Update: For what it’s worth, here’s my Happy-Ending-Forecast.
All Good. No tissues needed (unless you’re one of those frail, emo type who cries over dead ants, melted ice cream, and stubbed toes). I’ll tell you when I see signs of a horrible ending and you can jump off the ship and sail to safer shores. 🙂
My gal pal, @agdr03 asks:
I’m rewatching episode 8 now.
TE says at 01:29, “Same faces, same ID card and parallel worlds, I should have known that day when I was wondering where my ID card went.”
Which day is she talking about here? She said it very consciously and so I take it she meant the card that LG had at the beginning, correct?
This is how I understood this, agdr03. 🙂
There are two types of voiceovers.
The normal voiceover. I open my fridge, and while I stare unhappily at my dinner of grapefruit, zucchini chips, and yogurt, a voice from the heavens booms, “I told you that diet plan is from hell! Here’s pizza for you!”
And the nebulous voiceover. This is what we’re getting with TaeEul. All we know is that she’s somewhere in the future, but we can’t pinpoint when. In hindsight, she’s speaking about this past incident.
Now, @agdr03, imagine TaeEul sitting on her comfy chair in that nebulous future, and she’s looking back at her memories and assessing her actions. The tricky part here is to remember that her past is actually our present. We are watching her PAST actions unfold right NOW.
Do you see the confusion? There are THREE different times involved here: the future TaeEul looking back at her past memories which we are currently watching.
So when the voiceover of this future TaeEul says, “Same faces, same ID card and parallel worlds, I should have known that day when I was wondering where my ID card went.” she’s talking about THIS scene unfolding in our time.
In this scene, TaeEul was about to interview the manager of the nursing care home. But before walking inside, she stopped to look at her ID. Her mind recalled LG saying that there was another one who looked like her in Corea. That bit of new info would have unnerved her. She would have remembered Nari’s chilling comment that “One of the doppelgangers always ends up dying. That’s the rule of the universe.”
Next, @agdr03, imagine TaeEul, sitting on her comfy chair in the nebulous future and facepalming herself, “Shucks! How could I have missed that? Same faces, same ID cards and parallel words. And Lee Lim is alive, and the two worlds are getting mixed up. Of course, the ID would have been with Lee Lim!! How could I have missed connecting that?”
The camera showed Lee Lim getting the ID stashed inside a book. It was sent by ShinJae’s mom, the mole in the Royal palace. As the Bad Uncle and the bookstore owner discussed hiring Luna to go after TaeEul, the voiceover continued.
TaeEul’s Voiceover: That Lee Lim is alive and the two worlds are getting mixed up. At least at the moment when I sensed the transcendental power that was trying to restore balance I should’ve known before we had to face this situation. That it’s something like fate, so to speak.
Ugh. That paragraph is a WORD SALAD. The subber put in all words to make a complicated salad toss. I don’t even want to analyze that sentence construction.
In four words, this is what the subber meant: Fate is restoring balance.
However, when I look at the yoyo boy spinning his toy, I interpret this as a sign that life goes up and down. Sometimes, a person’s life is up, sometimes it’s down. To me, TaeEul was saying that when she and Lee Gon were going through hard times, she should have known that good times were on their way.
NOTE to @Growing_Beautifully: This is one reason I hesitated to put a Christian “spin” on this drama. Remember my posts on the bamboo and the god concept? From what I’ve observed of the writer KES’ work in “Goblin,” her concept of gods isn’t Christian, although it does approximate some well-known Catholic orthodoxies on sin, justice, and forgiveness. It’s NOT a one-to-one correspondence, GB. For instance, we Christians believe that our God is merciful and just. He rewards the good and punishes the bad. He’s benevolent, and so on.
Well, it isn’t like that at all in KES’ mythology, as shown in “Goblin.” In her mythology, the deities resemble more the Greek gods: capricious, uncaring, selfish, embittered, and with their own agendas to pursue. Personally, I found her gods in “Goblin” to be nihilistic. I remember writing that if those were her gods, then I wasn’t going to her church; thank you very much, I’d rather be an atheist. That’s why I wanted to see if she has EVOLVED on the god concept in the “The King: Eternal Monarch.”
Now, where was I?
Ah!
To me, fate is like yoyo boy who restores balance and rectifies injustice. But Uncle Lee Lim misused this interpretation of fate and misapplied the concepts of balance and justice as a force of RETRIBUTION. For 25 years, he’d been gathering people with grievances and anger. He’d been rallying people who believed they were wronged by a person, a group of persons, or society. He promised them retribution. They would get their vengeance.
We see this in the restaurant owner who recognized and bowed to Lee Gon.
LG: Who are you? You’re from the Kingdom of Corea. Why are you here? I want to hear your story.
Guy: You are here too, Your Majesty.
LG: I see that you’re not trying to protect your life. You must have trained professionally. And you work for Lee Lim, the traitor. Where is he now?
