aylinnworld

[aylinnworld]

This would have turned Soo-won into a boring bad character who eats babies on breakfast. It would too boring.

But I agree with you that enemies in this story are a one big disappointment. It would be nice if characters from this story were allowed to be outsmarted.

I think the dragons gods are the last enemies. It is a bad idea to use the most powerful enemies that a story can have and then degrade the power scale to use someone weaker enemies and any human being will be weaker than dragon gods.

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I actually wish war between Xing and Kouka had happened. I feel like that would have been very interesting route to take the manga... Kouren becoming basically a Yona that sought out and succeeded at revenge, Su-Won really just becoming a ruthless piece of shit yet now realizing that his father's methods are only making things worse for Kouka.

And then seeing Yona fail to create peace for a while, wonder if she really is just incompetent at diplomacy like her father, and have a lot more casualties in the series until she finally convinces it somehow to stop.

And THEN while Kouka is weakened from Xing, the Kai Empire strikes with even more mayhem. I think that would have been great.

I'm sorry but the whole Kuelbo kidnapping Yona arc was totally unnecessary to me. How many kidnapping arcs do we need here?

It had no other purpose but to make Kye-sook join hands with Hak and the dragons, but that could have been done without it. Drama with a civil war + Kai actually invading + trying to end the war with Xing just seems genius to me.

[aylinnworld]

The Shadow of Kyoshi

I am reading it and I am in the middle of the book.

On the good side:

The author understands what made avatar popular and how much the story is about struggle. Kyoshi this times struggles with more political situation that requires for example diplomacy, in which she is not good at.

The false avatar subplot seems more interesting in this book.

The things I do not enjoy so much is how it feels a bit like an old chestnut. Mind you it is a good old chestnut if you like avatar, sky bisons, avatar struggling with learning certain skills, a secret pai sho club, etc.

The author has a tendency to throw comments that feel like captain obvious. Like when Kyoshi decides to save certain person instead of pursuing another person who is creating problems and author is like there will be consequences. Obviously, there will be. Or they have a plan that apparently is no good to avatar's honour and it said how the older character agree to it, because they have more life experience and are not as rigid about the rules like a certain younger character. It was easy to guess.

I see these books are labelled as young adult. Perhaps this is why? I have no idea since I don't read young adult, but makes sense if these books target teenagers.

[aylinnworld]

The Rise of Kyoshi

I have recently learnt that there are novels from avatar universe, and decide to read them.

It is was an ok read. I expected that Kyoshi will not start as the powerful avatar from the Last Airbender and she doesn't. Some things felt a bit too repetitive like Kyoshi learning all for elements, I really appreciated that in Korra that part was mostly skipped and she starts as a competent bender in three elements rather than seeing repetition of learning four elements.

Also, I thought Kyoshi would have her own unique animal pet, but she just gets a flaying bison.

I thought that the whole issue of false avatar will be more interesting, but somehow it was not as interesting as I thought.

Also, the guy who wanted so badly to teach the avatar to the point of killing and hurting people close to them. I get it teaching avatar is fame, glory and stuff like this, but the guy was going so far that I don't understand how he was not afraid that behaving the way he did, he will piss Kyoshi off to the point of getting his butt kicked once she learns all four elements or earlier if she gets into avatar state.

[aylinnworld]

It would be nice if in the same conversation someone noticed that the root of this misery is Hiryuu's selfish wish to be a human.

Hiryuu was unable to accept he is not a human and wanted to be one at whatever cost. If he just accepted he is not a human being, the misery of the dragons and descendants would never come to existence in the first place. Yona also is responsible as she stopped Hiryuu from ending it, just because she selfishly wanted to meet the current dragons.

Sure, Zeno can ba called out on his behaviour but it would be weird to ignore the real problem, which is Hiryuu's selfish wish to be a human.

Had it not been for Hiryuu's selfish wish, Zeno would have been a totally normal human being, who would live a normal life and would have died 2000 years before the current timeline, so nothing that happens now would ever take place to start with.

