Of class and regret - Tree with Deep Roots ep 10 - that scene
I always love it the rare instances sageuks address class. Very few do, actually, which may be realistic in one sense (characters are just used to this being how things are) but from any modern standpoint, this is the big elephant in the room in any story set in a rigidly hierarchical society where you have no power without someone else having more power and that disparity might mean your instant death and where people can own other people. Chuno deals with it. Hong Gil Dong deals with it. The Princess' Man deals with it a little. And I love that Tree with Deep Roots addresses it.
(This reference will probably make sense to no one, but Chae Yoon is pretty much a Korean Vimes.)
It is Chae Yoon who is the one who is constantly aware of class, who is constantly bringing it to attention when others would want it buried (witness his earlier snarl that there are no lowly lives) and who is driven by the knowledge of this starkly disparate treatment for nobles and everyone else in trying to solve who framed the butcher in this ep. The thing is, he is uniquely positioned to do so - he is someone who has some power now, as a palace guard, but he used to be a slave - someone whose life was worth so little, who was viewed as having so little independent existence from his master that he was going to be executed as the grand old age of 10 merely for belonging to the man accused of treason. Much as I love Sejong, even someone as enlightened a ruler as he would never think this way because he's always been privileged - sure, he was subject to whims and dictates of Tejong, but that chronic sense of worthlessness merely by virtue of being who you are is alien to him.
And that is why he lashes out at So Yi in that brilliant scene between them (you know, every time they are on-screen together, the chemistry burns). Because her refusal to testify to expose the butcher's innocence on grounds that doing so would expose a state secret, hits him where it hurts - he doesn't know her background. To him, she's another incredibly privileged noblewoman who doesn't view a slave as of any importance as compared to state plans (after all, Chae Yoon and everyone he loved were victims of that kind of attitude). That is why he snarls the way he does. And that is why he backs off when she explains her past guilt and why she cannot expose the truth. And I love that the contained, reserved, almost-withdrawn So Yi exposes herself to him the way she doesn't to any other human being, even though she barely knows him. In part because Chae Yoon seems to have that impact on people - a gift in his line of work - but in part because they do feel that bone-deep commonality and connection even if neither can explain it yet.
I also think that Chae Yoon and So Yi are a perfect match because they went from slaves to palace employees (in different capacities) and that is a very important duality. I don't think Chae Yoon could be happy with an uneducated slave woman (or how that would work in that status-fixated society) but he would have nothing in common with a woman who's always been a pampered palace lady and never known what it was like to be a poor, disregarded chattel. (Not to mention it would mean he'd have to deceive her on a very basic level as to who he really is). As it is, both of them have a foot in each world, neither fully fitting in either, and that is why they could fit together in a world of their own.
Anyway, enough blathering, have the caps.