Guy: You look a lot like your father. Will your life end the same way as he did?
Yeong: (punching him)
LG: You must be one of those who stood on my father’s blood. And you came here as a compensation for that bloodbath?
Guy: That is called balance. It is reasonable and fair. You were lucky enough to be born with everything, so don’t whine about losing your father.
See his hatred and envy? In his twisted mind, Lee Gon had everything going for him because he was born a monarch. If his father was murdered, so what? That was just fair. He had it coming. Lee Gon couldn’t have everything perfect for him; life would be unfair then. It’s just right and fair that he lost his father.
Yeong moved to deliver a blow on the guy, but Lee Gon stopped him. Lee Gon was straining hard not to beat up the guy himself.
LG: Yeong. (then addressing the man again) Only God can restore that balance. What you scoundrels are doing is murder. Remember that. (ordering Yeong) Take him back to the KOC.
Guy: Kill me. Just kill me.
It’s understandably why the Bad Uncle recruited only those people with anger, resentment, and envy. These people MIRRORED him in his anger, resentment, and envy. Of all people, he was the one who railed against Fate for cheating him. He was the biggest butt-hurt person in this story because he thought he was robbed of his birthright.
In his mind, the throne should have been his. But it was unfairly taken from him and given to his half-wit younger brother, all because his younger brother was born of the legitimate wife of the King.
Remember this from Episode 1:
Uncle: He was allowed to see it every day. My naive half-brother, who became King just because he was born the legitimate son, did not do anything when he had the whole world in his hands. He didn’t even know that the Manpasikjeok in his hands would bring the world to him. To be exact two different worlds. I did expect that one day, my nephew would face that legend too, just like me.”
That explains why every single one of his recruits share his same mentality. They all think they’ve been dealt unfairly and unjustly by someone, by a group of people, by society, or by Fate. But it was the Bad Uncle who warped and distorted their sense of goodness. In their moments of weakness, he manipulated their negative feelings to wish harm and and exact revenge on others.
Like the mom of the disabled child given a soccer ball as birthday gift.
Hmmmm…do you see how SinJae could be manipulated too? But I don’t think he would turn bad. Judging from the way he’d been very patient with his “fake” mom, I think SinJae would be one of the good guys. TaeEul would be proven right in her assessment that Lee Gon could rely on him. (hmmm…I’ll have to do my write-up on him, too.)
Now, let’s move on to TaeEul’s love confession…
I like the role reversal here. TaeEul was the one who worried about about Lee Gon’s safety. In the Kingdom of Corea, she was under his protection. Here, in Korea, she was his guardian. For his own safety, she’d given him a list of 17 rules one of which was to contact her whenever he moved locations.
When Lee Gon told her belatedly that he moved to hotel, she became angry. When Lee Gon gave an exclamation of surprise, she overreacted, “What? What happened? Hello? What’s wrong? Did you get hurt?”
To her disgust, he was only expressing his satisfaction with delicious coffee. She was so annoyed enough with him, she decided to drop by his hotel in 10 minutes to give him a scolding.
Of course, she didn’t know that she got played. It was his plan all along to rile her up so she would visit him at the hotel. He was pleased with himself, “So my theory is correct. I have to irritate her to see her.”
Not being a liberal arts grad, he didn’t understand reverse psychology.
Ordinarily, I would have been annoyed with hero who uses mind games like this, but I didn’t mind that he tricked her. Why?
For one, he was still the one who came running out to meet. And he was improving his time record. He was quicker.
This was before:
For another, he didn’t realize (and the viewers didn’t too) that he was actually copying the White Rabbit with the watch.
He was always worried that he’d be late. lol.
LG: 8 min 40 sec. I came down right away. Yeong wanted to follow me so I—
TE: The very first time you came here…would you still have fallen for me even if I had never helped you?
She was obviously referring to the encounter that we saw in Episode 1. But part of me wish she’d finally remember something from their previous encounters. Oh well…
She was asking him if he still would have fallen for her if she hadn’t helped her. This was a valid issue. And so is the REVERSE of her question, that is, would he still have fallen for her if he did NOT need her help. Either way, she wanted to ascertain that he wasn’t confusing a sense of obligation or indebtedness as an attachment for her. TaeEul didn’t want him to mix up love with gratitude.
LG: I would’ve understood. And that understanding would’ve led me to fall for you.
He would have understood it, too, if she had been neither obliging nor friendly. His understanding and his acceptance would prevail over him to forgive her flaws. He was assuring her that he would still fall for her.
TE: What if I was super rude to you? Still the same?
LG: You were. Yes, still.
LG laughed because she had already shown him her worst side. However, I thought TaeEul’s question showed that:
a) she was lacking in self-awareness. Didn’t she know that she had been crabby, rude, sarcastic with him and he tolerated her?
b) she was looking for reassurance that he wouldn’t change her mind about her when the time comes and
c) she was worried that she had a doppelganger in HIS world. Would he fall for that girl instead of her?
d) she knew she could get killed by her doppelganger (Nari’s rule of the universe) and wanted to know that she wasn’t being stupid here.
