A Smol Phantom Malding Over A Kids' Book

So this bit where Santino d'Antonio is talking to Winston about the completed marker, right? See the statue behind Winston, the one bathed in blue?

And as the scene progresses, Santino leans forward so it's on his side of the shot, only to fall away from it as soon as he leans back, having completed the marker he originally bound John to?

That statue, identified by the many arms sticking out (as well as the lotus platform the deity is standing on), is the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, also known as Guanyin in Chinese Buddhism.

The bodhisattva of mercy and compassion.

Something something John through his signature blue light being associated with a deity of mercy and kindness. Guanyin is one of if not THE most well-known and worshipped Buddhist deity, because Guanyin extends compassion and mercy to everyone. That's why she has so many arms-- the Buddha gave her a thousand when she tried to reach to every cry of help she could hear and shattered her two regular arms into a thousand pieces from the strain (prior to this her head tore apart into eleven fragments from the strain of trying to respond to every single call for help she could hear in every direction, thus she was given eleven heads that could look in every direction).

If we're gonna tie Guanyin to John, John is the absolute opposite of mercy, but he is in a weird way fitting as a connection. John is so skilled at his craft he may as well have a thousand hands able to kill anyone he so desires or needs, but he left this life of murder behind him when he married Helen, offering a form of mercy to the entire world. To use Buddhist terms, he's achieved enlightenment and has ascended to a higher state of being by leaving behind an endless cycle of life, death and murder (samsara).

But then the events of the first movie happen, and he goes on a rampage. How does this tie to Guanyin? Not that much, but hear me out.

In one story of Guanyin's path to enlightenment, she is incarnated as the daughter of a tyrant who tries to decide her life for her (in this case, marrying a super-wealthy guy for obvious marrying-a-super-wealthy-guy reasons). She refuses and offers conditions for her marriage and groom that her dad doesn't like, so he turns her to a servant girl and works her to the bone, making sure her life and living it the way she wants it to is as humanly difficult as possible. Somehow, Guanyin perseveres through all of it, though, and after a bit of her dad being pissy, she dies and is sent to Hell, and after seeing all the suffering going on, unleashes her good karma on the place, completely turning Hell on its head and turning it into a paradise-- a deed the King of Hell kicks her out for lmao. Skipping forward a bit, she eventually becomes a bodhisattva for realsies and is about to ascend to Chinese heaven. However, she's stopped when she hears a call for help and, deciding she can't let that slide, Guanyin chooses to stay on Earth until all suffering goes away.

Now John was the underling of a Russian Mafia boss (Viggo), and was given an impossible task he has to fill in order to live his life on his own terms, which he fills. He successfully achieves enlightenment and ascends to live life with Helen, but then Helen dies, and before he can even begin to process it, Iosef Tarasov does a Iosef Tarasov, and John faces the gates of Hell and destroys it with his bare hands while putting an end to Viggo's empire. One could even argue that the shit Viggo pulls to try to futilely save Iosef can draw parallel to the trials Guanyin is put through in her mortal life-- Viggo loads the Red Circle up with a shit-ton of guards to protect Iosef from John and thus giving John a ridiculous body count to mow through, Guanyin is forced into doing servant's labor escalated to the level of basically putting a single clerk in charge of an entire supermarket's facilities but doesn't give up in spite of such brutal conditions. Viggo gets Perkins to break Continental rules just to kill John (which doesn't work), Guanyin's tyrant dad tries to burn the monastery she was staying in to kill her and it doesn't work. Viggo puts a goddamn bounty on his head which John is able to get him to call off, Guanyin's dad sentences her to death but the executioner literally finds it impossible to kill her (that is, until she technically lets him kill her) and even then in some versions of her story she doesn't even die but is sent somewhere far and her dad thinks the deed is done.

And then we get to the second movie and how John operates here.

Before being held up to a favor by Santino, John offers mercy to Abram Tarasov. Again, Guanyin is the goddess of mercy, and John offers this mercy even after his goons spent five whole minutes trying to run him over and kill him. In the end, Abram erh, marginally accepts and respects this mercy, and John keeps his word on it (as far as I know anyway, I've not seen Chapter 3 and 4 yet). But then as he tries to rest and fully return to the peace he has regained for himself, Santino shows up at his door to cash in his favor.

Now I'm gonna fast forward quite a bit to when Santino tries to kill John after his assassination job is done, and puts a massive bounty on his head. You'd think that this is where the Guanyin analogy ends (if it didn't one entire John Wick Chapter 2 ago lmao), but uh not quite :D

Because you see, while Guanyin is a merciful bodhisattva of compassion, one thing that must be remembered is that you do NOT exploit Guanyin's mercy, or even underestimate her. Whatever you do, do NOT fuck with Guanyin.

Red Boy would know.

(Images from Overly Sarcastic Productions' Journey to the West video)

The Tarasovs would know, the living and dead, and Winston would know, too! "You stabbed the Devil in the back and forced him back into the life that he had just left. You incinerated the priest's temple, burned it to the ground. He had a glimpse of the other side and he embraced it, but you, Santino d'Antonio, took that away from him. He came back for love, not for you. And now he's coming again. He did tell you not to do this. He did warn you."

Santino just committed the worst form of sacrilege against the goddess of mercy. With the completion of the mark, her favor or even protection has completely left him, and John, unbound, is more than free to go after Santino, and go after him he does. No matter what he does to prolong his life, mercy has forsaken him, and John even resorts to breaking Continental rules to kill him. Not even the unconditional mercy of Continental can save Santino, now that he's slighted John Wick and forsaken what mercy he could've possibly been given.

He could've just walked away. He could've just shaken hands and quietly thanked John for his service, maybe make a pretend effort to hunt down the one who did this to his sister, and prayed on the off-chance (and a generous payment of gold) that John would be satisfied enough to just leave him be. He could've tried to at the very least build some rapport with John after causing him the trouble. Some may say that Santino's fate was sealed the moment he burned John's house; I say his fate was sealed the moment he gave Ares (the badass mute assassin, also haha funni mythological name) the order to also kill him, with the nail in the coffin being the bounty that was oh so clearly set by him. Sure, the High Table probably would've gone after John either way, since John's mission was a bloodbath that definitely had the goss about spread like wildfire; but in his grasp for power, Santino made the mistake of thinking that a loose end like John Wick could've been taken care of with a simple "eh just kill him", and he made the mistake of standing up tall and proud at the High Table, giving John a very convenient head to shoot.

In other words, skill issue, Santino. Maybe John would've gone for you no matter what you did, but you could've at least pretended to not put a target on your back to prolong what little bit of your lifespan was left after cashing in that marker. I would argue cashing it in in the first place fucked you over, but even if not that, come on dude, you did NOT think this through.