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then again, loving yourself or loving your son is not any of the conclusions jekyll and frankenstein reached in their supposed self reflection so who’s really the buffoon
"there is an upper limit to the amount of gorgeous morally questionable women one story can hold; true perfection lies in restraint," i mutter, silent tears falling as i imagine a reality where genderbent captain han is a permanent fixture of hand jumper
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(^An unfinished Sayeon from the drafts + musings about a HJ ending under cut. Very long post warning)
There's an interesting post on the Hand Jumper subreddit from last week by user Important-Formal9492, speculating about how Hand Jumper could end. Most people who replied seem to anticipate a tragedy or at most a bittersweet conclusion, which kinda surprised me! Personally, I've always thought Hand Jumper will be a 先苦后甜 story with an optimistic ending, at least for our main characters if not society as a whole.
I feel this way because despite Sayeon's descent into ruthlessness and all the fun bloody conflicts ramping up in scale, the comic's sensibilities seem couched in a belief of humanity's goodness. It never creates demons, and instead reminds us again and again how every character is shaped by their experiences and motivated by emotion, either through a direct proclamation(e.g. Samin, Officer Ahn) or more subtly (e.g. Min's yearning for a community, Heron's search for meaning and purpose).
"But Sara-", I hear you protest. That's the thing, though--Sara gave up the most precious thing about herself to an being beyond comprehension! There was no way excluding Godling vampirism to rid herself of feeling.
Often, outcomes are determined not by strength alone but by empathy or mercy: think of Butcher sparing Sayeon and Ryujin, Ryujin letting Father Hope go, everything Wolhye does or the whole Blue on Blue arc.
The original post notes Juni's assertion that ' [all aberrants are] doomed' as a potential thesis statement, but I rather feel the storyline supports the reverse: because Juni and Yesol don't end up duelling to the death! Juni chooses to walk away, forfeiting the mission she was assigned because she was reminded of her former teammates/self. Sure, you could say the fight would've ended differently were it not for Sayeon's intervention, but as circumstances played out the final decision was unambiguously up to Juni, and it's significant that she chose not to kill.
All aberrants are unjustly treated: they're exposed to violence from a young age, alienated, surveilled, dismissed, taught to be ruthless ...but they're not doomed. Because even by extending small kindnesses, by having empathy for others and maintaining your humanity, you may change the fate the system designs for you. In a small miracle, a kind act by a rogue aberrant inspires the kind act of a civilian, who in turn influences the Corps officer to spare them both. This is life--warm, unpredictable. Love is why anyone does anything; guilt will save the world. Maybe it's just me, but Hand Jumper never feels grimdark because of this thread, and this uplifting Rosseau-was-right-esque faith in its own characters to do the right thing despite their surroundings is as much a return factor as the worldbuilding or watching everyone aurafarm lol.
Which is why, short of accepting the Godling deal, I don't think Sayeon will become 'irredeemable'.
Sayeon wants to fix the world by exerting control, because it's a response to her most painful childhood memory. She has a superiority complex but simultaneously hates herself, shouldering the burden of always acting perfectly, thinking that she has to absolve herself by doing what is (technically) 'correct'. But that isn't the way to achieve absolution--child Sayeon did nothing wrong; in her and Ryujin's case absolution is catharsis, and catharsis is achieved through within by accepting the very human emotions she tries to repress. By refusing to forgive herself, by living in the past, she temporarily creates a version of what Sara ends up being. Yet fundamentally she still desires connection, purpose, and understanding.
I feel the storyline won't give up on Sayeon and the 'illogical' traits she rejects are what will ultimately save her. In a story where hope is shown to exist in spite of what people endure, I think Sayeon will get and experience a whole lot worse before realising she can be better. And that goes for the HJ world as a whole, with an overarching message about how real change results from the aggregation of unpredictable good acts from flawed, ordinary people, rather than the domination of institutions.
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Not sure if the following are sane thoughts or madcap ramblings of someone who just impulsively reread the entirety of Hand Jumper. BUT I really dig the ostensible fish motif!
(This is an arowana; credit to the Smithsonian National Zoo)
Upon first reading Ep.104, I (fishbrained) greatly enjoyed the focus on a majestic silver arowana while Capt. Han was talking to the governor.
I sort of assumed arowana==Godling allusion because of their association with white throughout the comic (the eyes of the Lee family godling are white, the Hongsan Island godling is depicted as a glowy white humanoid sometimes, etc.), and because it’s what the on-screen conversation was about. On reread, I’m rather of the opinion that the silver arowana represents Captain Han.
