Kim Yoonmi 김윤미 金潤美

Rewriting the premise to be more understandable (Based on the first episode of 8 minutes):
Yao Liang Liang has lost everything: Her job, her boyfriend, her best friend and all she has left is a bottle of alcohol and a picture of idol Wang Zheng on her electric fan to comfort her. But after a magical lightning strike, she finds that her apartment has fused with the royal quarters of the King of an ancient kingdom. And since the Queen is missing and she looks like the former Queen, he asks her to fill the role. Coincidentally he looks exactly like the idol she admires. She needs money, he needs a queen, so they make an exchange. But as they get tangled with each other, they fall in love.

I added the topic.

So I did some looking up, and the original creators said they aren't pulling from any specific Kings, but making up the history, but some of the events loosely follow earlier in Joseon history before the Imjin war around Queen Munjeong. (At least as of Episode 2).

She is suspected of poisoning one of the crown princes, and Deposed Queen Yun is around her time period as well, so I think they pulled a bit from that time period, but as I said, it's not exact.

So no, not exactly, but they are pulling from basic court politics. That said, some of the material is clearly pulled also from Lady Hyegyeong's Diaries, because she's the only source left after scholars burned the majority of women's writings about what court life was like and what people had to do to survive. The majority of sageuk pull from her writing, but sadly also vilify her as the most terrible person, because scholars could NOT burn her. So they needed to get their misogyny on and say, while her writings about court life are precious, she's a terrible person, even if they have no other accounts of what really happened because they basically burned them all. (She's the wife of Prince Sado, who was locked in a rice chest--but really, it's not her fault that father and son didn't get along.) (BTW, you can buy her diary in English)

So your second question... "Cross dresser prince." Trans people did of course exist in history. There are a few kings that were shown to be gay and gay people noted (which, yes, I know isn't the same as trans.) And the majority of trans people noted were in theater, or performers on the road. There's some misunderstanding in Korean culture that people are trans because they are gay, but those are totally different things--one can be one, or both because they are different axises. Also some people in mugyo often cross-dress to enhance their shamanistic powers. So... this pretty much is inserted on three fronts:
1. The piss off the supporters of the current Korean president. (Whom even conservatives hate, from reports). In short, the incel-supporting and loving president.
2. To piss off the people who think that "LGBTQIA people were imported with white people." *cough* Squid Games tried to argue this piece of crap *cough* And yes, some Koreans actually believe this, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including historical records dating way back in history, including, but not limited to Monk Ilyon who wrote the Samguk Yusa.
3. To reference Kings that were said to be gay. (though not trans specifically). Gongmin, for example, I personally think was probably bisexual. But some people say he was gay. But in my head, I think he was bisexual and fell deeply in love with Noguk, having never fallen for a woman before. So when she died and he fell back into a deep depression, he was reported to take only male lovers thereafter, but not fall in love with any of them.
3. King Mokjong-- Most definitely gay. Like so gay, people have trouble denying it.

But also there has been issues of trans rights in Korea coming up for the military and military service and questioning some of the laws. Also, as I mentioned the current president is being a a-hole to women and trans people, so....

According to the drama (because they skipped translation some of the explanations). If the crown prince dies, his son and her sons are in a position of precariousness. This is actually true to history as well. After King Sejong died, one of his sons took over and there was a child King, but then a bunch of ministers tried to control the King until the King came of age. The King's uncle, took over the throne by killing a bunch of people because he hated the ministers, eventually killing his nephew.

The crown prince would go to the "most worthy" in the King's favor, i.e. the one that was most qualified. The thing is according to Korean history, the King's children with the Queen would be most favored. Concubines thereafter (which they alluded to within the drama). But the concubines also hoped to put their children on the throne. The politics alluded to that is also true to Korean history. So it could go to one of the other princes, and if that's the case the Queen, her sons, and her grandson are at risk of dying.

The King also said that his son is too upright. This is an allusion to the fact that things got messy, and it wasn't always the smartest and most upright that won the throne.

So, the whole poisoning plot probably was taken from Queen Munjeong, but the drama is clearly set after the Imjin war when women and LGBTQIA severely lost their rights due to the events of the war (basically women getting blamed for being sexually assaulted and using that as an excuse to take women's land, property and rights, which to be clear, is echoed throughout history in other regions as well--it's not unique to Korea--it's just with Korea it happened much later in history than other agricultural regions.)

Slight note, the spelling should be Kamsahamnida. 감사합니다 ㄱ-k/gㅏ-ah ㅁ-m ㅅ-s ㅏ-ah ㅎ-h ㅏ-ah ㅂ-p* ㄴ-n ㅣ-i (short ee sound) ㄷ-d ㅏ-ah

ㅂ before a ㄴ in last position becomes an m sound. English has more of these phoneme shifts than Korean does, though.

Most likely out of duty. Traditionally, though it didn't always work this way, Korean Kings were supposed to be on a roster. The Eunuchs would keep track of the women's cycles, then the King was supposed to rotate between various concubines evenly. Of course sometimes this didn't work, but yes. The King's duty, though was to create spares away from concubines. Because having a King from a concubine was generally frowned upon, since the Queen was carefully selected to be Cream of the crop and specially arranged. (This drama is showing some of those upsets too).

