Yuni Analysis Addendum - Why Yuni wasn't aware of her actions.
Hello friends.
It seems like Yuni was a hot topic again for some reason, so, it's a good time I come out of my den.
As a reminder, I'm the guy who made the In-Depth analysis of Yuni a few months ago.
Please, if you think Yuni did what she did just because "she was feeling sad", "she's a monster / evil" or something among these lines, read my first post because you totally didn't understand her character.
It's fine to miss some key points about a character personality, especially Yuni, introduced in chapter 2 years ago and with a story scattered around multiple chapters. But please don't talk like you know everything about her if you have forgotten 90% of her most important scenes.
So, before I start, here goes the mandatory disclaimer : NO, I don't make these posts to clean Yuni of all of her crimes. Of course what she did was terrible. I'm just here to UNDERSTAND Yuni, because she's a very complex and nuanced character and it's a shame that most people prefer a more simple and comfortable black and white interpretation.
Well, I write a lot already and I didn't even begin to talk about the true purpose of this post. Silly me.
This post is a short addendum to my previous one. I forgot an important point back then, this being Yuni's state while she spreads fake information in the bunkers, indirectly killing hundreds of people.
What if I told you Yuni wasn't aware at all of the consequences of her own action?
Again, disclaimer, whatever she was aware or not, she DID indirectly killed hundreds of people. It's a fact. But I saw too much people saying that she WANTED to kill them, and this, is objectively false. And I'll prove if to you shortly.
I] YUNI IN "WONDERLAND"
Here, it'll be a bit of a recap' from my previous post, but it's important element we need to acknowledge before going further. Because I know a lot of you didn't even click on the link earlier. I see you.
During the Invasion's Arc, Yuni was completely gaslighted by Crow. And by that, I mean that she believed that you, the Commander, was seeking VAPAUS for HER, so she can kill Syuen.
In her mind, everything that happened during the Invasion was you working with her in the shadow.
Like you see, she was PERSUADED of this. I saw people complaining that Yuni stole VAPAUS from us. But in her mind, Yuni didn't steal it, she “received a present”. It's the name of the scene by the way. Nothing wrong was done, at least, in her mind.
And if you ask why Yuni believed this madness, well, it means you didn't read my previous post. But I'll be magnanimous for this time and give you the answer :
Yuni was in a dire need of love. After being utterly broken by Mihara mind wipe, after being forgotten by the commander, after being constantly abused by Syuen, Yuni needed someone to help and love her.
And this is why Crow was able to gaslight her so easily. By telling her the fake story that the Commander didn't forget her, and was even actively seeking VAPAUS to help her getting revenge on Syuen, Crow gave Yuni the “love” she desperately needed.
The Commander loved her so much he was fighting on the surface to retrieve a rare treasure for HER. Of course it's all fake, but Yuni was way too broken to not bite. She wanted to grasp every stray of hope she could, even if they were absurd.
II] COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Now, you understand, I hope, that Yuni mind at this time was completely disconnected with reality. She was in her own little world where only two things mattered : the Commander and her revenge against Syuen.
And that's the thing. Nothing else existed. She was mentally unable to see anything else. Here a very interesting scene:
In this scene, the Commander confronts Yuni directly about what she has done : lying to people in the shelters and indirectly killing them. He pointed directly at the numerous lifeless body on the ground, asking for a reason.
And what was Yuni reaction? She ignored him, knocked him out, and then acted like the commander was still on her side.
And to prove my point further, when Yuni met the Commander after this scene here her reaction:
See? It's like nothing happened at all earlier. She still thought the Commander wanted to kill Syuen with her.
She was so deep in her “wonderland” that, even with direct proof right before her eyes, even with the Commander himself saying he's not on her side, Yuni still wasn't able to break free from her illusions.
What she did was just one more step towards Syuen, nothing else. She didn't see the corpses, her brain couldn't register the info, "shielding" her from the reality, even if there were dozens of corpses just under her nose.
Think for a moment, if Yuni WANTED to kill, her reaction to the Commander would be more like "Yes, I killed them, and so? I did it for us."
But no, what happened is that Crow asked her to find a way to force the citizen to leave the bunkers, and she did. Not because Yuni wanted to kill them, but because she believed it was just a step in the process of her revenge against Syuen. Citizens being killed by the raptures was not something she anticipated.
