Date: October 27 2021 1:01 AM Title: Reawakening
Oh boy, Jisoo's showing some much more concerning and pronounced sociopathic tendencies these past few chapters. Or rather her consciousness is telling in detail how much she enjoys this. I'm a little worried about how it does seem to be rubbing off on Eren. But then again, maybe I've read Eren's character wrong. He may not be someone who can show forgiveness or take a "that would just make us as bad as them stance" since he wasn't able to stop himself from attacking Alice or believing she should be forgiven. It does make his acceptance of Thomas being killed though. He was a protective brother, and even when Grace probably showed him just how evil Alice was he probably had a hard time accepting it under the torture and duress he was undergoing, especially since I doubt Grace let him hang out and chat with Alice between their sessions.
I convinced the family and it's corporation is definitely hiding some much less noble and justified murders and killings in it's closet. Outside of speck concerns, they've definitely killed people to reach the point of owning and manipulating ruling leaders and parties of multiple countries and continue to maintain that hold. I'm waiting for it to simply be laid bare and done right in front of us. Jisoo technically already has done it for us, murdering a guy for throwing an insult at Eren and killing the bartender girl for not speaking up oor stopping Alice and her friend when they snatched and carried off Eren.
For a family that's supposed to feel humbled and responsible for what they did to humanity, the Amrita's seem to have a lot of members who live lavishly and people like Grace have the smug confidence of knowing they can get their way and take what they want from anyone outside the family. Are the matriarchs really allowing their kids and grandkids to abuse their influence so freely?What if Jisoo's appetite for killing and brutalizing people is something she was trained, conditioned, or encouraged to do once she was brought back into the Amrita fold? She could easily simply be a vindictive speck lashing out for her 16 years of abuse, but the family history event where she crippled her father (not biological but purely adoptive?) and how she did feel guilt and remorse about her actions has me thinking someone in the family was subtly working on and training her to start acting on her feelings.
The mentioning of the family having "Heavenly Duties" that are still being kept from Eren until he's properly screened and indoctrinated and this divine mission that the family is working towards has that nagging devil's advocate sense for her mother coming back up. Whatever the family's end goal is I suspect it has some heavy price or extreme immoral component to it. Such that she fled from the family, stolen peaches in tow, and had a daughter with either the husband the family picked for her or some other unknown man.
She must've had some truly worthy goal if she convinced Byung-ho to not only raise and care for Jisoo but even take steps to keep the family from discovering her existence. He didn't simply take bribe money and then flush Jisoo down a toilet, but let his marriage and reputation fall apart shielding the tiny girl. I think Jisoo said in one of the chapters that her mother committed the greatest betrayal "to the family", so I'm suspicious the her mother confronted Baochai and/or Fang about their ultimate plan and killed or injured one or both of them.
It could just be to keep up public appearances letting some "reasonably young" like this Aunt Min running the public face of the family business, but neither Grace or Jisoo have addressed Baochai or Fang in a "present" tense and only talk about how it's Aunt Min who will judge and evaluate him as if she's the most senior member of the family's inner circle. As we've seen from the peaches, age shouldn't be meaningful, especially for someone with the family's unique blood so it doesn't seem unreasonable for a 150 yr old to be around and kicking. So it's very suspicious that Grace and Jisoo only talk about Aunt Min when discussing the inner family, even between just the two of them.
I'm leaning towards the family's end goal to be jump starting a 2nd Diminution event that will shrink the remainder of normal sized humans left since every person on the planet currently carries a dormant or active version of the virus. Possibly, what if the family actually manages to pull off an Inversion event? Where the 1/4 speck population gets restored while all normal humans shrink? The family matriarchs get to deal with their guilty conscious of letting half of humanity shrink and experience a drawn out century of abuse genocide. No matter what the core family gets to conveniently remain big in a world full of servants.
