A person who thinks all the time...
I'm sitting in a toilet rn
Has nothing to think about but thoughts
You know we can go even deeper... So there's 3 squad leaders (hounds) and in the lore, Cerberus is the three headed hound of Hades, the god who punished Sisyphus.
Omg your brain that’s an amazing thought
The ML is basically a god too, he's undead or something of the sort, he views the others as animals, he only sees the MC as a fellow human. So I'm guessing MC is our Sisyphus. And the ML is Hades. My guess is the plan the MC made with the other chick is not going to work, and the MC will be punished, but not by a trial, the ML will probably do something else to keep the MC with him.
Omg I'm gonna camp in this comment cuz everyone here is cooking some awesome theories and I'm loving it
I think you’re right about the MC being Sisyphus and the ML being the “hound” or atleast one of them. Maybe the MC did something that he doesn’t remember or he was the cause of some tragedy that helped him survive, and him going to the town is his punishment. The ML doing the killings not out of his own moral code but “by the rules” makes me think there’s a higher entity controlling this and the ML is just following orders. If that’s true then maybe the MC trying to escape/kill the ML is the “rock” metaphor, and he will continue to fail to do so. Ultimately, he will be stuck in the town, ending up with guwon permanently.
I am loving all the replies and theories, but I'll have to say I am still sticking to Sisyphus being Guwon. What you've gotta ask is, why is he even doing all of this for the people of this town if he regards humans as dogs? Like yes, he's not exactly doing it in a way we can say is morally just, but to him and his envisioning of other humans, those rules and that structure is a just one, and all for the benefit of those people.
What cements my theory is, despite Guwon (a being who doesn't need sleep much, can kill and eat what he wants, and def doesn't need those humans) doing all he can to maintain this town and its "peace", the people hate him and wish to overthrow his rule or kill him.
Despite Sisyphus's efforts to push the rock, it's all in vain.
Now why is the title about the hounds?
What I will ask is, why did we decide that the hounds in the title are the same squad leaders? Hounds mean dogs, albeit hunting dogs specifically.
Imo, the hounds in the title represents mc, the girl, and almost all of the town's people. Not only are the who Guwon is trying to raise and refer to as dogs, but they're also hounds for cultivating a hunting plan of getting rid of him, much like the three headed Cerberus that was Sisyphus's undoing. Honestly, the least important imo are those squad leaders and the only reason they seem of importance is because they offer a use that the rest of the townspeople don't want to offer, preferring remaining in the "peaceful" town instead of the dangers outside. And Guwon places usefulness above all else. They are the top of the dog hierarchy in his town of dogs, that's all. If the townspeople, or if something threatens their position in the hierarchy, like mc is doing now unintentionally and intentionally by his plan, they start to look not as important as everyone made them out to be.
Guwon is Sisyphus, trying to create a place to belong by raising dogs in a closed town to call his own, but his efforts are futile because said dogs are going to bite his head off. No human wants to be called a dog.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
As to why Guwon decided importance based on usefulness, why why those rules, why a trial, so on... I think it has to do with his creation, and what he remembers from his time as a human, or even his time being a "creation" by others. I don't think the town is a place Guwon is sent to and is following orders. At most, the town is an experiment whether people like Guwon can be the higher form of humans, if we're going with the theory that he is a humanized zombie or something of the sort. They just let him rum amok and see end results. I say this because when Guwon took mc, and when he changes some attitudes, there was no interference and nothing altering his decisions except his own whim, so no one is giving him orders.
As for MC's past and his hazy memories, I am not putting it past the author or the story or even mc that he could've killed his own father, or that he wasn't a good guy. I don't think the town is his punishment, but his punishment could be realizing Guwon's truth, if he's relatively innocent, the moment he gains his own memories of who he was and what he'd done. Or simply just realizing he's not as morally superior as he thought himself to be. Or just falling too hard for Guwon he stops the plan at its final stages when they were all finally about to be free.
Actually, it feels quite... How to say this... Doomed irony. The town wants to get rid of Guwon, but what are they going to do after he's gone and the squad leaders are gone, and their supplies run out, and they're all unprepared for combat and defense? How will they live? Will they create a new town, with new rules, and appoint a ruler? How would that be different? The rules ae now more just and fair? Yeah? Then to who? There is never perfect law. Justice is a myth that's only achieved in a utopia, what exists is the law and the law isn't always just. So really, what will make their lives any better in such an apocalypse if they've always relied on those people they keep saying they despise, and will create their substitutes when they get rid of them?
Food for the brain. This is why I say the townspeople and the ones concocting the plan are the hounds.
WOW YOU MADE ME FEEL SO DUMB, I LOVE IT
Damn, this actually makes so much sense since Guwon thinks everyone else are no more than dogs, pls keep going with your ted talk, I'm loving your theory (▰˘◡˘▰)
I see what you mean, it definitely does make sense for guwon to be Sisyphus. I think he refers to the people as “dogs” because he’s the one keeping the town together and essentially raising them, because he technically “adopted” them into his town. I don’t think it’s the most respectful way to describe them, but it fits when you make the connection between them and the “hounds”. Another way to describe them would be “kids” but that implies that both parties are of the same species, and I’m not sure that guwon is human.
If guwon is Sisyphus, maybe the “cheating death” aspect is him helping the humans by either taking those who have taken their own life and giving them meaning, or staging there deaths to give them a more meaningful life on the mountain (like they show at the beginning). This one is just a thought though.
I think the squad leaders are just the most patriotic of the bunch, it’s like our society where those who want to fight or those who are incentivized to fight join the army, while many civilians would not want to take on those roles. Guwon wanted to find useful people for his town, and he found people with a variety of skill sets.
Sorry for the yap
"The Hounds of Sisyphus", would Sisyphus refer to the ml? but if he's Sisyphus then it's odd because why would the title be about Guwon's underlings? So would Sisyphus actually refer to mc then, making ml and his underlings eventually kneel to him. But what could MC being referred to as Sisyphus mean for him? Afterall Sisyphus' mission to push a boulder in the hill ends in futile effort. Well the obvious answer is his plan to kill ml ends in futile effort but it would be interesting if the author cooks up something different or atleast an illusion of it to add an unpredictable factor