should have provided us with more reasons and explanations as to why the main character is the world's only capable savior?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Said image is meant to represent the main character of Ragnarok since the figure looks as if he could pass off as Chaos what with the color of his hair and how messy and spiky it is, just like Chaos'
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget

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