The following contains spoilers for the Solo Leveling manhwa.
Solo Leveling Season 3 will take Jinwoo to new heights of power in ways anime fans could never expect. His biggest power-up in the series yet will come when he finally returns to the place where his journey all began: the Cartenon Temple within the Double Dungeon.
It was within the Cartenon Temple that Jinwoo met the terrifying Statue of God that killed him, beginning his story as a Player of the System. It’ll be on that same return to the Cartenon Temple that Solo Leveling Season 3 has the perfect set-up to introduce Jinwoo’s most powerful Shadow Soldier. The manhwa unfortunately missed this golden opportunity, but the anime has a chance to fix its mistakes.
Bellion Makes Jinwoo’s Other Shadow Soldiers Look Like Weaklings in Comparison
Igris, Tusk and Beru are the strongest Shadow Soldiers in Jinwoo’s army by the end of Solo Leveling Season 2, but that doesn’t last forever. By the end of the series, Sung Jinwoo will add two more Shadow Soldiers of their calibur to his ranks, Greed and Bellion. While Greed is definitely powerful, neither he, Beru, Igris nor Tusk stand a chance against the original Grand Marshall of the Shadow Monarch’s army, Bellion.
In fact, Bellion has even proven his might against Jinwoo’s other Shadow Soldiers directly. In preparation for the final battle against Antares, Beru challenges Bellion to a one on one match to see who truly deserves to be Grand Marshall of Jinwoo’s army. With a swift crack of his whip-like sword, Bellion decisively overpowers Beru, proving his unmatched power.
Bellion first meets Sung Jinwoo after Jinwoo’s first battle with the Monarchs, during the Monarchs War Arc. This arc takes place after the International Guild Conference Arc, which seems like the most likely place for Solo Leveling Season 3 to end. In short, Bellion shouldn’t ordinarily be introduced in the story until Season 4 at the soonest. However, there’s a place where Bellion should’ve technically already appeared in the story, but the manhwa missed the chance.
Solo Leveling Season 3 Has the Perfect Opportunity to Tease Bellion For Anime-Only Fans
Ashborn the Shadow Monarch faces Baran’s army in the Solo Leveling manhwaBrett Cardaro
During Sung Jinwoo’s return to the Cartenon Temple, he faces the Architect of the System in an epic duel to decide his fate. After proving himself worthy, Jinwoo is given the opportunity to see the true source of his power as the Shadow Monarch. Jinwoo is then placed in a trance, where he sees a battle between the army of the original Shadow Monarch, Ashborn, and the demon army of Baran, the Demon Monarch.
This is the first time Jinwoo sees the full extent of the original shadow army, and that’s a shadow army that Bellion, the Grand Marshall of Ashborn’s army, is undoubtedly part of. Unfortunately, the manhwa missed the chance to give Bellion a secret cameo during this early scene. The anime has the perfect chance to include a shot of Bellion fighting alongside Ashborn as a fun Easter egg for fans of the source material.
Solo Leveling’s anime adaptation has already been known to introduce characters early and give them more screen time than the manhwa ever did. That tendency to expand on the source material sets up Solo Leveling Season 3 perfectly to give fans that cool early introduction of Bellion, even if it’s just a passing cameo that only hardcore fans would recognize.
The manhwa, in particular, had a missed opportunity by not introducing (or at least hinting at) Bellion in this scene.