Bongsookie

I'm like you initially - I almost dropped it in the first 6 episodes. But I stayed for Lee Jun Ki and I can vouch that it does get better from episode 6 onwards! If you want to pick it up, definitely try for another 2 more episodes and see how you go :) for me it's the plot that really picked up from 6 onwards and that's when I got interested enough to continue.

I'm like you initially - I almost dropped it in the first 6 episodes. But I stayed for Lee Jun Ki and I can vouch that it does get better from episode 6 onwards! If you want to pick it up, definitely try for another 2 more episodes and see how you go :) for me it's the plot that really picked up from 6 onwards and that's when I got interested enough to continue.

I'm like you initially - I almost dropped it in the first 6 episodes. But I stayed for Lee Jun Ki and I can vouch that it does get better from episode 6 onwards! If you want to pick it up, definitely try for another 2 more episodes and see how you go :) for me it's the plot that really picked up from 6 onwards and that's when I got interested enough to continue.

I'm like you initially - I almost dropped it in the first 6 episodes. But I stayed for Lee Jun Ki and I can vouch that it does get better from episode 6 onwards! If you want to pick it up, definitely try for another 2 more episodes and see how you go :) for me it's the plot that really picked up from 6 onwards and that's when I got interested enough to continue.

Will definitely do chingu^^ I love sharing what I like to read with others and of course I'm going to keep a lookout for @patpat's posts. I hope she knows how much we appreciate her not only on dramabeans but on other platforms like MDL as well ❤ I'm always thankful to those who write these analyses since I'm not very good writing essays myself xD

You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I love analyses and I always find myself lurking on Soompi and Dramabeans just to read these. They help me understand and appreciate what I'm watching on a deeper level :)

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Was just about to share this post too until I saw you already posted it! This is such a good analysis too ^^

I love these analysis too (by @patpat). I posted another one above that continues on this (but more focused on Hae Soo's premonitions instead) :)

Another great analysis of Wang So and Hae Soo's premonitions on dramabeans. Gosh, these are so good!!

100 patpat October 12th, 2016 at 8:47 AM

I keep wondering about Soo’s premonitions even since eps 6 and so far most of them come true. I may overthink this but if the writer uses them as how I think he/she does, then he/she deserved loud applause.

So I rewatch eps 6, and apparently right after Soo collapsed from cutting her wrist, she had 4 premonitions and remembered that Gwangjong was the 4th king of Goryeo. I wonder why she got those ONLY RIGHT AFTER she cut her wrist. My theory is, by cutting her wrist she had caused something much, much bigger than just simply cancelling the marriage. If she got married to the king, it would cut her tie to Wook and So and everything that we see from eps 7 to eps 15 would not exist. By refusing to marry the king, she had triggered the chain of reaction that would eventually result in the events that she saw in her premonitions (King Taejo’s, Moo’s, Yo’s death, and Gwangjong with blurred face) and also result in Yo becoming the 3rd king, and So becoming the 4th king, instead of 3rd king like Jimong’s prediction and how the original history should have been. It explains why she remembered that Gwangjong was the 4th king ONLY AFTER she cut her wrist, because before that, the history shouldn’t have gone that way. That moment she cut her wrist is exactly the moment the whole history changed its course to the history that is now unfolding before our eyes.

On the rain ceremony, Soo got the same premonition of Gwangjong as before, only that this time he could see his face clearly. That’s because only on that precise moment where So succeeded bringing the rain that the future of So as Gwangjong was completely set, hence no more blurred face. So’s fate as Gwangjong had been sealed.

On Eun’s wedding, Soo got the premonition of SD lying dead and Eun being slaughtered by So. Their wedding was exactly what brought that tragic event to them. If Eun didn’t marry SD, then he would probably be slaughtered along with his family by the soldiers during Yo’s riot. SD wouldn’t have to die, and So wouldn’t have to kill Eun. That wedding pretty much sealed their fate and because of that, there Soo got the premonition.

The premonitions for King Taejo’s, Moo’s, and Yo’s death are pretty set up already, we’ve seen that two of them had happened exactly the same with her premonitions. But for the premonitions that involve So, which was her standing alone in front of the throne, we saw that So was actually standing with her in reality. And the premonition of So slaughtering Eun, from the preview we see that So doesn’t laugh frantically like he did in her premonition. The reality basically differs for these two.

