This commentary is part of a long thread I plan to write on the Love Triangle. I’ll have to post in segments because I want to watch other dramas, too.
Now, this is MY interpretation of the events. If you don’t like it, that’s your problem, NOT mine. Just move along.
I’m using the Viki subs because this scene isn’t complicated.
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Over at his place, Ha Ram explained why he couldn’t meet her that day nearly twenty years ago.
CK: What is it? What made you look for me in this rain?
Ram: Nineteen years ago, on the day we made our promise, I lost my sight on that day. It was the price of bringing rain to this nation after a prolonged drought. I could not go meet you with such eyes. Even if I had met you, what could I have done? After that day, I have only walked one path. I lost both my father and mother. I have turned my back against the world ever since. I lived like that until I met you who remember me from the past.
Let’s stop here and talk about this rain, shall we? In my opinion, Ha Ram has ambivalent feelings for the rain.
Why?
One, he’s considered a water god. He can summon the rain.
Before the water ritual, he was considered a water diviner. He had a preternatural ability to locate a water source from the underground.
It’s noteworthy that, after the water ritual, he became an astrologist, or a star diviner. Talk about polar opposites! Water’s underground, but stars are in the skies.
He had again a supernatural ability. But this time, he could read the stars, and based on their movements, predict the future.
It’s also interesting that the first star system that he taught Cheongki was the “Big Dipper.” It got its name because it looked like a ladle to scoop water with.
Two, he must hate the rain because the rain changed his life. I’m sure that every time it rained, he’d be reminded of his sacrifice for the nation. Not only did he lose his eyesight, he also lost his parents because of the royal command.
Three, if he still could remember the greetings of the king on the day of the water ritual, the he’d know who to blame for his misery: the King. He said so himself.
King: You must be Ha Ram. I lack virtue and must depend on a young boy like you. I am hugely indebted to your family.
Ram: Please do not mention it, Your Majesty.
Four, so what good is his gift to divine water, when it cost him a lot, too?
Let’s move on….
Ram: (continuing) I miss you. I missed you so much. But I cannot have you by my side. If I stay by your side, I’ll keep wanting to be the old Ha Ram. Because I keep yearning for the old me who promised to go pick peaches with you. And now, I cannot live like that anymore. So I ask you to continue living as if you do not know me. I beg you.
There! He was telling her the real reason why he pretended not to know her.
Remember I said earlier that CK sounded like she was guilt-tripping him? Well…it worked. 🙂
He would have to be insensitive not to sense her reproach and disappointment when she told him that, if ever he had a tough day, he shouldn’t forget that she trusted and waited for him for nineteen years.
To me, CheongKi looked more pitiful than him because she’d been hoping to meet him again when, all along, her hope was in vain. She’d placed her trust in him, not knowing that he’d already decided never to see her again.
Hearing her admit that she waited for nineteen years must have so distressed that he chased after her. He couldn’t let her leave, thinking that he didn’t care or didn’t miss her through these years as well.
That’s what this confession is all about. He wanted to let her know that:
a. she didn’t wait for him in vain
b. he missed her very much (yes, this is important for her to know)
c. he wasn’t the same boy that she knew; he was a broken man
d. he must distance himself from her, and
e. noble idiocy was strong with him.
lol.
CK: There are moments when I also feel fearful and afraid of living, and every time, I remember what you said to me that day. “Don’t blame yourself.” I may not know much, but it’s not your fault. Your blindness, your father’s death and everything that happened to your family. They all could not be helped, Ha Ram.
Ram: (silent)
I think she just proved Ha Ram’s hunch that she wouldn’t be able to understand that the old Ha Ram was already gone.
If the old Ha Ram still existed, he’d forgive and show mercy. The old Ha Ram wouldn’t seek revenge.
He was now the “new” Ha Ram. He would exact revenge on the people responsible for his blindness, parents’ death, and everything that happened to him. Of course, he didn’t blame himself. He knew exactly who to blame.
If CheongKi were to learn the full story about his vengeance, she’d realize that the old Ha Ram was truly dead.
Ha Ram wanted to preserve her image of him (i.e., the boy who promised to pick peaches with her) so he’s keeping his dark side secret from her.
CK: (continuing) Every once in a while, just like you did today, tell me how you truly feel. That is all I ask.
Ram: (silent)
Of course, he had to remain silent. He probably didn’t know where to start if she wanted to learn the truth.
CK: I shall be going now.
Then, she walked out on him again. Without an umbrella. Again. Like, girl! Do you have a death wish…errr…do you want to catch a cold or something?
I told you about the “pathetic fallacy.” The weather is supposed to match the character’s mood. Well…last time, she walked in the rain after meeting with Ha Ram, she felt sad. This time, she walked in the rain — because the rain was “hers.”
She and Ha Ram had switched places. She did not fear the rain. At the painting contest, she told everyone how rain was integral to her consciousness.
CK: One year, when I opened my eyes, it was the day it rained for the first time in a long time in this land.
