dusts off journals....
So Yuletide sign ups are up, and so you can expect my Yuletide letter later, but I didn't want my first post in a long time just be my Yuletide letter so here we go with an actual post.
So anyways I have spent my year kind of humming along. I am completing an internship in a law firm this semester before I graduate so hopefully I will son have a job that makes a liveable wage and can say good bye to the pits of hell known as retail good bye forever.
But real life is boring and quite frankly that isn't what this post is about.
Earlier through the summer I fell into a 90s anime vortex which meant of course that I rewatched Sailor Moon. (Actually first I rewatched PGSM and then I moved on to Sailor Moon). I actually didn't finish it getting only 75% through S before kinda losing steam (sorta happens when your series is 200 episodes long) and then moved on to what I had been trying to get back to all year.
K-dramas.
Now I watched Queen In-hyun's Man in August (I think, time flies together now) and that was totally feelings inducing and whatever and I totally recommended. (Also if you need kissing in your life then man is Queen In-hyun's Man the drama for you).
And then I broke my rule of never watching a drama as it airs and started watching Faith and Arang and the Magistrate. (I am more invested in Arang at the moment but that could just be because it is ending this week and so I am running on finale fever).
But honestly, this post isn't about those dramas.
No.
This post is about the narrative (not drama, narrative) that singlehandedly RUINED MY LIFE.
The Princess Man.
Now if you had told me a year ago that I would be watching a drama that was billed as the "Joseon Romeo & Juliet" I would have laughed in your face. (I also would have laughed in your face if you had told me that I would be watching 2 on air kdramas too so maybe that isn't saying much). I am not particularly fond of R&J or the starcrossed lovers trope in general.
But the show looked pretty. And
viviolo's tag on Tumblr was intriguing and I actually watched the first episode before I fully understood that it was a starcrossed lovers story.
But to be honest that billing sells it short. The Princess Man is riveting, beautiful (aesthetically and story wise), well written, and produced.
And it will destroy your life.
The Princess Man is the story that takes place in 15th century Joseon (the name of what is now Korea) and centers around the actual historical event of the coup lead by Grand Prince Su yang (later known as King Sejo the seventh king of the Joseon Dynasty) to overthrow his young nephew to take the throne. The coup is not exactly viewed kindly by history though apparently Su yang's did have quite a few accomplishments and such.
But this is a fictional story so let's get right down to it. The Princess' Man is about the ill fated connectiong between Su yang's (supposedly) fictional daughter and the fictional son of Kimg Jong seo a block to Su yang's eventual taking of the throne. So there you go two households both alike in dignity and two star crossed lovers. Except that Lee Se Ryung and Kim Seung yu are much more liked and developped then Romeo and Juliet ever was as well as the conflict between their parents.
The thing is the first few episodes are tricky. While packed with dramatic moments (almost being flung off a cliff by a horse, almost getting put to death because you sort of brought the person you thought was a princess to a gisaeng house (think high class brothel)) it was also filled with things that are kind of cute romance staples like two cousins switch places and lead dude falls in love with you thinking you were her! Cute dates where you write poetry and just handfanning it all up and falling in love while your fathers in the background are preparing for a showdown.
Of course that showdown invariably comes down starting with episode 8 which is when Su yang makes his first real strike towards becoming king. This strike is of course killing Kim Jong Seo and his family.
Obviously this poses problems for Seung yu and Se Ryung's love affair. Having one's father kill the other is kind of a romance killer. And it doesn't help that when at the time that it happens you don't even know that she is the daughter of your family's enemy and you think she is just some poor ex-palace maid hanging at a temple with some baby!Aangs. Betrayal hurts. And of course following this whole event Seung yu swears revenge and fashions himself a vigilante.
But I don't actually want to talk about the dudes. Rather I want to talk about this lady:
When I say that Lee Se Ryung is one of my favorite fictional ladies of all time (and my most favorite kdrama heroine) I mean she is probably in my top 3.
She is a badass. Not in that she is a fighter or anything like that. No, because Se Ryung can't fight like that. She can't pick up a sword or a bow and strike down her enemies or protect those she loves.