Oh, and before some of you show me this scene:
... to prove that I'm wrong and Crow didn't ask Yuni for anything, please. What this scene means that Crow didn't tell Yuni what to do exactly, but she definitively ask her to make people leave the bunkers. Why I'm so sure of that?
Because JUSTE BEFORE Yuni TV appearance, Crow was complaining that the citizens were in the bunkers and so don't see the reality of rapture face to face:
Chapter 23, \"The Ark's Decision A\"
Crow also knew that Yuni would appears on the TV:
Chapter 23, \"The Ark's Decision B\"
So yeah, it's the indisputable evidence that Crow was the one who asked Yuni to do that. Sure, she let the exact method to Yuni's imagination, but getting the citizens out of the shelters was CROW's idea. And she was perfectly aware of what would happened, contrary to Yuni.
III] End Dream and Guilt
But let's go back to Yuni.
As proved earlier, she was in a deep trance, and nothing could break it.
Well, nearly nothing, because she did ended up waking up after shooting Mihara – who protected Syuen – and then, she panicked realizing what she just did. “Thankfully” she was shot by Crow just after, so she could at least “rest” for a bit.
Well, a bit, because well she regain consciousness, the reality was unavoidable and the guild crushed Yuni.
You may ask, "But if shooting Mihara woke up Yuni, why didn't she woke up earlier when she killed hundreds of citizen?"
The answer is quite simple : She didn't directly killed them. The citizens were indirectly killed, and that's why it was easy for her brain to ignore the information and kept her "dream" alive. But for Mihara, it's different. Yuni was directly the one who pulled to trigger, as deep as she was in her trance state, it was impossible for her to not see the consequences.
And thus, terrible things she ignored before suddenly submerged her mind.
You know, if Yuni was real, she would probably told people like me to stop defending her. Because she knows she did something inexcusable regardless of the circumstance. She's far from the “monster” some people want you to believe she is.
Imagine waking up from a nightmare, and realizing you just kill hundreds. This is what Yuni experienced. Most people in this situation would have chose to deflect their responsibility or at least trying to minimize their role.
“It wasn't my fault! I was manipulated! I wasn't myself!” would say the majority.
But not Yuni. She's too pure to turn a blind eye.
She even took full responsibility. Notice how she doesn't even blame Syuen, how she doesn't even blame Crow. It's the undeniable proof of Yuni humanity.
It's also one of the reason why I'm really annoyed when people try to demonize Yuni. You need to be immensely pure to take 100% of the blame, when you know for a fact that you were physically and mentally abused for days, weeks and even months while being in a state of weakness.
Yuni doesn't even care about her punishment, she's happy to be with Mihara again and that's all she needs. I know I repeated the word “pure” a lot here, but it's truly the most fitting adjective to describe Yuni. She doesn't even have an once of ressentiment for the people who tortured, mutilated her, robed her of her voice. And people still try to make her look like a monster. Shake my head.
CONCLUSION
So, what can we learn from this. First, Yuni by nature, isn't a monster, nor a psychopath, nor a Crow or whatever similar appellation. She was actually very innocent child - yes, even if she's doing BDSM, if you want to understand why, please read the first section of my previous post.
But after losing all the people who where dear to her and care for her, after suffering countless abuses, and after being subject to vicious manipulations, Yuni went temporary crazy.
In retrospective, there is no scenario where Yuni alone could have avoid this fate. She was just not strong enough to handle all of these abuses. Mihara was like a mother to her and Yuni was 100% dependent of her. After Mihara memory wipe, Yuni was totally lost, like a child who suddenly lose her only parent. How would you expect someone like her to endure so much cruelty and malice without going crazy?
I hope even the most ardent Yuni Hater could at least understand that.
Maybe if someone was with her during her suffering, thing would have been very different. The irony is that there were ONE person : mind wiped Mihara. But Mihara was also the only person who couldn't help Yuni, because each time she talked to Yuni “as if she were a stranger”, it was another blow to Yuni's broken heart.
This is the tragedy of Yuni's Story. A sweet little girl who was subject to so much malice she went crazy for a moment and did the unspeakable without even realizing it, because she trusted the wrong person.
This is why there are guys like me defending her against you people who think she's just some sort of psychopath who woke up one day and decide to kill, you people who think she was just “feeling sad” and she could have overcome everything alone.
Her story is much, much more complex then that.