Welcome to the Open Thread, everyone! Thanks for joining in on this group watch of this very special show! ❤️
As I mentioned in my announcement post, these are my notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon.
ZERO SPOILER POLICY
We will be adopting a ZERO SPOILER POLICY for this Open Thread, except for events that have happened in the show, up to this point.
This includes, but is not limited to, how characters &/or relationships develop, later in the show.
The spoiler tags don’t work in email notifications, therefore, please take note that WE WILL NOT BE USING SPOILER TAGS FOR THIS OPEN THREAD.
We need to protect the innocent! 😉
Without further ado, here are my reactions to this set of episodes; have fun in the Open Thread, everyone! ❤️
My thoughts
Episode 3
E3. THE JIG IS UP, MUAHAHAHA.
Ok, I know I’m getting ahead of myself here, but honestly, that’s the first and foremost thought on my mind, as I finish this episode. 😂
Alright, I’ll back up and come back to this later. It’s just.. this episode wasn’t as fun to watch as the previous one, mostly because Yi San spends most of the episode being punished. That definitely puts the brakes on any fun hijinks.
Also, I get that the tiger hunt is a plot device to drive our story forward, I just don’t know how plausible it is, that a tiger would be roaming around the palace?
Like, if this were a village next to a forested area, and the tiger wasn’t able to fulfill its hunger via hunting its usual prey, then that would make a lot more sense. But a tiger, wandering the palace, which is heavily guarded..? That’s quite a stretch, I’m afraid?
Last episode, I’d wondered what Deok Im reading a book had to do with assisting in the tiger hunt, and again, I find it a stretch.
Promising everyone she’d read a book, if they’d practice filing through the exit in an orderly fashion kinda.. makes no sense..? But it makes more sense than the idea of a tiger wandering around the palace, killing random court ladies, I’ll give it that. 😅
On the upside, I do find that the emotional beats around this arc land true, even if the logical beats don’t. I can believe that everyone’s scared, and Deok Im’s choosing to be brave, even though she’s also scared.
And I can believe that in the midst of all this, when Yi San shows up to save her life, she’d take it very much to heart, and worry for his safety in such an intent manner, thereafter.
The other silver lining is, I do like the vibe of a focused, decisive Yi San, and he is very much that, during the course of the tiger hunt.
I have to admit that I sighed at the way Yi San gets accused of disrespectful behavior, because he’d hunted the tiger without the King’s permission.
Guess that just goes to show that you really can spin anything, if you wanted to. His intent to save lives gets distorted into a flagrant undermining of the King’s authority, which then becomes a threat to the throne.
Wow, is all I can say.
And yet, I find this more believable than the idea of a tiger roaming the palace. These scheming factions will pounce on anything that would help to strengthen their position, and so of course they’d try to turn Yi San’s hero moment into his downfall.
This episode, Deok Ro’s back on my Dubious List, all over again.
The first red flag is when he meets Deok Im by the well. The way he replies to her shock, that the Crown Prince is being penalized for the tiger hunt, is so full of sardonic contempt.
And, his words, that he should have advised the Crown Prince to wait until more people had died, absolutely do not sound like they’re being spoken in any kind of jest.
And of course, there’s also how he carries himself, when he visits the Second State Councilor. There’s definitely an air of danger and possible evil intent about him.
I’m thinking that his transfer to my Dubious List ought to be permanent. 😅
We are also introduced to Princess Hwawan, who’s played by Seo Hyo Rim, and, most likely because I have residual affection for her from her role in Sungkyunkwan Scandal, I find her more amusing than aggravating, to watch.
As in, Princess Hwawan is definitely supposed to be one of the baddies, since she’s clearly out to take down Yi San.
But because I rather like Seo Hyo Rim, I’m amused to see her channel her inner Evil Aunt, and carry herself on my screen, like a slinking, scheming, hissing cat. 😂
I have to confess to not feeling super into the whole arc of the King forgiving Yi San, but I do note that the King appears to be perhaps more reasonable than he lets on?
As in, if he were really as fixated on Yi San undermining his authority as he appears to be, then the way he embraces Yi San, behind that fence of dragon screens, wouldn’t quite make sense.
Therefore, perhaps he’s only putting on a show of being angry with Yi San, in order to mislead his scheming subjects?
One other thing I have to confess to not really feeling, is Deok Im’s backstory, which she tells the King.
I’m sorry, what? So her mother, saying that they are financially too destitute to all live together, ends up killing herself, and leaving her two children behind to fend for themselves? I don’t get that.
