Thanks, @Welmaris, for bringing this up. Heaven knows we all love our fantasy romances, but a little dose of reality won’t hurt.

This is a fantasy with deities intervening in people’s lives, so I can’t be a stickler for reality, but I do want to call attention to ChungKi’s fantastical transformation from blind to sighted.

In real life, in the rare cases where unsighted people have had sight restored to them, they have difficulty interpreting what they’re seeing. Some who adapted to living without sight find sight overly distracting and prefer doing work or activities with their eyes closed.

Visual perspective is something they wrestle with, their brains lacking the training to interpret distance based on size. A person who has been blind for a length of time will have degradation of their brain’s visual cortex. Functioning eyes are only a part of vision: the brain must be trained to interpret the visual cues.

Here’s mine. Botany 101.

As romantic as it looks, this scene isn’t possible.

A peach tree blooms in the springtime. Then, the blossoms self-pollinate.

You see, the flower has pollen in the stamens (the male part) which can be transferred onto the pistil (the female part) located in the same the flower. Either the wind or a bee carries the pollen away. Once the pollen lands in the pistil, it moves down to the bottom of the pistil where the ovary of the flower is located.

Inside the ovary is an ovule. (lol. This is kinda like the female reproductive system, right?) The nucleus of the pollen fertilizes the nucleus of the ovule. When the ovule is fertilized, it becomes a seed. The ovary protects the seed by enlarging and a fruit is born.

Thus, the peach blossoms and peaches can’t appear at the same time in the same tree.

Same goes with apple blossoms and apples; pear blossoms and pears, and so on. The blossoms appear in the springtime, but the fruits come three to four months later in the summer or early fall.

As proof, here’s a picture of peaches (and bug) at the orchard I visited a few weeks ago. Not a single blossom in sight.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Now back to @Welmaris. She wrote the following, and I’m adding my comments.

I’m finding the world building in LotRS lacking clarity, leading to confusion. For instance, the green eyes appearing on the man in the room with the painter (CK’s father) of the king’s portrait, then his ability to vanish from the room. We later see Green Eyes display supernatural powers when he comes to collect from CK the painting he’d commissioned. We have no clue who/what he is: is he human possessed by a spirit, like Ram, or a spirit masquerading in human form, like Samshim? What is his role in relation with the other supernatural beings?

We don’t know much about the Green Goblin but it’s early days yet.

On the chart that @nrllee provided, there are still a few more empty spaces. For instance, the pink section (denoting the deities) is still missing one character.

credit: nrllee

I agree with @nrllee that the Goblin possessed Painter2, after ChungKi’s father was done painting. It seemed like the Goblin was about to attack Chungki’s father, too, when it hear commotion outside made by the exorcism. It disappeared in front of a wall tapestry.

credit: nrllee

The true nature of the Goblin — whether it’s good or bad — cannot be determined right now. But judging from the terrorized face of ChungKi’s father, and the way the Goblin cast the Assistant Headmaster aside, it’s safe to say that the Goblin isn’t a friendly one.

We also don’t know its allegiance.  We’ll just have to keep an eye on it till further notice.

I’m also confused why Ram turned into a Water Demon on the winter solstice when Ma Wang took control of his body, instead of Ma Wang making a direct appearance. Perhaps that was because Ma Wang was still trapped inside Ram but became powerful enough to overwhelm Ram’s human nature and body for a time. I’m not clear why the butterfly mark on the nape of Ram’s neck disappeared, then came back. It seemed to be instigated by Ram’s contact with CK, Ma Wang recognizing his eyes in CK. But why doesn’t that reaction happen other times Ram and CK are in each other’s presence and have physical contact? Are they protected by the butterfly on Ram’s neck all days except winter solstice?

I have four comments here.

1. I think you answered your own questions, @Welmaris. I’m learning from you.

2. Ram didn’t turn into a Water Demon. Mawang had simply taken over his body and used his physical appearance. It was similar to the Green Goblin taking on the form of Painter2.

The palanquin bearers didn’t know how to describe the apparition before them. They thought it looked like Ha Ram. And since Ha Ram was known to the people as the “Water Demon,” they assumed that the Water Demon emerged from the palanquin. Also, one of them thought that the apparition looked like a tiger. This was probably because the tiger is the most feared creature in the forest.

