I’ll catch up soon. This show’s Friday-Saturday schedule is throwing me off. 

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I wrote about the differences between villains and antagonists when I watched the cdrama, “Legend of the Female General.”  It would be good to revisit them because I think a lot of viewers have discounted Prime Minister Min. 

A villain is the bad guy (or gal) in the plot. He’s the character with a) malicious intentions, b) evil methods, and c) wicked actions. No matter how destructive his goal and deeds may be, he can justify them. Now some villains may remain hidden until the end, but unquestionably, their role in the story is to disrupt the hero’s world. 

By definition, the Queen Mother and Lord InPyeong belong in the villain section. The way I see it, this father-and-daughter duo doesn’t have a super-duper complex motivation (This is Disney production, after all.) Theirs is the standard ambition and greed for power. 

In contrast to the villains, an antagonist opposes the hero BUT his a) intentions, b) methods, and/or c) actions may NOT be essentially toxic. An antagonist can merely be misinformed, misguided and mistaken, making it easy for viewers to sympathize with him. His morals and ethics fall on the ambiguous, gray zone. His motive and actions can be justifiable in some situations, but not in others. 

Prime Minister Min fits into this antagonist category. 

As we saw in the previous episode, he could be a formidable villain if he chose to be one. Let’s me go over that chess scene briefly to refresh our memories. 

YA: Won’t you stop me? 
PMM: What? 
YA: My marriage. I thought you’d try at least once. 

Lol. YA is so oblivious, isn’t it? Didn’t he notice PMM’s attempt to stop his marriage? In fact, PMM did it twice.  

First was at the cabinet meeting after the kiss-over-the-palace-wall scandal. True, he supported YA, advising him to confirm the dating relationship. But he also demanded YA to “state firmly that there is no prospect of marriage.” Second was at the baseball game. Because he couldn’t make YA change his mind about marriage, he went for HuiJoo’s weak spot: her tummy. He fed her snacks at the game and raw seafood afterwards. He also pointedly told her not to marry YA because there were too many food restrictions.

YA must not have noticed PMM’s backhanded tactics. PMM is definitely not his wingman.  

Anyway, back to that chess game. 

PMM: (grinning) I am not you. (focusing on chess) You may be able to decide something simply based on whether you find something agreeable or not. But if I do that… (making the decisive move) the country would collapse. Checkmate. 
YA: (sighing) I’d rather you yelled at me. 

This brief chess match revealed four things to me about PMM. 

One, he controlled the center from the sidelines. 
Two, he used multiple pieces to coordinate an attack on YA’s king (e.g., his rook and queen together). 
Three, he didn’t hesitate to capitalize on YA’s blunder. 
Four, he strategized three moves ahead. 

If he were to apply these skill sets to politics and love, then yeahhhh, he would be a formidable villain. But right now, he’s only in the antagonist category. He exists primarily to challenge and hone Yi Ahn to become a better hero. He’s there for Yi Ahn’s character development. 

Sidenote: The actor playing PM Min, Noh SangHyun (aka Steve Noh) is a skilled Korean chess player. In one variety show, he was filmed playing janggi with random ahjussis in a park to test his playing level. He isn’t just a pretty face. 

In this Episode 5, he shows two other interesting facets about his character. 

First, he mulls over his marriage rejection and replays HJ’s words in his head. 

PMM: Then do it with me. Just marry me instead. (staring at her)
HJ: Why would I marry you? 
PMM: (looking away) Why not? It’s not like you have feelings for either one of us. 
HJ: You have a five-year term. It doesn’t matter if I mess up and divorce him. He’ll be a royal for life. He’ll be a royal for life. But you’re different. You should serve another term. Pull yourself together. 

She said, “Jeong-sin cha-ryeo,” or “get a grip.” She thinks he’s just overreacting and behaving totally unlike himself. Little does she know that this is the closest he can get to declaring his feelings for her. 

But he knows that she made a valid point. She’s in fact reiterating what he previously told the Grand Prince: that he was someone who can’t act based on his emotions. If he were to simply follow his feelings, his actions could lead to serious consequences for the nation. 

And I like the image of him here. 

He stands by the guardrails, looking over the city at night. (He reminds me of Batman, that Dark Knight, keeping watch over Gotham City.) But at the same time, those iron guardrails around him are symbolic of his government position that cage him in. As Prime Minister, he can’t let go of his emotions. He can’t go down from his perch to join the people in the city. The guardrails enclose him. Both the city lights and the alpenglow from mountains are indeed beautiful to look at, but he must stand near the beacon of power. He knows his place. 

Second, in the epilogue, it’s revealed that PMM knew back in high school that Yi Ahn liked HuiJu. But that isn’t a shocker to me. If the young PMM had been good friends with HuiJu since school days (and already nursing a secret crush on her), then he was bound to notice all the other guys interested in her, too. 

For me, the shocker here is that he was able to hit the bullseye in one shot. 

This leads me to wonder:

a. if he was pretending all along not to be good at archery to get HJ’s attention on him OR
b. if even way back then he was hinting at Yi Ahn that he was a formidable villain if he set his mind to it. 

Yi Ahn is just royalty by birth. In contrast, JeongWoo Min became Prime Minister because of determination, hard work, personal sacrifice, and political savviness. Of the two men, I think PMM matches HuiJu’s drive-to-succeed better than Yi Ahn.

