Intro to post
When I had previously covered He Who Fights with Monsters, by Shirtaloon, I had mentioned its extensive emphasis on the political side of its created world and how it allows the main character an amount of freedom and influence without physical power that is unusual to see in the Lit-RPG genre. In this post, I will be mainly focusing on the introduction and progression of the plot throughout the books. While the earlier books broadly stick to the same general style and themes present throughout the series, I consider them to be just background to the main plot of the series, due to their relatively small scale setting as compared to midway through book three and beyond.
Just like in most of my other posts, spoiler warning for the series.
Story Background
To recap, our main character, Jason Asano, is transported into a world of sword and sorcery with it own set of universal rules on the same level as physics that define its landscape. In this world, while almost entirely outclassed by those either physically or politically stronger, Jason makes a name for himself and uses his genius level “street smarts” to guide him through his new life, relying almost obsessively on them and applying them to all aspects of his life. The set of magic powers he gets delt by the universe is inherently “dark” and feared, however overall considered to not be very impactful in comparison to others. However, Jason’s politically oriented mind allows him to lean into that “dark” aspect of his abilities and incorporate a psychological element into his fighting style, based on his incredible ability to read people.
Plot Introduction/Progression
One thing I’ve noticed about the story is that it does a good job of keeping the main plot moving in noticeable ways while keeping Jason involved, even when he can’t actually impact it. This is shown throughout the first two book which overall focus on Jason becoming stronger, making connections, and coming to understand this new world. At this point, the author realizes that Jason would be woefully underprepared if he were to be thrown into the main plot, and so he structures it in a way that naturally allows Jason to focus on getting to the level of potential that is required to impact the plot the author has in mind. While, to the reader, there is little known connection between Jason’s actions and the main plot at this point, many seemingly disconnected events and off-handed dialogs plant the foundation of the gigantic scale of events to come in reader’s minds. Almost all the events that occur in the first two books are unknowingly all consequences of the main plot progressing in the background which only actually connect in the reader’s mind after much more is revealed to them later in the series. For example, in book 1, one of the first scenes sees Jason having to fight off low-leveled monsters that were released from a pocket dimension that had become unstable around the time he had been transported into the world. Much later into the series, it is revealed that a universe spanning dark cult dedicated to one of the four patriarch gods of the series, “The Builder“, are secretly destabilizing the world with a main goal of completely converting it under “The Builder’s” authority. As you might assume, this destabilization was the cause of that initial fight Jason had at the start of book one. While quite convoluted and overall weird sounding from an outside perspective, this reveal of the cult to the readers answered many seemingly random incidents that had kept the story moving as they happened one after the other by “coincidence”. While, I wasn’t able to capture the full essence of the writing the author employs throughout the series in this blog post, it gives a pretty good idea of what you can expect if you were to listen to He Who Fights with Monster.
0 comments on “He Who Fights with Monsters; Story Progression” Add yours →