#be selfish

We know that Han Yoohyun doesn't care for social cues, laws and regulations, all mannerisms and behaviour towards people are done simply to please his brother. And so- he doesn't realise that by denouncing Yoojin, as a highly praised and popular S-class, he has condemned him in society. Yoohyun leaves as soon as he can, publicly announces that he's a burden, and the media is having a field day where Yoojin is made a villain.

Unfortunately, it's only made worse by Yoojin's lost desperation to find out why his brother, his child, who he has raised all his life has left him behind. Has spit in his face and is so cold, and that maybe Yoojin has failed him all this time. His desperation in trying to get to talk to Yoohyun at least once, to give him a birthday cake, to awaken so that maybe he can reach him. It only ends up adding to this manic, ungrateful and spiteful image that the world views him as.

Yoojin is condemned by society. Yoohyun gets mad that he's a hunter but Yoojin has no other option. He can't get a regular job because his reputation has been dragged through the mud and because the constant public attention is too burdensome for any employers. Seok Simyeong has constantly berated Yoojin, fucking up his mental state and as the 'spokesperson' of Yoohyun, Yoojin must think its true.

Yoohyun tries to protect him from hunters through this instinctual thought of predators and prey, but society is far too nuanced and he doesn't understand. By trying to leave him out of the dungeons, he left him to the world.

"All witches are selfish, the Queen had said, But Tiffany's Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare You try to take these things, because they are mine! I have a duty!"

(The Wee Free Men)

I get teary every time I read this passage. This was the first time I EVER saw someone frame selfishness as a weapon for good.

Like many autistic folk, I was told I was a horrible, selfish person a LOT when I was young. So much so that it destroyed my capacity to prioritise my own needs and made me doubt my worth on a daily basis.

The Wee Free Men was the first thing I ever came across that suggested that maybe selfish isn't the worst thing I could be, that it could even be used to make the world better. Make the whole world your own and fight for it, defend it, look after it.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realised how often Pratchett took Bad Traits™️ and made them a force for good in his writing.

Aries North Node