The red goldfish is a recurring symbol for Sayeon, often highlighting themes of control and/power. When Samin’s instructions to Min are revealed in Ep.56 (Red and White), it’s illustrated by a goldfish in a shattered globe; Sayeon’s ‘free to do as she pleases’. This is seemingly a callback to Samin’s earlier analogy for raising her sister as along the lines of keeping goldfish in a too-small tank (can’t remember the episode, unfortunately). And in one of my favourite moments, Ep.13 (The Butcher), Sayeon expresses her feelings of powerlessness to Ryujin, directly calling herself a small fish in a big pond. There’s a very pretty accompanying visual as she laments how the impact she can have is nonexistent as a peace-card less, giftless low-level Abherrant. Side note, it’s funny to see pre-god complex Sayeon. Oh Sayeon, how you’ve grown…
Taken altogether (quite sure there were more instances than the three I happened to remember haha), the red goldfish is a pretty neat way of expressing certain dynamics in the comic. Who are you beholden to, who controls your world? What is the scope of your impact?
So many parallels have been drawn between Capt. Han and Sayeon; the possibility of a mirror motif wasn’t outlandish. But I was blanking on what the arowana could be saying about Han, before realising this wasn’t a random arowana. Its tank is in the governor’s office—it’s the governor’s silver arowana! Who in particular do we know, in the very same episode, was being pushed about and used by the government?...I rest my case, your honor.
Not sure if the following are sane thoughts or madcap ramblings of someone who just impulsively reread the entirety of Hand Jumper. BUT I really dig the ostensible fish motif!
(This is an arowana; credit to the Smithsonian National Zoo)
Upon first reading Ep.104, I (fishbrained) greatly enjoyed the focus on a majestic silver arowana while Capt. Han was talking to the governor.
I sort of assumed arowana==Godling allusion because of their association with white throughout the comic (the eyes of the Lee family godling are white, the Hongsan Island godling is depicted as a glowy white humanoid sometimes, etc.), and because it’s what the on-screen conversation was about. On reread, I’m rather of the opinion that the silver arowana represents Captain Han.
The red goldfish is a recurring symbol for Sayeon, often highlighting themes of control and/power. When Samin’s instructions to Min are revealed in Ep.56 (Red and White), it’s illustrated by a goldfish in a shattered globe; Sayeon’s ‘free to do as she pleases’. This is seemingly a callback to Samin’s earlier analogy for raising her sister as along the lines of keeping goldfish in a too-small tank (can’t remember the episode, unfortunately). And in one of my favourite moments, Ep.13 (The Butcher), Sayeon expresses her feelings of powerlessness to Ryujin, directly calling herself a small fish in a big pond. There’s a very pretty accompanying visual as she laments how the impact she can have is nonexistent as a peace-card less, giftless low-level Abherrant. Side note, it’s funny to see pre-god complex Sayeon. Oh Sayeon, how you’ve grown…
Taken altogether (quite sure there were more instances than the three I happened to remember haha), the red goldfish is a pretty neat way of expressing certain dynamics in the comic. Who are you beholden to, who controls your world? What is the scope of your impact?
So many parallels have been drawn between Capt. Han and Sayeon; the possibility of a mirror motif wasn’t outlandish. But I was blanking on what the arowana could be saying about Han, before realising this wasn’t a random arowana. Its tank is in the governor’s office—it’s the governor’s silver arowana! Who in particular do we know, in the very same episode, was being pushed about and used by the government?...I rest my case, your honor.
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Nezha 2 spoilers - on the character of Sheng Gongbao.
More on Sheng Gongbao, because I think what the movie did in introducing this classic antagonist's parent and kid brother may feel really random at first, but totally recontextualsies him to be (1) an even closer foil to Ao Bing and (2) a new foil to Nezha.
Ao Bing
In Nezha 1, Shen Gongbao explains his nature to Ao Bing so he could share the similarities of their situations: that he is a leopard demon, and demons suffer the same disrepute and disadvantage of dragons in the world of cultivation. That's why he did all this scheming from Ao Bing's birth to set him on a path that can diverge from his own - so he can prepare his disciple to advance where he can't - so Ao Bing can climb higher on the cultivation ladder. Shen Gongbao would benefit from Ao Bing's advancement as the master who trained, raised, and sponsored him to advance on the celestial stage. Ao Bing's father and people would also benefit from Ao Bing's ascension.
The foil Shen Gongbao plays for Ao Bing is being a demon - underpriviledged, undesired, having to struggle and claw his way in everything, being twice as good and yet not good enough, all because of what they are and how they were born. But he's known to Ao Bing only as his master and senior, someone who understands how the world works and whom taught Ao Bing his martial arts and magic.
In Nezha 2, the characters Sheng Zhengdao, the father, and Sheng Xiaobao, the kid brother, are introduced. This immediately changes the reading of Shen Gongbao. Not only is he a master, senior and an 'adult' in the complicated and cruel cultivation world - but he is also a son. Not only is he a son, there is an intricate backstory about what kind of son he is - he's the son who left his home and backwater town to go to celestial university, he's the first in the family to be accepted into the Chan Sect, the son who achieved human form, the over-achieving son, the son with a career, the son who made it, the absolute pride of the family. The eldest son who's family think he is living it up.
