An Lili

SPOILER ALERT! This article contains details from the manga that are not covered in the anime. Proceed with caution.

Template:Character Infobox

An Lili (アン・リリ An Riri) is the daughter of the Water Tribe General An Joon-Gi. She investigates the Nadai trafficking happening on Shisen together with her servants, Ayura and Tetora, and eventually, Yona and her company.

Appearance

Lili is a young woman with dark blue eyes. Her long blue hair is tied in a half ponytail held up by a jeweled flower ornament; that resembles a hairpin. She also ties several strands of her hair with long ribbon and lets it flow freely past in her front. She is considered very beautiful.

She wears a plain white robe that has a skirt tied up above her chest. This skirt is tied with a ribbon and stops a few inches above her robe’s bottom. She has other clothing which consists of a robe with patterned hemlines and a slightly exposed chest area that is covered by her white robe underneath. It is held by a sash that has a ribbon on top of it and is located just below her chest.

Personality

Though she appears to be a confident and brave girl on the outside, she is actually a shy, caring person, who tries to hide her personality by acting and talking big to others. As a general’s daughter, Lili doesn't like to show her weaknesses to others, and once she does, she considers it as a disgraceful behavior. Aside from that, she feels that protecting her tribe is one of her responsibilities and for this reason, she can be bold about her opinions and act recklessly for it if somebody, especially her father, disagrees with her. Despite her showing dauntlessness, she is not actually experienced in handling the matters by herself and she becomes scared the moment she encounters these problems. Later, however, after going through very dangerous situations, she gains more experience and becomes a much stronger and courageous person, who overcomes her fears because of her desire to stand up for others and save the Water Tribe.

Synopsis

Water Tribe Arc

On Lili’s visit at Shisen together with Ayura and Tetora, she finds a suspicious group who she deems as the smugglers from the Kai Empire. She goes back home to Suiko Castle and tells her father about what she saw and her desire to investigate them, only to be confined. Irritated, she calls Tetora and Ayura to ask them to let her out and accompany her again to Shisen. Arriving at the port town, she immediately sees the people she saw earlier and spies on them. When the only girl of that group spots her, and eventually the masked man who has a squirrel, she runs back to her servants and they leave.

At that night, they stay at an inn and she notices the group once more at the nearby bar. When she followed them inside, she sees the girl, who spotted her awhile ago, dancing on the center stage. Believing that she is really not an entertainer, she tries to get close to her only to bump into a drunkard man. The man grabs her while chanting how he is hurt from their collision, and as she struggles to get away, she receives a punch to her face. She is about to take another hit until she is saved by the dancer. However, the dancer gets pinned by other men and she is left numb on her feet. Another man looks at her with a broken bottle in hand and is ready to strike her, but she is saved once again after a young man from the dancer’s group saves her. She is told to run and as chaos ensues, she sits in a corner, trying to protect herself. After the trouble subsides, she cries out of fear as the dancer hugs her.

Lili being comforted by the dancer.

She goes outside together with some members of the dancer’s crew and she is treated by a young boy. She realizes that they are not what she doubted them to be as they also want to end the corruption happening within the tribe. Lili asks their names, and as she learns of the dancer’s name to be Yona, she suspects that she is the princess. However, the young boy quickly tells her that she is not the princess and they only share the same name. One of Yona’s friends returns and tells them that they tied up the drug users, which makes her tremble in fear. Yona calms her down, and she hears that they will infiltrate the store that they believe to be the source of the drugs. Lili questions their reason for helping the Water Tribe but is cut short when her servants show up. They make a stance to fight the men after they see her injuries, which makes her quickly clear up the misunderstanding. They bid goodbye afterwards, though she is determined not to go home to Suiko right away.

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Lili says she wants to become like Yona.

The following day, Lili meets Yona’s company once more and is surprised how she managed to sleep in a tent surrounded by her male companions. She finds out that the users are still in the location and Yona has to keep guard them as some of her friends will execute their infiltration plan. Because of this, she asks Ayura to set up clinics and invites Yona’s group to the inn they are staying at as gratitude for saving her. In the inn, she, Yona, and her servants take a bath in the hot springs and they talk about their different opinions of men. Lili notices the bruises on Yona’s body and discovers that she is learning swordsmanship. After the bath, she and Ayura watch Yona practice using the sword while Tetora takes some food. After awhile, she and Yona go inside the inn to invite some of Yona’s friends. However, they find Tetora attacked by Hiyou, the ringleader of the drug trafficking. Hiyou orders his men to kill them, and Yona quickly protects her while she is petrified. During the fight, Yona gets slashed from behind, but she still stands up and fights. Witnessing her bravery, Lili wants to become strong like her. Soon, both Yona and Lili are kidnapped by a nadai merchant named Tsubaru, who acted as an innkeeper and sent them as slaves to build a fort in Sei.