To the person who keeps saying Zeno needs to suffer a little bit of the consequences of his action to hold accountability.

You may go to hell!

Just kidding, but seriously..... Look at the generation of dragon suffering in pure agony.

What Consequences does he need to suffer? He is the victim here. All his actions were in line and reason with it. Not a single action was to make people suffer but to end the suffering. The dragon consider humans insignificant and use them as tools.

[aylinnworld]

Like Yon-hi, like Soo-won and like Il, Yona also has a bad habit of keeping things to herself, and as the story showed it doesn’t lead to anything pleasant.

I would not worry about this. I am quite certain that it will never backfire for Yona. She has too incredible plot armour for this.

As for romances were main characters do not talk a lot. Perhaps it is partly because of classic stuff influence like The Story of the Stone also known as Dream of the Red Chamber? There are two characters there who it is quite obvious love each other, but readers do not see them together a lot, Bao-yu and Dai-yu. Most of the time readers see them together they misunderstand each other or are afraid of telling something so as not offend the other person or not to be misunderstood. They also have an important scene with meaningful silent glances.

I know it is Chinese classic, but as far as I understand Japan has some level of appreciation for this story.

Anyway, in The Story of the Stone having two character so in love with each other who do not communicate surprisingly works, but I suppose this is due to Cao Xueqin being very talented and simply managing to pull it off.

This Cao Xueqin was capable of writing women, many of them actually, and making them different from each other. If someone looked for a story written by a guy who doesn't suck at writing women and is actually really good at it, I recommend reading it.

However, going back to a point, Bao-yu and Dai-yu do not have a good communication and do not have a happy ending.

I am sure this in not what lies in store for Yona and Hak.

I find it strange that Yona never told Hak that Il killed Yuhon. And that she never talked to him about Soo-won. Even though they didn’t have long conversations about Soo-won, they did mention him and talked about him.

Maybe Yona is more emotionally mature than Hak, but it is also due to her possessing much more information from the beginning, thus she had time to process it and come to a conclusion about some things. Hak stayed in the dark, stricken with grief and pain. In the end he only found out about it from Ju-doh.

I don’t judge her but…they’ve been traveling for almost a year, I’m sure there were plenty of opportunities for Yona to start this talk. She knew and saw just how much in pain Hak has been this whole time and yet she didn't share her knowledge with the person closest to her, which could have lessened both their burdens. Especially his. It’s not just about her. Hak was also closely tied with Soo-won and Il, he had the right to know.

And Hak trusts her after this? He didn’t even think “oh jeez, she has known something huge like this this whole time and never told me?”. Also seems like a strange reaction to me.

Like Yon-hi, like Soo-won and like Il, Yona also has a bad habit of keeping things to herself, and as the story showed it doesn’t lead to anything pleasant.

[aylinnworld]

Yeah, I just imagined that if it were about Hak and Soo-won doing a time travel together and struggling to find a world where they both can be happy and with Yona out of the picture most of the time, I would like it better than the current storyline.

As for Hak what can be said? He expects others like Soo-won to solve difficult problems and then is not happy when the solution is not to his liking.

Which is funny, because Hak had far greater chance to convince Il to take his position seriously and do a good job than Soo-won ever had. At least Il liked Hak. Il would rather listen to Hak than Soo-won.

HAK IS JUST INFURIATING!!

The recent chapter makes me cry but also makes me quite angry as well.

Again!

IT IS DONE LIKE THIS!

Hak admits it. Doing something for his own country scares him. He admits he can't make a choice like that, that is fine.

But then this? Why does the story between them always get spun in a way that only Soo-won is wrong! The narrative seems to emphasize that only Soo-won committed a grave crime and is facing the consequences, the punishment.

Hak still doesn't get the point! Why did things end up being this way! Once again it sounds like the burden is put all on Soo-won to correct things? Like Hak doesn't have anything to correct?!