IMO, these two premonitions show us how significant the change that Soo inflicted on him. The moment Soo saw these two premonitions, I believe So still had ambition for the throne. It was clear on the hell dinner with his mom, Yo, and Jung after Eun’s wedding that he did have his eyes on the throne, even if the reason was because everyone fought over it.

That version of So wouldn’t stand with Soo to defend Moo, and would happily slaughter Eun to get the throne, hence the premonitions come true. But from eps 10 to 15 we see how his feeling for Soo had been growing to the point that if he had to choose between Soo and throne, he would forsake the latter. He even became 0% interested with the throne. Therefore the premonitions don’t hold true anymore, and that’s why the reality differs. So stood with her in front of the throne, and he would still kill Eun but not with laughter, only horror and grief.

Soo’s wrist cutting basically changed the direction of the history, that is So to became the 4th king instead of 3rd, but he would still be the same ruthless Gwangjong who killed her brothers, nephew, and loyal subjects for the throne. It was her influence and love for So later that changed him in the way that instead of killing his brothers for the throne, he would become a king to protect them.

Haha I don't know how I survived that drama either. I guess it's one of my very first Kdramas hence why I was more tolerable back then. Sadly, I've dropped Gap Soon btw...I couldn't sit through this drama :(

It'll get better. I almost dropped this drama in the first 6 episodes. If you backtracked far enough, you'll probably find my comments had negative criticisms in them because a lot of things didn't work for me. But trust me, after 6 (well for me that is), it got so good! I stuck to this drama for Lee Jun Ki obviously (so one of the reasons why I got annoyed earlier on was his lack of screen time)... However it's supposed to be that way and his screen time increases the more episodes you watch.

Just wanted to share this comment from dramabeans, the theory about Soo's time-travelling back to Goryeo is SO on point!

78 patpat October 12th, 2016 at 12:39 AM

I keep thinking, what if the history that Jimong and Go Hajin knew is different than the history that we know now? According to the history, after King Taejo’s death, the list of the king is Moo, Yo, then So. But Jimong said that Yo’s crowning was out of his prediction. Yo was never meant to be king before, it should have been Moo then So. Go Hajin also thought that after King Taejo, Gwangjong was the next King (yes, I even rewatch eps 1 to make sure), probably because Moo’s reign wasn’t significant. Yo’s reign in history, if it existed, should have been remarkable for the destruction he had done so far, but Go Hajin didn’t have any memory about that. So I think it’s safe to say that the history that Go Hajin knew was different from the history that we know. Hence, we can say that the history did change. And the reason for that change, as Jimong said, should be a variable. What if the variable is Go Hajin’s Soo?

Let’s start from the beginning. The ones who were born under the star of the king were Moo and So. Despite of all the obstacles, So was destined to be a king, so it’s safe to say that with or without Soo, he would eventually become the king. But HOW he will achieve that goal is the true question and I think that is the exact reason of Soo’s time travelling to Goryeo.

The events from So’s arrival at the palace till the monks’ assassination were relatively free from Soo’s influence, so it would still happen that way even if Go Hajins’s Soo didn’t exist. So would use this chance to stay in the palace, and we may never know for sure how his character would develop w/o Soo’s influence, but giving his family’s cold shoulder and without love and care from anybody, I think he would grow up just as how King Taejo wanted him to be: ruthless but politically effective. So would lead the rain ritual (as planned by the king and Jimong) despite of his scar, he would eventually gain support from people, and there he was, ready for the throne. Jimong and the king knew that Yo was born under the star of treason, so they knew he would revolt someday, and I guess that’s why King Taejo tried to send him afar, much to his resentment. But even if he did revolt, they assumed that So would get rid of him completely, and that was what should have happened if only So delivered the fatal blow on Yo on the cliff. The real ruthless So, w/o Soo’s influence, would have no sympathy for Yo. Moo would be poisoned and drowned probably by So or Wook or Won or combination of them, it would be covered and his death would be written in history as a natural course of disease. With Moo and Yo gone, So would be the one who ascend to the throne. Given his ruthless nature, he would secure his position just like how Yo’s doing now: killing his brothers and those who had the potential of revolting against him. Wook and Won, the sly and powerful ones, might be one of the early victims. Eun would be killed for his powerful family.

Jung might be killed because of So’s jealousy for his mom’s love, and who knows that Baekah might or might not survive. So would be that cruel and ruthless Gwangjong who killed his own brothers for the throne, and that’s exactly the history that Go Hajin knew.

