|
Post by ajk on Feb 17, 2024 14:10:26 GMT -5
...is up on Kocowa now, with English subs. As usual, 24 hours to watch it free with ads before Kocowa puts it behind their paywall.
|
|
|
Post by sageuk on Feb 17, 2024 18:38:38 GMT -5
I've always liked Privy Councilor Jang from start to finish.
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Feb 17, 2024 23:56:49 GMT -5
They put a fair amount of effort into setting him up as a waffler, presumably with the idea that he’d find his spine in some heroic moment down the road. Frankly I was sort of surprised that they cashed it in here. It was rather sudden and wasn’t built up at all. Not much of a payoff. But he certainly was one of the more human of the supporting characters and that always makes a series better. (I say “was” even though it’s not clear he’s dead yet.) Anyway...we had our little break, cleared our heads from the frustration over the head writer’s ego, and now it’s like, Just eight episodes left and the big second half of the war story to tell, and it’s Gamchan’s time to shine so we’re going to get right into it, of course we are.... noooooooooo........ Ten minutes goes by and I had already walked away once in disgust. First it’s the fictional treasonous plot with the military, and not even a particularly interesting one. Their pride is hurt and they’re whining like babies. And then we get The Black Assassin and the evil empress talking about vanquishing the fair maiden Lady Kim. Seriously! And if anybody’s keeping score, we went 19:05 before the word “Khitan” was spoken for the first time. (click for full size) Treason against good historical writing? Yes, absolutely. Once again Hyeonjong leaves Lady Kim’s quarters early. So exactly why isn’t he boinking her yet? It makes no sense without an explanation. Please give us one. It’s needed at this point. “Then, do you mean that the chief with a grudge against His Majesty and the two with the most complaints among the military officers have joined forces?” Let’s take a second and give Choi Sa Eui a round of applause. It’s absurdly far past time for somebody to start getting suspicious here, finally somebody is waking up. “If we can match the Khitan’s mobility, we will be able to surround the enemy and annihilate them...The fight against khitan is a fight against speed.” A breath of fresh air, finally. A good assessment of the military situation, and not spun to make it more dramatic. Good scene. And I’m glad the writers haven’t forgotten about this teeny-weeny part of the story. Ugh. (click for full size) For the record, I wasn’t able to get an accurate count of the number of soldiers that Ji Chaemoon fought off single-handedly for a whopping 79 seconds before they threw the net over him. Most likely between fifteen and seventeen. Good grief. One of the most cringe-awful gimmicks you can put into a historical to make it feel cartoonish. And this one was just terrible. Absolutely embarrassing. (click for full size) If you’ve lived in Chicago long enough, that was darned funny. If this is really the same head writer from LBKT, the only thing I can think of to explain what’s happened here is that he enjoyed writing Lee Seonggye's rebellion so much that he wanted to write it again. But now even the not-generally-too-bad fiction has pretty much tanked. I guess it's fair to ask whether or not there was any grain of truth in the military friction, even some minor proposal to act against illegally bequeathed land. But does it even really matter any more? And that Ji Chaemoon scene, good heavens how far this series has fallen. It’s almost heartbreaking.
|
|
|
Post by MTR on Feb 18, 2024 0:37:40 GMT -5
Can’t we just have the Black Assassin killed by the Khitans and move on ? . The whole storyline with him is just ridiculous .
|
|
|
Post by truth on Feb 18, 2024 2:53:27 GMT -5
First, it’s the fictional treasonous plot with the military, and not even a particularly interesting one. It's not a fictional treasonous plot. Kim Hun and Choi Jil really did rebel. This is the "next big historical event" before 3rd Khitan invasion that I was talking about a few weeks back. Most of this episode was historically accurate except for any scene involving Park Jin since he's a fictional character. Everything Kim Hun and Choi Jil did in this episode was 100% accurate including their cause for rebelling. Jang Yeonwoo and Hwangbo Yui really did try to take the military class's land and give them to the scholar class. Stopping this was Kim Hun and Choi Jil's cause for their rebellion. Jang Yeonwoo and Hwangbo Yui really did get banished after getting beat up by the military. This is what they should've dealt with back in Episode 17 instead of wasting 4 episodes with fictional stuff. I'm happy with this episode except for any scenes involving Park Jin, Wonjeong, and Wonseong.
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Feb 18, 2024 2:58:05 GMT -5
Ah, well then my apologies for the inaccuracy. It's been done so ridiculously badly that it's been impossible to take seriously so who'd have known. The two of them being played by The Black Assassin, it's made them look like a couple of fools.
|
|
|
Post by truth on Feb 18, 2024 3:04:43 GMT -5
Ah, well then my apologies for the inaccuracy. It's been done so ridiculously badly that it's been impossible to take seriously so who'd have known. The two of them being played by The Black Assassin, it's made them look like a couple of fools. Agreed. I have no idea why they came up with this character. This rebellion is the 1st "Warrior Rebellion" in Goryeo history and is a small "preview" of the "Age of Warriors" that comes 157 years later.
|
|