Sei Kingdom Arc

While they are there, Yona tells Lili that the "water" is nadai, and not to drink it. After a couple days, Lili is worn out, and starting to stagger. One of the guards noticed, and grabbed her from the back. Telling her, "This wine is free. So have as much as you want!" And he pours it into her mouth. But Lili spits it out, saying,"Thanks. I was just about to wash my face." Yona runs up to her, and helps her walk away. But, when they've moved, Lili breaks down into tears. saying that a part of her wants to grab the wine and drink it all. And that she feels so guilty, but Yona reassures her that she shouldn't feel guilty. That night, Yona sneaks out to get some water. Lili follows her and is caught. She struggles to get away, but can't. As a result, the guard holds his sword to her neck, to kill her, but Yona hits him with a wooden pole from the back. Sadly, the man, influenced by nadai, isn't affected. Yona attempts to fight the guard with the pole, but it is sliced in half. As the guard swing to kill her, Lili grabs a piece of a broken pot. She stabs him in the back of his neck, killing him. Afterwards, Yona says its the perfect time to escape, so they do. After Yona and Lili escaped, Lili is still shocked that she killed someone. Yona tells her to forget it, and to sleep. While Lili's sleeping, Yona goes to look for water; since Lili refused to drink the nadai they served, and was thirsty. When Yona goes looking for water and comes back, she informs her that they have been spotted by the troops from Sei. Eventually, both of them are captured and although Jae Ha saves Yona, Lili is to be hanged. She is saved by Soo Won and Hak, with the former firing an arrow to cut the noose's rope and the latter catching her.

Relationships

An Joon-Gi

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Lili with her father.

Lili gets on well with her father, but sometimes she has disagreements with him, particularly on how he handles the Water Tribe’s problems. Whenever Lili points out the happenings in their tribe, especially her desire to do something about it, she is always locked up in her room. It may seem appropriate to her father as he doesn’t want her to get hurt, however, she doesn’t see it that way and that makes her rebel against him.

Ayura

Ayura is one of Lili's bodyguards, with whom she shares a close friendship with. She is often quiet and collected, but is always swift to jump to Lili's rescue when needed. When Lili was to be hanged by Kushibi, she tried fighting off all of the soldiers by herself to get to her. Ultimately, Lili stopped her efforts by taunting the Sei soldiers in order to protect her from being killed. While she technically works for Joon-Ji, her loyalty lies more with Lili herself and she will defy Joon-Ji's orders in favour of Lili's.

Tetora

Tetora is Lili's other bodyguard, with whom she shares a close, sisterly bond with. While she's more easygoing than Ayura, her devotion to Lili is just as absolute. She is protective of Lili, becoming furious if she is threatened or hurt. She is deeply horrified when she finds that Lili is being brought to the gallows for hanging and begs Suwon to allow her to assist in saving her. Once Lili is saved from execution by Hak and Suwon, Tetora takes it upon herself to carry Lili to safety. While she technically works for Joon-Ji, her loyalty ultimately lies more with Lili herself and she will defy Joon-Ji's orders in favour of Lili's if need be.

Yona

Initially, she thought of Yona as one of the people involved in the drug trafficking going on in her tribe. But as she is saved by her and learns that they both share a common goal to eradicate the corruption, they joined forces. The two of them didn't consider one another to be friends in the beginning, because she always had a hard time befriending girls her age. But as noted by Ayura, Lili actually enjoys Yona’s company. Most of the time, she frankly tells Yona how weak she is and questions why she pushes herself to become stronger. But behind her words, she admires her and sets her as a prime example to become a strong woman.

In the Sei Arc, Lili ultimately sacrifices herself to soldiers after she and Yona escape their slave camp, nearly getting hanged for the escape. After she is saved, Yona visits her at Joon-ji's villa, crying in relief that she made it out okay, and spending some time chatting and catching up. Lili is openly encouraging of Yona's crush on Hak, and even offers to ask him whether he reciprocates or not. Lili later jumps to Yona's defence during the Xing Arc, when Kye-sook nearly has her captured, revealing Yona's role in stopping drug trade in the Water Tribe and publicly declaring her to be a friend.

Soo-Won

When Soo-won and Lili first meet, he saves Lili from a Nadai addict and ends up becoming one of her "bodyguards" along with Joo-doh and his men. Later, he aids her (along with Yona and her crew) defeat a fleet of drug-trading ships from Sei. After Lili is kidnapped and brought to Sei as a slave, Soo-Won sets out looking for her, along with four of the five Kouka Generals. When she is nearly hanged for attempting to escape, he ends up working very briefly with Hak to cut her from the gallows. After Lili heals, Soo-Won comes to visit her and explain the positive effects that her rebellion in Sei caused. When he assures her that her efforts weren't useless, Lili cries, touched by his words. Although knowing that he killed Yona's father, infers that one cannot immediately judge him as evil without understanding the big picture. As he leaves, she muses to herself that she'd like to get to know him better for both Yona's sake and hers.