Lee Gon’s answer, “Yes, still” meant that his feelings would remain unchanged even when she showed her rude side. This was a good answer. And it was consistent with their first encounter. She wasn’t endearing back then. He wasn’t anything like he imagined her to be. He’s asked her if that was her real personality, then mused, “I have never imagined it. I thought you’d be softer.” But he went along with her abrasive personality.
But TaeEul was still curious. He said he would still fall for her but why? It didn’t compute.
TE: Why?
LG: Because you must’ve had your reason.
Agdr03, for this one, I’ll give the simpler interpretation for now. I think there’s another one but I’ll reserve that for later.
In Lee Gon’s mind, if TaeEul was bad-tempered and disagreeable, then she must have a good reason for being bad-tempered and disagreeable. He believed that she was essentially good and naturally reasonable. If she behaved offensively, then she would have a valid explanation for it.
Do you follow the logic there? He said:
If TaeEul was rude, then there must be a reason.
But TaeEul HAD been rude, so what was her reason then??
🙂 We’ll find out soon enough.
Of course, Lee Gon’s explicit trust in her is undercut later in the episode.
When he discovered that SinJae knew his identity, his first thought was Lieutenant (mind you, he called her by her rank, Lieutenant) Jeong TaeEul betrayed him. He said, “Lieutenant Jeong TaeEul even told you things like that?”
But instantly, he knew he wronged her because SinJae was confused, too. “TaeEul knows about this, too?”
I thought that was a nice set-up. Lee Gon felt betrayed because he thought that TaeEul shared confidences with SinJae when actually SinJae should be the one feeling betrayed. He was the aggrieved party because TaeEul had hidden this secret from him all along. It must be a blow to him.
TaeEul’s Voiceover: It took me a long time to realize this. When it’s fate, there are no coincidences. Your fate is determined by the choices you make. But there are times when your fate chooses you.
People who are long-timers on this blog know that I always clarify this Destiny vs Fate misconception in kdramas. Since I’ve already explained this, I’ll give a truncated version.
I understand that many cultures don’t make a distinction between fate and destiny. For many, they’re one and the same. However, in classical Western philosophy, the correct term for this sort of “fate” determined by choices which TaeEul is taking about here is called DESTINY.
In Western outlook, and language, there’s an important separation between destiny from fate. We say “fatalistic,” “ill-fated,” and “fatal” which implies lack of agency or a personal stake in the outcome. There’s a passive acceptance linked with the notion of fate. You accept because “Oh well, it’s fated to be. What can I do? I can’t go against fate.”
But in the Western philosophy, we fight for our destiny. That’s why we say we’re “destined for greatness,” and we have a “Manifest Destiny” and we travel to our “destination.” Destination and destiny actually have the same Latin root word, “destinare.” It means to establish a goal, and to make it firm. That’s the very much what destiny is. There’s an active participation in forging your future which is lacking in the notion of fate. Against all odds, you’ll make your own destiny.
So, for me, if I were to sub TaeEul’s voiceover, I’d say that DESTINY is the correct word here. It’s called DESTINY, not fate, when an individual makes her own choices. Here, TaeEul was saying that she was accepting her fate and choosing Lee Gon because he was her FATED lover and he chose her as well.
LG: Why do you ask?
TE: In the beginning, you ask about everything. We just skipped too many things. I have to go on a stakeout. I got to see you, so I’m off. Nothing happened, right?
Here, Lee Gon was curious to know why she was asking these questions.
She answered that in normal situations, couples would ask these questions at the beginning stage of the relationship. However, since they were in a unique situation (i.e., he’s from a parallel world), they skipped the niceties and customary getting-to-know-you stage. (lol. Yes. There you go. I told you that they can’t be a slow-burning couples, didn’t I? You have to understand the script.)
LG: No, not at all. It’s been a quiet, peaceful day. This is the most eventful moment of the day. You came to see me despite the traffic jam.
He lied here of course. It hadn’t been a peaceful day, but he was deflecting here. For one, he didn’t want to tell her that he got involved in a gang fight. For another, he was just too happy that he got her to come to the hotel to see him.
lol. He probably thought this was some sort of payback or equal compensation for his helicopter flight. Remember? She called him 17 times before he got the message but he quickly ordered his helicopter to turn around to pick her up.
In his case, however, he only had to call her once and irritate her enough that she dropped by his hotel in no time. So, of course, he would be happy that she gave him time in the middle of her busy day.
TE: I haven’t eaten yet, so I’m irritable now. I’ll add one more into the 17 rules. No cheesy comments when I’m hungry. I’m glad everything is good. I’m off.
She thought he was overdoing it with the flowery compliments when he praised her for dropping by in the middle of the day to visit him. She turned to leave.
