thoughts on mualani
originally written 14 september 2024.
so i've seen a couple people complain a bit abt mualani story quest (or tribal story questline, more technically, but they're like the same thing) and like. idk i actually really liked it!!
like, i mentioned this in my natlan thematic predictions essay, but i do rather suspect that natlan has the potential to absolutely devastate me with their themes. while i wouldn't class "unity" itself under "themes i am personally weak to", the end of mualani's quest touching upon like… making sacrifices for the sake of your…
we need an english word for 後輩 that has the same vibe as "forebear" does for people who came before you. im making an executive decision right now to coin "aftbear" (after + be-er, to parallel the etymology of forebear) everyone use this word forever now ok.
anyway. mualani story quest ultimate thesis of making sacrifices for the sake of your aftbears being able to grow up understanding the wisdoms and ideals that guided you to true greatness: now that is something i find myself touched by.
i feel like i had a good upbringing.
not always by my parents, but definitely by my senpai (and sometimes teachers) in high school. i'm not going to go into detail about it because i don't want to dox myself, but the gist of what happened is that when i was fourteen, i watched my upperclassmen sacrifice their time and energy and at times even can their own feelings of resentment for the sake of giving us first years the chance to learn and grow properly in a situation that wouldn't have granted it to us naturally otherwise; and when i was seventeen, i found myself sacrificing my own time and energy to push back against a new, yet terribly familiar, situation for the sake of giving my own underclassmen the same environment i had been given to properly learn and grow myself.
we failed, by the way. both my senpai and i.
and there is some part of me that probably knew my efforts were doomed past a certain point of trying, but i kept going anyway. and even then, when asked why, my answer was such:
i wanted my aftbears, whom i loved so dearly, to have a chance at all the joy and good i experienced when i was in their place. and i was willing to put my all into this fight because that is what my senpai before me had done for me.
and i remember being deeply incensed whenever people treated my care and effort as absurd and pointless because i would be graduating soon, and so whatever happened next would not be my problem. because how could i not care?
and i feel like it doesn't make mualani some waifubait mary sue to make that decision to forsake fame and glory, even when she comes from the nation which ostensibly venerates glory (in battle) above all else. to me, she just looks like a young woman who is very conscientious of the sacrifices it took for her childhood to be as painless as it was, and thus will put great effort into maintaining that painlessness for those who come after her.
peace is what all truly great warriors wish for, after all.