Meari21

I actually complained about that. lol I thought the age gap didn't make sense because the character was supposed to be just several years older but they went on to cast someone who was 20 years older. I had the same reaction to the Goblin pairing. Interestingly, both dramas were written by the same screenwriter.

I'm usually not fond of this trope but Kim Sam Soon is a classic! For those who started watching K-dramas in the early 2000's, this was THE noona drama! That's also the drama that introduced me to Hyun Bin.

I agree with the other poster who commented about Something in the Rain, though. The start was good, the rest was just a whole lot of BS. lol I like Son Yejin but I couldn't stand her character there. Her parents are even worse!

Noona dramas are not my cup of tea but I can get behind them if they are engaging, the chemistry between the leads is there, and if the May-December pairing makes sense within the context of the story. Sometimes they just pair actors with huge age differences for no particular reason and cast a much older actor for a role that's written for a younger one simply because the actor is popular. I hate that.

The pairing in this drama, however, makes sense to me. He's a young, gullible king and she's supposed to be older than him. I even wish they made the character much older because she's a Michelin star chef and it's uncommon for chefs to attain that kind of prestige in their 20's.

He reminds me of Bi Wenjun actually. In fact, he's like a combination of Bi Wenjun, He Yu (who kinda looks like Song Kang), and Honda Kyoya.

I've been reading a lot of comments about the time travel concept in this drama and theories of a time loop, so I'm going to copy and paste what I said in a previous post...

"Explaining time travel is tricky as it is all based on theory. In fiction, they use this concept to literally take people back in time or take them forward with some kind of magical or sci-fi fantasy-esque circumstances or tool/mcguffin. In this story, it's the book that allows her to travel because that book's origin is connected to her. It was created because she traveled back in time at some point and the book couldn't have existed if she hadn't. But there is an original timeline that allowed for that to happen or a point of origin, which I doubt will be explored here because there is no logical explanation for it, it just happens. Think of the Time-Turner in Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban film and how they used the concept of time travel, I'm guessing they're taking that route in this drama. I don't think it's a time loop, it's just that time is an abstract concept, there is no beginning and there is no end. In a time loop, the characters keep going back in time and reliving it over and over again and usually there's at least one who can remember everything that has transpired so the time loop can be broken. I don't think that's the case here."

Of course, I could be wrong. Only time will tell. Yes, I made a pun. lol

Explaining time travel is tricky as it is all based on theory. In fiction, they use this concept to literally take people back in time or take them forward with some kind of magical or sci-fi fantasy-esque circumstances or tool. In this story, it's the book that allows her to travel because that book's origins is connected to her. It was created because she traveled back in time at some point and the book couldn't have existed if she hadn't. But there is an original timeline that allowed for that to happen, which I doubt will be explored here because there is no logical explanation for it, it just happens. Think of the Time Turner in Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban and how they used the concept of time travel, I'm guessing they're taking that route in this drama. I don't think it's a time loop, it's just that time is an abstract concept, there is no beginning and there is no end. In a time loop, the characters keep going back in time and reliving that over and over again and usually there's at least one who can remember everything that has transpired.

She’s not a concubine but a fourth rank royal consort. She was probably a former concubine that was promoted to consort. She doesn’t seem like she has the most desirable pedigree considering what happened to her in the past. Concubines are merely women taken by men as their mistresses to help them produce heirs. Most concubines are of low birth or even prisoners of war or hostages taken from enemy states. Consorts, however, are wives, they are married to the king. Consort Kang may not have the highest rank among his consorts but she is his favorite so she holds a lot of political power within the royal court. He has no queen at the moment, probably because of political reasons. The title of queen is usually reserved for someone who can offer the most vital and powerful alliance to the kingdom. Queens are usually of royal blood. None of his current consorts are probably royal just noble court women. But technically he can promote any of them to Queen if he chooses. It just won’t be a good move politically especially if he can find a more suitable or better match.

Ohh, Dae Jang Geum! Yes, that was my first introduction to the elaborate food prepared for Korean royalty called surasang. I started eating out at Korean restaurants in my city after that.

While I understand that there are some people who find this offensive, I actually don't mind as this sort of thing has been done before and was accepted as plain fiction. Take Disney's Pocahontas for example. They portrayed Captain John Smith as an ally of the native Americans when the truth is his allegiance remained with the English and he did things at the expense of the locals. He and his kind slaughtered tens of thousands of native Americans and stole their lands. He wasn't romantically involved with Pocahontas either. She was kidnapped, enslaved, and died miserably. But Disney romanticized her life and relationship with Captain John Smith and people accepted it because it's a fictional account of her story. The movie went on to become a massive global hit and is considered a beloved animated classic. How is that okay and this drama isn't? Another example is the romanticization of Ferdinand Magellan in an animated film where he is portrayed as a hero. This movie became a huge hit in Spain and was even nominated for best animated feature awards. But the man was no saint and in fact he committed crimes against the native people of the Philippines and Guam when Spain moved to colonize these territories. So Spain can make a fictional animated movie about this man who led an ambitious expedition to colonize and enslave two nations for three hundred years but this drama is weird? I'm not saying it's alright to make these kinds of movies, but if it's okay to make fictional (and romanticized) adaptations of real historical figures with many of the actual names, places, and circumstances included, then surely writers can create a fantasy drama that is partly based on a historical figure with none of the actual names used.

