A few lurkers have been asking the same question, so instead of answering individually, I’ll do this in pictures.
This was Lee Lim (let’s call LL 1.0) in Episode 1.
He was looking at the Four Tiger Sword that he was going to use to kill his brother.
He scoffed at young Lee Gon when he picked up the heavy sword.
LL: Do you really think you can hurt me with that?
LG: I will try!
LL: (defending himself with the flute, flute broke)
LG: This is treason. I order the Royal Guards to arrest the traitor, Lee Lim. I deprive Prince Imperial Geum of his royal status and sentence him to the maximum penalty in accordance with national law.
LL: You sound like the Crown Prince for the first time in your life.
Minion Yoo: I’m ready, sir.
(Meanwhile, somewhere down the hall, the adult Lee Gon walked in and picked up gun)
LL: I will do it myself.
In Episode 14, this Lee Lim 1.0 raced back to 1994 to meet his younger self (let’s call him LL 2.0). He wanted to warn LL 2.0 to go kill the young Lee Gon first so his coup would succeed.
He saw his younger self contemplating the kingly robe.
2.0: What’s this? Who are you?
1.0: You’ve been dreaming of staging a couple here every single night under your dim-witted father and your younger brother who became king just because he’s the legitimate son. Hence, I came to save you. To be more exact, I came to save my foolish self.
2.0: Who are you? Why do you look exactly like me?
1.0: Can’t you tell? I’m you. You from the year 2020.
2.0: Ah. You’re from the year 2020? I’d be 70 years old in 2020.
1.0: You already know the answer. That’s what I realized, looking back. And that’s why you staged the coup.
2.0: (looking down at the umbrella) That must be it. The secret of the Manpasikjeok must be true. The other world actually exists.
I told you, didn’t I? He staged the coup NOT to become the King of Corea. He staged the coup to GET the flute. Being a king was NOTHING compared to the power he’d acquire with the flute.
Here, we’re seeing a famous time-travel paradox. 2020 Lee Lim believed his 1994 self already knew the truth when in fact his 1994 self only discovered it from his 2020 version. When we try to determine who actually discovered it first, we arrive at a circular reason. 1994 LL knew because 2020 LL knew because 1994 LL knew because 2020 LL knew….and so on. It’s a cycle.
In short, he revealed the truth to himself.
1.0: Do you believe me now? Then I’ll show you a shortcut. You should head to the crown prince’s chambers instead of Cheongjongo. Kill the crown prince first. If his past perishes, his future will be no more. The crown prince is the one who puts a stop to this coup.
2.0: You mean, the eight-year-old boy who is sleeping to a lullaby at the moment?
This was probably the lullaby that Lady Noh was singing to him. Thanks to @kuroshio, for find the lullaby for us.
O Mother, O Sister
by Kim SowolO, Mother O sister, let us live by the river.
Where golden sands glitter in the garden,
and beyond the back gate, the reeds are singing…
O mother, O sister, let us live by the river.
(David McCann)
1.0: (grabbing his collar) That’s what I thought and I only got half of the Manpasikjeok. So just do as I say. Slay the crown prince and bring the whole Manpasikjeok. If I come to possess it, that means it will be yours, too.
2.0: So, in other words, you failed. You are none the wiser despite your age. Or should I say that “I” am? If you’re actually me, you should be keeping your sword here. (and grabs the sword and beheaded LL 1.0.) I will carry out the coup, not you. And I will come into possession of the whole Manpasikjeok, not you.
His younger self (LL 2.0) killed his older self (LL 1.0).
Note: Lee Gon had to time-travel from 1994 back to April 2020. He got stuck in 1994 because Lee Lim 1.0 died and his flute vanished. Fortunately for Lee Gon, he was able to calculate that he only had wait inside that NMLand for 5 months (equivalent to 26 years outside). He dropped by TaeEul’s side twice to insert himself in her memories.
Obviously, Lee Lim 1.0 didn’t need to time-travel because he died.
Now, this is another time-travel paradox. Lee Lim 1.0 didn’t exist anymore because Lee Lim 2.0 murdered him. But Lee Lim 2.0 didn’t change the history of the murdered Lee Lim 1.0. Instead, he repeated the same atrocities. He didn’t deviate from the actions Lee Lim 1.0 did. Instead, he relived them.
For all intents and purposes, Lee Lim 2.0 was transformed into current Lee Lim.