If you have no money, the original plan of dying with one child while leaving one child behind, makes zero sense? The eventual story doesn’t make sense either, and I’m rather bemused by this, to be honest.
But ok, I’ll just take it that Show wants to give us a sad story to explain why Deok Im becomes a palace maid at such a young age, and why she’s so determined to save 100 yang. I’ll buy the general gist of the intent, though I feel the details don’t hold up.
I find it interesting that Yi San linger in the library on his own, in the middle of the night, thinking of Deok Im.
It feels a little soon, to my eyes, but.. y’know, I’m not going to complain about this, because he’s spent a fair amount of time interacting with her, and lots of drama characters have fallen in love on much less. 😁
What I’m most interested in, is our closing scene where Deok Im finally sees the Crown Prince’s face, and realizes that the “lecturer” whom she’s been interacting with, is actually the Crown Prince himself.
The way he tries to cover his face with the fan, and try to get out of interacting with her as himself; the way Deok Im spies his reflection in the water; the way his eyes meet hers in the reflection, and he realizes that the jig is up.
Ahhh! This is such a great little beat. I love it.
YES. I cannot wait to see how things between Yi San and Deok Im pan out, from this point onwards.
More of this, please, Show. And less of that other stuff, if you don’t mind.
Episode 4
E4. Stuff is moving along quite nicely, in the areas that I’m personally more invested in, so that makes me a happier camper this episode, than last. Is it too early to celebrate? 😉
On San’s side of things, I feel like he’s more preoccupied by thoughts of Deok Im than he’d like to admit, and that’s likely one of the big reasons that he tells her not to appear in front of him again.
Something along the lines of it being unseemly for him to be on such familiar terms with a court lady?
Of course, there’s also the thing where I do think that San’s pride is hurt, by Deok Im’s pronouncement that he needs to learn how to ask forgiveness from his subjects.
With his excellent track record with all his royal tutors, and everyone always praising him for being such a model student, it must be a smack in the face to be told – by a court maid apprentice no less – that he’s lacking as a leader, and has greatly disappointed her.
I’m nicely amused by the fact that after the all-important (albeit accidental) Identity Reveal, Deok Im’s first reaction, is to feel hurt and upset that San had lied to her.
In fact, that’s pretty much all she feels, for quite a while, and I find it rather endearing, that her thoughts never once go to, “Wow, I was rubbing shoulders with the Crown Prince?!?”
In fact, Deok Im seems pretty desperate to get out of serving the Crown Prince, which feels like it’s coming from a personal place, over and on top of San’s order, for her to stay out of his sight henceforth.
On that note, I have to say that the scene in the library, where Deok Im talks smack about the Crown Prince, only to freeze in shock and then quickly change her tune, when she comes face to face with San, tickled me quite a bit.
I put that down to Lee Se Young’s comic timing, and her facial expressions, which are pretty great. Deok Im’s stunned expression, when she realizes that the Crown Prince has just heard her talk bad about him behind his back, is gold. 😂
It gets even funnier, when San pretends to leave the library, closing the door “behind” him, and that gives us yet another shocked, stuttering reaction from Deok Im, who realizes that she’s been caught talking smack about the Crown Prince, a second time in the span of, like, 5 minutes. Ha. 😂
Of course it would be Deok Im’s cluelessness, that leads her to getting selected as the Crown Prince’s personal handmaid, all because she didn’t know to pretend to be terrible at grinding the inkstone. Pfft.
But this is to be expected, since, in the interest of driving our story forward, we do actually need Deok Im and San to be in the same orbit.
While it’s amusing that Deok Im fumbles as much as she does on her first day on the job, I can’t help but get a bit of a thrill, from the fact that San admits, almost absentmindedly, that he’s been distracted by her presence, for the entire day.
Ahhh. All his tough words are just that then; tough words. San’s way more aware of Deok Im than he’d like to be, and this pleases me.
And what about that scene where Deok Im leans to look out the window at the rain, and San.. can’t keep his eyes off her? That gaze definitely smacks of more than a passing interest.
And, as you know, I do tend to spazz a little, every time San turns on the smolder – and there was definitely a bit of smolder in that gaze. 🤩
On a tangent, Deok Im’s friend Wol Hye, whom she addresses as “Unni” might appear nice and helpful, but the way she’d seemed to be hanging around the Crown Prince’s study, did strike me as rather suspicious.
