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Post by ajk on Feb 22, 2016 17:27:13 GMT -5
How about that, they didn’t execute him. And okay, it was sort of cheesy and manipulative...but it was done pretty well; have to admit I kind of liked it.
Okay, wait...I liked it right up to the point where Youngsil ran forward and mouthed off to the king and then put the noose back around his neck. That was just going too far...and geez it ended up taking half the episode.
I don’t know, Taejong showing mercy because his own poetry moved him...is there anything in the historical record to support him doing such a thing? Even if he would have spared a slave, seems like any government official who annoyed him for any reason was dead ASAP.
What DOES sound like him: telling Jang, you were almost executed but I saved your life so now you owe me. Ha ha! What a raw deal.
One pleasant thing has been Kim Huije treating JYS with civility and decency now. It sure looked like he was going to turn into JYS’s lifelong jealous rival. I’m glad they didn’t take it in that direction.
The narration said “One month after the meteor shower appeared, Sejong took the throne.” But wait, according to the subtitles it was nine days!
BTW the whole Shim On story was prominent in GKS so I’m glad they at least mentioned it here. However, in GKS he was executed by poisoning; here he hanged himself in jail. Which is correct? His Wikipedia entry says that he was executed; that’s all I could find in English.
Okay, I have a question about one thing I keep seeing in this series that I don’t recall seeing in any other series I’ve watched. The scenes in Taejong’s throne room, there’s always a guy at a little table in the corner. Presumably that’s a secretary of some sort....Is he transcribing the conversations that take place? Or is he just on call to do the king’s bidding? I’m sort of surprised that somebody else would be in there when the king is having private, sensitive conversations, especially somebody who looks to be writing. But it seems like a strange thing to just make up. Was there such a person in kings’ throne rooms? (And is that Ha Yeon sitting back there? I can't tell, but it would make sense since he's supposedly the king's secretary.)
Reference in this episode to JYS using an armillary sphere created by Guo Shoujing. Here’s Guo’s Wikipedia entry:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guo_Shoujing
Another good thing so far is the Princess Sohyeon character, only because so far it’s written much better than the Consort Kim character was in Jingbirok. You can understand the producers wanting to have some female presence in these stories...but as I talked about in the Jingbirok board, I just didn't care for the consort Kim character. Sohyeon is a good female character so far, smart and wise without being as implausibly influential as consort Kim was.
It looks like finally we’re starting to get into JYS’s actual historical importance now, with the attempt to replicate Ming’s technology. But they’re going the spy-mission route just like GKS did. I can’t remember from when GKS was airing, but did any such mission actually happen? I kind of doubt it but am not sure.
p.s. Just to set the record straight, in a big shower like the Perseids you can see maybe one meteor a minute. It’s not like a snowfall, so boo hiss to the episode for showing it that way. I was hoping that a single meteor would fall right through the clouds and land in the yard! That would have been hilarious. Scare the heck out of all of them.
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episode 8
Feb 22, 2016 17:50:20 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by truth on Feb 22, 2016 17:50:20 GMT -5
I don’t know, Taejong showing mercy because his own poetry moved him...is there anything in the historical record to support him doing such a thing?
One pleasant thing has been Kim Huije treating JYS with civility and decency now. It sure looked like he was going to turn into JYS’s lifelong jealous rival. I’m glad they didn’t take it in that direction.
BTW the whole Shim On story was prominent in GKS so I’m glad they at least mentioned it here. However, in GKS he was executed by poisoning; here he hanged himself in jail. Which is correct? His Wikipedia entry says that he was executed; that’s all I could find in English.
Okay, I have a question about one thing I keep seeing in this series that I don’t recall seeing in any other series I’ve watched. The scenes in Taejong’s throne room, there’s always a guy at a little table in the corner. Presumably that’s a secretary of some sort....Is he transcribing the conversations that take place? Or is he just on call to do the king’s bidding? I’m sort of surprised that somebody else would be in there when the king is having private, sensitive conversations, especially somebody who looks to be writing. But it seems like a strange thing to just make up. Was there such a person in kings’ throne rooms? (And is that Ha Yeon sitting back there? I can't tell, but it would make sense since he's supposedly the king's secretary.)
