veritas vincit

"'Queen Cheorin' (written by Park Gye-ok Choi A-il/director Yoon Seong-sik Jang Yang-ho) is being criticized for its poor story."

The article I was talking about: https://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=609&aid=0000398144

This is an article in which it's mentioned that the drama is being critized because ep 18 was underwhelming and the story was poor. It's a fact, not my opinion. What I've been trying to do all this time is explain why I think the episode wasn't liked and the ML's lack of screentime upset the viewers. I'm not saying I can write a better story, I'm saying the plot wasn't convincing and other solutions that have worked for other dramas would've been better received.

I'm not a writer, I'm mentioning why I think people are upset with the episode and why I felt it was underwhelming and badly written. You guys are free to like it and enjoy it, but many people didn't and that's also valid.

I would have used BI in a much better way, having him join hands with the king and revealing that everything was a strategy that he and CJ had come up with to protect SY. The path the writer chose for the second lead was cliché and predictable. Making the second leads 3D characters with layers is always much better than having them become evil. I would have revealed CJ was alive at the end of the episode too. It would have had more impact because that 3 min scene he had was random and anticlimactic. At the end of the episode I would have shown the OTP reuniting or CJ returning ready to fight.

I think that's enough to express what I would have changed. This is what I expected from a show that had had good writing so far and had managed to surprise me all along.

If you read other sites and comments, you'll see what I mean. I know that the lack of screentime was necessary and I've expressed that in other comments, what I'm critizicing is the way they compensated the ML's screentime not the lack of screentime itself.

Ok. Let's just agree to disagree. I never said that the king was the reason for the negative reaction, I'm talking about the writing that was all over the place and made the lack of screentime of the ML apparent. But, it's okay, if you like the writing so much, that's great.

I don't care about BI either, but that's why there was an issue. If the writer had compensated the lack of ML screentime with a stronger storyline or used the actual big villains for something, no one would feel upset. The problem is that, objectively, BI's sorta redemption arc is all over the place and it felt like a complete waste of time for many people. Now that he's helping the FL the writer will probably try to make the audience care about him, but he's too unlikable to get any positive reaction. That means the character as a whole was a mess since the beginning & all this screentime he had could have been utilized in a much better way.

I think the writer is trying to make people sad over the second lead who will die in the name of love. I hope I'm wrong and he ends up in exile, not dying as a hero...

From the top comments. These ones are about the writing:

[+2418][-8] If this was going to happen, you shouldn’t have gotten her pregnant ㅠㅠ At this point, she must have gone through at least 12 miscarriages…

[+2005][-16] Does Byeongin have two different personalities??

[+919][-5] Omg, what’s going on, I thought Kim Byeongin must’ve had something in his mind ? But he wasn’t faking it and actually tried to kill Cheoljong…. Kim Byeongin, just stop now ? I don’t remember Kim Byeongin being this kind of character at the start so how come the story has flowed like this… ?

I'm aware of that, but how does the writer expect the audience to care about a guy who choked a pregnant FL the episode before? CJ's screentime wasn't properly utilized, CJ & SY were OOC because they didn't have a plan B and behaved recklessly, the female lead is pregnant but the writer put her in many situations that could've affected her baby and she acted like it was no big deal.

You have that opinion, but that's not how it was received by knets. So far, there hadn't been any complaints against the writing, but this episode had a negative reception. When you start seeing the comments that say the "drama is going to the mountains" and I feel like I ate 2000 "sweet potatoes" in the top comments and forums, it means that the writing was bad...

The problem was the bad writing that made the lack of ML's screentime super evident. CJ has been absent before (after the bomb episode) and there was no problem, but this episode was terrible. There's an article on Naver about how bad the writing of this episode was.

"'Queen Cheorin' (written by Park Gye-ok Choi A-il/director Yoon Seong-sik Jang Yang-ho) is being criticized for its poor story."

The article I was talking about: https://entertain.naver.com/read?oid=609&aid=0000398144

Yeah. :( I hope the show focuses more on him and SHS than the boring 2ML during the last 2 episodes.

Great. I misunderstood you. Sorry!

What matters is that this didn't end the way Start Up did, with a 2ML that shined more than the ML. Junghyun is super popular right now and the audience is aware of how important he is. I agree with you, though. The screentime wasn't well distributed in both shows (especially CLOY), but KJH still managed to shine because he's THAT good. ;)

I know you're angry, but let's avoid those comments because this has nothing to do with SHS. The writer was dumb and kept the male lead hidden to create suspense, but it was stupid because everyone knew that he was alive since the male lead never dies this early in a drama unless the actor has to leave for an important reason. Let's avoid conflicts, please.

Yeah, knets were very upset and the episode was a mess. The good thing is that every time KJH doesn't appear in an episode there's an immediate negative reaction showing that he's an extremely important part of the show's success.

It was a terrible episode and the writer wasted a lot of screentime on characters that are unimportant...

Am I the only one who expected his lack of screen time? The writer was trying to sell that he was dead, so I knew he wasn't going to appear until the end of the episode. What made me really mad was how much the writer dumbed him & SB down to make BI's plot work. Are they really expecting me to believe that CJ and SB were this reckless? No plan B and completely stupid decisions that made no sense? No matter how stressed and anxious they were, the two of them always had a plan B. This episode was a disaster because the writer forgot how smart the main leads are.

https://kdramahood.com/nt/mr-queen-ep-18/

Yeah, you're right, but the likelihood of a drama getting high ratings is higher if the actors are what Korean's call "trustworthy". That's what I wanted to say. I expressed myself incorrectly, sorry.

Hyesun and Junghyun are considered acting geniuses in SK. tvN promoted the drama by claiming Mr Queen was an "acting explosion" combination and that's why people watched it. The expectations were very high and they met them.

This is why I point out that awards don't really matter the same anymore. What truly matters is what the audience feels towards the actors. Awards have lost credibility and they are just decorative now. Viewers don't look at the actors' awards to decide which show they'll watch, they just remember the feelings the actors gave them when they watched something from them.

Yes, I loved Waikiki too and it was successful in SK too, but the exposure he got through CLOY & Mr Queen is what made him truly popular. The audience's reaction to his character in CLOY was what got him 1 year endorsements and many role offers. Waikiki wouldn't have boosted his popularity the way CLOY did. That's why I mentioned these 2 dramas and not the others.

His insta doesn't have the blue check and many people don't know it's the real one.

I know that he was already popular, but I was talking about BIG hits, like top 10 most popular dramas in SK cable tv history big.