Solo Leveling’s most surprising moment showed why Hunters allow S-rank gates to open and it’s not what you’d expect

In the universe of Solo Leveling, humanity is in grave danger: mysterious gates appear all over the world, linking our reality to perilous dungeons inhabited by ruthless beasts. If hunters—humans with supernatural abilities—don’t finish these dungeons within a certain amount of time, the monsters inside them break free and wreak havoc on an enormous scale.So why do fishers and conservationists let the hunters wait for the gates to break open rather than going in to stop them? Particularly when the gates are S-rank, the deadliest type?Surprisingly, that costly gambit is at times the smartest play.Here’s why.In Solo Leveling, dungeon gates serve as portals between Earth and a parallel dimension inhabited by hoards of dangerous monsters. When a gate opens, hunters are summoned to destroy the beasts within or risk the gate “shattering” and the creatures spilling into the human realm.Typically, the same day, these gates are resolved, here’s where it gets tricky with S-rank gates.You’d assume letting a gate break would be the absolute worst thing possible to do in the case of S-rank gates, it can be a strategic choice. Here’s how and why it works that way with an explanation of these five key reasons.S-rank dungeons are the most dangerous of all — even the mightiest hunters would be unlikely to survive an attempt to breach one. Battling beyond the gate on home territory places the odds more favorably for hunters. They get to pick the field of battle, set up their fortifications, and dodge the pitfalls lurking within the dragon’s lair.S-rank hunters are rare, found only behind the most difficult challenges, and they are enormously valuable. Countries like Japan don’t make a practice of building them, they often have no recourse but to wait. Then calling for international assistance, such as from Korea, becomes the only choice.At times the gates spawn at odd coordinates making them impossible to ever arrive at before they time out. In these instances, doing business outside the wire represents a safer alternative while making the more advanced, sooner launched, and more dangerous raid less necessary.The most colossal S-rank gate fiasco in Solo Leveling’s history took place on Jeju Island. Korean hunters attempted on several occasions to take down the monsters that had escaped but they were unsuccessful.Original art showing the improved design of the monsters, ycritters, initially led by the now-infamous Builder Ants which over the years became more developed and powerful than originally intended. Not even the best hunters in class could bring them under control.Ultimately, it was up to Sung Jinwoo, our main character, to finally get rid of the threat. The damage was done. Her tragic death was an unfortunate demonstration of just how deadly it can be when a faulty gate is allowed to remain open too long.Always a bad practice to let a gate go out of service. Yet often, the inside of the dungeon is the more perilous place. In the smart, sly world of Solo Leveling, if you’re not dead, you’re winning, and each choice is weighed in the balance like a high-stakes game of poker.Her journey illustrates how these decisions are not only acts of power, but of intentionality. Even as the world faces global destruction with so few S-rank hunters, hunters have to be careful about the fights they pick.As the anime progresses, viewers can look forward to learning more about these gates in operation and the reasons as to why some of them are allowed to shatter intentionally.Here’s how you can watch it live. Now you know how to watch Solo Leveling on: !Solo Leveling probably would have succeeded with just the epic fight scenes it’s known for. It offers deeper explorations of the decisions hunters must make in a world where just one misstep could lead to the loss of thousands of lives. The logic of allowing S-rank gates to break adds a really cool layer to the anime’s worldbuilding, and raises the stakes of this fictional narrative considerably.