But she fights within the restrictions that are placed on her in a time period when women were given very little agency. And Se Ryung is brimming with agency. She is a force and she spends the whole series basically just saving lives and holding accountable and being true to herself.
She uses a note to save Seung yu from meeting the same fate as his father and brother, but without giving herself up. She holds a sword to her neck for hours to save the life of an innocent man and to get her father to question his actions in trying to attain the throne. When Su yang does finally take the throne she refuses to take the title of Princess. She takes an arrow for Seung yu when he is foolishly trying to seek a revenge that is way above his head. She shoulders and accepts the weight and burden of her father's crimes even as it isolates her from her family but is kept at a distance from those who oppose her father. When her father finally crosses the line and executes a bunch of rebelling scholars and exiles her cousin the former king (with the intention of eventually poisoning him) she cuts her hair and leaves the palace no longer willing to stand by her father as he kills everyone. (Or what seems like everyone).
Basically she is the love of my life (or one of them, let's be real no one is unseating Relena, but Se Ryung is close, being that i think she graduated from the same class on how to be freaking awesome)
But anyways other things to know about TPM:
1. The music, look is amazing. This drama is pretty, it sounds pretty, and looks pretty. Everything is on par. It had a budget and it shows.
2. The secondary leads, Kyung he and Jeong will break your heart.
3. Episode 22 is the worst thing I have ever watched in my life.
4. The secondary dude is legit the worst in ANYTHING EVER. LIke Shin Myun is the worst character I have ever encountered in a kdrama and I sat through Jin Pyo and Evil Corrupt people in City Hunter. Shin Myun is worse. He is possessive, disloyal, mean, and petty and pathetic without an ounce of sympathy. (His actor is also the weakest in the cast.)
5. Also thanks to this show I can now I say I have two OTPs where one threatens to kill the other and then fails to do so in spectacular fashion. I don't know that I like what this says about me.
6. Just look at this drama: (VId is mostly from the beginning, but I don't know it was the closest thing I felt I could find)
This entry was originally posted at http://kristenell.dreamwidth.org/273896.html. There are currently
comments posted.
So anyways I have spent my year kind of humming along. I am completing an internship in a law firm this semester before I graduate so hopefully I will son have a job that makes a liveable wage and can say good bye to the pits of hell known as retail good bye forever.
But real life is boring and quite frankly that isn't what this post is about.
Earlier through the summer I fell into a 90s anime vortex which meant of course that I rewatched Sailor Moon. (Actually first I rewatched PGSM and then I moved on to Sailor Moon). I actually didn't finish it getting only 75% through S before kinda losing steam (sorta happens when your series is 200 episodes long) and then moved on to what I had been trying to get back to all year.
K-dramas.
Now I watched Queen In-hyun's Man in August (I think, time flies together now) and that was totally feelings inducing and whatever and I totally recommended. (Also if you need kissing in your life then man is Queen In-hyun's Man the drama for you).
And then I broke my rule of never watching a drama as it airs and started watching Faith and Arang and the Magistrate. (I am more invested in Arang at the moment but that could just be because it is ending this week and so I am running on finale fever).
But honestly, this post isn't about those dramas.
No.
This post is about the narrative (not drama, narrative) that singlehandedly RUINED MY LIFE.
Click to viewThe Princess Man.
Now if you had told me a year ago that I would be watching a drama that was billed as the "Joseon Romeo & Juliet" I would have laughed in your face. (I also would have laughed in your face if you had told me that I would be watching 2 on air kdramas too so maybe that isn't saying much). I am not particularly fond of R&J or the starcrossed lovers trope in general.
But the show looked pretty. And
viviolo's tag on Tumblr was intriguing and I actually watched the first episode before I fully understood that it was a starcrossed lovers story.
But to be honest that billing sells it short. The Princess Man is riveting, beautiful (aesthetically and story wise), well written, and produced.
And it will destroy your life.
