Soo-Won

SPOILER ALERT! This article contains details from the manga that are not covered in the anime. Proceed with caution.

Template:Character Infobox

Soo-Won (スウォン, Suwon) is the current king of Kouka Kingdom. He is the son of the deceased General Yu-Hon, the older cousin of Yona, and the childhood friend of Hak. He murders his uncle, Emperor Il to avenge the foul murder of his father. Currently, he is resolving the internal conflicts of Kouka in order to bring the country back to the strong nation it used to be.

Appearance

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Soo-Won is a tall young man with a feminine face. He has long, dark blond hair that he ties into a side ponytail using a gold ornament. His bangs are parted in half and some strands are longer and wavier than the normal cut. He dons a simple white robe held by a purple sash under a mauve overcoat with purple hemlines. While his eyes were depicted as brown in the manga, this was replaced in the anime with a bright sea green colour.

Personality

Soo-Won is a kind, gentle, and friendly person who is always seen with a calm demeanour. Despite being composed most of the time, he displays moments of naivete and acts childish whenever he sees fit. He has a habit of changing the topic if someone notices his lies or questions his intentions.

Ever since he was little, he has been sociable. He can approach anyone as he never judges a person on their appearance. Thanks to this, he is able to establish connections with various people, even with those who appear to be crude. Due to his uncanny charisma he often forms bonds based on his hidden intrigue. However, despite all his socializing, he is still clueless about love. He fails to see someone else’s feelings towards him and when he does notice, he dismisses it as a misunderstanding. Ironically, he does understand how adult interactions work as seen when he stated to Yona that he can no longer do the things he usually does with her when they were kids. Oddly enough, this makes Soo-Won similar to Yona in this department.

With his frail looking build and lack of appearance in combat, he is viewed by some as weak and is often contrasted with his childhood friend Hak, a fighting protege. In truth however, he never shows his real strength unless he needs to. When he does display it, he is seen to be a swordsman even capable of threatening Lee Geun-Tae. He can also produce effective battle strategies that will lead his men efficiently and manipulate his enemies effortlessly. Moreover, he has a highly determined attitude, such that he will even challenge divine will if he needs to.

He holds great admiration towards strong people, especially his father, Yu-Hon, and aspires to be just like him. However, after his father was killed, he was devastated. Afterwards he became a more secretive person and schemed revenge for years. For this reason, he was willing to tear himself away from his friends and destroy his relationships with Yona and Hak to pursue his ambitions. Despite his heartless actions towards them, he still genuinely cares for them, as was made evident when he learned of Yona’s apparent death or how he was rendered unable to unsheathe his sword after seeing the anger and pain with which Hak attacked him.

Although very handsome and having a great amount of charisma, Soo-won appears to have some problems with having relationships with women, and becomes easily abashed when he is insinuated to have had one in Awa. As of now, he doesn't appear to be thinking about finding a wife, and even refused (somewhat vigorously) when his generals suggested that he marry An Lili, the Water Tribe general's daughter.

Background

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Soo-Won as a child.

Soo-Won always joined his father when he visited Hiryuu Castle in order to play with Yona and Hak when he was young. Together with Hak, he looked out for Yona’s happiness and was always ready to help her out. For instance, he comforted Yona and substituted as her “mother”, doing some of the things that the late empress did for her. When Yona was kidnapped, he and Hak asked the thugs in the town just to stop the kidnappers from selling his friend to the Kai Empire. His relationship with his friends made him happy and he wished that their bond would forever stay just like that. However, achieving this little dream of his became impossible when he was forced to choose between his friends and his revenge .

When he was nine, his father was murdered by Emperor Il, though the murder was covered up as an accident. Since then, he harbored a secret hatred of the emperor and plotted his revenge in order to fulfill his father’s dying wish to become the king. Knowing that this desire of his would eventually tear him, Yona, and Hak apart, he remained silent about his plans and continued as if nothing had changed until the day he could carry out his plan. At some point Emperor Il told him that Yona was the reincarnation of King Hiryuu and that he (Soo-Won) was different.

Synopsis

Fugitive Arc

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Soo-Won becomes the current King of Kouka.

When Soo-Won was informed that Yona and Hak were 'dead', he carried on with his plans to become king whilst remembering how he killed Emperor II, betrayed his best friends and trampled over them for his goals. He is shown to regret his feelings after being motionless and clutches Yona's hair tightly in guilt, but after coming so far and doing so much- he knows he cannot fail his goals, otherwise his ambitions were pointless in the first place. He therefore, continues with his coronation and becomes King.

Abilities

As the King of Kouka, he has the power to rule over the people and land. He has full control of the kingdom. Soo-Won is able to excellently wield a sword and other weapons. Son Mundok taught him how to use a spear at a young age. This is confirmed in the anime when he shows surprising ability in the mock battle against Geun-Tae, a general known for his skills in battle. Su-won also demonstrates great political competence when dealing with the five generals as well as skill in strategy as seen in the mock battle.

