Post by ajk on Dec 30, 2018 13:21:47 GMT -5
Not one of the better episodes. Some big turning points happening and it felt like the writers lost control of the plot. Just couldn’t put together a solid enough storyline to keep some very annoying and distracting problems from seeping in:
--So once again Yeogu goes running out alone after Yeohwa, and this time it’s at night in the middle of a war zone. After all of his talk about the great cause and how everything is for the great cause, you’d think by now he’d have enough self-control to not go racing after her yet again. At least his soldiers disregarded his order and sent an escort to protect him this time, but still, very stupid.
--And of course the purpose of all that was to produce the result of the final scene between Yeohwa and Sayu. It started out as an excellent scene, very dramatic...but it deteriorated into utter silliness with that boat floating in the river with Sayu standing there—close enough to shore to trade some lame trash-talking with Yeogu but yet all of Yeogu’s men stopped shooting arrows at the boat. Oh except for the one grand-gesture arrow where Yeogu hurt Sayu’s leg. What was the value of any of this? Yeohwa and Sayu should have parted on their own without any of this nonsense.
--Yeochan and Queen Hae were fleeing from justice the last time we saw them. Now they’re back in the palace like nothing happened? Certainly by now the news has reached Hanseong that the queen poisoned the king, and of course it’s long known that she stabbed the second queen. And yet nobody does anything about this until Yeogu shows up?
--Hae Geon walking around the palace like it’s an ordinary day at the office. The guy murdered the freaking king! The fact that he helped with the Gomori Fortress battle absolves him of that? Really? He should have been taken away and imprisoned for the time being at the very least. Nobody allied with Yeogu would possibly tolerate him being a free man. And everybody on the late king’s side would be going bonkers trying to get their hands on Hae for revenge.
Some other smaller annoying things too:
--It sure was nice of those Goguryeo soldiers to line up and run at Hae Geon one at a time, at just the right angles so he could kill them all with single sword blows. Blecch.
--And then Hae Geon kills the Goguryeo head lady attendant. That was awful. Seemed like he resented how she treated Yeohwa, but whatever...murdering a harmless woman who was just sitting there helpless and defenseless and who committed no crime, didn’t like that one bit. And it didn’t seem like something his character would even do in the first place.
--Bu Gantae blows that tiny little horn and gets that huge baritone sound out of it? Ugh. Whoever put that sound in during post-production should be suspended for a few days.
--The second queen is brought medicine in a bowl. Then she hears shocking news that causes her to drop the bowl...and we see a dry bowl shatter on the floor. Oops, and not the first time this has happened either.
And finally: at this point there’s no apparent reason for any of those Buyeo people to still be with Yeogu. Except Annoying Girl, she’s understandable, but the rest of them? They can take their soldiers back home and establish their own new country on the land they’ve captured (can’t they?). Okay so maybe they wanted to help Yeogu accomplish his goal of getting on the throne, but now they can leave—or if not, we need to understand why they’re not leaving. This needs to be addressed.
“Are you trying to talk politics to me?” Oh she isn’t just trying, she’s schooling him. This was the one good thing about the episode, getting Yeohwa back with Yeogu. They make an interesting couple and I like them together. She’s very bright and is good for him to have to listen to. At the start of the episode Yeogu gave what seemed like a very reasoned, sensible explanation for why killing Sayu would be so advantageous, but here she made a compelling case for why he was wrong. Good scene.
“If we don’t recognize a king as a king, the history of Baekje will never be right.” Proper decision and a good start for him on the throne. Presumably that’s why he named Yeohwa first queen as well, for the sake of national unity...but the councilors were right to question his motive for it. Certainly it worked out conveniently for him, didn’t it.
So this episode got away from the writers, but at least we finally have Yeogu taking the throne now. Hopefully he’ll make a more interesting king than a prince. At first his calm, measured approach to everything was admirable but over time the character has gotten kind of boring. No emotion or variation in his demeanor, sort of mechanical. Maybe it will fit better now that he’s king.
p.s. Will do 33 midweek and 34 next weekend to get us all caught up.
