Untitled

i still haven't emotionally recovered from wiege

And for Hyuna and Luka, it's a curse.

Not only a curse, but one that haunts them. Jacob once told Hyuna to "Forgive yourself", which, to her, was misplaced. She could have forgiven herself. It was Luka who she couldn't forgive. But, in the end, she couldn't fulfill the legacy. She couldn't forgive herself for loving Luka. She couldn't forgive Luka for killing who she loved. And so, what did she do? She passed on the legacy.

The words "Forgive yourself" didn't help her. They built who she was, but in the worst possible way. She couldn't take his words, because she didn't consider herself the culprit, but the one she resented.

She told this curse, "Forgive yourself" again. She told them to Luka, sentence that almost sounded mocking on her lips. She couldn't have died before because she had to keep moving forward, but now, the pressure wasn't on her shoulders anymore.

She loves Luka, of course she does. But she cannot possibly forgive him. She knows he doesn't realize the suffering he inflicts. It's ironic, he's so unbearably smart, solving puzzles in a matter of seconds, but he doesn't know how to take in the real world, and the feelings of the ones around him, the most important 'puzzle' of them all. So, she gives him the biggest dilemma of his life. It's harsh, cruel, messed up in every sense. It's the puzzle she knew he could never solve, because she herself, who knew humanity, couldn't. Hyuna knew Luka loved her more than himself. And Hyuna cared for Hyunwoo more than for herself. Luka killed Hyunwoo, and so, Hyuna repaid him with the same coin, an eye for an eye. With an act that is the ultimate sacrifice, and the ultimate revenge.

As I have said, Hyuna knew the love he had for her, beyond the limits of his own body. She must've known how much her act would destroy his world: a fate worse than death. Her kind tone, telling him to take as much time as he needs to solve the newfound question she has proposed in such an ugly way, appears almost taunting.

And the way she holds him in her arms, purposefully close, and looks into his eyes, makes it just so much more painful. And yet, when she speaks her soul, passes everything she was carrying on her shoulders, over to him, her face is hidden away, buried in his shoulder. She's free. She finally had her revenge. She can forgive him, and then herself, even though the price was destroying him, without building him up again. Leaving him like pieces of a puzzle that never got solved. She's been cruelly betrayed, and she, even more cruelly, fed him his own medicine.

Hyuna is haunted by both Hyunwoo and Luka, similar to how Mizi is haunted by Sua. Hyunwoo brings the horror aspect: the bloodied blouse and head, while Luka has the smile that Sua has in the imaginations. The two people she loved most: the one who couldn't forgive her because she didn't get to apologize, and the one she didn't forgive. It's all so incredibly complex: she hates and loves, she resents and adores. Hyuna can't pick anymore. We're shown that she's such an active person, sociable, loving, having a whole group of humans just like her, and yet, we're told that she thinks all of them are selfish, even if they seem altruistic. She doesn't trust them, it seems it's a facade. In this, Luka and Hyuna are similar, but divided by the fact he wants to conceal his emotions, and she wants to make them more visible.

This page, specifically, made me click MiziSua and HyuLuka together. They look scarily alike. The same lovey-dovey expression, versus the distressed one of the lover, even the slight glow that Luka has is similar. I think this is meant to show that they still depend on each other, despite the fact that Hyuna seems to resent him so much.

Hyuna says Luka doesn't know the meaning of love. That the only thing he's ever shown, the only thing he genuinely knows, is suffering, and that his abilities basically stop at inflicting the same. (At least, emotional ones.) This is a parallel to Ivan, in my opinion, who didn't know love either, but he liked the idea of it. Instead, Luka loved with everything he had, even though he had no idea what it truly was. His love is obsessive, and somehow, so impossibly innocent at the same time. Because in a way, he's still a child. When he sees Hyuna, he becomes immature again, his facade of control dissipating into thin air. He mocked Mizi for her inability, but he's even worse.

According to his ear monitor, his heart was beating out of his chest. He could hear his own erratic heartbeat. It's painful, how happy he was, how excited, to be in her arms again. And yet, despite the love, the embrace was just as much of revenge.

Ever since Wiege, we've seen Luka smile so much. Just for him to never truly smile again.

I am a fan of the gentleness that Hyuna treats young Luka with. She seems awfully attached to the image of that innocence she knew. But it's not like Mizi's idea of Sua, the perfect one. It's an image she can't bear seeing again. "I couldn't stand seeing myself on those posters, because I knew exactly the face the you'd have. Yes, I bet you were smiling ear to ear." We've only seen him like this for the first time, but to her, it was so familiar, even years apart, she still knew.

Another thing I have noticed is that Hyunwoo's grave is right infront of a tree, almost separated from the others, just the way Luka was sitting before Hyuna found him. Now, this time, Hyunwoo lost Hyuna, and he's forever forced to be lonely in the garden he'll never grow out of.

