The thread is open.
Ugh! I’m behind. I haven’t finished watching Ep 4 and Ep 5 is already out. I’ll open this thread so you can all go ahead. (I sense our @GB chomping at the bit here. Lol.)
Let’s enjoy the show.
The thread is open.
Ugh! I’m behind. I haven’t finished watching Ep 4 and Ep 5 is already out. I’ll open this thread so you can all go ahead. (I sense our @GB chomping at the bit here. Lol.)
Let’s enjoy the show.
@pkml3, you have read my mind!!! I was going to ask for an Open Thread, knowing that it’s not easy to keep up with analysing the latest eps with the airing of 2 episodes at a time. 💐 Thanks a whole heap!!! 💐
SPOILERS UP TO EPISODE 4
The re-occurrence of a word or motif in dramas will always set me wondering if there’s a great deal of significance or just a little.
I started noticing that the motif of a Hunt might be more important when in Episode 4, the Queen Mother (QM) says to herself that ‘Hunting inherently requires patience above all.’ (This was after s YA thwarted her plans to pair him up with a noble family’s daughter). So she thinks she’s on a hunt and that her prey is YA and perhaps by extension, HJ.
Repeatedly we get flashbacks of YA and HJ in cheollik practising for or participating in the archery competition…. the sport that is meant mainly for hunting animals.
The series started with such obvious images of an indirect hunt … but we do not see any animals being chased. I gather that the actual hunt is not in the great outdoors but within the palace walls and/or economic-political circles.
Those graphic images of Episode 1 also hinted strongly that the hunt meant death and bloodshed. On YA’s table were blood-stained clothes, a rifle, a revolver?, bullets, gloves, dagger and sheath. YA went about wearing the dress of the hunter, the cheollik, in the palace and to the banquet.
The QM upbraids him for showing up as if dressed for the hunt, when hunting season had passed, but YA retorted: “Do you think hunting is limited to a season?” So it’s interesting that out of season, YA had been dressed in cheollik and had refused to put on the correct attire even after his shower.
So does YA consider himself the hunter, or the hunted? @pkml3 noted that YA is extremely sensitive about any form of attack even if it was eggs thrown by school girls. We still wonder whose blood stained the clothes and whose the blood that was washed onto the bathroom floor.
@GB, the question of the blood stained clothes is the hook that keeps me going. And they are so smart to keep dropping the hints but not the actual thing.
The fact that whoever the killer is, is not afraid of murdering such a high status person. You have the attempts at YA (ep. 1) and HY (car malfunction attempt), and then the suspect who got killed.
Queen mother is the biggest suspect, or the grandpa? That Lord I guy.
I feel like YA has the potential to be the hunter but he has been trained..or groomed(?) to be the hunted. Or in not so serious way, to be the one to lay low and not stand out.
This is really an issue of lineage and not meritocracy. After all, there is no democracy in royalty. If you are lucky the crown price is able to bear the responsibility of leadership and power, but now, nope.. Ex-crown prince and current crown prince do not suit the role.
SPOILERS UP TO EP 4 OR 5
Danger
@grace, IKR? I’m also wondering why the ‘bloody hunt’ images were so in-our-faces at the start. Hence I’m considering if what our feisty HJ does in fighting back against protocol, rigid expectations and injustice is the action of a prey who won’t be caught, or of a hunter who’s out to snatch the crown. She’s definitely out to gain and keep her whole kingdom of the Castle Group.
In the same way, although more quietly, is what YA does by ignoring decorum in wearing cheollik for a big, public event, and then taking a vacation unexpectedly for a few days, the acts of defiance of one caught in a trap? He is quietly investigating the fire in the palace but we almost forget about it because it’s so low key.
She and YA are expected to be ‘good pets’ ie creatures who have been tamed through their upbringing, to toe the line. When they decide to go rogue, they become threats to the established order, and could become expendable.
You are right that there seem to be at least 2 attempts to harm them, and an actual death of a ‘henchman’ … plus that mysterious explosion and fire. Taken together with a history of un-natural deaths in the monarchy, the future of the immediate members of the royal family doesn’t look hopeful.
SPOILERS UP TO EP 5
Protection
The palace’s way to protect is by avoidance of risk: to prevent the protected one from doing anything that could endanger them. YA says he cannot run or ride a bicycle, (but ironically he is allowed to drive) as he could hurt himself. He cannot eat raw food or street food in case of food poisoning. In the same way, YA sought to protect HJ by casting her off from himself, because he thought there was a target on his back and that she would become prey along with him. All safe but sad and sorry. Or not even safe, although definitely sad.
HJ’s form of protection is not to be docile prey but to take action to defy anyone who stood in her way. Her defence is to attack. Now that her car, and hence herself has been targeted, she’s on the hunt to catch the killer, even rallying her dumb brother and his ambitious wife to help her. It’s heartening to know that they, at least, are not out to kill her. Her father, also, proactively wants to put a person into the palace to be on her side. (Is our Secretary Do then, working for both HJ and her dad?)
The teaming up of YA and HJ is what is needed to navigate the minefield of the palace. HJ brings YA her business acumen, and her aggressive, uncompromising attitude, and shows him how to protect himself and have a blast at the same time. No being sad or sorry for HJ!!!
Binged the first 6 episodes this weekend.
-I like the actress playing the queen mother-she does a good job shooting laser beams from her eyeballs.
-I like the relationship with her brother and sister in law. There’s no real hatred. He’s dumb and harmless (hopefully) and they seem to have married for love despite her family threatening to disown here.
– the prime minister really doesn’t make running the South Korean government seem time consuming
I find the ML very handsome but when he proposed I got the ick. I much prefer a kneel to have a 90° angle at the knee and he basically squatted like a frog (maybe that’s the princely way to do it and why a prince turns into a frog in the stories)
Hi @pkml3, @Birdie007, @grace
At Episode 9, it’s good to see that the stakes are high and the tension is great.
Will our OTP decide to work together to weather the storm or will they try to save each other separately?
I like that there are tough choices made all around, that outcomes are complex and yet understandable and that characters develop.
We look set for tough times until the final denouement that needs to be as grand as the stakes are high.