I dislike the idea of bam himself being a god. I can buy bam eventually being an axis though. He is enough of the chosen one even without being a literal incarnated god.
As far as rachel's words... that really depends on arlen's state of mind at the time. The implication so far is that arlen's mental state was deteriorated.... If arlen was sane then her words are... disturbing to the plot because bam might be a curse inflicted upon the tower. Otherwise her words might just be ramblings from someone mad with grief.
Actually, I just noticed something... During the hidden floor we had yellow, a small bit of data that went full pinochio and aspired to be a human. by taking the body of a dead child. And then that body was eventually destroyed by zahard. Isn't this... eerie? And oddly familiar? I think this is meant to be foreshadowing in regards to bam in some ways. But in what ways exactly I can't say because siu won't necessarily make bam's future the same. But still, if this is foreshadowing in regards to bam then this random ass plot point which seemed unnecessary is actually brilliant.
You’re right that Hwang did try to become human. I still stipulate he needed a “shell” and that Yura was a part of that, which is why he needed her there. He was going to steal her real body or take her place.
I hadn’t connected this with Bam but it’s possible that Bam’s soul is “artificial” which is why he has no past.
A lot of things Rachel says are half-true so I’m not so sure Bam is really a monster but I can definitely see that Arlene wishes him to be a monster to destroy the Tower if it took everything she cared about away from her (V, her son, and her stars), regardless of her mental state. Rachel just twists the words like a knife in the wound to hurt Bam as much as possible.
As to Bam being a god - isn’t an axis the same thing as far as the Tower is concerned? It’s all relative isn’t it? I mean to most Tower residents Zahard is basically a god.
A god can be considered a creator, destroyer, and lots of other things but fundamentally I think a god is defined by being able to break rules that others must follow to accomplish extraordinary things.
Creating life from inanimate things is one example, resurrection is another. Some may even say complete obliteration of all in the way shows the strength of a god (Zahard to many, Phanta to all in the Tower).
So what I mean is that the definition of god in Tower of God has not yet really been defined, other than by FUG who wish Bam to be their god and do things they cannot.