TaeEul’s voiceover: Things that are bound to happen are taking place even at this moment. I was struck with a sad premonition that this will be short-lived, but I decided to love my fate that chose me.
What intrigued me about this voiceover was NOT her decision to accept fate. I mean, that was kinda a foregone conclusion, right? She was the heroine so what else was there for her to say? Hell, no?
Besides, didn’t she already said, “Okay” to her Fate? That bicycle boy?
Instead, I found her voiceover intriguing because it confirmed what I long suspected about her. That is, she was actually more sensitive and susceptible to premonitions than she let on.
To me, that signified that she wasn’t just staring blankly at Lee Gon whenever he said something outrageous. She was actually weighing her words and her reasons.
Take for instance this time at the chicken place (Ep 2, 53:37). I told @kuroshio about this earlier.
LG: If you don’t believe me, why do you help me? Is this some kind of a sense of duty?
TE: You need that only when you have to save the country.
LG: (insisting) Then why?
TE: There’s no reason! I just do it. I’m a police office of the Republic of Korea.
LG: (still persisting) Anything else? Is there any other reason? The reason why I have to stay in your world? Could there be a reason?
This was her reaction.
Did you notice that?
Back then, she evaded LG’s questions back then. She didn’t answer him.
But now she was asking him a HYPOTHETICAL question. To me, this suggested that she actually had a reason to help him, and it wasn’t out of a sense of duty because she was a police officer of Korea. And she could actually have a reason to want him to stay in her world. But she refused to tell him.
Now, for the confession.
TE: I love you. Yeong is in the hotel room, right?
LG: Hang on. I’m still mesmerized by what you said earlier. (then change of tone) Yeong went out. He just walked by. Didn’t you see him? He has to..no. That’s not important. I mean, you just said—
TE: I told you he can’t go out. Find him and go back in.
LG: Jeong TaeEul. Me too.
TE: (driving away then stopped) So you heard what I said.
LG: Don’t worry about Yeong. He’s done it once, so he won’t get busted again.
My takeaway here?
It was anticlimactic because TaeEul was the one confessing. There was a role reversal. TaeEul wasn’t the romantic one in this relationship. It’s Lee Gon. So if we want the fluttering, butterflies-in-the-stomach tingle than we’ll have to wait for Lee Gon to propose.
However, what I find romantic about TaeEul’s proposal is her defiance.
To me, when she said this:
“things that are bound to happen are taking place even at this moment,”
she was talking about a feeling of déjà vu, that she was repeating an ill-fated and short-lived romance. But despite this foreboding, she threw caution to the wind and went for it.
Yes, Lee Gon = fate. They would have their ups and downs.
But Lee Gon = destiny. She chose to walk with this man.
She then dropped a bombshell, “Saranghae.”
But she quickly switch topic to LG’s trusted guard.
To distract him so he wouldn’t ask the 1001 cheesy things that lovers usually ask after a love declaration, she pressed him on Yeong’s whereabouts. She tried to act cool as if saying “saranghae” was no big deal to her. When he said, “Me too,” she didn’t answer him, and continued to get in her car and drove away. Her parting question “So you heard what I said?” was supposed to look nonchalant.
Look, as far as I’m concerned, she didn’t need to have fancy words and fancy declaration. It was good enough for me that she confessed her feelings DESPITE knowing that resigning to her fate, and committing to this guy would lead her to sorrow. Moreover, when you think about this, her love confession was actually a sacrifice: she’s sacrificing herself for him who’d chosen her.
She handled herself with much aplomb and coolness that she earned my respect. 🙂
Beautiful, strange, sad and sorrowful lingering emotions bottled up in me. Kim Eun Sook, how come you could write a story like this?
You always make us ugly crying. However, I root for a happy ending, always. Please let it happen.
A couple of times the tenets of taekwondo have been mentioned: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. She is being true to those as well. -Well, she needed to work on the courtesy, as Eun-Sup reminded her back in ep. 2. @packmule3, you mentioned a role reversal and in this scene Tae-Eul is the strong, silent type.
Thank you for pointing out that she was ‘actually more sensitive and susceptible to premonitions than she let on’. It probably was unnerving for her to realise this. This helps me to understand more about the silences.
No worries.
I know you don’t believe me when I say this: it’s going to be a happy ending. 🙂
There’s nothing so far in the script that tells me that they’re NOT going to survive their hardship together.
Probably Lee Gon will survive minus an arm and a leg and his horse, and his kingdom and his beautiful nose… pwahahaha…but he’ll survive this. She will too. That’s why there’s a NEBULOUS voiceover. It means she survived the whole thing.
I used to think that Lee Gon has to figure out a way to get them out. But now that (I think) she’s also aware of circumstances, then she can also help him out too in their mission.
You’re right!! The tenets of taekwondo! I forgot about that angle.
Yes, TaeEul is the “tsundere” type of girl and Lee Gon is the “feelings” guy under that kingly/ regal/ mathematical veneer.
