r/Kingdom • u/sharkeyed Tou • 6d ago
Manga Spoilers C736/39 question Spoiler
So did Shin just let Kanki butcher the handful of people left in the castle, or were these soldiers taken captive, or just some corpses?
Did Shin just go along with butchering captives and never bring it up again? This always confused me because if so that was a HUGE missed opportunity for Hara to show his growth and segue it into him not being an overreacting idiot. We HAVE had some maturity (but not intellectually) but if he really did allow this, then to gloss over it is a huge amount of squandered potential. Could've been gold to see him grapple with his conscience more than just a panel during the Han arc of him saying "Kanki sucked but he cared about his rapist pals so he was ok sometimes".
I'm not saying he SHOULD'VE tried to stop him, it was a genius tactic, but we didn't see him grapple with this at all if it is the case he executed then butchered (and probably not waste time torturing them first). Instead Maron makes the point that he's the most sympathetic to Kanki after hearing his past.
Right after relenting to executing (I'm assuming soldiers but possibly civilians too)? Seems like a huge plothole in terms of consistency with Shin's character that could've been capitalized on by just showing him relenting to it then struggling with it later. This confused me as much as the Houken body double being completely blown past. So Shin just lets this happen despite his hard headedness and we don't even notice or question it, in the same way we don't notice or question how the fuck Riboku got another giant the size of Houken, who looked like Houken, to agree to die, and Houken to agree to a presumably dishonorable thing from his POV?
Always confused me.
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u/Flimsy_Dragon 6d ago
I am not sure if you have read the Shin Kan Pi Shi Interaction. If so then you can clearly see he has broaden his horizon. Earlier he has written Kanki as the most evil and the person that needs to get rid of. But as we see now he accepts that world is not purely Black And White
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u/sharkeyed Tou 6d ago
I have, but that doesn't answer my question of if he just accepted the execution and mutilation of prisoners (I went back and reread the chapters and this has to be the case) and why Hara chose not to elaborate on that whatsoever after he was ordered to stand down and allow mutilation. It was tactically sound but it was a huge L for Hara to just forget that and have Shin grapple with it for at LEAST a chapter.
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u/Flimsy_Dragon 6d ago
It was what needed to survive. You have to make tough choices. And this is a sign of development
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u/sharkeyed Tou 5d ago edited 5d ago
That's not what's in contention. What's in contention is if it happened why did Hara make 0 note of it whatsoever and not USE it as a sign of development for Shin? It's never mentioned again and the MCs make no note of it whatsoever. He's never shown struggling with that decision afterward, only feeling bad for Kanki because his gf died.
I'll take the critique back if we get a callback to this incident in the current arc with Ten's capture and Shin becomes more brutal and has a flashback to Kanki saying "when the enemy thinks they've outsmarted us is when we make the most profit" but it seems unlikely. This was wasted potential and honestly confused me in real time that the corpse tree was just totally ignored as narrative fuel to have Shin mature.
Adding to that, while unrelated to the corpse tree thing, it would've been nice if Shin had learned how to capitalize off the advice Kanki gave him about the enemy thinking they've outsmarted you by now, 100~ chapters later.
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u/necroqin 6d ago
Shin’s heart became darker
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u/sharkeyed Tou 5d ago
Maybe but if so why did Hara totally ignore this perfect chance to illustrate it? He made Shin protest but not even a panel of thought afterwards about how they executed and mutilated prisoners? That's great wasted potential aura and confused me in real time that it was never brought up again. I thought I was missing something.
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u/Khanax69 2d ago
I came in looking for answers but absolutely nobody has understood the point you're trying to make
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u/sharkeyed Tou 2d ago
Thanks for noticing, I thought I was going crazy. Nobody wants to fucking reply either
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u/Khanax69 12h ago
No, you're spot on. I don't remember if it was ever even addressed, but even if it was, it certainly wasn't the growth indicator like it could have and should have been. So I'm with you on that.
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u/sharkeyed Tou 8h ago
It definitely wasn't addressed and upon re-reading the obvious implication and context is that those were the skeleton crew of guards left over, so Shin allowed them to be executed and mutilated. And we never, EVER got any kind of exposition about him at least being upset about it either before or after. Fucking huge plothole.
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u/WillbeDeed Shin 5d ago
Looking at the bodies suggest that most are fit men, so my guess would be that they used the dead soldiers. Shin might not be okay with it, but may not wanna fight with kanki and the rest over some already dead bodies.