I told you already, right?

My favorite site for lists of filming locations is flyhoneystars.com.

Link to The King: Eternal Monarch film location article: Flyhoneystars.com

My favorite recapping site for whenever I want a second opinion on the Netflix and Viki subs is (drumroll, please)

Dramamilk!!!!!

After javabeans and girlfriday left, the recaps at Dramabeans have become generic. I used to associate the site with meticulously detailed recounting of each episodes. The site helped me a lot in spotting things I would have overlooked. It also served as my memory aide. When I needed to locate the episode when a certain scene occurred, I’d google DB.

But nowadays, the articles are so…so frustratingly thin in content that they’re of no use to me. They read like a movie review that had to be churned out to meet a deadline.

For instance, I wanted to know the exact words that Lee Gon left on his “search history.” You see, I doubted that Lee Gon would write a personal note, knowing full-well that Jo Young would check the contents.

He wouldn’t have written, “Want to see what I’ve been looking up? A king never leaves any traces. Are you working now or just day-to-day stuff? To me, every moment in your world, was scandalous. Because of Jeong TaeEul.”

The old DB would have written those out. Javabeans and girlfriday would have gone an extra mile to give their readers details like that.

And Dramamilk delivered. I found this list on their site.

Link here: Dramamilk: TK:EM Ep 10 part 2

Here are the words as subbed by Dramamilk.

Me

*Note: I’m not Korean, but I can read this much. He wrote “naega” which is an informal “I” used between friends. Remember, he’s a king.

what search
want to know
emperor
never
trace
leaves
right now
work
(etc…)

Will somebody translate the rest for this blog, please? Thanks!!

Updated 5/23/2020. Oli gave us the translation of the words. Please scroll down to the comment section to see more of her explanation. THANKS, OLI!!! 

LG’s message in the search history on his phone:
(I used google translate so the translation next to every word could be off):

내가 (I)
뭐 (what) 검색 (search)
했는지보려고? (do you want to see?)
=> Do you want to see what I search?

황제는 (the emperor)
절대 (never) 흔적을 (traces)
남기지않아 (do not leave/does not leave)
The emperor never leaves traces.

지금은 (now)
일인가 (work)
일상인가 (everyday)
translated in subs as “Are you now working or doing day to day stuff?”
– this sounds like a world play. Since work=일 and 일 can also mean day. But it’s also possibly related to the flashback we have in episode 11 when she tells him to just live day by day, as they only have today.

난 (I + subject marking particle = as for me)
자네 세계에 있는 내내 (all the time being in your world)
파란이었네 – was blue (??)
정태을 (Jeong Tae Eul.) 경위 (Lieutenant)
때문에 (because)

translated in the subs: To me every moment in your world was scandalous. Because of Lieutenant Jeong Tae Eul.

Again, this is related to the same scene in episode 11 when TE tells him (min41):
“I’m just going to live for today
and not think about anything else.
As if today is the only ordinary day
where we’re allowed to be scandalous.”

By the way, I listened to the scene in episode 11 again and she uses the same term for scandalous as in the message.
파란 which apparently means blue, according to google.

To me, TaeEul and Lee Gon have arrived at the stage in their relationship where a few words would be enough to express a world of meaning. To use a scientific term, they’re on the same “wavelength.” If you want a liberal arts version, they “see eye-to-eye on things” and they can reach each other’s mind.

That’s why they didn’t have to say much when they met each other at the end of Episode 10.

LG: Hey. How have you been?

Note: This is how he’d always greet her. He’d first ask her about her well-being first. But she would skip that answer and instead say something to reveal that she’d been waiting all this time.

TE: (she nodded) It took you a while this time.
LG: Because I had to come from far away.

Okayyy. When he paused there, we sensed (but we’re not sure yet) that he wasn’t just talking about crossing distance. He was talking about traversing time, too.

LG: I realized that I never gave you a single flower. That’s why I crossed the universe for you.

She took a half-step forward. But she was looking into his eyes, and she saw something that made her move back and stand her ground.

There are two interpretations here:

a. she realized that he was going to tell her something that she didn’t want to hear.
b. she realized that she was NOT talking to the same Lee Gon that she knew before. Sure, he was still Lee Gon. He isn’t a parallel version of Lee Gon, like Eunsub is Jo Young’s doppelganger. But something had been added to Lee Gon (perhaps time?) that altered him.

Lee Gon crossed the gap between them. He took her hand and placed the bouquet of blue flowers in her grasp.

LG: But the thing is, I have to go back now.

She grabbed his hand. Her body language meant she didn’t want him to leave.

TE: Going back?
LG: (sigh) Right. I also realized that I never told you this. I love you. I am deeply in love with you.

He kissed her.

Then, she gripped his hand.

I know some of you are awaiting for one of my (in)famous kiss analyses. Got you there, didn’t I?