--So once again Yeogu goes running out alone after Yeohwa, and this time it’s at night in the middle of a war zone. After all of his talk about the great cause and how everything is for the great cause, you’d think by now he’d have enough self-control to not go racing after her yet again. At least his soldiers disregarded his order and sent an escort to protect him this time, but still, very stupid.
--And of course the purpose of all that was to produce the result of the final scene between Yeohwa and Sayu. It started out as an excellent scene, very dramatic...but it deteriorated into utter silliness with that boat floating in the river with Sayu standing there—close enough to shore to trade some lame trash-talking with Yeogu but yet all of Yeogu’s men stopped shooting arrows at the boat. Oh except for the one grand-gesture arrow where Yeogu hurt Sayu’s leg. What was the value of any of this? Yeohwa and Sayu should have parted on their own without any of this nonsense.
--Yeochan and Queen Hae were fleeing from justice the last time we saw them. Now they’re back in the palace like nothing happened? Certainly by now the news has reached Hanseong that the queen poisoned the king, and of course it’s long known that she stabbed the second queen. And yet nobody does anything about this until Yeogu shows up?
--Hae Geon walking around the palace like it’s an ordinary day at the office. The guy murdered the freaking king! The fact that he helped with the Gomori Fortress battle absolves him of that? Really? He should have been taken away and imprisoned for the time being at the very least. Nobody allied with Yeogu would possibly tolerate him being a free man. And everybody on the late king’s side would be going bonkers trying to get their hands on Hae for revenge.
Some other smaller annoying things too:
--It sure was nice of those Goguryeo soldiers to line up and run at Hae Geon one at a time, at just the right angles so he could kill them all with single sword blows. Blecch.
--And then Hae Geon kills the Goguryeo head lady attendant. That was awful. Seemed like he resented how she treated Yeohwa, but whatever...murdering a harmless woman who was just sitting there helpless and defenseless and who committed no crime, didn’t like that one bit. And it didn’t seem like something his character would even do in the first place.
--Bu Gantae blows that tiny little horn and gets that huge baritone sound out of it? Ugh. Whoever put that sound in during post-production should be suspended for a few days.
--The second queen is brought medicine in a bowl. Then she hears shocking news that causes her to drop the bowl...and we see a dry bowl shatter on the floor. Oops, and not the first time this has happened either.
And finally: at this point there’s no apparent reason for any of those Buyeo people to still be with Yeogu. Except Annoying Girl, she’s understandable, but the rest of them? They can take their soldiers back home and establish their own new country on the land they’ve captured (can’t they?). Okay so maybe they wanted to help Yeogu accomplish his goal of getting on the throne, but now they can leave—or if not, we need to understand why they’re not leaving. This needs to be addressed.
“Are you trying to talk politics to me?” Oh she isn’t just trying, she’s schooling him. This was the one good thing about the episode, getting Yeohwa back with Yeogu. They make an interesting couple and I like them together. She’s very bright and is good for him to have to listen to. At the start of the episode Yeogu gave what seemed like a very reasoned, sensible explanation for why killing Sayu would be so advantageous, but here she made a compelling case for why he was wrong. Good scene.
“If we don’t recognize a king as a king, the history of Baekje will never be right.” Proper decision and a good start for him on the throne. Presumably that’s why he named Yeohwa first queen as well, for the sake of national unity...but the councilors were right to question his motive for it. Certainly it worked out conveniently for him, didn’t it.
So this episode got away from the writers, but at least we finally have Yeogu taking the throne now. Hopefully he’ll make a more interesting king than a prince. At first his calm, measured approach to everything was admirable but over time the character has gotten kind of boring. No emotion or variation in his demeanor, sort of mechanical. Maybe it will fit better now that he’s king.
p.s. Will do 33 midweek and 34 next weekend to get us all caught up.