For somebody born blind, the rain would be a miraculous sight. And now that she knew that it was Ha Ram who conjured the rain, she truly had nothing to worry about the rain.
Umbrellas? Who needs them? lol.
Ram: (thinking) Wait for me. Until the day when I can go to you.
This statement either displayed his naivety or duplicity.
If he thought he could achieve his mission to destroy the monarchy then simply return to CheongKi as that goody-two-shoes, peach picker, then he was in for a big disappointment.
Il Won Seong and Ha Ram were one and the same person. If he succeeded in killing everybody in his revenge plot as Il Won Seong, then he wouldn’t be able to go back to her as Ha Ram.
That’s the danger of having Mawang living inside of him. Since Mawang was bloodthirsty, Ha Ram was also becoming bloodthirsty. He would have a difficult time to know when to stop the bloodshed. Just like the former king realized, the only way to get Mawang out his body is to realize that exorcise it and bind it in a divine painting.
I do think that CK is not supposed to draw the late King’s potrait because Mawang is no longer inside him and he’s already dead for sure. Instead, I think she has to draw HaRam’s potrait which is a clue that was revealed in the previous episode, where CK said that he would want to draw a potrait of him when she meet him again. And I also curious about what’ll happen next week because CK and Prince of YangMyeong watch HaRam turning into Mawang. I think the Tiger God will help him again this time. So excited for next episode 😍
Kalimera !
@Packmule3 I agree with all your points here.
@sy_faa Regarding your hypothesis about HaRam’s portrait.
Cheon Gi as a royal painter has a job. She will paint that Royal Portrait because that was The King’s orders.
As for the painting that would capture MaWang we don’t know what is going to be like.
We know for sure that in episode 3 Samshin told the Mountain Spirit the following:
Here is the transcription of the Scene (Viki Subs)
Samshin: We must expel Ma Wang from that man’s body and seal him in an eternal bowl.
MS: An eternal bowl?
Samshin: That child will make it.
MS: Do you truly believe that a defenseless girl can make the bowl that will seal MaWang?
MS: When the time comes, she will make it. She is the child of destiny. We must protect those two until then.
So, we don’t know what the eternal bowl will really look like. It might be something entirely else and not HaRam’s portrait, mostly because HR didn’t invite MaWang inside him to possess him, but rather Samshin sealed MaWang in HaRam’s body.
I like @sy_faa’s idea of CK making a portrait of Ha Ram…but wouldn’t that spell death for Ha Ram? These are portraits of the DEAD to remember them when they’re gone.
Oh well… I’d rather that Mawang is sealed off permanently and if it’s contained in another royal painting and displayed in the royal kings’ hall then another wannabe-prince can just release it again, like Prince2 did.
Hey @Packmule3!
I found interesting @sy-faa’s idea as well that’s why I answered above. CG might do that portrait of HaRam because she wanted to have his face, but I don’t think that will be a spell of death for him.
From I have gathered and I wanted to rewatch Episode 3, Samshin already has a plan and also must have informed the Mountain Spirit about it.
I believe that at one point MaWang will be freed from HaRam’s body, as Samshin has pointed out. I don’t think that Samshin will let the 2nd Prince and the Shaman Lady do so, before it is the appropriate time for that eternal bowl.
What exactly will be the eternal bowl?
It might not be a portrait after all. It might be an abstract or a still life.
As for your hypothesis you are right, I believe that the Goddess won’t let the humans interfere with the sealing. Not, in the way that was catastrophic the previous time as you have already commented.
My guess, at this point? They will sealed MaWang in a painting that it won’t depict a face. That’s why, I believe it would be something else entirely.
I think the “bowl” was just a metaphor. Samshin wants a receptacle or a container that will contain Mawang for all time. But “container” and “receptacle” don’t sound as poetic as “bowl” so bowl was used.
I agree. It might not be a physical bowl or an actual portrait. It has to be something that humans can’t touch. The Royal Portrait has to be completed though because they can’t have the king’s portrait hanging like that. It looks desecrated.
But I think Mawang has to be placed where he cannot be reached or tampered with again.
Perhaps a star?
How about turning Mawang into the bull constellation? The taurus. lol.
Good commentary, as usual, @PM3.
i like your Rain analysis… why it was HR who brought it on and why it was ok for Hong girl to walk in the rain twice. i would love to walk in the rain, but it hardly rains here in Cali haha. i do prefer walking under the tropical rain ☔
“Wait for me. until the day when I can go to you” or “until when i come and find you again.” either way, there is waiting to be done by both parties and HR making the move back to Hong girl’s side and Hong girl doing her part to make this happen. i am hopeful that HR will return to the old HR when MaWang departs his body. i pray his vengeful spirit will also dissipate.
@Packmule3,
I agree with you. Humans should not be able to touch it. We got to see how corruptive and seducing is MaWang’s power for the 2nd Prince that he is eager to kill his brothers for the throne…
Taurus? LMAO!