The Princess' Man - eps 19-21
Myun demands to see if it is indeed SY behind the mask and SY obliges. It probably would have been smarter not to, but I think SY cannot not to - it's facing his demons, doing this. And Myun is confronted with the tangible shape of his unworthiness and lack and bad deeds.
I just like this because SY is being badass :)
And I love that he's capable of smiling again.
Myun with the arrested JJ. Myun is such a bundle of inadequacy and weakness. His flaw is not that he refuses to fight for the dethroned emperor the way JJ and SY do - his family's politics is different. His flaw is that he doesn't support Suyang and go for bloody purges because he believes it right or smart or a ruthless but certain way to success - no, he does it because he's weak and scared and takes the easiest road and is easily led. I mean, you may not like Suyang, but he is not a weakling. Myun is. And I think that is why he's come to hate SY so - SY is a symbol of his failures and also someone, even when he was off the edge of sanity, was never ever weak. (All that hell SY went through after his family's death? Myun would not have survived for a day).
They are breaking into prison to save JJ and co and she is his cover. Mainly I love this scene because this is the start of his initiating physical contact - it starts with hand-holding and progresses - it's as if he's starving for human warmth and cannot get enough.
I have to say, I found the scholars' and JJ reasoning for staying to be executed rather than escaping completely alien to me as a modern person. Regroup, fight another day! But it is clearly consistent with their internal code and TPM really does push the idea that one has to be true to one's internal code, for good or ill, or you become less than nothing.
And that is something Myun cannot understand. You know, it's his bad luck he lives in tumultous times. An uneventful succession with a powerful king without rivals, and he'd have had a pleasant life and nobody - not his friends or family or himself - would have ever known he was weak.
I love all the scenes with Ah Kang - she humanizes every scene she's in.
Deathday. What gets me is SY's nihilistic philosophy.
This was my favorite sequence in the episode, and I say this as a hardcore SY/SR fan. This is Kyung Hye going to beg Sooyang for her husband's life, and kneeling, calling the man she hates most in the world 'your Majesty.' I got shivers.
She gets what she wants but with a warning that if something else happens, he's going to get torn to pieces in front of her. Ummm, this is a tragic period kdrama, I am getting a VERY BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS.
JJ is devastated not getting executed with comrades in arms. You know, this is the theme of this drama - the women are the pragmatists, and the men are the idealists (this echoes later with SY's Hyungnim and the Madam, even). I started bawling at this whole sequence. Honestly, I love the secondary OTP as much as I do the main one and I looked up their historical fates and DO NOT WANT.
This here mainly because Park Shi Hoo is so damn gorgeous.
Se Ryung severs all her ties with her father and symbolically chops off her hair and walks out. The woman has more balls that any other character in this drama and yet she is so ladylike and realistic as a period person, not a modern woman playing dress-up.
Here for cuteness...
This scene with its longing was gorgeous (but then what OTP scene isn't), especially when he stares at and holds her cut hair - in that society, her action is unimaginably huge.
But he has to run because Shin the freakshow and his minions (no, I am not referring to his inadequacy and issues) show up. Honestly, at this point Sooyang isn't demanding she come back home, wtf are you doing, soldier boy?
She tells her servant she wishes she asked Seung Yoo to take her away and guess who obliges...You know, it strikes me that this is the most passionate period drama I've ever seen and yet it's close to Victorian in its chasteness - it's the power of their emotions and their longing that makes it such a hothouse.
He brings her to a brothel where his family is (is anyone reminded of their excursion in an early ep and what a different one this is). And I love that she makes him smile like this. He used to smile so easily before...And I love that despite the danger and the shabbiness, the two are just so happy.
One of the gisaengs slips up about how SY used to only be able to fall sleep sitting up, holding his sword.
This scene! This scene! I think it may be my favorite in the drama. He comes in and massages her arm, which is sore after all the work and she asks about him sleeping. And he tells her that is true because he used to think there was nobody he could trust and he longed for someone to trust because maybe then he could sleep. And she puts his head on her shoulder and tells him to have a good dream and he wonders that she's brought something else he thought was lost forever to him - ability to sleep well. And he falls asleep and doesn't wake up even when she strokes his face. He doesn't just love her, he needs her for his sanity and even for his physical well-being. And how far they've come from those days when he came back seeking vengeance and yet it feels organic.
More secondary OTP.
They are so happy and plan to leave together. This is how you know something will go dreadfully wrong.
Shin finds her and drags her home to Daddy and Daddy is so pissed she won't betray Seung Yu he makes her Shin's slave. I've ranted enough about it so just have caps. Sure, Daddy, this will totally make her see the error of her ways.
Honestly, nerves of steel, this woman has.
Here for the pretty.
Actually, I really like the Madam.
Shin is freaking out even more because SR won't give an inch even now. His obsession with killing SY, as a symbol of everything that is wrong in his life, is such a crutch. Let's say, he killed SY. SR won't love him, JJ won't make him friends again, his own self-loathing won't disappear.
I love them.
Seriously, I don't know if it's the hair or what, but I swoon like a teenager.
SY finds out SR has been made a slave.
Rescue...
Sooyang is appalled his daughter ran off with SY. Look, even if she didn't want to before (she did), do you think she'd rather stay a slave?
I love every horse-riding scene because it harks back to the very first one, when SR was seeking metaphorical freedom. Now the freedom is very tangibale and very life-and-death.
I could not breathe...
Even the most mundane interactions are new to them...
Shin finds out where the lovers went because Madam doesn't want Hyungnim to die even when he's prepared to. As I said, women are the pragmatists in this one. I cannot fault her here.
They go see Kyung Hye and Jeong Jung.
This whole sequence makes me deeply sad. The OTP and the secondary OTP are so happy (KH just told JJ he's going to be a father and SY and SR found respite and hope) and they do not know an army is on their trail and everything is about to go to hell.
He realizes something odd is going on and is off to investigate. I love this kiss so much - they are gulping down each other, like drowning people do with air.
He is about to shoot Shin (do it!!!!) when he sees SR captured. Oh, God, I bet he can't shoot now and it must also giving him flashbacks to that scene before where she got shot.
Have a shippy MV:
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