Supreme Commander Yeon - Any Last Thoughts?

[mikey]

Well, Yeon Gaesomun has finally met his demise, felled by an arrow launched by his amusingly entertaining archrival Xue Rengui (at least, that’s how KBS tells it). And, though he’s reportedly considered a kind of Korean national hero, I have to admit that I was seriously underwhelmed by KBS’s portrayal of the Supreme Commander.

To me, Yeon came off as (at best) a moderately intelligent bully. The fact that he ordered the death of the baby Dae Jo Young for treason - after having himself murdered the previous king - struck me as downright ridiculous (yes, he never carried out the death sentence - but he sure was bombastic about carrying it out it in the beginning).

And, in his final days, well, most of us will agree that he really WAS totally nuts.

It’s interesting to contrast this KBS viewpoint with that of the SBS drama “Yeon Gae So Mun,” which is currently running on satellite TV. There, the 20-something Yeon is portrayed as tall, handsome, quiet, thoughtful, and brilliantly intelligent. The very kind of man I’d look up to and admire. But, I don’t think I could ever manage a whole lot of admiration for KBS’s version of Yeon.

While this has already been discussed to some extent in another (now closed) thread, I was wondering if there were any other closing comments about the late Supreme Commander.

[Truth]

Yeon Gae So Moon was never killed by Xue Rengui and he never tried to kill Dae Jo Young either because Dae Joong Sang and Dae Jo Young were just normal citizens of Koguryo until Koguryo's demise.

Dae Joong Sang wasn't even a general.

And since Yeon Gae So Moon lived in 600's, records about him vary.

I'm assuming that KBS is following the Chinese description of Yeon Gae So Moon, which says that Yeon Gae So Moon was a ruthless dictator.

SBS is following the records from The Ancient Hisory of Chosun, written by Shin Chae Ho, a Korean historian. According to Shin, Yeon Gae So Moon is the greatest hero in history of Chosun.

[bowflex]

Dae Jung Sang was a general and it states that he did serve under Yang Manchun. It shows in the encyclopdia who he was and states that he became more powerful after the fall of Goguryeo


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dae_Jung-sang

[ginnycat5]

Bowflex, thank you for the link! There's a link there to a DJY page too. His descendents have the name Tae.

[bowflex]

No problem, my mom is korean and watches these shows all the time. I like the character who plays dae joyoung so as soon as i saw he was going to be the main character i started watching it and i'm hooked. The last couple of weeks i've been doing research on most of the main characters because the show is really interesting so i know a little about dae joyoung and the other main characters in teh show.

[Ben]

Gul Gul Dai Jung S-ang (AKA Dae Gul Jung Sang) was general in Koguryeo's militatry rank. But he was from Sumo-Mohe (Sumo-Malgal tribe origin, even his name Gul-Gul is Malgal type).

He was young man during YGSM's period but he was lower rank general even before YGSM's rules. Dae Jung Sang (DJS) fough along with Yan-man-chun against to Sui invasion. He's name is unclear as he's also mentioned during Sui-Koguryeo war & Tang war.

Believen DJS became fort- Governor in the far north of Koguryeo and one of last survival of Tang occupation of Koguryeo.

Eventually Dae Jo-Yong (son of DJS) took his leadership.