Platinum Fox

Yes, I don't go by ratings any more. They are so subjective. You have people rating things a 10 because of who is in it, and you have people rating it a 1 because of who is in it. So I just now watch dramas that interest me despite the rating. I do rate ones that, for me, deserve a 6 and above.

Yes, and now his spirit is being used to harm other members of the royal bloodline. But it seems to be very discerning as the spirit only seems to kill royals who do bad things. The reason I think it is sad is because it accidentally killed the present king's father. Unless the present king's father did something heinous. jmo

Thanks, I just wanted to know your take on it. I did ask someone else.

The rating of 8.9 is the average rating of everyone who has rated the drama. This includes everyone who has rated it with multiple accounts. The verified rating is what you should be looking at as it tries to take out all the multiple ratings by one person. That rating is an 8.35. In my opinion, that seems a little low. More like an 8.5. However, I have only watched two episodes and am enjoying it so far. jmo

Just curious what were you expecting? There seems to be a mix of fantasy with the supernatural.

How is Dear Hongrang?

I thought the same thing until episode 10. The spirits who have been haunting the palace have been doing so for a 100 years. The child who saw Gang Cheol ascend seems to be the fire spirit. The fire spirit tells Gang Cheol that the royal family are to blame for Gang Cheol not ascending. In other words, the massacre in the opening scenes of episode 1 took place 100 years ago, not 13 years ago as we thought. There must have been a rebellion among the royal family and the person who took the child either saved him or killed him. It seems as if the child was killed, so that he could not ascend the throne. The child must have been burned alive as he is now a fire spirit.

Now that Gang Cheol knows that the fire spirit is 100 years old. He can do research into who was king at the time and figure out what happened and plan accordingly.

Whatever is killing the royal family is very discerning. It seems to only kill those who do bad things. Unless the king's father did something heinous, I think his death was an accident because Yeo Ri's grandmother did not understand the spirit. I think that is why the fire spirit is sad. It killed someone he shouldn't have killed.

This is just my speculation.

I was thinking of watching Dear Hongrang. How is it?

Yes, I have often wondered about the gathering of evidence and pictures. However, they could say that the pictures have been doctored, but the main thing is you would have to find a police officer who wasn't on the take or will stand up to the rich and powerful.

Lees, I understand why people are angry at Baek Seom. I understand that people think the Baek Seom betrayed his friends. But who is Baek Seom really? Baek Seom is the product of his home life, the product of the complacency of parents and teachers towards bullying, and the product of the idea that bullying is just children having fun. Who's having fun? He is also a member of the rich and powerful elite. His father is a congressman. All the rich and powerful students are afraid of Suho. The rich and powerful students want revenge on Suho as he has repeatedly made them look like fools.

Since Suho would not allow Baek Seom to use an actual weapon, Baek Seom chooses money as his weapon. He pays someone (who also has a grudge against Suho) to beat him up. This is the way of the rich and powerful. If it hadn't been for Baek Seom switching sides, the story would have come to a grinding halt. Baek Seom's dad wants him to be a leader. He does using his money and solving the problem of Suho. However, because of everything that has happened in his life and others' lives, they all go too far. Suho becomes a scapegoat for every problem that happens to the rich and powerful kids.

Hope this helps and thank you for the discussion.

Don't worry, they can't pull a Mr. Queen. Neither the queen nor Bong (the main male character) leave their body ( we never see their spirits). Yun Gap's spirit has left his body and Gang Cheol has just borrowed Yun Gap's physical body. Gang Cheol is not experiencing anything that would be distinctly Yun Gap. The feelings he is feeling are all his. In Mr. Queen, Bong experiences the queen's memories, her feelings for the king, and other things that are distinctly related to the queen.

You should really watch Mr. Queen it is hilarious.

They can't pull a Mr. Queen here very different scenario. In Mr. Queen, Bong wakes up in the body of the queen and Bong imagines the queen running around in his body. Also, at one point he awakens in his own body but can't speak to anyone. When he goes back his voice is now her voice, and he begins to remember what she remembers, so she is still in her body just unconscious. She is slowly waking up. After the king has achieved his goal, she fully awakens and acts just like she did when Bong was in her body. However, she speaks with honorifics (which Bong didn't do). So the king does say he thinks something is missing.

Here Gang Cheol has just borrowed Yun Gap's dead body, so that he can get the stone away from Yeo Ri. Once he does that he can't get back out again and has to stay in it until he ascends. Other spirits can jump in and out bodies, but they are usually live bodies not dead. Yun Gap's spirit has completely left his body. It is why you see two Yun Gap's at the very beginning: his physical body and his spirit. Gang Cheol is not experiencing anything that happened to the real Yun Gap. That is why is it different than Mr. Queen.

In Mr. Queen you never see neither the queen's or Bong's spirits. Throughout the drama, Bong begins to get her memories and feelings. This means that she is still in her body just asleep. Once everything has been handled she becomes fully awake and acts just like Bong. The only difference is she uses honorifics. The ending of Mr. Queen is very appropriate.

Hope this helps.

I think the feud is about how Baku taught Baekjin how to fight. Instead of using his fighting skills for good, Baekjin becomes a part of the Union. Since we have no clear background on Baekjin, it is hard to say. All we know is that Baku will never teach another person to fight because of Baekjin.

