gilaswan

She was under Jin Mu’s control through a spell. I’m afraid once he realises that Buyeon is Naksu, he’s going to try to invoke that spell again.

Loved last night's episode again! But I'm also realising maybe I should spend this afternoon rewatching some episodes of Part 1 too. I reckon I'm getting a better understanding of this issue with Naksu and Bu-yeon which is probably somewhat lost in Eng sub translation. The 2 souls are intertwined as @ktcjdramasuggested, though why it is that Naksu appears the stronger and more dominant is unclear. I hazard that it's because when you soul shift, you end up pushing out the "resident soul", except that in Bu-yeon's case, she being a powerful sorceress (I don't agree with the Netflix translation that refers to her as a priestess) in her own right made it impossible for her soul to be completely displaced. If you consider the saying that your "eyes are the windows to your soul", then that's why the blue mark of soul shifters can be seen in her eyes - she's still there. So Bu-yeon becomes potentially more powerful than her ancestor was because she is 2-in-1 - a powerful sorceress and mage. I think she's an embodiment of what noone imagined could happen with the alchemy of souls. The only question now is whether both souls continue to manifest as individual entities in the body through distinct memories, or whether they will eventually merge into a single being.

@ktcjdramaHe broods well…

@ktcjdramaDon't get me wrong. I loved it too - I love fantasy and most Korean shows don't do it well, but I'm totally enjoying this. It has a nice Harry Potter "Asian" edition vibe to it. I just wish they had a more elegant explanation for why Naksu's soul was the one that survived the petrification in that sense and not Bu-yeon's. Considering how powerful as a sorceress Bu-yeon was supposed to be, I find it very unsatisfactory that suddenly her soul is just gone. Afterall, if the potential for the return of Bu-yeon's memory is there, then the soul certainly must still be alive. But if the soul is still alive, why is dormant and Naksu's is the active one? The explanation just isn't satisfactory. Not at this point anyway. I hope it will be addressed as the episodes run. I have to say, while I found it regrettable that Jung So-min is no more, the chemistry between Lee Jae-wook and Go Youn-jung is so much stronger and more attractive. Anyone else agree with me?

How is everyone responding to the first 2 episodes of Part 2? I feel like I need to rewind and rewatch the last episode of Part 1 to remember again what happened. So she now looks like Naksu because mum opted to keep the physical body which runs the Jin blood, but the soul is Naksu's? So does that mean the actual soul of Bu-yeon is dead? Why was it that Naksu's soul became intertwined with with Bu-yeon's to begin with, and Bu-yeon's soul is suddenly no more? Sounds like a conveninent deus ex machina to me just so we can bring in a bit more confusion to the larger community who must not know who she is. Nice that just about no one can recognise her...

I think what made this an interesting show was that it reimagined historical conditions with current thinking and attitudes, with a good degree of realism. The imagined wasn’t taken to levels of extreme possibilities where it would become unbelievable. It was progressiveness within fair reason, that if a queen of that time could do what Queen HR did, and could have the influence she had however limited it might have been, and if that influence did not come from the manipulative controls of people in the court, but from sincere and honest beliefs in the good of humanity, could Joseon have moved differently in a monarchy? I think that imagination was what made this show both intriguing and enjoyable. Yes, in reality, in those times, the King could not have done what he did in the end and got away with it. But it was the moral courage that kept him in his seat. He will be remembered as the “Sage King”. I did wonder if he would have self-abdicated in favour of Kang, but then they did show Kang as preferring to keep the seat warm for his nephew instead, which was also a fair direction to take. In those times, the Queen would not have been able to move around outside the palace as freely as she did, let alone set up a halfway house for abandoned women. In those times, cross dressing as a royal even as adulthood was attained would have been impossible, but her son managed to even send paintings back of himself living another life (which I highly doubt was possible to live in confucian Joseon). In those times, allowing a grand prince to break with tradition to marry a commoner?! Never! But all these imagined possibilities were heartwarming to watch. I do think that the central theme was probably “respect”. That was the difference in how Queen HR treated all her relationships, vs the dowager. If we all lived respectfully of others, the generations would have developed differently. Respect isn’t a new concept. It’s just one that’s not well practiced, even today.