Touching on Maddie's arc, I'm curious about Eren and Maddie having a heart to heart talk. I wonder if Jisoo will relent about her grudge, honestly surprised she didn't try to murder Maddie for trying to slap Eren which would've killed him since she's literally killed for less. If she learns about and sees that Maddie's helped Maeve and wants to help more specks, I'm curious if Jisoo will make an appeal for her family to become a quiet investor/backer for Eureka. Helping them survive their founding Franklin invention and guiding them into doing an experiment to test how a company that helps vulnerable specks has an impact. Especially if it gets to do subtle jabs at society and open up its cracks by sharing stories or even footage of how a young speck can to lose a limb at a normal's hands.
Since it looks like we're closing in on Eren finally leaving for Asia to meet more of the Amrita clan, do you think you'll end this as a Book 1 and take a break before doing a Book 2?
Author's Response:
For clarification Byung-ho is Jisoo's adoptive father, right now nothing about her biological father has been revealed. And as always you are definitely correct with a bunch of those speculations, or at the very least in the same ballpark!
As for for the possibility of taking a break as of right now I don't foresee one and will try to upload on a weekly or biweekly basis. Obviously I can't predict the future and what will happen but I definitely want to finish this story before I begin any other projects. I won't make a separate story, but rather begin an Act 2 within the same story to keep everything together. However that does not eliminate the chances of a sequel, but if there is a sequel then it will be after Jisoo and Eren's story has been concluded. Maybe there is a chance of a short spin-off at a certain point but that is all up in the air right now. I do want to explore other story ideas but won't commit to anything until I have a clear plan established.
Thank you for the continued feedback!
[Report This]Date: October 25 2021 11:20 PM Title: Reawakening
Construction workers just never seem to learn: sooner or later, there is ALWAYS someone bigger and stronger coming along to kick their butts.
Author's Response:
"How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?" - Fish man
[Report This]Date: October 25 2021 7:36 PM Title: Reawakening
This moral downward spiral Jisoo is kind of going in is pretty enjoyable to witness, but it just makes me want Eren to snap out of the Anakin-like blind faith he has in her. Jisoo turning back into a monster has me eager to see if Eren's relationship with Maddie goes in a positive direction. Right now it seems like it's either get brainwashed into blindly following this nefarious overseas cult or snap out of it and be hunted by assassins. Maddie just seems like someone he can trust now that he's seen both sides of her, but we'll see whether he decides to forgive her and regroup with her or fall into line like Jisoo is hoping.
Author's Response:
I'm very happy to hear that feedback! Jisoo started this story off trying to be a good person and as the story continued regressed back into her old ways. The previous chapter was her big turning point where she completely solidified who she was now, so I'm excited to explore the next stage of her character arc.
Date: October 25 2021 4:40 AM Title: Reawakening
Wow. At first I was critical of Jisoo and her family with their "operation humanity's reduction" and the obvious problems with that. But after being reminded of the sort of "people" Jisoo and Grace typically hunt now I'm wondering why their family hasn't done round 2 yet. Are they short of certain resources or are they setting themselves up in every country before they flip the switch?
Part of me wants them to succeed so some ironic punishment can heaped up the brobs. Can't casualy dismiss specks as parasites when you become one now can you? Bonus if the specks turn on the former brobs for their poor treatment, like what Eren did to what's her name.
Another part of me wants them to succeed just so we can see the true "new world" they talk about. Besides those lost depending on where they were and what they were doing during Diminution round 2, I imagine there will be plenty who won't tolerate living as specks and plenty who will resist being ruled by the Amrita Corp. Like the saying goes: No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
Author's Response:
Another great way to put that quote, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
[Report This]Date: October 25 2021 2:09 AM Title: Reawakening
Too much mercy kills. They should be tortured over a long period of time. These evil people need to know something very terrible will happen, before their limbs are torn off.
She should force them to take all the body parts out of the elderly and children they killed. Carrying out children's bodyparts out at their current size will make them go insane. Than keep them for e week and tell them that their fates wil get much worst and that she will slowly rip of there limbs.
Liking this story very much.
Author's Response:
Brutal!