She says that she was there because she was concerned about Deok Im, but I’m more inclined to think that she’s been activated as a spy, to report on the Crown Prince’s activities. I wonder who’s the person whom she’s reporting to?
And there’s Deok Ro, who’s already on my Suspicious List.
This episode, he’s paying way more attention to Deok Im than average. On the surface, this might look like a reason for her to squee, since he’s the person whom all the court ladies swoon over, and he’s paying such keen attention to her.
However, with the context that Deok Ro’s definitely got his own agenda, and that agenda leans dark, the cynical side of me tends to think that he’s showing an interest, mainly because Deok Im is now in a position where she’s granted a great deal of proximity to San.
If Deok Ro can get Deok Im on his side, she could prove to be a useful spy – is why I think he’s being so sweet to her.
Context really makes the world of difference, eh? Coz now I’m viewing all his gentlemanly actions with very narrowed, very suspicious squinty eyes. 🤨
Y’know, I think that scene where all the other court maids are gathered to confront the court maid who’d dared take Deok Ro’s umbrella, is meant for comedy. However, I have to confess that I found the scene rather disturbing. 😅
These court maids are all Deok Im’s friends, and some of them are her closest friends. And yet, it seems that they would have attacked her mercilessly, if they’d known that she was the court maid that they were looking for.
Yikes. How quickly loyalties turn. 😬 Is this a foreshadowing of changing loyalties to come..?
Another thing that I thought was worth mentioning, is the scene where Head Court Lady Jo asks Court Lady Seo about having Deok Im serve the Crown Prince.
Given that Deok Im’s already been assigned to serve in the Crown Prince’s palace, and as his personal handmaid, no less, I tend to think that this scene is about finding a court lady who will satisfy the Crown Prince’s.. er, physical needs..? 😅
I’m not overly familiar with palace norms, but from what I understand, this was A Thing, where court maids were selected to service their masters, once the young masters became of age.
I am guessing that this is why Court Lady Seo reacts in such a troubled fashion. After all, prior to this, she’d been perfectly supportive of the idea of Deok Im working for the Crown Prince, right?
Princess Hwawan and her catty ways, seriously.
The way she attacks Deok Im with a made-up charge is really aggravating, and the way Seo Hyo Rim plays it, Princess Hwawan really does have the kind of scheming, self-righteous, gleeful expression that you’d like to smack – and hard.
Again, it’s because of my pre-existing affection for Seo Hyo Rim that allows me to actually enjoy the scene, rather than actually want to throw things at Princess Hwawan through my screen. 😅
I also think of this scene as a useful bit of character exposition and a catalyst for some relationship development.
First of all, we see that the Queen is a pretty wise woman, with the way she navigates the situation.
When Princess Hwawan refuses to back down, the Queen essentially forces her to stay (in a polite fashion, of course), so that the King would be in a position to take over the judging of the case. Well played, Queen. 👏🏻👏🏻
And also, we see that the King is cheerfully shrewd, in the way he turns the situation over to San, to “test” him. We do see that the King had intended to save Deok Im, if San’s judgment had turned out to be too harsh.
This King is definitely starting to grow on me.
We also see that San is pretty sharp, in the way he interacts with his aunt. He doesn’t back down easily, and takes every opportunity to save Deok Im from his aunt’s clutches.
Of course, there’s also Deok Im, who manages to be of help to San, even while she’s still in the hot seat, in the way that she prompts him how to answer the King’s question, of what he should do with the rice cake, since the Queen’s intentions are at odds with Princess Hwawan’s expressed concerns.
I’m glad that this happening works to mend the rift between San and Deok Im, with him not only telling her that it wasn’t her fault, but also thanking her for helping him out, and even praising her for being meticulous – with a gentle smile.
Dang. If I were Deok Im, any resolve I’d had, to be angry with San, would melt in that moment, for sure. 😅
This episode, we’re given a clearer glimpse into Deok Im’s backstory, and it seems that her father had been accused of treason, and had died as a traitor.
How curious, that the person who had ended up saving Deok Im and her brother, had been none other than San’s mother, Princess Hyebin.
I do think there’s more to the story that we’re not being told just yet, but it’s enough to lend a layer of complication to our story.
In particular, Deok Im now needs to spy on the Crown Prince, as a favor to Princess Hyebin (who basically won’t take no for an answer), and that’s how Deok Im ends up in such a dangerous situation, as we close out our episode.
I knew Deok Ro was bad news; look at the way he orders Deok Im’s death, like it means nothing to him.
BUT. YAY that San intervenes to stop Deok Ro’s men from killing Deok Im!
