Hi @pkml3, thanks a whole bunch once again! I guessed as much when you opened the Imaginary Cat thread yesterday ie a couple of days too early!! And now I see that you’ve given us threads for the next 2 Saturdays as well.
Have a good, safe trip! I’ll be keeping you in prayer.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Episode 11 without spoilers
It’s as I’d hoped, that there would be a conversion of heart… but I got the wrong heart!!! LOL.
It was another riveting episode.
I’m thinking of the amount of crying that poor child actor had to do for so many of his scenes and am glad to see more smiles this episode. 😃
I noted that we began with a hunt and a hunt is once again mentioned now towards the end… a kind of book-ending? A reminder of the constant threat under which YA lives? It will be a different kind of hunt (if that is going to be a fitting analogy, but I have doubts) taking place in the palace and/or nation next Episode. 🤨🧐🥸🤪
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
The Loss of Trust – Min and HJ
Min had always put up a great front. The good friend, the church-goer, the dependable and responsible PM, the one on the side of the Crown, the one who cleaned up the mess made by the monarchy.
However for the first time, he’d lost his cool in front of HJ when his attempt to get YA killed in the gas explosions had instead got HJ injured. This gave her pause with regard to Min whom she’d considered a long-time, trusted friend, even more trustworthy (at one time) than YA.
Min rushes into YA’s room, likely after hearing that HJ had been in the burning building, to find HJ watching over the sleeping Grand Prince (whom he’d just tried to kill).
Min loudly to HJ: “How could you just run in there like that?”
HJ: “Lower your voice, the palace attendants are outside.”
Min: “Why aren’t you at the hospital? You should at least get proper treatment.”
HJ: “How can I trust any hospital right now?”
Min: “What?”
HJ: “You think this fire is just an accident? They targeted the Grand Prince at the wedding, not me, and now a fire just breaks out on the abdication day? They expect me to buy that?”
Min: “If it wasn’t an accident?’
HJ: “What?”
Min practically shouts at HJ: “What can you do if it wasn’t? (Meaning that if it was assassination). Would you collapse and die in his place?”
HJ: “Well, what should I have done? Just leave him there to die?”
Min: “Yes, just leave him.”
HJ is stunned. She’d never seen Min’s raw emotions before.
Min: “How much longer must I watch you be in danger?” She’s surprised. Min: “How much longer must I endure all this?”
HJ’s expression changes subtly because what Min is saying is that he was prepared to leave YA dead or injured, by accident or by murder (as long as HJ was unhurt in the process). He did not have any real loyalty to YA even as the Prime Minister, let alone as YA’s friend. Perhaps to her it looked like a small step from willingly accepting the death of a friend by murder, to being the killer.
Continued…
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Continued…
I am impressed by the ‘Shooting Conversation’. (The irony here is that HJ goes out to challenge Min, even as in the palace, the QM is unraveling all his attempts to protect the Crown and himself, by her confession of offenses to YA).
Min is Skeet Shooting. He seems to suddenly think himself above the Crown. Min to his Aide: “It’s almost hunting season.”
Min’s Aide: “Harvest season is just around the corner.”
Min: “Tell them I will be declaring hunting season this year.”
Aide: “And not the royal family?”
Min: “The Grand Prince needs time to recover, and the Queen Mother does not appreciate hunting.”
HJ is suddenly there: “Then I’ll do it,” She comes in with a gun of her own. “I guess I can do it.” She gives Min a look of challenge. She had heard him wanting to take over the duties of the Crown.
HJ stares at Min as he shoots with precision.
HJ: “But … ‘hunting season’ in the 21st century? What about animal rights?”
Min: “Think of it as a necessary evil. When harmful entities multiply, we can’t protect what matters.”
HJ: “And who determines that? The Crown?”
Min: “The nation.” (which means himself).
HJ: “I see.”
HJ holds up her gun and aims at him. He stares at her.
HJ staring unsmiling at Min: “So you decide.” Min wonders if she’s serious or not. They stare at each other while their aides look on. She takes a long time to lower her gun smiling coldly.
HJ: “I saw that you caught the guy (the arsonist). Was he a harmful entity too?” She looks at him with a cynical smile. She knows that the ‘arsonist’ was the fall guy for someone in power.
She does not hide that she no longer trusts Min and by aiming her gun at him, she’s showing him that he should not underestimate what she might do. If he insists on the path he’s chosen, she’s gunning for him.
Continued…
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
From Friends to Enemies – Min and HJ
From aiming an arrow at YA’s cats to teach him how to fight in order to protect, HJ aims a gun at Min to show that she’s on the warpath against any who would harm YA.
She is no hypocrite and takes her own advice, to fight in order to protect.
More irony… it was not the monarchy who wanted to remain in power forever, but the common people who wanted to preserve it, and more likely the Cabinet. What came out of the bickering among the members of the Cabinet was that those ministers saw the monarchy as a tourist attraction, an investment generating and revenue earning entity first and did not want to lose it. They were more worried about who would be accountable for the loss of the economic benefits after money had been invested in preserving the Crown.
HJ comes to see Min after his Cabinet meeting where the abolition of the monarchy had been denounced.
HJ to Min: “You’ve been aware of what Lord In Pyeong did?” (She’s checking that what YA told her was true).
Min does not deny it, instead he challenges: “Then what about you? Did you know? That he’s (YA’s) looking to abolish the monarchy? The king doesn’t get to do whatever he wants. My job is to make sure he doesn’t.”
HJ: “But if it is a necessary evil”
Min: “What?”
HJ: “What if in the 21st century our Crown turns out to be the harmful entity? What then?” HJ uses Min’s words against him. She returns the challenge.
She waited to see if he would be a hypocrite by calling whatever he wished as a harmful entity only as it suited him.
Min: “I already told you; that is for the nation to decide.” (His answer showed that it was as she had feared. She had given him this chance to show that he really was on her side, and he had refused to do so).
HJ: “Then it appears we will end up as enemies.”
She’s unrelenting in mostly white, he’s in unrelieved black. Mostly Good versus Evil?
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
’Shooting’ Oneself in the Foot and other Idioms
Show has used the image of archery and guns in a few places, so it put idiom-ic (maybe idiotic?!) ideas into my head.
It strikes me that QM shot herself in the foot when she rashly spoke loudly to the late King before burning the edict. If she had not done that, her son, would not have heard that YA was meant to get the throne and might not have been so willing to give up the throne to his uncle. He knew that his father had wanted to abdicate in favour of YA, and that his mother was the obstacle.
