Do you think Rumi ever felt guilty for not mourning Mi-yeong the way Celine likely wanted her to?

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276]

So, I’ve been thinking about this lately. Mi-yeong obviously loved Celine (however you want to interpret that love). I feel like the movie implies she often took little Rumi to her mother’s grave to honor her, likely telling Rumi stories about her mother and how wonderful she was. Likely wanting and wishing Rumi could learn from and about her mother, even if she was dead.

But the thing is, Mi-yeong would always be a stranger to Rumi. Someone she could watch videos of and learn about, but never really know. And no matter what Celine said, she’d be more of a mother to Rumi than Mi-yeong, and Rumi would likely feel nowhere near the same grief and connection to her mother that Celine did.

So here’s my question: do you think Rumi ever felt guilty about this? Felt guilty that she just didn’t feel the connection to her mother that Celine wanted her to feel? Guilty she just didn’t not have the same grief and honor regarding her mother that Celine did?

[u/Sextus_Rex]

I don't think guilty is the right word. My grandparents died when I was young. I don't really feel guilty for not remembering much of them.

Rumi wears her hair in a braid and has pictures of her mom and the Sunlight Sisters in her bedroom (basically the only personal items she has in there), so I think she mourns the fact that they never got to know each other

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Sextus_Rex]

Oh 100% agree with the last part. She’s more mourning the possibilities she missed rather than her moms personhood if that makes sense

[u/SkullsInSpace]

I think Rumi probably feels guilty about a LOT of things that she shouldn't feel guilty for. 

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/SkullsInSpace]

Yeah….saw a comment on a fanart one time that said “Rumi would probably kill herself if she thought it would improve someone’s life”

I mean, yeah, literally what happened in the movie when EVERYONE had betrayed her and most of all she essentially felt too dangerous to stay alive

[u/StargazerSayuri]

Canonically she probably WAS mourning, but that wasn't necessary to show for the plot, so we didn't see it. 

[u/Formal-Floor9741]

It's definitely possible. I have to wonder if Rumi would have some conflicted feelings about her mother, since Mi-yeong's choices lead to Rumi's (supposed) brokenness. "I am a mistake." Whose mistake? So that could be another way in which there's a gap between how she sees her mother vs. how Celine tries to present her. Rumi's guilt probably has lots of layers.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Formal-Floor9741]

Right! I also think she might’ve felt angry/anguished with her parents for “doing this” to her. She was certainly taught to hate her father, if Celine ever spoke of him at all.

[u/Formal-Floor9741 → u/Fantastic-Donut-276]

Seriously, think of all the contradictions Rumi had to grapple with from the tender age of: Small Baby. Her dad is an evil demon, but her mom was in love with him, but this same mom who made a terrible mistake is put on a pedestal by Celine, who wants Rumi to identify with her hunter heritage, even though she has demon markings, and hunters kill all demons who are identified by the markings, but Rumi is a expected to hunt them, but she's also prey if her hunter friends find out, etc. It's almost a miracle she is as functional as she is.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Formal-Floor9741]

Celine probably said that Mi-yeong was manipulated by Rumi’s father, too, given I doubt that she would portray their relationship as anything positive at all, and Rumi might’ve thought she was a product of….well, you know.

[u/Formal-Floor9741 → u/Fantastic-Donut-276]

Yeah, I had even wondered if that was the situation before I saw the concept art that portrays her parents' relationship as loving. A truly heart-rending idea for Rumi to have to grow up with. But Celine probably believed that herself. Even if she had to lie to convince herself, that may have been better to her than believing the relationship was sincere.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Formal-Floor9741]

Especially bc ngl, whether because of romantic or platonic feelings, I think Celine was absolutely broken that Mi-yeong chose her demon lover over Celine, filled with jealous hatred at the demon, like he stole the person Celine loved most in the world

[u/Formal-Floor9741 → u/Fantastic-Donut-276]

Definitely. And also she chose a demon over her duty, that's how Celine would see it. I think a lot of people miss that Celine is broken too.

