Why did Choi Young hangs on to Eun Soo like a Lifeline

by guadi and myphim

sia3 said:
guadi, I need your brain... enlighten me what this paragraph means please

the heart that had smashed to pieces upon hearing the royal decree, grabbed hold of the woman. As if grabbing hold of a lifeline. I've done wrong.
 
Why would grabbing onto ES like grabbing onto a lifeline? So Young is hurt by a broken promise, but why does it shock him so much? I mean, he has served like what, at least 4 kings during his 7 years... why would GM be any different when he promises Young especially at the beginning? @Yuuni, I think this is the main reason why Young is so cold and indifferent to GM in EP8 at the cell. Technically, GM once again disappointed him.

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Since I'm a bit lazy, I'll sort of link my response to these comments posted by @steelbeans eons ago and the one that @farstrep just posted-  
http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/comment/25285986/#Comment_25285986
The conversation at the inn regarding between CY, GM and JIS in episode 1(?) - 
GM: Didn't you hear? If I bring the doctor, I'll be safe.
CY: If that's the way you make yourself safe, then..
GM: Then?..
CY: Wouldn't it be kind of pathetic?
Jo: You rascal!
GM: If it's for the country, one individual's promise wouldn't be all that important, would it? Am I not right?
Jo: Your Majesty!
*Epic knife hand to the throat by CY to Jo, effectively ceasing the old baggard's whining.*
CY: A loyal subject like him thinks a promise isn't important. And a warrior like me kills people for the country. I think if you're the King, you should be different from these two. Am I not right?

farstrep said: Having served countless kings, Choi Young should have the eye for discerning a good King from the bad. From the conversation he has with the King in Episode 1, he must have felt the King has the makings of a benevolent King if led on the right path with the right people in tow. Perhaps this is why he cannot understand what the King is thinking when he reneges on his promise later.


Basically, the above conversation in Episode 1 gives Choi Young some insights into Gongmin's character. CY can discern that this person has a good heart and wants to do something to build his country. GM, in the eyes of CY, could turn out to be a commanding and just leader.  When out of nowhere, the King reverses the order to allow Eun-soo back to heaven, Choi Young gets crushed. He judges this GM character incorrectly. His tentative trust in the king is destroyed, and with that his heart is smashed to pieces. In his mind, this king is just like other former kings - greedy and corrupted - he's no different from countless people who inhabit this land. Lost in that moment, he instinctively holds onto Eun-soo; a figure that fascinates him to no end. Her presence as we know is sort of a sensory stimulation for him. Her newness to this world is representation of something different that he has not seen before on this earth. Once the faith in Gongmin is shaken, Choi Young's wounded and wandering heart grabs hold to Eun-soo, the new lifeline. She is now a sign post that he can latch onto; a new guidance in his life. For the past seven years, he's been living through the motions, seeing this or that person. but there's always an emptiness within him because these people are all the same. When he loses faith in them, he moves on to the next and the next in search of...nothingness. This time, it's different. With a heavenly being besides him, for first the time, there's a reason to be fascinated again. His lost soul, which was the flat and empty desert, has abruptly transformed into an oasis with all the vibrant colors of life. Eun-soo gives him that. Though, by holding onto her in his moment of need, of deep desperation to fill the voids in his soul, he denies her the opportunity to return "home". 

by myphim

For 7 long years, Choi Young had been living in a depression with suicidal tendency; thus, when Gongmin broke his promise to him, it was like someone took another stab at his old wounds and pushing him closer to the edge of a cliff. When Gongmin issued that royal decree, he basically destroyed Choi Young's honor in the process.

As a warrior, once your honor is gone, you basically have no reason to live.
At least, according to my brother and his video games, men back then live by their code of honor.
You destroy a man's honor, you destroy him.

His honor as a warrior was the only thing he has left in this world, so that's probably why he grabbed onto ES as his last lifeline.
For some unknown reasons to him, his heart, mind and soul reacted to her.
To him, she was a heavenly being who brought light into his dark world.
Since he was drowning in his misery, she was the only lifeline he could find, so he instinctively held on to her.