Later, she follows Soo-Won to Ogi's hideout and catches him exchanging money for intel on the neighbouring kingdom of Xing. Ogi reveals that rumours are floating around Xing of Yona's group, and having gotten the information he came there for, Soo-Won leaves along with Lili and her guards. Once outside of Hiryuu Castle, Lili confronts Soo-Won about the rumors, asking if he ever plans to pursue Yona and murder her. She goes on to say that Yona is a precious friend of hers, and that she believes Yona is important to Soo-Won deep down as well. However, Soo-Won immediately silences her and warns her not to mention Yona's name again. 

Kushibi

Lili has a deep hatred for Kushibi, rightfully pegging him as the driving force in drug and slave trade in the Water Tribe. When she is caught in his slave ring, escapes, only to be caught again, he is the one who gives the call for her execution.

Lee Geun-Tae

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Lili becomes shy

After Lili's near-execution, General Geun-Tae visited her to check on her wellbeing. She was uncharacteristically shy and blushing furiously in his presence. After he leaves, she breaks down into flustered hysterics, exclaiming about how good-looking he is and how idiotic she looked and acted. Soo-Won and later Yona (at different points in the story) point out that he is married, to which Lili responds with jokingly putting them in a chokehold. She goes on to explain that she already knows about his marriage, and states that Lady Yun-Ho was very cute and kind the one time Lili met her. She admits that she still likes him, even knowing that her feelings will always remain one-sided. It's implied that Lili's taste in "older men" is a reflection of this crush.

Yun-Ho

Lili regards Yun-Ho as pretty and kind, even stating that she would want Yun-ho as a wife if she were a man. Despite that Yun-ho is married to the man she likes, Lili doesn't seem to hold any animosity to the woman and admires her.

Trivia

• She believes that true men are 35 years of age and above. She dislikes young men.
• Lili has been considered as a suitable bride for Soo-Won by most of the Tribe Leaders, although the two of them think otherwise. 
• Her mother is alive, but lives apart from herself and her father. The nature of their relationship is unknown.

Quotes

• (To Ayura and Tetora about her father) "I'm not like him. I will save the Water Tribe."
• (To Ogi) "Do not lay a hand on my Ayura and Tetora. Or do you want to be castrated?"
• "I think I've accepted the fact that Soo-Won stole political power. But, I'm on Yona's side."
• "If I can't protect Yona here, even death wouldn't be enough to atone!"
• “Men are stupid creatures. Forget them!”
• (To Sei's soldiers) "Before I escaped, I killed a soldier here! All because that guy wanted to punish me for no reason! I stabbed him really hard from behind! I'm surprised that soldiers from Sei are so weak! Just try and kill me if you can, cowards!" 
• (To Yona) "Yona, I... I feel uncontrollably angry right now. A place like this steps on people's self respect. It's such a horrible place. I will not tolerate it. Even the heavens will not tolerate it. But the thing that angers me most is that I just... I really want some water. Anything is fine, even just a little bit. It's that I'm wanting to shamelessly grab some wine and drink all I want! I always thought that even if I died of thirst, I would not give in. But the touch of cold water instantly broke down my resolve."
• (To Yona) "N-No! I also... I also came here to fight! I may have no strength, but the Water Tribe is my special place! Let me fight with you!"
• ​​​​​(Towards Yona) "You helped me so many times, and yet... the things I could have done for you, the words I could have said to you... weren't there. I'm incompetent, but I'll run after you again. Because we're friends." 
• (About Lord Kushibi before her excecution)"How strange. I'm not scared at all, or rather, looking at that arrogant man sitting so high up with a delighted expression on his face makes me so furious."
• (To Soo-Won) "The rumor Ogi was talking about was about Yona and her group, wasn't it? ...I'm sure you know this already, but Yona is a very precious friend of mine. Do you ever intend to pursue her? You don't actually plan on murdering her, do you? Could it be... that you actually want her to live?"
• (To the other captives in Sei) "If you don't want to die, FIGHT!"
• (To the soldiers that were threatening Yona and Algira) "What are you all doing? That girl is a very good friend of mine. If you get violent with her, I'll have your head!"
• (To Soo-Won) "Your Majesty's position wouldn't be in danger because of something like this, right? Because Your Majesty, you are my savior as well. That is all the more reason why I don't want my precious friend to die by your hand."