The thread is open.
@GB,
I lost track of time and forgot that “Perfect Crown” was on today. Please start the ball rolling by sharing your thoughts. I’ll jump in later. Thanks!
pm3
Let’s enjoy the show.
The thread is open.
@GB,
I lost track of time and forgot that “Perfect Crown” was on today. Please start the ball rolling by sharing your thoughts. I’ll jump in later. Thanks!
pm3
Let’s enjoy the show.
Thank you my dear @pkml3. I wanted to be able to transcribe those parts where the days before the big reveal took place, however I was not able to. I’ll just a bit of it now and then will have to go out. Perhaps more tonight!!
I did however comment in the PC Open Thread that I liked the mounting conflict and tension and I’m expecting a big pay off txomake it worth our while!!!
Hi BODers! Crawling out of the woodwork to say that I’m also watching the Perfect Crown. I was also in Switzerland recently and passed by Lake Brienz and Iseltwald (where Crash Landing on You was filmed) and thought of everyone – it was that drama that got me into BOD- hope everyone is doing well!
Hi there @swiss_postscripts!! Thanks for thinking of us. I trust you’re enjoying Perfect Crown!
I don’t suppose there were posters out there by the Lake Brienz or Iseltwald to say a Kdrama that went viral was filmed in this location??? Heheheh!
Episode 9
WITH SPOILERS
And so the plot has thickened and YA is the target of 3 persons at least.
Lord IP wants him dead so that 1 threat is removed from QM who could otherwise be accused of killing her husband. Min learns of this but chooses neither to confront IP nor to inform YA. Instead he goes to the QM.
This gives her a chance to save her father and herself. She’s distraught when she confronts her father, but after listening to him, she calms down and is able to snarkily give HJ a warning.
QM gives Min the choice to target YA or HJ. Since Min wants to protect HJ, QM agrees to help him by targeting YA instead. Her aim is to get him to leave his regency. She would not have minded bringing both HJ and YA down, but as she ‘owed’ Min one, she narrowed her aim towards YA mainly.
Min, who at first had no target at all, had already turned his back on the more moral choices when he gave the evidence to QM. This is sealed when he leaves his rosary on his father’s grave, and joins forces with QM in order to get YA divorced from HJ (so that she can be free and he can have her for himself, as if she’d ever agree. What a fool he is).
From the beginning the fiasco of the scholarship ceremony looked fixed. That was the only way that the marriage contract could get leaked so effectively and the reporters get to know so fast, at a time when YA and HJ would be in the public eye, in a place where security was hard to enforce and on a day when the royal guard was thinly dispatched.
I was actually surprised a couple of episodes ago that the marriage contract was just lying on YA’s bedside table and not under lock and key. Any number of servants could have made copies of it to circulate. Any way, we know that Court Lady Im was probably one of those who got her hands on the contract.
Episode 10
Well just as I’d hoped, the stakes kept being raised and so the solution too had to be grander.
I’m wondering now who’s to be trusted.
We’re in for more exciting times… however I feel the preview kind of spoilt the next episodes for us, and I wonder why. Usually we do not get previews in the last few episodes so that we are left with just the cliff hangers.
I kind of feel the palace should have it own fire brigade. 3 explosions with halls burning quite thoroughly within one family’s reign is rather too many times. It looks deliberate each time (but investigations never give any result!!) and there should have been some preventive measures taken by now.
I’m also wondering who much is CGI or if the production team really had to burn buildings more than once or whether they just used the same fire and took different shots of it. It would have cost a lot to burn 2 buildings.
