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Post by ajk on Mar 27, 2022 12:50:04 GMT -5
...is up on Kocowa now, but it's not subbed yet. There always seems to be a bit of a delay in getting a subbed version up. But it should be there in the next few hours.
As usual, everyone has 24 hours to watch it for free before it goes behind their paywall.
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Post by sageuk on Mar 27, 2022 18:10:14 GMT -5
Not exactly what I'd call a pleasant watch...
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Post by ajk on Mar 28, 2022 4:10:12 GMT -5
Yes it was very uncomfortable to watch...and disheartening too. Because this is supposed to be a traditional historical and now I fear they’re letting it slip into a contemporary-themed gender battle that makes no sense for the time period and entirely departs from actual history.
Lee Sookbeon: “Can you speak plainly so that I can actually understand you?” HA! That was great. Ha Ryun is killing it. Been a long time since I enjoyed a supporting character so much.
Bangwon: “That is why I must be harsher. I do not want her running the court like Lady Kang before.” Fair enough, absolutely...but dude, you’re not the pushover that LSG was for her. There’s the difference. Still, we can understand his very strong worries about this. And this is what the series is still doing really well, giving us deeper looks into characters than we usually get in historicals. The guy playing Bangwon in particular is doing a really nice job giving us a believable and consistent character. His being driven by the feeling of having sinned, wanting to do well and having at least some of a conscience about it, excellent stuff. The Bangwon we got in the Jeong Dojeon series, he wasn’t the focus of the series so they didn’t do as much with him, but he was more of a straight jerk than this Bangwon is.
“Lord Cho Sa Eui is gathering men.” Love the glimpse of the countryside and the villagers talking. You wonder how successful the attempt can possibly be if the villagers are all gossiping about it.
Here we go again...Bangwon says his wife isn’t allowed to be in the palace. But they let her in anyway. He’s the king, right? They have to do what he says, right? And she’s right there staring at the very throne in the throne room. No this would not happen.
“He already has three royal consorts.” Why is that such a scandal? Am I misunderstanding something here? Okay giving the queen the brushoff on her installation day, that was harsh. But we all know that kings were boinking multiple concubines back then. And from what I’ve read, Bangwon’s concubines didn’t even become an issue until later on, years after where we are now. Ugh.
“If it is a path without any hardship, everyone would be able to go down the right path. You are doing well.” Ha Ryun again.
“Remove them.” Oh and now the queen’s attendants are assaulting the king’s attendants so that the queen can storm into the king's bedroom? Like that wouldn’t get any queen in huge, huge trouble? This is getting out of hand.
At least Jo Yeongmu is getting another chance, there’s a small piece of justice.
“Set up a marriage office and lead it. Prepare to find me a new queen.” The writers are tearing those two apart way too soon. What’s Bangwon going to do when the REAL stuff starts happening, the stuff that was really responsible for their troubles? Is he going to pull her fingernails out? They’re painting themselves into a corner here, and it’s totally unnecessary. We know that the real Lady Min was intelligent and ambitious and did end up having an impact on state affairs. There’s absolutely no way that she would have expected to waltz into the palace and openly become the co-ruler of the country. Especially knowing how the entire government had just witnessed the disruption that LSG’s wife caused. And extra-especially knowing how Bangwon was so powerfully harmed by that, and how vigilant he’s going to be about not wanting the same thing to happen to him. She wasn’t that stupid and she couldn’t have been that naive. Great King Sejong did a great job of telling her real story and doing her justice and it made for a fantastic character. It’s ridiculous that all of a sudden she turns into a female Bangwon and says Give me what I want or kill me. I guess this is another way of trying to juice up the story for more drama, by bringing the conflict forward in time and kicking things off ASAP. But I don’t know if you can even call this a traditional historical any more.
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Post by 𝔰𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔪𝔞𝔠𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔯 on Mar 29, 2022 2:43:17 GMT -5
Lee Sookbeon: “Can you speak plainly so that I can actually understand you?” HA! That was great. Ha Ryun is killing it. Been a long time since I enjoyed a supporting character so much. And Sukbeon's reaction too, really loving Jung Tae Woo's performance here. I didn't even think of this until you mentioned it, you're right! While there are other traditional historicals where inferior staff mistreat their superior staff, they're usually punished for it. Even less accurate shows recognize how severe it is for the Queen's court ladies to assault the King's. But then again, the justification might be that the Queen oversees all Court ladies, even the King's... I'm curious if real life Taejong ever threatened this. That's totally too big an event to cover up and use lack of historical evidence as an excuse... Oh it totally can, strangely enough. Barring comparison with the similar Taiga drama format in Japan (which are facing similar issues re: accuracy vs entertainment), or even traditionals from other networks (SBS is a particularly grave offender here), earlier KBS traditionals have had plotlines straight out of storybooks and 'unofficial histories', although the narrator would usually mention which parts came from where. Still, you were definitely right to be vigilant about the "shedding new light" this show claimed to want to do.
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Post by truth on Mar 29, 2022 17:31:05 GMT -5
“Set up a marriage office and lead it. Prepare to find me a new queen.” The writers are tearing those two apart way too soon. What’s Bangwon going to do when the REAL stuff starts happening, the stuff that was really responsible for their troubles? Actually, this part is historically accurate. Real Taejong did order Ha Ryun to do this.
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Post by mugwump on Mar 31, 2022 14:13:52 GMT -5
Gee, I'm glad we didn't see Lee Ji Ran coughing up blood. Agree that this battle between king and queen can't be sustained through the rest of the series. They're going to have to come to some equilibrium so we can move along, unless every episode is going to be about them fighting. I wonder, is the Queen's slave girl in this episode the one who was the King's concubine (and mother of the second son) in GKS?
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Post by ajk on Apr 2, 2022 0:58:52 GMT -5
But then again, the justification might be that the Queen oversees all Court ladies, even the King's.... That's a good point...would make a heck of a court case, wouldn't it? She's argue that the king's ladies were mishandling their responsibilities and misjudging the situation...but intending to invade the king's privacy, she'd have a hard time making that go away...I think in the end she's got no shot at all because look what happens to anybody Bangwon doesn't like, yikes. Whoever the jury is, heaven help them. Actually, this part is historically accurate. Real Taejong did order Ha Ryun to do this. Do you know when he did it? It's not much of a surprise that he'd do it, it just seemed ridiculous that it would happen within days of her installation. I don't recall this being addressed in GKS, and I searched all of my episode summaries from back then and nothing turned up. ...Agree that this battle between king and queen can't be sustained through the rest of the series. They're going to have to come to some equilibrium so we can move along, unless every episode is going to be about them fighting.... Wow I sure hope we don't get stuck on that. Like sageuk said, just the one episode of it was not pleasant to watch at all. And more is coming, for certain.
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Post by truth on Apr 2, 2022 6:47:57 GMT -5
Actually, this part is historically accurate. Real Taejong did order Ha Ryun to do this. Do you know when he did it? It's not much of a surprise that he'd do it, it just seemed ridiculous that it would happen within days of her installation. I don't recall this being addressed in GKS, and I searched all of my episode summaries from back then and nothing turned up. February 11th of 1402. The 2nd year of Taejong's reign. Taejong sleeping with Wongyeong's servant girl is also historically accurate. Queen questioned the servant girl about the affair, which made Taejong upset.
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Post by ajk on Apr 2, 2022 7:28:36 GMT -5
Oh so it was earlier than I thought. Still not like we're seeing though.
Thanks as usual.
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