Yashman as Jurdan
My biggest hear me out : Yash as Jude is the hill I will die on. The mortal in the world of immortals.
The drive that Jude has to make her own place in a world so unfamiliar and unfair, we have seen this film before.
So much struggle and not enough acknowledgement, she wasn't strong or skilled from the beginning, she had to learn everything the hard way. The character development, the story arc, chef's kiss.
Some dialogues of Jude that I feel are just so Yash coded :
"If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse."
"If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back."
"I don't think I can manage the climb. So I do the next best thing: I jump."
“Fear is a tool, not a master. I wield it like a blade.”
Now Shub as Cardan is actually very suitable, the prince who is just so clever and misunderstood. Has a way with words, is known and worshiped.
He is so infatuated by the mortal that he hates it.
These instances: Cardan grins at me as though we've been great friends all our lives. I forgot how charming he can be--and how dangerous that is.
Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?' Cardan asks, leaning back in the elaborately carved chair, the warmth of his words turning the question in to something like a compliment. 'No,' I say, glad to be annoyed back in to the present. 'Tell me.' 'I cannot,' he says, then frowns.
Tell me again what you said at the revel," he says, climbing over me, his body against mine. "What?" I can barely think. "That you hate me," he says, his voice hoarse. "Tell me that you hate me." "I hate you," I say, the words coming out like a caress. I say it again, over and over. A litany. An enchantment. A ward against what I really feel. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." He kisses me harder.
I think that's enough to get my point across, I hope so.
Also a bonus, Vaibhav as Prince Oak, it's the cutest thing ever. Imagine young Vaib putting the blood crown on Shub's head because Yash told him to, and Shub not being able to do anything and just kneeling before the small prince because Yash had manipulated him into being the next king, oh the words of a mortal, they are very slippery.
Young Jude with an even younger Oak, Yash would be so protective of Vaib because now the whole kingdom wants Vaib to wear the crown so that someone else could rule from behind. Yash making Shub the sacrifice in place of Vaib, the dramatics.
How can I forget the great exile of Yash from elfhame after he married Shub and was promised the whole kingdom, Shub playing a game of his own. But later yearning as if he had lost a lover to death, writing letters for Yash to come back, come back home. Yash doesn't receive the letters, he doesn't search deep into Shub's words and his riddle, he gets heartbroken by the exile and loses the fight to go back and demand answers.
I don't know if there's someone who knows what I am even talking about, but I just had to get this out of my chest, this is just too good to be kept in my head only. Even if you haven't read the book, i would like to hear what you think of this comparison, do tell me!
