Post by ajk on May 31, 2020 6:42:50 GMT -5
Lengthy royal tour provided a valuable opportunity of self-discovery for Goongyae. His rise to power from a common Buddhist monk to an emperor was possible only because he had asserted himself as the Maitreya Buddha. But he knew he couldn’t settle down as the Maitreya forever. That was his dilemma. But much to his surprise, Ahjitae had provided him with an answer: Great Empire of the Orient. Goongyae had finally discovered his new goal.
Beautiful opening montage with the narrated text. They continue to knock these out of the park. Great stuff.
“I am not a woman in his majesty’s eyes. it was merely one night of pleasure. There is no love between the emperor and I. How could we have a child without love? That would only breed another tragedy.” That was a surprise; I thought Goongyae had completely changed his mindset about her. But wow it sure is weighing heavily on her; sure didn’t expect to see her break down in tears over it.
The council meeting scene was beautifully directed. The looks of uncertainty and concern on the faces of the different councilors as Goongyae talked, really well done. And the guy playing Goongyae was terrific. Going to be massively big shoes to fill when Goongyae departs the story. He’s been consistently excellent.
Goongyae’s new aspiration was a tremendous shock to Jongkahn. Goongyae was trying to abandon Koryo. And he declared his intent to his subjects without hesitation. Jongkahn couldn’t believe his ears. And he finally realized what transpired in Chungju.
Ahjitae: “General Wang is the only man who rivals his majesty.” Now where is he getting that from? Come on, WG has done nothing to warrant a comparison to Goongyae. Not even close. Another example of the series trying too hard to put WG on a pedestal and pre-ordain him.
“It is a silent order for me to devise an even grander plan.” I did not pick up on that at all. But it makes sense.
Yunhwa: “But to my knowledge, Shi Hwang was a merciless tyrant who abused his people with forced conscription for pleasure palace and other massive public projects. And how could an emperor kill scholars and burn books? How could there be progress if such atrocity is inflicted merely on the grounds that they have different views?” Wow, good for her! Impressive to know all that and fire it right back at Goongyae the way she did. Plus she was right--the way Goongyae was talking about the guy, it certainly came as a surprise if you know anything about him. If he starts adopting the same tactics he’s going to lose a lot of support instantly.
Yi Chi, on Ahjitae: “Extraordinary yes, but a bit deranged. He is an eccentric character.” And there was the biggest surprise of the episode. We didn’t expect our first insight into the guy to come from General Yi, and certainly not in this casual scene. And for that matter that’s not the insight we expected to hear at all. Completely startled me.
Lord Yu’s daughter is definitely not a mirror-breaker. Nope, not at all.
Eunbu, on Ahjitae: “They say he is a man of high intelligence, but unrealistic and impractical.” Yeah some scholars can certainly be like that. This whole angle with Ahjitae has become very interesting very quickly.
This is a little off-track, but has anybody else been surprised that Bok Jikyum hasn’t made all kinds of trouble about Mihyang/Madame Bukwon’s death? Remember he was super-serious with Goongyae when they first met about how Goongyae had a moral obligation to protect her and making him swear he’d do so. The way they set that up and presented it, it seemed certain that it would turn into a big deal at some point. Strange.
Anyway, a terrific episode overall. Not a lot of big events in it but the writing and production are both so good that nearly everything is working well.