He was the one who crossed over to Corea,
killed his doppelganger,
killed his doppelganger’s half-brother,
killed JiHun,
convinced JiHun’s mother to come with him,
switched the young ShinJae,
got his minions together,
convinced the mom to seek revenge on the soccer kids,
coerced the pregnant lady to join his side
bribed PM Koo
met Nari, and so on.
Lee Lim 2.0 was guilty of the crimes we saw Lee Lim 1.0 do because they were both one and the same.
But it’s Lee Lim 2.0 who met up with SinJae and commanded him to kill Lee Gon and bring Lee Gon’s whip.
Lee Lim 2.0 was the man who had his palm read by Nari. He knew that he beheaded himself.
LL: What is it? Are my palm lines strange?
Nari: It’s interesting. This scar connected with your fate line, and became your new fate.
LL: What kind of fate?
Nari: Well, since this is just for fun, I’ll tell you. Your fate is to commit treason if it were the old times.
LL: Will it succeed?
Nari: That’s the problem. Your fated is to be beheaded. I mean if it were the old times.
LL: That fate has already passed. I took part in the beheading myself. Although it was foolish of me to do so. I should’ve trusted myself and killed the crown prince first.
This Lee Lim 2.0 was also the man SinJae had in custody,
and the man TaeEul brought to NMLand while Lee Gon traveled back in time to 1994 again and met a new Lee Lim.
But this was Lee Lim 3.0 from Episode 16.
When Lee Gon time-traveled to 1994, he encountered the third Lee Lim or LL 3.0.
TaeEul had Lim 2.0 inside the NMLand with her, so —
Lee Lim 2.0 wasn’t able to warn his young self to kill young Lee Gon.
However, this Lee Lim 3.0 was just ruthless. Unlike Lee Lim 1.0 who wanted to kill his nephew with his own hands, he gave the order to shoot young Lee Gon.
It is NOT really hard to understand that, like Lee Gon was repeating history (or his story), Lee Lim, too, was repeating his same actions with a little bit of variation.
For instance, he was fated to encounter his nephew, and he did. In Episode 1, he almost killed the child. In Episode 16, he was distracted by the crash of the ceiling so young Lee Gon escaped.
He was also fated to have his hand sliced…to be branded for stealing the sword flute. In Episode 1, he was cut by the sword wielded by young Lee Gon. In Episode 16, he was cut by the shard of glass.
Lastly, he was fated to steal the flute, and he did. In Episode 1, he stole half the flute. In Episode 16, he stole the whole flute.
History was repeating itself. But because he was an evil man to the core, he made the same mistake over and over again. Although he might have been given an alternate reality or a different path by Fate, he always chose the dark side. Thus, in the end, he met his punishment.
Lee Gon, on the other hand, changed his fate. In Episode 1, he was all alone.
In Episode 16, young Lee Gon had the Four Tiger Sword here,
but the adult Lee Gon had his Four Tiger Sword here by the gate, and he was no longer alone. He had people whom he trusted to help him.
Do you see that?
🙂
************
If you want a more detailed analyses of the time travels/frozen times in this kdrama, please refer to these previous posts:
One is made by @Welmaris.
The King: Welmaris’ Frozen Time Recap
And the other one is by @JT7.
The King: JT7’s Timeline, Final Notes
I like how we were all brainstorming here for this kdrama. We weren’t passive viewers. The kdrama required us to interact with others and to energize our brains. We needed that so we didn’t mentally atrophy during those long weeks of coronavirus isolation.
Also, both Welmaris and JT7 arrived at the same ANSWER but their SOLUTIONS were entirely different from each other and independent of each other.
KES on Fate
Thanks @pkml3. I like what you say about how we came to the same answers through different solutions. That is also KES’ concept of Fate, … the answers will be the same (fated) but in different iterations and cycles of life, there can be different ways to get there. People will introduce changes, but ultimately what is fated to be, still takes place.
However when Fate took a hand to introduce a new factor into the equation, (Tae Eul) to restore the balance, the answer got changed significantly. Even Fate was perhaps taken by surprise. LG ended up with TE instead of the ROK Shin Jae. That’s why Fate was asking himself if he should allow the red thread to remain. It had taken a life of its own (he said it had sprouted instead of breaking, as expected).
Therefore, LG and TE had circumvented ‘pure fate’ and taken the path of destiny. They’d made their decisions, taking the steps that would create their destiny, which deviated from what Fate had pre-determined in one way, but which still met Fate’s aim to restore balance.