@pm3 yay for this thread that focuses only on Ep 9&10
@GB you’re right about the palace needing its own Fire brigade hahahahahaha. omg that got me
these 2 episodes have so many goodies in it – of course, HJ’s confession and interesting to note that YA knew that HJ liked him too. hmmm.
i also like the love story between our Grand’s aides – soooo cute. i think they’re both in one page now as with our OTP oh gooooody.
good point on the rosary that PM Min dropped at the cemetery. i was wondering what significance it holds ?? from what you said, he did it since he decided to drop YA and leak the marriage contract… PM Min is definitely not the good guy this time because he lured YA in the council hall ugh. HJ already confessed to PM Min that she likes YA so i think he should already know he has no chance with her. I hope that he returns to the good side but with the preview – we have HJ asking if YA trust the PM Min – hmmmm gosh. they need help
I feel sad for the Crown Prince – how he heard all that on the day the King passed – how scary. so sad! so the QM scares me, but what more of Lord Impyeong. ugh.
i like how HJ’s brother came to her rescue
Yes, the preview def helped us not to get too worried that YA is dead. but can you imagine having the QM as the regent? eeeks. ooh and she really liked YA and not the brother. oh boy oh boy. too bad for her coz YA likes HJ even at that time before Yun became QM, in their Highschool days. hmmm
Hi @HK_Lady
Yes, the fun bits (the best for us romantics) are the ones where everyone (except HJ???) is aware of who likes whom.
– The QM knew Min liked HJ (HJ doesn’t know!?!?)
– YA knows it too, that’s why he warned Min by quickly telling Min that he likes HJ.
– Yes, YA even knows that the business-minded HJ likes him. He could see through her efforts to distance herself from him or rather, it was vice-versa to protect him.
– And I like that HJ figured out that YA knew that she liked him LOLOL. What convolutions!
– However I really like that Ms Do is smart and has figured it out… that Choi Hyeon likes her. She always looked stunned whenever he asked her questions about herself, like what her ideal type was and what she liked.
Her reply to his questions now and her confession question is one of the first reverse love confessions I think I’ve ever seen, so matter-of-fact, yet sweet. It seemed so ad hoc but maybe Ms Do had planned it to get away, have beer and view the Hangang River. And the best part: she never even said that she likes him too, but the fact that she’s shown him what she likes and accepts that he likes her, means that she reciprocates. Too cute. Love Choi Hyeon’s expressions over the sudden realisation of what it meant. 🙂
Continued…
@HK_Lady, @pkml3 and Everyone
About redemption for PM Min
Me too… people make very bad decisions, choosing evil over good, but it does not have to be a done deal.
If he’s really been in the habit to walk the straight and narrow, if his prayers and visits to church ever had sincerity, then he will be in his own ‘hell’ because he’s chosen what goes against what he believes is right.
The rosary that he kept touching or holding when he was stressed, I hope was not just a ‘talisman’ to him but a sign that he was prepared to turn to God when decisions were tough. Of course our ‘dear’ QM had to play the part of the serpent to lure him with the stolen Marriage Contract (yes the forbidden fruit) and he had been tempted for long enough that QM only had to give him a gentle nudge and he caved.
Still, I’m wondering if he will turn back again, acting for the greater good and with true integrity to right the wrongs. It might be that to protect HJ once again, he’ll choose to do so, however I’d like for him to have chosen based on a higher good.
Little Crown Prince Yi Yoon
I agree that it was a terrible thing at 5 years of age, to hear what his mother had said to his father, that she preferred him to be dead… and that he had really died immediately after. What trauma! What fear that child carried inside him for 3 years.
He’d been pushed around unable to really do his own will, knowing he was actually powerless, and seeing no way out of it for the long future ahead. His only friend and playmate seems to have been his Uncle YA.
It’s Mothers’ Day… I wonder how Yi Yoon really felt about his mum. Was he mainly afraid of her, … just trying to please her for years?
Continued…
@HK_Lady, @pkml3 and Everyone
Ms Yun Yi Rang, the QM
It seems they’d all been in the same school for the elite. QM, YA, Min and probably the King Yi Hwan. I believe that HJ is younger than them so she’s a year or more younger than YA and Min.
