Some thoughts on the writing of Season 2

If you're not interested in reading the creator of a thing you enjoy speculate on what said thing is about... I'd skip this post!

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I've been gently pushed by some Patrons into writing more on what I think of Hand Jumper. So let's talk a little about Season 2.


To Sayeon Lee, who sees the world in black and white, the Aberrant Corps is an institution colored in grays. Is it necessary for such an organization to exist? Maybe. Should it kill off fewer of its own members? Most probably.


Sayeon chooses to ignore the darker aspects of the Corps throughout Season 1, until they come to affect her personally-- Jaeil disappears. The themes of Season 2 will center on this reckoning, this sort of shattering and restructuring of a person to fit their new worldview. And, because it's also an action series, there's going to be a lot of fighting involved. Sayeon's particular brand of fighting, which has never been clean or easy.


Hand Jumper shares much of its DNA with classic shonen coming-of-age stories. Sayeon's outlook on life so far has been painfully unnuanced-- things were just good or just evil, often in ways convenient to her. As you may have sensed, these simplistic ideals don't hold up well in the world of HJ, and very few characters share them with her-- Ryujin least of all. Now that she's being forced to consider darker, more ambivalent circumstances, will Sayeon finally mature? Shake off her old delusions?


Will she become a better, more thoughtful, more honest person?


There's a bit in Virginia Woolf's Orlando where the heroine considers the bones of her ancestors, and for the first time, all the terrible things they've done-- and she thinks to herself, I am growing up. I am losing my illusions... perhaps to acquire new ones.