Yep, I mentioned this too. Except this is far more tame than Food Wars. lol

I actually don't think it's strange as this is based on a popular rom-com webtoon and that's what they're adapting. Besides, most K-dramas usually have slapstick comedy, especially in romance dramas such as this one. They also made the effort to change the names, something that the webtoon didn't even bother to do. Even if the king is based on a real tyrant, it's not an actual biographical account of his life, so it's not romanticizing him or condoning his actions. If anything, it is only loosely based on the real historical figure and his life.

I see this more as an "elseworlds" type of story, an alternate history if you will. It's like exploring what could have been if this bloodthirsty tyrant had the proper guidance and had realized his transgressions and changed for the better. Nobody is condoning his behavior or rewriting history, it's just fiction, a reimagination. Nobody complained about the drama The Tudors years ago that was from the perspective of King Henry the 8th, which made his wives look like they were the ones at fault even though he was equally to blame if not more so. It's because people understood that it was a fictionalized account of what really happened. I haven't read the manhwa so I can only surmise that by the end of this drama, they will have her change history and all the atrocities this king committed would not happen.

There's no queen. They've only shown one royal consort so far, Consort Kang, and she's a fourth rank royal consort even, but she's his current favorite so she holds immense power in the court. As for consorts or queens being older than their husbands, there have been queens throughout history that were older than their husbands and one of them was Queen Mary the 1st of England or Mary Tudor, she was eleven years older than her husband.

Yeah, I've seen that in manga/anime too. Fruit Baskets, for example, also did that. But what I meant was the camaraderie and the fact that they are supposed to be heavenly creatures that are immortal. Like The Eternals, they've been living like humans for thousands of years and they treat one another like family.

Why does this remind me of The Eternals? Ma Dong Seok played Gilgamesh in that movie and they made a reference in the drama with those bandits calling him Gilgamesh. Was he inspired by The Eternals when he wrote this story? Just curious.

He played Fu Rong Jun. In the original novel, he was supposed to be in a BL relationship with Xin Yun Lai's character, Mo Fang. I almost didn't recognize him in Dashing Youth. He was so silly and childish in Shen Li but he played a brooding badass in Dashing Youth.

I'm usually not into pairings with huge age gaps unless it's vital to the story and this is one of those exceptions. The king is supposed to be young and naive. He ascended to the throne at a young age, probably in his early teen years. I haven't read the manhwa but I'm guessing he's either in his late teens or early 20's at the beginning of this story. If that's true, then it makes sense that they would cast a much younger actor.

As for Yoona playing an accomplished chef, it would actually be more realistic that she'd be older than 27 because people just don't become a 3-star Michelin chef overnight, it takes years of training, practice, and experience. If they're supposed to be the same age in the manhwa (meaning they're in their 20's), then I'd say that Jiyeong is a genius and truly special because it's rare to achieve that kind of status in the culinary world at a young age. It was also common in history to have these huge age gaps between husbands and wives, especially among royalty. Some kings even married their adult wives when they were still children. Besides, if we really think about their respective characters, the king is technically hundreds of years older than Jiyeong. lol

For manhwa readers, please open a discussions thread where people can ask about the characters and learn how different or similar this drama is to the manhwa. Thanks in advance!

Yeah, Liu Xueyi is practically typecasted in these sort of roles. lol Not sure if he can do comedy though. As far as I can remember, the closest comedic role he has ever had is Wuxin in Blood of Youth. But his Wuxin is just playful, not really funny unlike Ao Ruipeng's Lei Wujie.

Yes. He was really funny in The Legend of Shen Li. But he also looked like a total evil dark lord in Dashing Youth.

I was thinking of Li Yitong for the FL. I found her hilarious in A Dream Within A Dream. She’s also closer in age to Yoona. As for the ML, I think Ding Yuxi would be great. He Yu would also be good imho. He even looks like Song Kang to me. 😁

This is a fun watch and I’m liking it so far. I do like the political intrigue and cooking scenes, they remind me of Japanese food dramas and anime series like Food Wars. It’s based on a manhwa so no wonder. There are some suspend-your-disbelief moments but nothing too farfetched that I can’t forgive.