Look. Should I ever write a salacious kiss analysis for this blog, I’d protect it with a password so under-aged lurkers wouldn’t read it. We can’t corrupt minors now, can we?

But I’ll say this much.

The point of this kiss is NOT the actual lip-lock.

We know that the kiss is important on two levels.

On one level, it’s a physical expression of his love for her. We get THAT. Lovers kiss. But on another level, this kiss is also a reminder of their last conversation. He said that a kiss was a “rule.” (And he could make up whatever arbitrary rule he wanted because he was the king….)

From Episode 9, 53:00.

TE: Are you still saying that it’s your first-time dating?
LG: That statement is never going to change until the next life.

Note: I hope we all understood the layered context. In this lifetime, she was his first girlfriend. That fact isn’t going to change until time loops back. Then, she’ll his FIRST girlfriend for the second, third, fourth… and nth time. To me, this is foreshadowing of his time travel.

TE: Did you try going to the edge?
LG: I tried to, but I couldn’t reach the edge. I shouldn’t stay there long. Even if I spend one day in there, two months flow by outside.
TE: Then, if you’re in there, you won’t grow old. Hang on. Then, I could actually be older than you. No wonder. You seemed to be getting younger these days.
LG: Even if I can have an eternal life in there, I’ll come to you.

Remember what I said about his “Yeogi” being right beside her. He’ll always be searching for her to get to her.

LG: If I’m late, it’s only because I’m on my way.

This is important, too. It puts into proper perspective all those times he was rushing to meet her. He would time himself, remember?

Now, however, he was telling her that it would soon be unavoidable for him to be late in coming back to her side. But she shouldn’t worry; she should always be reassured to know that he was on his way.

Poetically speaking, it also meant that the very instant he walked away from her, he was already wishing he could back to her.

TE: Don’t think about coming to me. Think about going together. Don’t go somewhere nice without me.
LG: (chuckles) I think I’m going to miss you so much. Can’t you come with me? Can’t you live with me in my world?
TE: I’m adding one more thing to my 17 things. Don’t ask me to come with you.

Note: she’s down to 9 more. We have to count this because the 17th rule must be intensely romantic or… a dud.

1. Stay quiet
2. Don’t draw people’s attention
3. Don’t tell anyone you’re a king
4. Keep Jo Yeong out of trouble
5. Don’t use any guns
6. Contact me whenever you go somewhere
7. Don’t be cheesy before I’ve eaten.
8. Don’t ask me to come with you.

TE: What about this world? What about my dad? Nari? And the station? Saying that just puts me in a tight spot.
LG: (kisses her)

TE: What was that? Did you just stop me from talking?
LG: No, I stopped myself. This is what we do when have too many things to say. That’s the law in—
TE: (kisses him) I have to follow the law. I’m a civil servant, you know.

And that’s why he kissed her after he told her “I love you.” He had so much more to tell her but he couldn’t express them in words so he kissed her.

But, as I said, that important point here isn’t the lip-locking but the hand-gripping. You see, she wanted to communicate something to him without words, too. She was silently telling him not to leave her. She was holding onto him because she already knew that he was about to disappear, and yeah, she didn’t want him to go.

Remember the whole “Invocation of the Dead” poem? How the poet didn’t want to let go of his beloved but he was going through the motions of letting her go?? Well. Same here.

That’s why we had so many shots of her hand gripping his…from different angles.

Lee Gon’s voiceover wasn’t actually spoken aloud. Lee Gon didn’t need to speak the words to her for her to understand what he was saying with a kiss. He was communicating with “telepathically” (if you want a scientific word).

“There will come a moment when it seems I’ve disappeared. I don’t want you to worry too much when that happens. It just means I’m walking through the frozen moments in time.”

He disappeared like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.

But unlike that stupid grin that the Cheshire cat left behind, Lee Gon left her with:

a bouquet of flowers, and the petal was already falling

a kiss to remember — that’s why she touched her lips

and pain to carry with her always.

…which brings me back to this moment. This text moment.

TE: I’m amazed that you didn’t delete this all this time. All deleted. You can now use it.
Jo: I thought you’d want to keep it.

TE: I’ll remember it. We shouldn’t leave evidence, you know. Those from your world shouldn’t leave any traces in this world.
Jo: You know what? Beside His Majesty himself you’re the only one who can delete what His Majesty wrote.

Jo Young didn’t understand how TaeEul could just delete Lee Gon’s words like that. To him, she was a bit cold and unfeeling. But he didn’t understand that she didn’t need to keep a visible trace of Lee Gon to be forever marked and scarred by Lee Gon.  She would remember everything.

And even if she deleted the words that Lee Gon said,

the pain she was going to suffer because she’d miss him every day would always remain with her.

So yeah! Jo Young, sit this one out. 🙂 You don’t get it, dude.