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The way Jinu is trying so hard to make Rumi hate him after the Idol Awards performance (because of course he thinks that’s what he deserves). He’s got the fake Mira & Zoey flanking him for just long enough for Rumi to see them, see them turn into demon, and see them disappear at Jinu’s command so there can be no doubt he was responsible. The way he’s so cold to her initially and claims that he was only ever using her the whole time. The way he lashes out at her with the truth about what happened with his family, describing it in a way that paints him in the worst light possible.

And it doesn’t work! When Jinu says what they had was a lie, Rumi doesn’t believe him. And when he tells her about how he abandoned his family she immediately tells him that’s not all he is. It’s not until he starts in on her being a demon that she breaks.

Jinu can’t make Rumi hate him. But he sure can make her hate herself.

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the whole star zipper/earring thing

I think most k-pop demon hunters fans already know that the star earring Jinu wears in Your Idol matches the star zipper Rumi has on her Golden outfit.

And I think a lot of people have clocked the symbolic placement there--Rumi's on her throat, where her patterns are choking out her voice, and Jinu's on his ear, because Gwi-Ma whispers into his ear (he even physically puts a hand up to his ear when he's surprised at not hearing Gwi-Ma's voice after Free, indicating that it probably does physically feel like a whisper in his ears).

Here's my thing.

I think lots of people are interpreting it as representing how they both healed each other. Jinu helped Rumi heal her voice, Rumi helped Jinu not hear Gwi-Ma in his ear.

Personally, I would argue that I think these symbolize the exact opposite of that?

So like, take Rumi's zipper. It's shiny gold, for one thing, but more importantly, it's used to cover up her patterns. That's its most important function in the movie. In the part of Golden that I screenshotted above, we get a ton of focus on this zipper, even a close-up shot of her pulling it up to cover her patterns.

All this while she's singing about how she's going to cover up her shame in order to be "perfect." Be golden.

In this scene, where the zipper is highlighted most obviously and used as a setpeice, Rumi is hyping herself up to putting on a mask of perfection. She's getting ready to act as if nothing is wrong, as if she doesn't have patterns or shame or flaws. And the zipper is used to showcase that, in a very literal sense, she is covering up the truth that she's ashamed of.

So, for Rumi, I would argue that her star zipper symbolizes how she's covering up her shame with a mask of perfection.

I think Jinu's earring is the exact same thing.

Something important that people have pointed out about Jinu is that he doesn't usually wear earrings in private. He only really wears them when he's pretending to be a totally human idol.

It's part of his mask, his persona. He doesn't wear them around Rumi in private. In fact, the only time he wears them around Rumi privately is in the scene where Rumi confronts Jinu after the Idol Awards.

And I think there's a pretty simple and obvious explanation for this: Jinu went into this confrontation intending to put on an act. He intended to play the part of an evil demon who doesn't care at all about Rumi and had only been manipulating her all along.

In the same way that Rumi's star zipper symbolizes her attempts to cover up her demon side and present as the perfect hunter and idol, Jinu's earrings symbolize his attempts to cover up his human side and present as Gwi-Ma's perfect little soldier, with no feelings or qualms or shame.

So why the star earring during Your Idol?

I think it's meant to signal to the audience the tight grip that Gwi-Ma has on Jinu during this performance. Jinu has worn earrings as part of a detached professional persona the entire movie, but this is doubling down by referencing back to Rumi's star zipper. It's going, hey, remember how Rumi covers up her shame with this zipper? Jinu's doing the same thing with this earring.

Like how Rumi's star zipper signals that she hasn't fixed her shame yet, Jinu's star earring signals that he still hears Gwi-Ma's voice in his ear, but he's covering up that pain--that shame--with an outside mask of professionalism.

Hence why he doesn't seem outwardly upset in Your Idol. He's doubled down on his persona. But the earring signals to us that it's just an act--that there's shame and self-hatred underneath the surface.

Of course, in-universe it's likely that Jinu wore that earring as a nod to Rumi, for whatever reason--whether it was a tiny bit of sentimentalism that he allowed himself to cling onto, or whether it was a form of hurting himself by forcing himself to remember her in a little way, or whether it was intended as a jab, or a mixture of those things. But I'm talking about meta, not about in-universe reasoning.

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"Your Idol is Jinu talking to Rumi--" Your Idol is Jinu and the other Saja Boys continuing a cycle of abuse by repeating the type of manipulative, toxic language that Gwi-Ma used to coerce them into being demons. References to the Hunters and Rumi are because

A) The writers are showing off how Gwi-Ma twisted Jinu's mind so that Jinu can't fully believe Rumi anymore. Concepts that were hopeful, like "we could be free" are now twisted to be damning measures of control and isolation, like "I will make you free / when you're all a part of me." It shows how bad Jinu's mental state is in this scene, and the way that Gwi-Ma has been messing with him, so that the audience can understand and sympathize a bit with him.