Another good thing so far is the Princess Sohyeon character, only because so far it’s written much better than the Consort Kim character was in Jingbirok. You can understand the producers wanting to have some female presence in these stories...but as I talked about in the Jingbirok board, I just didn't care for the consort Kim character. Sohyeon is a good female character so far, smart and wise without being as implausibly influential as consort Kim was.
It looks like finally we’re starting to get into JYS’s actual historical importance now, with the attempt to replicate Ming’s technology. But they’re going the spy-mission route just like GKS did. I can’t remember from when GKS was airing, but did any such mission actually happen? I kind of doubt it but am not sure.
1. Taejong's poetry is fiction 2. His name is Jang Huijae, not Kim. 3. GKS was correct on Shim On 4. Yes, there was a person writing every tiny detail that king says. And it wasn't Ha Yeon. 5. Princess Sohyeon is a fictional character 6. He went to Ming to study astronomy abroad, not as a spy mission.
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Post by simisteve on Feb 23, 2016 23:14:36 GMT -5
I thought the Shim On reference came out of left field. Was really surprised to see it, as we haven't heard about the Queen or her family at all. It took years for Shim's name to be cleared by the demands of the Hall of Worthies (per GKS).
Regarding the Star Chart/Tablet:
Presumably commissioned by Taejo, it is an icon of Joseon, and would give an air of legitimacy to the new reign. So here is this impressive great thing, and Bangwon defaces it, removing his own father's name and putting in the Wang's, in secret...and then lying to his father to cover it up. Why? The tablet became bait he would use, in the future, to catch those Goreyo loyalists he suspected would be there and who would rally around it. This shows the scheming, ruthless nature of the Bangwon we all know and love. I thought it was pretty darn clever for them to think this up, and for Bangwon to set the trap and let it lie there until it would eventually be uncovered, (or when he would spring it by spreading the slightest rumor that there was a secret to the tablet). At least that is how I interpreted the sub plot.
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Post by simisteve on Feb 23, 2016 23:26:25 GMT -5
And as far as JYS behavior (like mouthing off to the King and putting the noose back on his neck) goes, I see it like this:
I think JYS is a weirdo. OK, that's a little extreme...he's a NERD. He has very awkward social skills, no filter at all in his verbal communications, gets obsessed with something and becomes instantly oblivious to his surroundings. Add to that, he is a slave, and abused as a child and adult. I've known and worked with some very bright people, and they could be pretty odd too. The smarter, the stranger, it seems. I know that sounds like a stereotype, but that's been my experience. One facet of his genius is that he is able to create working prototypes of things in his mind and see how they function. I have always envied this ability/gift in the brightest engineers I've know, and was very pleased to see this depicted in the series (waterwheel theory for instance, and a bigger example in ep 10).
JYS doesn't act "normally" (as was the depiction of him in GKS) because he ISN'T normal. He's a genius, and whether he's called eccentric, weird, geeky, a dork, or whatever, he shouldn't be written as just a smart guy. So I'm rather pleased with this portrayal, it seems very realistic to me.
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Post by simisteve on Feb 23, 2016 23:48:38 GMT -5
In GKS, the mission to Ming was portrayed as a spy mission, using the cover of trading Gunpowder technology. They were to get calendar technology and astronomical equipment info. JYS and Choi Haesan went there. See GKS summaries for eps 53,56,57.
In that series, this all happened at the time of Taejong's death, so there is another gap here between this series and GKS.
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Post by sageuk on Feb 24, 2016 0:18:01 GMT -5
I also felt Shim Ohn felt incredibly out of place, even if it did really happen. Even more jarring is that it came after a scene in which Taejong is won over by sentimentality and stops the execution of several others.
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Post by ajk on Feb 24, 2016 3:39:55 GMT -5
Huh? steve there's nothing in episode 8 about Bangwon defacing the star chart or setting a trap or lying to his father or the rest. Is this just something you're speculating about? I'm confused.
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