I actually thought her death was quite aptly portrayed. I had mentioned a few posts back that being who she was in the hierarchy, the only way this could truly end was to have her die by her own hands. I did wonder how it could happen though cos if this were a show that held true to the times they were in, it would indeed be true that the king would never have been able to bring his own mother down without inciting or legitimating the rebellion, especially with new knowledge that Ui Seong held actual lineage rights to the throne of the previous dynasty. I felt it wasn’t so much that the dowager had fallen so quickly, but she had actually hedged her bets on the wrong people. Sequentially, I think things went wrong when she thought she could control her son 100%. She underestimated the influence the Queen would have on her son and the other concubines. Once she lost that influence over the King, she lost control of the situation. I reckon she wasn’t counting on the State Councillor getting murdered by Kwon. Without him, she would lose control of the court. Then she lost control over the call to execute Hwang and Ui Seong. Had she been successful there, the rest of the court would believe she had control over the king and would still fear her. If King had kept her in her place, she would still be able to meddle in court affairs, and would soon again amass new power and influence. But she didn’t count on her son essentially placing her in confinement. It was the humiliation she could not accept. She who was queen only for a day, had to crown herself queen in her death because she could not love being a powerless dowager in name against her daughter-in-law, queen in every way, poise and dignity. So I don’t reckon it was an anti-climatic end for the Dowager. It was very well thought through. And very poetic.

Looks like it wrapped up as we expected/predicted. I feel sorriest for Hwang and son,,, Who was the person the King reinstated into the court as official?

I started watching on Monday and am all caught up right in time for the finale. This show’s pacing and story development is quite quite good! The dowager is downright evil. Right to say she might just as well sacrifice her own son if it means she retains power. While King might have had the ambition to be king, I don’t think he would have wanted blood on his hand. He probably chanced upon seeing his mother being present when the previous CP was murdered and in his youth was probably too shocked to know how to respond. I’d like to believe he was still truly the best there was to be selected. In many ways, it did not surprise me that Il Hyeon was deliberate in his plans to seduce and impregnate Concubine Hwang. It seemed a brilliant plot twist that the one who desired to be CP really had a very legitimate claim to it. But how twisted it was that he would also be descended from the one who took away that legitimate claim to the throne by having committed treason against the previous dynasty. Was Ik Hyeon really thinking of Concubine Hwang and Ui Seong when he said he wanted to live with his mother, wife and son? Prolly. But with true fondness? I don’t know. Did he have any affection for Concubine Hwang at all? I didn’t detect it at the point of his death when he revealed who he was to her. I am too wondering what will happen to the Cprincess now. I hope they discover that Dowager was trying to pull a fast one on them. And how to bring the Grand Heir back to the palace? Or does royal protocol no longer allow it? I’m just waiting to see how things will end of the dowager. If she remains, the terror will never end. But the King cannot be unfilial towards his own mother unless she too is charged for treason. I feel she needs to die by her own hands for this to all settle.

Everyone geared up for part 2?

@mademoiselle@ktcjdrama I finally found the time to finish the drama. What a convoluted end. I think everything just got unnecessarily complicated. So Seungcheon sadly gets lost again in the unending swaps of golden spoons. There are just too many and gotten too easily too. And Juhee loses him for another 3 years - does it not get tiresome? And then Juntae is actually Hyeondo’s son? So very messy.

@mademoiselleya rite? Much ado about nothing… that should have been the title of the show.

Finally finished the series. The cute bits of the show was what really kept me watching. There’s really nothing intelligent about the plot. Quite the opposite. I didn’t see what was so horrendous about what Madam Yoo did that warranted such a research and intervention that could have gotten Jiho into trouble at work, or that he should have fabricated things for her. Also didn’t get why what Jamie did at the board meeting was such a huge reveal that would have taken the burden off Madam Yoo and Jiho. And then why did she leave him for that period? And when did the co-workers and boss realise she wasn’t really his wife but they were really dating? I mean yes, there was that public scandal with Haejin but didn’t it seem like the boss at least never knew? So how did they then know she had “left” him? And is she actually really the daughter of the Ina group after all? And the Ina group winds up in all of this? But why? Seemed like nothing of the backdrop really mattered in the end. There was some story in some setting with some characters. Hahaha… that was what this series felt like.

I just find it odd, plot wise, that Jamie had not met her adoptive family once until the marriage meeting, such that she should so suddenly snap at that point. From the flashbacks it would appear she literally got off the plane and first appointment was the wedding meet. Seems sudden and extreme. She literally wouldn’t know who’s who nor would she have experienced any trauma prior for a trigger. Does anyone else feel that way about this?