He's not saying Maybe both of us could have made different choices... Maybe if I had tried a little better with my position...

Yes, I am aware the conversation started out with Soo-won saying if he went back in time he'd do the same, but isn't that true?

He asks if he went back in time would he really repeat the same, then what about you, Hak? Would you do the same? Everything Hak says from, I can't change the way you think to punishment to tweak things around to create a better outcome... Why is it only Soo-won's responsibility to create a better outcome?

He is not saying, yes, I am scared to choose so, let's change it together, let us make a choice so we don't have to choose among ourselves, grieve like this, and remain broken like this...

Us - We made mistakes, if we ever get a chance to go back let us make different choices.

He is not acknowledging that Soo-won's drastic choice was a result of generals like him being stupid and careless.

For as long as people dump everything on him, forget once, even if he goes back in time a thousand times, he can only keep making the same choices.

Like it's always Soo-won's guilt. But what about you? Why the hell aren't you guilty? Why isn't he talking about his responsibility, his mistakes, his regrets!

I swear to God every time there's a conversation between these three it's always two people taking some kind of holy ground above him... Like everything was only because of Soo-won. I am honestly sick of it and I just want to tape his mouth shut!

[aylinnworld]

How do you speculate on yona dealing with the gods? Do u think Suwon gonna sacrifice his life to save yona after all?

Dear anon,

To be honest I find it fucked up that Soo-won would have to sacrifice himself for his ancestor/his reincarnation who gave him nothing but suffering. Yes, Yona is included since in her time travel discussion with her past self, she could have warned Hiryuu about crimson illness which he will pass to his descendants, but didn't care enough to say anything.

In my opinion Soo-won doesn't own Yona anything. Even him killing her father is mostly Il's responsibility since he could do nothing better than sit and wait fro 10 years to be killed while ignoring Yonhi's dying wish to do something to end the cycle of hatred. I think taking into consideration Il's behaviour, he simply got what he deserved.

But just because I find something fucked up, does not mean it will not happen. It of course may happen that Soo-won will sacrifice himself to save Yona, LOL.

[aylinnworld]

Oh, it would be certainly nice if Yona/Hiryuu finally admit and accepted she is not an ordinary human being and given the circumstances, never will be. At this point it would be just super weird if she kept considering herself an ordinary human being or rather it would feel like Yona is delusional.

I mean how many ordinary human beings can use a 2000 years old chalice to, I assume, speak with gods?

Zeno also earlier confirmed that only Hiryuu could have gathered the four dragons and when he tried to do it, he failed, because he is not Hiryuu himself.

All evidences that she is far from being an ordinary human being are right there under her nose.

I know Hiryuu really wanted to ba a human being, but it is time to admit, it didn't work and only brought suffering to others. I don't think it is good being delusional.

GUYS. Suwon has hiryuu's blood. But yona is his reincarnation only, she doesn't have his blood.

That means if suwon is about to go where yona is, there is this big possibility he is the one who will sacrifice for hiryuu's blood to return from earth, and to end the curse

[aylinnworld]

You are right, but I am quite sure it will not happen.

I don't think Yona will suffer anything. She will have her happy ending with Hak as one can expect from a shojo story.

I only hope that Zeno will come back being more fun and rather than agreeing with Yona that "oh yes, you are actually right my dear Yona, I didn't really want to die after suffering for 2000 years. I just had a bad day today and didn't think things through."

Will be rather like: "girl, what are talking about? What can you possibly know? You don't know shit about my feelings! But thanks for the ride to the dragon gods and opportunity to end this shitty connection and my life!"

Maybe he will say it more diplomatically, but I liked him more in the rebellious mode. It would be so boring if he just returned to being Yona's follower.

GUYS. Suwon has hiryuu's blood. But yona is his reincarnation only, she doesn't have his blood.

