History Webcomic / TheWarriorReturns

Written by Narak with art by [[https://www.instagram.com/fungback Fungback]], ''The Warrior Returns'' (also known as Hero Has Returned) is an ongoing manhwa hosted on Website/{{Webtoon}} and can be read online [[https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/the-warrior-returns/list?title_no=3265 here]].

* TheGodsMustBeLazy: You either have Minsu's patron goddess Seraphine who keeps supporting Minsu in spite of him committing mass murder or you have [[spoiler:Seongjun's]] patron goddess who ignores his pleas to take back his powers and doesn't even contact him in any way despite it being shown other worlds' goddesses have the power to at least contact their Warriors when they need it most.

* OmnicidalManiac: A common trait among Demon Lords is their desire to kill all life and destroy the world they live in. [[spoiler:Minsu only desired to make everybody else as miserable as he is at first but upon becoming a Demon Lord, his motivation changes to outright wanting all of humanity to die. And WordOfGod states that if he manages to travel to other worlds, he would desire to kill all life there as well.]]

** [[spoiler:Seongjun has experienced the events of the story so many times that he can kill practically every other South Korean Warrior with his eyes closed if he needs to. The only exception is Minsu, who is so powerful than Seongjun was never able to defeat him outright.]]

** Protagonists with [[spoiler: ResurrectiveImmortality with no clear way of turning it off is shown as a hellish life where nothing they do ultimately matters because it'll be erased the moment they die. And worse, there is no alternate dimensions where the universes where they did everything right moves on without them. So the whole universe is stuck in a GroundHogDayLoop with them at the center. The whole plot began as the sheer amount of time broke Seongjun to the point he's willing to kill billions in order to create a Demon Lord, the one being that can kill him permanently.]]

** Sunjeong's ResurrectiveImmortality powers means that DeathIsCheap for him unless he's fighting a Demon Lord. While this means he can redo fights as many times as he wants, he still has to carry the burden of being gruesomely killed over and over. [[spoiler:The sheer amount of memories Sunjeong has in 150,000 years of existence does serious damage to his psyche. He's thoroughly traumatized by living [[TimeAbyss for an unfathomable amount of time]] in a GroundhogDayLoop where all his efforts will be undone no matter what he does. He reaches his limit while fighting Minsu for the last time, barely able to cling to his sanity after replaying the fight tens of thousands of times, nearly succumbing completely to his DeathSeeker desires before reminding himself to stake his all to take off Minsu's arm.]]

* LawOfInverseFertility: Dohoon's parents tried for decades to have a child, but struggled to concieve one even with the use of artificial insemination. They only succeeded in their mid-40s after suffering through three miscarriages. Because of this, Dohoon became their world and they worked tirelessly to love and care for him. This is why Dohoon feels obligated to return to his world and see his parents despite his aged state, as he feels the need to inform them their their son is alright.

* DemotedToExtra: InUniverse, [[spoiler:Somin Jeong was the Spear Warrior in the original timeline, fighting alongside Minsu, Sunjeong, and the other Warrior to end the Warrior War and bring peace to the world. Due to Sunjeong's changes to the timeline, Jeongsu became the Spear Warrior instead, leaving Somin a largely powerless bystander.]]

** Jeongsu loses his arm to Minsu in theri fight. It's replaced with a wooden prosthetic provided by the Verdant Warrior that's as strong and even more durable than his original arm. [[spoiler:He later has Garam give him several additional cybernetic arms to let him wield multiple Hero's Relics at once.]]

* TheGodsMustBeLazy: You either have Minsu’s patron goddess who keeps supporting Minsu in spite of him committing mass murder[[spoiler:until she likely abandons him when he becomes a Demon Lord]], or you have [[spoiler:Seongjun’s]] patron goddess who ignores his pleas to take back his powers and doesn’t even contact him in any way despite it being shown other worlds’ goddesses have the power to at least contact their Warriors when they need it most.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Many of the fallen warriors are so deep in their own despair that they can't stand the thought of anyone being remotely happy or hopeful, which is what fuels their mass murders.