And I agree about her silences. Now that we know that she wasn’t just staring at him like he sprouted two heads, it would be good to review those times she was staring at him just so.
I noticed in the jail when he talked about parallel world, and when he told her that she was prettier than he expected, she stared at him. Maybe those words were sinking in and she was remembering him.
I thought that her stance — when leaned away from him — was a giveaway. She should have held her ground. The normal reaction to a perceived threat is either flight or fight. Well, she did neither and he was fast bearing down on her. To me, that meant that somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind, she knew this guy. But the leaning back…I couldn’t explain it till Episode 2. I realized that I do that same thing when an exuberant puppy wants to kiss/lick my face. I move my head away from the TONGUE. pwahahaha.
You know all of your posts on this drama alone is such a big help especially to me because I’m saying in all honesty here, I would probably only understand about 5% of it. 🤔 I’m neither good with maths nor a lit major. 😆 Besides the romance which I fully get now and I love it, I would have just watched it because there was a big fuss and it’s LMH and WDH. 😁
I agree with the premonition bit and yes I love it that TE threw caution to the wind even if it’s giving her a sad feeling about it BUT she gets to be with LG and that’s enough. 😍
I believe it’s destiny too rather than fate because she did something to make her choose her fated one.
I didn’t mind that she said I love you first, I mean LG did a lot already while she was trying to accept the things that’s happening. He was always patient, caring and thoughtful with her. I think it’s actually great now because she said saranghae to the King of KOC. ☺️ She is cool! 😎
Thank you very much for answering my question. I get it when you said we’re watching the future TaeEul looking back at her past memories which we are currently watching. Almost a tongue twister but on your brains instead 😁
I believe there’s something else too when LG said there must be a reason when TE asked him that question. ☺️
I was late in responding because I was watching LIA. 😉
Thank you so much. I have been asking everyone for this. I read @growingbeautifully’s version and now this one. I love it all.
One question: i did not get how the love confession was a sacrifice.
I will eagerly wait for :
Agdr03, for this one, I’ll give the simpler interpretation for now. I think there’s another one but I’ll reserve that for later.
And yes, will read fate/destiny related discussion in other posts 🙂
I’m betting on a sad ending, because of the piano music!
But a soft sad ending, not a hard sad ending, like “the heroine has eye cancer”.
A scenario like this:
The two lovers manage to overcome the obstacles and we’re heading straight for a happy ending.
But there is evidence that things can’t end so easily.
Like a kid with a yo-yo comes to talk about it to TE…
TE realizes that from now on, she has to go back in time to the past, on a specific date.
Here’s a voice over:
TE – He couldn’t have loved me, if I hadn’t helped him… Because he would be dead.
Lovers live their last moments together.
TE goes back in time to save young LG. It’s the only way for their love story to have at least existed, even if at that moment it’s over.
So TE stays in the past and gets old.
Later, LG finds TE in a hospital room while TE is old and he is still 40.
There she dies of old age. The only thing she was waiting for to die was to see him one last time.
(piano music) Buckets of tears!!!
I’ll have to answer you now because we’re going to have a “Group Watch for Hospital Playlist” and I’ll lose your post.
You asked how is a love confession = sacrifice?
🙂 I looked up the definition of sacrifice in the dictionary to make sure I’m getting it right.
Here’s what merriam-webster says:
1. : the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone.
Here’s the context for TaeEul.
She’s giving up something that she would like to keep, i.e., her happiness and her LIFE (remember Nari’s rule of the universe and LG’s news that she had a doppelganger named Luna) to help Lee Gon.
From the start, she’d been helping LG. She didn’t want to get involved but she had no choice because as soon he saw her, he claimed that he knew her. So she ended up being his de facto “contact” after release from jail.
What did she do? This list is not exhaustive:
she brought him to the jewelry shop to exchange his diamond;
she fed him,
fed his horse,
guided him around.
entertained him.
even skipped chicken night with the guys to be with him because he was mooning around her house.
She told him to bother his own family members. He answered he had none in that world.
So he proposed to her to make his Queen, saying, “You’re always busy, and you don’t care much for me. Because of you, I’m powerless here, but it’s fine. You are much more amazing than I had imagined. And you’re standing in front of the root symbol I’m trapped in.”
She had no choice but to help him. She was a reluctant “helper” but she did it.
LG wanted to know her reason. She didn’t answer.
Then, in Episode 7, they needed each other’s help.
She needed info from him to solve her case. He needed her to look up the dead body purportedly of his uncle.
In Episode 8 voiceover, she should have known then that Lee Lim was the connection between her case and his case.
She didn’t know that Lee Lim has now targeted her because of her contact with Lee Gon.
She got involved with Lee Gon’s case so now her life is endangered.
The reason why she’s helping Lee Gon? It’s because she loves him. “Saranghae.”
She’s helping Lee Gon even though she already sensed that this was going to be a short-lived
Note: short-lived has two meanings:
a. romance won’t last long hence SHORT-lived
b. one of them dies hence short-LIVED.
