Post by ajk on Dec 25, 2021 18:33:57 GMT -5
Thought about this one for a while after watching it and what gradually became apparent was how much fiction we got. Yes we’re always getting some details filled in here and there to tell the story, but wow this one was a whole lot of filler. It’s surprising—we’re nearly two-thirds through the series and we still haven’t gotten out of Goongyae’s shadow. Seems like they should be moving forward with all of the huge events in WG’s reign and not dallying with so much fiction. But it’s a little premature to know for certain what the thinking is here.
This was the second of the two narrated texts and it was the most important thing in the entire episode. We should give credit for a couple of things. One, as usual the series is very honest about telling us how much real history vs. how much fiction we’re getting. Full disclosure, wish every historical did this. Two, somebody was thinking big. We have this nugget of history about the herb; we have the Ahjagae story—which according to this text doesn’t have any recorded explanation or knowledge about precisely what got Ahjagae to flip to the Goryeo side; and we have the empress leaving the palace for health reasons (and while it hasn’t been addressed yet I have to assume that there’s some historical basis for presenting it). One of the writers made an ambitious effort to try to tie them all together and add a moral dilemma for more drama. Gotta respect the effort.
But when it became clear that the logic of it all was shaky, they should have dialed it back. The idea of a rare herb that everyone on the peninsula was scrambling to find in order to win favor in a crucial territory, that’s a clever idea and it offers more than enough drama and interest to stand on its own. You don’t need to link the empress’s story to it, especially with the big holes and questions it raises when you do. Would have been much smarter to come up with something entirely separate for the empress...maybe give WG a moral struggle to have to face, about how he ignored this woman who was so devoted to him and now she’s suffering so much more than if he had paid her the attention she deserves and found out about her illness sooner. If you’re going to go with this much fiction, well come on it’s fiction so you don’t need to have a shaky foundation for it, just make up something better.
And especially with what we now know about the herb—so the donor was in fact known and was rewarded for it. Why was that never depicted? We had that meeting-room scene a few episodes back when WG said they needed to find the donor and compensate him, but nothing ever came of that. This series doesn’t make a habit about leaving loose ends dangling...have to wonder if they planned to introduce the donor but then scrapped it in favor of this tie-everything-together approach and leave the source of the ginseng unknown.
“Your father is dying anyway. What is there to lose by giving it a try?” So this is what it’s come to—the old battleaxe is the voice of reason. Good heavens.
“Think Daeju, Sulhee has spent years trying to win your heart. Would he hurt your father?” Again she shoots she scores.
Ahjagae: “The physician from Bekjae does not want the ginseng to be real. They are playing you, Daegu.” Well done old man. May be a weirdo but he still has a sharp mind.
They took some pretty serious license here too. Presumably this came up immediately upon WG taking the throne—what to do with Goongyae’s kid—and he ordered what he ordered right then and there. I’m never happy about milking drama about little kids in distress...but what they did here wasn’t bad, and it did give them a chance to show WG as a good person. Which he must have been, to protect the previous emperor’s son like this. And it’s TV...so okay let’s give them this one. And I hope we see more of the kid later on. This is an interesting story.
“I may be the emperor but I cannot control my children.” Well you’re utterly clueless when it comes to women so why should this one surprise anybody.
Speaking of which...when we saw Buyong we were reminded that she was so devastated when she thought WG spurned her that she shaved her head and went into a monastery. I had forgotten about that...but I did still remember the way she walked all the way to that port at night, completely by herself, to say goodbye to WG before they were married (I think that was before the Naju invasion). This just makes WG look even worse, like how could he have ignored her so much since then. More reason to make this the angle rather than tying her into the ginseng story.
So presumably they’re going to give Ahjagae the medicine in the next episode, Ahjagae will keep his promise and Goryeo will end up getting Sangju, which will get us back more into real history and away from the high filler content. Fingers crossed! Let's get into the meat of WG's reign.