That means if suwon is about to go where yona is, there is this big possibility he is the one who will sacrifice for hiryuu's blood to return from earth, and to end the curse

[aylinnworld]

I would not be surprised if it is another superpower, revelations like this so late in the game seems to be nothing strange in this manga.

But it can simply be her arrogance that she knows best and no one will ever call her out on it.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Yona, but this is such a cop-out. Who is she to say what Zeno’s true feelings are? She’s basically saying: “I know I’m important to you. You wouldn’t want to cause me pain, would you?”. Like Yona, love, that’s completely beside the point. No he doesn’t want to hurt you! Of course not! But she’s deflecting, avoiding making a difficult choice that would lead to her friend finally finding rest after many lifetimes of suffering.

I understand why she needs to enter the chalice and speak directly with the gods. The cycle itself is the issue and she could prevent further people from being burdened with dragon power, and killing Zeno would only end his suffering.

But the way she completely dismisses his wishes irks me. She could’ve said something like: “Hold on. Before we commit to anything concrete, let me try speaking with the gods. Allow me a second option. And if that doesn’t work at least we know I can end this pain for you,” but no. She like…gaslights him? “No, this is what you’re actually feeling.” “You’re in too much despair to make this choice, you’re not in your right frame of mind.” Even if it’s true that he doesn’t want to hurt her she’s still assuming she knows his thoughts and emotions better than he does. This is pure Sheltered Princess behavior.

Yona is robbing Zeno of his autonomy over his choice to die here, which ironically is exactly what the dragon powers are doing to him. When will he be awarded agency of his own life? His feelings and desires?

[aylinnworld]

I wondered if someone else saw it like this. Yona telling Zeno how he supposedly really feels felt arrogant. No one can know 100% what another person feels unless some form of telepathy is a thing.

But maybe we will learn that she has another super power in addition to her ability to see future and speak with her past self.

Maybe I’m being too harsh on Yona, but this is such a cop-out. Who is she to say what Zeno’s true feelings are? She’s basically saying: “I know I’m important to you. You wouldn’t want to cause me pain, would you?”. Like Yona, love, that’s completely beside the point. No he doesn’t want to hurt you! Of course not! But she’s deflecting, avoiding making a difficult choice that would lead to her friend finally finding rest after many lifetimes of suffering.

I understand why she needs to enter the chalice and speak directly with the gods. The cycle itself is the issue and she could prevent further people from being burdened with dragon power, and killing Zeno would only end his suffering.

But the way she completely dismisses his wishes irks me. She could’ve said something like: “Hold on. Before we commit to anything concrete, let me try speaking with the gods. Allow me a second option. And if that doesn’t work at least we know I can end this pain for you,” but no. She like…gaslights him? “No, this is what you’re actually feeling.” “You’re in too much despair to make this choice, you’re not in your right frame of mind.” Even if it’s true that he doesn’t want to hurt her she’s still assuming she knows his thoughts and emotions better than he does. This is pure Sheltered Princess behavior.

Yona is robbing Zeno of his autonomy over his choice to die here, which ironically is exactly what the dragon powers are doing to him. When will he be awarded agency of his own life? His feelings and desires?

[aylinnworld]

I would add to your comment that Yona had the occasion to inform Hiryuu about his descendants and their terminal illness. He could have at least maybe have chosen not to have any children if he did not have any yet at this point or maybe have less of them.

I personally think the fact that she doesn't bring the subject tells as much as the fact that she dissuaded him from ending the dragon cycle.

Theory about the "Price to pay"

Spoilers 'till chapter 260

So we're finally at the point where Yona has to talk to the dragon gods herself. We knew this was bound to happen and it was honestly the most logical turn of events. What we don't know however is the price she'll have to pay to get such a wish fulfilled.

Two theories come to mind:

1/ The first and most popular one is that Yona will have to leave the mortal realm and return to heaven to be the Crimson dragon King again.

