This whole arc is killing me. It's amazing but it's also so painful. and it's far from over, once we get back to Yona it'll still be so painful. I need a bit of light-hearted dragon banter to cleanse my mind of all the angst.
Also I don't care how justified Su-won was. Being able to separate in his mind his friendship with Yona and his revenge for Il for ten years is scary. It would be one thing if he hadn't maintained that friendship over the years, but he did and he hid his true feelings from Hak who was his best friend too. He was planing to betray his closest friends for ten years, in fact I'm not sure they were even his best friends at this point, and as far as I can tell the weight and guilt of that didn't hit him until they fell off the cliff in the early chapters and their death was reported. It seems he realised then that the two aren't separate issues at all, they're linked by himself.
And the thing is, Yona has long understood some of what Su-Won wanted to do, that her father was not a good king, that Su-Won's methods while sometimes brutal have made Kouka stronger already. It's not forgiveness, but it's an understanding that means that she won't seek revenge, at least not if the price is the well-being of the country. She's already distanced herself from the hatred, it's there, but it's tempered by her love for Kouka. Love which was fostered by her father, she was an ignorant princess, but once she found out the state of the country she wanted to help because she loved Kouka not just because she wanted to redeem her father's bad ruling.
Hak though, he was more angry at the personal betrayal at the realisation that their friendship was in many ways a lie and a façade. His anger at Il's death was never directed at Soo-Won but at himself for not being able to fulfill his oath to protect the king. His anger at Soo-Won has to do with the betrayal of their friendship (of all three of them).
Tbh I'm not even sure what I wanted to say any more. I just... even now that I know Soo-Won's full backstory (and while there was a lot I didn't expect, the basic reasons for becoming king aren't a surprise, and have been floated around for a while) I don't think he deserves to be forgiven. I think he should die feeling miserable. I hope Yoon will fail to find a cure for him in time (which I'm sure he'll try to do because there're too many sweethearts in this story). Funnily enough I actually agree that religious institutions shouldn't be part of a country's governing body (though when there are actual physical human dragons that can protect the country... I'm not sure where to draw the line there), and he's a good ruler, but as a human being I just hate him... maybe even more than I did before I knew his backstory... does that make me cruel?
I don't know, this manga messes me up emotionally 😭
ps: Kye sook too, that guy gives me the creeps and I hate him, and I still think he's up to something shady.
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