WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Tower of God, Chapters 526-529, “A Dog and Cat,” by SIU, now available on WEBTOON.
One of the best recent developments in Tower of God is the attention paid to supporting characters and their backstories. Every story not only provides more detail to the overall sense of the fantasy world, but also gives readers some wonderfully complex characters that truly makes the manhwa an epic tale. That's especially true for the latest mini-arc, “A Dog and Cat," which spans four chapters, and tells the story of the leader of the Canine Clan Baylord Wangwang and Lo Po Bia Yasratcha. Closely following the structure and characteristics of a Shakespearian tragedy, it's one of the best character backstories to date in Tower of God.
To simplify the story, Wangwang and Yasratcha are creations of the Workshop that wanted to experiment with human/beast hybrids, or beastkins. They both survived the experiments, and the gladiator-style tournaments, and made it onto the Tower as Regulars. During their journey up the Tower, they became partners and friends. Yasratcha’s freedom-loving nature is in stark contrast to Wangwang’s obedient instincts, but they made a good pair, with Wangwang doing most of the work as a dog would, and Yasratcha doing whatever he wants, just like a cat.
After they both became Rankers, the Lo Po Bia Family Head, Traumerei, took them in as pets. Wangwang has been seeking a master all of his life, so he was happy to be kept in a cage, but Yasratcha didn't understand why someone as powerful as Wangwang would ever settle for a life of captivity and slavery. He began plotting for a way to free Wangwang from Lo Po Bia and back to adventuring. Eventually, Wangwang met Yama’s mother, Nennen, fell in love, and had his children. Yasratcha used his family as bait to make it seem that Wangwang was betraying Traumerei, who killed Nennen after she admitted to her escape plans. Wangwang, who was still loyal to Traumerei, was heartbroken by the loss of his wife and his master’s trust, asked to be killed in exchange for his children’s lives.
Wangwang and Yasratcha are both tragic characters. Wangwang is the classic tragic hero, who is righteous, kind and charismatic, but suffers from the fatal flaw of needing to follow a master who cares very little about him. While he was extremely loyal, almost to a fault, he was also, ironically, blessed (or cursed) with the Fangs of the Wild Beast, which allowed him be independent from all orders, including from Traumerei, and create his own clan. That irony ultimately led to his downfall, because he had grown strong enough to have his own clan, yet he desperately wanted his master’s approval. But these are opposing wishes, and in the end, he cannot have everything.
Yasratcha is more complex, but equally tragic; his longing for freedom is innate, but he probably loves Wangwang as much as he loves freedom, if not more. Because he is willing to become Traumerei’s pet just to have an opportunity to take Wangwang away from him some day. Even though he says he can't understand why Wangwang would be willing to subject himself to being controlled by the master, he too, subjected himself to a life as a domesticated pet for Wangwang. But he still lost Wangwang, not to their master, but to his own schemes, even having to kill him with his own hands.
There is no doubt that Yasratcha is the villain of this story; his selfishness destroyed the Baylord family. But his tragedy is much more enduring and agonizing. There is nothing more painful for him than to realize his actions took away his love and happiness, and having to live with this guilt for the rest of his life. It's no wonder he continued to manipulate others using their own selfishness and desires, because he needs to prove he was right to convince Wangwang to leave. Because people can’t have it all, they always have to make a choice to give up something, and it is exactly what he did to his lieutenants, Haratcha and Diel.
Wangwang invokes a Shakespearean hero like Othello, who is incredibly gifted, but is easily deceived by people he trusts, partly due to his blind devotions. On the other hand, Yasratcha’s obsession is akin to someone like Hamlet, whose single-mindedness led to tragedies all around him, consequences be damned. They are both victims of fate or instincts, as Yasratcha commented, because their fundamental traits directly caused their tragedies. Wangwang will eventually fail one way or another because he follows a brutal and ruthless master. And Yasratcha will never be able to have Wangwang because he can never fulfill Wangwang’s desire to follow a master.
This story also gives Lo Po Bia Traumerei some much needed character background and complexity, though what we found out is great news for our heroes down the line. Because Traumerei is clearly not a good person, he is cruel, egotistical and quite reckless. He sees everyone as his plaything and doesn’t seem to care about anyone or anything. But he is easily angered by the thought of being betrayed, which made him lose his only truly loyal servant Wangwang. While these are fitting traits for a Family Head, it does not bode well for Bam if and when he eventually faces off with him.