Finally we see that QM as Ms Yun, had wanted to go further pursuing her interest in the piano/music, and that she had liked YA in school (a one-sided crush?) but that her father had insisted she become the Crown Princess.
Having given up all her own goals to fulfil the royal role, it becomes understandable that she had to produce an heir and ensure that her son becomes king and stays that way. After all, what was the aim of making those sacrifices otherwise? She feels driven (by her father and his goals), and she should now get her way after giving up her dreams. Her bad decisions came from this half-resentful, resigned and entitled state of mind. Unfortunately, her husband was not as strong, resilient or determined to suffer in order to put his son on the throne.
If ever there was a motive to kill him, this was it. However, even she, despite her cruel words to him, did not intend that there should have been a fire to engulf the hall and kill him.
Which leaves us with the other possibilities that the King had passed out from whatever ailment he had and been killed by the smoke, or that he had committed suicide.
Yes, let’s see if she really gets to be Regent. Will she be able to relinquish power after having it?
@pkml3 and Everyone
Thoughts on Parents and Children
In these episodes and throughout the series, we’ve been given short scenes of HJ with her father (and brother), and of QM with Lord IP. There was also the previous King Hui Jong who we hear constantly reprimanded his younger son, YA, but we never see King Hui Jong with Yi Hwan. I presume Yi Hwan was just forced to take the Crown Prince position because of the law of primogeniture. His own son became a victim of that law as well.
Show gives us the contrast of Hui Ju being confrontational with her dad and largely independent of him, and of him being fault-finding with her, with the more consultative-looking relationship between Lord IP and QM. IP seemed to do more in support of QM (of course he was also furthering his own goals) than Dad Seong. And yet, it is Dad Seong who though harsh, really had HJ’s interests at heart. He disliked her getting into the palace because it was a place of intrigue and danger.
For all the fatherly visits Lord IP gave QM, he was more likely checking that his daughter was continuing along to enable his interests to be fulfilled. Whenever she messed up, he’d come to advise or fix the situation.
When HJ finally went to her father (and family) for advice and help, she was in tears (of regret that she’d made things bad for YA) and obtained their help to do what she wanted, ie to save YA from losing his honour, while leaving her to bear the brunt of the blame. They worked together to come up with a plan. She left the home resolute.
When Lord IP took matters into his own hands to kill YA, it drove QM distraught, and to question him. She could not believe that he would stoop to murder. But while she appeared strong to others, with her father she was manipulated. He came up with an evil solution and she left him looking a bit gleeful.
King Yi Hwan, who was unhappy as king, probably wanted to save his son, the Crown Prince from the misery he faced. And so did YA, who saw how his nephew was being treated. The reason for the abdication and the regency was likely to protect Yi Yoon from being a puppet of Lord IP. (Isn’t it interesting that the person with Yi Hwan on his wedding day, was none other than Lord IP. He was determined to ensure Yi Hwan went through with the wedding. YA had to practically force his way into the room to see his brother. So even then, Lord IP was manipulating the royal family).
So far we have never had a scene of Yi Hwan and Yi Yoon together, but like the disapproving Dad Seong, perhaps Yi Hwan’s decision also came from a place of love.
In any case, it was wonderful to see how the ‘dumb’ brother Tae Ju stepped up to ‘lie’ and take the blame for the divorce clause, and how the Seong family banded together to save YA at HJ’s request.
Thoughts on Siblings and other Relationships
I’m not going anywhere in particular with this train of thought. I’m just laying out what I recall and looking for patterns, if any.
The brothers, Yi Hwan and Yi An. They had played together as boys. Yi Hwan did not mind Yi An trying on his Dragon Robe (meant for the Crown Prince or King) and Yi An had been beaten by their father, King Hui Jong for wearing it, much to both boys’ shock. We are not shown more but that might have been a ‘thing’. The young brother was more capable but had been suppressed. His name had been changed more than once to keep him down.