He is..........decidedly not. This is where the 'demon' storyline comes back: he has hit wall after wall. He's done dirty quid pro quo. He's been decieved, used, and even cowed by the system. One can't be treated fairly as a demon. Since he cannot make it any further by himself, he's resorted to relying on Ao Bing.
However, Sheng Gongbao's new role as a 'son' now paints him in an interesting light to both Ao Bing and Nezha. We instantly see that his motivation isn't just about feeling oppressed as a demon and wanting to be recognised for his merits. There is also clearly some insane filial piety driving him - because his position and ascention is supposed to benefit his kid brother and aging father back home! He is not just doing it for himself. He did all that dirty quid pro quo, being used as a tool, cowed by the system....because he needed to be the good son for his family. Because the truth is he has not made it at all. But if only he trains the perfect disciple, more perfect than himself...if only he gets him accepted into the celestial word...if only Ao Bing becomes a god of the Fengshen Bang...if Sheng Gongbao is reocognised as one of the 12 Golden Gods.........
On and on. His foil to Ao Bing as a son adds an extra dimension to Nezha 1. Ao Bing trained his whole life (being given the advantage of being the 'Yang pill') to advance his father's and people's position. To the point of being convinced, even if for a moment, that levelling Chentang Guan and killing all the people to keep the shameful secret of his dragon nature, was the only way forward...This now sounds very similar to his master. This is the solution his trusted, experienced master sold him. In Nezha 2, we learn Shen Gongbao has done terrible things for the celestial Wuliang (his senior cultivation brother)...it follows he would unload that same treacherous cycle onto Ao Bing.
2. Nezha
In a broad sense, Sheng Gongbao as the son becomes 'young,' a former protagonist himself, the hero of his own story, with his own parents and brother to appease. What I found endlessly interesting, is that with this new role, Shen Gongbao explicitly becomes a foil to Nezha as well. But the specific foil to Nezha in this case is 'being a son who will go on a total rampage out of love for his parents/family.'
With the knowledge of his parent's 'deaths,' Nezha goes on a total rampage out of love for his parents and the pain of losing them, that ends in beating up dragons and locking them in a huge magic furnace, completely playing into the hands of the evil celestial Wuliang. When our hero Nezha mitakenly fights the Eastern Dragon King Ao Guang, with the threat of his unfinished flesh body being disintegrated (he's not ready to fight in that condition yet!) - what does he say? He says "I don't care if I'll die, so long as I kill you!" The urge to avenge his parents is stronger than his self-preservation. But it's a twist. His parents are alive!
In the furnace scene, Nezha is offered a chance to save his parents who are getting cooked into cultivation pills by Wuliang. To accept a pill that makes him lose his memory and fall under the control of Wuliang. But Nezha's mother bats that thing out of Wuliang's hands, that's stupid and her son will never be a puppet for nefarious gods! Nezha, in the end, comes from a loving and supportive family who knows and understand him. They accept him for who he is. They would never stand for it. And so Nezha is protected from being manipulated.
Upon the Chentang Guan plot twist, it's revealed Shen Gongbao actually has the same reaction Nezha has when he thinks his family has died. Except for the point that his kid brother really does die - right in front of him! After whisking away Nezha's parents, Sheng Gongbao steps out again to the war-torn Chentang Guan, to fight off a thousand demons and the three traitor dragons. All by himself. There's dialogue, Nezha's parents ask Master Shen Gongbao what is he doing - where is going - why doesn't he take shelter with them?! And Shen Gongbao answers with bitter acceptance, "What's the point? My family's gone." And he goes out to fight. To take a last stand. To die.
Going back to Nezha, doesn't that reveal Sheng Gongbao's deepest motivations as the same as our hero's? He wasn't really doing it - all of it - entirely for himself. Now that his father and kid brother are dead, there is no reason to strive further. Shen Gongbao can let go of being one of the 12 Golden Gods or whatever. He's going to go out into danger, satisfy the urge to avenge his father and brother, and die.
Which takes me to the very delicious, delicious, diabolical end credits scene. The villainous Wuliang goes to a terrible prison where Shen Gongbao and his barely-ok father are alive. In a scene that totally parallels Nezha's choice in the furnace, he presents the same offer to Shen Gongbao. Accept a curse on his mind and body that will enslave him to Wuliang in exchange for his father's life.
But Shen Gongbao doesn't have the same honesty, understanding, protection from his father...because all this time he has been away from home...not returning because he hasn't made it...his father under the impression he is living it up as a celestial...his father not even conscious...
His kid brother died.
He has just this one family member left.
A person he was supposed to be doing all this for, to make proud.
A person he was ready to get revenge and die for.
After all he has already done - what is a little curse on Sheng Gongbao for the benefit of his father?
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