Idk if you had an Ask about this Before, but Scene Request: Jinu’s Post Takedown/Idol Awards Breakdown and Mentor Visit Please?
I’ve briefly mentioned this scene before, but let me go in-depth on it.
I think Jinu would see his mom first, after going back to the place where he was trained and raised. I would think when Eun-woo realized how bad things were getting, he would’ve called her to come to the hunter base where she and her family would be safe.
And, I know this is going to look bad, but his mom cowers away from him when she sees him. She takes a look at him and is in complete disbelief of what’s happening to him. Shes not quite sure what to even say to him, and he takes her silence as rejection and just tells her to forget about him fully.
I think part of it is she can’t help but be reminded of her demon lover. The one she saw die.
Probably also says he’s sorry for ever burdening her with his existence. Jinu is not in a good headspace right now. But he is basically saying the things he feels or has felt for a while, that he’s a burden on his mom, the thing that keeps her from moving on and living a normal life.
And then, he runs to the big tree that we see at the center of the hunter base, and he runs into Eun-woo there.
A little bit about Jinu and Eun-woo’s dynamic here real quick.
I actually think Jinu would be kind of like Tigress from Kung Fu Panda in regards to her relationship to Shifu. She wants his approval so bad, and did everything he ever asked of her. And Jinu is similar. I kind of think that he was primarily raised by Eun-woo and the other hunters, with him not seeing his mom and other family as much.
So, he viewed Eun-woo as being like his father, and he wanted him to love him. Which he thought would happen if he was the perfect successor, the perfect idol/hunter, and did everything that was ever asked of him.
But unfortunately, Eun-woo is the kind of person who would call Jinu’s patterns unsightly and chastise him for it and then gently correct his fighting stance in the same breath. Enough kindness that Jinu didn’t fully realize the amount of poison he was being fed until it literally started to choke him (affect his voice). Not really winning in the parent department.
Though, I do think that Eun-woo, for all the ways he has clearly failed Jinu, does care about him even though everything he’s been taught told him that Jinu shouldn’t exist. He cares, but he also can’t help but hurt him.
Basically a traumatized adult raising a kid who is part of the species he’s been taught to despise and kill without hesitation. (Like Celine and Rumi)
And we have the part where Jinu basically tells him to do “what’s best for everyone” and kill him.
To which, Eun-woo says he can’t, both because he actually cares about Jinu and because if he did it would be admitting that he was wrong and all these years were for nothing. Like an inability to destroy what he created.
I kind of feel like while Eun-woo couldn’t bring himself to kill Jinu as an infant, he also feels guilt for it because it went against everything he was taught. That he wasn’t “strong enough” to do what needed to be done.
And he probably tells Jinu that, that he was “weak” before but that they can both still fix everything and set it all right again. He’s trying to atone with his own perceived shortcomings by “fixing” Jinu so what he did (sparing Jinu and going against the hunter code) is justified in his mind.
So, he tells him to cover up again so they can fix things, but Jinu rejects that.
Jinu: Don’t you get it? This is what I am. Look at me.
Eun-woo: *can’t even look at him*
Jinu: Why can’t you look at me? *on the verge of tears* Why couldn’t you love me?
I kind of imagine that Jinu asking why Eun-woo couldn’t love him is part of him wondering why he still isn’t good enough. Though, ultimately, it was because of something that Jinu can’t control.
I also feel like Eun-woo wouldn’t even know what to say in response to Jinu because he really doesn’t have an answer, or the words. Which doesn’t help anything.
And then, Eun-woo falls back on what he’s been taught again, how their faults and fears must never be seen for the sake of the Honmoon.
And Jinu kind of crashes out and goes “Well, if this is the Honmoon I’m supposed to protect. I’m glad that it’s being destroyed.”