I know this is a trope, in the sense that the hero typically saves the damsel in distress, but Show’s done a solid job of creating a situation where Deok Im would find herself in danger, and so it’s reasonable to expect that San would step in.
The intensity in his gaze; that purposefulness about every fiber of his being; I can’t help but have stars in my eyes, a little bit. 🤩
I am slowly catching up with the group watch.
I started reading The Memoirs Of Lady Hyegyeong (lucky find at the local used books store!), and the timing could not have been more perfect.
Re-reading my comment, I don’t think that entirely came out right – obviously I am extremely sympathetic to Prince Sado’s plight, and horrible how he died. @kfangurl is there a way to delete my comment?!
Ok, I’ve deleted your comment, Ele!
Re the plot contrivances pointed out by KFG – tiger roaming the palace?! Overly tragic backstory of Deok Im? – for me I was more than happy to roll with them. I took it that this is not pure naturalistic documentary-style sageuk, but rather high-stakes dramatic sageuk.
In fact, for the tiger I spent a bit of time thinking about it after reading KFG’s episode notes which said it was unrealistic. I think the tiger episode works as a symbolic allegory of a strong and dangerous threat, which should have made all those aligned to the Dragon unite to fight the external threat, but instead it led to internal disunity. (Side note on Dragon symbology – in Korea and Chinese culture, the Dragon is the most powerful mythical creature and only the King and his close family i.e. Empress, Crown Prince, Crown Prince’s eldest son, would have dragons embroidered on their robes https://thetalkingcupboard.com/2012/03/03/joseons-court-attire-kdrama-style/)
Actually, Grandfather and Grandon read each other well. Earlier in episode 2 I think, San complains to Deok Im that the police and internal affairs were just blaming each other for the tiger, and not taking effective action while people were dying. Hence he feels he needs to take action himself. And in the episode with the dragon screens, we see that Grandfather King knows what San is thinking – that the appropriate government departments are incompetent, hence San himself must lead the charge against the tiger. By doing so, San is indirectly saying that the government as a whole is corrupt and broken, and since the King is supposed to oversee the government, this means the King is guilt of negligence or at worst, gross corruption. In a functioning system, the palace guards or military should have been the ones to tackle the tiger, and not the Crown Prince who is precious and must be guarded.
Another theme is restrictions on freedom of choice. Deok Im’s restrictions are obvious as a palace maid, she has little voice and chafes when her opinion is not asked, or people assume she would not have useful ideas because of her gender and status. But she can be seen to have actually more freedom of action in many respects than San, who is principled and kind but is boxed in not just by the suffocating rules of the system, but also by the impossible expectations and terrifying mood swings of his Grandfather the King. Heavy is the head that wears the crown indeed.
I found this helpful article online about the history of Prince Sado (Lee San’s father who was executed as a criminal)
https://www.mykoreanscribbles.com/2022/01/crownprincesado.html
It is a grim history. I knew vaguely that in his madness, Crown Prince Sado had killed many court servants and eunuchs, and even left the palace in disguise and killed commoners in villages. But according to this article, Lady Hyegyeong (Prince Sado’s wife and Lee San’s mother) assessed that it was the verbal abuse and heavy criticism and blame from his father King Yeongjo that worsened his mental illness. I don’t know if we can say King Yeongjo’s abuse caused the mental illness, but at the very least it can be said he was not given care, support or understanding, which likely worsened things.
It is a terrible tragedy because Prince Sado was neither helped, nor treated, nor stopped effectively from carrying out his killing rampages. He had to be killed (we see in flashback that San blamed his grandmother for persuading grandfather king to execute Prince Sado, and San’s grandmother admitted it and took all the blame, but if we know the terrible things Prince Sado did, what other choice did she have??? He had to be executed but was he truly culpable for his actions, or was he not truly in control?
I think this story is important context to know for The Red Sleeve, what San had to witness, both in terms of his grandfather criticising his father, and his father going mad and violent, and blaming San for usurping him =( =( it would have helped me on my first watch, as Prince Sado’s violent episodes are not talked about until later episodes, but Korean audiences would be expected to know and hence be able to make sense of the things happening in early episodes.
Deok Im’s backstory is so heartbreaking. Im also wondering if Deok Ro is her brother – as they share part of their name and each of them has a brother and sister. He’s turned out to be quite slimy though – gives me the creeps!
I find her relationship with the King quite interesting as well, and I enjoy their few scenes together, tense as they are.