When little YY had been forced to put on the dragon robe he’d protested in tears but his mother had lied that it was his father’s dying wish. However YY had heard his father’s dying wish.
In a couple more gun idioms, QM’s father had called her rash ie she shot from the hip in reaction towards HJ but was unsuccessful in bringing her down. The first fire was a result of her jumping the gun and rashly burning the edict. She had created chaos that her father had to fix.
HJ by comparison was a straight shooter.
Continued…
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
’Shooting’ Oneself in the Foot and other Idioms
Continued…
In a similar way, Min and Lord IP shot themselves in the foot by engineering the gas explosions that failed to kill YA. It had created the situation where the public were more compassionate towards YA and more in favour of him ascending the throne (or at least less derisive/disapproving). Min had created the very situation that promoted the quick coronation of YA, which he and Lord IP had been trying to prevent.
Lord IP by visiting QM and telling her to stop the King from abdicating or the Grand Prince from accepting the abdication and kingship, gave away the fact that he was involved in the attempt on YA’s life. This second attempt turned QM away from the path she had been loyally treading in obedience to her father and the court. Hence Lord IP too had shot himself in the foot.
Knowing that her father was willing to murder to keep her and the king in power, QM saw herself in the mirror and was disgusted by the hypocrisy of her life. To maintain her grand image, she was aiding and abetting her father. She had made her son’s life miserable and had been taking various actions of which she was ashamed.
She removed the gold ornaments she wore, as a rejection of the life of lies she was steeped in, and deciding to bite the bullet, turned herself in, while reporting on her father. While she was on her knees before YA, that was her finest moment of true dignity.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Freedom and Min
Towards the end of Ep 11, Min begrudged YA the freedom he would get after ascending the throne only to abolish the monarchy. YA sought the end of the monarchy so that the little King, HJ and himself could have a more normal life away from palace intrigue, politics and constant threat to their lives. This appeared to Min as a selfish move because like the QM, Min felt that he had made sacrifices to protect the Crown, to keep it going, but YA sought to end it without any reference to himself (whom he considered the ‘nation’).
In the beginning, Min had felt free to visit the church and see his priest friend. He had once been free to love HJ but did nothing much about it. He was free to serve the Crown although he grumbled about having to clean up after the monarchy.
However all that started to change even before he abandoned his rosary. His freedom started being diminished because of his disordered desires, and because he harboured jealousy towards YA. He seems now to be hemmed in by the darker path he has chosen. In order to cover up what he had failed to do or what he had done, he makes one deceitful, selfish or even evil decision after another, afraid of being found out.
HJ remarks that he seems to have stopped going to the cathedral and is no longer wearing the rosary. The rosary that he had treated as if it was a chain keeping him from getting what he wanted, was instead the sign of a freedom he once had to commune with God and priest friend and to choose what was right.
As a sign of how he was treading the dark path away from freedom, we see Min meeting Lord IP in the dark in Ep 10, looking at the burnt out building at night or sitting in the semi darkness at home. He starts to appear wearing black in Ep 11.
It was his conversion to the light that I was hoping to see. We have 1 last episode for this, fingers crossed!
HK_Lady
@GB such a good read. Thank you.
YA and HJ’s relationship with PM Min is like that song “You’ve lost that love and feeling” yes. sadly so, they have become frenemies. and PM blames YA?? ugh Now that the show is over, PM Min had really gone to the dark side and lost it all. but like YA said, HJ was never his to begin with. OOOOoooooh. BOOM!
I love that YA became King only to abolish the monarchy. wow. Perfect crown indeed.
so glad the QM made that bold move of owning up to her sins knowing that her son also knew and carried the burden of it all. so heartbreaking. glad she chose HJ to reveal about PM’s intent to assassinate the Grand prince. I had a feeling she was recording that convo.
I love how HJ went head on against Oppa PM in these last 2 episodes. YA or Wan and HJ are a good team when it when it came to protecting each other. oh and that reveal about the timeline of when they started liking each other. love that HJ didn’t know that YA liked her from the beginning. from the start. awwww. of course!
I love the ending. that we have a 3 year jump. too bad no baby in between. except for TJ and DY-who is now expecting. but I do love how HJ started calling his bro Oppa. one of the redeeming beauty of this show is how HJ was able to experience the love of her family from her dad to her brother and sis in law- amidst all the palace drama. so satisfying.
i also love our aides love story between Choi and Do. the girl had to make the first moves, man. what up! so cute though. that first kiss -stolen kiss- in the bus stop. so unexpected – made me so happy. Choi is now a flower shop owner, too. so cool. how he and YA remained friends. of course!
i love that they went back to the baseball game and our OTP ended up in the Kiss cam again but this time, no more holding back. awwww they’re such a beautiful couple! the way WAN caresses her hair and cups her cheeks. now that their love story has become less dangerous, time to make a baby haha!
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Hi @HK_Lady You’re welcome and thanks for reading and acknowledging it! I’m glad you liked it.
I agree with all you say. I’ll be back later to comment. Going out now!!!
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
@HK_Lady
What you said about Min blaming YA for his own going over to the dark side… it’s so typical of guilty ‘sinners’. They justify the bad they do by blaming the victim or blaming anyone else, instead of taking responsibility.
That’s where QM or Sun I Rang showed herself the bigger and better person. At one time, she too was looking to blame others, or was full of a sense of entitlement or of self-pity over the sacrifices she had made. However she’d woken up when her son pointed out that he had known all along what her sins were. Unlike Min, she admitted her faults and accepted punishment if any.
Her son was her saviour. It was seeing it from his eyes that struck her with horror at what she was doing to him. Just as she had suffered under her father’s ‘sins’ which he said he carried out for her sake, so too she was making her young son suffer. That really shook her up and got her to make a good change: a revolution in her way of thinking.
So while YA was seeking to bring about a revolution in the state, she was deciding on a drastic change of direction within herself and her family. She chose to break free from her father who was bringing her down with him to the dark side, to take responsibility and remove herself and her son from the rights and privileges which should not have been theirs.
At last she was free and at peace. No longer anxious, scheming, screaming or upsetting her poor son.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
@HK_Lady
I love that YA became King only to abolish the monarchy. wow. Perfect crown indeed.