Hyuna wanted to give Luka a rubik's cube he wouldn't be able to solve, something difficult. A rubik's cube can represent human nature, who Luka seems to have mastered completely. But Hyuna finally manages to postpone him: the puzzle is herself.

"I'd kill for you"

"id die for you"

"I'd sacrifice the world for you"

BORING!

Yawn snore snore. Honk shoo honk shoo.

I got twelve other guys ready to that for me. You already do that. You already destroy the world I would just happen to be there while you did.

The real question is.

Would you save the world for me?

Would you put aside your hatred for humanity and put my love for it Infront? Would you save the world because I love the world? Would you stop killing because I hate killing? Would you find a way to live because I want you alive?

Death and destruction are easy as hell. Do you know how fucking easy it is to kill someone? To blow up a building? Sure security is in the way but if it wasn't there it would be easy as hell.

You'd do the basics sure. But would you do the hard thing and save the world because I asked you to?

Would you push aside your hatred of everyone but me because I asked you to nicely?

“And eventually his lips…”

This is one of my favorite things that Kevin Alves has ever said about the show (and I generally love his takes on the show, his interviews are always so great to watch). He said in an interview after Season 3: “I don’t think that he could ever see her die. Natalie is the only person that he stops sitting back for. He sits back for the whole time, for everything that happens. But, if Natalie is involved, I think you will see him do whatever he’s got to do.”

Speak on it Kevin! I love this thread between them even when they are broken up and barely speaking. The mutual care is still there, and they could never stand by and watch each other get hurt. Travis and Nat both tend to take bystander roles in the wilderness for obvious abuse/trauma-related reasons, but when it comes to each other they jump in without hesitation.

I love that you can see this throughout Season 3. When Shauna starts to get aggressive towards Nat during the Coach Ben trial (she takes an aggressive step towards her while yelling an accusation) you can clearly see Travis jump up from his seat in the background. And Kevin Alves confirmed that was intentional, that Travis was ready to defend Nat from Shauna in that scene. He also actively defends her and tries to deescalate the wrath against Nat after she kills Coach Ben, as the entire group gangs up on her. And when Shauna threatens her life in that same scene, it’s Travis and Taissa that instinctively flinch and start to step in to protect her. You can also see how pissed Travis is when Shauna is chosen as the new leader.

And, of course, the scene at the end of Season 2 when Nat draws the Queen and Travis prevents Shauna from killing her and distracts the others so she can get away. He even sends out Javi to help her. That boy would do anything for her!!

Exactly! The thing about YJ is that every single dynamic on the show has abusive elements. People think, in order to make Travnat “hetslop” more interesting, they have to add these overt abusive elements. When, in actuality, I think doing that would actually simplify and flatten the complexity of their dynamic that is already there.

Nat has already been shown to have some harmful behaviors toward Travis and I actually really appreciate the subtlety and complexity in the darker ways her love (and obsession) toward Travis presents itself. Abusive dynamics do not always (or even often) look like violent outrage, yelling, smashing and throwing things, and hitting. Sometimes they look like manipulation, dependency, guilt, emotional entanglement, or quietly undermining someone’s attempts to separate from you.

Nat is incredibly skilled at manipulating situations when she feels desperate enough. The faking Javi’s death incident is the clearest example. Yes, she wanted to help Travis grieve, but there is also an undeniable element of her feeling him slipping away from her and wanting him to need her again. Throughout the series, she’s repeatedly shown disrupting or complicating the stability Travis tries to build outside of their relationship.

I don’t think Nat is an outwardly violent person, but violence can show itself in many ways. Nat internalizes anger and avoids confrontation as a direct result of growing up in a DV household. But those feelings still have to go somewhere. Instead of explosive outbursts, they often emerge through indirect forms of control, manipulation, self-destruction, and emotional games.

To me, Nat subconsciously creating situations where Travis needs her is a lot more compelling, and frankly far more in-character, than some fanon version of her slapping him across the face while berating him like some jealous controlling girlfriend stereotype. The tragedy is that she desperately wants genuine intimacy, but her trauma keeps pulling her toward forms of connection built on dependency, guilt, and mutual destruction. That’s a much darker and more interesting dynamic than straightforward physical abuse.

Tamura showing us a list of reasons why AyuMaki are destined to be #bestpowercouple. 

Where one falters, the other is there to catch them. When Aramaki is quick to assume responsibility and rush into danger (I think the fact that he lived alone for so long, as well as  him having been a pitcher in the past – which seems a very lonesome, but also a very protagonistic position – affects his behavior in that way), Ayu is there to remind him that he is not alone. 

7 Seeds Week, Day 5: Team Up