But there is no Water Demon/Water God inside of Ha Ram. People attributed the mysterious phenomenon during that fateful water ritual to a water god/demon. They saw the young Ram falling into the water, being lifted up in space, losing his eyesight and acquiring red eyes. Depending on the way they viewed this supernatural event, they considered him either as a demon or god of the water.

3. Nineteen years ago, the King didn’t know where Mawang went off to. He saw the painting was burned but didn’t register with him that the Mawang could have flown into the child Ha Ram.

King: Have you found traces of Mawang?
New Shaman: He has hidden himself, Your Majesty.
King: Swiftly restore the royal painting and prepare the sealing ritual again.
New Shaman: Yes, Your Majesty. However, we must first find the painter who will restore the portrait. We must find someone who can breathe divine powers into the painting and seal the demonic energy in it as Gan Yun Guk and Hong Eun Oh did in the past.
King: Find one. At all cost.

The only person sharp enough to connect the dots and realize that Mawang had taken over the child’s body was Shaman Misu.

However, I think she only realized it when she spotted the adult Ha Ram at the dye hut in the forest. If she had known earlier, she would have surely tracked Ha Ram down and observed his movements a long time ago.

Shaman: (thinking to herself) That is the son of Ha Seong Jin. That divine child from back then. Mawang entered that child’s body on the day of the Rain Ritual.
Prince2: (moving to confront Ha Ram)
Shaman: Your Highness. We should move after further observation.

Since she was unsure of Ha Ram’s power, she didn’t want to endanger her “protector,” Prince2.

4. MaWang said that Ha Ram made one mistake and that was to leave the protection of the palace during the winter solstice.

Note: The winter solstice marks the first day of winter. It’s the shortest day of the year (i.e., fewest hours of sunlight), and correspondingly, the longest night of the year. Dark spirits are said to go haunting on winter solstice. In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice 2021 will occur on December 21. In the southern hemisphere (hellllooo, @nrllee and @agdr03), winter solstice took place last June 21.

I’m assuming that the butterfly (or Nabi) tattoo is meant to protect Ram. It’s similar to the yellow talisman placed on doors to seal in/ward off evil spirits.

However, because it was winter solstice, and Ram was outside the palace, his protection was weaker than normal. When Ram brushed up against ChungKi, and ChungKi touched his face, MaWang was awakened. Most likely, it sensed the proximity of his missing eyes…just as you said, @Welmaris.

The butterfly activated in order to protect Ram. There was a struggle inside the palanquin because Mawang was fighting the butterfly’s protective spell. When the butterfly mark disintegrated, Mawang was able to break free from the spell.

In Episode 3, Samshin replaced the butterfly stamp on Ram’s nape while Mawang was tied to the tree/ The butterfly stamp effectively sealed Mawang inside Ram’s body again, and Mawang was put to sleep (or it conked out).

In Episode 4, Ram accidentally touched ChungKi to stop her from falling, and the butterfly activated once more. This meant that the dormant or unconscious Mawang was awakened for a moment. But the butterfly spell was able to contain it.

To me, then, the appearance of the butterfly mark is a signal that Mawang was waking up.

Also, it isn’t contact with ChungKi per se that sets off the butterfly. It’s Mawang’s awakening. Whenever Mawang is energized, the butterfly is activated. But THE one thing that triggers Mawang is his close contact with ChungKi. Either it senses its missing eyes — or something is so special about ChungKi herself that it can’t help seeking her.

Remember now, when the young Prince released from the painting, it was already looking for something…or somebody. 

Mawang asked, “Is it you who woke me up?” It went through Prince2 and came out again. It asked, “Where are you?”

Thus, if we follow the logic here, Mawang is actually searching for ChungKi. Ha Ram was only the “decoy” — or the sacrificial lamb, as I said earlier — to get Mawang distracted from ChungKi. 🙂

The Mountain God seemed a match for the Ma Wang powered Water Demon, but would the Mountain God be at a disadvantage in a direct confrontation with Ma Wang? The Mountain God said her area of influence included the palace, so why didn’t she confront the Ma Wang controlled king all the years he caused deaths in the palace and beyond?

I don’t know why the Tiger/Mountain God didn’t catch Mawang before. Perhaps it was reluctant to get involved in the affairs of men?