This is interesting… I did wonder what it meant for a crown to be perfect. In this case, what YA did was abolish it hence no crown = perfect crown. That’s a strong judgement against constitutional monarchy.
However his words criticising the members of the royal family held truth.
YA had said: “However, the existence of the crown only serves to reinforce class divisions and undermine equality, does it not?”…” Shielded by royal privileges, royal family members run amok, and the nobles aligned with them flaunt their power before the people.”
(This reminds me that many kdramas depict the Chaebol families and heirs behaving this way. In a sense the class divisions and special privileges of the rich replaced that of the monarchy. Show could be making a statement against the Chaebols here.)
I’m relieved that I Rang’s father at least warned her against Min, that he had been an accomplice in the attempted murder.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
@HK_Lady
About when YA started liking HJ. He had a crush on her and then just waited for her to show up. Having seen her again, he had then received several requests for an audience from her which he had rejected. When she had first proposed that they get married he had not accepted. So he was not really out to hold on to her desperately at first. It is fortunate however that she did not bring this up, or find fault with him for this. Hence we only get happy couple scenes and no more fights or arguments.
I love the ending. that we have a 3 year jump.
Yes, this 3-year time jump is necessary because the marriage contract had said that they would definitely divorce in 3 years. Instead, at the baseball game, they end up on the kiss cam and kiss for the public to see LOL. So this made the lie they told appear true! Ie that the marriage contract was just to satisfy the Seong family and the divorce clause was not their idea, but Tae Ju’s. This lie now is forgotten because their love became real.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
@HK_Lady
I do love how HJ started calling her bro Oppa. one of the redeeming beauty of this show is how HJ was able to experience the love of her family from her dad to her brother and sis in law- amidst all the palace drama. so satisfying.
Yes this always warms my heart and makes up for many little flaws.
i also love our aides love story between Choi and Do. the girl had to make the first moves,
This was a really cute couple. I like how Choi Hyeon was so sure that his relationship with YA and HJ would continue even outside the palace, and true enough we see that he and YA are house-husbands together and even run the flower shop together (but YA can’t make a nice flower bouquet!!!)
So in the end YA did not have to go through the proposal thing since he’d loved her from the start.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
I was curious about how much Show took from the history.
In the Show, we see YA visiting The Crown’s Final Duty Exhibition. He walks past the throne to the exhibit of his red dragon robe.
The sign on the exhibit: “The last King Sungjo’s Robe with Dragon Insignia
This Yongpo (King’s robe) was worn by King Sungjo, the last king of Korean dynasty. (The 34th king) Dated 2025
I looked the history of the Korean monarchy. According to ChatGPT… there was the Yi Dynasty so that’s why Show chose those names for the characters where the family name was ‘Yi’ (or Lee).
• The Yi Dynasty refers to the royal house founded by Taejo of Joseon in 1392.
• The dynasty ruled Korea for over 500 years.
• Near the end of the dynasty, Korea was renamed the Korean Empire in 1897 under Gojong of Korea.
• His son, Sunjong of Korea, became the second and final emperor.
In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea, ending the monarchy and the Yi royal rule.
The Joseon Dynasty had 27 kings officially recognized during its history from 1392 to 1897.
The dynasty began with: Taejo of Joseon (founder, reigned 1392–1398)
And the final Joseon king was:Gojong of Korea
In 1897, Gojong changed the kingdom into the Korean Empire and became emperor rather than king.
After that there were 2 emperors of the Korean Empire:
1. Gojong of Korea
2. Sunjong of Korea
So depending on how people count, we can say there were 27 Joseon kings or 29 rulers in total from the Yi royal house if the two emperors are included.
Hence our Show gives us the 32nd to 34th Kings, as if the Japanese never ended the monarchy and Yi rule.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Review of Sorts
The end itself was sweet and satisfactory, and hence it is easy to forgive any flaws we might notice in this series.
My main gripe is that Show has teased us with several crimes or possible crimes, with some clues which now turn out to be red herrings. We only know of the last 2 criminals. But they are not likely to be the same criminals who were out making YA bleed in the hunt (when he showered, the water showed blood), or the same ones who rigged HJ’s car.
We do not know if YA’s parents had died as a result of an accident and a real heart attack, or if they had been assassinated. All these deaths had been placed before us just to make us aware that YA would be a target, but they were not going to be solved in the show. Or they were just there to underscore the fact that it was dangerous to be in a position of some power in the palace. Once YA and HJ were out of the palace, they didn’t seem to need any security at all!
The other little thing that I noticed, but again it’s possibly forgivable because this series is only 12 episodes long … some things happen a little too easily… some solutions are too pat (or the usual way of putting it is that the ending was too rushed). So it quickens the pace of getting solutions, but then it also shortens the tension and conflict.
However the editing helps Show to get around it, Show will give us just a part of a scene, hide the middle and then at the end we get to see the results with a flashback to the middle to explain what happened.
An eg. of this is in Ep 12 where QM or I Rang decides to visit her father in prison and is warned by him that Min is dangerous; coincidentally she immediately finds Min waiting for her outside, he threatens her and so it becomes plausible that she is ready to record their conversation. But we do not know that she did record the conversation yet. We next see her speaking with HJ but we don’t get their whole conversation either.
We then see I Rang calling Min. The next day HJ accuses Min of trying to kill YA, and it’s only then that we get to know that I Rang had recorded Min’s threat and admission that he had tried to kill YA and played it back for HJ. Hence the threat of Min is removed for a happy ending. This was of course a necessary ploy to end the conflict so that we could have the 2nd half of the episode giving us the fun times after the monarchy. But it was rushed.
Continued …
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Review Continued …
What I liked…
When Show followed through properly to give us the fitting resolutions to the problems it did so well. I mentioned before that when the obstacle that was presented was huge, then the resolution had to be equally outstanding in order for us to get a good payoff. Well this show did that when the big obstacle of the broken engagement was turned into the surprise marriage proposal, taking the QM and Min by surprise.
It balanced the scenes of unhappy Min/QM/IP with happy couple moments, even when they were faking it.
I liked that there were little instances of foreshadowing which did pan out, as when HJ had danced with Min after her engagement and told him to cut her some slack, because if she lost him (his friendship) then she’d have no one left. Well, he lost her friendship indeed because he could not accept that she did not belong to him, but he was the one who ended up alone whereas HJ had friends and family beside her.
