achiara

Today's episode ended with an explosion where the king gets severely hurt. Some korean comments on this clip and next week's preview were crying because KJH's character got hurt again and they're still not over Seung-joon dying in CLOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB9CEqn_d1o&ab_channel=tvNDRAMA

I probably shouldn't but I'm laughing at the korean comments triggered by today's ending and remembering Seung-joon (Kim Jung-hyun's character in CLOY) lol

I highly recommend the The Crowned Clown, the entire cast but especially Yeo Jin-goo killed it there.

"Once you accept it, it will not trouble you anymore. If it does not trouble you, that is when you can start living"

I like what the royal doctor said here about acceptance and truly living. Whether Bong-hwan and So-yong are one and the same or two souls progressively merging to become one, I like the idea of Bong-hwan accepting So-yong's heart as a part of him and embracing her feelings as his own and starting to live as this new-but-not-really-new person that is the current queen.

My bet is on the king dying because he's a real historical figure and kdramas, even the fantasy/fusion genre, almost never change major historical facts. In hisotry, he dies first and his queen lives 10 years after his death. Idk which route this drama will take but I lowkey wish for an ending like the alternate one of the chinese version where the modern man wakes up from his coma and meets a male doctor who is the king's reincarnation. They recognize each other and the king instantly recovers all of their memories from their past lifetime. It ends there and remains open to interpretation but a possible implication is that they'll be together as two men in this lifetime but I don't think kdrama is as bold as to do something like this so the safest option would be a female reincarnation of the king in modern times, if they decide to end it this way.

It's not confirmed but yes it's one of the theories many of us are having. Whether it's the same soul reincarnated in different bodies or two souls progressively merging to become one, the body and the soul inhabiting it now are forming a person of their own.

You're welcome ^_^
Yeah hoping for a second season as well, this story and characters are so rich and complex and sadly the short format isn't doing it any justice

I don't see this happening. In the novel, there's no romance between the second leads, they're simply really good friends to each other and to the main characters.

For me, the king is clearly in love with Bong-hwan's personality but for the queen it is more complicated. I wouldn't exactly call it conscience, the original queen is mainly present through her memories and they way they affect some of Bong-hwan's actions around the king but other than this, there is no trace of the real and original personality so it's completely Bong-hwan's soul in the queen's body in my opinion.

Thanks <3

I don't think Hwa-jin shot the queen either, it's a common cliffhanger and I've seen it too many times to be fooled xD

Btw Usagi, I remember you mentioned a blog (?) that posts or recaps the episode in english before the subs come out, could you please give me a link?

Oh I missed this! I noticed Yoo-han also compared him to tender meat or something when he texted him to invite him to the exhibition, I thought it was weirdly cute xD

It feels like nothing really happens in episode 5 but I like it much better than last week. The flow is smoother, the dialogues are meaningful and I can actually understand their emotions. Yeon-woo reflecting on the time he spends with Yoo-han and realizing it's boring without him, the entire art exhibition sequence was pretty (and the hand holding T__T), Yeon-woo finally seeing his mom's portrait in colors made me emotional >.< and for once Yoo-han's presence was reassuring and showed how much he cared for Yeon-woo when the latter thought he was gonna leave him. It was nice and romantic.

I think that was his aunt at the end. Maybe she came back earlier than expected so it explains Yeon-woo's surprise. I'm predicting she's gonna learn Yoo-han is his probe and she would tell Yeon-woo to transfer schools again, except this time he's gonna be reluctant about it. I guess this will be the conflict now.

This looks like it will be an emotional but wholesome ride, exactly the way I like it. Loving the older cast, can't wait!

I really like the ost sung by Soo-jung. It's calm and her voice soothing, I keep listening to it repeatedly

Same. I want them to at least allow Bong-hwan to be bi. I don't know the real queen, we almost never saw her so I have no particular attachment to her. From beginning to now, it's Bong-hwan that we're seeing, or the version of him that's sometimes under the influence of So-yong's emotions but he is still very much there with no trace of the original queen in terms of actions and mannerisms. This is so complex and I just can't accept that Bong-hwan is an outsider to the romance/sexual attraction, I can't believe he's not affected not even a little by all of it. I'm really curious how they're gonna end this. Even if they follow history and the king dies, I lowkey wish for something like the alternate ending of the cdrama where the modern man wakes up from his coma and starts looking for the king and he meets his reincarnation as a male doctor.

One thing is sure, with this cast we'll be seeing some Acting

It seems like her memories are resurfacing but not all of them are back (she doesn't remember yet how hwa jin lied and pretended to be her). I guess there needs to be a trigger for certain memories to be back, maybe if/when Byeong-in talks more openly about his feelings for her, she will remember about him (another interpretation would be that he simply didn't mean much to her so his memory isn't that important in her mind, at least not enough to be amongst the first she remembers)

Bonghwan having an existential crisis after that dream lmao can't wait for next week xD

ikr! I know this is a comedy but it would have been so interesting to have Bonghwan explore these questions about gender roles and sexuality. They're implying the original queen is slowly taking over but whenever he blames her for something (like the kiss) it looks like denial to me