Sometimes, women need to fight too. Don’t underestimate us.
Captain Gigan and Yona are both crazy and way cool. The above quote is everything to me. I love this. Especially since over and over, the boys kept repeating “She’s a girl. She’s just a weak girl.” And Yona is so strong, to do what she did and not giving up. Yona is extremely strong and brave that I was just in awe with her.
If I were in Yona’s position, I probably would have been dead. She was scared, she was shaking, and she was crying, and it’s totally understandable. But she kept trudging on, setting her fear aside so she could get the plant that could save lives. So what did she have to do? Captain Gigan ordered Yona to cross a narrow trail on a dangerous cliff to procure a medicinal herb called “senjuso”. The plant only grows in a small cave on the cliff, and it’s very dangerous. A lot of the men on the crew are wounded, and the one that usually gets the plant is hurt, so to test her courage, Captain Gigan makes Yona do it. And Yona agrees immediately. Jae-ha leads her there, and they start walking. You can see the fear in Yona’s eyes the moment she saw the cliff. Once stepping on the trail, pressed against the wall, a gust of wind blows at her and she loses her balance for a moment, and starts crying. Jae-ha is right behind her, basically pleading for her to stop because it’s too much for her. Note, Yona can’t get any help, so Jae-ha is saying whatever to make her stop. But she keeps going, because she wants to be able to get stronger to help her friends and other people so they won’t cry when losing someone like she had.
This was a scary scene, but Yona managed to make it safely. She picks some senjuso and puts it in a bag, and right she when steps out, a large wave hits her as the water is getting more choppy. Jae-ha thinks she fell into the sea, but finds her dangling on a tree root. She tells him not to help her, as she promised Captain Gigan that she wouldn’t accept any help, but Jae-ha pulls her up anyway.
The two make it back to everyone, and Yona honestly admits to the Captain that Jae-ha helped her, so she would go get the senjuso again. YOU HEAR THAT? DID YOU HEAR THAT? SHE WOULD SERIOUSLY GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN TO PROVE HERSELF.
Yona is so great. I love herrrrrrr. Gigan loves the look on her eyes and loves her guts, and she passes Yona. Hurray!
The next few minutes we turn to Hak. His conversation with Jae-ha really made him think. Jae-ha says Hak doesn’t want her romantically…and Hak says maybe he’s right. Meeting up with Yona later, he helps with the wounds on her hands with some honey and accidentally pours too much. So then he starts licking it off of her, before sending her running away embarrassed.
I think Hak is being really mature right now. I don’t know if he truly realizes his feelings for Yona, as before he described themselves as siblings. As friends since childhood. Or he’s probably forcing himself to think this way. But what I mean when I say that Hak is being mature in this moment is because of their current situation. Yona is still hurt from everything’s that happened to her, and she’s continuing to survive each day. She’s dealing with so many problems right now. Hak is holding off his desire because of this. Honestly, and as much as I ship them, a relationship is not appropriate right now. It can just cause more stress and problems for Yona that she doesn’t need right now, so Hak is holding off. He knows it’s a bad time, so right now, they’ll just have to stay as friends and he needs to lay off because right now they have way more important things to be worrying about. A relationship, or at least a possible relationship, can wait until later.
Later in the night while on the ship, Captain Gigan tells Yona she’d like to disband the crew once they take down Kumuji, and tells Yona that Jae-ha should travel with her because he needs a place to belong. We also got a peek into Jae-ha’s childhood, and it looked just as bad as Shin-ah’s because we saw him in dirty clothes and chains, like a prisoner. But Jae-ha interjects with a no again. Just then Shin-ah announces boats are approaching, and Gigan gathers everyone together. Kumuji is handling some human trafficking with some people in the Kai Empire. So it looks like the battle is finally going to start.
Love this episode. Love Yona, love the Captain, love Jae-ha, love the character interactions, I just love everything about this episode. It was uplifting, scary, exciting, and I can’t wait to see the battle against the gross lord begin.
I really loved this episode in the sense it showcased Yona’s confronting her true fears and her strong desire to be able to protect the people she cares about in her life. This is also a great way to show Jae-ah conflict between his preordained destiny verse his own freewill. After seeing his mini-flashback its definitely safe to assume he was not treated any better than Shin-ah was in his own village since he was chained up. Gigan statement that “Sometimes, women need to fight too. Don’t underestimate us.” Is a powerful one indeed because so far we haven’t been introduced to strong and complex female characters for Yona to look up to as a role model. I can see that Yona will learn a lot from Gigan when this arc is over.
In terms of the relationship between Hak and Yona I’m glad that they addressed that currently a romance between the two is impossible because Yona is still recovering from her losses and they are currently on the run for their lives. But I did like that Hak at least acknowledge his suppress feelings for Yona and that he can finally address his own feelings in a healthy way (I mean internally of course) Hak has always striked me as a guy who keeps everything inside and hence I really worry about him because in the mini-flash back it showed how much he also loved Su-Won that he was willing to continue to hide his feelings in order for Su-Won and Yona to be together. So far in the earlier episodes Yona has grieved about the betrayal, but Hak has yet to openly grieve about the betrayal because he had to remain strong for Yona. I can’t see this being too healthy for him in the long run and it might bring negative consequences. Seriously how can this show not get another season!!!! Once the dragons are officially together THAT is when a lot of amazing stuff happens.
Overall I’m glad you are enjoying the show and keep up the good work
Oh yeah I definitely agree with you there about Hak. He’s made himself to be strong around Yona so she wouldn’t fall apart, but Hak has yet to grieve. We only saw little scenes of him alone being upset, but him crying, punching things, yelling “Fuck you Soo-won” at the sky…I think he really needs to. I hope someday he will.
I’m hoping with all my heart there’ll be another season!
I’m really happy with how they showed the Yona x Hak moment, kind of getting the ship moving but also not forcing it. It was nice to see Hak’s point of view! (I don’t remember if it was in the manga or not, but either way I really liked how it was done in this episode.) And probably my favorite epic Yona moment is in this upcoming arc. I can’t wait! Also pertaining to the other comment by Hoshi, I REALLY REALLY hope this anime gets another season!! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy with a manga-to-anime adaptation, and like Hoshi said the story is just getting started!! >__<