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「風の部族」 (Kaze no Buzoku)
“The Wind Tribe”
So begins the slow process from numbness to reanimation.
For the last two episodes, we’ve seen Yona at her lowest. She’s lost everything and has nothing, and she doesn’t even know or particularly seem to care where Hak is taking her. It isn’t until now that we see her starting to poke out of her traumatized shell, though it’s only in little bits at a time.
From a tactical standpoint, I find that Hak’s idea to take Yona to the Wind Tribe is frankly kind of stupid. He has good intentions but when you really think about it, this is Hak’s hometown, and you can bet that their pursuers are gonna check the places related to him first. Perhaps he hopes that they’ll overestimate him and overlook such an easy target, but it just isn’t particularly sound logic. Regardless, the Wind Tribe is where they arrive, and it seems that they are in luck; news of King Il’s death hasn’t arrived, and Hak is still indisputably in charge. Using his authority (and family ties), he smuggles in Yona under the alias of “Rina”, a supposed court lady who was kicked out for being utterly useless. Yona is tired in more ways than one, but she soon starts to assimilate among these kind people, among them Hak’s adopted younger brother, Tae-yeon. At first, things seem like they’re turning for the better.
Unfortunately, Soo-won hasn’t finished his coup on the government. He and his men have conveniently used Hak as a scapegoat for the murder of the king, and since Yona has gone missing, they’re claiming that the only rightful heir left is the King’s nephew himself. All the tribe leaders minus Mun-deok, Hak’s grandfather, are all for it, but this only places further pressure on the Wind Tribe.
With their water cut off and their supplies through merchants removed, the Wind Tribe has some nasty choices to make. Hak intends to leave and shoulder the burden of Soo-won’s accusation, but he hopes to let Yona stay under the name Rina (again, bad idea, what if Soo-won or another palace official comes and recognizes her?). In exchange, he wants Mun-deok to accept Soo-won as king.
That’s all well and good for Hak to decide, but he’s forgotten that Yona is her own person, no matter how numb and grief-stricken she is. Though she hasn’t spent too much time among the Wind Tribe, it’s already obvious that she’s come to care for the people there. She is personally upset at the thought of Tae-yeon dying of an asthma attack (lung disease was a really nasty problem back in the day), or of the people having to suffer without water. It’s pretty obvious that she won’t be seeing eye to eye with Hak on this issue, and though he may have her best interests at heart, I think Princess Yona is a bit tired of having little say in her own life.
Preview
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I feel like Hak’s decision to take Yona to his hometown was more out of necessity. He needed to leave her with someone that he trusted implicitly to protect her. Because he has been at the castle for most of his life, he doesn’t have long reaching ties that can carry her far away from Soo-Won. He also knows that he will be hunted due to his position in a way that Yona won’t (as she is assumed dead). I think his decision to take her to his hometown is calculated. While it’s not the best choice, I don’t think there was any other choice given how helpless she’s been these past few episodes. I also get the feeling from reading the manga that Hak doesn’t expect Soo-Won to pursue Yona wholeheartedly from the beginning when they were essentially allowed to escape fairly easily.
That might be so, but even if he wanted to leave her with someone trusted, his hometown is still pretty much the riskiest place, even if it was more or less his only place.
Yes, it was definitely a risk and I think he was really counting on Soo-Won not really wanting to find her. I do think it was just that and not having any other options, I feel like it is believable if perhaps a bit naive on his part. But maybe he also hopes, somehow, that their bonds weren’t completely meaningless in the end. Watching the anime reminds me how little we know of the real motivations behind so many of the events.
Here’s how I see the geopolitics of it all:
– The kingdom (er, what was its name again?) is feudal in nature. While the tribes swear fealty to the throne, they own their lands in freehold, and enjoy a degree of independence.
– Right now the kingdom is weak. Any further shows of instability invites opportunistic attacks from neighbours.
