How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Well, they've their own ways, those Uplanders. (1.24)
Here Mam reacts to hearing that Lord Ryuu eats snails as a delicacy. The Downlanders think this is pretty gross, and it's just one of the ways we hear about how different those crazy Uplanders are.
Quote #2
The Uplanders were numerous as those snails, and they just climbed over the wall, yelling to stop the heart in you. (1.85)
Yikes—Cam's imagination moves quickly from garden to gore. He tries to give us a sense of what the war was like by telling us there were loads of Uplanders, but we later learn that the two sides were almost evenly matched.
Quote #3
They look different, don't they, but his eyes showed the same, I mean, a person, just a person. Like me. (4.103)
Hmm… Cam describes the Uplanders as practically being a different species. Yet even here it seems to dawn on him that they are really no different from him or any other Downlander—they are all just human.
Quote #4
That Uplander Lord, who does sit now in Dorn-Lannet, well, he wasn't happy with the land he'd been born to, so he took more. Took from his own people, you do see, before he even started taking from us. More and more, moving ever south. (6.51)
Pin's dad tells her about Uplanders going through something similar to them before the war started. It's significant that Lord Ryuu is a greedy pig to Pin's family, but it's also important that we get that he was that way with both his people and others.
Quote #5
Cam had not seen bandits this far south before. Was he Up- or Downlander? Cam could not tell, and thought, I am losing my mind, that I think this, here and now. (7.8)
Is Cam crazy, or is he just realizing that Uplanders and Downlanders don't have that many differences between them? It's all skin deep. We'd also like to point out that Cam starts coming to this train of thought as he learns more and more about himself and his past.
Quote #6
"How different this war would be, if the Lord of Dorn-Lannet was more like to our enemy, for Lord Ryuu and his son are so clearly the better leaders." Cam did not think of what he said, until the words were out. (7.92)
Oh, snap—Cam insults his leader without even realizing it. His candid comment shows that he's already wishing he had a ticket to the other side in some sense. Cam sees that his side is poorly managed and won't win, but it's still shocking to the others that he'd defend their sworn enemy.
Quote #7
"So… now… now he does not look so like to Gyodan." But on the battlefield, it had been like coming face-to-face with his brother, or his brother's ghost. "Still, beyond any question, it is a Ryuu face." (10.52)
The fact that Cam has a Ryuu face helps save his live, and really challenges Gyaar and his dad. How can it be that these two groups look alike? Gasp.
Quote #8
"You and I…" Gyaar folded his hands together, and held them up. "We are Up- and Downlander. And now a marriage between us, North and South. (12.184)
Leave it to Gyaar to sum it up. We can't help but notice though, that his closest friend and advisor is also a Downlander—his nearest and dearest are all outsiders.
Quote #9
It was real Uplanders Graceful wanted to see, not pretend ones. She leaned boldly on the window. […] As soon as they were gone, the other Uplanders stopped standing stiff and warrior-like and crouched on their heels, talking and laughing, all the household finding excuse to pass through the yard to stare at them, for none had seen so many of them together, so close. (13.24)
When the Uplanders come to Graceful's house, she's so interested in them—it's like she's seeing a wild lion for the first time, it's so rare. Her reaction show us just how segregated the two peoples really were before the war.
Quote #10
"This is no ordinary marriage. You will join North and South and make it one thing." Graceful thought, He is right. And did not know what to feel about that. (13.141)
Graceful's marriage to Gyaar is super important because it brings peace and stability to the nation, but it also shows everyone that the two sides can unite. It's an earth-shattering moment for Graceful, who likes to think of the two groups as polar opposites.
Quote #11
She does seem very Uplander in her ways, her dress. Even speaking… her accent is like theirs. (16.51)
Pin makes this offhanded comment about Graceful years after her marriage, which we know she didn't want to go through with. It's funny, isn't it? Graceful seems like "one of them" when she was one of the most vocal about how different the Uplanders were from her people.