I liked that motives were clear and that main characters were developed. Everyone grew except Lord IP. It was also appropriate that not every bad guy got away with being forgiven.
The little parallels were fun. I just recalled/noticed that while YA walked in late to the Birthday Banquet wearing the inappropriate cheollik (meant for the hunt), HJ had walked into the QM’s Banquet very late, wearing an inappropriate white business pantsuit. They both challenged tradition/the system. It was a good set up for how they would with one mind abolish the most tradition bound thing of all, the monarchy.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Review of Sorts Continued …
Show did give us mise-en-scène that told us more than words did, which I appreciate. In the beginning when Min and YA were friends, they would stand together to talk looking at each other or both looking in the same direction. At the end they were on opposing paths and so they looked in opposite directions and hardly at each other at all.
The happiest scene was when Yi Yoon could be with his mother, at ease and smiling instead of fearful or crying. I liked their walk outdoors in the palace grounds where they asked each other if they would be afraid without a monarchy and both just smiled at each other. Because they were together, they would not be afraid. At last they were free from being boxed in by palace walls, rules, etiquette.
I’ve mentioned the scenes in the dark when Min was thinking evil thoughts or plotting them with Lord IP. They were on the dark path.
And I hardly mentioned the romance, because it was so obviously there, well written and a lot of fun to watch. I liked that there were ups and downs before our OTP ironed things out. At first their communication was lacking so their actions were not aligned. After getting together YA decided to break off because he wanted to protect her. After they got married, HJ wanted a divorce to protect him. HJ took some time to trust that YA could take care of them in the world of the palace. However outside the palace, YA was quite a newbie (he couldn’t cut his veges let alone cook correctly!)
It was so appropriate that his skills in the palace did not necessarily translate to him being able to live well outside it. I liked that Choi Hyeon remained with him and treated him as an equal.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
Review of Sorts Continued …
I liked that Choi Hyeon end up doing what he enjoyed, ie open a flower shop so that he could be with flowers that he liked so much. I wonder if Ms Do had helped him since her family owned a flower shop too.
It was good that HJ who says she only had haters, and who thought her family was always against her, ends up having a great husband and friends, and rediscovers her family who had her back.
The only sad trajectory was Min’s. From being a mere antagonist, he chose to become a villain when the opportunities and temptations presented themselves. QM had taunted Min for wanting HJ for himself, saying that she would wait for his restraint to break. In the end it did, when he decided not to expose the villain of the poisoning attempt, and instead to join forces with him to kill YA.
Ironically while he became evil, I Rang who had been the ‘serpent’ who tempted him, changed and decided to do what was right. This was shown to us when the scenes of her confessing her offenses were juxtaposed against and alternated with scenes of Min making plans to declare Hunting Season.
It was fortunate that YA was too softhearted to mete out punishment upon I Rang. If he had done so, she might not have been able to help HJ take Min down.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
I do have a bit more in my notes, however I became lazy and I did not feel inspired to edit what I wrote.
Let’s see… there is more stuff that I liked.
Consistent Characters
On thinking about it, I like that characters stayed true to their personalities. What was either evident or hinted at about each character, did have a follow-through for how each developed.
It was consistent for YA to hold back punishment since he had a soft-heart all along. Even 3 years previously, he could have but did not drag QM through the mud by bringing up the burnt edict and taking the throne earlier. It might have been a mixture of fearing his own greed and not wanting to hurt QM/I Rang.
Since he had hesitated and let the throne go to his nephew, he had no choice but to wait for the young King to be old enough to understand that he could abdicate. In the interim, he was a good uncle to Yi Yoon.
QM/I Rang knew YA’s soft heart and so chose to get the more hard-hearted HJ to attack Min.
HJ remained a fighter throughout, fighting even when there might have been no actual opponent. Her father had told her that he never wanted her to lose but only to stop fighting everyone. I liked that she brought her aggression to bear in the right times and ways to protect YA, without crossing the line.
Show’s Comment on the Use of PR
Show has repeatedly brought up the impact of publicity and PR in business (raising or lowering stock prices) or in popularising things political. It has pointed out that public sentiment can be/has to be managed/manipulated so that authorities can get their way. We are even given a taste of how toxic fan culture can be when HJ got egged by school girls.
The question for us remains whether we want to be/can be more discerning as we digest so much that is made public, and whether we can recognise when we are being lied to or not.
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
I like the instances of …
Parallels and Reciprocity
On the one hand it might be quite overt, as it happens a few times, however on the other hand, I appreciate that the Writers/PD put in the effort so that those who watch minutely are rewarded.
One eg of reciprocity was when Ms Do suggests that she and Choi Hyeon go in the spring to see the cherry blossoms. This was because CH had suggested that they do this, as he liked flowers. This was by way of return for the time they had done what she liked, by having beer at the Hangang River.
Even in the tit for tat there was reciprocity. Just as YA rejected HJ’s many attempts to gain an audience and then after kicking her out of his residence, ghosted her when she called, so too she rejected his many attempts to invite her to the Inner Court Banquet and refused to answer his calls.
The parallels are strong and deliberate. I mentioned the cheollik on YA and the white pantsuit on HJ, both of which were worn at the ‘wrong time and place’. Even the words they used to respond to the QM’s query on their choice of dress were the same. “Is it not to your liking?” (I believe that’s why QM had that ‘not you too!’ expression on her face when HJ responded to her question).
GrowingBeautifully (GB)
The usual (selected) stuff of reviews
Amidst the backlash faced by this series for historical inaccuracies, I add that one too many mysteries that were presented or alluded to were not resolved. Who had the mechanic who tampered with HJ’s car killed? We can only guess. The motive is also uncertain.
On the whole, the writing was wisely kept relatively simple so that it was easy to follow the characters’ motives. However most of the tension was created by the editing, rather than by the writing, as viewers were kept guessing when scenes cut to other scenes before more could be revealed.
The camerawork was okay. I was impressed by how they shot the car out of control and scraping along the railing with sparks flying, for quite a long time. There were a sufficient number and variety of shooting locations, sets and settings to be realistic.
I liked the variety of background music. Each piece was appropriate for each moment, evoking the right sentiments and moving the story along. There was ominous music when threat was in the air, sad music when I Rang separated herself from her father. I liked especially the music that was associated with YA, the royalty, or just family and the happy couple music of our OTP and their Aides.