I’m also very much enjoying Princess Hyebin – the other role I’ve seen her in is the noodle shop owner in Divorce Attorney Shin and I loved her in that lighter role too.
Skipping rocks over Yi San’s face is hilarious. I love Deok Im’s spunk. I feel like the dynamic between Yi San and Deok Im is a bit Darcy and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, intellectually well matched and both able to call each other out on their BS.
@Yaya – high five, I also find Deok Im to be like Lizzie Bennett in her spunk and fiery independence. She is way way ahead of her time in seeking autonomy in her own life decisions.
Skipping rocks was definitely the most comedic part this week. I will remember to do that when someone annoys me😂
This is my second watch and I am enjoying it more because I read up on the history of King Yeongjo, Crown Prince Sado, and Crown Prince Yi San. It is an incredible story and adds so much poignance knowing what happened to Yi San’s father. Episodes 3 and 4 started setting up the political factions. It will be interesting to find out the backstory of Princess Hwawan and why she is so hard on Crown Prince Yi San and anyone surrounding him. A hundred lashes for stepping on the King’s path is very extreme! Liked how his mom wants to protect him by having Deok Im report back to her on everything that happens to him. I can’t imagine how hard it was for her while her husband, Crown Prince Sado, was still alive, and after his death. I thought the reveal of Deok Im finding out that the man she thought was the Royal Preceptor is really the Crown Prince through his reflection in the water was well done. I laughed out loud when Deok Im threw the salt, then found Yi San standing there. I was amused that he said he would listen to her feelings but after her first thought he interrupted her and started defending himself and told her to let go of her grudge or it would be uncomfortable for him! Loved her line, “A true monarch must learn to recognize his faults and bow his head in contrition.” Great reaction look from Lee Jun Ho. I am sorry to say goodbye to the scenes in the library.
After thinking for quite a bit, two things to add: (would like to know other’s opinion on this if any):
What I find troublesome with the King is this: For good or bad – Prince Sado didn’t live up to the King’s expectations. In such a case the King at the very worst should have killed the entire Prince Sado clan (including Yi San and Sado’s wife…etc) or at the very best he should have exiled the entire Prince Sado clan after killing Sado. Why did the King chose to turn a child (Yi San) against his father (Prince Sado) when the father was still alive and was already losing his mind over the court’s politics/functioning etc – this is not right to both the father and the son. In my eyes this is far worse than death for both the child Yi San and adult Yi San. The King could have easily chosen a different Royal Heir leaving the whole Prince Sado clan from Royal Court etc. On one hand, Yi San as a child had to deal with the fact that he is being hated by his father for no fault of his and on the other hand he must be in the good books of the King/live up to the expectations of the King in the place of his Father. This all honestly sounds crazy even though I do get that the Royal politics in Joseon era was bad. Or am I over-reacting. anyways in this context – even when the King is seemingly affectionate towards Yi San – I am not buying that as the damage to Yi San’s psyche is already done and all else seems very fake. Hope I am proved wrong.The other thing I picked up from MMMhway’s comments last week is that the King is insecure about his lineage through his Mother. Ok so why does he go and marry a court lady himself (instead of the Noble class woman – I am sure there were no dearth of them) and chose a Royal Heir from that (including both Prince Sado and later Yi San). Isn’t this making it already worse for his lineage.To me, the King comes across as someone who makes him own decisions and yet he makes others suffer the consequences of his decisions (based on the underlying insecurities that comes with those decisions). Not sure how much of this drama’s story is based on accurate history though. But if it is, I genuinely feel sorry for Yi San, his Mother and Duk Im – what a waste of life to live with all those politics, toxicity, insecurities etc.
@P. Jasmine, great observations. I haven’t read up on the history of this particular story, and I mentioned last week, my understanding of the grandfather/grandson/all those women’s relationships is pretty foggy, but the show is demonstrating purely and simply that this guy is borderline nuts. He switches from kind and loving to psycho in a sec.
You note a number of ways that he could have handled things differently and treat his family better and I agree. I do, wonder, though, how unusual his kind of behavior is among absolute rulers in history (Korean and others). It’s a well-known cliche ruling power is corrupting and decisions made by people in that position are informed by egotism and by retaining power (hence, insecurities, obvious or not). I think if one made one those diagrams where the vertical two boxes are cruel/kind and the horizontal boxes are ineffective/effective, the square combining kind/effective would be relatively empty, and the cruel boxes in general would be more populated than the kind boxes.
No way am I defending this guy. Just saying that the type is probably not too rare in history. And interested too see where this story takes us.