* MilitariesAreUseless: Downplayed. Despite their best efforts, the militaries of the world are largely helpless against the Warriors, who too powerful to stop and too durable to kill with even the latest military technology. But as Marie points out, the military is essential for evacuating people away from the Warriors' rampages. This is something that a terrifying, otherworldly being like a Warrior can't do, especially one like Marie who has replaced most of her body with machinery. They're also responsible for many operations pivotal to turning the tide of the battle against the Warriors, such as [[spoiler:securing all of the Hero's Relics used by the Warriors killed by Minsu, allowing Jeongsu to use them in the eventual final battle with the new Demon Lord.]]

** Russia also attempts to nuke Minsu to death, even if it renders most of the country uninhabitable from nuclear fallout. [[spoiler:Unlike Gods' Fist, Minsu had already become a Demon Lord and just wraps himself in his cape to withstand the explosions and the radiation without a scratch.]]
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Flashbacks shows that the efforts to stop Minsu were stymied by the Korean government's fear of the Warriors and wishing they would wipe each other out. So instead of helping them all attack Minsu all at once, the government sent them in one at a time to be killed one after the other as part of "Operation Fighting Ring". The Korean government hoped to be rid of all the Warriors by the end of the year. This strategy ultimately did nothing but doom the efforts to contain Minsu and leave many Korea's greatest heroes dead.

* UnflinchingWalk: After leveling most of Korea, Minsu begins walking across the rest of Asia to continue his rampage. Although he's capable of running much more quickly, he chooses to walk and casually wiping out anyone who tries to fight him. This shows his apathy and MotiveDecay as he wonders what he even started killing for when his actions aren't making him feel better. [[spoiler:After becoming a Demon Lord, he continues his walk across Asia, wiping out Russia's entire nuclear arsenal with a wave of his hand before continuing on toward Europe.]]

** The "Revenge Hero" archetype of the StockLightNovelHero is not played as a power fantasy for violent catharsis in this story. Minsu's and the other Warriors' rampage is depicted as senseless, wanton slaughter of innocents who have no idea why they're being attacked. Even Jeongsu's "righteous" quest to avenge his family leaves him a bitter and anti-social KnightInSourArmor who doesn't know what he wants even if he does achieve his revenge. By contrast, the Old Guard who stand against Minsu are all portrayed as unambiguous heroes who fight to defend those who can't protect themselves and show at least some compassion even toward their enemies.

* NukeEm: The U.S. unleashes a nuclear weapon to kill the evil Warriors of South Korea before they can escape and cause even more harm. Unfortunately, the Resurrection Warrior is able to use his death to go back in time and have the Transformation Warrior hack the nuclear weapon launcher, turning it on major capital cities like Beijing and Washington D.C. instead.

* PatronGod: The Warriors of fantasy worlds often have a goddess as their patron responsible for helping them power up to fight the Demon Lord.

* BlindIdiotTranslation: Seongjun Lee's decisions are said to ahve killed 1.4 billion people. The Naver Webtoon translation drops the "billion" part, making it seem as though he hurt 1.4 people.

* NoBodyLeftBehind: Jiwon's body dissolves into ash from the strain of pushing himself so hard while already on the verge of death from his third-degree burns against the Martial Arts Warrior.

* UndyingLoyalty: The Metamorphosis Belt is clearly loyal to Jiwon alone. Althought it clearly hates that he's pushing himself that far, it agrees with his decision to help others and fights with him to the end. [[spoiler:When the belt is repaired by Garam and given to Jeongsu to use against the Iron Arm Warrior, the belt makes it clear that it has no interest in helping Jeongsu or this world in particular. The Belt only lends Jeongsu its power because he's the only hope for the world that the belt's partner, Jiwon, died defending.]]