Kudos of course to the actors who were believable. While I never forgot that I was watching IU and Byeon WS, they nevertheless portrayed a great range of emotions and brought their characters to life convincingly. Besides them, my favourite pair are of course Choi Hyeon and Ms Do whose expressions were cute and informative.
I’d recommend the show for the fun and the romance, with an ad hoc rating of 7 over 10.
Hi @pkml3, thanks a whole bunch once again! I guessed as much when you opened the Imaginary Cat thread yesterday ie a couple of days too early!! And now I see that you’ve given us threads for the next 2 Saturdays as well.
Have a good, safe trip! I’ll be keeping you in prayer.
Episode 11 without spoilers
It’s as I’d hoped, that there would be a conversion of heart… but I got the wrong heart!!! LOL.
It was another riveting episode.
I’m thinking of the amount of crying that poor child actor had to do for so many of his scenes and am glad to see more smiles this episode. 😃
I noted that we began with a hunt and a hunt is once again mentioned now towards the end… a kind of book-ending? A reminder of the constant threat under which YA lives? It will be a different kind of hunt (if that is going to be a fitting analogy, but I have doubts) taking place in the palace and/or nation next Episode. 🤨🧐🥸🤪
The Loss of Trust – Min and HJ
Min had always put up a great front. The good friend, the church-goer, the dependable and responsible PM, the one on the side of the Crown, the one who cleaned up the mess made by the monarchy.
However for the first time, he’d lost his cool in front of HJ when his attempt to get YA killed in the gas explosions had instead got HJ injured. This gave her pause with regard to Min whom she’d considered a long-time, trusted friend, even more trustworthy (at one time) than YA.
Min rushes into YA’s room, likely after hearing that HJ had been in the burning building, to find HJ watching over the sleeping Grand Prince (whom he’d just tried to kill).
Min loudly to HJ: “How could you just run in there like that?”
HJ: “Lower your voice, the palace attendants are outside.”
Min: “Why aren’t you at the hospital? You should at least get proper treatment.”
HJ: “How can I trust any hospital right now?”
Min: “What?”
HJ: “You think this fire is just an accident? They targeted the Grand Prince at the wedding, not me, and now a fire just breaks out on the abdication day? They expect me to buy that?”
Min: “If it wasn’t an accident?’
HJ: “What?”
Min practically shouts at HJ: “What can you do if it wasn’t? (Meaning that if it was assassination). Would you collapse and die in his place?”
HJ: “Well, what should I have done? Just leave him there to die?”
Min: “Yes, just leave him.”
HJ is stunned. She’d never seen Min’s raw emotions before.
Min: “How much longer must I watch you be in danger?” She’s surprised. Min: “How much longer must I endure all this?”
HJ’s expression changes subtly because what Min is saying is that he was prepared to leave YA dead or injured, by accident or by murder (as long as HJ was unhurt in the process). He did not have any real loyalty to YA even as the Prime Minister, let alone as YA’s friend. Perhaps to her it looked like a small step from willingly accepting the death of a friend by murder, to being the killer.
Continued…
Continued…
I am impressed by the ‘Shooting Conversation’. (The irony here is that HJ goes out to challenge Min, even as in the palace, the QM is unraveling all his attempts to protect the Crown and himself, by her confession of offenses to YA).
Min is Skeet Shooting. He seems to suddenly think himself above the Crown. Min to his Aide: “It’s almost hunting season.”
Min’s Aide: “Harvest season is just around the corner.”
Min: “Tell them I will be declaring hunting season this year.”
Aide: “And not the royal family?”
Min: “The Grand Prince needs time to recover, and the Queen Mother does not appreciate hunting.”
HJ is suddenly there: “Then I’ll do it,” She comes in with a gun of her own. “I guess I can do it.” She gives Min a look of challenge. She had heard him wanting to take over the duties of the Crown.
HJ stares at Min as he shoots with precision.
HJ: “But … ‘hunting season’ in the 21st century? What about animal rights?”
Min: “Think of it as a necessary evil. When harmful entities multiply, we can’t protect what matters.”
HJ: “And who determines that? The Crown?”
Min: “The nation.” (which means himself).
HJ: “I see.”
HJ holds up her gun and aims at him. He stares at her.
HJ staring unsmiling at Min: “So you decide.” Min wonders if she’s serious or not. They stare at each other while their aides look on. She takes a long time to lower her gun smiling coldly.
HJ: “I saw that you caught the guy (the arsonist). Was he a harmful entity too?” She looks at him with a cynical smile. She knows that the ‘arsonist’ was the fall guy for someone in power.
She does not hide that she no longer trusts Min and by aiming her gun at him, she’s showing him that he should not underestimate what she might do. If he insists on the path he’s chosen, she’s gunning for him.
Continued…
From Friends to Enemies – Min and HJ
From aiming an arrow at YA’s cats to teach him how to fight in order to protect, HJ aims a gun at Min to show that she’s on the warpath against any who would harm YA.
She is no hypocrite and takes her own advice, to fight in order to protect.
More irony… it was not the monarchy who wanted to remain in power forever, but the common people who wanted to preserve it, and more likely the Cabinet. What came out of the bickering among the members of the Cabinet was that those ministers saw the monarchy as a tourist attraction, an investment generating and revenue earning entity first and did not want to lose it. They were more worried about who would be accountable for the loss of the economic benefits after money had been invested in preserving the Crown.
HJ comes to see Min after his Cabinet meeting where the abolition of the monarchy had been denounced.
HJ to Min: “You’ve been aware of what Lord In Pyeong did?” (She’s checking that what YA told her was true).
Min does not deny it, instead he challenges: “Then what about you? Did you know? That he’s (YA’s) looking to abolish the monarchy? The king doesn’t get to do whatever he wants. My job is to make sure he doesn’t.”
HJ: “But if it is a necessary evil”
Min: “What?”
HJ: “What if in the 21st century our Crown turns out to be the harmful entity? What then?” HJ uses Min’s words against him. She returns the challenge.
She waited to see if he would be a hypocrite by calling whatever he wished as a harmful entity only as it suited him.
Min: “I already told you; that is for the nation to decide.” (His answer showed that it was as she had feared. She had given him this chance to show that he really was on her side, and he had refused to do so).
HJ: “Then it appears we will end up as enemies.”
She’s unrelenting in mostly white, he’s in unrelieved black. Mostly Good versus Evil?
’Shooting’ Oneself in the Foot and other Idioms
Show has used the image of archery and guns in a few places, so it put idiom-ic (maybe idiotic?!) ideas into my head.
