| Shin-ah, aka Shina, aka Seiryuu, the Blue Dragon of Akatsuki no Yona |
[05 Mar 2015|02:34am] |
So! Finally, here are the references for you, Kori!
But I am not content to just give references, I want to give a little backstory so that you can understand the character a bit better, for drawing purposes. First, here is the main reference, which comes at the end of his arc:
So, the basic story of Akatsuki no Yona involves a legendary Red Dragon god, who incarnated as a human man thousands of years ago; his fellow dragon gods of various colors (White, Blue, Green, and Yellow) were concerned over their beloved brother becoming mortal, so lent their powers to various human warriors, endowing them with a portion of the god's own powers. In time, that legendary god died, and thousands of years later, one of his descendants, a young spoiled princess named Yona, becomes his reincarnated self. Yona grows up in relative luxury, but soon after she turns 16, tragedy befalls her; her childhood friend Soo-Won ends up killing her father, and she has to run away with her other childhood friend, Hak, in order to escape being assassinated herself. In the process, she ends up finding out her legendary destiny and goes on a quest to go find the descendants of the original dragon warriors. That is literally the briefest summary I could make of the basic premise. Anyway, onto Seiryuu, aka the Blue Dragon, aka Ten's beloved fave dragon warrior!
So, we meet the Blue dragon soon after Yona obtains the allegiance of the White dragon. That first encounter went very well, but the Blue Dragon has a much more troubled backstory…
The Blue dragon is born into a village where it is believed that the dragon powers are cursed powers, and furthermore, as soon as a baby is born who manifests the new power, the old dragon (who is usually still alive and actually usually still a young man) instantly loses the dragon powers, and is destined to die soon afterwards.
For Seiryuu, when he was born, his mother was actually so distraught to have given birth to a baby with the dragon curse that she ended up killing herself, so he was raised by Ao (the former Blue Dragon), a young man who had lost the particular dragon powers, was now going blind because of it (because the Blue dragon grants amazing eyesight and also the ability to freeze enemies where they stand with the power of his gaze), and who is angry and resentful because he had been shunned his whole life by the people of his village but who protected them anyway, and who is actively dying even as he raises baby Seiryuu. This makes Ao harsh and strict with Seiryuu.
This is Ao. He has the same outfit as Seiryuu, and the same coloring, so he makes for a good reference, because he has similar looks but because he has lost his powers, he no longer wears the mask to cover up his eyes, and also he had a harsher and more commanding presence, which shows in his demeanor.
Ao is super strict! But he is this way because he is kind-hearted and is trying to raise Seiryuu to survive and to fit in with the people of his village as best as he can, despite the fact that they shun him too. Baby!Seiryuu wants to make friends but Ao tells him that it is never going to happen. Ao eventually goes blind, and then breaks down:
Soon afterwards, he dies. A baby Seiryuu uses his powers, ends up killing tons of men with the power of his eyes, and his entire village needs to relocate because of him and the move into the mountains, with Seiryuu literally living in a cave and spending most of his time in the dark and alone. It is, as you might guess, a super sad and tragic state for anyone to be in, but especially a sweet and kind-hearted and soft-spoken young dragon warrior who just only wants to have some friends. ;;;_____;;;; (Can you see the appeal??? Can you????? XD)
He is the Blue Dragon. Here you can see his whole body and see him in his cave with his chipmunk/squirrel friend (his only friend) who he named Ao, after his dead protector/guardian.
So, of course, into this life of misery and isolation, Yona comes, looking for the dragon. The Village people are evasive and become actively hostile once they realize what Yona is looking for, but early on Yona and her friends are nominally welcomed into the caves. Yona becomes separated from her friends in the caves, and one of the villagers takes this opportunity to lead her deeper into the caves, presumably to kill her without her warrior friends interfering. But Seiyuu saves her!
Another dark screen cap, because caves.