On Yi Hwan’s wedding day he had told Lord IP that he was scared. We don’t know what he feared. YA had barged in and grabbed his brother by the lapels of his robe (he does the same kind of lapel grab with Lord IP in Ep 10, but he adds in throttling as well!!).
YA: “I clearly gave you a chance. Whatever happens from now on, you will have to deal with it yourself.” We wonder what chance he was referring to. Was he suggesting that Yi Hwan refuse to get married, to keep Lord IP from having influence over them?
As Crown Prince, Yi Hwan neglected his duty of paying royal visits, and as YA put it, ‘ran away’ again, refusing to accompany the Crown Princess. So it looks like he did not want to get married but did so anyway only to regret it. Did he object to his duties or to having his wife as his companion? She must have nagged him like crazy (and literally to death!)
Sometime in the past… was it just before the fire? … Yi Hwan had a red Dragon Robe made for YA, meaning that he already had in mind that he wanted YA to be the King. YA and Court Lady Choi knew this. In other words, it was common knowledge that YA would have made a better king.
Before he died Yi Hwan felt that abdicating in favour of YA was better than dying. YA knew all this for years but kept quiet. He sees that his nephew, Yi Yoon, is treated as a puppet and under threat from Lord IP and his own mother, QM.
It took the influence of ambitious (and greedy) HJ to get him to start considering his own ambitions and desires. It all seemed to come together when the murderous actions of IP put HJ at risk, and the manipulations of Min and QM threaten the regency. With HJ jumping in to save him by suggesting a divorce, YA had no more reason to hesitate.
It was time to take what his brother had meant for him to have, and the little King was only too happy to give away.
Continued maybe …
The Seong family
Siblings Seong Tae Ju and Seong Hui Ju have an endless rivalry going with both feeling entitled and both looking down on the other. However both are interested in keeping the Castle Group alive and well. They compete but do not cross the line. Their father seems to have nothing to say to Tae Ju and only harsh words for HJ, but he keeps both the offspring under his wing. He even took the trouble to go to HJ’s home and although they quarreled, it was something that he took time off to go to her.
Despite being irritating to HJ, sister-in-law Dae Young was helpful. Her knowledge from being of a noble family was useful. She seems to genuinely love her ‘dumb’ husband, risking her own position with her family of origin to marry him. Without her support, Tae Ju would likely not have been able to hold that press conference to clear HJ’s name concerning the marriage contract and the terms of divorce. I loved that he took off his jacket to get down to brass tacks with the journalists (did he almost roll up his sleeves?) and that he could threaten all the press that he could take action for their being slanderous towards his doensaeng and walked off on his own terms.
And I really liked how the Castle PR machine got to work at once to churn out articles in HJ’s favour. Not a minute to lose, and catching all the rest of the press off guard.
It strikes me that how YA leverages on his popularity is not too different from how HJ and her family make use of publicity to direct public opinion, sell themselves, and so gain power. They do not use it to smear others, but to ingratiate themselves with the public, and that’s a power in itself.
When push came to shove, they came together in sync, which was a lovely thing to see.
Uncle and Nephew
Among the royals, the only person who seemed to care sincerely for little King Yi Yoon was YA. He did desire the throne but whereas before it was because he was more capable than his brother and his brother had been afraid to be king, now his motive had shifted because of Yi Yoon.
YA tells HJ that: “With a royal abdication edict, it’s customary to refuse three times.”
HJ: “And then?”
YA: “I have to accept it.”
HJ: “But you wanted to protect his majesty?”
YA: “I want to protect my nephew, not the king.”
During the fire, he had been the only one to ask after the welfare of his nephew. He had been concerned that Yi Yoon was having a late night snack that might not suit him and he went to be by YY’s side even when he was sick and on leave.
Upon rewatch of Ep 10, I’ve gathered that the altercation between YA and his brother on the brother’s wedding day was to do with the Crown.
