Discussion King Il and his brother Yo-hon

[Farfalla]

What are your theories for the mysteries revolving around King Il and his brother Yu-hon? Is King Il's wife connected to it somehow? What do we know about her death? Why did Il, the second son with no war proficiency, become the King in his brother's place? What drove King Il to be so averted to weapons to the point of closing his eyes to the poverty and corruption that was ongoing during his reign? Why was Yu-hon so afraid of priests and the prophecy getting in the way of the emperor's power? Who holds the truth regarding Yu-hon's death, King Il or Su-won?

 

[SamuelDean]

Those two brothers had very different point of views:
Yu hon didn t worship the gods and he is supposed to be responsible that no priests reside in Hiryuu castle now.
He seemed to have loved his brother, his family and his country, but was a merciless enemy of the other nations.

King Il seems to be way friendlier, he worships the gods, but didn t search for the priests. He didn t bring them back...Very mysterious. He seemed to harbour some negative feelings towards Soo Won.

All in all, I think that both brothers would have enough reasons to murder the other.

 

[@Aylinn]

I suppose that there must have been some sort of conflict between Yu-hon and Il and it is likely that Il for some reason disliked his brother.

While I don’t think that Il was an evil person, I suppose that he might have had strong negative feelings towards his brother, which he also might have passed on to Su-won.

If Il murdered Yu-hon, then I also don’t think that he disliked Yu-hon for his cruelty towards enemies unless he is a hypocrite. I mean if Il dealt with the problem by resorting to murder, then I would argue that he does not have an upper moral ground.

Also, I find it strange that the weaker brother killed the stronger brother, so I wonder. Could it be that Yu-hon had some sort of disadvantage or, for example, died protecting someone? Su-won?

 

[Aniela]

Also, I find it strange that the weaker brother killed the stronger brother, so I wonder. Could it be that Yu-hon had some sort of disadvantage or, for example, died protecting someone? Su-won?

That's an interesting thought, actually. What if Il's target wasn't Yu-hon, but Su-won, and Yu-hon shielded him? Maybe the oracles said something about Su-won being a danger to Yona, so Il wanted to get rid of Su-won? I don't know. It might not make sense, since I imagine that Il would have other occasions to kill Su-won later, if he wanted to, but he didn't.

 

[@Aylinn]

Yes, Il would have had other occasions to kill Su-won. However, maybe Su-won was much more cautious and didn’t give Il opportunity to kill him or maybe Il tried later, but failed again.

 

[Aniela]

I got my hands on the first two volumes of English edition a few days ago (unfortunately, the manga isn't licensed in my country), so I was rereading the beginning. I noticed something that I don't think was there in the anime (unless I'm not remembering it, that's a possibility). So, here's what I'm talking about:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Now, this shows a few interesting things. First off, it confirms many of our speculations, such as that even people from the castle/Sky Tribe didn't like Il. Second, it shows for how long Kusanagi had Fire Tribe Rebellion planned out. I mean, not frame-by-frame, but clearly the idea was here even at the very beginning (3 chapter). This makes me think that perhaps the last weak arcs really were a result of milking the series, forced by the publisher... Or maybe she's got tired, who knows.

Either way, I don't think it gives us much new info, but I thought I'd post it here either way. Maybe you'll see something that I don't

 

[@Aylinn]

Come to think about it, this explains nicely why Hak failed as the person responsible for security.

It shows and confirms that Hak was really good at ignoring signs that reality is not how he imagines it not just when it concerned Su-won.

And yes, it seems that the Fire Tribe’s rebellion was planned from the beginning.