Eleison

Oh, good, I'm glad! I wish I could pin it at the top so it would be readily accessible. Maybe I should make it a review and just call it "Cheat Sheet For Under The Queen's Umbrella!" 😂

Right?! Haha, I died laughing he was so cute!!

The Queen is the King's "head" wife and the concubines/consorts (the king has about 10 of them!) are his other wives with a lesser status than the Queen.

The Queen has five sons with the King (from oldest to youngest): the Crown Prince ("Crown" designates that he will be the next king) (the perfect son), Grand Prince Seongnam (the mysterious wild child 😂), Grand Prince Gyeseong (gentle and kind), Grand Prince Muan (sweet and charming but obsessed with girls 😂), and Grand Prince Ilyeong (into math and astronomy and "still just a kid").

Any other princes without "Grand" in front of their title are sons the king had with one of his concubines (aka Prince Ui Seong (actually the oldest of all the king's sons, even older than the Crown Prince, and a BAD EGG), Prince Bogeom (the most intellectually promising of the brothers after the Crown Prince), Prince Simso (good-hearted but struggles to measure up), etc.).

The "Grand Heir" refers to the son of the Crown Prince (he's about 4 or 5 years old in this), who is next in the line of succession to inherit the throne. He will become Crown Prince when his father (the current Crown Prince) becomes king, and is technically 3rd in line for the throne.

The oldest son of the King and Queen is traditionally chosen as the Crown Prince, and is given preference over the concubines' sons in the line of succession (which is why Prince Ui Seong, despite being the oldest son of the king, is not the Crown Prince since he's only the son of a concubine).

The "Queen Dowager" refers to the mother of the King, though interestingly, she was just one of the previous king's concubines... then how did the current king rise to the throne despite being the son of a concubine? 🤔

I will let you figure out the rest. :)

Hope that's a helpful cheat sheet!

That scene... my heart! 🥺

For those who are confused by who everyone is and how they're connected, I will break it down as I had to look all this up. I had to pause Episodes 1 and 2 a bunch of times to figure out who on earth everyone was because I couldn't keep up and was super confused 😂:

**Don't worry, there are NO SPOILERS below, but if you want to figure everything out on your own, don't read any further (I just put the rest under a spoiler tag because it's long and I didn't want to hog the thread, lol)***

Ack, the synopsis for this is just terrible and so confusing. I'll attempt to craft an improvement:

"This sageuk follows the fictional Joseon Queen, Im Hwa Ryeong, as she fights to protect her five sons from the machinations of evil-minded family members, ambitious concubines and scheming ministers. While hell-bent on preserving her children's safety after experiencing a tragic loss, Im Hwa Ryeong becomes a force to be reckoned with, inspiring those around her in the process--even her husband, the king--to uphold the values of a flourishing kingdom. But will she ultimately succeed in protecting those she loves?"

Oh, no, there are definitely worse kings in Kdrama land, haha! At least he gets something of a backbone whenever he teams up with/trusts the Queen! And yes, he's a weak king, but it's because he doesn't deserve the throne, and he knows it.

I think your criticisms are all valid, and I completely tracked with all of them, reasoning-wise, and yet ultimately I somehow came to a completely different overall impression. I still liked it. 😂

I felt like the stuff it was trying to "preach" about was never what intrigued me about this, so I didn't care that it didn't deliver on that front. I was more interested in Sae Ro Yi's growth and determination as he learned the value of friendship while building his life back up after being horribly ruined (and I can take or leave romance as long as there are interesting characters and stories to follow). So, it didn't feel contrived to me, but I guess my experience was also different because I went into it without expectations. I still like rewatching parts, though, which proves my initial impressions have held up over time and after exposure to many more Kdramas (and many good ones).

The one thing I completely agree with you about was the fact that Park Seo Joon acted well in this. He still managed to make me love his character even with one of the ugliest male haircuts I've ever seen! 😂

If you think it's boring after Episode 1, then the rest of it probably won't be interesting to you.

Vincenzo is the drama you're looking for, then.

Ah, the nostalgia for this one.

I think it was one of the first five Kdramas I ever watched, and I still have so much love for it.

I didn't realize it at the time, but it doesn't fit the formula in a lot of ways and does some risky things while still being very much a Kdrama (in that it includes strong character arcs, with characters transforming and growing as we watch, and I LOVE this about Kdramas).

It also packs a wallop emotionally (particularly from/because of the ML (Park Seo Joon absolutely ROCKED this drama; I just love Sae Ro Yi)), and I am still IN LOVE with the OST (particularly the BGMs, some of the tracks are up there with my favorite instrumental music of all time).

And the scene with Sae Ro Yi and his father on the bridge? Still one of my favorite scenes in a Kdrama to date.

So many things to love about this drama! Not perfect, but 100% a classic. If you want to dispute the fact, look at how many viewers it has while still maintaining an 8.4. Only Kdrama classics hold up under that many viewers' ratings!

It was positive review (and the top rated/liked review in the line-up until the user left MDL) and would have been a nice review to offset all the negative ones.

Yes, so true! I agree with all of this. It still worked without all of his backstory fully fleshed out, and I suppose in some ways, I like the freedom to fill in those gaps with my imagination. It gives Ji Hwan an element of mystery surrounding his regrets, and it suits his character and so much of what he does without ever making me confused or dissatisfied.

I really feel like character arcs were done well in this, and good character arcs will always endear me to a drama. It's my favorite thing about the Kdrama and the Kdrama format!

I like that the creators didn't just SAY the ML was a lifesaver for all the ex-cons and an amazing person, and expect us to take everyone's word for it.

Instead, the writer actually tried to show us how Ji Hwan saved them (literally and/or figuratively, and without overusing the flashback) and fleshed out Ji Hwan's character so well that by Episode 16 you know why everyone is so insanely devoted to him and will do anything for him. Even his biggest enemies (not to mention his rival in love!) can't end up resisting his dogged efforts to have hope, show compassion and selfless love rather than give in to hate, despair and greed...

(Ah, when Kdrama character arcs are good, they just outshine other types of TV or film in their ability to transform and/or build a character before your eyes over the course of a series.)

I can usually tell who the writers are on MDL, and I had you pegged as one!

I've noticed they have such distinct writing voices, they usually give themselves away. (And I hope this doesn't creepy, causw I don't mean it to. I just think it's fun to find out my hunches are true! 😂)

Well, yes, but Jiang Li is actually Xue Fang Fei, right? And he does eventually find out she's not really Jiang Li. We never learn how he finds out, he just does.

I was advised to stop halfway through Episode 40, then skip to 40.5. I have no regrets.

Also, Xue Fang Fei is Jiang Li now, so she and Shi Jie are not really cousins after all. That helps with the cousins dilemma as well. :)

Like in Pride and Prejudice, if you're familiar with that, Mr. Collins asks Lizzy to marry him, and it's completely acceptable for the time even though they're first cousins.

It's frowned upon now due to modern social customs, and I think it's an improvement on the past (and somehow now we've made it completely gross and basically incestuous to think of your cousin that way--isn't it fascinating the way social norms evolve?), but it doesn't bother me when it crops up in settings prior to the 20th century since I know it was commonplace.

I preferred the way revenge was accomplished in The Double better, and I liked the main leads' as characters in the Double better (Bu Yi in LLTG was good, but he lost me a bit near the end, so I ultimately preferred Duke Su), but Zhao Lusi is the superior actress, in my opinion. She was incredible in LLTG.