Akatsuki no Yona (Yona of the Dawn): Season 1/ Episode 16 “War Games” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

As Su-Won takes center stage at a war game, we learn how he perhaps surpasses his father, and why he deserves to be king.

Topic 1: A Wolf in Rabbit’s Clothing – Su-Won & Geun-Tea

Topic 2: Economics – Su-Won & Geun-Tea

Review (with Spoilers) – Below

Topic 1: A Wolf in Rabbit’s Clothing – Su-Won & Geun-Tea

In the war game, Su-Won has made it so there are two teams, and you have to break the plate on top of the opposite team member’s head to win. However, there are some stipulations which make it so you can only break certain team members’ plates. For example, a king can only defeat another king and a noble, but not a commoner, and pretty much the way things are setup is that you can defeat someone on your level, or lower. Though for commoners, they can defeat the king [1]. Now, rules aside, the competition is quite fierce.

For one, people immediately try to betray Su-Won, to join Geun-Tea, and this pisses him off to the point of admonishing them loud and publicly; secondly, Su-Won runs around for most of the war game, almost seeming like a comically cowardly king – similar to how King Il would be in people’s minds; and then Geun-tea realizes something. As Su-Won runs, and Geun-tea focuses on the nobles, his men are being decimated. For while a handful of commoners remain, Hang Ju-Do, the general of the sky tribe, a noble, is wiping out almost everyone. Leaving Geun-Tea by himself. However, even when alone he doesn’t falter. He remained strong-willed and the same inspiration he was when he begun the war games with a battle cry.

Especially since he went toe to toe with Su-Won. Someone who he has a combative enough experience with that he begins to question if this would-be rabbit, if not squirrel, maybe more than meets the eye. For even before going one on one, there was a situation in which Su-Won almost broke Geun-tea’s plate, something Geun-Tea’s supporters thought was luck, but a look in Su-Won’s eye made Geun-tea think otherwise. Long story short though, Su-Won and Geun-tea fight one on one and Su-Won ultimately loses, seemingly by letting Geun-Tea win.

Commentary

The main focus here, when it comes to Su-Won, is strategy. For while he may not fight like Geun-Tea, or Hak, and face the enemy head on, it is because he’d rather use strategy vs. strength. Hence how Su-Won distracted Geun-Tea’s men and led them to slaughter, and sometimes led them to slaughtering each other. For, in the grand scheme of things, the whole war games was about glorifying Geun-Tea in front of his people, while showing Geun-Tea that Su-Won is worthy of being followed. Something he seemingly proved.

Topic 2: Economics – Su-Won & Geun-Tea

Though it doesn’t end there. For while war maybe one of the main things on Geun-Tea’s mind, the economy of his tribe is another. After all, their main export is not only running low, but their mines are constantly in a state of disrepair. Add in trade has become a weak stream of income, and you have a serious underlying problem which could turn the Earth Tribe into another Fire Tribe. Luckily though, as much as Su-Won has the capabilities of his father when it comes to battle, he has the temperament of King Il, with better negotiation abilities, when it comes to diplomacy. Leading to two things: The first being that Geun-Tea’s wife tea fields have become a new source of income, since a Kai kingdom leader was served some and loved it, and then the stones worn in the battle have become quite the commodity, after being dismissed by Geun-Tea. Thus forcing Geun-Tea to respect Su-Won for he not only saw his battle prowess, but also saw him take advantage of what the Earth Tribe had to offer. And not in a way to exploit them, but show he was invested in them.

Commentary

With this episode, I must admit things have gotten a little complicated. If only because I feel like I should hate Su-Won for killing King Il, yet there remains this feeling there is more to the assassination than we know. Plus, all things considered, while Yona has a destiny, Su-Won is making strides which make it hard to not see him as a complicated villain. Hell, I would even argue Yona was collateral damage.

But perhaps what is most important here is that now I believe the show has it where you can’t solely align yourself to one side without question. For with the assassination, and even Su-Won presenting an interesting storyline over two episodes, he competes with Yona on multiple platforms. To the point I wouldn’t mind watching him win over the tribes as a break from Yona finding the dragons.

Things To Note

[1] I didn’t pay much attention to the rules to be honest, so this may not be exact.