braxton

does that not look like she stood him up by controlling her own blood in his body, physically forcing his body to stand. is this not some blood bending type shit. im going crazy.

i WANT it to blood bending bc

1. fun irony of ryujin submitting to being a puppet when she has a puppetmaster type power,

2. implies a wider breadth of violation against a victim - she could not just injure someone by puncturing their body, but also force them to do things they do not want to do (tying in w the irony that this sort of existence is what she has grimly locked herself in to by working for the corps)

3. its like tailored specifically to be able to incapacitate sayeon and stop her from rewinding by freezing her movements (and thus her hand snaps!), making ryujin the armor piercing arrow hitting sayeons Achilles heel. like TAILOR MADE to counter sayeon its so beautiful it brings me to tears… only a yellow essence gift negation ability would be a better counter than this…

“but user lesbixch, if ryujin could blood bend, she wouldn’t need to pin father hopes legs down to the floor w her own blood” ok yes… true… its probably not the case that blood manipulation powers confer bodily control. it would be cool as fuck if they did tho.

so, what if they don’t? what is the thematic relevance of blood manipulation powers?

1. any violence ryujin commits requires harm to her body (overwhelmingly self harm). she bites her lip, plunges a knife into her hand, etc to be able to harm someone. theoretically, using too much blood might make ryujin anemic or outright pass out, depending on how she balances her essence healing. pushing herself to exhaustion does sound like another girl we know… it hurts ryujin on multiple levels to use her gift (esp if its only application is purely violent) and it builds towards the general message that committing violence is destructive to both victim and perpetrator, cycles upon cycles, etc. this great post also gets into the christ allegory, w ryujins stigmata, blood sacrifice and others

2. more abstractly, the spilling or exchange of blood evokes close ties, friendship - “blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” etc. that ryujin can manipulate her blood - can form connections w people, build a little community for herself - is loosely part of this. ryujins whole deal is abt finding love and community after her mom abandons her, and then losing that love and community, and punishing herself for her guilt forever after. if sayeons aura feels like its rotting and festering, ryujins aura probably feels like its an open wound, constantly bleeding..

3. if we want to get psychoanalytic w it, the concept of someone’s bodily fluids entering another person, and then Penetrating them from the inside evokes some sort of bodily violation and assault. like yes, pretty much all weapons created from essence tend to be phallic and penetrating peoples bodies i know i know. all forms of violence r some sort of physical assault and some are more sexual than others. but there is smth abt ryujins power involving bodily fluids in such a way that i like to read as a particularly gruesome assault. i think that this is part of why ryujin would not like using her gift!! its not just that she doesnt want the corps to know it, she herself prob kinda hates it! ryujin is usually not the one manipulating ppl to do things, or encroaching on other ppls agency (she prefers to be the puppet instead..) i think even if her gift helped her survive and kill one of the gyeons who killed her nest, she would be pretty ambivalent abt this gift seeing how violent and coercive it could be. even when ryujin will punch anyone, shes kinda nonviolent abt it bc she knows what real fighting and death looks like LOL. like shes a softie shes a bleeding heart she cares too much she doesnt rly want to be slicing ppl up and ending lives if she can help it. she lets a begonia member go despite how she assumed he hurt sayeon. she maybe (?) could have killed juni to save yesol but she instead asked sayeon for help to save yesol. as much as she hates the gyeon family she has not brought up anything abt the cute little deal sayeon offered re: killing them. she doesnt want to kill ppl!!!

this third point thematically is present w/o the blood bending aspect, but would be strengthened much more w the blood bending of it all, bc it makes her ability that much more coercive. widens the possibility space of how she can violate a persons bodily autonomy lol, furthers the assault/violation vibes of it. explains why ryujin would dislike using it even as it is this powerful. I find that having some blood control over ppls bodies just enhances these points in so many ways. AND it means that the corps would risk having her wreck the other blue ties bc that sort of ability is just that tantalizing. who wouldn’t want an ability granting partial control over an aberrants body!!! they have to train her and use her!!

speaking of who wouldnt want an ability as powerful as that…… if sayeon knew ryujin could easily kill, and not just kill but control the body of her victims, she would absolutely go crazy. like ryujin is absolutely the queen piece on the chessboard, vitally important to any schemes sayeon can make. all while she is too at risk of ryujins power. much like ryujin turning around and betraying sayeon in yesol arc, ryujin could literally incapacitate sayeon and prevent her from rewinding by freezing her body, pinning her hands, etc. sayeon could be completely helpless in the face of ryujins ability. ryujin could be sayeons greatest tool and the most vulnerable chink in her armor. the knife that sayeon sharpens and then lethally cuts herself on… it would be soooo delightful I Wish To See It