But now we have Go Hajin’s arrival in Goryeo (and strikingly at the same time as So’s arrival in the palace) and her fated encounter with So. The moment she offered him her sympathy, she took her first step into changing the course of history w/o her even realizing. His character grew up into different direction than how it should have grown, deviating him as far as from the ruthless king material to nothing of the sort. This version of So would never be able to kill his own brother and that’s the reason Yo remained and became the king, thus negated the history that Go Hajin previously knew. The history has indeed changed because of her influence on So.

One may wonder that if Go Hajin’s Soo did change the history, then why her premonitions still come true? The premonitions are likely the trace of Soo’s memory that remained when Soo reincarnated into Go Hajin. If the history differed from the one Soo knew, shouldn’t the premonition change as well? I’d like to flesh out each premonition. King Taejo’s and Moo’s death will simply happen the same way with or without Go Hajin’s arrival, thus they stayed true to her premonition. But for the premonition of Soo standing alone in front of the throne, we start to see that the reality differed from her premonition. Here she didn’t stand alone; So was standing there with her. Then on the premonition of Eun’s execution, So was laughing frantically as he killed Eun. But in the reality, as we see from the preview, So’s face was filled with horror and grief as he slaughtered Eun. That laughing So was the version of So without Soo’s influence, the ruthless So who would happily kill his brother to secure his throne. That grieving So in the present is So with Soo’s influence.

See how things that involve So start to take on different pathway? Soo may still think that she can’t change anything but the truth is, it’s changing before her very eyes.

To wrap it all, the purpose of Soo’s time travelling to Goryeo is to change the history, by changing So’s personality and the way So takes to become Gwangjong specifically, in order to make the history the way that we know now. Without her arrival, So would still become the king, but the pathway he took to become Gwangjong would be by killing his own brothers, his loyal staffs, and many more. He might not be doing any good to his nation given to his nature, which explains why Soo could only remember him as a horrible king in history. But with Soo’s influence, the present So is a much more better man who won’t go on killing spree his brothers (Eun was exception under Yo’s command), and as we know in our present history, he only killed the ones who revolted and threatened the stability of the nation. As Gwangjong, he also did many good things for his people and had a long reign of 26 years. Soo might not exist in history, but her presence is what shapes the history the way it is.

TL;DR: Soo gets transported back to Goryeo to HUMANISE So.

Thanks for reposting it here :) I often missed out on newer comments on dramabeans because there's just so many to trawl through and a lot of them gets buried. This one is interesting^^

I found these collection of kisses on Soompi (warning contains SPOILERS for future episodes...so don't click on link if you don't want to be spoiled!!) but that 5th picture (middle row to the right)!! Is that scene what I think it is?? (or maybe my mind is getting ahaead of itself and the pic is not that clear lol) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuiRxtjUAAIK7_P.jpg As in, LJK posted a pic on Instagram before (https://www.instagram.com/p/BK7G2MlhW2D/ ) ... I think this kiss would be from that scene xD I guess this is one of the disadvantages to preproduced dramas, scenes/scripts often gets leaked. Anyway, I just realised last year I wished LJK would have a hit drama after Scholar (whether it be internationally or domestically) and now that came true with this drama. I'm absolutely so happy about it. I mean, the more popular the drama, the more likely scenes will be leaked like in this case...

I agree!! I love this drama because it's a nice balance to the intensity of Scarlet Heart, but now after recent episodes omg it's so intense!! 2016 has definitely been delivering such great dramas....I can't believe I'm watching so many dramas because of how good they are :)

Jesus! This week's episodes was so INTENSE!!! I totally didn't expect that and what a cliffhanger :O now how am I supposed to wait until next week?? Every episode is just so good!

He's an actor actually, but he's a very talented one since he can sing and dance well! There are heaps of YouTube videos of him dancing/singing :) I think he's just an all round Entertainer - he's good at variety and does his own action scenes too.

lol I'm a HUGE Moonlight fan since the start and have been anticipating that drama for ages. But since last week, I've been watching Scarlet Heart first because it's getting so good. I still love Moonlight but this one is fast becoming my addiction lately :)

Sometimes I wonder if Wang So is reincarnated then he could be an idol. I mean I could totally imagine him pulling out dance moves like this video https://youtu.be/qoA4YX07UfM I think it would be a great way for the drama to showcase Lee Jun Ki's talents (the guy can sing and dance really well!) xD ...but then I don't want a reincarnated plot ending either haha

Ahh I really love your scenario. That would make a perfect ending if they bring back the time travelling thing and BOTH Hae Soo and Wang So gets transported back! :)