#tae jun

"She's like...a raging firestorm. I can't look away. Did her highness...ever look like this before? At the palace she seemed so young...and weak. Just an ordinary girl. But now, even though she's lost everything..."

Really Yona's "Wind Tribe moment"!! "Even though she's lost everything," she is taking a stance. Acting in spite of suffering. Not letting it stop her.

Repeating my end of chapter 9 thoughts with saying Yona's hidden power has been unlocked inside her. But she seemed like "just an ordinary girl," and well, she's not but she is. And also maybe there is power in being an ordinary girl! But for Yona specifically, she is ordinary in that she doesn't seem to have any special talents or abilities, at least not yet. She's not "good" at anything. But she is learning her own power and strength.

Summing Yona moving forward as "passionate, not passive"

"He's going to die" – look how big that text is! She cares so much about him.

We also get the very important and clear parallel to King Il's death. Yona did get there too late to prevent it, but upon seeing her dead father, she froze. Here, she dives into action.

No more just sitting and hiding and taking it. Yona embodies "stay afraid but do it anyway" What can she do? It doesn't matter. She has to do something.

The eyes here are really something. In Yona's expression you can see her terror and emotion and almost feel her shifting back into how she felt in the moment of her father's death. Tae-Jun's eyes are very expressive too.

It's also interesting how casual (and even excited) Tae-Jun and co are about killing Hak.

Grabbed by the HAIR! And then BAM! She chops it off. HAIR SYMBOLISM, BABY. It is a physical representation of her internal change.

This contrasts the opening scene, where Yona is focused on her hair and her appearance. Now that seems frivolous and doesn't matter. It's not even in her thoughts at this moment. That's another part of her transformation– figuring out her priorities/what really matters.

And she's never used a sword, but that doesn't stop her! She'll do whatever she can in this desperate moment. She just keeps going, such a difference from her prior numb, frozen shock.

Hak is kind of the ultimate motivator for Yona here. She has become progressively more active, but with Hak, acting on someone else's behalf becomes more personal.

Also...Yona the beautiful badass (and again, look at her eyes! The depth there)

"I won't let them kill him! I refuse!" – Yona's stubborn determination, like when she stood her ground against Hak ("I've made up my mind") when leaving the Wind Tribe but in a more perilous, escalated situation.

And the parallel to her father's death was clear before now, but here we get it explicitly spelled out. Yona won't let more people she loves die.

"I said...get away from Hak!"

I keep pointing to the eyes but there's such EMOTIONALITY in them. And Yona is an emotional character, so I love seeing that come across in her face.

We've got kind of the "looks like a mess but has never looked more beautiful" energy

Oh look, a close-up on her eye XD (yes please)

"But...is this really...Princess Yona?" – the transformed Yona, her self-discovery and change is evident to others too. She's almost unrecognizable in her appearance + actions.

"Hak! It's my turn to save you." – awww. There is so much weight to these words. How much Hak means to her, her feelings of guilt and incapability... This whole encounter has been a test of "new Yona" and it must really feel like it for her in this moment. It's a bit like if she fails to save him, then that's it for her.

The energy here is very "I rather than die (with you) than live without you" + "if we go down, we go down together"

"You idiot...run away! You can't do this! Hurry up and get away–" – I like this little combination of teasing Hak + serious Hak. Obviously he's not teasing her in this moment, but he affectionately calls her an "idiot." I feel like you get that a lot in dynamics like Hak and Yona, one calling the other an "idiot" when they prioritize the other instead of what's in their own best interest.

"No! Never! If you die...I'll never forgive you!!" – this is the second time Yona has said this, the first being in chapter 3 after Hak and her flee from the palace. Here, we get a significant pause/reaction from Hak, almost like he didn't believe her before or didn't take it seriously considering the circumstances. But Yona is showing him how serious she was and is. He's seeing her choose him + staying by his side over her own survival.

Just...woah, wow, yes. Beautifully depicted.

And all that's left behind is...HER HAIR.

We see that Tae-Jun actually does care about Yona and that there's more to him than appears. He can be short-sighted and irrational + take things too far (compare his "flirting" in the flashback of chapter 3 with Hak's flirting– I don't love all of Hak's flirting but he is self-aware of when he's doing or saying something somewhat repulsive/off-putting whereas Tae-Jun is not).

Tae-Jun is a mess and a menace, but as the second son, he's also probably trying to prove himself, and thinking Yona has died clearly leaves him feeling horrified and dead inside.

Like Tae-Jun, Soo-Won is shocked and affected by Yona's "death." And OOOOH giving Soo-Won the hair he so loved HA

"Princess Yona...has left this world" – and HELLO I scream not just about the HAIR SYMBOLISM but Yona's SYMBOLIC DEATH (and REBIRTH!) that is happening. She's crossed a threshold.

More of Tae-Jun's reaction: he's feeling guilty + ashamed and can't live with himself. He's tortured by his actions and wants (begs!) to be punished.

"Punish me! Please!" – the desperation. Tae-Jun's outward display works as an expression of what Soo-Won is feeling on the inside and holding in.

Soo-Won thinking of Hak and Yona and their shared past brings me back to Hak and Yona facing the Soo-Won revealed by his betrayal: "Would you authorize this awfulness, Soo-Won?" + "Are you satisfied, Soo-Won?" Soo-Won is facing the results of his choices. And he did choose this, but he didn't want this result specifically. He didn't want his friends to die, but he must accept the responsibility for what happened.

YOON! (I love Yoon) What an introduction lol "What a pain. A pair of corpses" (also also more symbolic death and HakYona are tangled together in it, both having tried to protect the other)