YA said he had clearly given him a chance (to relinquish the crown) but by marrying Lord IP’s daughter, I believe he was taking the path that was assigned to him, to ultimately take the throne.
YA tells HJ what he overheard the Queen say to King Yi Hwan before the fire. His brother had wanted YA to be king but the queen had taken the edict and burnt it.
After this the chest with the Dragon Robe had been delivered to YA.
YA to Court Lady Choi: “It appears my brother seeks to abdicate.”
YA to HJ: “I hated him for it. He turned a blind eye when I longed for it (the crown?) so desperately. I felt like he was thrusting the burden when it was far too late.”
Repeated in conversations are the words “I’m afraid/scared” spoken by Yi Hwan as well as by Yi Yoon. Both did not want the position of king but while Yi Hwan had been slow to act, Yi Yoon was unlike his father, and was quicker to agree to an abdication.
I believe YY was more willing to abdicate after hearing how his mother had treated his father, and after being confronted by his father’s death. It’s not surprising at all that little Yi Yoon would be terrified of being king, with that kind of mother. He would have definitely not wanted YA to end his regency to leave him alone to face QM and grandfather.
I wonder if YA had long prepped YY to be ready to relinquish the crown. After hearing that his father had wanted YA to have the throne, YY understood immediately when YA says: “Your Majesty, I must ask you to return my throne.” It might have been something that YY had been waiting to hear for a long time.
Are there noteworthy comments made by this series?
Ad hoc stuff that comes to my mind…
– Parts of Tradition that no longer makes sense should be reviewed. What is the point of the Law of Primogeniture when it results in status and power given to most unsuitable and unwilling persons? They are miserable and resistant and every day is a burden, and the monarchy keeps falling into one mess after another. It’s ironic that the Crown seeks to be revered when the persons wearing it are unable or unwilling to act or decide independently and with confidence.
– In tandem with this, children should not be forced to fulfill the dreams of their parents nor be suppressed when they have the abilities to excel. Children should be allowed to be children, and not be expected to bear the responsibilities of experienced statesmen. They should be allowed to fulfill their own dreams. We see QM’s frustrations in a new light. And we have to give Dad Seong due credit for allowing HJ to shine with Castle Beauty in her control.
– Although we know this, this Show makes it extra clear the power of Marketing and PR. We see how easily lies and speculation are broadcast to sound like ‘fact’ without evidence, and similarly how effective PR blasted out in a timely manner can change the tide of sentiment. While the press/public are out for salacious gossip, and the bad guys manipulate protests and what gets publicised, even the ‘good guys’ like the Castle family resort to lies to white wash and hide the truth.
– Show believes in good, collaborative couple power. We have Tae Ju and Dae Young, YA and HJ and likely also Choi Hyeon and Do Hye Jeong who form strong couple teams. With the right support, with trusted, caring persons rooting for one another, and the sharing of burdens, our characters take on huge challenges with confidence.
Chekhov’s Gun? Will it be fired by Episode 12?
We were given ‘clues’ from the start …but if they don’t get addressed, they will become red herrings. We expected to get some confirmed information on where those clues might lead, but Show is more focused on the character relations within the palace and ‘danger and death’ seem to be only unfinished side plots to add conflict and mystery.
So was all that early ‘talk’ in Episodes 1-5 about dying and killing just to foreshadow the danger that YA and HJ keep facing? Until now we do not know for sure if YA was to be killed during the hunt, why the fire during the King’s birthday banquet took place and who got the mechanic to tamper with HJ’s car that almost got her and the King killed. Who is the villain for sure and why. It is only now in Ep 10 that motives become clear, but in the early episodes, what motives were there to get YA killed, or HJ?
There are so many explosions and fires in the palace. It seems to be the method of choice to get rid of unwanted royals. It is noteworthy that the QM actually suggested rashly that the servants light a fire to get her son to leave his quarters. She said it so smoothly as if was a deed she was comfortable with.
