Post by ajk on May 19, 2018 13:26:29 GMT -5
Nothing particularly excellent in this one but not bad either. Certainly there isn’t much to be discouraged about or to suggest this won’t be a respectable series. And they’re dropping in teasers about things we don’t know yet. I like that; suggests some planning and thinking in the writing and will reward people for sticking with the series.
One encouraging thing at the beginning was Yeogu firing an arrow at the Goguryeo king. The guy was standing right out there in plain sight and you had to be wondering why somebody didn’t take a shot at him. So there’s a good sign.
“That damned salt trader squandered our time!” For some reason that was funny.
So apparently the way this is all set up is that the queen is from the Hae clan and the second consort is from the Jin clan....and the Jin clan would rather not see either of the queen’s sons succeed to the throne after Biryu dies. Not sure yet what their intention would be as far as who would assume the throne—Yeohwi or Yeogu or someone else. And we’re told that Biryu “despises” the Hae clan. He must have married the queen for political advantage then, to get support to put him on the throne over Buyeo Jun. And the councilor who was arrested at the end, that was Jin Jeong; supposedly he was conspiring with Goguryeo but we still don’t know what that written-in-blood message said.
Those close-up shots of people riding horses are so obviously phony, I wish the producers would just forget about them. They don’t look good at all. And speaking of phony, the shot of the queen’s reflection in the water was ridiculously enhanced. That was just awful. Why even bother with it? It served no purpose.
The second consort, she’s an interesting character...doesn’t have the look or behavior of a typical woman in a role like that, and she seems very pure and uncomplicated for a royal consort. From what she said when she and the king were alone together, they must have known each other as kids or as much younger people before the king took the throne.
“I committed sins against you that even time shall never wash away....If you return you will be ensnared in the trap I myself created, and meet your demise.” This is very odd, that a younger Yeohwa would have done anything so dramatic. Especially since they liked each other so much as kids. But I guess we wait for the details.
Here’s the narrated text:
And then just a note about the subtitling: if you’re getting frustrated with some of the bizarre archaic words that turn up, don’t worry you’ll get used to it. When we did the DramaFever viewing of QSD here, the subs came from the same source as these. It was incredibly irritating at first but eventually it just fades into mildly annoying. DF should be giving us the official KBS subs, no excuse not to...but this is what we have. And that isn’t to disrespect the work that went into them; they were done by volunteers and the effort is certainly appreciated. Just wish somebody had replaced some of the weird long-dead words with contemporary ones.
One encouraging thing at the beginning was Yeogu firing an arrow at the Goguryeo king. The guy was standing right out there in plain sight and you had to be wondering why somebody didn’t take a shot at him. So there’s a good sign.
“That damned salt trader squandered our time!” For some reason that was funny.
So apparently the way this is all set up is that the queen is from the Hae clan and the second consort is from the Jin clan....and the Jin clan would rather not see either of the queen’s sons succeed to the throne after Biryu dies. Not sure yet what their intention would be as far as who would assume the throne—Yeohwi or Yeogu or someone else. And we’re told that Biryu “despises” the Hae clan. He must have married the queen for political advantage then, to get support to put him on the throne over Buyeo Jun. And the councilor who was arrested at the end, that was Jin Jeong; supposedly he was conspiring with Goguryeo but we still don’t know what that written-in-blood message said.
Those close-up shots of people riding horses are so obviously phony, I wish the producers would just forget about them. They don’t look good at all. And speaking of phony, the shot of the queen’s reflection in the water was ridiculously enhanced. That was just awful. Why even bother with it? It served no purpose.
The second consort, she’s an interesting character...doesn’t have the look or behavior of a typical woman in a role like that, and she seems very pure and uncomplicated for a royal consort. From what she said when she and the king were alone together, they must have known each other as kids or as much younger people before the king took the throne.
“I committed sins against you that even time shall never wash away....If you return you will be ensnared in the trap I myself created, and meet your demise.” This is very odd, that a younger Yeohwa would have done anything so dramatic. Especially since they liked each other so much as kids. But I guess we wait for the details.
Here’s the narrated text:
The year 337. The Xianbei tribes embroiled in a territorial conflict with Goguryeo [gain] prominence and eventually found the Yan Dynasty, with their ruler Murong Huang proclaiming himself as emperor (akin to declaring their independence from any vassalage status [towards] Goguryeo). The war between Yan and Goguryeo over the Liaodong territory keeps raging until the year 342, wehn the tomb of King Gogukwon’s father and former ruler Micheon is seized by the Yan, while Queen Mother Lady Ju is taken prisoner. With Baekje launching a campaign against Goguryeo to reclaim the old Daifang territory, Goguryeo experiences the greatest crisis since its foundation.They’re building giant kites? To drop stuff into the fortress? Well okay, this could be interesting, or it could be cartoon physics, we’ll see.
And then just a note about the subtitling: if you’re getting frustrated with some of the bizarre archaic words that turn up, don’t worry you’ll get used to it. When we did the DramaFever viewing of QSD here, the subs came from the same source as these. It was incredibly irritating at first but eventually it just fades into mildly annoying. DF should be giving us the official KBS subs, no excuse not to...but this is what we have. And that isn’t to disrespect the work that went into them; they were done by volunteers and the effort is certainly appreciated. Just wish somebody had replaced some of the weird long-dead words with contemporary ones.