That scene was very telling. For me, it almost made it seem like Baek Seom had died and he is asking Si Eun to join him in death. Si Eun makes it clear that he will not join him, and he must get back with his friends. The other interpretation is that Baek Seom is asking him to come join him the Philippines or to just plain run away. Just my take.

Not only did he betray her trust, but Niao Niao felt they were not on the same page when it comes to love. LBY over and over states that husbands and wives are one and should tell each other everything. Yet, the biggest secret of his life she has to find out after he has completed his revenge (the day before their wedding). Before the revenge act, she has an inkling that he not LBY but HSW. She just needs to hear it from him. He never tells her, yet she is supposed to tell him everything. How is that being one and equal in a relationship?

For me, she does the smartest thing she can do and break it off with him. In the end, she is the one who saves him. At the time, he doesn't regret his decision to get revenge. Later, he comes to regret it and realizes that she was right in doing what she did.

Resa put it in a nutshell. Hope this helps. Happy drama watching.

You are not the only one who has commented on this. There have been many discussions about the mother and her treatment of Niao Niao. When looked at through a historical lens, her mother is actually quite progressive in her discipline of Niao Niao (NN). The mother is deeply concerned about how if NN were to get married, how the husband's family would discipline her if NN were to get revenge for every little thing someone does to her (which she does now). Remember mom has been through a divorce (we don't know why, but we can infer that it had something to do with her behavior). Mom doesn't want the same thing happening to NN. So her actions may look like she doesn't love NN, but in reality she is trying everything she can change her daughter's behavior.

NN acts like any 15 year old. She is impulsive, unruly, and illiterate. However, she is intelligent in the ways of building things (traps). Her mother is constantly trying to get NN to be and act like the other girls, but NN resists. NN also felt like she was abandon and everyone around her says that her parents abandon her. This leads to trust issues. Why should she automatically love her parents, just because they are her parents? She meets them for the first time when she is 15.

For me, the mother loves her daughter deeply, but has yet to build a trusting relationship with her. This will not happen over night as NN has trust issues and rightly so with how Aunt Ge and the grandmother treated her throughout the 15 years the parents have been away. I have noticed that parents during this time period don't seem to hug their children much. So what is parental love and how is it shown? It is making sure that the children can be contributing members of society. jmo

I normally don't watch fantasy either, but I love ghosts, spirits, and zombies (if done right). Not a fan of werewolves and vampires.

Just read IsebellaSnow's comment and it seems like a plausible theory, but again I have to ask why is the 8 ft. creature sad? Happy drama watching!

Yes, so could we say that the 8 ft creature is the person who saved this child and died to keep the secret. The behavior of the 8 ft. creature is what interests me the most as it seems when it was alive it was someone who took orders from the royals. Did this creature have do something it didn't want to do and therefore it is sad? Yeo Ri and Gang Cheol both say that spirits themselves are not bad, but are made to do bad things, so is the 8 ft. creature doing something that he doesn't want to do? When he possesses the blind shaman, he tells him that he is the one who saw him, maybe hoping that Gang Cheol, being a deity, can help him from being used for evil purposes.

The other thing I found interesting is that when the blind shaman is himself he is blind, when he is possessed he can see. So it is almost as if the blind shaman is possessed with the 8 ft. creature. The 8 ft. creature can go in out of people's bodies because they are alive. Gang Cheol can't because his body is dead.

We also have the introduction of a new royal male who could possibly take over the throne if something happened to the king and crown prince. He is innocent and pure, not like the queen dowager's son. Is he a distant relative of this vengeful spirit?

These are just my thoughts. Thanks for the discussion.

I'm just as confused as you! However, I think I understand what the spirit was saying. The royal bloodline isn't just the present king, the king's father and mother, the grandfather, etc. Remember a king might have more than one son. What happens to those other sons who are not named crown prince? They are still part of the royal bloodline, but are not really noteworthy in the archives of the royal family unless they by chance become king. Their descendants would also be considered of royal blood and have a shot at the throne if something were to happen to the present king and his descendants.

Throughout the first 9 episodes we all assumed that the attack on the village took place 13 year ago (at least I did) because that is when the king's father died when the 8 ft. creature possessed him. In episode 10 we learn that the 8 ft creature was indeed born many years before that, 100 years ago. So this grudge has been around for at least 100 years and finally the present day king is doing something about it whereas the past kings didn't.

Remember in the first episode, Yeo Ri says something to the effect, if people knew that what they do affects future generations would they act differently? All kings (past and present) have the shadows of what their predecessors did. Will the king and people learn from the past or just go about their daily lives and not change the way they think. If Gang Cheol has been wandering the earth for a pure vessel and finally found one after 87 years (Yeo Ri), what does that say about the human race? jmo

Jun Tae went to the cops, and the cops were like we will take of it. However, did they actually take care of it? They called Na Baek Jin and he sent goons to get the paper back, so what person would trust the cops who are being paid off by the Union.

This just shows you that this problem is bigger than just the boys themselves. The issue of bullying is complacent among the parents, school staff, the cops, and the students. Until you change the mindset of the everyone. There will always be Na Baek Jin's.