Post by ajk on Mar 26, 2022 4:01:37 GMT -5
This one felt really uncomfortable to watch. The way that the grieving mother was treated, and then the heir apparent business being done while her little kid’s body was still warm, and she had to sit there and watch it all happen...not only did it almost definitely not happen this way in real history, it seemed to have sorrow hovering all around it. At least for me it did.
Shame on WG for how he handled that moment, tearing Suin away from her dead child without even a few minutes to grieve with the body. That was absolutely awful.
Suin: “Is it possible that she used an evil spell?” Oh geez, here we go....But considering how Doyoung behaves, you can understand how she’d entertain the idea.
Kyungbo: “He only has ten more years of life...what a shame...” Oh stop that. Just stop it.
WG: “Prince Mu is the only son I have left.” You must be joking—with all of those wives he only has one son? Where have the other wives been in all this? You can understand how the writers don’t want to make things too complicated for a TV story, but we know he has other wives. Lots of them. We saw them! It looked like a tour group, there were so many. It’s impossible by now for any viewer who’s paying attention to not wonder about this.
And then it seemed like it was the same day that the kid died, they gave the robe to Prince Mu and we get all of the happy music and jubilation...the timing of it felt very inappropriate.
Escort Kim: “There are no signs of any wrongdoing.” Give Suin’s lead attendant a lot of credit for telling Suin the truth in the end and not further stoking suspicion.
WG: “Let us forget the sorrow and look forward to the bright future.” What an insensitive thing to say. Your precious child, he’s gone, let it go already. Terrible. And then they bring the new heir apparent right over to Suin’s chambers so she has to look at him. Yes Suin didn’t behave all that well, so aggressive about her son maybe getting the throne, but this is too much.
Doyoung: “Sister, let us be good to each other like before.” Hey you were never good to her...I mean you tried for a while but as soon as Buyong left the palace the claws came out and the ego took over. Shoot I so wish Buyong was back, she was a terrific character. She’d have read those two the riot act and knocked their heads together!
It sounded like a sentence might have been left out of the subtitles towards the end of that; it also would explain why the passage reads a little roughly. But this is very interesting, especially the part about the “mother’s inadequacy.” Why wasn’t that included in the story? I don’t know what specifically the inadequacy would be...but with all of the bad deals and unhappiness that so many of the women in this series have had to endure (good, decent women who deserved better), why did the writers let Doyoung of all of them get off so easy? She’s not a likeable character so I’m guessing a lot of viewers would have enjoyed a storyline that had her getting humbled. So there’s a missed opportunity.
According to Wikipedia, all we know about the real Prince Tae’s death is that it most likely was at a fairly young age because he had younger brothers who rose to the throne and there’s no recorded mention of him throughout any of those successions. We also know that he married a daughter of one of WG’s later wives, who didn’t even become his wife until six years after where we are now. Meaning he wasn’t exactly a little kid when he died. So between this and what the narrated text told us, it’s clear how much of this storyline was fiction. It should have been better fiction. It's over and done with now so we move on, but it didn’t measure up to nearly everything the rest of the series has given us.
Shame on WG for how he handled that moment, tearing Suin away from her dead child without even a few minutes to grieve with the body. That was absolutely awful.
Suin: “Is it possible that she used an evil spell?” Oh geez, here we go....But considering how Doyoung behaves, you can understand how she’d entertain the idea.
Kyungbo: “He only has ten more years of life...what a shame...” Oh stop that. Just stop it.
WG: “Prince Mu is the only son I have left.” You must be joking—with all of those wives he only has one son? Where have the other wives been in all this? You can understand how the writers don’t want to make things too complicated for a TV story, but we know he has other wives. Lots of them. We saw them! It looked like a tour group, there were so many. It’s impossible by now for any viewer who’s paying attention to not wonder about this.
And then it seemed like it was the same day that the kid died, they gave the robe to Prince Mu and we get all of the happy music and jubilation...the timing of it felt very inappropriate.
Escort Kim: “There are no signs of any wrongdoing.” Give Suin’s lead attendant a lot of credit for telling Suin the truth in the end and not further stoking suspicion.
WG: “Let us forget the sorrow and look forward to the bright future.” What an insensitive thing to say. Your precious child, he’s gone, let it go already. Terrible. And then they bring the new heir apparent right over to Suin’s chambers so she has to look at him. Yes Suin didn’t behave all that well, so aggressive about her son maybe getting the throne, but this is too much.
Doyoung: “Sister, let us be good to each other like before.” Hey you were never good to her...I mean you tried for a while but as soon as Buyong left the palace the claws came out and the ego took over. Shoot I so wish Buyong was back, she was a terrific character. She’d have read those two the riot act and knocked their heads together!
■ In December of 921, nine-year-old Prince Mu is proclaimed Heir Apparent of Koryo. He is the second Emperor of Koryo, Haejong. The Chronicles of Koryo write about this event like this: “Taejo Wang Guhn saw the virtue worthy of a king in Mu when he was only seven years old. After vacillation due to his mother’s inadequacy, he quietly made his decision, giving her the Imperial Robe in an old wooden box. Park Sulhee realized Taejo’s intent upon seeing the item, and appealed for prince Mu’s designation of Heir Apparent....Nonetheless, Madam Doyoung’s son Mu is proclaimed Heir Apparent. And Wang Guhn begins yet another reform in his kingdom.
It sounded like a sentence might have been left out of the subtitles towards the end of that; it also would explain why the passage reads a little roughly. But this is very interesting, especially the part about the “mother’s inadequacy.” Why wasn’t that included in the story? I don’t know what specifically the inadequacy would be...but with all of the bad deals and unhappiness that so many of the women in this series have had to endure (good, decent women who deserved better), why did the writers let Doyoung of all of them get off so easy? She’s not a likeable character so I’m guessing a lot of viewers would have enjoyed a storyline that had her getting humbled. So there’s a missed opportunity.
According to Wikipedia, all we know about the real Prince Tae’s death is that it most likely was at a fairly young age because he had younger brothers who rose to the throne and there’s no recorded mention of him throughout any of those successions. We also know that he married a daughter of one of WG’s later wives, who didn’t even become his wife until six years after where we are now. Meaning he wasn’t exactly a little kid when he died. So between this and what the narrated text told us, it’s clear how much of this storyline was fiction. It should have been better fiction. It's over and done with now so we move on, but it didn’t measure up to nearly everything the rest of the series has given us.
