Tbh I think its a little complicated since king il was also apparently doing a horrible job running the kingdom, soowons dad was blood thirsty conquering and supressing people through extremely violent methods and that got him killed by King il, then Soowon took King il out both for personal revenge and to strengthen the kingdom, if he could've done it peacefully he might have but King Il was completely against Soowon marrying Yona, soowon thought he was dying due to the crimson illness so he chose to strengthen the kingdom best he could then handed it off to her and hak.
Also Yona loves her kingdom and all the people in it, she loved travelling and seeing new things but we know damn well her love for Kouka Kingdom never faded it makes sense she returned and became queen
IL knew of the killing intent of Soowon after reading soowon's mother's card, actually they both read it. He could have spoken to IL about it reach a peaceful agreement or at least try but he didnt. Not only that, he was planning on killing IL since long ago and he still befriended yona and even gave her a present, he didnt need to do that, completely unnecesary.... there is no real excuse for that, he could have avoided a lot of yona and hak suffering just didnt care enough... also, he chose to humiliate yona on purpose by having her sit at the queen's throne and use her friends (dragons) like bait in battle. You dont really need to try and paint him in a better light, its just impossible if you pay attention to all the other options he had and even his tought process, he deserved a far worse fate
I don’t think he deserves a far worse fate bc let’s be honest here, if soowon wasn’t king, yona by herself wouldn’t be able to change kouhka country or fix the other countries/tribes.
Was there was a better way to do it? Yes, perhaps. He could have told Hak and Yona about king il ways and maybe marry Yona and change the country like that. But how long will that take? If Yona didn’t get casted out of the kingdom how many people that Yona had helped in the manga wouldn’t had existed?
Plus Yona in the beginning of the story was a princess who didn’t care that much for the poor people or knew of the state her people was in. Plus she would have believed her father ways just like Hak.
Another thing, king Il did not like soowon so,I doubt soowon would have been able to do anything to fix the country with king il still alive.
I still hold the belief that it wasn’t in soowon’s plan to kill Yona and hak bc something tells me if he was alone with them without his soilders and the other 2 men (can’t remember his name) he may of let them escape through exile. But yeah his actions you mention in this comment wasn’t good and I agree with you. I don’t think Yona and Hak 100% forgives him bc that’s impossible and I don’t think the author is trying to push that too much. If anything they just tolerate each other.
You are right but they didnt know the future, soowon didnt do the things he did so yona could grow as a person and come back stronger to help her country lmao, he didnt care enough about her fate, she survived what could have been much worse. He did deserve a worse fate like what punishment did he got, yona and hak being mad, being sick (was going to happen anyways) and not being king? (was also going to happen anyways because almost everyone loved yona more).
SO THEY JUST FORGIVE SOO WON LIKE THAT? what the fuck he had it so easy after betraying and humiliating her, im so mad they forgave him
I also really dislike how yona is always right, she always knows what to say, what to do, people trust her way too easily, it doesnt make much sense... ever her emotions, her control over them is too unrealistic, besides wasnt yona more happy traveling? now she cant do that as a queen... is that really a happy ending? i have mixed feelings about this manga, its good in general but i cant bring myself to fully like it