No need for the dragon warriors anymore, they'll simply lose their powers, and the gods can finally have Yona back like they always wanted, which could be the interpretation of the last line from the prophecy "And The Red Dragon Shall Return At Dawn".

This theory, although logical, is just too cruel. Akayona is not a tragedy, I can't imagine Kusanagi will end a story about found family, self growth and overcoming your trauma with the death of the main character. I desperately tried to find another suitable price that didn't envolve Yona sacrificing herself, which leads us to the second theory:

2/Yona gets to stay on earth, but all the people she knew forget about her. I know this might sound just as cruel if not more than the previous one💦, but please hear me out 'till the end!!!!

Yona had done much more to the country as a normal girl than a princess. She went to different tribes on foot, bonded with peasants, pretended to be a bandit, pirate, an entertainer... etc, and fought off traffickers and dealers without ever mentioning she was a princess. Yes those people she helped will probably forget about her, but she can return to them and help them while being herself again. She doesn't need recognition as "Princess Yona". She draws people no matter her title.

On the other, since she'll no longer possess warriors with divine powers, she won't be a target for greedy individuals or people from enemy nations, so the gods can rest assured about her safety.

Lastly, everyone forgetting about her means that the red dragon no longer exists on earth. It's like his memory left the mortal realm and ascended to heaven again "And The Red Dragon Shall Return At Dawn". This could be an interpretation of the prophecy. The red dragon won't literally return to heaven. It's his memory that will leave people's minds and return to be a property of the heaven.

Now, even though I said that everyone will forget about Yona, I'm sure there'll be one exception to this rule. Only one individual will never forget about Yona while everyone else will, and it's Hak. The first reason is obviously the romance that'll just get reset to zero if he forgets about her. I mean, knowing  him he'll probably fall in love with her again, but it's like all their moments and all the development in their relationship will disappear and restart from zero which is something a lot of readers won't accept.

The second and most powerful reason (literally the reason that made me write  this post) is that one scene from chapter 25 that everyone hated. Remember when Yona asked Hak to be the only one to call her "Princess"? Remember when she told him even if EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY FORGETS ABOUT HER, HE HAS TO BE THE ONLY ONE WHO REMEMBERS?

What if that scene was actually foreshadowing the ending of the series? That everyone will forget about who Yona was, and that he will be the only one to remember? Ofc I'm sure it won't be that easy. Hak will probably have to pass some kind of test to prove that he's worthy of remembering Yona, but I'm sure he'll succeed and the gods will begrudgingly yield to his request so Yona won't live a sad and lonely life after they cast their spell.

Ofc I'm aware this is still a cruel predicament. The family she fought so hard to save will forget about her, but she'll be able to start a new relationship with them. It'll prove that their bond was always genuine, that it had nothing to do with the dragons' blood, and I'm sure they'll love her as much as they loved her before.

The country also will forget about princess Yona. Her achievements will probably all be attributed to Soowon (but it's not like she cares about fame or recognition anyway).

Speaking of Soowon, it's kinda fucked up that he gets to forget the girl he hurt so much. He'll forget that he ever had a cousin, that it was her father he murdered that night, that she was the one who got the gods to heal the descendants from the Crimson illness...etc, It's unfair but we can't do much about it I guess.

What do you guys think about this theory? Would you be okay with it if it happened at the end?

[aylinnworld]

What do you think about the current direction of Yona?

Dear anon,

I think there is nothing we could not expect. Yona fights against something or someone and is successful because she is special. Her friends can turn into a dragon or she gets knew special skills like recently.

Her becoming more and more special, the longer the story is typical for long running series. I think the same happened in Naruto, where at the beginning there is a lot of talking how hard work can get you far and later you learn how special the main hero is.

The enemies are all boring as none of them are a real challenge.

The time travel part will create plot holes as it inevitably does most of the time.

Yuhon is bad. Yona wins over people with her benevolence and the story has not so subtle hints that she is going to be the ruler.