The next favourite method of offing royals is to engineer a car accident. I wonder whether the Truck of Doom was ever properly investigated and how come there is nothing said about who’s responsible for YA’s mum’s (Queen Ui Hyeon’s) death. Why should the Queen have been killed … was it really an accident?
Then there’s the whole death by heart attack, and attempted murder by heart medication, digoxin. Only in the latter case is the villain unmasked. However is he also responsible for all the earlier deaths or attempts at murder?
Since the maid, Lee Areum had been tasked by Lord IP to poison YA, was she also the one that Court Lady Im had placed in YA’s private residence to spy on him? We hear in Ep 10 that QM wants the girl she had hidden away to be brought to the palace. We watch with eyes peeled for any new female or whether Lee Areum returns. Worse of all, maybe it’s a female character we’ve met before but never suspected! We want to know who she is and why she was hidden.
Then there’s the question of whom Dad Seong placed with HJ to watch over her. At first it looked like it was Ms Do, however the Aides had been switched. Now it’s Aide Choi Hyeon who is beside HJ. Something else that struck me about Dad Seong… he seems to know well the situation in the palace… he calls it a hellhole and tells HJ to get out of it and avoid getting hurt any further. Perhaps he has more knowledge of palace politics than he lets on.
Thank you all for this wonderful site, I have been a lurker for some time. Your comments make me enjoy the dramas even more.
I would like to add on your beautiful insights, @GrowingBeautifully. I cannot shake the feeling that YH did not want to be the king because he was in love with someone that was not noble and that she left him due to the pressure of the regal family. Probably YA did like QM and would not have a problem marrying her and take the crown but YH refused at that time. It explains why YH did not want to spend time with QM and eventually why he would want to abdicate, probably to divorce her. It explains also why QM did not want him to abdicate because that would have mean the end for their marriage also. I wonder if YA’s father was upset that YA changed the rules at the school for someone that was not noble and that is why YA lost the game in front of him, so that one beneath them would be the winner. But probably I am wrong and reading too much into it.
Hi @Fabbuoni, thanks for de-lurking and leaving a comment. I appreciate any comment from any who are reading … as I often feel I’m just speaking to myself!!!!
I feel you do have a point … one of the most common reasons a person does not want to be married off (or be king, in this case) is that they love someone else. We await more scenes of Yi Hwan to see if he too liked an unsuitable commoner. If that were the case, then YA has done what his brother could not do, ie he has married an unsuitable commoner and is trying to be king regardless. We can understand why the palace would be in an uproar if so. (As in – How can the younger son do that and get away with it when the older son was not allowed to!!)
About YA and Yun (QM) in school. I believe they were friends. Yun liked YA, but YA was admiring HJ at Archery. I believe that to begin with YA was on Yun’s side. He knew that she did not really want to marry his brother and that may have been the reason for that ‘before wedding altercation scene’. I’ve posited a speculation. One might be that YA wanted to be king but Yi Hwan did not step down. Another speculation now is that YA was telling him not to marry Yun who was miserable about it.
His brother refused to call off the wedding, so Yun was forced to marry him. However after that, Yi Hwan did not show much regard for her. It’s like he went ahead to take what was his ‘entitlement’ but then he did not act responsibly after getting it.
There was another scene that YA recalled when Yi Hwan was still the Crown Prince.
YA to his brother: “Look after the Crown Princess. You’re all she has to rely on. Will you make things hard for her?”
Yi Hwan: “She relies on me? I doubt she ever relied on me. But even if she did, what could I possibly do for her? I’m sure she’s well aware. Such is the nature of my station. And it must be said for the Crown Princess.”
YA: “You’re just being a coward.”
Yi Hwan: “Sure. I hope you do not end up like me.”
YA: “No, I don’t intend to.”
And yet in spite of that, Yi Hwan still tried to abdicate and thrust the throne at YA (when it was too late). No wonder YA was angry.
Yi Hwan seems to have been resigned because of his station, and he expected Yun to accept it too.
