Five Broken Blades

“I was once a prized hunter—the best in Yusan, according to the king. And now here I am, in the badlands, in Fallow, and I am the prey.”

Despite feeling hunted for the past three years, Euyn still holds the same lack of accountability and guilt over his murders that he displayed during his time as a pampered prince. Thus, Corland emphasizes the fact that even though he has become “the prey,” he remains unchanged in his outlook and philosophy.

“I walk with a hood covering my black hair and dusty sand encrusting my tunic and trousers, just like everyone else, but there’s something about me that refuses to be common.”

While Euyn’s physical characteristics typically qualify him as a handsome man, his humble circumstances do not alter his innate air of superiority. Though Mikail will later qualify this trait as being derived from Qali Palace’s corruptive power, the introspective, first-person narration in this passage reveals that Euyn simply holds a fundamental belief in his superiority over others.

“I try to see that there is goodness in this realm. That I am one of the lucky ones. I survived. We survived.”

This excerpt alludes to the novel’s focus on Covert Resistance to Oppression. Sora is in a unique position to feel crushing despair, yet her choice to recontextualize her circumstances into a manageable situation gives her the power to remain steadfast in her commitment to Daysum. The short, sharp sentences and repeated emphasis upon survival also imply that she is using these statements as a form of self-soothing so that she may find the will to persevere.

“Struggling only makes these men violent. They are used to the world bending to their desires. They will break you if you don’t. So I don’t fight.”

This passage alludes to the misogynistic views on women that are common in Yusan’s patriarchal society. Because Sora has extensive experience in dealing with powerful men, her report of common violent behaviors from noblemen is designed to be a reliable and ultimately damning indictment of the unchecked abuses of power that run rampant in Yusan.

“But even though I haven’t him in three years, I knew him for six before he perfected all these tools. Before he made honesty a weapon, like a poisoned sword to be used as sparingly as possible.”

This quote reveals the fallacy in Euyn’s assessment of his bond with Mikail. While he may recognize Mikail’s skill with twisting truths, he wrongly assumes that the years they spent together have made him privy to Mikail’s true identity, quirks, and habits. His essential lack of understanding of the man he claims to love becomes a primary yet largely unspoken conflict in the novel.

“Any safety from running was an illusion. I swallow hard and remember that Mikail isn’t ruthless—he’s realistic. We can’t have the highwaymen telling people they saw a man with a flaming sword. […] It would give away Mikail’s presence and possibly mine, as there are only about a dozen in use.”

In this passage, Euyn deliberately rationalizes Mikail’s killing spree in a way that mirrors his attempt to justify his own murders of the hapless prisoners in Westward Forest. Just as he leavens the gravity of his kills by emphasizing the fact that his victims were all convicted prisoners, he now engages in a similar form of self-deception by invoking the perceived proximity of danger as an excuse for Mikail’s brutal actions.

“On some level, people love watching others suffer and die. Mikail more than most. But it’s understandable. A taste of death makes us savor our mortality.”

In this passage, Corland echoes the sentiments expressed between Mikail and Euyn. Even as Euyn justifies and excuses Mikail’s bloodlust, Mikail will later make a similar comment asserting that Euyn’s decision to hunt humans never bothered him. Thus, it is clear that both men have a mutual appreciation for their shared ruthlessness.

“Daysum would not have survived. And while I will never be grateful. I can admit that he [Seok] is correct. Our parents, who sold us into slavery for gold, would not have been able to afford the medicine to save her.”

In this passage, Corland exposes the benefits of Sora’s position as Seok’s poison maiden. Although Sora was made an assassin against her will and her body’s autonomy was stolen from her, she nonetheless recognizes that her fate has allowed Daysum to retain some form of autonomy. It is unequal compensation, but Daysum has nevertheless been given a livelihood beyond what their family could have afforded.

“I’ll keep reviving him [Seok] with antidotes until I hit nineteen times. One for each girl who died in his poison school; one for Hana, who was murdered as a poison maiden; and one for Daysum. And then I will whip Seok to death for me.”

In this tirade, Sora’s fixation on the whip carries the memory of Daysum’s suffering and suggests a more symbolic meaning. Because the image of a whip is often associated with enslavement, her daydream of using such a weapon against Seok invokes a sense of poetic justice, and she hungers to turn his own enslaver’s weapon against him.

“Someone long ago tried to domesticate [the samrocs]. The man thought that if he could ride a samroc, if he had a flying vessel, he’d be invincible. Legend has it he is the reason the birds developed their taste for human flesh. They devoured him and then came for the rest of his family.”

The inclusion of this myth in Corland’s narrative provides an ill omen for Euyn’s future. If the samroc symbolically represents the idea that his past will catch up with him, then the samroc’s own past may implicitly signal Euyn’s future demise.

“I can say with absolute certainty that the prince I knew never would’ve given his life for mine. But Euyn offered it to the gods tonight. And here we are.”

This excerpt displays a rare misunderstanding on Mikail’s part, for his assertion about Euyn’s character is implied to reflect his own perspective rather than Euyn’s. Mikail is the one who is ready to allow Euyn to die. Though it is impossible to know whether Euyn, pre-exile, would have let Mikail die, his actions throughout the narrative consistently proclaim his devotion to Mikail, who is the only person he loves.