In truth though, I think the choice of this drama to have 5 princes with the Queen and 1 son each for the concubines was because often in history there were sometimes 20+ children running around, and we're missing the princesses in this drama. But practically, you can't hire 20+ actors and keep a sane budget. (For example King Sejong had something like 25+ children... but Tree with Deep Roots showed maybe 3? 2 Princes and one princess, but then didn't go into how a bunch of the princesses also helped with making hangeul.) The budget would balloon out of control and for the average viewer of 16 episodes, that's a ton of people to keep track of.

Posting here because I found out that a lot of people don't know that much about Korean history? If you got questions, I can answer them in as much or little detail as you'd like. While this drama isn't based on exact history, it does reference a lot of history.

Anyway, I've gathered this has to be set after the Imjin war around mid to 3/4 the way through Joseon from the clothes and the cultural cues...

Oh and if you haven't guessed, yes, Korean. And yes, I did take Korean history classes--several. And also majored in anthropology (mostly concentrated around systems like racism, sexism, etc. But also have a geek interest in food and hanbok.) So if you got questions, I can answer.

The main features of signalling to the (Japanese) audience romance:
1. Parental approval, even silent parental approval. (Happens near the beginning, though through a few throw away lines and then near the end.) Usually ends with either strong objection, "Not like that" or with a "I don't understand what you're saying."

2. Rival concedes to character they think is the better match (happens twice in this drama.) (Points go up if it's a fake and comical rival who has no chance to get FL. The SML usually concedes near last episode, which they did with the whole, "You don't need [my] umbrella anymore" and "You and Haneoka work well together" which are lines usually used in Japanese dramas for break up lines. It cuts out before the conversation ends. And then ends with Haneoka holding an umbrella, showing she does still needs an umbrella afterall.)

3. Imaginary Parents (They pulled this off in the girls episode).

It's fallen away, but earlier versions of this also had parent says character needs other character. (This happens with Yoshio's father about Ishiko, though it's throw away lines and not as heavy.)

4. A Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu. (Last episode)

So... ummm... Other Japanese drama support for this.... (This drama draws on other Japanese dramas and references them.)

Parental Approval:
Nodame Cantabile
Trick (though digging for those episodes is kinda difficult--it ran for several movies and series)

Rival Concedes to ML:
Itazura Na Kiss (Granted, more manga, than anime, and truthfully the Taiwanese version adhered more closely to the manga than the anime or Japanese drama).

A Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu that sounds like a proposal.
Operation Proposal
Hotaru no Hikari
(There's a whole lot more.)
This is why he launches into a whole explanation in the last episode to refute her Ehhh?

Finally Imaginary parents thing is often pulled off flat out in a ton of international dramas, even Hallmark movies. I've seen this trope done in Hallmark movies, Lifetime movies, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian, Pinoy--it's really hard to miss. Usually the episode shows how they get their parenting on.

BTW, there's more on the list than this, but I'm saying that there is a long enough trend that it's easy to pick up on.

Writer intended it, but I knew the ship wasn't going to sail, because that's also an old trope of lawyer/mystery Japanese dramas and he'd promised near the beginning he was going to lean hard into those (He made a tribute to Legal High, for example). Trick refined this to a fine art, BTW, where MML said things like Je t'aime to the FML, but she didn't understand, and she reciprocated in ways that he didn't understand either. So it's intentional.

Mystery dramas do this, so I expected it, but some people from the comments below wanted to know if the ship sailed, so this is my attempt to answer if it sailed. While Romance wasn't THE focus of the plot, it was a small element, so why not answer the question asked?

I've watched so many old Japanese romance dramas, that I've been able to pick up on the signals over time. Not sure if you want to hear all of the Japanese shipping signals though, 'cause it will sound obsessive.

It is hinted at heavily every episode, but does not sail.

The ship didn't sail, though they kept promising to lift up the sails every episode. EVERY episode. Even at the end of the drama, there was a soft break up indicated, and then something that sounded like a marriage proposal, but then the ship didn't sail. And then they STILL shipped them after that with the umbrella. Japanese dramas keep doing this, and while I appreciate and understand it, it also tortures me. They even made them look like they would be great parents together for an episode, and still didn't sail.

BTW, not against platonic relationships either. But they seriously shipped the Shoko and Ishio together every single episode.

The Ship~~~

Every episode the writers keep shipping them, though in a very Japanese way. Even at the end they ship them.

The drama plot is somewhat better, though they shouldn't have trimmed as much as they did on the princess (the one that pushed her into the pond). But otherwise, I kinda like the drama plot better. Less forced kisses and more coaxing on romance so there is more connection, instead of using romance motifs.

You can read here through Season 1 of the manhua (Chapter 145): https://mangabuddy.com/my-dear-concubine

There is a Manhua, but the manhua has a different plot (also more toxic masculinity in it, such as kissing her when she's sleeping deeply without consent...). The drama is slightly better written in certain places.

He invited her to his room, but had her read and copy account books instead.

Wait for Si Ming, which is a spin off?

I think she will because of the deal she cut with the demon-in-the-wall, that he could do whatever he wanted with her body/spirit if she should fail. So I'm thinking she'll appear in part 2, because of contract reasons.

Rough summary from watching first episode: A bodyguard from the past comes to the present and meets (I think an actor) who resembles the prince she has been protecting in her time period. However, her attempts to "save" him are met with disdain.

You can politely request Tencent to do them, on their short channel, but keep in mind humans need to do the subs, so saying, "Right now" etc will result in substandard subs. So aim to say, "I'll be patient" and "Thank you."