Samshin: She is the child of destiny. We must protect those two until then.
Tiger: However, my powers only reach this mountain and the palace. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to do it.
Samshin: To protect the humans is to protect the mountains.

The fact that Samshin had to make this distinction implied that the Mountain God’s primary concern was the land, not the people living on the land. It’s possible that the Mountain God wanted to protect only nature and the environment and didn’t want to choose side in battles between men.

As for the palace intrigue and battle for succession, I see plot holes there. First, the two kings choosing to abdicate seems to be an admission by them that they do not reign by divine appointment. If they thought themselves the embodiment of the nation, the royal we, they could not so easily separate themselves from the role of monarch.

I think the writer attempted to show the kings as having good intentions for the country. They were willing to step down the good of their people. They didn’t the follow the “divine right of kings.”

As I said in my First Impressions, “the old king Yeongjong had used Mawang to conquer lands and consolidate power. But when Mawang’s destructive force became too strong even for him to control, he ceded the throne to his successor Seongjo, and ordered the exorcism. In his mind, the only way to put an end to the bloody war with Mawang was to summon Mawang out of his body and to seal the demon in a painting of himself.”

Here are King1’s own words from Episode 2,

King1: Mawang’s whisperings hav made me shed too much blood. The throne has become secure, but the consequences have haunted me endlessly. I shall take all my wrongdoings with me to the grave. You must keep Mawang sealed, and focus on avoiding his rage.

In short, the King1 abdicated because he wanted to stop the bloody war, and give the current King a fresh start. Too bad, Mawang cursed the land at the last moment.

As for King2, he told Ha Ram why he wanted to abdicate. He believed that he wasn’t favored by the deities because he wasn’t the firstborn son. The natural calamities that struck his county was his fault because he usurped the throne that wasn’t rightfully his.

Ram: Your Majesty, I put my life on the line to say a word. We cannot disregard the possibility of the Grand Prince Juhyang, with his great spirit, or the Grand Prince Yangmyeong who’s highly respected by the court, ascending the throne. Abdicating the throne hastily to the ill Crown Prince in the midst of such a state of affairs—
King2: You must know that neither my father nor I were the rightful eldest. Thus, every time there was drought and famine, the people would criticize me, saying that the heavens do not approve of me.
Ram: Your Majesty, how could you say such things?
King2: You do not understand the animosity of the people when the rightful eldest doesn’t rise to the throne. The Crown Prince must rise to the throne as soon as possible and have his legitimacy acknowledged. No matter what happens after that.

If he had been the firstborn son, then he would have the right to succession.

The Crown Prince was seen on the day of the water ritual, speaking to his two younger brothers. Princes 3 & 2 left the ritual to sneak into the royal portrait hall. When Prince 2 burned the king’s portrait and released Ma Wang, he had a talisman on his person, which means Ma Wang went through him instead of possessing him. The unhealing wounds on Prince 2’s abdomen are from Ma Wang passing in and out of him on that day.

Yes, the young Crown Prince was shown on the day of the water ritual, but we haven’t seen the adult Crown Prince yet. Maybe in the next episodes, he’ll show up…unless Prince2 kills him off first.

There is mention of the Crown Prince having brittle health: it may be because he is actually ill, or because he hasn’t recovered from the assassination attempt orchestrated by Prince 2. Remember, since Prince 2 obeyed Ma Wang’s voice and released him, Prince 2 has believed he’s the rightful king even though the talisman kept Ma Wang from possessing him. With Prince 2 having that mindset, the current king and all others in the line of succession are in danger.

Prince2 is setting himself up for failure.

1. He believes that the throne should be his. But according to King2, there’s animosity from the citizenry when the rightful heir doesn’t ascend to the throne. This means if Prince2 commits treason to grab power from his older brother, the Crown Prince, he’ll have a price to pay.

2. He’s full of rage that Mawang bypassed him. He believes that he can bend Mawang to do his bidding. But King1 warned King2 to avoid Mawang’s rage. He knew Mawang was much stronger than them. Hence, the exorcism.

3. He has sycophants around him. Except for Il WonSeong, he doesn’t look up to anybody so there’s no one to guide him.

Thanks, @Welmaris, for providing me food for thought. 🙂