The King Loves Ep 33-36 Discussion Post

[keytfelt.livejournal.com]

Synopsis: Won is a crown prince of Goryeo. He has a pretty appearance, but he also has a lust for conquest. He is best friends with Wang Rin who comes from a royal family and is his bodyguard. Beautiful Eun San appears in front of the two young men. She is the daughter of the richest man. The three become good friends, but things change after Wang Won and Wang Rin both fall in love with Eun San.
Cast: Im Siwan, Yoona, Hong Jong Hyun, Park Hwan Hee, Oh Min Suk
Director: Kim Sang Hyub
Writer: Song Ji Na
Network: MBC
Episodes: 40
Release Date: July 17 - September 19, 2017
Runtime: Mondays & Tuesdays 22:00 (35 minutes each / 2 episodes per day)

Watch Here: Viki Dramafire

Source: AsianWiki

Comments

[simplyseasalt.livejournal.com]

This week's episode was good because of the Won-Rin moments. I really liked that they had Rin as a narrator this time around too.

[kristinl356.livejournal.com]

Finally, they let Won be a villain. That is all I ever wanted. Now if only this had happened like three or four weeks ago, we'd all been happy.

What even happened in episodes 33-34 besides the stuff with the Queen? I have no idea. We didn't get very much of Furatai but I loved him and I'm sad we didn't get to see nearly as much of him as I wanted. Probably the most revealing scene of his we ever saw was when Won was thanking him for taking such good care of his mom and trying to get him on his side. I wish we could have seen more of his relationship with the Queen and his perspective on it but I'd have settled for him just getting to have a few fight actual scenes (the one where he died doesn't count!). Someone on tumblr suggested that the Queen should get over the King and just have a lot of sex with Furatai instead and I wholly support this notion.

The Queen finally succumbing to shock/her unnamed illness would suck if they hadn't made nearly all of her scenes for the past four or so weeks about her being a sad sack who is still in love with the awful King. Honestly, back when the show first started and it was just a dumb, fluffy romance, I could have (and did, though not intentionally at the time) easily sat through that just for her. Even this week's scenes were all about how she loved peonies because of the dumb King. Like I get that we're trying to drive home a parallel between her situation with the King and Won's with San but maybe in her dying moments, we could have gotten a little more about her relationship with her son and how her trying to control him led to their estrangement. Making her life defining scenes be about the King was just 🤢. Jang Young Nam was sensational and I'll remember her performance in this show probably more than the show itself. If anyone knows other shows she got to be this amazing in, please send me recs.

I do wish Won could have made up with the Queen before she died but I suppose we probably wouldn't have gotten the 'done with everything, will kill anyone' Won that we did. Won post-his mother's death was GREAT and I loved watching him get revenge on everyone who ever wronged her or himself. Won dragging his sword on the ground was a beautiful callback to the Queen and if we could let him be the kind of character she was at the beginning of this series, my faith in the show would be restored. Unfortunately, I'm assuming his change in character isn't going to last past his fight with Rin. I was afraid they wouldn't let him go there with Booyong/Moobi (him killing her after the death of the Queen happens in the books) but they did. Though killing a woman who has been plotting against him, killing San's father and poisoning the King in the process, doesn't really seem that bad in the larger scheme of things, especially when she goaded him into it. Morally speaking, I would not mind seeing him grayer. The only place I think he's truly been over the line and his behavior hasn't been justifiable is with San. I do have to wonder what the fuck is going on with all the ministers and what not. The Queen is dead, the King is missing, Won just killed another queen (it hurts me to call Moobi queen). Won is just in charge of the whole country now by default and everyone is going along with that, I guess. Because he has soldiers? But also, he still has soldiers?

I feel like this gets touched on every week but palace security is awful. The King is basically in a drug induced coma and nobody knows? Half the Queen's household has been slaughtered by Song In. Has he really replaced the entirety of the palace's staff with his own conspicuously black clad minions (and do they always go around like that or are they all in a closet hurriedly changing clothes before they rush in to do his bidding)? Every week, Won, Rin and San escape by simply jumping over walls. Actually, a scene in which Rin and Snake Tattoo Guy toss the King's unconscious body over the wall like a bag of rice would make up for the suspension of disbelief I have to endure every time someone escapes what should be the most well-guarded place in all of Goryeo. I'll wait for the flashback lol.

