Post by ajk on Jan 21, 2018 3:14:31 GMT -5
Rant warning….
Well this one was a first. A pointless episode that I resented having to watch. Two completely unnecessary events that didn’t happen in real history and shouldn’t have been part of the story. And not good quality stuff either--completely out of character for what's been a consistently excellent series.
That stupid battle. So much production time and effort and resources for something of absolutely no consequence. I couldn’t find any reason to care what happened. And why the sudden rain? What was the point? And then it stops the minute KJ falls off his horse? Good grief that was dumb. And the battle was supposed to have gone on for more than an hour, that’s what the spectators said, but there was nothing that suggested to us that so much time had elapsed. Even some of the action was weird. Guy takes a mallet shot to his back and the horse falls over? Ugh! I’d expect something like this in QSD or EOS but not in this series.
“He’s in his mid-forties. Still in his prime.” Umm, NO. I tried to find some historical stats on life expectancy in Asia at that time; no luck…but did find that life expectancy even as recently as 1960 in the Koreas was in the low 50s, and in medieval Britain it was in the low 30s. So please don’t try to convince us that those guys were peak fighting machines at their age at that time.
Oh and there’s Anshim at the stadium, standing there desperately worried for KJ’s welfare. Look familiar? Sheesh.
At least the big gong and the big drum were fun. I watched this one on a computer with a subwoofer plugged into it and it sure made a difference in the battle scene.
It really is a shame because it was always a nice thing that we never knew who would win in a match between KJ and Yangbaek. It was fun to speculate about but also fun that we’d never know for sure because they would never seriously get in the arena and fight each other. But not only is that lost now, but it wasn’t even a satisfying outcome.
“He has no sense. Too naïve for his own good.” Poor Mrs. Dae. Yeah can’t dispute that one. This was the other big event in the episode, Oh Seungjok returning home, and this was no good as well. Just too foolish to fit in with a sensible series.
“I had hoped to die in battle. A pity.” No argument there. Wow what a compelling historical figure. Didn’t particularly care for the pre-emptive poison wine suicide—they already played that card with Songi—but at least it spared us having to see poor Song Kilyu execute him. Here’s the narrated text about him:
Oh and speaking of the wife: was anybody else surprised that she was such a crying mess when CH told her to go away for good? You’d think she’d have been ecstatic. Freed from the terrible situation she never wanted any part of in the first place.
“Beat it out of them. They must have let him get away, right?” Yeah I wondered if that would come back to haunt those soldiers. This series is really, really good about not letting things like that slide. Well done.
“We’re too old to worry who wins or loses.” Well why did you agree to the match then, considering how seriously everybody else was taking it? Okay he saw it as more of a fun thing--he sort of chuckled and smiled at even the idea of it—but he thought this was a good idea…why? Because he wanted to teach Yangbaek something about priorities? That just didn’t fly.
And then at the end, KJ shows up and just starts beating on that Wonbal guy? He would never behave like that. Never. That was awful.
Obviously they’re using the match result and the Oh Seungjok thing to set up the final set of rivalries and conflicts for the remaining eight episodes. But they should have found other ways to do that. Come up with something more historically appropriate and more in keeping with the intelligence the series has shown. Sure hope this was an aberration and not a taste of what the remaining episodes will be like.
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Well this one was a first. A pointless episode that I resented having to watch. Two completely unnecessary events that didn’t happen in real history and shouldn’t have been part of the story. And not good quality stuff either--completely out of character for what's been a consistently excellent series.
That stupid battle. So much production time and effort and resources for something of absolutely no consequence. I couldn’t find any reason to care what happened. And why the sudden rain? What was the point? And then it stops the minute KJ falls off his horse? Good grief that was dumb. And the battle was supposed to have gone on for more than an hour, that’s what the spectators said, but there was nothing that suggested to us that so much time had elapsed. Even some of the action was weird. Guy takes a mallet shot to his back and the horse falls over? Ugh! I’d expect something like this in QSD or EOS but not in this series.
“He’s in his mid-forties. Still in his prime.” Umm, NO. I tried to find some historical stats on life expectancy in Asia at that time; no luck…but did find that life expectancy even as recently as 1960 in the Koreas was in the low 50s, and in medieval Britain it was in the low 30s. So please don’t try to convince us that those guys were peak fighting machines at their age at that time.
Oh and there’s Anshim at the stadium, standing there desperately worried for KJ’s welfare. Look familiar? Sheesh.
At least the big gong and the big drum were fun. I watched this one on a computer with a subwoofer plugged into it and it sure made a difference in the battle scene.
It really is a shame because it was always a nice thing that we never knew who would win in a match between KJ and Yangbaek. It was fun to speculate about but also fun that we’d never know for sure because they would never seriously get in the arena and fight each other. But not only is that lost now, but it wasn’t even a satisfying outcome.
“He has no sense. Too naïve for his own good.” Poor Mrs. Dae. Yeah can’t dispute that one. This was the other big event in the episode, Oh Seungjok returning home, and this was no good as well. Just too foolish to fit in with a sensible series.
“I had hoped to die in battle. A pity.” No argument there. Wow what a compelling historical figure. Didn’t particularly care for the pre-emptive poison wine suicide—they already played that card with Songi—but at least it spared us having to see poor Song Kilyu execute him. Here’s the narrated text about him:
Kim Kyongson of Kyongju. History speaks of his chivalry, courtesy, wisdom and valor. Early in his career he and Pak Seo held Kwiju against the Mongols for years. Later he held Naju against the rebels with very few men, until he defeated them. But he died at the capricious hand of Choe Hang, an injustice lamented by all Koryo.“You’re a bastard child too.” Okay so apparently Choe Hang’s kid, his mother wasn’t CH’s wife (Choe On’s daughter). We weren’t told who his mother is, and Wikipedia says it isn’t known, only that she was a concubine. Is that accurate? Probably so, knowing the track record this series has.
Oh and speaking of the wife: was anybody else surprised that she was such a crying mess when CH told her to go away for good? You’d think she’d have been ecstatic. Freed from the terrible situation she never wanted any part of in the first place.
“Beat it out of them. They must have let him get away, right?” Yeah I wondered if that would come back to haunt those soldiers. This series is really, really good about not letting things like that slide. Well done.
“We’re too old to worry who wins or loses.” Well why did you agree to the match then, considering how seriously everybody else was taking it? Okay he saw it as more of a fun thing--he sort of chuckled and smiled at even the idea of it—but he thought this was a good idea…why? Because he wanted to teach Yangbaek something about priorities? That just didn’t fly.
And then at the end, KJ shows up and just starts beating on that Wonbal guy? He would never behave like that. Never. That was awful.
Obviously they’re using the match result and the Oh Seungjok thing to set up the final set of rivalries and conflicts for the remaining eight episodes. But they should have found other ways to do that. Come up with something more historically appropriate and more in keeping with the intelligence the series has shown. Sure hope this was an aberration and not a taste of what the remaining episodes will be like.
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