|
|
Post by ajk on Feb 17, 2014 16:46:40 GMT -5
Narration tells us that after Gongmin's death, power in the Supreme Council was held largely by Lee In Im, Choi Yeong, Im Gyeongmi and Ji Yun. Prime minister Gyeong was reduced to little more than a figurehead. But the queen dowager managed to get some Neo-Confucian Elites on the council to counter Lee's power. Including Jeong Dojeon, whose rank was raised to Jong 4 and who became Supervisor of Rites, and Jeong Mongju.
JD and JM want the QD to send envoys to Ming to formally inform them of Gongmin's death. But this leads us into the foreign-relations minefield that Goryeo finds itself in. Who do they align with? The emerging but not-yet-dominant Ming, or what remains of the Yuan Empire in the north? Lee In Im is strongly pro-Yuan, but most of the other leaders hate them because of how badly they treated Goryeo for so long. Sending envoys to Ming will make the Yuan angry, but the QD convinces pro-Ming Choi Yeong to sponsor a motion in the council to send them. The motion carries, two envoys are named, and they depart.
The two Ming envoys who we met while they were in Goryeo, we see them on their way home. They're ambushed! And one, Cal Bin, is killed! Worse yet, the ambushers are the Goryean troops who were escorting them home. Troops under the command of Kim Ui, who then defects and heads to Yuan territory. Obvious which side HE favors, isn't it.
Of course, now Ming will think Goryeo is allying with Yuan. And even worse, the two Goryeo envoys on their way to Ming get cold feet, thinking they'll be killed by Ming in retaliation, and turn back and come home.
Now a bitter division in the council about the wisdom of going to the Yuan and asking for an alliance in light of what's happened. Lee is all for it, of course, but Choi absolutely refuses.
Later, JD challenges Lee to investigate the ambush and find out who was really behind it. He believes this whole mess was Lee's doing, which it was. Of course Lee refuses.
Lee asks Choi to a private meeting and explains what he's trying to do. The Yuan have faltered before, he says, only to rebound. He wants Ming and Yuan evenly balanced and at each other's throats for a long time. That will keep either of them from pushing Goryeo around. A unified China is bad for Goryeo, he believes, no matter who unifies it.
Now another council meeting, and the ministers are asking the young King U for approval to send envoys to the Yuan! So Lee successfully persuaded Choi. The QD doesn't like it; King Gongmin just drove them out, she complains, "and now we have to hold hands?" But suddenly there's a commotion: JD is outside the building, on his knees, shouting about how this is all "just an evil ploy to make the people of Goryeo be subordinate to Mongolians!" Goes on and on about the horrible things the Yuan have done to Goryeo. Just as he's about to be arrested and dragged from the scene, the entire group of Neo-Confucian Elites walk into the courtyard to back him up, kneeling and shouting. "Please don't seek friendly relations with the northern Yuan. Please, your majesty!" And it works. The QD says she'll send envoys to Ming after all. Narration tells us that this was the first instance of these scholars exercising their rising power, and that JD became a leader within Goryeo's pro-Ming faction.
Northern territory: Reports are coming in that the Yuan army is mobilizing and heading this way. In local villages we see men grabbing weapons and heading for Lee Seonggye's army base to assist as citizen-soldiers. Meanwhile, Lee has been having weird dreams about three planks pushing on his back. A Buddhist priest tells him the dream means he'll become a king, because the Chinese character for "king" looks like three horizontal planks resting on a vertical line.
Uh-oh; a letter from the Yuan. We reject your new king, it says; we appoint a king of our own choosing (Toghtua Bukha). Accept him or our army will retaliate. Later we learn that Lee In Im arranged for this letter, through the now-defected Kim Ui. He's engineering all this to try to end up with friendly relations with the Yuan. A dangerous piece of brinkmanship.
"A secret envoy?" JD sees through Lee's scheme and goes to the QD to offer himself as an envoy to Ming. He's too low-level to see the top Ming leadership but he can at least deliver the message to their government that the Goryean government didn't order the ambush of the envoys. (Plus, none of the ministers is brave enough to go to Ming; they're all too scared that they'll be killed.)
But Lee In Im finds out about JD's proposal. He arranges for a second letter from the Yuan, offering to recognize the Goryeans' king and to not invade the disputed territory if they'll agree to friendly relations. Reluctantly, the QD agrees to at least look into the offer, by allowing Yuan envoys to come and present a formal proposal. And then he shows up at JD's house with a royal order ordering him to go to the northern border so he can escort the Yuan envoys to the capital! Which, of course, will stop him from going to Ming.
|
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Feb 19, 2014 2:35:28 GMT -5
Definitely pleased with the series so far. I'm learning a lot already, and it seems like they're going to do a good job of depicting this period in history so it will be worthwhile. And the casting is very strong. Looking at the drama timeline I did, it's surprising that there haven't been more dramas about these years. Anybody here see Tears of the Dragon? Would be interesting to know how this one will measure up to that one.
Just one thing bugging me. It's supposed to be a struggle between two factions, but the vice-chancellor has all the spies, lots of resources, is the first to know everything, gets his hands on stuff like the Tamna human heads, pulls off difficult schemes brilliantly...and the other side, which only has the royal family and the prime minister (!!!) is outgunned and outwitted. Stop it already. Let's see a fair fight, because you know the people on the other side should have resources and savvy too. The implausible one-sidedness reminds me of the Mishil situation in QSD. But it's very early so let's see how things develop.
Interesting idea Lee has about balancing Ming and Yuan. Even if it's a front for his own self-interest, you have to agree with his logic. But he says to JD, "You don't suspect someone just because you're curious. You suspect someone because you have the power to handle that person." He's wrong! If you suspect someone and get dirt on them, that gives you power over them.