■ An excerpt in Chronicles of Koryo mentions an herb of good omen that was offered to Wang Guhn by an official named Neung Yoon, for which he was rewarded with grain. No one knows if this was wild ginseng of old age, but it is dramatized in this story to explain Ahjagae’s puzzling migration to Koryo.
This was the second of the two narrated texts and it was the most important thing in the entire episode. We should give credit for a couple of things. One, as usual the series is very honest about telling us how much real history vs. how much fiction we’re getting. Full disclosure, wish every historical did this. Two, somebody was thinking big. We have this nugget of history about the herb; we have the Ahjagae story—which according to this text doesn’t have any recorded explanation or knowledge about precisely what got Ahjagae to flip to the Goryeo side; and we have the empress leaving the palace for health reasons (and while it hasn’t been addressed yet I have to assume that there’s some historical basis for presenting it). One of the writers made an ambitious effort to try to tie them all together and add a moral dilemma for more drama. Gotta respect the effort.
But when it became clear that the logic of it all was shaky, they should have dialed it back. The idea of a rare herb that everyone on the peninsula was scrambling to find in order to win favor in a crucial territory, that’s a clever idea and it offers more than enough drama and interest to stand on its own. You don’t need to link the empress’s story to it, especially with the big holes and questions it raises when you do. Would have been much smarter to come up with something entirely separate for the empress...maybe give WG a moral struggle to have to face, about how he ignored this woman who was so devoted to him and now she’s suffering so much more than if he had paid her the attention she deserves and found out about her illness sooner. If you’re going to go with this much fiction, well come on it’s fiction so you don’t need to have a shaky foundation for it, just make up something better.
And especially with what we now know about the herb—so the donor was in fact known and was rewarded for it. Why was that never depicted? We had that meeting-room scene a few episodes back when WG said they needed to find the donor and compensate him, but nothing ever came of that. This series doesn’t make a habit about leaving loose ends dangling...have to wonder if they planned to introduce the donor but then scrapped it in favor of this tie-everything-together approach and leave the source of the ginseng unknown.
“Your father is dying anyway. What is there to lose by giving it a try?” So this is what it’s come to—the old battleaxe is the voice of reason. Good heavens.
“Think Daeju, Sulhee has spent years trying to win your heart. Would he hurt your father?” Again she shoots she scores.
Ahjagae: “The physician from Bekjae does not want the ginseng to be real. They are playing you, Daegu.” Well done old man. May be a weirdo but he still has a sharp mind.
■ So Goongyae’s bloodline is hence carried on. This child would later grow up to serve in Wang Guhn’s administration. This was quite contrary to the common practice of annihilating the bloodline upon change of power.
They took some pretty serious license here too. Presumably this came up immediately upon WG taking the throne—what to do with Goongyae’s kid—and he ordered what he ordered right then and there. I’m never happy about milking drama about little kids in distress...but what they did here wasn’t bad, and it did give them a chance to show WG as a good person. Which he must have been, to protect the previous emperor’s son like this. And it’s TV...so okay let’s give them this one. And I hope we see more of the kid later on. This is an interesting story.
“I may be the emperor but I cannot control my children.” Well you’re utterly clueless when it comes to women so why should this one surprise anybody.
Speaking of which...when we saw Buyong we were reminded that she was so devastated when she thought WG spurned her that she shaved her head and went into a monastery. I had forgotten about that...but I did still remember the way she walked all the way to that port at night, completely by herself, to say goodbye to WG before they were married (I think that was before the Naju invasion). This just makes WG look even worse, like how could he have ignored her so much since then. More reason to make this the angle rather than tying her into the ginseng story.
So presumably they’re going to give Ahjagae the medicine in the next episode, Ahjagae will keep his promise and Goryeo will end up getting Sangju, which will get us back more into real history and away from the high filler content. Fingers crossed! Let's get into the meat of WG's reign.