Post by ajk on Sept 19, 2021 1:18:13 GMT -5
This one was extremely well written, even by this show’s high standards. We were in five different places—the capital, Naju, Bekjae, Sangju, and the border near Sangju—and dozens of different characters had at least one spoken line. And all of the suspicions and accusations and plotting going on the capital, it’s all very complicated and tightly woven together. It would be easy to mess all of this up but it’s all being presented beautifully and without any inconsistency or continuity problems. Bravo.
“Where do we go from here?...This preoccupation with triviality is destroying us...Yes, he is not the emperor of the past.” Loved that quick opener with Jongkahn—visually beautiful, perfect music, and excellent writing. (The music was excellent throughout this one.)
Now Goongyae thinks his own little boys were active participants in Ahjitae’s conspiracy? Wow well this is not good at all. It’s still hard to see evidence that he has the psychiatric problems he had before, but he’s showing the same obsession and neurosis as before and he’s getting deeper into it. Very different...but certainly this answers my complaint from last time.
The empress is almost due already? Seems like nine months flew by. Was it nine months?
Eunbu is getting awfully cranky. He’s always shown integrity but here it sort of seemed like he was trying to tell his subordinates to fabricate evidence. Maybe not but it sure seemed like he wouldn’t turn it down if they brought it to him.
Not saying this because I’m happy to have Park Sulhee back in the picture (I’m not) but what’s the value in recalling him? Blood brother or not, he’s serving a valuable role sucking up to crazy old Ahjagae and it's surprising that WG recalled him and replaced him with a complete stranger to Ahjagae. Doesn’t seem like a very wise decision.
Kyun-hwon talked about a region called Byukjinju on the border somewhere between Bekjae and Taebong (and its longtime governor, a man named Lee Chonguhn). Put “Byukjinju” into Google and you get zero Google hits, so I can’t contribute any information about it here. Frankly it seems odd that it hasn’t been mentioned before.
Kyun-hwon: “Wuyue in particular is close in proximity and positioned to become the leading power in China.” Okay that one has been mentioned before—KH himself brought it up in Episode 62—and there’s plenty of info about it out there:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuyue
That was an interesting scene, the Bekjae court in session...KH moving so decisively away from conquest for a while, it’s a huge change of mindset for him.
Jongkahn: “What will his subjects think...when he takes the lives of his own wife and children?” Well where did that come from? Why on earth would he need to do that? Divorce her, exile them, strip them of royal status, whatever...killing them seems extreme.
Lord Yu... “Not many survive an inquisition for high treason.” OK maybe Jongkahn’s not entirely wrong after all. Yikes!
Yunhwa: “I have not forgotten about Madame Bukwon.” Yeah I’ve been wondering when that would come back. That whole thing affected her very strongly for a long time. Maybe it explains why she’s acting out so aggressively. She really let him have it again in this one.
Goongyae: “Your death is for this kingdom, empress.” So nonchalant about it. Very much like how he felt about the master healer who cured him and got executed for this trouble. But that aside, is Jongkahn going to face any accountability for this now that the full story is finally leaking out? He’s the one who took her away from WG knowing that they had been betrothed.
Still wondering when we’re going to move forward and get to WG on the throne...but you sure can’t argue with the quality of the story we’re getting so far.
“Where do we go from here?...This preoccupation with triviality is destroying us...Yes, he is not the emperor of the past.” Loved that quick opener with Jongkahn—visually beautiful, perfect music, and excellent writing. (The music was excellent throughout this one.)
Now Goongyae thinks his own little boys were active participants in Ahjitae’s conspiracy? Wow well this is not good at all. It’s still hard to see evidence that he has the psychiatric problems he had before, but he’s showing the same obsession and neurosis as before and he’s getting deeper into it. Very different...but certainly this answers my complaint from last time.
The empress is almost due already? Seems like nine months flew by. Was it nine months?
Eunbu is getting awfully cranky. He’s always shown integrity but here it sort of seemed like he was trying to tell his subordinates to fabricate evidence. Maybe not but it sure seemed like he wouldn’t turn it down if they brought it to him.
Not saying this because I’m happy to have Park Sulhee back in the picture (I’m not) but what’s the value in recalling him? Blood brother or not, he’s serving a valuable role sucking up to crazy old Ahjagae and it's surprising that WG recalled him and replaced him with a complete stranger to Ahjagae. Doesn’t seem like a very wise decision.
Kyun-hwon talked about a region called Byukjinju on the border somewhere between Bekjae and Taebong (and its longtime governor, a man named Lee Chonguhn). Put “Byukjinju” into Google and you get zero Google hits, so I can’t contribute any information about it here. Frankly it seems odd that it hasn’t been mentioned before.
Kyun-hwon: “Wuyue in particular is close in proximity and positioned to become the leading power in China.” Okay that one has been mentioned before—KH himself brought it up in Episode 62—and there’s plenty of info about it out there:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuyue
That was an interesting scene, the Bekjae court in session...KH moving so decisively away from conquest for a while, it’s a huge change of mindset for him.
Jongkahn: “What will his subjects think...when he takes the lives of his own wife and children?” Well where did that come from? Why on earth would he need to do that? Divorce her, exile them, strip them of royal status, whatever...killing them seems extreme.
Lord Yu... “Not many survive an inquisition for high treason.” OK maybe Jongkahn’s not entirely wrong after all. Yikes!
Yunhwa: “I have not forgotten about Madame Bukwon.” Yeah I’ve been wondering when that would come back. That whole thing affected her very strongly for a long time. Maybe it explains why she’s acting out so aggressively. She really let him have it again in this one.
Goongyae: “Your death is for this kingdom, empress.” So nonchalant about it. Very much like how he felt about the master healer who cured him and got executed for this trouble. But that aside, is Jongkahn going to face any accountability for this now that the full story is finally leaking out? He’s the one who took her away from WG knowing that they had been betrothed.
Still wondering when we’re going to move forward and get to WG on the throne...but you sure can’t argue with the quality of the story we’re getting so far.