Is Legend of the Northern Blade Better Than Solo Leveling?

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It is almost blasphemous to suggest that any manhwa out there is better than Solo Leveling. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that Solo Leveling still is the undisputed King of Manhwa. A manhwa that was so popular that it helped increase the popularity of the medium Manhwa/Webtoons as a whole only through its existence. But that does not mean that Solo Leveling is perfect.

Not only do I believe that Legend of the Northern Blade can directly compete with the best that Solo Leveling has to offer, in terms of an overpowered badass protagonist, godlike art, and a compelling setting, but there are many aspects that Northern Blade does way better than Solo Leveling, which I will discuss below.

Before I begin, if you have completed Solo Leveling and haven’t tried reading Legend of the Northern Blade yet, I believe that it is the ultimate manhwa recommendation for people who enjoyed Solo Leveling and a must-read manhwa.

Setting & Plot

A group of unparalleled martial artists known as “Silent Night” has been terrorizing the world for years bringing war and destruction wherever they go. Forced to react the masters of the Murim world came together and formed the “Central Heavenly Alliance”.

To combat the Silent Night the Central Heavenly Alliance created a sect, whose sole purpose was to keep the Silent Night at bay. With a prominent martial artist as its head the “Northern Heavenly Sect” was created.

With the support of the Central Heavenly Alliance, the Northern Heavenly Sect was able to repel the advancements of the Silent Night, thus becoming one of the strongest and most respected sects in the world.

Our story begins when the 4th Generation Sect Leader of the Northern Heavenly Sect gets betrayed by his closest aides and by the Central Heavenly Alliance, who could no longer tolerate the influence of the Northern Heavenly Sect.

The great leader of the Northern Heavenly Sect agrees to surrender with one condition “My son, promise me that you will not put a hand on him”, fearful of his strength the Leader of the Central Heavenly Alliance agrees.

While the Heavenly Alliance does not kill Jin Mu-Won, the boy gets tortured regularly and is left malnourished and secluded in his ruined sect, not allowed to ever learn martial arts.

With all the martial scrolls taken by the Central Heavenly Alliance, the boy has no option but to take on blacksmithing until one day he realizes: “The ultimate Scroll of the Northern Heavenly Sect, is the Northern Sect Itself”. He now has the means to gain power enough to exact revenge on the ones that betrayed his father and ruined his family.

Northern Heavenly Blade is an Epic Saga of Revenge.

Art

I previously mentioned that the Legend of the Northern Blade’s art can compete head-to-head with Solo Leveling. This was not an understatement.

The art has both a unique style and tremendous quality. Like Solo Leveling, the quality of the art truly elevates the story and creates moments of pure hype that will make you feel like a child from excitement.

Where Legend of the Northern Blade excels over Solo Leveling

Characters

As I mentioned when I wrote my thoughts about Solo Leveling, character development is the biggest weakness of the series. This includes all characters from the supporting cast, the villains and even the Mc.

Well, in Legend of the Northern Blade characters are done right. It is still a power fantasy where the protagonist is the ultimate badass, however, there is more depth literally everywhere. The characters have more layers than in Solo Leveling and character development is clear for many of the main characters.

To start with Jin Mu-Won (mc) starts off as a character with only revenge on his mind but throughout the story, he learns how to organically cultivate relationships, how to lead, and the meaning of having people that he can trust around him. That doesn’t mean that his ultimate goal changes, however, he grows and learns together with the story.

Supporting characters

In Solo Leveling supporting characters are there to showcase how awesome the MC is when compared to them.

In Legend of the Northern Blade, the supporting cast consists of people who change and evolve throughout the story, having amazing and important moments that genuinely move the reader.

To put it simply, in Legend of the Northern Blade you truly care about what happens to these characters because you are emotionally invested in them. While this seems extremely basic, it is very rare in the power fantasy manhwa genre which tends to focus only on dopamine-inducing moments and lighting speed pacing.

I am not going to spoil anything but there are some supporting characters that you will absolutely love.

Villains

Villains in the Legend of the Northern Blade have flaws that ultimately lead them to betray their ideals or have goals that explain their behavior.

Let’s take 1 antagonist of Jin Mu-Won’s who ultimately betrayed his father, Jo Cheon-Woo. His dream was to become the strongest, he trained constantly but there was a mountain he could never overcome, Jin Kwan-Ho. He trained for years and fought next to the man that was his greatest obstacle, but ultimately his ego could not take it. In order for him to be the strongest that man had to go.

While it is not on the level of Berserk’s Griffith, this certainly is a better character layout than any of Solo Leveling’s villains whose sole purpose was to blindly destroy and kill.

Why Solo Leveling is still Goated

There is this feeling that you get when you are reading Solo Leveling. You know what I mean, a feeling of inexplainable uncontained excitement and hype in their purest form. And you get it in almost every single chapter. I honestly cannot remember ever feeling like that so often with any series on any medium.

How does Solo Leveling do that?

Well, the author of Solo Leveling masterfully builds up hype throughout each chapter, giving the reader the release with hype moments like these:

And then recaptures the reader’s attention with a cliffhanger. And he did it, effectively, EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER for years.

It is that simple. Yet at the same time extremely difficult to pull off, which is why we do not have any other series that can rival Solo Leveling in that aspect.

Is Legend of the Northern Blade better than Solo Leveling?

Is Legend of the Northern Blade a story with a better setting, more developed characters, and deeper world-building?

Yes.

Can it rival Solo Leveling in art quality and general badassery?

Still, I lean towards yes.

Do you get the same feeling reading it that you get when reading Solo Leveling?

No.

Do you get a similar feeling?

Yes.

Conclusion

So, the Legend of Northern Blade is a certified banger that does everything that Solo Leveling does but better. Still, Solo Leveling has that special something that makes it stand out, it is like the ex you could never get over for a reason that you yourself cannot understand, but in Manhwa form.

My mind is telling me yes, but my heart is telling me no.