Tael

I'm mostly wondering about Rumis origins. All good movies have metaphors in them. So the first one I want to establish is that shame=patterns spreading. Shame isnt the patterns itself, because the movie is clearly showing some of the demons to be "bad people" and a lot of bad people don't feel shame for what they've done so then how would the hunters see that they're demons if they don't have patterns?

Lets talk about Rumis parents. Rumi inherited the patterns from her dad, meaning she didn't do anything to get them and that's why gwi ma can't control her. At first while watching the movie I thought that maybe Rumis mother died in childbirth so Rumi would technically suit the half demon metaphor very well and feel guilty about causing her mothers death. But because of her demon-ness being inherited, this doesn't make as much sense anymore.

So. Rumis dad. Remember, we are talking about metaphors, so I'm not going to take "demon racism" into account. What we can conclude from the movie is that Rumis dad did something or was something that can cause his daughter to inherit it and be shameful about it. I think this part might turn sad or disturbing so don't read further if you're sensitive.

Obviously you can inherit and be ashamed of many illnesses and disorders, something like autism and adhd would work with the metaphor if it wasn't for zoey and miras reaction to finding out her secret. People with autism and adhd get ostrasized but I have a hard time seeing her best friends drawing weapons on her for it. It's getting sad, what about depression, schizophrenia and bpd and other illnesses that are often villinized? This makes more sense that her friends could wrongly see her as a threat to their safety, thinking they would never become her friend if they had known from the start. It would be a fitting metaphor of depression for obvious reasons, and would really enrich the story of jinu and rumi finally finding someone like them to relate to, but the idea that they lock away depressed people in the underworld and call them demons is :/ not good to me

But there are also things a person can do that a child can inherit, and these are much darker. Children of bad people are often ostrasized and made to feel shame and people are scared of them thinking they will end up like their parents. It's possible Rumis dad being a murderer, abuser or rapist could have this same effect, and I think this metaphor is honestly spot on since the demons are demons for a reason y'know. This doesn't really fit in with the deleted scenes or storyboards or whatever where they try to show Rumis dad as being a sweet and gentle person though, but maybe that's exactly why they didn't include them in the final movie. It can still be true that Rumi saw him that way, as bad people are very often charming or sweet when they want to be, and their children often struggle with feelings of shame because of having good memories of their "evil" parent.

None of this explains what Rumis dad actually did to become a demon or why Rumis mother fell in love with him so let's discuss some options we have about that too. Star crossed lovers/romeo juliet seems very unlikely to me, so if we want to be as innocent as possible maybe he made a deal with gwi ma before he met her AND met her before he was fully consumed by the guilt or whatever happens to demons to get them into the underworld, so his demon-ness is totally unrelated to Rumi or her mother wow such a sweet story or something.

More enticing theory, there's also the possibility that Rumis dad was manipulative and that's how he got the mother to fall in love with him. Maybe he was even sent by gwi ma for this exact reason and to split up the sunshine sisters. This also explains why he would stick around long enough to be in Rumis life.

A darker theory would be that Rumis dads wrongdoing IS directly tied to Rumis mother, imagine this; Rumis mother is a famous, attractive young woman. He falls in love with her, but he's just a fan, she doesn't even know he exists. He makes a deal with gwi ma to somehow get her to fall in love with him and this is how he becomes a demon. The whole relationship is either based on a lie or completely fabricated, which is why Rumi feels like she is a mistake and feels ashamed of being related to her father.