I am in awe and suspense!!!
I choose to believe Yona wants Zeno to get closure before he dies. And she also wants to confront the dragon gods herself.
I truly hope they let Zeno die because he’s just so tired of having to play his role. But I suspect he will live on… but maybe there will be a short scene of him saying good bye to the crew before Yona kills him?
Her reaction to him trying to kill himself in this chapter makes me feel like she would be empathetic towards his wishes but also assisted suicide is a very touchy topic and there is a lot of feelings that go into that.
But this story has had the theme of death since the beginning. Yona’s father was a nice man but his death helped a lot of people because he did not run his country well (and also probably killed his brother but I’m in doubt of that). Yona has had to kill at least one person (not sure if there was more after the human trafficker guy) and had a lot of moral conflict around it but decided it was the only way to end this conflict. Suwon, the man who killed her father and tried to have her and Hak killed, she has let live for now because she knows the country needs a strong leader.
I think she will kill Zeno because she has been making these moral choices and dealing with death since the start of the story. But I can also see her not killing him. I’m very engaged in the writing and can’t wait to see what happens.
So much so much so mucj is andjxkakaozkndkxncnk.
Getting him fired from his job is so abusive and manipulative I can’t even start. Your kid grew too big to hit like you used to so you turn to psychological warfare. Trying to be better or whatever they said to him my entire ass.
“They haven’t changed the situation has” Eunyung my boy also the self awareness he knows he’s been a bad person and he has violent tendencies because of how he was raised and he’s trying so hard to be better please parents get out of his life so he can grow.
(Might Delete) Pushing your personal trauma onto your child and using them as venting outlets go brrr. I’m sure the mom had a hard life and Eunyung was a little shit but that’s not any excuse to raise him the way they did. The dad actively abused him and both neglected him. He was acting out as a response to their poor parenting and to solve his acting out they abused him more as punishment. Your kid is not responsible for your emotional regulation, yes he is older but he is still a teenager and his mom is a grown woman who shouldn’t be guilting her son into living with his physically abusive dad. Eunyung wanted to feel loved by his parents which is what kids are wired to want psychologically, child psych go brrr, and he didn’t feel it. I’ve seen friends with parents that weren’t the best and did bad things, but they still received love from them (not in the narcasstic or love bombing way I mean like normal parental love). Eunyung is not written like someone with bad parents, he is written like someone with abusive parents. Almost nobody wants to believe they are the bad guy they will justify it to themselves a 100 times over and it’s not a personality disorder or anything it’s just how people are. His parents know they did things bad but they can’t accept that they messed their kid up that bad because that would make them abusers and it’s impossible to admit without a lot of introspection. Eunyung is putting physical and emotional distance between his parents and himself so he can just not think about how awful his situation is. He is kinda a bad person, but we can see why he is a bad person but also we see him becoming a better person! I love it so much because it’s a real character flaw and effective backstory that has impact on the world he’s in.
It’s extremely interesting to see this much nuance in writing I’m in awe amazing. Eunyung and his parents feel so real it’s nauseating.
In an instance, there is this expectation within the normality for Eunyung to forgive his parents or for him to make up with them and move on, it gets sensitive or out of the normality for something like this to be displayed because it's almost viewed as if it's something that shouldn't happen with a family. If that makes sense? I think the tension really.
I'll put this in three parts:
For his parents, I don't really believe they have really "changed", even if his mother is saying it. They don't have any genuine remorse for their actions and want to smooth things over with him. And Eunyung is trying to test those limits by what he's doing, he isn't being sensitive to her feelings and emotions because she/they weren't sensitive or caring for his. The mother has went what she went through, and that is completely understandable, but that's the root of her problem. She hasn't confronted her trauma and she was wrapped up in parenthood she wasn't prepared for, a decision that is made to a degree. And she wasn't able to resolve her trauma because her father died so she remains in this state of anger, sorrow, and regret she truly doesn't understand how to be genuine with.
Eunyung is hurting. He has always been hurting since he was young, and his actions are a result of their abusive and terrible parenting. Because he has so much potential but his dysfunctional family doesn't support him or really care for him. And I can tell, despite his harsh words, all his actions stem from pain and trauma he has endured with his parents. It's almost surreal to understand where he's coming from because it's not easy to forgive and forget if you really think about it. No path is easy because it's not done at it's 100%.
Generational trauma is major in his story, and he wants to break free from that. I do think he yearned for his parents to love and care for him genuinely, and wishes to have a better relationship. But they have to be putting in the effort, they do not show genuine remorse, especially his father. It's like a mindset that has to be broken, a barrier in order to heal and move on. But they aren't prepared for that, they are not prepared to take to consequences for their actions or acknowledge their actions at the highest degree.
I probably didn't make too much sense.
I get what you mean, definitely it is expected by most people that he should just forgive his parents because those are his parents. Meanwhile his closest friends are shocked he is continuing to talk to them and are worried for him. his parents definitely haven’t changed in significant ways and haven’t done much other than his dad GasP doesn’t hit his son once.
It’s like he’s aging backwards good for him. The tragedy of him becoming worse at shouji (not a lot worse but he definitely is less focused on it) because he has other things to look forward too but he’s finally accepting that it’s good for him. It’s like the idea/meme of “I’ll lose my sparkle” when you take care of a mental illness. He still enjoys shouji but now it’s not life or death it’s a game he is good at and can talk to friends and mentors about. good god his character development!!!
Now that I think about it. Isn’t his new shogi style much closer to his dad’s?
