kdrama; Gye baek eps 3-11
This post would be full of intelligent observations and commentary on a complex plot, excellent acting, and interesting characters, but Lee Seo Jin running around in various states of dress with a sword is quite distracting, and what parts of the brain aren't distracted by that are busy appreciating awesome ladies plotting to take over the country and/or get revenge.
Anyway, I have to wonder what Lee Seo Jin thought when he started getting scripts. "Wait, I have one line in my first 2 epiosdes? And I spend the rest of the time borderline catatonic and staring angrily and intently at things, and occasionally go feral? But isn't the main character supposed to have more lines? And wasn't he all cheerful and open a couple episodes ago? And then I still don't talk much after that?"
I guess spending a long time catatonic after trauma is The Thing for this season's sageuks? (And then having people whack you around thinking that you're a strapping young man so CLEARLY physical abuse will snap you out of it...) So anyway, this show seems to want to prove that Lee Seo Jin is very good at characterization even when he barely talks. It's doing a pretty good job so far. It's also very devoted to showing how good he is at manpain. (And fanservice.) And by "manpain" I mean the fun kind where you start to feel a bit guilty over enjoying a fictional character's trauma, not the annoying kind where you're all "OMG your angst is not the only thing in the world does this show have nothing else going on?"
Also, while it's not exactly a screen pairing I'd ever really considered, Lee Seo Jin and Song Ji Hyo have amazing chemistry I may now have a deep need for them to make out on my screen. Too bad this isn't a fusion sageuk, where'd there'd be a decent chance of that happening.
Did I mention how much I love that all the women are running around plotting political coups and are basically the brains behind the factions and plot the manipulations and doublecrosses? Because I really do. Though, I kind of feel bad for Sa Baek Bi because I think she really does love Eun Go and think Eun Go is the only one who understands her, and Eun Go is just faking in her plot to get revenge for her family's death. I mean, not too bad, considering all the things Sa Baek Bi has done, but still. I hope for an awesome masochism tango there. (I can actually see a lot of Emperor of the Sea influence in their dynamic, but with Eun Go more proactive and cunning than Jung Hwa.)
Also, the absolute best scene in the series so far is when Sa Baek Bi's father tried pulling paternal rank and she was all "You may be my father but I am the goddamned queen of this country and the soul of the people and you will mind your place." Also, frankly, while she's scary and ruthless and manipulative, I think she is a way better choice than the king, who's basically ineffectual and what little he has actually done so far has been reactive and prompted by her machinations, sometimes with his reaction being her goal. (Incidentally, why are so many awesome women over 30 in fiction burdened with annoying teenaged sons who think it's all about them?) I mean, Seodongyo is basically as decent guy as he could be under the circumstances, but I think that he's the sort who everyone likes and will follow into battle, but can never actually get a real handle on ruling and politics.
I can't make up my mind about Prince Ui Ja. Like, on the one hand, I get why and how he is the way he is and kinda admire his survival skills. On the other hand, I can't help but think that his father's apple didn't fall far from the tree there, and he just has a bit more focus. I mean, it seems that any success he's had owes most of the credit to Eun go, and probably in the future to Chun Soo (I think that was his name? The guy from the prison.) and I don't think he's actually thought about what he'll do once he becomes king. I mean, I approve of wanting revenge for his mother, but I'm not convinced he really has goals beyond that.
Back to Gye Baek, I really wasn't expecting him to (largely rightly) blame Ui Ja for his father's death and end up a slave in Shilla. But I guess they wanted Lee Seo Jin to angstangstangst to a while. And get whipped. I'm kind of wondering, though, how they're going to transition from that to his being Ui Ja's top and most trusted general, given that he still basically hates everyone associated with the royal family (understandably) and seems to mostly try to tolerate Ui Ja for Eun Go, and because Moo Jin wanted Ui Ja to live and become king.
Also, his attempts to convince himself us that he's over Eun Go (because when they met after being separated for years, she was allied with Ui Ja) are hilarious. It's like "Yes, when you were catatonic you didn't flip out anytime someone touched the charm she gave you and spend time clutching it and rocking back and forth and smiling. And you don't start getting ready to break bones if someone even implies an insult to her. Or freeze any time she's around and hope no one notices you spend half your time giving her Deep Looks Of Love And Longing (TM). And do anything she says. FOOLED WE ARE NOT!" Also, I like that her reaction to his tough guy routine is "yeah I still care about you from when we were younger and want to help you however I can, but I have political coups and vengeance to plot and a future king to mold and a scarysmart queen to deceive and don't have time to coddle you when you're being stubborn and suspicious!" Of course, when she was 13-14, she threw herself in front of an assassin to take advantage ofthe assassination attempt as the first step in her plot to get revenge, so I can see why she isn't the sort of person to be too worried abut what the quasi-feral guy who had a crush on her when they were kids might do to her.
Also, normally, I would say that Gye Baek has Eun Go on an unrealistic pedestal, but I'm not sure he does. Even when he was a kid he was too aware of her "faults" (sharp tongue, bluntness, a fair degree of arrogance, etc.) to have an illusions of her as a perfect or infallible being, he just really really liked her anyway. I do think that, while he was a slave, he used his memories of her to create a "safe haven" in his head that was separate from the violence and pain, but that doesn't seem to cloud his view of her now that they're adults and have met again. Though, I'm pretty sure that's the only thing that kept Ui Ja alive. At this point, I'm not sure he can actually deliberately commit violence in front of her.
I also like that their relationship in the childhood part was as developed as it was. It makes it more believable that he's still so hung up on her and is all but obsessed. Though, I think he realizes how much he clung to his memories and relied on them then, and that the actual person isn't going to be the ideal in his head. Though, while i liked them a lot as kids, my liking for the pairing went through the roof when he wasn't able to kill the man who killed his father in front of her.
Also, I don't know what Ui Ja is thinking to try to forbid Gye Baek to fight. I mean, yeah, Moo Jin didn't want Gye Baek to be a warrior when Gye Baek was a kid, but (A) Gye Baek is an adult now can make his own choices, and (B) while I don't know that it can be said that he likes fighting, it's one of the few things he really responds to, and that can get him to do more than sit there (literally) pretty much cut off from the world (when he isn't pretty much following/looking for Eun Go) and if you want to help him, find a way to direct things he understands and reacts to in good ways instead of completely removing the outlet and trying to cut him off from anything he understands (I mean, modern therapy and understanding of stress and trauma don't really exist, but I can't help but even then you'd realize that you can't really take someone who clearly hasn't recovered from major trauma and return him to the place the trauma was caused and present him with the people responsible for the trauma, and be all "well, sit here, smile happily and live a peaceful life that doesn't include doing anything you actually understand or know how to do and it'll all just go away and you can be "normal""), and (C) look, the dude dodges arrows, scales walls, is an excellent strategist, can infiltrate heavily guarded camps, and can take on anywhere between 1 and probably close to 10 men singlehandedly and walk away the winner. Two words: Valuable Resource.