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Post by ajk on Dec 2, 2023 15:37:45 GMT -5
...is up on Kocowa now, with subtitles.
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Post by sageuk on Dec 2, 2023 17:46:34 GMT -5
Am I the only one who found Hyeonjong and Gang Gamchan criticizing the officials for sending away their families a little iffy?
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Post by truth on Dec 2, 2023 17:48:44 GMT -5
I think this episode was dragged out a little.
Anyways, the rating was 8.4 which is the highest rating to date and finally higher than LBW's 1st episode.
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Post by ajk on Dec 2, 2023 17:59:58 GMT -5
Yeah I didn’t like this one as much as previous episodes. It was still mostly good, but there was more of a let’s-make-it-look-good-for-TV feel to it and at times it felt a little too staged.  (click for full size)Any comments on the Khitan armors? Authentic / phonied up for TV? They sure are polished up nice. And Yang Kyu is wearing a red cape as long as Batman’s? That real? Huge liability in combat, isn’t it? Well wouldn’t you know it, they brought back the same crying villager from last time. And now they’re teasing the daughter. There better be a proper tasteful payoff for this because you just know this is coming back again. Ugh. Yoo Jin, to Gamchan: “You are the type who has to say everything that is on your mind, no?” Intentionally or not, that was very funny. The resigned look on his face is what totally made it work. Was a little surprised with this scene though—they’ve done a nice job writing Gamchan but here he came off as sort of pompous. Maybe that was the intention? “What keeps making you so mad?...Why did you cut off your closest friends to live like a loner?” At least we got more from Mrs. Gamchan than cartoonish henpecking, that was nice to see. And we have a bit of a mystery now—what’s Gamchan burdened with in his heart? Hmmm…. “An emperor is someone who has to walk on a tightrope by himself. The moment you try to trust someone and rely on them, you will lose your balance and fall.” Again the empress sounds like the wisest person in the entire palace. I wonder how far the writers will go with this. Hope they don't go to the well too often or it will stop working. “Who is brave from the beginning? You just become brave as you keep fighting.” Good stuff. Subtitled ID: “Kim Sook Heung, Seventh Rank Officer of Kwiju.” Guys, pick one and stick to it please, okay? LOL! At least they didn’t go backwards with the dreaded zh.  (click for full size)Any comments on the Khitan flags? They sure are colorful…. Subtitle: “Armored soldiers (soldiers that are heavily armored)” Okay, thanks for the clarification. The part of the story about Kang Jo playing baduk and getting caught off guard: even I know that it wasn’t until the fourth advance that they got him. Where were the second and third? Anybody else surprised by this? The fact that the Khitan made four attempts to accomplish anything, that’s a huge part of the story, isn’t it? They sure did rush their way through this. His capture, I sure expected it to be treated with much more gravity and build-up. I guess we wait until tomorrow before passing judgment, but still.... |
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Post by truth on Dec 2, 2023 18:26:13 GMT -5
Am I the only one who found Hyeonjong and Gang Gamchan criticizing the officials for sending away their families a little iffy? Officials sending away their families did not happen, or at least isn't recorded in any remaining historical record. Any comments on the Khitan armors? Authentic / phonied up for TV? They sure are polished up nice.  Very authentic. 100 times more authentic than the Khitan armor in Iron Empress for sure.  Chinese historical had almost the same looking armor as well. And Yang Kyu is wearing a red cape as long as Batman’s? That real? Huge liability in combat, isn’t it? Cape is real but they probably did not wear them during battles though. Any comments on the Khitan flags? They sure are colorful….  They're just re-using the Khitan flags from Iron Empress They sure did rush their way through this. His capture, I sure expected it to be treated with much more gravity and build-up. I guess we wait until tomorrow before passing judgment, but still.... It sure seems like they rushed the story. I guess tomorrow's episode will be covering Kang Jo's death. Kang Jo apparently saw Mokjong's ghost and pleaded to Mokjong for mercy while the Khitans were tying him up according to historical record. The writer decided to skip this story. For me, my favorite part of this episode was that they showed how battles were fought in real history instead of the usual 1 OP general fighting off 20 soldiers at once. |
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Post by ajk on Dec 2, 2023 20:01:48 GMT -5
That is definitely true, no 1 vs. 20 and also no 1 vs. 1 with the old generals swinging at each other for a half-hour while everybody else just stands around. Thank goodness. Am I the only one who found Hyeonjong and Gang Gamchan criticizing the officials for sending away their families a little iffy? Officials sending away their families did not happen, or at least isn't recorded in any remaining historical record. No record of it, hmmm....I suppose it's something that could have come up, maybe not totally unreasonable. But helpful to know that it's not recorded, thank you. I forgot to mention this but yes when Yoo Jin was on his hands and knees reminding Hyeonjong that the officials had risked their lives by remaining in that room once before, I kept thinking that he had a very good point. You could understand Hyeonjong not reacting to it entirely well because of his inexperience but Gamchan? And it's not like Gamchan has young kids to worry about...and his wife, she can just hop on her broom and fly away instantly. (Okay dumb joke, sorry) My other question was What were the commoners doing, were they leaving too? Maybe this whole issue wasn't the writers' best idea. It felt almost like they set that whole thing up to give CSJ his moment to make his big speech, like he was Wang Guhn reading the riot act to his generals. The ending was so confusing because Kang Jo was explaining that We have to let them attack more times before we counter. So all the more reason to expect to see three attacks before his capture. And from what I just checked, what we saw wasn't even the first attack because apparently the first one was more of an ambush than a defense. They sure did take some liberties here. But to give credit, there was some excellent work staging that sword wagon battle. And they sure were careful not to show any horses getting injured. Go figure. |
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Post by sageuk on Dec 2, 2023 20:28:43 GMT -5
Apparently historically, having gotten the high from his earlier victory, Gang Jo initially didn’t actually believe the Khitans arrived
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Post by truth on Dec 2, 2023 22:19:50 GMT -5
It felt almost like they set that whole thing up to give CSJ his moment to make his big speech, like he was Wang Guhn reading the riot act to his generals. That reminds of me of this video where Kang Gamchan transforms into Wang Guhn lol The ending was so confusing because Kang Jo was explaining that We have to let them attack more times before we counter. Historically, Kang Jo said "Enemy soldiers are like food in your mouth. The less there are, the worse it is. Let them come in as much as they want." Only to get captured while playing Baduk. |
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Post by mugwump on Dec 7, 2023 15:59:08 GMT -5
Aw, c'mon. Nobody's going to mention the beacons of Gondor? This episode's music was not quite as majestic as Howard Shore's though.
I thought I detected a theme from DJY at one point. The composers must recycle their tunes, otherwise how could they keep up?
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Post by ajk on Dec 8, 2023 20:08:36 GMT -5
Have never watched those movies and don't ever intend to. The books created such a complete image in my head that I've never wanted it to be disturbed by someone else's concept. The English teacher in high school who let me read them for a class assignment, and being up til 2 a.m. on a school night literally shaking because the end of the last book was so tense...won't ever leave me.
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