Highlights
- Miyo and Kiyoka's love for each other leads them to hide their problems and suffer in silence, ultimately leading to their separation.
- Arata's selfish desire to protect Miyo disregards her own wishes and creates contempt between them.
- The characters' lack of openness and honesty prevents them from making better decisions and resolving their conflicts, but it serves the purpose of creating drama in the storyline.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for My Happy Marriage Episode 11, “My Mother’s Legacy”, now streaming on Netflix.
Episode 11 of My Happy Marriage reveals what happened to Miyo’s mother, Sumi Usuba. As it turns out, she was the one who sealed Miyo’s ability, the Dream-Sight, in an attempt to protect her daughter from the greed of the Saimori people. That being said, knowing the terrible things that happened to Miyo after Sumi passed away, it’s natural to wonder whether that was the right decision or not. Was it really in Miyo’s best interest to have her power sealed? Or was it merely a selfish and desperate act of love from Sumi?
Talking about selfish love, My Happy Marriage is littered with numerous examples of people making selfish decisions, all in the name of love. So let’s go through some of the examples of this selfish love, how it affects the characters, any alternative decisions that they should’ve taken instead, and why it happened in the first place.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
Miyo suffered through terrible nightmares every night that slowly drained her body. Unfortunately, she chose not to talk about it to her future husband because she didn’t want to make him worry. Likewise, Kiyoka had to juggle lots of problems at the same time, both for work and family matters, which slowly drained him physically and mentally. Just like his partner, he didn’t want to share this burden with Miyo because he didn’t want to worry her.
There’s nothing in this life that Arata wants more than fulfilling his duty as a Usuba. Now that he finds Miyo, the legendary Maiden of the Dream-Sight, he wishes to dedicate his life to protecting her, even if it means forcing Miyo to live the rest of her life trapped in a gilded cage.
Those are some of the selfish acts in the series, done in the name of love. Miyo and Kiyoka love each other, so they would rather drown themselves in problems and sufferings rather than be a burden to their spouse. Arata loves his family so much that he is willing to do anything to protect it and bring it back to its glory. Even if it means hurting his cousin.
We Suffer Together
Almost every character in My Happy Marriage chooses the selfish path, but they do it out of love, so what’s so bad about it? Well, it’s not that it’s bad per se, but opting to do what they think is right without talking to their loved ones first when such decisions could affect both of their lives, is simply not a good path to choose. It means one party makes a decision that could affect the life of the other party without the other party even realizing it. It means depriving the other party of the chance to make a decision on their own. That is not a good way to build a strong and long-lasting relationship
This episode displays the negative effects of such a selfish act. Both Kiyoka and Miyo are now separated from each other. With each passing moment, they regret not properly conveying their feelings when they had the chance to do so. Had both of them known what the other was thinking and worrying about, they might be able to make much better decisions without having to make any unnecessary sacrifices. The same can be said about Arata. He is so eager to fulfill his duty to the family and more than ready to dedicate his life to protecting Miyo that he never stops to think about whether Miyo needs or wants his protection in the first place. As a result, Miyo has nothing but contempt for Arata. So at the end of the day, everybody is suffering because of their own selfish love.
Be Open, Be Honest
Let’s play an assumption game and figure out what would happen if the characters decided to be open and honest with each other. Let’s imagine that Kiyoka and Miyo decided to properly talk about their problems and their worries. Let’s also imagine Arata came into the picture by being honest about who he is and what he knows about Miyo’s condition.
In that scenario, Kiyoka would likely ask Arata to keep Miyo safe and help her figure out her ability while Kiyika goes to the battlefield. Knowing that Miyo is safe will lighten Kiyoka’s heart, allowing him to perform better in combat. Since Arata and the Usuba have shown nothing but good intentions to her, Miyo will open her heart and accept them. She may be apart from Kiyoka for a while, but at least she knows she is safe with her family now. Furthermore, Arata would have her full cooperation, therefore allowing him to fulfill his duty to the family.
If the outcome can be beneficial for all parties involved, why didn’t the characters choose this path? Well, the reason is because there is one huge element missing from the scenario above. The sense of Drama. Everything that has been mentioned in the previous sections is part of a story that the author crafted carefully in order to maximize the drama. On the other hand, there’s little to no drama at all in the scenario above, which means there’s nothing that can hook the audience and force them to keep following the story.
So while it is certainly better to be open and honest with your loved ones in real life. In fiction, creating a drama that can hook the audience is the most important thing. That is why everybody is being selfish with their love in My Happy Marriage.