#82: Did he die?

[kathleen34]

I really respected the Jang Youngsil character. He contributed so much to the Korean culture. I was extremely disappointed with the moments following #100. Nothing. No scrolling to suggest a followup.

For as much as Youngsil contributed, what a shame that he was beaten to death. The writers surely could have written a more compassionate ending to Youngsil's character.

[pilseung]

Ive just answered this in the spoiler thread

[ajk]

I'm going to reprint here the crawl that we got after Youngsil's flogging ended:

No records of Jang Youngsil can be found in the annals of Joseon subsequent to his dismissal from government service in May of 1442. About the same time, the Ganui disappears from Gyeongbok palace as well. But astronomical research continued in Joseon. In 1442 AD, the 24th year of Sejong's reign, the Joseonese calendar was at last completed by Yi Sunji, Jeong Inji and others. It was named "Almanacs of the Seven Planets."

From this, and from the fact that we never actually saw Youngsil die, that (1) the series deliberately left the question open, to match the lack of recorded authority one way or another; and (2) we're not going to see him again in the series.

One interesting tidbit that I did find in trying to research this is that Youngsil did indeed build a traveling vehicle for Sejong (although not exactly the type depicted in the episode), it did break when the king was in it, and Youngsil was held responsible. So you have to give big credit to the series for crafting a storyline that stays true to not only the historical facts but also the unknowns.

It did seem hard to believe that Sejong would just go right ahead and forsake Youngsil, so maybe it was indeed part of a plan to hide him away permanently. But if Youngsil sabotaged the vehicle as a protest, which is how the episode chose to depict it, then that certainly would have been treated as a very serious offense. And if punishing him severely for it would have gotten Ming off his back as a bonus...well, let's just say he certainly saw his father do similar things when it was to his father's advantage to do them.

[JP Paulus]

We actually missed an episode...so i wonder if Youngsil was in on the plan & agreed to it. It seems like he might be willing. It seems strange that Youngsil would deliberately try to attack/humiliate the king. It seems more likely that Youngsil's rivals/haters would have set him up for failure. Youngsil didn't seem like one who was particularly interested in politics or focused on this stuff...

But it would have been nice if he could have been a secret advisor to the next generation...

[Nalbal]

Aha! I THOUGHT we missed an episode! But the opening was cut short by the station (at least, on our TV); the episode started with Sejong's carriage breaking down, so we didn't see the epi. number. It seems to mee that Youngsil was in on the plan... everything makes more sense that way.

[Ducky]

Crap...Showing #82 again...