#yu-hon did become the reason that yon-hi's mother killed herself

[thoughtfulstudentsalad]

Su-Won likely has trust issues towards his mother, right?

I have speculated before that Hak's words about Su-Won not caring about anyone particularly wasn't an absolute lie. Like we do know it's not fully true, he's definitely biased, but also, if you recall, Yu-Hon did tell him to throw away even people dear to him like chess pieces, to throw away those biases.

Yu-Hon wasn't able to do that fully himself, he loved his brother and allowed him to rule, and yet it led to his death by Il....

A useless pipe dream to cling...

Not to mention, Yon-Hi also led to Yu-Hon's death in a way.

And I definitely wonder if Su-Won thought Yon-hi had betrayed him after reading the memoir... in a way, it's true. She definitely did by entrusting the memoir to Il, not her son. By kind of seeing him as a monster, saying she didn't know him, not trusting him basically, endangering him too...

And after reading about her secret's illness, how it made Il and Yu-Hon fight, I wonder if Su-Won probably wondered if his mother and father shouldn't have married to begin with.

That Yu-Hon was too influenced by feelings of love... to really realize that his mother was a woman that Yu-Hon should have not trusted.

Because after all, Yon-Hi confiding in Il kind of implies that Yu-Hon was not as important to her.

Yu-Hon threw out all reason and judgement for love, even said that he is okay with her being a spy for the enemy... and hey, maybe that was foreshadowing that she would be, and Su-Won would see her as such.

Yon-Hi was also the reason Yu-Hon never became king.

So it would be awful honestly, if Su-Won doesn't trust even his own mother... but well, it completely makes sense then if Su-Won has trust issues, even towards Yon-Hi... and maybe towards Yona and Hak as well.

I don't get the sense that relatives mean much to him... maybe other than Yu-Hon, but Su-Won also tries to stay level-headed when it comes to him. Maybe cause he didn't want to make the same "mistake" that Yu-Hon did.

[thoughtfulstudentsalad]

Why I'm finding hard to believe that Yu-Hon killed Kashi

Now, I don't see Yu-Hon as a good guy, but I still find the gaps between what actually happened to Kashi strange.

Here's why: even if she is the reason Yu-Hon lost the throne to Il, Yu-Hon had already accepted his brother's taking of the throne, even if he had mixed feelings towards Kashi.

"IL IS DOING GREAT, ISN'T HE? HE HASN'T EVEN DONE ANYTHING YET."

"THINKING BACK ON IT NOW, IT NEVER MATTERED WHETHER I BECAME KING OR NOT."

"I'LL HELP IL OUT AND FIGHT ON THE FRONT LINE."

Do you see Yu-Hon going against those strong words right after saying them, even if turned out that Kashi was the reason he lost the throne to Il?

Sure, he had mixed feelings about Kashi possibly "brainwashing" Junam into passing him over. But still, he had accepted that the throne went to Il. He was OKAY with it and promised to support Il anyway.

As long as Kashi didn't do anything else, why should he kill her?

Again, I find this denial very suspicious. Why should it exist in the first place? To create confusion.

Yu-Hon tells Il that he would have done nothing to Kashi as a mere Priestess who just gave the throne to Il, which Il replies:

1) Yu-Hon has always been violent, so why should Il believe him?

2) Kashi was the mother of King Hiryuu - to which Yu-Hon replies - "you are being decieved".

Which is again suspicious. Because this implies that Yu-Hon thinks that the reason Kashi sought to give Il the throne - that his daughter was a God - was a complete farce - that she brainwashed him.

However, Yu-Hon had accepted Il as the next King. Meaning: he probably didn't think Yona was Hiryuu.

I just find it strange how he acts in chapter 4 when he sees Soo-Won, Yona, and Hak together -

Look at that! He calls Yona a child! He doesn't see her as a God, but a child. And sure, he's killed children, but he's willing to give Yona a GET WELL gift. I just find that very strange. There's no need to even say that.

Finally, he even tells Il, "if you rule righteously, I'll devote my life to you!" As long as Kashi didn't do anything else, why should he kill her or Yona? That was still Il's wife. His son even leaves their mansion to comfort his daughter. Surely he knows that Soo-Won went to the castle and was his daughter's friend.

I'm hypothesizing that Yu-Hon, albeit grudgingly, was deciding to wait and see if Kashi did anything else out of line before making the move to just kill her off the bat.

Because it's really hard to see Yu-Hon immediately turning on that promise if he didn't love his brother.

Just remember: Yu-Hon's only real link to anything 'divine' was Il.

And while this frustrated him to no end, there was also no end to his love for Il. Il was his one human link to a world he saw as foreign and weird and lowly... a world he dehumanized.

His love for Il was strong if he was willing to die for his brother and let him become the new king, no doubt about that.

So probably the only thing that would make him hesitate, and second-guess before dehumanizing Il's priest wife as a witch and acting violent with her.... was Il.

Look at the way Yon-Hi cries about Kashi's death, when she mentions that Il may be crying -- and Yu-Hon hesitates before telling her that he will see Il later.

He is struggling to feel for Il because Kashi is a priest. But is he also struggling to NOT feel for Il?

Il wasn't expressing his feelings properly to Kashi and acted like she was just a mother to Hiryuu, but imagine if Yu-Hon tried to fill in that gap and still grudgingly tried to see Kashi as his brother's beloved wife instead of a witch before making a move... unless Kashi stepped out of line further?

Now THAT would really be a tragedy. A twist I would love to see.

As for who killed Kashi if not Yu-Hon, that it could be Hyoo-ri, a bodyguard of Yu-Hon's. Either he acted under Yu-Hon's orders, or acted on his own.

Reason is, it's just very strange how Yona finds herself afraid of him a little before wondering about her mother, and still has no idea why the fear is different from any other she has seen.

Rings a bell because in chapter 1, Il's voice resounds in her head as Hyoo-ri chases her: "your mother was killed by rebels."

Which is very suspicious. Why is Hyoo-ri chasing her? Because he thinks she is the reincarnation of Hiryuu? Because he's an avid Yu-Hon fanatic bodyguard supporter?

Those guys seem very fervid supporters to Yu-Hon. They even started attacking Kye-Sook for not defending Yu-Hon, and were about to drag Il off the throne if Soo-Won hadn't stopped them. Ironically while they discuss Kashi's death, Hyoo-ri is not present.

Consider the irony that Hyoo-ri snitched on Yon-Hi going to the temple with Kashi and Ik-Su to Yu-Hon and is kind of the reason the Priest genocide even happened.

Yet stands in the background without a word. Lol.... it is SO SUBTLE.

Two things I notice:

1) He knows who Kashi and Ik-Su are, has known for a long time. And he was very suspicious of them to snitch out of fear to Yu-Hon.

2) Hyoo-ri acts on his own.

And he HAS acted on his own before - chasing Yona who was innocently sitting doing nothing and trying to kill her, then again in Chapter 188 despite her being in an alliance with Soo-Won, and her death being disastrous to the government? And then, also getting ready to attack Lili in chapter 157 because she was jokingly choking Soo-Won. That dude gets his silent bloodlust on VERY easily.

He could be Kashi's killer and be VERY silent about it lol. Keeping quiet as the culprit.

Thoughts?