2. : an act of killing a person or animal in a religious ceremony as an offering to please a god. : a person or animal that is killed in a sacrifice.
The Fate/yoyo boy doesn’t necessarily need human sacrifice. It only needs balance.
However, if a loss of life is necessary to achieve balance, then Fate is fine with it. Remember Fate is “impartial” in the sense that it doesn’t care either way.
🙂
Thanks @plml3. You’ve covered all the points and more about the voiceovers. I wrote something on them too on DB (in reply to a question by @No_one) but I didn’t post them here. We’re on the same page as to Fate and Destiny, and that she was looking back, knowing what she should have known from hindsight.
I also felt that she was being fatalistic in her knowledge that between her and her doppelganger, only one might survive. That because Fate bumped into her, she had no choice but to do what would be laid out for her.
My last paragraphs: “I see all the voiceovers as a realisation by TE on looking back, about the role FATE had played in her last few months since meeting LG. More, she understands that FATE has chosen her for the ‘good’ purpose of restoring balance. It will probably involve pain and sacrifice, but she decides to embrace her FATE for the greater good.
Her words to LG, I felt, already smacked of ‘Goodbye’. She was preparing for a separation or death or both. Whose? When? How? We have to wait and see.”
Good points, I’ll edit my post and add this.
@packmule3, you wrote, ‘I thought that her stance — when leaned away from him — was a giveaway. She should have held her ground.’ @WEnchanteur mentioned this in the latest Red King post as a very non-taekwondo reaction and an indication that subconsciously she remembered him. Jo Yeong did the same move back in the palace with LG. He muttered, ‘Don’t do that.’
This is a bit of a reach, but WEnchanteur also mentioned that during the love confession scene, the dialog contained a mundane, married couple sort of ‘how was your day…?’ section and only later the ‘I love you.’ I called it a courtship in reverse. Shades of the White Queen.
@Growing Beautifully (GB), your wrote, ‘More, she understands that FATE has chosen her for the ‘good’ purpose of restoring balance.’ Balance is related to the sword. I think that Lee Lim is due to be killed by the sword, but it has also been used to kill the good king, so neither side is immune from its blade. Too many quips about beheading IMO.
@pkml3 Glad if my wild thinking helps! Errr… here’s more…
To give a little context about the fatalism of Tae Eul … In my other post over here, comparing TE to Luna as mirror images, I mentioned:
I suggested that TE was becoming more fatalistic or becoming more aware that FATE had more influence on her life than she’d thought. This awareness grew in her and it was manifested in her thoughts/voiceovers, and would impact her decisions.
From my other post:
So this voiceover is from hindsight. I note that she does not see Fate as something bad, but as something that was trying to restore the balance in the universes. She will later realise that she’s part of Fate’s plan in bringing about the balance. Because balance is supposed to be a good thing (after the terrible imbalance caused by LL’s killings) I feel, TE is at peace with being ‘used’ by Fate.
Separately I played around with the idea of identity, how TE thought she knew who she was. She had a family and home (Luna seems to have neither) and she identified herself with her role as a Detective of the Metropolitan Police Department (or something like that). To her confusion, LG (who was at that time Unidentified) assigned her further identities of being a mere nothing, ‘0’, which at the same time was the most important number, and a Queen. But FATE was giving her the job/identity of ‘Balance Restorer of the Universes’.
I contrasted TE’s dismissal of Fate with how Luna, who is said to have no actual identity apart from her name, was already on good terms with Fate. She sought him out to get back her stuff but exchanged that with her jacket, and she entered into conversation with him. I’m thinking, that for the job of the righting of the imbalance of the universe, since Fate made friends with both ladies, he planned to make use of both Luna and TE, to unite both sides of the universe or to close the portal between them.
Perhaps it was this that TE spoke of from hindsight, that she should have known, since Fate knocked into her.
@Fern I like that ‘White Queen reverse chronological happenings’ thought!
It ties in with how they never managed the proper or usual niceties of beginning a romance. They had it in reverse order!! No wonder viewers were so put off.
They started with an embrace, boy brings girl home, a kiss, then deeper conversation, ‘I love you’, mundane chat and then departure/being apart. By rights it should have gone the opposite direction! 😆 Nice one @WEenchanteur and @Fern
I too find the sword conspicuous by it’s absence and the fact that it’s hardly mentioned. However each time it was shown, something significant happened.
1)LG’s dad showed it to him – LG learnt about his calling as a King
2)LG’s dad got killed by it – LG became King
3)LG uses it to cut the flute and injure LL – I believe that this made the linking of the universes possible or unlocked the door.
4)After 25 years LG moves it back to where it belongs and HCL Noh looked at it – LG realises that he has to be ready to answer the call of the sword/his calling as King. I’ve admired how LG is so calm and accepting of his role as King. But perhaps he sees it as a calling, a special vocation only he can perform as the son of his father and owner of the sword.
