Post by ajk on Apr 18, 2021 0:42:34 GMT -5
Well this one gave us our money’s worth, no question! A lot to cover here.
The end of the battle and the ambush sequence, nearly all of it was excellent. All kinds of troops coming from all directions, that kind of thing can get confusing but this was presented very well. The stuff with the ropes and logs was interesting (although it would have been better if we had seen troops practicing with them in training first). And the locations, gorgeous. Don’t know if these were the actual places where this stuff all unfolded but either way it was convincing and looked great.
The only flaw--other than Gong-jik getting off his horse to fight on foot, what kind of idiot would do that--was when Kyun-hwon bear-hugged the big log coming at him like he was the Incredible Hulk and then started bonking guys with it left and right. That was laugh-out-loud cartoonish. Somebody on the production staff should have put a halt to it even before they finished filming it. But we’ve seen this kind of thing with him before so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Otherwise a big thumbs-up. And that includes the music, actually not just here but throughout the episode.
What is with all of the flags? I’ve never seen such a high flag-to-soldier ratio, and this right after a brutal battle. Seriously? Hey WG I think you need to bring in some more flags! Sheesh.
Now cut that out! It was sarcasm!
All this time with General Bang in the series (he showed up in Episode 53) and we never got a first name for him. That was strange, wasn’t it? Got to the point where it was weird and awkward. Presumably his first name was never recorded and so the writers were just being historically accurate rather than give him a likely incorrect one. And you have to respect and appreciate that approach very much...but in a case like this one I think you bend a little and give him a first name. Does much more good than harm. Oh well.
The post-capture scene with Sudal was terrific. Really well done in every aspect. Sudal has been wildly entertaining as kind of a goof, but here he was sincere and principled and earned nothing but respect. And initially you have to give WG credit for showing respect, and for offering him his life...
...but then again at the end of the episode and he’s still pushing it, and seems to be so frustrated and baffled that Sudal wants death, well come on now WG, would you turn your back on Goongyae if you had been captured? Of course not. You shouldn't be surprised by this.
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Now on to the other big thing. We finally got the explanation I had been asking for, both from Tepyoung and from a good narrated text:
Tepyoung: “What is certain is that we had the help of God...But earlier I had studied the stars and the weather pattern. The peninsula’s winter weather generally runs in a cycle of three cold and four warm days. A temporary wind shift occurs on the last of the cold days when warm air moves in. That temporary change lasts anywhere from two hours to half a day, and sometimes it is mild and unnoticeable, and sometimes it is a strong gale like what we had...Our prayers were for the strength of that wind, and our prayers were answered.”
First of all I’ll clear up two mistakes I made. One, I thought the praying was just for show but obviously not; Tepyoung decided it was necessary for the strength of the pattern, just not the pattern itself. And two, we didn’t really see Tepyoung putting in hours studying weather records and I had criticized this because it looked like he just sat on the deck for a while and it all came to him. But he must have been looking at some sort of records because he wasn’t out there on the dock long enough to pick up on the seven-day cycle that he revealed. Fair enough.
However...this whole thing still doesn’t fly. Not even close. Three days warm, four days cold is not a complicated pattern. Anybody living on that coast would have picked upon it even as a child. And certainly a 180-degree wind shift at a regular interval would have been noticed and put to good use by anyone making their living on or beside the sea in that area. Watching him revealing this knowledge to oohs and aahs, that was an eye-roller.
And in any event, I’d be shocked if there were any place on the planet where you got a micro-cycle like the one described here with such regularity and predictability down to a couple of hours. Especially an area the size of the Korean Peninsula. No way.
Obviously what happened in real history is that WG’s side did have some knowledge of the possibility of getting a favorable wind shift, so they sailed down there and waited, and hoped and prayed for the best, and got it. Well why not just say that, and write the storyline that way? The writers wouldn't even give General Bang a first name, they should never have tried to turn Tepyoung into some kind of supercomputing weather savant. Great writing work throughout the series so far but this just wasn’t handled very well. And the real story is a better story anyway! Blecch.
The end of the battle and the ambush sequence, nearly all of it was excellent. All kinds of troops coming from all directions, that kind of thing can get confusing but this was presented very well. The stuff with the ropes and logs was interesting (although it would have been better if we had seen troops practicing with them in training first). And the locations, gorgeous. Don’t know if these were the actual places where this stuff all unfolded but either way it was convincing and looked great.
