Post by ajk on Feb 2, 2020 2:58:15 GMT -5
Most of this one was about the two nighttime battles with Yangil. There were some issues, unfortunately...but by the end we saw a possible solution to the biggest single problem in the series so far.
“Is this destiny, or is this doom?” What a great opening line! “I am now dead, and only my husk remains...the old Yunhwa is gone.” After the way she’s conducted herself through all this, it makes WG look even weaker. Who wouldn’t put themselves on the line for a woman like that? Is it just me? Yeah yeah he has this greater mission to think about...Let’s drop it, dead horse. Poor Yunhwa, what a miserable fate she's looking at. Sure is showing strength of character.
Goongyae on Yangil: “I did not wish to become hostile enemies with him.” Seriously? You toss his daughter aside and pick someone else to be the empress, and you think he’ll be okay with that? Wow brain freeze.
“I do not question general Bok’s loyalty. Promises must be kept. I will not forsake the poor woman.” Thank you Goongyae. Eunbu jumps right in and attacks his “friend” Bok? We saw this before and it looked like it was settled. The circumstances have changed but shame on Eunbu. The brain freeze is catching. Some friend.
“I’m assigning General Wang as the chief commander of this battle.” WHAT?!? Why?? We’ve been given no possible justification for Goongyae sitting in that meeting with all of those experienced, accomplished generals and handing the top spot to a 20-year-old with no battlefield experience. Has he lost his mind? We do know in real history that WG achieved military success fairly early in life; Wikipedia mentions him having success against regional rivals at the age of 23. But nothing in the storyline here supports this decision. It makes Goongyae look crazy. If he’s going to make that choice then there needed to be some sort of backstory for it. Boo hiss.
“He has fought pirates at sea since the age of six.” Now cut that out!
Yangil: “What? Twenty years old? What happened to Yi Honnam and Hwan Sungil that Goongyae has put a child in command?” Yeah we don’t get it either, dude.
So we had a lot of footage of the nighttime battles. Didn’t care for most of it. Lots and lots of close-ups and you had a hard time following the action. Those cheap sword and arrow sound-effects, yecch...and speaking of arrows, there was no defensible reason for flaming arrows in this situation. NONE. Looks good on TV but this series has been above resorting to gimmicks. And the embarrassingly weak trash-talk in the middle of battles, good grief just shut up and fight.
But credit one thing—no excessive floodlights like we've seen in other series. To the extent that certain things weren’t clear because it was dark, well fair enough, in a nighttime battle that’s what happens so good for them for keeping it dark. There was still some obvious lighting, but they even made a point of writing dialogue to mention that the moon was full. Good piece of thinking on that.
“It is truly amazing. He saw this battle like the back of his hand from the start.” Well okay, now we may finally be getting somewhere. So far WG has been totally outclassed by Goongyae and Kwon Hyun. Rich kid, “predestined”, like everything has fallen perfectly at his feet and he’s done nothing on his own. But looky here, we found something: the kid is smart. He anticipated Yangil’s movements perfectly in the first battle, and did it because he gathered information and studied it carefully. And came up with an excellent plan to strike the retreating enemy in the second battle. That part seemed a little dubious, because the forces were supposed to be relatively equal so how did WG have enough troops to fight the second battle head-on plus send others to strike hard at the retreat? But maybe that’s nit-picking. Bottom line is that he’s shown us something to respect him for, and something legitimate that he can succeed with. Plus, Choi Soo Jong isn’t convincing as a great one-on-one combat warrior, to put it mildly, and he’s not the type to play a charismatic alpha male. But a quieter, more thoughtful character who succeeds with his smarts, if they go in this direction then yeah that can definitely work! How about that.
And WG also stepped up and humbly took responsibility for the loss of the two generals. That was exceptional—you had to respect him for that, and he was truly sincere about it. So maybe we’ve turned a corner and are starting to build up a character worthy of the two rivals. Let’s see if it takes.
“Is this destiny, or is this doom?” What a great opening line! “I am now dead, and only my husk remains...the old Yunhwa is gone.” After the way she’s conducted herself through all this, it makes WG look even weaker. Who wouldn’t put themselves on the line for a woman like that? Is it just me? Yeah yeah he has this greater mission to think about...Let’s drop it, dead horse. Poor Yunhwa, what a miserable fate she's looking at. Sure is showing strength of character.
Goongyae on Yangil: “I did not wish to become hostile enemies with him.” Seriously? You toss his daughter aside and pick someone else to be the empress, and you think he’ll be okay with that? Wow brain freeze.
“I do not question general Bok’s loyalty. Promises must be kept. I will not forsake the poor woman.” Thank you Goongyae. Eunbu jumps right in and attacks his “friend” Bok? We saw this before and it looked like it was settled. The circumstances have changed but shame on Eunbu. The brain freeze is catching. Some friend.
“I’m assigning General Wang as the chief commander of this battle.” WHAT?!? Why?? We’ve been given no possible justification for Goongyae sitting in that meeting with all of those experienced, accomplished generals and handing the top spot to a 20-year-old with no battlefield experience. Has he lost his mind? We do know in real history that WG achieved military success fairly early in life; Wikipedia mentions him having success against regional rivals at the age of 23. But nothing in the storyline here supports this decision. It makes Goongyae look crazy. If he’s going to make that choice then there needed to be some sort of backstory for it. Boo hiss.
“He has fought pirates at sea since the age of six.” Now cut that out!
Yangil: “What? Twenty years old? What happened to Yi Honnam and Hwan Sungil that Goongyae has put a child in command?” Yeah we don’t get it either, dude.
So we had a lot of footage of the nighttime battles. Didn’t care for most of it. Lots and lots of close-ups and you had a hard time following the action. Those cheap sword and arrow sound-effects, yecch...and speaking of arrows, there was no defensible reason for flaming arrows in this situation. NONE. Looks good on TV but this series has been above resorting to gimmicks. And the embarrassingly weak trash-talk in the middle of battles, good grief just shut up and fight.
But credit one thing—no excessive floodlights like we've seen in other series. To the extent that certain things weren’t clear because it was dark, well fair enough, in a nighttime battle that’s what happens so good for them for keeping it dark. There was still some obvious lighting, but they even made a point of writing dialogue to mention that the moon was full. Good piece of thinking on that.
“It is truly amazing. He saw this battle like the back of his hand from the start.” Well okay, now we may finally be getting somewhere. So far WG has been totally outclassed by Goongyae and Kwon Hyun. Rich kid, “predestined”, like everything has fallen perfectly at his feet and he’s done nothing on his own. But looky here, we found something: the kid is smart. He anticipated Yangil’s movements perfectly in the first battle, and did it because he gathered information and studied it carefully. And came up with an excellent plan to strike the retreating enemy in the second battle. That part seemed a little dubious, because the forces were supposed to be relatively equal so how did WG have enough troops to fight the second battle head-on plus send others to strike hard at the retreat? But maybe that’s nit-picking. Bottom line is that he’s shown us something to respect him for, and something legitimate that he can succeed with. Plus, Choi Soo Jong isn’t convincing as a great one-on-one combat warrior, to put it mildly, and he’s not the type to play a charismatic alpha male. But a quieter, more thoughtful character who succeeds with his smarts, if they go in this direction then yeah that can definitely work! How about that.
And WG also stepped up and humbly took responsibility for the loss of the two generals. That was exceptional—you had to respect him for that, and he was truly sincere about it. So maybe we’ve turned a corner and are starting to build up a character worthy of the two rivals. Let’s see if it takes.