Always going off the rail for an interesting match and all…
Okay I feel like a dumbass but like what happened??? Phos disintegrated and their dust turned into a comet and their Lunarian eye is just chilling now with some rocks. Is that what happened?????
Apparently that's exactly what happened
phos essentially evolved backwards and then dissapeared although the teeny tiny shard of them could be considered their rebirth free of the shackles and suffering of humanity ( also that means a big part of them again dissapeared which is why the littelest brother phos doesnt even remember lunarians) ( budhissm refrence bla bla phos essentially got enlightened then lead/prayed everbody to nothingness/paradise and then followed and got reborn) then even more parts of phos split off that now roam space and time and that embody phos truest character , their " heart of gold" ( kongo said that about them once shortly after they were born) this kindess hopefully brightens up somebodies day ( figuratively and literally as they are comets) . Phos kindess seems to have transcended so far that it even reached another phos from another time or another world... or rather the kindess and pure love phos nurtured and set free was so strong that it reached them in the past
also phoss lunarian eye was a pearl that achmea used to spy on them , it is no longer existent ( also it was implemented i think pretty mucna roudn phoss first time on the moon , ypu mgith remember the scene of achmea approaching phos with an ice pick or smth ). phoss other orginal was lost after they turned into the almagamted human after the fight with cinnabar. it then gets replaces shortly after meeting with sensei who grants phos his eye, his most crucial machine part, or his only machine part? he seems to be pretty much only diamond aside from that eye which gave him the power he had to pray and stuff although he definetly was more tha that eye or else he would have ceased to exist after fiving it up but he seemed mostly fine after givign it too phos. phos then uses kongos eye to implement it in herself and then 10k years pass until they properly deveoped into the new complete divine. the other eye or " brother " was the machine that was developed before sensei adn was responsible for the end of humanity. both machines were devolped my the doctor whos goal it was to rid the world of humaity so inorganic live could thrive free of the poison that is humaity or whats left of huamity after it perished ( this was more or less mostly kongos duty who hella fucked up because he devopled an ego after meeting the lustrous, which is fatal for somebody whos supposed to be enlightened and greater than humaity, whos free of wants and who therefore could cleanse them and pray them away to nothingness/ paradise ) ( essentially he met a remnant of humaity and probably partially due to their similarity ( both were made of diamond/ crystal) he began to care for it and all other alike them and that attachment and love fostered the devopment of an ego and essentially poisened him with a bit of humanity. he knew this all along and feels incredibly guilty but its also the love for the gems that made him keep going for millenia. hes one of the few who have always loved phos whole heartedly. anyways so he then just couldnt fullfill his duty anymore of ridding the world of all that was human because he too got " infected" with it so he leaves his eye and therfore all his power and the doctors wish to phos. ( this is why we see the doctor telling phos " burn that bridge" during their 10k years of loneliness, its the eye of kongo and the instrcutions of the doctor to him"
Oh gotcha about the eye. Still confused but that’s very helpful thank you for explaining
SCREAMING.
I have so much to say
1st MY EDGY YELLOW BOY MOOLSLKSJSJXJSJXKCJCJCJCJCKCK. Zeno please I can’t take this anymore…( T-T )
Also 2 chapters at once!? Yummy. Suwon naming Yona as the next ruler, also yummy, but like… a bit too little too late my man you KILLED HER DAD.
Also lot’s of blood stuff? The Red Dragon’s blood line has a disease, the dragon warriors feel their blood boiling when they meet Yona, the dragon god was inside of Zeno’s blood, he filled the chalice with his blood, Yona had a crush on her blood related relative (I kid, cousin incest is like the least problematic thing royalty has historically done rip).
Yona is having constant prophetic dreams? Also she got to see the original warriors!!! I’m kinda… conflicted about the message that the suffering of Zeno and the bloodlines of the dragons, more blood, is worth it for Yona to meet her friends. Definitely not what was intended but it’s what I was thinking.
Overall I’m feeling very positive and sad in a good way because emotions from media are cool. I’m in awe. Can’t wait for JUNE ( T-T )
I really liked the story set in Italy, but seriously trying to address the effect of stereotyping and at the same time writing out statements like “ Most Italians are lazy” ??? Like cultural norms exist and Japan and Italy are different so the exploration of those differences can be fun and wholesome. Like the bit where he was waiting for him for a long time and the Japanese man apologized saying everybody has been coming late when he gives a meeting time. That was a cute and funny moment that pokes fun at a cultural difference. But having a character say “I’m the only serious and hardworking person in all of Italy” is the same stereotyping the Japanese man got angry at (with good reason!)
I liked the story but I find it interesting to analyze that part. Believe me Americans include unintended and intended culturally ignorant stuff in a bunch of our media too. I just watched a video by Farya Faraji about American/ western musical depictions of the Middle East. The “oriental” “desert” music you hear in movies like Prince of Persia is actually Armenian or Indian or just complete nonsense. Instead of trying to be culturally accurate movie directors go for the more recognizable (to Americans) foreign sounding music which is usually extremely inaccurate.
I chose to believe the author did not mean harm by the short chapter about an international romance. They just used narrative short cuts, like stereotypes, to establish the characters since they had a shorter chapter. It’s not malicious but it is ignorant. If it’s easy to recognize in Japanese media when it is about a culture closer to Western ideas. Take this feeling and think about media about different cultures and countries made by the Western world and how it can be improved to avoid lazy stereotypes and give the audience something that doesn’t encourage ignorant norms about others
Thank you for writing this. It came SO CLOSE to understanding that stereotypes are often racist, positive or not. And then they doubled down on the lazy italians/diligent Japanese thing