“Although I doubt he’d admit it, Euyn expected me to storm Idle Prison—the political dungeon under a monster-filled lake, literally the most secure place in all of Yusan—and rescue him. And when I didn’t, it meant that I didn’t love him.”

In this passage, Mikail reveals that Euyn is a naïve romantic whose outrage over Mikail’s perceived betrayal originates in Euyn’s disappointment that Mikail didn’t play the knight to Euyn’s damsel and ride to his rescue. The passage also highlights Mikail’s highly practical assessment style. While Euyn allows his emotions to get the better of him, Mikail is steadfastly logical.

“‘I had real friends once. […] Your father did away with them.’ […]

‘I’m not sure why you think it’s different for me. Being home is a reminder.’”

Here, Corland outlines a parallel between Sora and Ty—one that foreshadows an eventual resolution of their misunderstandings. While Sora might have been forced to face horrors, Ty also suffered horrors of his own, and this shared legacy renders them much more similar than Sora initially believes.

“I see you inherited your brother’s disdain for the female sex. Surprising, given how many shared your bed.”

Though Euyn’s disdain for women never interferes with the plot to kill his brother, his reticence in engaging with women in any capacity other than sex reveals his misogynistic tendencies. Given that this is implied to be a shared trait among royal family members, this aspect of his personality can be ascribed to the patriarchal society in which he was raised.

“There are guys who think they can take whatever they want because they’re bigger, stronger, more powerful. I fucking hate them—square up with someone your own size.”

In this passage, Corland once again invokes irony while developing Royo’s character. Although he may disparage men who believe that they can have whatever they want because of their station, he nevertheless promises his loyalty to Euyn—the one man who believes that he deserves to control all of Yusan.

“Yusanians and their contracts. They believe contracts for all things are legitimate so long as the form is correct. Slavery is illegal simply because there’s no compensation in exchange for the labor and no end to the term […] It’s a strange thing—how paper contracts keep our country from complete moral collapse.”

In this passage, the author demonstrates the institutional discrimination embedded within Yusan’s governing powers. By making the letter of the law a weapon with which to exploit people, Corland subtly implies that power and wealth are consolidated in the nobility because they have expressly made it so.

“He [Ailor] loved me when he needn’t have. And for that I’m forever grateful. Yet when I’m asked about the scars on my body, I imply it was him. I say my family, because it immediately gets people to stop asking.”

While Ailor is later revealed to be the person whom Mikail loves the most, this passage reveals the extent to which Mikail is ready to sacrifice everything for his cause. He does not reward those he cares for with respect and love; instead, he harbors no qualms about using them ruthlessly to advance his ambitions.

“Since I [Aeri] was disowned, I haven’t exactly been re-owned. And he’s all I have.”

This passage highlights one of the persisting mysteries of Aeri’s character. Though it is later revealed that she was presumably kidnapped by Prince Omin, the novel never explains why Joon disowned her and does not clarify whether this was done before or after Omin’s death. Thus, Corland creates a tangle of loose ends that only a sequel can resolve.

“My father says that many of those children have lazy, able-bodied parents at home. That they are acting like orphans to get free mun. But even if that’s the case, I’d rather give mun to a hundred actors than walk past a child in real need.”

In this excerpt, Corland juxtaposes Seok’s perspective on the poor with Ty’s more compassionate stance to showcase Ty’s superior morals and spiritual resilience. While Ty has been beaten into imitating his father in public settings, he nevertheless purposefully chooses kindness rather than internalizing his father’s cruel and demeaning beliefs.

“There’s something detached, clean, and quick about pulling a trigger and shooting a man at a distance.”

This passage highlights the emotional distance that Euyn maintains from his kills through the use of a crossbow, and the terms “clean” and “detached” emphasize this aspect of his approach to combat. For him, fighting with a weapon that requires close quarters would leave him bodily and emotionally tarnished. However, rather than reconsidering his stance on killing, he chooses a weapon that will mitigate this feeling of unease.

“I don’t even know how [Quilimar is] managing in a country that lets women have rights.”

In this passage from Euyn’s perspective, Corland implies that Euyn’s reign would have embraced patriarchal and even misogynistic practices if he and the others had been successful in killing Joon. He, like his predecessors, would have upheld Yusan’s common practices of gender subjugation simply because he cannot conceive of women’s rights as a desirable outcome in society.

“You only become a sharpened blade by having the soft parts of you stripped away. [Mikail] knows that better than anyone.”

This passage echoes the novel’s title and questions whether “stripping away” all a person’s “soft parts” is the proper way to sharpen one’s sense of self. The narrative pointedly states that Mikail took this approach and yet failed to achieve his revenge, thereby implying that such a ruthless approach to reshaping one’s own identity forges the self into a “broken blade.”

“[Rune] killed a dog for no reason. The dog had done nothing wrong. It died merely for spectacle. That is how these men are.”

The barely restrained tone of fury and contempt in this passage is designed to emphasize the nobility’s lack of respect for beings that are considered to be lesser, and the narrative therefore draws an implicit comparison between the hapless dog and the powerless lower classes of Yusan. While Euyn may claim that he will aim to be a fair king and Mikail might assert his wish to liberate Gaya, both characters nonetheless betray a similar disregard for innocent life.