So KES’ worldview still sets Fate as the main pre-determiner, but gives room for individuals to walk their own path, as long as they do not stray too far away from the pre-determined course.
Fate is also seen as one who is prepared to intervene for the ultimate aim of keeping or restoring balance in the world(s). Persons are pretty much left to their own devices and that’s fine as long as they do not push against Fate as much as LL did, but when Fate found that there were “too many enemies”, he stepped in to push back. He chose not to restore balance directly except at those 2 points in TE’s life. He bumped her so that she lost her ID and he gave her the chance to escape the kidnappers.
Interestingly, Fate only directly stepped in once with LG ie that supernatural video of the future. He watched LG from a distance as in at the funeral, but he played a role in Shin Jae’s life with regards to TE.
I find it interesting that Fate (as a person) hardly intervened in the King’s life. He is shown to play a role in the lives of others much more. He even chatted with LL, although that did nothing to change LL’s mind or fate. But Fate did not talk to LG directly. LG may have gotten other supernatural help from Fate (as in maybe the fiery scars were Fate’s signs to LG), but it’s obscure to us. Fate has chosen to let LG keep his memories (did not cut the string) and to make his own decisions as the King, and as a person in his own private capacity. By allowing LG to choose to travel through the portal indefinitely, Fate lets LG circumvent ageing at the normal rate so that his rule and his love actually become practically eternal.
In the greater scheme of things, as long as the main aim of Fate is answered, individuals can pretty much live the lives that they make for themselves.
I really love your analysis and explanation. I’m not sure if I’ll be watching KSH new drama. But if I do and get confused I will definitely drop by to see your analysis. Thanks very much. TKEM has become an even more awesome drama to rewatch.
I arrived late to this post. But yes, it was very interesting that in his quest for the absolute power conferred by the flute, Lee Lim lost all of his humanity. Meanwhile Lee Gon got better and better outcomes in his quest to protect both worlds and his loved ones.
It is said that at the end of his life, the only human characteristic that Josef Stalin had was his own unhappiness. Even domestic scenes with Lee Lim are painful: he unconsciously wanted to be his brother’s equal by eating with the mirror of the queen, but she hated his guts, broke a vase on his face and tried to run from him. And she was the only person he could remotely consider his equal. He was alone in his self-made Hell.
I don’t know if it is translated to other languages, but Fernando Savater in his “Ethics for Amador” (his then teenage son) states at the beginning of the book that a good life is basically one with lots of meaningful and deep connections with loved ones. Quality of life does not come from power or possesions, but from relationship with other people.
Meanwhile Lee Gon got lots of friends (you have to love Eun-Sup getting the best of him with the password) and his encounters with Tae-Eul got more and more loving with each iteration.
Loved all the characters in this Drama, even Prime Minister Koo that loved to play with other people’s lives until someone more powerful than her played with hers.
Changing topics, how good is the new Drama?. I don’t see as much movement than either “The King: Eternal Monarch” or “Hospital Playlist”, but quality and popularity are very different things and they don’t necessarily overlap.
Hope to be reunited with all of you in another Drama,
FGB4877
My dear @FGB4877, I was going to watch Ep 4 of Psycho but It’s OK (PBIO) and then email you about it. Yes… I’m not sure it’s everyone’s cup of tea but quality-wise, I feel this is a well made show. It has assurance and style and it is saying something about us/society and how we handle mental/developmental/etc disorders in others and in ourselves. In fact I like the comment it injects here and there to remind us that we are not as ‘normal’ as we may like to think we are. LOL.
If you don’t mind some dark and scary bits, a slow pace, a very upfront and blunt FL who’s chasing the ML and watching assorted characters with assorted disorders function or not, then this show could be for you. If you watch, you can email me and let me know what you think. 😀
Dear @Growing Beautifully, you are always dependable!!! 😉 . Probably will check it later, but to be honest it doesn’t spark my interest. Happy to read you!!! =D
No worries @FGB4877. Not every show, no matter how good, will interest me either. Catch ya later! 😄
Thank you @ Growing Beautifully. So interesting to read about Fate and Destiny in this drama in the way you’ve written. I can understand the plot better now. It makes so much sense. Not cutting the yo yo string = allowing them to keep their memories?? Never understood or thought about the significance of yo yo string before.
You’re welcome @CC, however I cannot take the credit for the idea of the yo yo string and that cutting it meant cutting away memories. That came from others and from @pkml3. There’s the red string of fate that links lovers, (an East Asian belief) and it appeared in this show as the string of the yo yo.