AND

B) Gwi-Ma also wanted to crush the Hunters' spirits in case they showed up, and likely made Jinu write the song with that in mind. This is not the first time Jinu has acted manipulative and toxic towards Rumi on Gwi-Ma's orders. See earlier in the movie: "I'll understand. I'm the only one who can." which is ummm a straight-up isolation tactic. Said because Gwi-Ma wanted Jinu to figure out what her shame is and manipulate her with it. We know that Jinu learned this type of behavior from Gwi-Ma, because Gwi-Ma also does this to Jinu in-movie: he isolates Jinu and keeps Jinu dependent on him by telling Jinu that Rumi will hate him and never accept him if she learns how Jinu abandoned his family. It's literally the same principle. Now in Your Idol, we get "I'm the only one who'll love your sins." Same thing, same thing, same thing.

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“We want more complex, morally Grey male characters”

Ya’ll couldn’t even handle Jinu

I’m going to preface this by saying that yes, there are things that this man does in this movie that are objectively horrible

1. He got hundreds of people killed

2. He betrayed rumi during the idol awards

However, THAT. IS.THE. FLIPPING. POINT!!!

This man has spent 400 years in the demon realm. 400 years of a manipulative, and seductive fire telling him that he doesn’t deserve any happiness, any comfort, any joy or love because of what he did to his family.

I think that the best way to describe his morality is through his verse in Free (which is the best song in the movie imo) :

“Oh time goes by

And I lose perspective

Hope only hurts,

So I just forget it

But your breaking through all the dark in me

When I thought that nobody could

And your waking up all these parts in me

That I thought were buried for good.

Between imposter and this monster

I’ve been lost inside my head

Ain’t no choice when all these voices keep me

Pointing towards no end

It’s just easy when I’m with you

No one sees me the way you do

I don’t trust it but I want to”

He wants to trust Rumi, he wants to believe her and be with her, but he can’t because he’s been manipulated so much. He does love Rumi, I truly believe he does, however you can’t just undo 400 years of manipulation in a couple days, and she understands that. Thats why she forgives him so easily after he humiliates her at the idol awards.

The thing that annoys me so much in the fandom is when people say that “jinu is just evil” or that “you only like him cause he is attractive”

1. Please for the sake of my sanity do not simplify characters by saying that they are evil or good. THEY ARE PEOPLE. God forbid someone makes a mistake or is not a perfect angel. He made mistakes. He did bad things. But, as Rumi told him, that is not all he is. The fact that he made those mistakes makes him human and makes him a person

2. Although yes he is attractive, that is NOT the reason that I enjoy his character so much. I love him because he makes mistakes. I love him because I can relate to his trauma. I love him because although he is the antagonist, he can be silly, dorky, and cute. I love him because he is such a big and important part of Rumi’s development throughout the movie. Lastly, I love him because he is so complicated and morally grey that there are so many parts of his character to decipher.

Sorry this is so long, I’ve just seen so much discourse and misunderstandings about Jinu and just wanted to share my thoughts.

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Придурок

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he's overreacting a bit

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You won't believe it: I'm drawing

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Can I get the mic a little higher 🗣️🗣️🗣️

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"Of course, I'm remembering the past. Kalee. The war. My wives and children. It feels strange. I wish I felt grief - I can never go back to them. But this feeling seems to escape my grasp. And no matter how hard I try, I can't remember her face. This is the most unbearable thing. The past is left to the past.

All I have left now is hatred. The only reason I continue living. The reason I shall slay the Jedi. ALL DOWN TO THE LAST ONE"

(I forgot to post this uhh. Also, in russian the wording of last phrases might refer to both hatred and to Ronderu. But this was lost in translation)

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fanart of a scene in chapter 12 i really liked. Kill Switch by King_Candybug on ao3 i loveeeeee u

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^ //TW for self harm and spoilers for the WIR fanfic Killswitch

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“It was you with the countdown Killswitch”

“And it was me with the blindfold on”

From a spontaneous storyboard to a two week labor of love, here’s the video! You guys gave me the motivation I needed to stay accountable follow through to the end, so thank you sm 🫶

Some of my favorite frames under the cut!

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Ansiel, annoyed by other celestials: I can live alone with automatons, why the fuck do I need people

Orthros: father wtf, let me go

Yeah... afk arena wiki says that Orthros is automaton, so I drawn this hehe

Actually, the canon interactions between Orthros and Zolrath made me think about things. First of: the different timelines can exist simultaneously in afk arena lore. The second one... how much the fuck my au is different from the canon.

It's so much different, that I decided to write about it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21272993/chapters/171613375

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Squish.

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/looks at the time the messages were sent/ in 5 minutes it is possible to do terrible things

-- SLUG -- Tfym slug -- Ahh I see

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2022-2023

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2023

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2023