Soo-Won is a highly intelligent and cunning individual; these traits made him one of the best - if not the best - strategist shown so far in the series. One of the most recent exemples of his ability was dress his soldiers' horses like tigers to scare the enemies this tactic gave his men time enough to attack before the opponent could even react. His intelligence and charisma, as well as his skills as a warrior were enough to gather the support of four of the Five Tribes (with the Wind Tribe remaining as the only exception due to their loyalty to Hak) and consolidate his authority as the ruler of the kingdom. Politics seem to be his preferred ground, and he showed amazing skills in dealing with people; that does not mean, however, that he is not a great warrior himself.

Relationships

Yona

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Soo-Won and Yona's relationship back in their childhood.

Soo-Won treated Yona like a younger sibling, and always looked out for her safety. On times she felt down, especially after her mother's tragic death, he would come up with ways to cheer her up and make her smile return. Years later, when Yona confessed her feelings for him, Soo-Won admitted that didn't reciprocate the same feelings towards her, because he didn't really understand love, but he was touched by them. He also made clear that he was aware of her as a woman saying he could no longer hold her hand and sleep next to her as it would make him too nervous to sleep. Even though he betrayed Yona, he still worries for her. When Kan Tae-Jun informs him of her supposed "death", he shows a grief-stricken expression clutching her hair.

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Soo-Woon thinks about Yona

Some time later, after literally bumping into each other in Awa, Soo-Won hides Yona from his men by covering her with his robes and preventing them from knowing her identity. During the confrontation with them, Yona, still hidden, reaches for his sword and Soo-Won stops her. When his men leave, Soo-Won asks her if she wants to kill him, saying it was only natural that she did, but there something he had to do first, so he couldn't die just yet. He bids her farewell and leaves, creating the speculation within the fandom that Soo-Won has developed feelings for Yona.

Hak

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Soo-Won and Hak back in their childhood.

Hak and Soo-Won were childhood friends in the past and they always worked together to protect Yona. For him, Hak is a cool and dependable person, and this made him become somewhat jealous of Yona because she has a servant like him. Aside from that, he aspired to be as strong as him, and made him one of his goals in life. During their peaceful days, he asked Hak to protect Yona at

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Soo-Woon agrees with Hak

all costs, knowing that the three of them will separate after he commits his revenge to Emperor Il. It is shown that Hak and Soo-won deeply cared for each other and were best friends, and that's why Hak is filled with grief, even crying upon their first encounter after the betrayal from Soo-won.

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Yu-Hon

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Soo-Won and his father overlooking the Hiryuu Castle.

Yu-Hon is usually a strong and strict person, but is noted to be acting differently when it comes to Soo-Won. When he was still alive, he encourages Soo-Won, even to the point of telling his son to beat his sickness to death. Due to his strength and intelligence, Soo-Won looked up to him and dreamt that he could fight by his side someday.

Lee Guen-Tae

Lee Guen-Tae is the general of the Earth clan. Soo-Won goes to the Earth clan in order to help their impoverished land and to show off Guen-Tae as an admirable leader, who could boost morale very quickly. At first, Guen-Tae compares Soo-Won to Hak, saying that Hak is a better fighter, comparing Hak to a tiger. Although he compares Hak to a tiger, he compares Soo-Won to a rabbit for his skinny arms and to the fact that he has never seen Soo-Won fight. In the end, Guen-Tae has seen Soo-Won's strength and follows him as a leader and acknowledging him as king. During the meeting of the Tribes to save Lili, he teases Soo Won for developing feelings for her and considers the rescue mission as an excuse for Soo Won and Lili to get married.

Quotes

• "It does not matter to me if there is someone watching us from the Heavens because what I want is not the power of God, but the strength of the people. If anyone or anything gets in my way, even if it’s divine intervention, I will hold them down."
• "Kindness is not a crime. But sometimes it awakens the weakness and greed in others."
• (To Yona) "You're safe and sound. That must be because even now, he's [Hak] risking his life to the end to protect you."
• (To Yona) "Do you want to kill me? It's only natural that you do. But I cannot die right now, because there is something I must do."
• (To Kija) "I have no desire to sit on the throne."
• (To Kye-Sook) "What I want isn't power of gods. It's power from the people."
• (To Lord Kushibi In the manga) "We, with a 'mere handful of troops,' triumphed over a thousand soldiers"
• (To Kija) "I have but one goal, to make this country strong."
• “I cannot stop now. I must keep this kingdom alive.”

Trivia

• He ranked 9th in the character popularity poll conducted by Hana to Yume in December, 2014. He scored 389 votes in total.
• Soo-Won is the 11th person from the Sky Tribe to be heralded as the king.
• He and Mizuho Kusanagi share the same birthday.