#suwon

In my investigations, I tried to remember the story from the start, this time with the assumption that the author meant him to be framed as a villain from the beginning… And suddenly, I saw it.

Alright, so, to sum up Suwon's character, based on everything we have from beginning to end, is this: he’s meant to be a cold, ruthless character who's bent on revenge and gets rid of anyone who gets on his path. He still cares about Yona and Hak, though, and this is what eventually leads to his redemption, where he regrets his ruthless ways and learns to value people's lives.

I KNOW. If you're a Suwon fan, you must be mad at me right now. “That’s not him!” You say. “What about the thousands of times he's shown caring for Kouka’s people, wanting to make Kouka great and overall being a marvelous king? This isn't right!”

I know. He’s amazing and has dozens of scenes where the dragons and others see him as a good person and whatnot. He's often the wisest, smartest, and most perceptive character around (esp in the first half of the story). Saying he’d be stupid enough to be purely driven by revenge and in need of a “lesson” taught by Yona sounds equally stupid, but stick with me, I’m gonna show you how this is possible.

It entirely depends on your perception of Il’s murder.

You see, I made a total of seven people watch AnY’s first episode, and with the exception of a friend, every single one of them saw Il’s murder as something that automatically placed Suwon in the "pure evil, beyond redemption, I want him to die” category. But a smaller section of people, me included, simply couldn't make this judgment right off the bat, because they needed more context. “What if king Il was evil and had truly murdered Suwon's dad? What if Suwon was the true heir? What if Yona’s perspective, as a spoiled princess, is heavily biased?” And so on.

So you can see we have two groups, one who thinks “He’s evil, I want him to die” and one who thinks “I'm curious, I need more context.” And now that we have the full story, I’ll risk saying the first group had the reaction intended by the author.

I know this probably means the author didn't think much about the political side of things and was more concerned with Yona’s feelings in the classic Shoujo style. But if you look at the story as a whole, this is the approach that explains everything.

Now, assuming she's writing for the first group, she has a problem. Since Suwon is meant to go through a redemption arc, people can't wish him to die! They have to see his qualities and learn he isn't beyond redemption. So she does what she can: she makes thousands of scenes showcasing his skills, his good side, his sadness. “Look, he’s actually a competent king!” She says. “He's gonna be important in the end. Don't wish for his death, he cannot die right now. Look, even the dragons think he's good. Lili is curious about him. Please give him a chance!”

But for the second group, the one who was still analysing the context, this sends a completely different message. They take all those scenes as pieces of the puzzle and marvel at its complexity, wanting more clues, waiting for the thing that will be the “final revelation” of his character. They make theories and discuss what might be Suwon's past, or motivations, or plans for the future. They face the difficult question of “what if he's right?” and love the conflict it brings. But since this wasn't the author’s intention, at some point this facade would start to crumble.

I still remember when the Xing arc was happening, and for some reason Suwon had turned strangely uncooperative, even foolish. I remember how some Suwon fans made posts expressing their confusion, while everyone else replied “you sillies, he’s always been like this.” I was so confused. He's been consistently portrayed as a competent, well meaning king who’s willing to be ruthless when necessary, why is he so uncooperative now?

That's because he was meant to be established as an evil, uncooperative character right off the bat in the first two chapters. All the rest, all the good moments, were meant to be read as exceptions to the rule, not a part of his character. The result? The ones willing to give him more time were confused, but those who had condemned him at the start understood the Xing arc perfectly.

From this point onwards, the author stopped showing his qualities and went back to focusing on his flaws as a “vengeful and ruthless king,” so she could make him turn away from it in his redemption arc. But for the people who liked him (or saw him as morally complex), it was as if he had turned into a completely different character. It was disappointing to see all the wonder and mystery going away, and watch him turn into an one dimensional antagonist. Meanwhile, for the ones who hadn't seen any complexity in the first place, it was simply the natural course of the story. And so it ended.

It saddens me to discover it was not that deep. That all the complexity was only in my head, and that I made questions that were never meant to be answered. But at the same time I’m satisfied that I could finally see what the author was trying to convey, and discover the truth about his character. I do think the “ruthless person learns to value people” can be an inspiring arc, if done well, and has a nice message. So I don't hate the ending as much as I could've.