Trench Dwellers

You know who I hate? Fucking Yin Nezha.

The Poppy War series is one of the best fantasy series I've read to date and I'm growing into an even bigger fan of RF Kuang as I'm delving into her new work Babel.

But The Poppy War series keeps pulling me back - and Nezha, you who was left alive, you're the reason why.

After I finished the series, and the subsequent stages of grief that followed, I quickly looked up content that imagined a world where Rin and Nezha ended up together - somewhere my little heart could rejoice in the fruition of my ship and I could move on happily. But no.

Yin Nezha is a lil twat who is undeserving of love - and a testament to Kuang's brilliance. As I thought about what could have been different, my thoughts fell to Nezha, what he could have done differently. Because my boy's sense of duty made him repeatedly, cruelly and totally push Rin off the edge of sanity - the girl he claimed to love.

I think about his defeat - that even then, he didn't let Rin rest, he didn't concede, didn't give her a chance to create a country that might just, against all odds, succeed. I think about why - and the answer is clear: he never once saw Rin as his equal. Yes, he was forced to acknowledge her power, but who Rin was, her ideas, her character, her identity, were always, fundamentally, beneath Nezha. Allowing such a world even a chance was an idea to be scoffed at all the way to the end.

Nezha's love exists only within the colonial matrix of power - his duty supercedes all, and that is why he can never claim to love Rin.

What's even more ridiculous?

He is as pathetic as Rin says he is. His delusion causes him to be more outwardly emotional than she ever allowed herself to be. His emotion compels you to feel sorry for him, to ignore the power imbalance, because look at Rin and how powerful she is - and he is by all means the coward Rin says he is. He does not have what it takes to challenge the colonial matrix of power, and she does. While we all know that Rin is a crazy ass mf, we must acknowledge that she is never allowed to win - and that is the conclusion of the book.