I just watched K-Pop Demon Hunters and MAN.
WHAT IS THERE TO SAY THAT HASN’T BEEN SAID?! It’s gorgeous, the music is on LOOP in both my head and on my phone, the character designs are CHEFS KISS, the characters are IMMACULATE, the animation is PERFECTION.
It’s just a really great movie and I’m lowkey OBSESSED WITH IT.
But a thing I noticed a lot of people saying when I was scrolling about Instagram looking at the REELS UPON REELS OF HUNTRIX AND SAJA BOYS…was people saying that both Zoey and Mira were BAD friends and shouldn’t have been forgiven because of what they did to Rumi.
Before I RIP THAT ARGUMENT APART! I will just say from what I’ve seen it’s less than five comments, so try not to make it a big deal…I can though as I’m not only gonna talk about how WRONG that is but also about how WELL WRITTEN this movie is.
So basically the reel I saw on instagram was about how both Zoey and Mira raised up their weapons against Rumi and how Zoey only had TWO of her blades instead of her usual six and everyone in the comments were talking about how SAD this scene was and it is and I saw a comment that I will not lie, it grinded my GEARS.
It basically said something along the lines that Mira and Zoey shouldn’t have been forgiven and the only person that really accepted Rumi was Jinu. Even saying something like “No wonder Rumi feared telling them…THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Which sure, you can say that it’s your opinion.
But my argument is that they were never even GIVEN A CHANCE.
Multiple times in the movie, Rumi had chances to tell them, when they all sat down in the couch scene for example, their makeup was off, they were being vulnerable…it would have been a great time to talk to them, TO TELL THEM.
But Rumi didn’t. I’m not blaming Rumi here, she has a lot of self hatred and she knows that with the SAJA Boys breathing down their necks that it was a bad time to probably drop that bombshell but I would argue there would never be a good time to drop something as heavy as “Hey guys, sorry for lying to you guys but I’m actually THE THINGS WE SWORE WE WOULD PROTECT THE WORLD FROM.” Like that WILL NOT GO OVER WELL IN ANY SITUATION. But she had multiple chances to but didn’t and she had her reasons why but so were the girls as they were under a lot of pressure too. By Celine.
Celine I don’t hate. I don’t like her but she is a good antagonist, not a villain like the Demon King, but she is someone who unintentionally set the girls up to fail.
She obviously held Rumi to the highest standards out of all the girls but Zoey and Mira still were held up by impossible expectations and standards too, to hide any imperfections and all, literally after Rumi fumbled the first Golden Live Performance and they all sit down, they all mention- “hehe silly Celine, but yeah no she is right hide your flaws.” They were held up HIGH, because they were supposed to make the Golden Honmoon, if not their world could be susceptible to demon attacks. They have hard lives too, being in the lime light AND having to sing and dance to perfection to reach the Honmoon WHILE ALSO FIGHTING DEMONS. These girls seem like they’re in their early twenties so DAMN.
What I’m trying to say, in their perspective they had the right to be suspicious and even scared of Rumi after finding out she’s a demon.
Imagine their perspective, Rumi has been pushing them to achieve the Golden Honmoon, then suddenly she gets all chummy with a DEMON (Jinu) and they are worried for her voice and her because she’s acting off, like she’s hiding something then after seeing Bobby getting kidnapped, SIKE ITS DEMONS, then BOOM…Rumi is a demon.
They don’t know what to believe and I won’t lie, watching that scene. I would’ve reacted similarly to Zoey. I wouldn’t want to hurt my friend but Rumi was SCARY. She was scared and vulnerable but her demon voice literally shook the building. Mira has the right to be angry, Zoey has the right to feel scared while Rumi has the right to feel EVERYTHING.
I like how complex the story is, because I see no wrong sides here. Rumi should’ve told them but she was groomed to believe that she was WRONG and the only way to right that wrong was to achieve the Golden Honmoom and Zoey and Mira were probably taught by Celine that all demons are MONSTERS.
Celine is the true cause of all this discourse because she couldn’t accept who Rumi was. She was a hunter but also a demon, she LEGITIMATELY SAID that when they lost Rumi’s mom, she said she would protect what was left her mom’s legacy, not thinking there was a CHILD. That scene breaks my heart as she COULDN’T EVEN TOUCH RUMI’S CHEEK TO COMFORT HER. She couldn’t love all of Rumi. She couldn’t love her flaws, in her eyes Rumi’s flaw was her demon side, but that isn’t a flaw…she was just born that way and that’s okay.
Celine is such a complex character because even though we DON’T KNOW all the details of her and her sisters (I’m assuming the Sunlight Sisters are actual Sisters) we know she probably pushed her sisters away because of her need for PERFECTION. She pushed that onto Rumi, Mira and Zoey…
Because she couldn’t accept Rumi, Rumi couldn’t accept herself and that caused her to keep massive secrets and that caused a rift between HUNTRIX. It’s so complex and complicated and…beautiful.
To see that it’s not cut and dry and black and white. It’s more grey, that’s what I love about this movie. It’s AMAZING and that’s why I love This is What it’s Sounds Like, because it covers all those JUICY WRITING AND YESSSS.
Hopefully this makes sense, I’ll probably rant more about my headcannons about Celine, the Sunlight Sisters and even Rumi’s mom and MOREEEEEE! Because this movie is a GOLD MINE of detail and crafted with such love.
It’s the closest thing to perfect even with all its flaws…see what I did there-
I don’t have a favourite I love them all equally.