The calling of the Four Tiger Sword and the duty of the King: “The sky bestows the heart upon us, and the ground helps the spirit. The sun and the moon are formed. As the mountains and streams form, lightning strikes. A sage is moved to defeat the evil of the mountains and streams. Wield it with deep thoughts and make things right.”
We mentioned in the early posts that balance was between sky and ground. Between heart and spirit. So the Sword will indeed be called into play/battle. Whether it must be LG who wields it or whether TE will have a hand in this will be interesting to watch for.
As for beheading, that might be a little too kind a response towards LL. LOL
@Growing Beautifully (GB), ‘As for beheading, that might be a little too kind a response towards LL. LOL’ Yes, I agree. But whatever does the job, eh? It’s all the other beheadings that LG has promised to Lady Noh, Jo Yeong, his secretary and Tae-Eul that worry me.
@packmule3, a further role reversal would be Eun-Sup. He has the role of the kindly, empathetic, accepting-despite-everything, helpful person often reserved for women, at least in Western dramas and films.
In Lee Gon’s mind, the biggest impediment to his love for Tae Eul is her state of mind and heart regarding him. He knows his mind, and is constant in his affection for her, but she is hard for him to read.
[Ep. 6, starting time mark 49:31. I’m putting this first because this exchange happens first for TE and LG.]
LG: Should I have done this? [He kisses TE. LG RAWR #1] Try guessing what I just proved. The fact that I’ve dated before? Or…that I’m dating right now? [They look into each other’s eyes. LG draws away from TE, sitting upright.] Why don’t you answer? [TE meh #1] Do you want me to tell you? You should keep it to yourself. [It’s our secret.] I’m dating right now. [LG RAWR #2]
TE: Take off you clothes. [Expression on her face is thoughtful, not lecherous.]
LG: Is that your answer? [Heaves sigh while shaking his head.] I didn’t see this coming. [He was expecting, what, gratitude?]
TE: Do you have a strange scar on your shoulder? [TE meh #2. That’s gotta be deflating to hear right after a tender kiss and declaration of a dating relationship… And the White Queen would approve that sequence, no?]
LG: Who told you that?
TE [Remembering JY asking, “Did you make that weird scar on his shoulder too?”]: Eun Sup in your world is asking if I made the scar.
LG [Starts the motion of undressing.]: It’s not necessarily false. I got the scar from when I went to see you. [Starts unbuttoning his shirt. He’s fully aware they’re alone in her bedroom. LG RAWR #3]
TE [Grabs his hand to stop him. (Damn LMH’S A-lister no-bare-torso contract clause!)]: Not all of them. [TE meh #3]
LG: Then tell me exactly how many. You got me too excited. [LG RAWR #4]
TE: Two. [TE meh #4. Come on, TE…the first button started just under his Adam’s apple!]
LG: That won’t be enough to see my shoulders. They are really broad. [LG RAWR #5] [TE rolls her eyes. TE meh #5. We nod our heads in agreement with him.] Forget it. You can’t see it now anyway.
TE: Why? Is it luminous? [Her face looks like she’s being sarcastic, but this is a possible clue of time loop, that this would come to her mind with no supporting information given her in this timeline.]
LG: If you’re so curious, turn off the light. [Bedroom…just the two of them…candlelight…LG RAWR #6]
TE: I’m not curious. I just didn’t want to take the blame. Go now. I’m sleepy. [TE meh #6. But…The lady doth protest too much, methinks.]
LG: It’s more difficult to cross this line… [He makes a cutting gesture between them with his arm.] than it is to cross universes. Fine. I will get going. Make sure to sleep well. [TE parried every one of his advances, so he gave up for the night.]
[Ep. 6, starting time mark 18:36]
LG: Steak and rice in a hot pot. It’s my signature dish. Everyone falls for it.
TE: I can see why.
LG [Didn’t expect this answer because his thinking was along the lines of a standard love story trope.]: You should ask me whom I cooked it for. I said it to make you jealous.
TE: I can’t beat that person anyway. Whoever it is, that person must be from this world.
LG [Looks thoughtful. Pulls out TE’s ID from 25 years ago.]: I have been carrying it around ever since you came here. I didn’t show it to you because I was afraid you might leave. But…you’ve already gone somewhere much further away than your world. [She’s withdrawing from him. To him, she seems to have given up on their relationship before she’s given it a chance.]
[LG talks about how he got that ID, and about the savior.]
LG: It seems like a difficult question to solve [TE’s earlier question, “How does this make sense, though?”], but there must be a simple and beautiful formula for it. And you are the answer I have been looking for. From no on, I will prove it one by one. Whoever it is, and whichever world the person is from, you’ve beat that person [we’re looking at you, PM Koo]. So don’t you decide alone to leave like that.[Noble idiocy not tolerated!]
