Kingdom fans might be tired of waiting for Season 3, but with the coming of the 93 minute long special episode titled Kingdom: Ashin of the North, some of our questions were definitely answered.
Ashin of the North is a special episode that takes place years before the events of Kingdom Season 1 and 2 and thus serves as a prequel to the main series.
The special episode tells the story of a young girl named Ashin, who is revealed to be the one to begin the zombie outbreak described in Kingdom. She is the one who we see at the finale of Kingdom Season 2 who is selling flowers from the dangerous resurrection plant.
Here’s a break up of everything we know about Ashin and her story and my two cents on the ending.
1. Who is Ashin?
Ashin is a young tribal girl who is the member of the Seongjeoyain tribe. The young girl is left shattered and in shock when she goes on a quest and comes back to find her family and everyone else in tribe butchered to death.
The special episode reveals Ashin as a young girl who comes along with her tribe, the Jurchens in Korea in the Joseon ruled era. The tribe is originally from northeast China.
The Jurchens have two subgroups – the Pajeowi Jurchens and the Seongjeoyain Jurchens. Both the groups migrated to Korea and vowed loyalty to the country for letting them settle there.
But like in the real world, immigrants are never one’s own. Similarly, the Jurchen tribe band Seongjeoyain always remained immigrants.
Ashin lives with her parents. Her father is the leader of her tribe while her mother is seriously ill. So, Ashin searches for a cure to save her dying mother and this is why she goes on a quest. But when she returned, all was lost.
Young Ashin vowed to take revenge from those who killed everyone in her tribe and ruined her life and this is the reason why begins the zombie outbreak in the first place.
2. What Happens To Ashin’s Father?
When Ashin returns from her quest, she finds every one of her family and tribe slaughtered and dead. The young girl assumes that her father is among those who died.
Ashin pleads to Chi-Rok to let her avenge her family but he refuses. (We later find out why)
Later, when Ashin grows up and visits the Pajeowi military camp to spy, it is revealed that her father was actually branded a traitor and is still alive and imprisoned by the Pajeowi tribe. His limbs are cut and he has been tortured mercilessly.
Ta Hab barely recognizes his daughter and to end his pain, he begs her to kill him. To end his pain, Ashin kills him but this fuels her need for revenge and she vows to end those responsible for this.
3. What Happens In The End?
The epilogue shows that Ashin gave the flowers from the resurrection plant to the royal physician, Seong-Hui just before he leaves town.
The ending can be explained to connecting it to the events of Season 1. Ashin did not tell Seong Hui the effects of the flower because she wanted him to use it to begin the zombie outbreak. Her aim was to kill everyone in Joseon as revenge.
The ending hence explains who is responsible for the zombie epidemic, how it began and the whole narrative ties down the why of It all. Ashin is established as the true antagonist of the series with a stellar backstory.
Giving Ashin such a powerful backstory is a great move IMO, because it ties down answers to a lot of questions and also gives Ashin’s character a powerful support.
4. How Did The Zombie Outbreak Begin?
After Ashin discovers her father, she also discovers another secret.
Ashin discovers that it was actually Chi-Rok who is responsible for the death of her family and people. Among his notes, Ashin reads that Joseon’s men originally killed some men from the Pajeowi tribe.
But to prevent war and other problems, Chi-Rok lied and spread wrong information that people from Ashin’s tribe, the Seongjeoyains actually killed them. This angers the Pajeowis and their leader, Aishidan kills everyone in the tribe.
So after Ashin discovers this truth, she returns to the village and immediately attacks one of the soldiers, who by the way was sexually assaulting her. This is the time when Ashin uses the flowers from the resurrection plant she discovered ages ago, and infects the soldier.
We also see that she had turned her loved ones into zombies using the same flowers and keeps feeding them animal meat to keep them going. But she promises to return to them with more human flesh.
As the ending explains, Ashin was the one who gave the flowers from the resurrection plant to Seong-Hui, the king’s physician. These are the flowers which were used by Seong Hui in the Battle of Unpo Wetland. So that is how the epidemic began.
5. Who Started The Zombie Outbreak?
Ashin is the one who began the zombie outbreak when she infected the soldier, revived her loved ones as zombies and most importantly gave the flowers to the king’s physician.
She wants to destroy the Joseon kingdom and Jurchens because of what they did to her people and this way she can infect almost everyone in the kingdom. This is also the reason why she was selling these flowers among commoners.
Ashin does not have fair intentions but that is because what these men in power did to her. She is a victim of abuse of power, mistreatment of certain ethnic groups and greed of politics.
6. About Kingdom (2019)
Kingdom is a 2019 South Korean political fantasy drama thriller series written by Kim Eun-hee and directed by Kim Seong-hun. It is Netflix’s first Korean original. The series is based on the webcomic series The Kingdom of the Gods by Kim Eun-hee.
As of now, the series has two seasons. A special episode of the series, titled “Kingdom: Ashin of the North” is set to release on 23rd July, 2021 and will be centered around the supporting character Ashin played by Jun Ji-hyun.
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