I Hate When People Are Discoursing On The Secret History And Are Like "oh I Never Fell For It, I Knew

I hate when people are discoursing on The Secret History and are like "oh I never fell for it, I knew they were pretentious assholes the whole time" like okay???? I'm sorry you have such a devastating lack of imagination. sorry you missed out on the silliest and loveliest part of the book. that's sad.

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nocontenttt

4 weeks ago

Hyuna is such a great character, and her complex feelings and perspective of the world that comes with her deep empathy for humanity is so interesting to think about.

While Alien Stage is about the perseverance of love in a broken world where mankind no longer has the language, traditions, or moral understanding of right and wrong to help them express their feelings, it stands out to me how Hyuna’s story is mainly centered around the love of humanity as a whole instead of being primarily centered around one other individual in the main cast (two in Till's case). This isn’t to say that other characters don't have this kind of love; it’s just that we are shown Hyuna being a part of a larger community beyond Anakt, and her interactions with other characters tend to go far beyond that of our leads (even when Mizi is in the rebellion, we mostly see her with just Hyuna).

And when she is with her respective pair, Luka, her brother Hyun Woo, or his presence, is usually right alongside them.

Hyuna is not a vengeful person. Of course she hates the Segyein for what they’ve done to mankind, but her focus is on the people. She leads the rebellion because she loves what she's fighting for and wants a better future for humanity.

It’s a crucial part of Hyuna’s character that her love always comes before any hate or resentment she may hold, even when it’s justified, which is why her relationship with Luka is so important when it comes to highlighting her complexity, because Luka is not a Segyein; he is a human just like her, her brother, and all others she has encountered in her life. He is oppressed under the same system that she is and has faced horrific abuse of all kinds under his guardian. The two of them were close and she loves him, but he is also responsible for causing some of the most painful moments in her life.

After her brother’s death, Hyuna’s world was shattered, in part because Hyun Woo was one of the most important people in her life, with this possibly being the first time she had ever been confronted with death, but also because, despite being an accident, Luka was the one that caused it. She could ignore and push aside her discomfort with some of his more egregious behavior before, but not here. His lack of reaction to Hyun Woo’s death compared to that of her presence made it clear to her how deeply unhealthy his infatuation with her truly is, and it hurt to see how he seemingly did not care about his actions despite him and her brother being friends.

Hyuna grew up to understand mankind’s faults, that people can be incredibly selfish and are capable of horrific cruelty, but instead of becoming jaded, her appreciation for humanity grew alongside her, because she knows that people can learn, choose how they act, and grow and change to become better.

Her optimism doesn't come from a place of naivety but of hope. “Recreating the extinct concept of love was by no means an easy task for her either.” Hyuna exists in a world where the Segyein have stolen everything from them, including what they know to be right and wrong. By all means, Hyuna should hate Luka; she wants to hate Luka, but she can’t. She understands that Luka is a byproduct of his environment, and while that will never excuse his actions, she knows that he genuinely didn’t understand he was hurting her because he was just copying what the Segyein had done to him and what he came to think was affection.

Hyuna can never forgive Luka, and she shouldn’t have to, but what she does want is for him to change and grow outside of the Segyein’s influence, just like she does for all other humans, to understand that what he has done is wrong and why it was wrong, because despite everything, she still loves him. Hyuna is a character that will forever be defined by her overwhelming love for others, even when she doesn’t want to be.