I totally agree, P. Jasmine! During the scene behind the dragon screens I wondered how the King could love his grandson so much after what he did to his father. It’s hard to trust the King’s feelings knowing what he’s capable of concerning his biological offspring.
Hi Princess Jasmine, you made me wonder also why he choose Yi San as the heir. I went to read up online, King Yeongjo only had 2 sons and 12 daughters. His older son died young and that’s how Prince Sado (Yi San’s father) became the heir. After Prince Sado was executed, King Yeongjo did not have any other heir besides Yi San. He even made Yi San be officially adopted by his (deceased) older son and his wife, so that Yi San would not be considered a criminal’s son. As for why choose the son of a consort with humble background, well he had only 2 sons and 1 died young so I guess he didn’t have a choice. Perhaps the queens and consorts with noble background just didn’t have sons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeongjo_of_Joseon
Yeongjo’s choice to take a court lady (Lady Yeongbin) was quite a puzzling choice as you pointed it out.
But it was not as if he didn’t take other ladies of noble lineage as his queen & his consorts before Yeongbin. This thing was they didn’t give birth to any heirs like Lady Yeongbin.
Also court ladies were higher in Ranks than court lady maids (unlike his birth mom Lady Suk Bin) .
Some court ladies came from middle class poor families and they were educated.
(Deok Im was also very educated and she indeed was a playmate to Yisan’s sisters in actual history. )
Court ladies were always close to Kings & might be closer to them than their actual wives in formal settings.Consorts had to follow certain protocols & steps to meet with Kings.According to Joseon rules, all court ladies belonged to the King & (Crown Prince who would become the King) as part of their Harem.So, as soon as the King found a court lady attractive, he could take her anytime.
Yisan showed a great potential to become a great monarch since young age, which convinced Yeongjo . He also had no other options apart from San.
But,yet ,as a father & a grandpa, he unknowingly pitted his grandson (San) against his son (Sado).
The sad thing was Yisan loved his dad very much, which was recorded in History.
After finishing 4 episodes fully and thinking/reading a bit, I don’t like the King. He is crazy and is insecure and is an authoritarian in a very slimy way – not because he killed Prince Sado but the way in which he is treating Yi San. It is absolutely wrong to treat a child like that and again the adult Yi San – where every move of his is being scrutinised (read tiger killing scenes) and putting him to test every time (read the rice cake eating scene).
Actually the comment by MMMhway last week gave a lot of context/details into the story between him and Prince Sado. I read up on the movie “The Throne” that she mentioned and it is indeed sad to know what happened to Prince Sado. She was spot-on in using this term “extreme parenting style” for the King. I have gone through something similar to a lesser extent and I know what she is talking about and these kind of things really affect your psyche.
Also I don’t like Princess Hwawan – period. You don’t flog someone 100 times and maybe cause their death just because you are upset that she helped in the release of the Crown Prince.
And in summary I have picked up 3 themes from the drama that might go on till the end:
The king is truly scary and one never knows how he will react. He actually looks very kind and friendly, but… He does seem to have a soft spot for Deok Im, though so maybe she can be quite safe from him. Princess Hwawan seems to have inherited the crazy streak from her father. If the king in real life was as unpredictable as Prince Sado, no wonder Prince Sado was mad. I am really starting to get the hype about THE Junho.
I enjoyed these two episodes just as much as the first two, which is to say better than most. There are so many plot glitches in K-drama that I didn’t find myself any more disturbed by these than the “normal” ones. So even though I’m not Mr. Sageuk, I was able to follow along well enough.
I still really like the community of palace ladies, although things do start to turn a little sour near the end of E4 (as does the show, in general). I thought it especially charming that they get to have their own “field day of fun” – nasty of that mean old tiger to interfere! The whole tiger/punishment thing was a little over the top, and I’m getting the sense that this king is not completely of his right mind, with the mood swings and the different rationales for punishments and all (although some of that could be cross purposes with the stock Evil Left State Councilor). At least we got the sense that “walk, don’t run” didn’t work any better in Joseon times than it does now.
Overall, I think it’s great that our heroine has a very solid idea of the trade offs in becoming the crown prince’s personal assistant. But she’s going to have a lot to deal with in that palace, where she seems to be right in the middle of every bit of complication.
What is it with the Left State Counciller, by the way? Why are they “always” evil and scheming? Maybe I have just missed sageuks where the right is evil? I agree that our heroine has a very realistic idea of the pros and cons with her work.