So YA did not approve of how spineless his brother appeared to be, and felt bad for his sister-in-law, who had been his school friend.
That’s an interesting thought that YA thumbed his nose at his father by deliberately losing to HJ. I found it hard to read the expressions on the faces of father and son. Perhaps YA was being defiant when he shot that arrow to miss the centre of the board, or maybe it was a mixture of that and wanting HJ to win, because he had a crush on her. 😁😀
Thank you, @GB, I do love reading you all and learning everyday many of the insights that I do not understand. Yesterday I read the entire post on LLTG since I recently rewatched it and understood what throwing an embroidered ball to a lady means. I am happy you all are covering the Splendid Match also, since I am currently watching it also. I also love We are all trying here, probably one of my absolute favorite ever. I hope more will love it also here, because the writing is probably one of the best. So please, keep on writing.
I am glad you posted that conversation because that was what sparked my thoughts on it. To be precise, it was YA’s comments after it. The first is: “It this how it felt?” The whole scene is after HJ tells him that she wants a divorce and he knows that she asked for it to protect him. The second is: “I refuse to live like you.” And immediately he unrolls his plan of becoming the king. Maybe he is only talking about his brother being a coward and not living the way he wants (not a king), but the first comment does not fit in to me unless YH had also been the victim of a nobel idiocy himself. What other possibilities are there for both brothers to feel the same way?
Hi @Fabbuoni
I went back to check on the words “Is this how it felt?” … YA says it once, but to us, the viewers, we get to see him say it twice. Isn’t that interesting?
Timestamp 13:27 after having a good cry, YA sits in his brother’s room and asks the emptiness: “Is this how it felt?” (Show deliberately leaves us thinking that YA is at his wits end and feeling hopeless)
We cut to the Council Meeting. After HJ tells the Council to allow her divorce so that YA can return to be the pride of the Crown, Min asks if the Grand Prince share’s HJ’s sentiment. YA does not respond but the royal command is brought in by the Royal Secretariat.
Timestamp 25:29 the second time we get to watch that scene, we cut back to the night before when YA drags his fingers over his brother’s dusty table, sits and looks at the empty spot where his brother had sat and says: “Is this how it felt?”
(YA sighs, keeping his eyes closed) “Even so, I refuse to live like you.” (And now we get to see that what happens in the Council Hall was planned at this time when we thought YA had been depressed and hopeless, so he is very unlike his brother.)
YA unlocks the chest that holds the dragon robe. We get to see him walking down the corridor to the king’s room but the camera gives us Dutch angles, showing that something momentous, unexpected and out of the ordinary was to happen.
He says something (that we find shocking) to the little king … he asks the king to return his throne. (This means that he had regarded the throne to have been his for the last 3 years. He had been biding his time, possibly because the monarchy was unstable after his brother’s death. Perhaps he had been waiting for the time when his regency was threatened.)
And so in the Council Hall, the king’s edict was read…
Back to the words: “Is this how it felt?”
This was the feeling after HJ had tried to convince him that she wanted a divorce for her own sake and that he should not cling to her. It was a similar situation to how Yi Hwan had to listen to Queen Yun totally disagree with his decision to abdicate, hurting him also by her harsh words. However in Yi Hwan’s case, there was no ‘noble idiocy’. The only person the Queen was looking out for was herself and the Crown Prince.
YA was disheartened that without consulting him, HJ had come up with her own strategy to save herself (and him) that went totally against what he wanted. She had thrown everything on the line and the added insult was that she had not thought he could have protected them. She did not trust him. So the feeling he was referring to was likely this… hurt and a sense of being betrayed at being disregarded/not trusted by his wife who was making a decision on her own that countered his.
However while Yi Hwan had just let Queen Yun snatch the edict and burn it, and had given up (possibly) and died in the fire, YA intended to fight back with the ultimate weapon, a royal command and YY’s willing abdication.