It strikes me that QM shot herself in the foot when she rashly spoke loudly to the late King before burning the edict. If she had not done that, her son, would not have heard that YA was meant to get the throne and might not have been so willing to give up the throne to his uncle. He knew that his father had wanted to abdicate in favour of YA, and that his mother was the obstacle.
When little YY had been forced to put on the dragon robe he’d protested in tears but his mother had lied that it was his father’s dying wish. However YY had heard his father’s dying wish.
In a couple more gun idioms, QM’s father had called her rash ie she shot from the hip in reaction towards HJ but was unsuccessful in bringing her down. The first fire was a result of her jumping the gun and rashly burning the edict. She had created chaos that her father had to fix.
HJ by comparison was a straight shooter.
Continued…
’Shooting’ Oneself in the Foot and other Idioms
Continued…
In a similar way, Min and Lord IP shot themselves in the foot by engineering the gas explosions that failed to kill YA. It had created the situation where the public were more compassionate towards YA and more in favour of him ascending the throne (or at least less derisive/disapproving). Min had created the very situation that promoted the quick coronation of YA, which he and Lord IP had been trying to prevent.
Lord IP by visiting QM and telling her to stop the King from abdicating or the Grand Prince from accepting the abdication and kingship, gave away the fact that he was involved in the attempt on YA’s life. This second attempt turned QM away from the path she had been loyally treading in obedience to her father and the court. Hence Lord IP too had shot himself in the foot.
Knowing that her father was willing to murder to keep her and the king in power, QM saw herself in the mirror and was disgusted by the hypocrisy of her life. To maintain her grand image, she was aiding and abetting her father. She had made her son’s life miserable and had been taking various actions of which she was ashamed.
She removed the gold ornaments she wore, as a rejection of the life of lies she was steeped in, and deciding to bite the bullet, turned herself in, while reporting on her father. While she was on her knees before YA, that was her finest moment of true dignity.
Freedom and Min
Towards the end of Ep 11, Min begrudged YA the freedom he would get after ascending the throne only to abolish the monarchy. YA sought the end of the monarchy so that the little King, HJ and himself could have a more normal life away from palace intrigue, politics and constant threat to their lives. This appeared to Min as a selfish move because like the QM, Min felt that he had made sacrifices to protect the Crown, to keep it going, but YA sought to end it without any reference to himself (whom he considered the ‘nation’).
In the beginning, Min had felt free to visit the church and see his priest friend. He had once been free to love HJ but did nothing much about it. He was free to serve the Crown although he grumbled about having to clean up after the monarchy.
However all that started to change even before he abandoned his rosary. His freedom started being diminished because of his disordered desires, and because he harboured jealousy towards YA. He seems now to be hemmed in by the darker path he has chosen. In order to cover up what he had failed to do or what he had done, he makes one deceitful, selfish or even evil decision after another, afraid of being found out.
HJ remarks that he seems to have stopped going to the cathedral and is no longer wearing the rosary. The rosary that he had treated as if it was a chain keeping him from getting what he wanted, was instead the sign of a freedom he once had to commune with God and priest friend and to choose what was right.
As a sign of how he was treading the dark path away from freedom, we see Min meeting Lord IP in the dark in Ep 10, looking at the burnt out building at night or sitting in the semi darkness at home. He starts to appear wearing black in Ep 11.
It was his conversion to the light that I was hoping to see. We have 1 last episode for this, fingers crossed!
@GB such a good read. Thank you.
YA and HJ’s relationship with PM Min is like that song “You’ve lost that love and feeling” yes. sadly so, they have become frenemies. and PM blames YA?? ugh Now that the show is over, PM Min had really gone to the dark side and lost it all. but like YA said, HJ was never his to begin with. OOOOoooooh. BOOM!
I love that YA became King only to abolish the monarchy. wow. Perfect crown indeed.
so glad the QM made that bold move of owning up to her sins knowing that her son also knew and carried the burden of it all. so heartbreaking. glad she chose HJ to reveal about PM’s intent to assassinate the Grand prince. I had a feeling she was recording that convo.
I love how HJ went head on against Oppa PM in these last 2 episodes. YA or Wan and HJ are a good team when it when it came to protecting each other. oh and that reveal about the timeline of when they started liking each other. love that HJ didn’t know that YA liked her from the beginning. from the start. awwww. of course!
I love the ending. that we have a 3 year jump. too bad no baby in between. except for TJ and DY-who is now expecting. but I do love how HJ started calling his bro Oppa. one of the redeeming beauty of this show is how HJ was able to experience the love of her family from her dad to her brother and sis in law- amidst all the palace drama. so satisfying.
i also love our aides love story between Choi and Do. the girl had to make the first moves, man. what up! so cute though. that first kiss -stolen kiss- in the bus stop. so unexpected – made me so happy. Choi is now a flower shop owner, too. so cool. how he and YA remained friends. of course!
i love that they went back to the baseball game and our OTP ended up in the Kiss cam again but this time, no more holding back. awwww they’re such a beautiful couple! the way WAN caresses her hair and cups her cheeks. now that their love story has become less dangerous, time to make a baby haha!
Hi @HK_Lady You’re welcome and thanks for reading and acknowledging it! I’m glad you liked it.
I agree with all you say. I’ll be back later to comment. Going out now!!!
@HK_Lady
What you said about Min blaming YA for his own going over to the dark side… it’s so typical of guilty ‘sinners’. They justify the bad they do by blaming the victim or blaming anyone else, instead of taking responsibility.
That’s where QM or Sun I Rang showed herself the bigger and better person. At one time, she too was looking to blame others, or was full of a sense of entitlement or of self-pity over the sacrifices she had made. However she’d woken up when her son pointed out that he had known all along what her sins were. Unlike Min, she admitted her faults and accepted punishment if any.
Her son was her saviour. It was seeing it from his eyes that struck her with horror at what she was doing to him. Just as she had suffered under her father’s ‘sins’ which he said he carried out for her sake, so too she was making her young son suffer. That really shook her up and got her to make a good change: a revolution in her way of thinking.
So while YA was seeking to bring about a revolution in the state, she was deciding on a drastic change of direction within herself and her family. She chose to break free from her father who was bringing her down with him to the dark side, to take responsibility and remove herself and her son from the rights and privileges which should not have been theirs.