The sound-bite of the episode has to be JD glaring at Lee and saying "My wish won't come true until I kill an old tiger." Geez, the guy has cojones, you have to give him that. A real throw-down moment.
At one point the queen dowager was addressing Choi Yeong as "pansamsasa." From what I found on the Internet, the term loosely translates to "head of finance." Choi Yeong? That seems odd. Is it at all plausible?
P.S.
"A country can't be ruled with money and force alone. There have to be smart people too." Well, yeah--somebody has to count the money.
JD actually grabs Lee by the shirt and shakes him. "What are you up to?" Well, duh--it's obvious to the rest of us, Mister Brilliant Scholar....
Lee Seonggye addressing his troops and citizen-soldiers: "I'll just say one thing. Don't die." Wow, that has to be the worst pep talk in the history of the world.
|
|
|
|
Post by truth on Feb 19, 2014 11:33:09 GMT -5
Definitely pleased with the series so far. I'm learning a lot already, and it seems like they're going to do a good job of depicting this period in history so it will be worthwhile. And the casting is very strong. Looking at the drama timeline I did, it's surprising that there haven't been more dramas about these years. Anybody here see Tears of the Dragon? Would be interesting to know how this one will measure up to that one.
Just one thing bugging me. It's supposed to be a struggle between two factions, but the vice-chancellor has all the spies, lots of resources, is the first to know everything, gets his hands on stuff like the Tamna human heads, pulls off difficult schemes brilliantly...and the other side, which only has the royal family and the prime minister (!!!) is outgunned and outwitted. Stop it already. Let's see a fair fight, because you know the people on the other side should have resources and savvy too. The implausible one-sidedness reminds me of the Mishil situation in QSD. But it's very early so let's see how things develop.
Interesting idea Lee has about balancing Ming and Yuan. Even if it's a front for his own self-interest, you have to agree with his logic. But he says to JD, "You don't suspect someone just because you're curious. You suspect someone because you have the power to handle that person." He's wrong! If you suspect someone and get dirt on them, that gives you power over them.
The sound-bite of the episode has to be JD glaring at Lee and saying "My wish won't come true until I kill an old tiger." Geez, the guy has cojones, you have to give him that. A real throw-down moment.
At one point the queen dowager was addressing Choi Yeong as "pansamsasa." From what I found on the Internet, the term loosely translates to "head of finance." Choi Yeong? That seems odd. Is it at all plausible?
P.S.
"A country can't be ruled with money and force alone. There have to be smart people too." Well, yeah--somebody has to count the money.
JD actually grabs Lee by the shirt and shakes him. "What are you up to?" Well, duh--it's obvious to the rest of us, Mister Brilliant Scholar....
Lee Seonggye addressing his troops and citizen-soldiers: "I'll just say one thing. Don't die." Wow, that has to be the worst pep talk in the history of the world.
But it's true that LIY was winning all the political battles at the time as he was basically the dictator. Like I said, you will find yourself agreeing with his some of the things LIY says even though he is a villain. Non-Koreans won't get it, but LSG's pep talk was supposed to funny because he was speaking in Hamgyung accent(Hamgyung is a province in the northernmost part of North Korea). |
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Feb 21, 2014 1:00:43 GMT -5
Was Lee really that dominant at the time? I know he was a "kingmaker," literally, but I didn't realize it was one-sided enough to call him a dictator. Well, we'll see how they portray it going forward. As long as they portray him like that, rather than an evil genius against clueless virtue, no complaints from me.
(I won't address the agreeing-with comment until episode 14 or whichever episode it was as of. Off limits for now.)
Thanks for the insight about the accent; that's real interesting. No, none of us here would have had a clue about it. Do you think it was a subtle shot at the intelligence of the people up there at the time? It was puzzling because it was laugh-out-loud stupid, and these shows don't exactly make a habit of making the big-name historical figures look stupid.
|
|
|
|
Post by truth on Feb 21, 2014 1:33:48 GMT -5
Was Lee really that dominant at the time? I know he was a "kingmaker," literally, but I didn't realize it was one-sided enough to call him a dictator. Well, we'll see how they portray it going forward. As long as they portray him like that, rather than an evil genius against clueless virtue, no complaints from me. (I won't address the agreeing-with comment until episode 14 or whichever episode it was as of. Off limits for now.) Thanks for the insight about the accent; that's real interesting. No, none of us here would have had a clue about it. Do you think it was a subtle shot at the intelligence of the people up there at the time? It was puzzling because it was laugh-out-loud stupid, and these shows don't exactly make a habit of making the big-name historical figures look stupid. I don't think it was a shot at anything. LSG speaks in Hamgyung accent almost all the time in this drama as that is where he is from. His blood brother Lee Jiran speaks in Hamgyung accent as well. So why is LSG's pep talk considered funny if he speaks in that accent all the time? Non-standard(Seoul) accents are often not taken very seriously in Korea. Non-Seoul accents often become mockery in the media and North Korean accents are even more of a laughingstock than all the non-Seoul South Korean accents. North Korean accents are already a joke, but Hamgyung accent in particular is the funniest of them all. People generally expect a war hero in sageuk to speak in Seoul accent with a serious and dignifying voice and the last thing you expect to hear from a war hero is a pep talk in Hamgyung accent. This is probably why the scene was supposed to be funny. |
|
|
|
Post by ajk on Feb 21, 2014 18:03:58 GMT -5
Thanks for explaining that; very interesting and it makes sense. I laughed like crazy at it without knowing about the accent, and now I can't wait to see if the character gets any better at it or not. We'll have to score him from now on!
|
|
