Come one, Ran's interesting. He's what, the only genuinely good guy of this webtoon? And he's a main character.
I like what Currygom did with him. When the series started out, he seemed destined to be nothing but the buttjoke of the group, and he played that role marvelously. (lol)
In most stories, a character in this role will remain in it until the end of the series, though possibly having some dramatic moment (usually near the end of the series, and usually in combination with a dramatic flashback) to prove himself badass after all. However, Currygom developed him not through dramatic flashbacks (his past is being mostly sweeped under the rug -for now-), or dramatic feats, but through only his gradual interactions with other characters. In doing so, she simultaneously uncovered other aspects of the characters as well. I think she did a marvelous job, enough for many readers here to now list him as one of the best characters.
When he started off, Ran appeared to be a loser who just happened to be full of himself. He got himself into a petty rivalry with the supposedly 'perfect' Asha. We had a funny moment, and thought it was over. But no. After winning the bet, Ran admitted that the rankings meant nothing, and conceded that Asha was stronger than him, therefore showing surprising humility. From there onwards, his relationship with Asha was no longer so black and white. He shows her respect, and even sympathy after learning that she can use hoti visnu, but he also tries to get Asha to treat Yuta and Leez better, until he finally decides to take custody instead.
With Yuta, he became one of the few people who knows the truth about him. He says that it's unbelievable for a superior sura to travel with humans, but he's also completely fine with it. He tried to look out for Yuta in his own way, and in the end Yuta even turned to him for relationship advice. (lol!)
Finally, with Leez, his interactions initially seemed limited to petty bickering. Throughout the series though, he's progressively become nicer to her, by taking her side against Asha, by buying her things etc. And when he offered to take custody of Leez, it was a surprising sign that this guy, who loafed around as a student and who never worked for money in his life, was taking responsibility as a mature adult.
So despite appearing to be the least significant of the group, Ran had a major role in the group's dynamics.
That's not to say he doesn't have his own interesting background, though that has only been hinted upon for now. We're led to believe that he got a phobia of Halfs after his mother was caught by emotional resonance, yet when the Gandharva Halfs went berserk due to emotional resonance, the one he was calling for was his mother, and we later learned that he froze his parents' corpses in hopes of having them resurrected, so maybe there is more to the story. The fact that he doesn't make a big deal of his past (beyond having a phobia he has no control over) actually makes me think more highly of him. Too many characters in stories use tragic pasts as excuses to either act like a self-important jerk or to try to destroy the world or both, instead of oh.... getting over it. And of course, there's the bit about him being the grandson of the current Yaksha King.
Like Leez, Ran has been in a mostly larval stage in the story so far, and Currygom has mostly focused on fleshing out his interactions with the other characters of the group rather than make him take independent action (because there was none for him to take), but I think she's finally done setting up his character and will start to show the results in action. Ran will soon become an AA magician and learn more of the truth of what's going on. Soon he will be armed with truth, authority and a fair amount of power (he's got the Neutral Bow now, plus we never did see how strong he truly is), and I'll be interested to see what he does with that.
Edited by Mizura, 18 November 2014 - 02:03 AM.
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