At last she was free and at peace. No longer anxious, scheming, screaming or upsetting her poor son.
@HK_Lady
This is interesting… I did wonder what it meant for a crown to be perfect. In this case, what YA did was abolish it hence no crown = perfect crown. That’s a strong judgement against constitutional monarchy.
However his words criticising the members of the royal family held truth.
YA had said: “However, the existence of the crown only serves to reinforce class divisions and undermine equality, does it not?”…” Shielded by royal privileges, royal family members run amok, and the nobles aligned with them flaunt their power before the people.”
(This reminds me that many kdramas depict the Chaebol families and heirs behaving this way. In a sense the class divisions and special privileges of the rich replaced that of the monarchy. Show could be making a statement against the Chaebols here.)
I’m relieved that I Rang’s father at least warned her against Min, that he had been an accomplice in the attempted murder.
@HK_Lady
About when YA started liking HJ. He had a crush on her and then just waited for her to show up. Having seen her again, he had then received several requests for an audience from her which he had rejected. When she had first proposed that they get married he had not accepted. So he was not really out to hold on to her desperately at first. It is fortunate however that she did not bring this up, or find fault with him for this. Hence we only get happy couple scenes and no more fights or arguments.
Yes, this 3-year time jump is necessary because the marriage contract had said that they would definitely divorce in 3 years. Instead, at the baseball game, they end up on the kiss cam and kiss for the public to see LOL. So this made the lie they told appear true! Ie that the marriage contract was just to satisfy the Seong family and the divorce clause was not their idea, but Tae Ju’s. This lie now is forgotten because their love became real.
@HK_Lady
Yes this always warms my heart and makes up for many little flaws.
This was a really cute couple. I like how Choi Hyeon was so sure that his relationship with YA and HJ would continue even outside the palace, and true enough we see that he and YA are house-husbands together and even run the flower shop together (but YA can’t make a nice flower bouquet!!!)
So in the end YA did not have to go through the proposal thing since he’d loved her from the start.
I was curious about how much Show took from the history.
In the Show, we see YA visiting The Crown’s Final Duty Exhibition. He walks past the throne to the exhibit of his red dragon robe.
The sign on the exhibit: “The last King Sungjo’s Robe with Dragon Insignia
This Yongpo (King’s robe) was worn by King Sungjo, the last king of Korean dynasty. (The 34th king) Dated 2025
I looked the history of the Korean monarchy. According to ChatGPT… there was the Yi Dynasty so that’s why Show chose those names for the characters where the family name was ‘Yi’ (or Lee).
• The Yi Dynasty refers to the royal house founded by Taejo of Joseon in 1392.
• The dynasty ruled Korea for over 500 years.
• Near the end of the dynasty, Korea was renamed the Korean Empire in 1897 under Gojong of Korea.
• His son, Sunjong of Korea, became the second and final emperor.
In 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea, ending the monarchy and the Yi royal rule.
The Joseon Dynasty had 27 kings officially recognized during its history from 1392 to 1897.
The dynasty began with: Taejo of Joseon (founder, reigned 1392–1398)
And the final Joseon king was:Gojong of Korea
In 1897, Gojong changed the kingdom into the Korean Empire and became emperor rather than king.
After that there were 2 emperors of the Korean Empire:
1. Gojong of Korea
2. Sunjong of Korea
So depending on how people count, we can say there were 27 Joseon kings or 29 rulers in total from the Yi royal house if the two emperors are included.
Hence our Show gives us the 32nd to 34th Kings, as if the Japanese never ended the monarchy and Yi rule.
Review of Sorts
The end itself was sweet and satisfactory, and hence it is easy to forgive any flaws we might notice in this series.
My main gripe is that Show has teased us with several crimes or possible crimes, with some clues which now turn out to be red herrings. We only know of the last 2 criminals. But they are not likely to be the same criminals who were out making YA bleed in the hunt (when he showered, the water showed blood), or the same ones who rigged HJ’s car.
We do not know if YA’s parents had died as a result of an accident and a real heart attack, or if they had been assassinated. All these deaths had been placed before us just to make us aware that YA would be a target, but they were not going to be solved in the show. Or they were just there to underscore the fact that it was dangerous to be in a position of some power in the palace. Once YA and HJ were out of the palace, they didn’t seem to need any security at all!
The other little thing that I noticed, but again it’s possibly forgivable because this series is only 12 episodes long … some things happen a little too easily… some solutions are too pat (or the usual way of putting it is that the ending was too rushed). So it quickens the pace of getting solutions, but then it also shortens the tension and conflict.
However the editing helps Show to get around it, Show will give us just a part of a scene, hide the middle and then at the end we get to see the results with a flashback to the middle to explain what happened.
An eg. of this is in Ep 12 where QM or I Rang decides to visit her father in prison and is warned by him that Min is dangerous; coincidentally she immediately finds Min waiting for her outside, he threatens her and so it becomes plausible that she is ready to record their conversation. But we do not know that she did record the conversation yet. We next see her speaking with HJ but we don’t get their whole conversation either.
We then see I Rang calling Min. The next day HJ accuses Min of trying to kill YA, and it’s only then that we get to know that I Rang had recorded Min’s threat and admission that he had tried to kill YA and played it back for HJ. Hence the threat of Min is removed for a happy ending. This was of course a necessary ploy to end the conflict so that we could have the 2nd half of the episode giving us the fun times after the monarchy. But it was rushed.
Continued …
Review Continued …
What I liked…
When Show followed through properly to give us the fitting resolutions to the problems it did so well. I mentioned before that when the obstacle that was presented was huge, then the resolution had to be equally outstanding in order for us to get a good payoff. Well this show did that when the big obstacle of the broken engagement was turned into the surprise marriage proposal, taking the QM and Min by surprise.
It balanced the scenes of unhappy Min/QM/IP with happy couple moments, even when they were faking it.
I liked that there were little instances of foreshadowing which did pan out, as when HJ had danced with Min after her engagement and told him to cut her some slack, because if she lost him (his friendship) then she’d have no one left. Well, he lost her friendship indeed because he could not accept that she did not belong to him, but he was the one who ended up alone whereas HJ had friends and family beside her.
I liked that motives were clear and that main characters were developed. Everyone grew except Lord IP. It was also appropriate that not every bad guy got away with being forgiven.
