"There are no new stories in the star stream, just old tales being retold in new ways" - a Senior Dokkaebi in ORV

 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!

This is a little weird, since the people who would understand this - the readers of both Solo Leveling and The Beginning After The End - should proceed with caution, considering that I’m one of the very few people who has finished both their light novels and because the comic version hasn’t caught up. At the same time, if you haven’t read either, then it just straight up wouldn’t make sense. Anyways, I wanted to put down my thoughts on some things here. 

Arthur Lewin from TBATE is concerningly similar to Sung Jin Woo. Due to their extremely different character design, difference in age, difference in world view and many other ‘technicalities’ in the stories, it is really hard to notice, but having read up till TBATE Book 11 (which hasn’t even been officially released yet) (Chapter 390), you start to notice that both the characters are built on the same fundamentals. 

The Cliche being followed - overpowered MC who needs to fight some really powerful bad guys and therefore works really hard to get stronger

Motivation behind risking their lives like madmen and working hard to get stronger - to protect their loved ones

Who are these loved ones - A mother and a younger sister

What happened to both their dads? They both died in war which wasn’t even their own but between two higher powers. In solo leveling - between the Monarchs and Rulers; in TBATE - between Agrona Vritra and Kezess Indrath (two asura/half god megalomaniacs). 

What happens to the normal people? They suffer and die in big numbers and the main character fails to save them all. 

Main character’s love interest? Significantly weaker than the main character who ends up getting saved/receiving help + falls in love with the MC first before the MC starts reciprocating after ignoring them at first. 

Who is with the main character for most of the time? 
In the start it is the system for Sung Jin Woo and Slyie for Arthur. Then after the big change or ‘climax’ where both of them technically die but get saved due to plot armor - their summons. Arthur has a puppy named Regis (who is actually a super powerful weapon and uses the flames of destruction as his mane) as his summon and Sung Jin Woo has best girl Beru (actually a 7 foot tall super powerful ant who is destruction personified). 

Is there some funny reading the future sort of stuff going on as well to mess with the time line? Absolutely! We have Norma Selner and Elder Rinia who both do this. Moreover, their skills don’t work like normal on the MC again, coz why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 
Lets not even forget the MC being an anomaly 🥱😪
Sung Jin Woo is a hunter who can grow, while everyone else has stationary strength levels. He also receives the powers of the Shadow Monarch Ashborn. This makes him extremely overpowered and facilitates the plot armor. 
Arthur Lewin has memories of his previous life where he was a warrior and king, to proceed to create his own mana core (magic power source) at the age of 3 while the average age is 16. The dude then proceeds to get a half draconic body which can manipulate ether, basically a cheat code which does whatever the plot wants it to. 

Oh and did I forget that both the abilities of the hunters and the mana cores have ranks based on which people are divided in society? Yeah, that’s there too…

In the end - both the MC’s start off as normal humans and then proceed to become ‘something greater’ to slay the ‘big bad’ of the story. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love these stories. They are both unique in their own ways. But I just had to point all of this out to state my point that all these stories are becoming really predictable for me since there is so much being copied from one place to another, even if unintentionally. I just used two really well known examples, but I can use this logic for any story you give me. Also, if you feel like, check out my fan fic ending for Omniscient reader’s viewpoint too.