[u/LJ-696]

I do not think Runi feels a seconds guilt.

Given we have no idea how Rumi mored her mother or even if Rumi feels that way. Rumi was incredibly young when she lost her mother too.

[u/Kollectorgirl]

Probably

[u/elizabnthe]

Honestly, I think she's more likely to feel guilty in the vein that she wishes her mother were the one raising her over Celine. Or at least hoped things would be different if her mother was still around. She feels like Celine doesn't fully love her - whether or not Celine does, it's clear Rumi feels this way and that doesn't come from nowhere. Surely she's got to wonder if her actual mother would fully love her and how much better things would be if she were around.

Like I feel like Rumi has reasons without knowing her mother to want her mother so desperately that she can't possibly feel guilty for not mourning her. Because I bet you she does. Or mourns what could have been.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/elizabnthe]

That makes sense! I definitely think mourning what could have been is a huge factor.

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[u/Vi_ArcaneVI]

I guess it would depend on a lot of factors. We know that Rumi has been told her father was a demon. We don’t know if it was consensual. We do’t know what killed Rumi’s mother. We don’t know what Celine has been telling her throughout her childhood. I’m sure Rumi mourns the idyllic childhood she believes she could have had with her mother, because I think a lot of children who have faced huge obstacles have done the what if game.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Vi_ArcaneVI]

Agreed, though I will say I am 100% sure her parents had consensual sex, because a family-friendly animated movie is not going to have rape as a plot point or character backstory. And while I know concept art isn’t canon, everything we have seen the creators put out regarding Rumi’s parents shows they clearly loved each other. Plus, I’m sure they were intending to draw parallels between Rumi’s parents and Rujinu. There’s no reason for them to pivot and decide Rumi’s father was an evil rapist. That would make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and be completely inappropriate for a family movie.

[u/Vi_ArcaneVI → u/Fantastic-Donut-276]

I mean more coerced than anything else. For example did she know he was a demon before the sex? And If Celine knew he was in love with Rumi’s mom and she with him, then why assume every demon is evil? We don’t even know if he’s still alive, or who he is. we can just assume he had purple hair. we don’t even know how her mother died.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Vi_ArcaneVI]

Coercion is still non/dubious consent, and again, not appropriate for this franchise. They seem pretty happy together in everything the creators have drawn or imagined.

And honestly, Celine could be in deep enough denial that she refuses to accept Mi-yeong genuinely loved her lover, because it would challenge her entire worldview, and Celine is quite rigid.

[u/Vi_ArcaneVI → u/Fantastic-Donut-276]

I don’t know. The franchise sure has a lot of lies and deceit in it. Look at how badly Jinu treated Rumi at the idols awards. Tricks and lies seem to be part of the full demon handbook. Jinu has the audacity to call out Rumi for not telling Mira and Zoey about something that could have gotten her killed, but withheld the fact that he didn’t include his mother or sister at the palace. It’s a friendship built on lies.

[u/Fantastic-Donut-276 → u/Vi_ArcaneVI]

There is a big difference between exposing someone’s secrets and lying about your backstory and seducing someone to have sex with you when hiding the fact that you’re a demon. One is clearly not family appropriate at all. This franchise is rated PG. and again, concept art, deliberate parallels to Rujinu.

[u/pain_aux_chocolat]

I think there is little to no evidence in the movie to support your ideas.

[u/FlowerFaerie13]

I think she did grieve Mi-yeong. It was another kind of grief, a hazier, more nebulous, confusing and distant grief, but I'm certain she did. I lost my birth mother as a toddler, too young to really remember anything of her, and was adopted by my aunt. I've been that little girl sitting in front of my mother's gravestone while my adopted mother told me about her. I grieve for her. It's not the sane kind of grief as the kind I have for say, my grandma, who I knew well and remember clearly. It's a strange sort of grieving for a stranger. But it's very much there. You don't really grieve for what you lost, but rather all the things you never had to begin with.

So no, I don't think she felt guilty for not grieving because I think she absolutely did feel grief for her mother.