[kristinl356.livejournal.com]

San's plot: prisoner, escapee, willing-ish prisoner. And again she continues to be weirdly opaque about who she loves unless we're supposed to take her eventually giving up on trying to pry Rin off of her as confirmation of her feelings which please do not make me do. She seems to have moved on from her dad's death pretty fast. Did she tear up listening to Bad Eunuch explaining that it was actually Song In who killed her father or was she crying over Won wrongly believing the Queen had killed him and him basically telling her to fuck off being the last thing they said to each other before she died? I literally don't know.

As frustrated as I am with everyone acting like the sun shines out of Rin's ass, I actually liked him most of the time, especially in all his one on one scenes with San but that started to face since he became Wristgrabby McForcekisserson (still not over how gross that was, she was literally trying to push him off of her) and then this week I kind of genuinely hated him. Even during Won's actual turn as a villain, Rin ends up being the one I like the least. Did not expect that. Honest to god, I had no idea what he was doing for like 3/4 of this week's episodes and I see more of his actions than Won so frankly I'm a little baffled at all the people pissed off at Won for slicing him up. Won said, 'Cut me down if you can.' Rin picked up his sword and lunged. What did you expect? And I can't even feel anything about Rin being so ~*self-sacrificing*~ when his big, elaborate plan was to pretend to be in with Song In (so he could save San/the King?) and then get himself killed in a sword fight (???) when he could have, I dunno, just like talked to Won maybe? What the fuck. To be honest, I'm not even sure where his acting ends and his real motivations begin. Does he know Song In killed San's dad? Were all the fights about San and not trusting Won staged? (Also, lol, since the one person who actually wants San dead is Song In.) Was Rin playing nice with the King part of the plan cos it genuinely made me feel a little ill. Even if you and Won are on the outs, watching you act deferential towards the man who was abusive towards Won for a decade since he was a just child is fucking gross and I would think there should be some lasting resentment there.

Speaking of dubious motives, what is Master Lee doing? Is he kidnapped? Has he decided Won won't make a good king? Is he just trying to get San out? I don't know.

Things about Song In that make sense: him actually not giving a shit about tributes or the rebellion and just wanting power. Things about Song In that don't make sense: him caring so much about Moobi that he's now hallucinating her after her death. Remember when she was asking you not to make her sleep with the King? Maybe that would have been the time to care about her. Just saying.

Oh, Moobi. I tried to take pity on you but you made it so hard with all of your dumb evil faces (flashback to HJH in Moon Lovers). I will not miss you. My only regret was that you didn't die sooner and at the hand of the Queen.

Biyeon, SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, jesus christ. Do you not realize that every time you tell Snake Tattoo Guy about San or Rin or whoever, he immediately runs off? If this was a modern day show, Biyeon would be an open text on a conveniently unlocked phone. That said, I hope we get the fallout between her and Snake Tattoo Guy before the series ends because if they end this show as a couple, I will tear my fucking hair out.

The only good thing about the overzealous musical cues on this show is Won and Rin got the otp song Won was trying to chase him down. This is the only time I have enjoyed 'Stay.' God, do I fucking hate that song.

Oh, wait! Won and Dan's marriage is the other thing that happened in the first episode. I guess I cared as much about that as Won did.

[hesychasm]

CAN WE TALK ABOUT how inappropriately hot Siwan is when Won's got cold murder on his mind? I mean, damn. Even though I hoped to see Won going "dark" I never really expected to see him straight-up execute someone. Siwan sold every moment leading up to, during, and after that scene, and I was buying at a premium.

By contrast, I don't even know where Song In's sudden love came from or why it's made him have this mental break, but I'm not feeling Oh Min Suk's crazy eyes acting. It's just so cheesy. And I'm disappointed that after all of these episodes, his villainy is reduced to the equivalent of mustache-twirling playing-chess-with-people's-lives power-hungry madness. I wanted to believe the show was complex enough to give him a sympathetic motive in true patriotism for Goryeo, but nah. He just cray, and OMS maybe isn't quite good enough of an actor to pull that off.

I posted about Rin's arc at Soompi before watching fully subbed eps 35-36, wondering what on earth is wrong with him that he can't just USE HIS WORDS and COMMUNICATE with Won. Now that I finally have watched the fully subbed eps, I'm still wondering what the actual fuck is wrong with this kid. Does he not have a mouth? Does he not have a brain? Are they not connected? Can he not use them simultaneously to explain to people what the hell he's up to?

Consider from Won's perspective: He marries a woman he doesn't love solely to keep Rin from being sent to Yuan. He asks Rin to stay by his side. Rin instead gets himself sent off to some far province...except not really since he comes back and starts meddling in all kinds of shit? Won has no idea of Rin's good intentions (whatever they are) for running away with San, kissing San, demanding his permission to marry San, secretly meeting the King and former Prince, publicly accusing Won's mother of murdering San's father... and then his mother dies and Rin apparently is favored by the King to be the new Prince.