Hmm… I’m still watching this show cos I want to know if Seungcheon returns to his original family. At this point, I feel Taeyong will in the long term be happier with his adopted family and Seungcheon will be more successful bring the heir of Dosin. Seungcheon needs to stay where he is too in order to protect everyone though - Taeyong was never able to get out of Juntae’s grip as the son of Hyeondo, so they seem best suited strategically where they are now. But Yeojin is really the nemesis of them all. She threatens an otherwise seemingly “perfect” equilibrium (sans the romance cos at this point, neither guy has managed to firmly establish a relationship with Juhee regardless of who they are) because of her personal greed and selfish intentions. What does it really benefit her for Taeyong to know Seungcheon’s memories anyway? My guess is that Taeyong finds out who he is because of what Yeojin does, but instead of that ruining Seungcheon, both boys decide to stay where they are. Juhee realises after all that Seungcheon is the one who truly acts in her interests (than Taeyong who acts only out of an infatuation) and still chooses him in the end. The biggest loser will be Yeojin. Do you suppose her real memories will be accidentally discovered by her “father”?

Who’s starting to find this show unnecessarily messy in plot?

@abs-oluteMyep. Just realised I clicked on the wrong forum thread link before I saw your message. Hahaha. Cut and pasted it in the write place now!

I was enjoying this drama for its lightheartedness (was finding Golden Spoon a tad too intense), up until the latest episode when the ex-wife came back. I knew she would, but it’s annoying. Couldn’t they have left her out of the mix? Didn’t like that she came in as the legal advisor to HJ.

Edit: Oops! Realised I clicked on the wrong forum and posted wrongly. Sorry, peeps! Copying and pasting this out! Hahaha…

@zmalgeThanks for sharing the note. I was scrolling through our past conversations the other day. I miss Bai…

Finally caught up and also looked at the wiki page for the series. The description for HTY is that his life goes back and forth from being rich to poor not of his own will. Does this mean LSC will continue to utilise his golden spoon a few more times between then and now? The show starts in 2011, so we’re definitely going to see movements in time over an 11-year span, which is what the spoon allows — 30 days, 1 year and 10 years before life is cast in stone. I find it intriguing that OJN is an owner of a golden spoon. Since the girl she swapped lives with died some 5 years ago now, she must be within her 10-year period now. She’s able to identify LSC as a recipient of the golden spoon too. Does this mean that golden spoon users can identify other golden spooners? Or is she aware just by the clues of apparent inconsistencies in behaviours? I also find it a curious matter that HTY’s giftedness in art and personality are so similar to LC (LSC’s dad). Could HTY’s father actually have been a golden spooner himself and swapped lives with LC? Cos LSC’s talents and personality also seem so much better suited to being HHD’s son. But that being the case would probably be one switch too many and then logic would be complicated.

I’m done watching the first 3 episodes. Will prolly watch the 4th later. So far, hafta say the storyline is quite intriguing and somewhat heavy. Taeyong’s father is somewhat odd. Not quite the rich eccentric, odd. His son comes back with a bruises lip, clearly from a fight, and he does not have a reaction to that at all?? And his step mum also. So odd in her disposition. She speaks and behaves almost like a child, I wonder what happened to his birth mother. And who was the person she was speaking to on the phone with such urgency to return as well? This inheritance business is adding to the mystery for sure.

Most importantly though - Lee Jongsuk really looks very fine in those suits. Very fine indeed. He cuts a very suave and commanding figure as a mafia boss. I dare say, much much better than SJK did as Vincenzo.

@ktcjdrama@mademoiselle@abs-oluteM I finished watching the finale this morning and like ktcjdrama, I spent a few hours trying to decide if I liked the ending or not. I think for the most parts, it was a satisfactory finish. Did it make me want to pump my fist in the air and say, “Yeah!”? Nope. But neither did it make me feel like cursing at the writers. I think in all fairness, there was some level of realism to it. We lost Miho and as much as that was sad, perhaps I didn’t get a strong enough sense of their relationship to want to cry buckets for the couple. It was heartbreaking to see an orphan lose his only family of choice, but it wasn’t heart wrenching for me, y’know? I think the moment her nose started bleeding, I accepted she would possibly not survive and wasn’t surprised she didn’t. There’s been no element of fairytalism in this drama at all. I do feel like while Changho apparently won this game, I’m not so sure it was a real victory. Him being saddled with being Big Mouse just seems a bit sad. Did he really want to spend the rest of his life being Robin Hood? And with Doha out of the picture, is there anyone else for Big Mouse to bring down? I felt like there was a lot more story telling to be had but they tried to squeeze it all into 16 episodes. Right down to the last 12 minutes of the show, the show still hadn’t shown any signs of winding up. Then suddenly, everything finished through a series of news reels and voiceovers. That, I didn’t like. Some unfinished bits to the story - • what of Chairman Kang’s serial killer son? Agree that this subplot was pointless, or if it did have a point, they ran out of time to complete it, cos now I’m left wondering - what about the unjust death of that inmate? Would no one clear his name? And what about the inheritance he was supposedly to challenge? • the Mayor’s position - did Changho finally get appointed Mayor with Doha’s death? • Doha’s death - how do you suddenly collapse and die after one dip in the radioactive pool? So he drowns? Collapsed into the water dead? In fact, I wonder too why Minho’s cancer developed so quickly when the prisoners took months if not years to develop theirs. • The murders! No Park’s daughter, Hyejin, Chairman Kang - will no one uncover their murders?? As for Gong Jihoon - was he really a villain less bad than the others? He was a spoiled brat for most of it, but I do think he never got any blood on his hands. I guess his saving grace was that at the end of it, he stood against Doha. Though he seemed to have come into that position more by chance than by any real overt action on his part. He never really seemed smart enough… Even allying with Changho was because he had no other choice. But he was willing to humble himself for it. Prosecutor as well. So perhaps Changho as Big Mouse might be able to make some good out of some people…

