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So I just finished The Burning God and The Drowning Faith for the second time, and I’m in pain. Nezha has been trying to die since before he was sixteen, and Rin has been trying to live. Nezha never wanted any of this, and now he’s condemned himself to a life of bowing to the stupid Hesperians and enduring their torture.

He can’t even die. And he has no one.

He used to wish Rin would kill him—because she was the only one who could.

Now she’s gone.

And he’s stuck—forced to live, ruling a country as a puppet.

Yin Nezah:

Literally the next chapter:

Oh my gosh. Literally everything is clicking in my brain. I’m not sure if everyone else already knew this and I’m just stupid, but if you didn’t—here you go.

As you probably know, The Poppy War is based on the Second Sino-Japanese War. But I didn’t realize just how many parallels there are. I’m no historian, but here’s my rundown:

Before the war, China was on the brink of civil war, and Japan decided to take advantage of this. They had already taken some territory during the First Sino-Japanese War, but that’s a whole diffrent story. By the time this war started, Japan was far more advanced and prepared—and they pretty much just kept pushing forward, taking land as they went.

In case you haven’t already guessed, Mugen is based off of Japan, and Nikara is based off of China.

Anyways, while this was going on China was determined to keep Shanghai, flighting for months. They eventually lost the city—along with a massive portion of their forces. After that, Japan advanced to Nanjing, which led to what is debatably one of the most brutal massacres in modern history. I won’t go into detail here, but if you remember the horror of Golyn Niis in the book—yeah, that’s the parallel.

Another dark connection: Unit 731. I’m not going into detail there either, but think about what was done to experiment on the Speerlies, Altan, and Rin. Then imagine it even worse. That’s Unit 731.

Remember when Altan orders the destruction of a dam to stop the enemy? That’s pulled directly from real history—China really did flood the Yellow River in an attempt to slow Japan’s advance. It worked, but at a massive human cost. Including civilians.

And while all this was happening, the rest of the world’s more powerful nations basically turned a blind eye, despite having the resources to help. I sense the Hesparians.

This went on for a while before the US cut off Japan's oil source. Without oil Japan could not power tank, guns, and more. That was a major factor in the eventual bombing of Pearl Harbor. (Doesn't have much to do with the Poppy War, just a instresting fact)

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here. There’s so much more to talkabout, but thanks for reading if you made it this far. If your interested I highly recommend looking further into this war. Also let me know if you want part two. :)

Also Poppy War music because why not. 🫶