The only flaw--other than Gong-jik getting off his horse to fight on foot, what kind of idiot would do that--was when Kyun-hwon bear-hugged the big log coming at him like he was the Incredible Hulk and then started bonking guys with it left and right. That was laugh-out-loud cartoonish. Somebody on the production staff should have put a halt to it even before they finished filming it. But we’ve seen this kind of thing with him before so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Otherwise a big thumbs-up. And that includes the music, actually not just here but throughout the episode.
What is with all of the flags? I’ve never seen such a high flag-to-soldier ratio, and this right after a brutal battle. Seriously? Hey WG I think you need to bring in some more flags! Sheesh.
Now cut that out! It was sarcasm!
All this time with General Bang in the series (he showed up in Episode 53) and we never got a first name for him. That was strange, wasn’t it? Got to the point where it was weird and awkward. Presumably his first name was never recorded and so the writers were just being historically accurate rather than give him a likely incorrect one. And you have to respect and appreciate that approach very much...but in a case like this one I think you bend a little and give him a first name. Does much more good than harm. Oh well.
The post-capture scene with Sudal was terrific. Really well done in every aspect. Sudal has been wildly entertaining as kind of a goof, but here he was sincere and principled and earned nothing but respect. And initially you have to give WG credit for showing respect, and for offering him his life...
...but then again at the end of the episode and he’s still pushing it, and seems to be so frustrated and baffled that Sudal wants death, well come on now WG, would you turn your back on Goongyae if you had been captured? Of course not. You shouldn't be surprised by this.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now on to the other big thing. We finally got the explanation I had been asking for, both from Tepyoung and from a good narrated text:
Tepyoung: “What is certain is that we had the help of God...But earlier I had studied the stars and the weather pattern. The peninsula’s winter weather generally runs in a cycle of three cold and four warm days. A temporary wind shift occurs on the last of the cold days when warm air moves in. That temporary change lasts anywhere from two hours to half a day, and sometimes it is mild and unnoticeable, and sometimes it is a strong gale like what we had...Our prayers were for the strength of that wind, and our prayers were answered.”
■ Tepyoung’s southeast wind...Chronicles of Koryo depicts this battle like this: “Wang Guhn arrived in Naju and saw that Kyun-hwon’s fleet stretched from Mokpo to Dukjinpo. His warriors were greatly troubled upon seeing the enemy’s strength, but Wang Guhn attacked with fire according to the wind and destroyed their ships, causing Kyun-hwon to flee on a small boat.” Though it is a brief record, it is clear that the wind played a major role in this victory. And it is presumed that they understood and utilized seasonal wind and climatic changes. This event took place in the winter of 909 AD.
First of all I’ll clear up two mistakes I made. One, I thought the praying was just for show but obviously not; Tepyoung decided it was necessary for the strength of the pattern, just not the pattern itself. And two, we didn’t really see Tepyoung putting in hours studying weather records and I had criticized this because it looked like he just sat on the deck for a while and it all came to him. But he must have been looking at some sort of records because he wasn’t out there on the dock long enough to pick up on the seven-day cycle that he revealed. Fair enough.
However...this whole thing still doesn’t fly. Not even close. Three days warm, four days cold is not a complicated pattern. Anybody living on that coast would have picked upon it even as a child. And certainly a 180-degree wind shift at a regular interval would have been noticed and put to good use by anyone making their living on or beside the sea in that area. Watching him revealing this knowledge to oohs and aahs, that was an eye-roller.
And in any event, I’d be shocked if there were any place on the planet where you got a micro-cycle like the one described here with such regularity and predictability down to a couple of hours. Especially an area the size of the Korean Peninsula. No way.
Obviously what happened in real history is that WG’s side did have some knowledge of the possibility of getting a favorable wind shift, so they sailed down there and waited, and hoped and prayed for the best, and got it. Well why not just say that, and write the storyline that way? The writers wouldn't even give General Bang a first name, they should never have tried to turn Tepyoung into some kind of supercomputing weather savant. Great writing work throughout the series so far but this just wasn’t handled very well. And the real story is a better story anyway! Blecch.