At first he just takes her back to her friends, but then departs quickly upon sensing the White Dragon's aura; he doesn't really know anything about the legends of the dragons, but it doesn't matter, because his dragon soul recognizes his dragon brother and furthermore, he had one of those mystical moments of recognition where he realized Yona was Some Kind Of Special Important Person, even though he didn't understand why, and that feeling spilled over him in this oppressive feeling that made him flee back into the caves. Once Yona realizes he was the Blue Dragon (Kija, the White Dragon, tells her that it was him), she immediately goes after him, because she wants to ask him to join her.
While he was busy angsting, Ao was busy being a chipmunk of limitless cuteness.
Yona goes to confront him!
Seiyuu is immediately on the defensive and draws his sword, holding the tip up near Yona's throat; he holds himself steadily but his hand is faintly trembling.
(some nice outfit references!)
At first upon her questioning, he is moved.
But quickly becomes more threatening when he realizes she wants to "borrow" (to him: use) his powers:
But Yona is Okay with it. She feels safe around him even with a sword tip raised to her throat!
He still won't go with her though, and Yona doesn't press the issue, and sadly turns away. She is not satisfied with leaving him:
Fortunately, before she can leave completely, there is an earthquake (it happens because the village people started threatening the White Dragon, who was standing guard outside the entrance to the Blue Dragon's cave, and the White Dragon kinda low-key had to unleash his powers but oops that caused a minor avalanche inside, blocking them all inside the caves. THIS IS VERY CONVENIENT, OBVIOUSLY, BECAUSE THEN YONA IS TRAPPED IN THE PROXIMATE SPACE WITH THE BLUE DRAGON, WHO IS OBVIOUSLY GOING TO HAVE TO EMERGE FROM HIS DARK HOLE TO COME FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED, AND HELP OUT.
(Seriously, so many of the beats of this story are kinda predictable, in a fairy tail way, but it's so well told that it's just satisfying, you know???)
When he does emerge from his cave, one of the villagers freaks out upon seeing him, because the villagers are stupid and think that Seiryuu is going to do something horrible to them all for causing the earthquake. THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW HIM, DUDE. Anyway, the villager freaking out causes him to flail and that accidentally causes Seiyuu's dragon mask to be knocked off, and so finally everyone can finally see his bare face, and his eyes (which are described in-story as unsurpassedly beautiful):
(his eyes are a kind of hazel-opal color, and I think the animators did a good job making them look supernaturally lovely here)
Closer…
And here, in non-Yona vision:
Because he is kind, he immediately closes his eyes…
And starts helping Yona and everyone dig out of the blocked-in cave.
At some point Yona gets exhausted with digging, so he carries her back to his lil cave area and lends her his furry head covering as a kind of blanket, and Yona breaks down in tears, because she can see how kind he is and it makes her so sad to see him so misunderstood and alone:
She declares she will save him!
And he is very moved:
And realizes he will go with her after all! That following his destiny in this case will also mean abandoning his own loneliness and sense of purposelessness and despair.
After they all dig themselves out of the cave-in, he formally agrees to go with her, tears in his eyes:
As he leaves, the bells he was wearing this whole time (in remembrance of the original Ao; he wore them when Ao's blindness got to the point that he needed sound in order to know where Seiyuu was) fall off his mask, and he decides to leave them behind, as he goes off to his new destiny:
Out under the sunlight at last, he and Ao stand under the dappled lights of the forest and enjoy their newfound freedom:
Kija, the White Dragon, declares that they are now brothers and he will teach him ALLL about being a dragon warrior!
And eventually, under the moonlight, Yona gives the previously nameless Seiryuu his new name, Shin-ah, which means "Moonlight."
Like a cutie, he later wakes up Ao to formally inform Ao about his new name:
And that is it, the condensed version of Shin-ah's backstory!
The following google image search should give you a decent amount of additional references if you need them: https://www.google.com/search?q=shin-ah+akatsuki+no+yona&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1920&bih=1002&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=nwX4VPzdIMmxyAS5koHgAw&sqi=2&ved=0CB0QsAQ
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