The Princess Man is the story that takes place in 15th century Joseon (the name of what is now Korea) and centers around the actual historical event of the coup lead by Grand Prince Su yang (later known as King Sejo the seventh king of the Joseon Dynasty) to overthrow his young nephew to take the throne. The coup is not exactly viewed kindly by history though apparently Su yang's did have quite a few accomplishments and such.
But this is a fictional story so let's get right down to it. The Princess' Man is about the ill fated connectiong between Su yang's (supposedly) fictional daughter and the fictional son of Kimg Jong seo a block to Su yang's eventual taking of the throne. So there you go two households both alike in dignity and two star crossed lovers. Except that Lee Se Ryung and Kim Seung yu are much more liked and developped then Romeo and Juliet ever was as well as the conflict between their parents.
The thing is the first few episodes are tricky. While packed with dramatic moments (almost being flung off a cliff by a horse, almost getting put to death because you sort of brought the person you thought was a princess to a gisaeng house (think high class brothel)) it was also filled with things that are kind of cute romance staples like two cousins switch places and lead dude falls in love with you thinking you were her! Cute dates where you write poetry and just handfanning it all up and falling in love while your fathers in the background are preparing for a showdown.
Of course that showdown invariably comes down starting with episode 8 which is when Su yang makes his first real strike towards becoming king. This strike is of course killing Kim Jong Seo and his family.
Obviously this poses problems for Seung yu and Se Ryung's love affair. Having one's father kill the other is kind of a romance killer. And it doesn't help that when at the time that it happens you don't even know that she is the daughter of your family's enemy and you think she is just some poor ex-palace maid hanging at a temple with some baby!Aangs. Betrayal hurts. And of course following this whole event Seung yu swears revenge and fashions himself a vigilante.
But I don't actually want to talk about the dudes. Rather I want to talk about this lady:
When I say that Lee Se Ryung is one of my favorite fictional ladies of all time (and my most favorite kdrama heroine) I mean she is probably in my top 3.
She is a badass. Not in that she is a fighter or anything like that. No, because Se Ryung can't fight like that. She can't pick up a sword or a bow and strike down her enemies or protect those she loves.
But she fights within the restrictions that are placed on her in a time period when women were given very little agency. And Se Ryung is brimming with agency. She is a force and she spends the whole series basically just saving lives and holding accountable and being true to herself.
She uses a note to save Seung yu from meeting the same fate as his father and brother, but without giving herself up. She holds a sword to her neck for hours to save the life of an innocent man and to get her father to question his actions in trying to attain the throne. When Su yang does finally take the throne she refuses to take the title of Princess. She takes an arrow for Seung yu when he is foolishly trying to seek a revenge that is way above his head. She shoulders and accepts the weight and burden of her father's crimes even as it isolates her from her family but is kept at a distance from those who oppose her father. When her father finally crosses the line and executes a bunch of rebelling scholars and exiles her cousin the former king (with the intention of eventually poisoning him) she cuts her hair and leaves the palace no longer willing to stand by her father as he kills everyone. (Or what seems like everyone).
Basically she is the love of my life (or one of them, let's be real no one is unseating Relena, but Se Ryung is close, being that i think she graduated from the same class on how to be freaking awesome)
But anyways other things to know about TPM:
1. The music, look is amazing. This drama is pretty, it sounds pretty, and looks pretty. Everything is on par. It had a budget and it shows.
2. The secondary leads, Kyung he and Jeong will break your heart.
3. Episode 22 is the worst thing I have ever watched in my life.
4. The secondary dude is legit the worst in ANYTHING EVER. LIke Shin Myun is the worst character I have ever encountered in a kdrama and I sat through Jin Pyo and Evil Corrupt people in City Hunter. Shin Myun is worse. He is possessive, disloyal, mean, and petty and pathetic without an ounce of sympathy. (His actor is also the weakest in the cast.)
5. Also thanks to this show I can now I say I have two OTPs where one threatens to kill the other and then fails to do so in spectacular fashion. I don't know that I like what this says about me.
6. Just look at this drama: (VId is mostly from the beginning, but I don't know it was the closest thing I felt I could find)
This entry was originally posted at http://kristenell.dreamwidth.org/273896.html. There are currently
comments posted.