Hello chingu-deul! Have been meaning to post about this drama right from the start but life has been happening. And then suddenly, we're at the final weekend of the show! Have been reading various comments and while I get that the show seems to be nothing but constant twists, turns and apparent smoke screens being thrown here and there, I reckon that's what makes the show interesting. For me at least. Just when you think you knew what was going on, something else happens. As we near the end of the show though, I've got some thoughts I feel I just need to get out of my head. 1. About Changho and his apparently "sudden" brilliance Could be my mistake, but I thought I read or saw somewhere that he's actually quite the smart kid in school. Maybe not your top-of-the-class Harvard smart sorta lawyer, but he wasn't unable as much as he was probably unwilling. So I didn't find it difficult to accept that this brilliance suddenly seemed to surface when he was thrown into prison for an injustice. I mean, think about it - he's an orphan who most certainly had to learn to fend for himself throughout his youth. He grew up in an orphanage and likely had an early introduction to injustice, especially in the Korean culture of dog-eat-dog, haves and and have-nots. His underachievements were probably part of a defence mechanism in him - do little, expect little, be disappointed little. His attempt however at trying to fleece Gong Jihoon at the start was probably his mistake that pulled him into this whirlpool of political intrigues and murder. That was likely in part naivety at work at that time, but I cannot imagine an orphan who managed to make it to the bar in a place like Korea to not have at least the foundations of street smarts that simply needed awakening. Once he understood how hierarchies and power worked in the army, he was on his way to becoming mafia boss. 2. About the deaths of key characters I did find that actual Big Mouse and Chairman Kang died a bit too easily though, especially Chairman Kang. I am willing to accept that once Big Mouse's actual identity was made public, he would have easily become a target of hitmen. I do think No Park knew that risk, but he was also ready to simply let the next Big Mouse take over. It was quite clear in his farewell speech, which was why he was ready to strike a deal with Changho at the expense of death. Big Mouse had grown to become more than a personal vendetta and an alter-ego of himself; Big Mouse had become an organisation and institution against the establishment, and a succession plan was necessary for the fight to continue. Chairman Kang's death on the other hand seemed a little too easy. If it had been that simple, what was the Mayor waiting for actually? What was so significant about the time he chose to kill the old man? It could have been any other time for that matter. Unless it was about waiting until his wife was clearly named the heir to the old man's empire, because it seemed immaterial to him that the old man knew or not who he actually was. At the point of the murder, he had not yet known that Changho was alive or that Changho had set the entire scenario up just for the identity reveal to Chairman Kang. So what's to look forward to as we reach the finale? For me, the medical fate of Miho aside, I really want to know a) how the Mayor's wife will respond when she finds out about the plots and ploys surrounding her all this while and how she will respond to him after finding out he probably never really loved her (or does he and will she be his partner in his diabolical quest to reclaim what he thinks is rightfully his to rule?); b) if Miho will eventually find out that Changho is Big Mouse, or that he had become Big Mouse c) whose side Gong Jihoon will eventually take - he hates Choi Doha, but Changho is the enemy to the estate and privileges of the NR Forum, no? Surely he must know Changho is using him as much as he is using Changho. So who is going to be betrayed by Gong Jihoon eventually? d) if Changho will remain as Big Mouse at the end of it all. This game may end, but there will always be another round the corner. And yes. Lee Jongsuk is looking mighty fine in those suits. Mighty fine indeed...