"Mm. Ah." Recognition dawns on his face. "Yes, the Lady Frida. However I was instructed to let no one by the name of 'Lord Elding' into the premises under any circumstances as she will only be seen by someone by the name of 'Eldingar'."
Bloody hell. This dragon is the (almost literal) mother of all
power-tripping assholes.
"Why did you go along with it?" you finally ask, half-turning to get a better look at Jun-ho's face. He tips his head in a silent 'well what can you do?' gesture.
"She was scary and I didn't want to turn her down?" he replies. Shrugging, emerald eyes darting down for a few moments. "And I was curious to meet another dragon, anyway."
This ties in with a hypothesis I have had brewing in my head for some time now.
Question: Why did Mother dearest choose Jun-ho as Eldingar's arranged date?
Answer: Because he was as close as she could find to a mirror image of Eldingar.
The impression I've gotten of Jun-ho is that of rather lonely individual, who did not have much - if any - oppurtunity for social interaction with peers. He just outright admitted that he
never meaningfully interacted with another dragon before Eldingar.
What's more, he...hasn't really shown much in the way of hobbies, interests. Makram likes messing with people, Abzu is a wizard who wants to explore the world, vampire boy is obsessed with elaborate obstacle courses and theatrical presentation, Belial beds handsome young men as a job, and so on. But Jun-ho? We haven't heard of anything of the like from him. Heck, Jun-ho doesn't even like
gold! That could point to severe lack of socializion among other dragons, which would otherwise have taught him to value the hoarding of precious items.
Much like Eldingar, he seems surprisingly shy and non-assholeish as far as dragons go. Eldingar/Jun-ho are apparently
strange for dragons - the other two examples we have seen (Mother Dearest and the guy who got beheaded) are varying degrees of power-tripping goons.
Oh, and he didn't know that mortals generally wear clothes in public. That's yet another indicator of a solitary life and lack of socialization.
Overall, the (potentially incorrect) impression I get of Jun-ho is that he was coasting along, living a solitary life until Mother Dearest showed up at his dwelling. Essentially, a more severe version of Eldingar (who was also living by himself, though he did at least take occasional trips into Söfnun to strut around). Just...look how
happy he was be having basic social interaction with the others back at the cave, even if was just playing Bejeweled with Makram.
We really, really need to take Jun-ho on that date in Söfnun. We've sidelined him for almost the entire quest (aside from a bit of grocery shopping in the ocean) and are only now spending time with him when it becomes important to make a good impression on Mother Dearest. That could give the (rather heartbreaking) impression that Eldingar cares about him less than the others.
Perhaps we can even do it the moment we get the meeting with Mother Dearest over and done with, since they are already in the middle of the city.