I mean ok, I see no problem with having the main heroine as the ruler but there should have been more preparation for it. It was a great opportunity to have a discussion what character traits make a good ruler. It is an old discussion that can be handled with a little research.

There is Song of Roland written around 1120 and one interpretation of it is that it is a discussion on what makes a good ruler.

We have one character who tries to be cunning and loses everything, Roland who is too honourable gets killed. Finally, we have Charlemagne who is honourable towards his allies and cunning when he deals with his enemies. He is depicted as the great king.

We are being shown in Akatsuki no Yona that being honourable will pay off. It is more of a wish-fulfilment than anything. She gets into trouble, but gets supernatural friends, skills and eventually wins thanks to luck and the idiocy of her enemies. In a good coming of age she would not have faced only idiots and she would have failed and learnt from her mistakes.

As for Yuhon, if he killed Kashi, which seems to be certain at this point, I can only say he should have taken private lessons from Olenna Tyrell how to commit murder and not have everyone and their dog suspect it was he.

I think the direction is something we could all see coming. The story is a wish-fulfilment. With a rather naive message that just being good and honourable will take you far. Only Yona of course will not end like Ned Stark.

[aylinnworld]

I agree, they will most likely not make Yona wrong, which is a shame.

I for some time slighlty hoped it might have been someone else Kai or whoever to have Il and Yuhon in conflict with each other, but it is clearly not going to be so.

I bet on Kai, because they gained the most from having Yuhon killed. If Yuhon were not killed, I imagine human trafficking in Awa, drugs in the Water tribe and other stuff they were trying, would not be so easy.

Also, it is a good idea to kill someone and make it look like it was done by somebody else.

Will Hyuri ever been given a shred of a backstory? Why did he even follow Yu hon? So it does appear, that we will have never a clearer explanation regarding what exactly happened with Kashi? Was the abduction as a child related? Oh well, so much that isn´t explained. Another topic would be Hak´s backstory. And how will Yona prevent the descendants and dragons to die?

[aylinnworld]

Bellarion The Fortunate

It is a nice read, though it was not as good as Captain Blood and Scaramouche. The adventures of an intelligent hero who wins due to his wits. The only problem I have with this book is that things went too smoothly for the main hero, and he felt a bit too Mary Sueish. I hoped that Theodore would be a greater opponent. Fortunately, Sabatini can write a convincing intelligent character, so it was not bad. The main character was smart because he was well-read, others were not well read or educated and taking into consideration the times when the action takes place it is plausible that not many people will be well-educated. Rafael Sabatini must have been himself well-read and smart, so he can pull it off believably and it is not like he struggled to write a character smarter than himself. I only think Bellarion should have had a more worthy opponent to make it better.

[aylinnworld]

Ok, I agree. The rose bride game and the whole story of Dios might have been made up by Akio to give him a position of power and ability to manipulate people.

The duelist themselves are people who have illusions regarding the world or another person, so of course their wish for a revolution is impossible. As far as I remember their idea of revolution was to make the world from their imagination come true.

Akio being bare-chested so often in the End of the World sequences in contrast to Dios being all buttoned up. Akio knowing that Dios' clothes don't fit him anymore - and making a show of it. They're egg-white and he's always pretending to hatch from them but it goes nowhere.

[aylinnworld]

I think it was because he played two roles like other main characters. Utena makes references to fairy tales. Utena herself has two roles the prince and the princess. Anthy is the victim and and the witch. Akio is the prince and the villain/dragon from a fairy tale. It looks to me that Ikuhara early on planned to turn the prince charming into the main villain in a twist. He early on introduces a harem of men, that in a more generic series would be there to make the readers fantasize, but in Utena they are all so repulsive.

Akio being bare-chested so often in the End of the World sequences in contrast to Dios being all buttoned up. Akio knowing that Dios' clothes don't fit him anymore - and making a show of it. They're egg-white and he's always pretending to hatch from them but it goes nowhere.