When Tae Eul tells Lee Gon “I love you,” it is exactly what he needs to hear. The fact that she conveys the news without preamble doesn’t make the message any less real. And Tae Eul was able to so concisely speak of the state of her mind and heart because Lee Gon had assured her of the sincerity and constancy of his mind and heart.
Here, Tae Eul would’ve been a woman after Sgt. Joe Friday’s own heart: “Just the facts, ma’am.”
Like Fern said, I had fun dissecting the confession scene. But mostly staying within the scene itself. Without mentioning it, I was also interested in how KSE wrote it. The methodology. Too bad I’m not a little mouse hiding in her office.
@Packmule3, I liked reading your article, because it brings a lot of new elements, and precisely connections with the whole drama.
This confession reminds me of the one LG made when he asked her to be the Queen. It was also anticlimactic.
Very funny, the “Word Salad”. Is it really a mistranslation? The character speaks, so there is a dialogue of the same length written by KES.
I think I wrote voice-overs with Word Salad too. In a nebulous voice-over, everything that is told has an incredible style and class. You can show off to death. You can tell nebulous stuff and make it sound so cool. Freak the audience by telling them that things went really, really bad! 😀
By the way, I think there’s a lot of voice-over in this drama. I don’t remember KES using this kind of voice-over so much in the past.
Nice dissection @Welmaris and I agree with you. I loved her being deadpan and unexcited, when there’s this great looking, eligible guy who’s crazy about her, and all the opportunities for greater intimacy are with them. It’s another one of those lovely reversals.
All those girls in the library who had ogled LG non-stop, would have taken every opportunity to keep him with them alone in a room, but TE refuses to be charmed by Prince Charming, kiss and all, and kicks him out.
With this also is the reversal of how PM Koo simpered and dressed like a queen for LG, only to be given the cold shoulder, while TE who’s dress sense is non-existent, who was downright rude to him, and who walks around more like a man, and a peasant, wins the adoration of the King. 😆
New reader here 🙂
Absolutely loving the write – ups on this blog.
The fate vs destiny thing explained by you is just perfect. I have to confess that reading the discussions here have increased my level of enjoyment of TKEM. So much that I’m commenting even though usually I don’t post much online 🙂
The way you described JTE’s musings gives me hope that more people will appreciate the depth of writing in this show. Though this doesn’t mean I don’t have any problems with the show. The director and editor have led down the writing big time especially in the first 4 episodes.
As an aside its such a delight to know someone was actually interested in the theological aspects of Goblin. Speaking of which KES’s (whom I don’t know personally ofc) writing in Goblin was rooted in the concept of Karma as understood in eastern religions like Buddhism. Karma, simply put, is reaping what is sown. That’s why God told Kim Shin that the sword stuck in his chest was his reward and punishment. Punishment because with that sword he took endless lives of people (even though they were enemies) who were also loved by someone. Reward because he has the opportunity to be liberated when his bride pulls out his sword. And we know for that to happen he had to realize what loving and loosing loved ones meant.
I mention this because in TKEM as well ‘you reap what you sow’ has been said often by several characters. I recall JY saying it to LG. And there were other instances I can’t recall now.
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What a lovely blog post! Ladies, I really enjoyed your conversation afterwards!
I really like Tae Eul. She is not the typical damsel in distress and that is a trait that is admired by Lee Gon – as he confesses in Episode 12, about TE – his GIRG being brave and a warrior.
What I like the best in their relationship is their dynamic and something that has to do with Fate / Destiny. TE decided to be brave.
That trait of hers made LG to become brave as well and leave his FEAR of DEATH behind. We know that the 4 Tigers SWORD was not at his chambers, but he retreat it after he returned from RoK.
So, IMO LG chose to become brave and accept his Destiny as well.
His braveness mirrors TE’s.
And so we watch his metamorphosis first in Epidose 6, where he protected his Kingdom in the incident with Korea and acted like a true King in action. (Protect our Sea! My safety is my responsibility!)
As they continue their Quest (kinda like Hercules) and after TE told him “I love you”. He uses that revelation or sacrifice as a fuel in his psyche.
And then we get to see in episodes 11 + 12, a change in his character. That happens mostly after the assassination of his Uncle P. He killed everyone in the EOSU bookstore as retribution and he didn’t just arrest them.
Then he saves TE in episode 11 + 12 and declares her a QUEEN in front to his personal guards and the police force. He even killed LL’s minions with the 4 Tiger SWORD that was unused for 25 years.
That was heroic the old fashioned way.
So, I think their silences, their glances and their souls are interwined.
“I missed you. I missed you. I missed you…”
If we remember Plato’s story about Soulmates, I think we get to understand that even though they don’t have a lot of time together, yet the personality changes they invoke to each other is significant.
Especially for LG’s road to embrace his Destiny as a KING.
That determination to restore Balance couldn’t succeed without TE, JY, SJ, EU’ help….
There are so many things to say about this story.
I am glad I am sharing it with you! Have a nice day!