Rin lovers are crying about his grand sacrifice dropping the sword and bleating that Won should have trusted his best friend, but nah. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I felt nothing but frustration at the show letting all these unnecessary miscommunications fuel the melodrama. I know the modus operandi of TKL is cliffhanger --> reveal --> twist etc but the Rin stuff has had the sloppiest, messiest execution. How are viewers supposed to feel the tragedy and drama have been truly earned if it's unclear why it had to happen in the first place?

So I'm basically stuck in between being happy that Won has been brought to this point, but being unhappy at the WAY he's been brought to this point. :-/

Meanwhile shippers are still at each other's throats and making discussion spaces completely toxic, like any of that is even what the show is about anymore. San will probably finally get a POV voiceover next week but it's ridiculously late, all for the sake of being a coyly ambiguous Reply Goryeo -- maybe because the writer(s) knew the politics plot was crap and thus shipper bait was all they had.

So glad this show is ending next week. So sad this was the last we'll see of Siwan until 2019, but at least he killed it with what he was given.

(I typed all this on my phone and have to run now so I haven't had time to talk about THE QUEEN but omg, justice for her and Furatai! Don't lay down your sword yet, Won!)

Signed,
Obvious Won stan is obvious

[kristinl356.livejournal.com]

No, you are correct, Siwan is wicked hot when he is angry, examples 1 (http://68.media.tumblr.com/e6812ba4576cc26c99eb2734868154d6/tumblr_otvx3ltXZB1qaz1b4o1_540.png), 2 (http://68.media.tumblr.com/346252e541c439c7cf7ef55575259410/tumblr_ov2gbc37bE1qaz1b4o1_r2_540.gif), and 3 (http://68.media.tumblr.com/d50aa4d00c636b04157aee9d6d74e4a7/tumblr_oq5n5dmCYA1qaz1b4o1_1280.jpg).

I will forever lament that the rebellion plot was never properly serviced. They tried in like one episode to give some meaning to it and then just kind of pulled back. Plus Song In was the only real pov we ever got on it so that's basically all in the garbage now. Song In caring more about power than the actual cause is hardly surprising but also handled so poorly (monologuing to a figment of his imagination that he didn't give a shit about at any other point in the show, UGH). What about the other people in the rebellion who do actually care? There's got to be some, right? Do they know Song In is using them? Do they care? How come the show never fucking addressed the fact that Won got rid of the tributes for the year??? Like didn't even fucking mention it again. Why?

But most of all, I'm actually really sad that neither Rin or San actually joined the rebels for real. Like what a thing it would have been for them to have betrayed Won for a good cause/greater purpose. And how much more would his fight with Rin have weighed if he had?

Rin not having a mouth is basically a long running theme on this show. What the fuck is wrong with that boy?

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Hahahahahahaha. Rin came at Won with a sword, why are y'all surprised it ended in a sword fight? What the fuck else was supposed to happen?

Re: shippers

thekinginlove.mbc: Why do I post this...??? Honestly I'm sick of fanwar/ shippers war... .
Can we enjoy the story, it's only 4 ep left?
Can we appreciate the actors, production team, and the writer??? .
Kim Jungwook oppa [eunuch Kim] once commented on my post, he said that Siwan, Yoona and Hong Jonghyun can't sleep well... They worked hard for this drama... .
even if our ship doesn't sail, please don't fight each other.. don't blame the actors, the actress and writer and say bad things, especially on my instagram 😂😂😂

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

When they had that earlier fight scene where Won kept yelling at Rin to hit him, I replayed it so many times cause it was so hot

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

I totally enjoy every argument between Rin and Won, maybe cause Won is so expressive with his anger? But for it to be an argument Rin has to actually speak, disagree with Won, tell Won what he is thinking. Is Rin suddenly mute? Why not tell Won the rebels poisoned his father and you need the antidote. Does he really think Won would kill his father? What is the point when as the crown prince he could just wait for the king to die of natural causes?
Hey rebels, a polite letter to Yuan is not gonna pacify the emperor if you kill or dethrone his grandson.
Also Song In never gave a damn about Queen Mu, he treated her like a pawn and forced her to have sex with the king but now we are supposed to believe he is crazy with grief?
I really wanted the peony to be from Furatai, not that fuck boy King.

I feel like the writer just said fuck effort at the end.
None of the characters are behaving logically.
The good news is everyone is still good looking and looks great in their clothes.