– Hak can only assume that the other tribes are aligned with Soo-won. At least, the Wind Tribe is the only place where he can guarantee refuge for Yona.
– If Soo-won pressures the Wind Tribe too much, he risks provoking civil war. This will expose the instability within the kingdom. Outside forces will eventually destroy the kingdom.
– if Hak reveals the existence of Princess Yona and the truth behind the king’s murder, he will split the kingdom between the supporters of Yona and the supporters of Soo-won, provoking civil war. Again, the kingdom will be destroyed.
– Soo-won does not believe Hak will risk the destruction of the kingdom (it will, after all, mean the destruction of the Wind Tribe as well). We have a stalemate. Soo-won believes the best course of action is to get crowned as quickly as possible, which will leave Yona as, at most, a pretender to the throne.
– Also understanding the stalemate scenario, Hak believes the best course of action to ensure the safety of both Yona and his tribe is to abandon Yona’s claim to the throne, let her live out her life in the tribe, and offer himself up as a scapegoat, leaving the kingdom unified.
without spoil i only will say the next episode will be the turning point for yona from her weak state
@kairi you will enjoy her turning point in the next episode you can see it by the last picture
Yes well I AM a manga reader so :3 I am excited~
yes this is where she will finally start get stronger
I’m not sure whether Hak’s decision was as silly as you make it sound. While we have very little idea of what the country’s geography is like and how powerful the palace is, it’s implied in this episode that the country as a whole is more of a coalition between tribes that are at odds with one another. It’s very likely that the palace does not have direct influence to the capitals of each tribe, meaning that if Soo-Wyong wanted to attack Hak and Yona when they’re inside the Wind Tribe’s capital, they’d have to wage a war (not counting on him having a convenient way to assassinate them) which would make them vulnerable to their neighbouring countries.
If, as Hak noted, being in a random village holds the risk of a palace soldier catching sight of them, seeking refuge under the protection of the Wind Tribe seems to be a perfectly good option.
The power balance in the country seems very tenuous. You can see a pretty drastic difference between regions as they travel and obviously the authority of the government is extremely weak in certain places. A king who suddenly rises to power in such a suspicious way would not want to flex his muscles so quick when it’s already established that part of the reason he is doing this is because of how weak the country has become. One wrong move and the jenga tower falls down. All of the tribe leaders seem to be pretty strong willed and independent. They have their own interests to protect, and that is not something that can be tested so quickly.
I also think that he doesn’t expect allowing Yona to live to have the repercussions that it will. When she left the palace, she was a frightened and heartbroken young girl fleeing for her life. While Soo-Won is cold and ruthless when it comes to his goals, he is not a sociopath and he clearly wants to (within his capacity) allow her to live outside his reach.
The thing is that Soo-won might not be interested in killing Yona if possible, or in angering any tribes, but some of his underlings don’t seem to have the same problems. They’re already screwing with the balance of power by pressuring the wind tribe the way they are (as they’ve shown, normally it’s something to go to war over). They’re already billing Hak as the murderer, so it’s unlikely that the government wouldn’t want to check some way or another that he is there. As to Yona, there is always some lingering fear in a coup that the legitimate heir may establish themselves as a rallying point in opposition. Even if that wasn’t so, they could easily say they simply found her and are “escorting her home” when in truth she would be imprisoned or killed. When I say Hak’s idea is kind of dumb, I’m talking in a purely political and tactical view. It just doesn’t seem too wise for a general to bank on things like childhood bonds because although we as the audience know something is going on, everything that Soo-won has done has been in direct contrast to what Yona and Hak believed.
Yeah I guess Hak made calculated decision after all. At first it seemed crazy to return to his home town. But this episode made the political atmosphere a lot more apparent.