* {{Prequel}}: Season 2 of the webcomic is titled "Losers". As the name implies, the season covers all of the Warriors who died trying to fight Minsu and the Nine Warriors before the events of Season 1. Given what happens, their defeats and deaths are a ForgoneConclusion.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The leaders of the Time World are horrified by the price Doohoon paid to save their world and beg his forgiveness for being unable to help him more [[spoiler:after he's sacrificed all but six years of his lifespan]]. They offer him every manner of luxury and comfort in a desperate attempt to make amends. He refuses them all, as his one desire is to go home to his parents.

** Jiseong Cheon, the Martial Arts Warrior, did not initially set out on a rampage against humanity. He only fell once [[spoiler:he discovered his grandmother's decaying remains after finally returning home. Yeji Ahn's men who were sent to recruit Jiseong find him in the midst of grieving. Seeing him hunched over his grandmother made those men draw their weapons out of fear that Jiseong murdered her. When Jiseong sees these weapons, hecomes to the conclusion that ''they'' murdered her and lashes out.]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: The "tragic comedy of errors" takes place when [[spoiler:Minsu's comrades from the Sword World mistake Ivan for a Demon Lord trying to kill him. Ivan is too exhausted and angry to explain himself properly, so Sword World denizens all fight to save Minsu and Minsu's world, not knowing that they are helping to doom it.]]

* EmbarrassingButEmpoweringOutfit: Yerin Ma is a young woman in her 20s who is forced to don a neon pink MagicalGirl outfit to use her powers as a Warrior. She finds it horribly embarrassing but does so anyways to achieve her goals [[spoiler:as TheMole working on behalf of the Korean government.]]

* FormerlyFat: [[spoiler:The Iron Arm Warrior was originally an overweight high school student named Uiho Jeong who was bullied for his size. After being sent to the other world, he became an incredibly muscular superhero completely unrecognizable from his former self as a result of the augmentations he received.]]

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Yerin Ma, the Magic Warrior]] is a mole planted by the Korean government inside Minsu's team to monitor him and be able to act in the event that a Warrior capable of fighting him shows up.

** This is the fate of the Magic Warrior, who fought Minsu to stop his rampage in exchange for money and fame. Minsu allows the Mage Warrior to attack him repeatedly to get the Mage Warrior to underestimate Minsu's speed and attack range. As soon as the Mage Warrior got too close, Minsu fired a SwordBeam that took the Mage Warrior's head clean off. Minsu attempts this again against Ivan, who anticipates this and replaces himself with an ice dummy before it hit.

* CyberneticsEatYourSoul:
** Subverted. Garam Lee uses SpockSpeak when talking to Marie while going on and on about how it's illogical for monsters like them to live among humanity. But as the fight goes on, Garam gets increasingly frantic and angry, especially when Marie says that Garam's true desire is to be human again. This shows that for all of Garam's smugness and adherence to logic, she is still, a human being at heart. [[spoiler:Marie's final sacrifice to turn Garam back into a human shakes Garam to her core, leading her to ultimately undergo a HeelFaceTurn and help the survivors of humanity take down Minsu.]]
** Seongjun’s powers activate if his body becomes more than 50% artificial, which implies his powers considers him dead past that point and resets time. [[spoiler:This part of his power ensures Seongjun can’t indefinitely prolong his lifespan and continues the time loop.]]

* TranshumanTreachery: After being converted almost entirely into a machine in the Transformation World, Garam Lee aims to cause as much destruction and mayhem has she can to vent her anguish at being unable to belong on Earth. [[spoiler:After Marie dies turning Garam back into a flesh-and-blood human, Garam undergoes a HeelFaceTurn because of Marie's kindness and unwavering faith in her and all of humanity.]]

* UnwillingRoboticisation: Both Garam and Marie were forced to roboticize more and more of themselves in order to become powerful enough to defeat the Demon Lord of the Transformation World. While they ostensibly did it out of their free will to enable their heroics, the author's own notes point out that they more or less felt pressured into it, lest they die and never be able to return home.