The little parallels were fun. I just recalled/noticed that while YA walked in late to the Birthday Banquet wearing the inappropriate cheollik (meant for the hunt), HJ had walked into the QM’s Banquet very late, wearing an inappropriate white business pantsuit. They both challenged tradition/the system. It was a good set up for how they would with one mind abolish the most tradition bound thing of all, the monarchy.
Review of Sorts Continued …
Show did give us mise-en-scène that told us more than words did, which I appreciate. In the beginning when Min and YA were friends, they would stand together to talk looking at each other or both looking in the same direction. At the end they were on opposing paths and so they looked in opposite directions and hardly at each other at all.
The happiest scene was when Yi Yoon could be with his mother, at ease and smiling instead of fearful or crying. I liked their walk outdoors in the palace grounds where they asked each other if they would be afraid without a monarchy and both just smiled at each other. Because they were together, they would not be afraid. At last they were free from being boxed in by palace walls, rules, etiquette.
I’ve mentioned the scenes in the dark when Min was thinking evil thoughts or plotting them with Lord IP. They were on the dark path.
And I hardly mentioned the romance, because it was so obviously there, well written and a lot of fun to watch. I liked that there were ups and downs before our OTP ironed things out. At first their communication was lacking so their actions were not aligned. After getting together YA decided to break off because he wanted to protect her. After they got married, HJ wanted a divorce to protect him. HJ took some time to trust that YA could take care of them in the world of the palace. However outside the palace, YA was quite a newbie (he couldn’t cut his veges let alone cook correctly!)
It was so appropriate that his skills in the palace did not necessarily translate to him being able to live well outside it. I liked that Choi Hyeon remained with him and treated him as an equal.
Review of Sorts Continued …
I liked that Choi Hyeon end up doing what he enjoyed, ie open a flower shop so that he could be with flowers that he liked so much. I wonder if Ms Do had helped him since her family owned a flower shop too.
It was good that HJ who says she only had haters, and who thought her family was always against her, ends up having a great husband and friends, and rediscovers her family who had her back.
The only sad trajectory was Min’s. From being a mere antagonist, he chose to become a villain when the opportunities and temptations presented themselves. QM had taunted Min for wanting HJ for himself, saying that she would wait for his restraint to break. In the end it did, when he decided not to expose the villain of the poisoning attempt, and instead to join forces with him to kill YA.
Ironically while he became evil, I Rang who had been the ‘serpent’ who tempted him, changed and decided to do what was right. This was shown to us when the scenes of her confessing her offenses were juxtaposed against and alternated with scenes of Min making plans to declare Hunting Season.
It was fortunate that YA was too softhearted to mete out punishment upon I Rang. If he had done so, she might not have been able to help HJ take Min down.
I do have a bit more in my notes, however I became lazy and I did not feel inspired to edit what I wrote.
Let’s see… there is more stuff that I liked.
Consistent Characters
On thinking about it, I like that characters stayed true to their personalities. What was either evident or hinted at about each character, did have a follow-through for how each developed.
It was consistent for YA to hold back punishment since he had a soft-heart all along. Even 3 years previously, he could have but did not drag QM through the mud by bringing up the burnt edict and taking the throne earlier. It might have been a mixture of fearing his own greed and not wanting to hurt QM/I Rang.
Since he had hesitated and let the throne go to his nephew, he had no choice but to wait for the young King to be old enough to understand that he could abdicate. In the interim, he was a good uncle to Yi Yoon.
QM/I Rang knew YA’s soft heart and so chose to get the more hard-hearted HJ to attack Min.
HJ remained a fighter throughout, fighting even when there might have been no actual opponent. Her father had told her that he never wanted her to lose but only to stop fighting everyone. I liked that she brought her aggression to bear in the right times and ways to protect YA, without crossing the line.
Show’s Comment on the Use of PR
Show has repeatedly brought up the impact of publicity and PR in business (raising or lowering stock prices) or in popularising things political. It has pointed out that public sentiment can be/has to be managed/manipulated so that authorities can get their way. We are even given a taste of how toxic fan culture can be when HJ got egged by school girls.
The question for us remains whether we want to be/can be more discerning as we digest so much that is made public, and whether we can recognise when we are being lied to or not.
I like the instances of …
Parallels and Reciprocity
On the one hand it might be quite overt, as it happens a few times, however on the other hand, I appreciate that the Writers/PD put in the effort so that those who watch minutely are rewarded.
One eg of reciprocity was when Ms Do suggests that she and Choi Hyeon go in the spring to see the cherry blossoms. This was because CH had suggested that they do this, as he liked flowers. This was by way of return for the time they had done what she liked, by having beer at the Hangang River.
Even in the tit for tat there was reciprocity. Just as YA rejected HJ’s many attempts to gain an audience and then after kicking her out of his residence, ghosted her when she called, so too she rejected his many attempts to invite her to the Inner Court Banquet and refused to answer his calls.
The parallels are strong and deliberate. I mentioned the cheollik on YA and the white pantsuit on HJ, both of which were worn at the ‘wrong time and place’. Even the words they used to respond to the QM’s query on their choice of dress were the same. “Is it not to your liking?” (I believe that’s why QM had that ‘not you too!’ expression on her face when HJ responded to her question).
The usual (selected) stuff of reviews
Amidst the backlash faced by this series for historical inaccuracies, I add that one too many mysteries that were presented or alluded to were not resolved. Who had the mechanic who tampered with HJ’s car killed? We can only guess. The motive is also uncertain.
On the whole, the writing was wisely kept relatively simple so that it was easy to follow the characters’ motives. However most of the tension was created by the editing, rather than by the writing, as viewers were kept guessing when scenes cut to other scenes before more could be revealed.
The camerawork was okay. I was impressed by how they shot the car out of control and scraping along the railing with sparks flying, for quite a long time. There were a sufficient number and variety of shooting locations, sets and settings to be realistic.
I liked the variety of background music. Each piece was appropriate for each moment, evoking the right sentiments and moving the story along. There was ominous music when threat was in the air, sad music when I Rang separated herself from her father. I liked especially the music that was associated with YA, the royalty, or just family and the happy couple music of our OTP and their Aides.
Kudos of course to the actors who were believable. While I never forgot that I was watching IU and Byeon WS, they nevertheless portrayed a great range of emotions and brought their characters to life convincingly. Besides them, my favourite pair are of course Choi Hyeon and Ms Do whose expressions were cute and informative.
I’d recommend the show for the fun and the romance, with an ad hoc rating of 7 over 10.