Getting a lot of unexpected depth out of this show. So refreshing. I’m in love? 😀
I still do have some BG music issues in this episode, but still, its more a build-up for the next episode :3
Watching this episode made me recall what you said about the scenes flashing by and the music being rather loud, since it did feel that way at times, but I have to say I really enjoyed this episode. Maybe some more time could have been spent on some scenes, but I don’t mind it if it means that we’ll get to the later parts faster. I can’t wait for the next episode too! That last screencap 😀
Though I wish that the part where Mun-deok tried to hug Hak wasn’t taken out. Not that it was important, but.. 🙁
Tae-yoon is really cute 😀
To an extent I do agree with you Kairi that going to the Wind Tribe was a huge risk but at the same time I don’t think Hak had any other choice in the matter. The other villages could easily betray them to Soo Won soldiers which given how both tired and weak Hak and Yona are they would have not stood a chance. Plus from what it seems like there is an intense political instability in the Kouka Kingdom that breaking up into factions would weaken the country even more which everyone wants to avoid at this point given how little the other generals cared that King IL died under suspicious circumstances. At the very the least Hak knew that no matter what the Wind Tribe would never betray them and given how close Hak is with everyone in the Wind Tribe I think for the most part it was the best decision he could make given the circumstances.
As for Yona its interesting how everyone views her (in the political sense) as an object to be either obtained or discarded. In the case of Tae-jun (second son of the fire tribe) it annoyed me how he little he cared for her feelings on the matters of engagement. Even Soo Won, as much as he cared and hesitated to kill Yona, it seemed that he was definitely going to kill her since she saw her own father death which could ruin his plans to obtain the throne. I know Hak does not view her the same way everyone does, but still he views her as something needed to be protected and didnt get her opinion on the matter of him resigning as general and becoming a wandering criminal. That was a big decision to make by himself, but its also a reflection of how women were viewed during those times and had little input on their destinies
Which is why I’m so looking forward to next week episode which will allow Yona to start shining and have everyone start taking her seriously because she is not someone to be messed with that is for sure.
Best episode to date imo. This show has been so full of flashbacks or flashforwards that it was refreshing to have this episode be set in the present.
Also Tae-Yeon is so cute :$
Fire Nation at it again. DOES THEIR TYRANNY KNOW NO END?
https://randomc.net/image/Akatsuki%20no%20Yona/Akatsuki%20no%20Yona%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2024.jpg
An Joon-Gi is a dad voiced by Ishida Akira tho. Ishida Akira dad. Ishida Ak(ry
I just want to drop a note that I checked Funimation’s stream of the end of Yona episode 2. (I find the audio issue most obvious when Yona shouts on the cliff.) I wish the raw releases weren’t so inconsistent because I’d prefer to compare with the BS11 airing, but anyway, Funimation’s master was fine.
I’m not sure how the mixing process works so I don’t know how or why Crunchyroll’s masters feature louder BGM/SFX than that of other sources…?
I cant wait to see Yona take more active stance…
Hak had really not much choice, in any unaligned or belonging to another tribe village he’d run risk of getting attention of castle soldiers, and Yona was in no condition to continue woodland escapa.
My take is, though that he should instead of going rogue, he should seek allies amongst other tribes – apart from Fire tribe they did not look vey enthusisastic about giving support to Soo-won claim to throne.
I think Hak displayed his leadership skills well. No, taking Yona to the Wind Tribe wasn’t a perfect option, but he doesn’t really have any alternatives. Yona is weak, spoiled, and in the midst of emotional distress. He literally has no reason to expect her to be able to make proper decisions for herself, especially life and kingdom-altering decisions, and that has nothing to do with gender. The decision to leave her with the Wind Tribe was a calculated and valid one.
It looks like Yona will be coming out of her depression a bit in the next episode; I can’t help but wonder if her reasons for leaving with Hak will be shallow. I understand that he’s the last person she’s close to, but her actions could make or break the kingdom of Kouka. That’s a lot of responsibility.
…
I wanted to say, “Decisions like that should be made logically rather than emotionally”, but I’m not really qualified to do so since my family hasn’t been murdered and I don’t have a country on my back. 😐