Akatsuki no Yona - Ch. 253 - The friend who doesn't call our names

[anyarysn]

chat we shuld all kill ourselves

 

[Vimi20]

what i do not understand is why Zeno has to wait all the years for the dragons to assemble. He could have captured one after another. Waiting till they are on deaths door. Maybe the village of the white dragon would be not so easy but if he remove the "curse" for the blue and green dragon village they would be happy.

 

[Ariende]

So what’s going to happen next 😭😭😭😭😭

 

[riflow]

Haaaaaaah.....

TL;DR: Don't worry, this is just me ranting and a lot of it makes little sense. ;w; I'm just frustrated with Zeno, my darling favorite character.

Welp, my predictions fell short on account of that one thing that I never anticipated: Zeno has not experienced any actual character growth this entire time. With the exception of Yun, the only one he really wanted to say goodbye to, he does not consider the thoughts and feelings of those around him.

That's really sad.

He's behaving like he's not considering the dragons here and now, but the weight and pain of the past alone. He believes the dragons who gave their blood to create the dragon warriors were selfish, he's seen the pain of countless generations under the burden, he himself has experienced physical and mental agony time and time again and has chosen to forget and disconnect rather than repeat that situation. The poor guy is so done, he can't think of others outside of lessening suffering. He seems unable to understand Hak and Yona's desperate last ditch attempt to get through to him - he even thinks they're angry with him! He would need generations of therapists to help him.

But I have to side with Hak on this one - Zeno did everything one-sidedly. I may understand his position, (past dragons refused to "participate", so why wouldn't these dragons?) but his execution leaves something to be desired. He's been dropping hints this entire time, sure, but that's not coming clean about a problem or the solution he plans to pursue.
Before anyone else says they side with Zeno, let me say one thing: this is not unlike a double(quadruple?) suicide. Different circumstances or not, he's still making a choice for others that they had no say in.

I agree, this honestly feels like a murder suicide (the type where one person.... Took away the choice from many others, rather than anything mutually agreed on).

I can't blame zeno for it, in fact it makes sense that an ancient old man pushed to the brink of insanity wants things TO STOP.

But gooooooosh im so sad. Poor kids trusted him. And he was planning this THIS ENTIRE TIME. And I guess he didn't think the kids would ever be useful to figure out a better way to end things that didn't completely violate the dragon's right to autonomy.

... Like did he ever really see them as individuals or are they more like wisps or shadows of his dead friends..? Man... I'm so sad for them. This is going to cause utter chaos while hak and yona are trying to not get killed by the King's hardcore extremist faction too.



I am... On break from the series right now (have been since this chalice arc started really) bc these types of plotlines give me mad anxiety but couldn't stop myself from peeking at the chapters each month.

I think that's going to remain the case until -literally anything- gets happier in this story orz. I dont think thats gonna happen for a really long time somehow though. Enjoy your reading everyone😭

 

[arimareiji]

This exactly.

We still haven't seen the Sword and Shield prophecy come to fruition. Unless that had nothing to do with the dragons, their existence is still required. Personally, I am of the opinion that this is the kind of prophecy that foretells how events will unfold, not a "warning" that can be avoided.

Thank you for adding a heavy "oomph" to my vague suspicion, I wasn't even thinking about that… to me, it just didn't add up for the betrayal (and so many unresolved storytelling elements) to have truly wrapped up that simply.

Never mind that, Zeno is flying towards space, as if Heaven and Earth are literally on the same plane of existence. Are we going to get a scene where Zeno is basically denied entry and we just see him floating around the stratosphere freaking out because he can't find what he was expecting to?

Once you reminded me, I couldn't resist showing my age: Stairway [to Heaven], denied. 🤓

 

[PinkSakuraFlower]

this is a bit hard but it's not like I can't see Zeno's reasoning. From his POV, its been 2 thousands years of him watching all the dragons being born and dying over and over again, in conditions that aren't exactly great. The Green Dragons are always shackled down, the Blue dragons' faces are never seen and go blind as time goes on, and even the White Dragons who have a village that honours them, they go slowly insane and they can't control the power of their claw. And all three dragons all have the same fate; where each older dragon with the power will die young and when a new beholder is born, they know their time is running into an end and its not a merciful death either as they can literally feel their existence dying, while they have to teach the new beholders too.
and Zeno, man.
On the other hand, Zeno should've tried to reach out to the others about this, and at least it would be open; but considering their internal clocks were already counting down and were shortened considerably with their battlewounds, it's just between a rock and a hard place.
(Also many thanks for the translation!! Great work as always!!!)

 

[Purplelibraryguy]

It's a tough question. One one hand, I can see his point. But the major objection is, did he ask the other three what their opinion was before he helped their deaths along? I don't like this "I'm 2000 years old so I know best" schtick. But on the third hand, nobody can consult the bunch of future generations of dragon warriors that will be condemned to a crappy life if he doesn't do it.
Secondary problem is, his timing is kind of crap. At the rate things are going, pretty soon she'd be either dead or on the throne and probably the wars will be over, couldn't he have hung around till things were a bit more resolved?

Like some others, I, too, have a suspicion that this does not in fact represent the end of the dragon warriors.

 

[DaDragoon3]

This story…I don’t know how it’s going to go. I really hope the author doesn’t mess it up from here on out. Effectively killing four main characters that we have been invested in for about 200 chapters is certainly a bold move, and I’m hoping that they have a plan for this outside of a shock value twist. Overall, I’m not like negative about this plot development for now, but I wouldn’t say I’m happy about it either.

 

[mokakeeki]

Zeno thinks he did a good job trying not to be attached to his friends BUT IT'S A JOB TERRIBLY DONE I TELL YOU.

Anyway, putting that aside. This may be my Zeno bias talking, but this chapter has became one of my favs. We can see Hak's and Yona's character developments clearly by comparing this betrayal to Soowon's. And that. Was great. Also I saw people comparing the two betrayals, how Soowon and Zeno are practically the same in the way they schemed in secret and waited a long time for this. Or how one is dying while the other lives forever. That was a genius move by Kusanagi-sensei. I love it.

 

[Loopeyfluff]

Gahhh Zeno says he's good at forgetting people, but in the next page he talks about the happy hungry bunch T O T!!! You can't directly contradict yourself so quickly Zeno!!! I know you're full of shit now!!!

 

[unime]

no, in Xing all four Warriors transformed to shield Yona from arrows being shot at her.

Ah right, forgot about that

 

[zenono]

Life is not daijoubu.
Man a part of me isn’t surprised, saw this coming but I was still like did that time together mean nothing to you Zeno??! The whole time were you just waiting for the dragons to reach the end of their life? Then pg 25 where he says if he doesn’t use this chance he has to wait thousands of years again alone, watching the other dragons suffer hit me… no time like the present I guess so I can’t really fault him even though I am SAD. But I also believe this isn’t the end of the dragons and they’ll be back somehow??? Delulu is the solulu