ReverseHaremQueen

She's getting more than in the novel, apparently

You have to take into account inflation, not currency conversion

If they follow the IMF crisis of 97, it's going to be quite a ride

Pretty sure the novel doesn't have a sad ending

Yup! I still remember Monster, which started as a great revenge movie but was mired in the romance too much and abandoned the revenge plot half way

Same. The business and the revenge is what drew me to this story. I'm a business nerd, so I hope it sticks close to the manwha and novel that was not heavy on the romance

She? Why the heck did they change the protagonist to a woman?

The king was never a puppet, but a dog on a leash. You could tell he has been planning this for a while, hence the cryptic language with his eunuch, the constant mentioning of Siwol and the chess board.

Yeah, but if she does clear her father's name at the wrong time, it will backfire on both her and the king, as well as her unborn child. Sometimes you need to give up for the greater good

I do think they needed an extra 4 episodes to really flesh things out

Exactly. I am sad that some people are not able to recognize how brilliant his characterization is. Damn, even the makeup is on point once you realized he's been poisoned for so long. His skin looks pallid and he has dark circles underneath his eyes. I think people had a romantic expectations for this show, but from the first scene you knew it wasn't going to be. It is about the definition of power within a monarchical system, especially that of Joseon, which foundation was supposed to be constitutional monarchy until Bang Won stepped in and changed all that

You are right, the term monster is a misnomer. He is indeed a victim of circumstances, blamed for the actions of his predecessors. His love for Lady Park is what threw a wrench in his plans, as I am sure he wanted to go through with separating Minister Cho from Minister Park

Yes, but to me it shows how much of a weakness she is to him. He constantly deviated from his plan because he cannot let go of his love for her. To me, it shows he is not a complete monster

A lot of the comments claiming the King is weak or that his plan was foolish really seemed to miss all of the symbolism in the first episodes. This is a man who had to watch his mother commit suicide, have an entire family exterminate because of him and was humiliated into marrying a woman he didn't like. His daily life was like a caged bird who could'n't break free. There was no way he wouldn't scheme to set himself free. However, how brilliant your plan can be, you cannot foresee many factors: PGW taking his lover as his niece and trying to make her his Queen; the fact that despite many attempts to have her leave, she decided to stay. The QD taking extreme measures because her former lover spurn her (he didn't know the extent of their relationship), Lady Cho continuing to work with QD to take down Lady Park and Siwol deciding to return despite his father telling him to lay low. Time was of the essence and so he went forth with the plan despite all the risk

How could he have accounted for Lady Cho making up charges to keep Lady Jung in the palace?

He is the one who created this environment though. Causing the king to want to break free from his gilded cage and putting his lovelorn former lover in the palace was a recipe for disaster

The monk died out of his own choices. No one told him to go back there, he did. The king plan was to create a wedge between PGW and the Dowager, he couldn't account she would go completely insane and tyrannical. He also did not plan for Lady Cho to mess up his plan to get Lady Park to come with him. You cannot foresee these things, especially when some of those pieces were never supposed to be there in the first place, i.e. Lady Park/Lady Jung

Your second paragraph is a bit misleading when looking at Joseon history. Lets take for example Bang Won and his grand son Prince Suyang. They are both "tyrants" who wanted absolute monarchy, but were capable leader. The only true tyrant was Prince Yeonsangun, who took revenge on his own family because mommy dearest was herself tyrannical in the internal court, forcing his grandmother to exile & poison her. Afterwards, whenever the nobles gain more power than the king, things didn't get better, in fact, it got worse for the common people as corruption run rampant. I strongly believe in checks and balances, so you need a strong monarchy along with capable ministers

Take this drama with a large grain of salt when it comes to the historical parts

There are not subtitles