But as this is Disney, we must believe that marrying Prince Charming is the end-all of this Korean fairy tale. (Hmmm…the gender roles are reversed, however. It’s HuiJu who has to save the “sleeping” and “captive” Prince Charming.) 

I just hope this doesn’t signal the start of PMM’s villain story. Lol. 

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Other notes:

1. Yi Ahn’s memory of his mother’s car accident doesn’t align with news report

YA witnessed the death of his mother. He saw his mother’s vehicle rammed by a white truck of doom when her vehicle was making a u-turn.

However, according to the news report that HuiJu read (Episode 4), the Queen died due to a “vehicular rollover accident.”

A rollover is vastly different from a collision. 

2. The off-again, off-again relationship

The important thing to remember is YA has yet to open up to HuiJu about his real life. For instance, she’s unaware of these things:  

a. the abuse/neglect he suffered from his father

At that restaurant with PMM, HuiJu asked him what other rules/limitations she needed to know beforoe marrying him. Instantly, there was a flashback of YA’s father slapping the young child for wearing his brother’s robe. This scene was just played in his mind.

He hasn’t shared the incident with HuiJu. 

b. the truck-of-doom killing his mother

That horrible scene was also just replayed his head. He didn’t tell HuiJu. If he did, she would have understood why he wanted to break up. 

One major problem of this couple is lack of communication. I know this is a common trope in romcoms to create conflict so I’m cutting this drama slack. For now. 

c. the real reason he wore a cheollik on the King’s birthday bash

Given that he follows protocol all his life, there must have been a good reason he chose to antagonize the Queen Mother on that very night. 

3. The Inner Court Banquet

After YA kicked her out of his residence and ghosted her, her marketing manager discussed with her the possibility of hiring one of the young female business leaders invited to the Inner Court Banquet to be the face of their Castle Beauty company. The poor manager! He obviously didn’t read the room. Huiju was miffed because, based on accomplishments alone, she should have been on top of that ultra-selective guest list. But the guests could only be nobility.  

PMM: Another gathering of the usual suspects this year. All nobility. 
Secretary: The competition is fiercer every year. 
PMM: It does offer many benefits. 
Secretary: That is true. But if they managed to secure an invite, they must already possess plenty of money and land. 
PMM: That’s precisely why they’re willing to die for royal prestige. It’s the only thing their money can’t buy. 

Lol. Did I tell you I’m sensitive to any mention of death? 

His comment, however, stresses the lack of social mobility in this fairy tale world. In the previous scene, the Queen Mother is shown revelling in her role as the gatekeeper of the monarchy. (Remember what she told YA about “true power”?) She truly relishes her power to accept/reject people into “her” royal stratosphere unless she deems them worthy. Instead of working to create a monarchy for all people, she maintains a clique for her sort of people. And the funny thing is, she just married into the royal family. 

And because of this super exclusivity of this inner circle, people like Huiju are resorting to unconventional ways to gain entry (e.g., lying, risking death, killing, etc.). 

4. Her white pantsuit = Yi Ahn’s cheollik

YA’s bodyguard Choi Hyeon (CH) interrupted HuiJu’s meeting to bring her personal invitation to the Inner Court Banquet. (See that? Her manager’s marketing proposal became moot because she was going as the face of Castle Beauty.)  He also delivered a traditional costume to wear to the reception before the dinner. 

CH: The dress codes for the two events are different. It’s customary to wear a dangui for the reception. The Queen Mother will wear white, so it’s best to avoid that color.  

In short, she was to follow protocol strictly. 

She was studying the briefing materials given by CH for the banquet when the Grand Prince called. He wanted to meet her before the big day. 

HJ: What’s this all about? 
YA: (looking all around before removing his mask) Why not? This will be the last time. 
HJ: Where did you ever find the nerve to wear that cheollik? Was that just a stylistic choice? 

Remember my theory from Episode 1?  

Hence, to me, he didn’t wear the cheollik just on a whim. I think he did it to taunt his would-be assassins that he survived their shenanigans. 

Queen Mother Yun: What matter of attire is this? 
YA: His Majesty bestowed this silk upon me some time ago. Is it not to your liking? 
Young King: It looks so good on you!
Queen Mother Yun: (interrupting) You must observe decorum. Hunting season has passed. 
YA: Do you think hunting is limited to a season? 

Touche! He means that there’s always a target on his back as he’s the Regent.

The cheollik was an act of defiance. 

And so was HuiJu’s choice to forego the dangui. Before dressing up for the reception, she studied the dress and recalled her conversation with YA the night before. 

YA: “Leading the way.” How do you do it? I just never learned. I was always the one following behind. 
HJ: You just need to walk by my side. I’ll teach you. 

In my suspicion is correct that something life-threatening happened to YA at his hunt and it made him choose to wear the cheollik instead of the hanbok to the King’s birthday bash, then HuiJu’s action mirrors his YA’s. Her life was also imperiled by the car sabotage, but she survived. Her white pantsuit is meant to defy palace protocol and challenge the Queen Mother’s queen-bee-ism. She was letting the Queen Mother know that she was a force to be reckoned with. 

HuiJu is the formidable heroine to combat the Queen Mother’s formidable villainess.