It’s blowing my mind that you and some people still think that the costumes were batter last season. I can understand…
I definitely didn't see the costumes as befitting the Bronze Age. But, then, I don't think people with glowing blue and purple eyes and super strength existed then, either. I was willing to go with it because it was pretty to look at. I find it kinda funny that people want period accuracy in a fantasy that is not historically accurate , but I can work with that, too.
Tanya's dress is the one I noticed the most. It went from being elegant to being a gunny sack. Tealha's hair, this time seems a bit much.
Its not as though any of it matters. It catches one's attention when you watch a few episode of Season 1 right before watching Season 2. I definitely experienced the feeling of going from a lush production to one that was more spare. Even the way they made the twins look completely different from each other in Season 1, by giving Saya makeup and long, well-kept hair, while Eun Som had short, tussled hair and a more natural face. In Season 2, there is very little visual distinction between them. I don't know why they made that decision, but it feels like it was a money-saving choice, because it would be easier to film the actor as both characters in quick scene changes, if they didn't have to apply and remove different makeup applications.
Again, it doesn't really matter. Its just noticeable and, somehow, left me feeling sad. And I probably wouldn't have even bothered mentioning anything outside of my head, except those bad green screens. Yikes.
Because, when I have a stalker maliciously posting photos of me, stealing my clothes and using them to leave creepy, life-size, ominous straw dolls and I'm so anxious about it that I'm carrying self-defense tools, I will always go find the grave-sized pit deep in the woods that someone anonymously reported, all by myself. Who needs safety protocol anyway?!
the music in season 2 was similar to this one. it is not a Disney production though.the costume are different…
I wondered about that with the costumes. I remember watching Season 1 and asking myself if they would have had the technology for those fabrics and constructs. Still, they were pretty exquisite. So, when I re-watched the last few episodes and then went right into Season 2, it was a stark difference.
Its too bad that Disney seemed to think it wasn't worth investing in good production quality. Costumes, scenery, etc are all downgraded. In some scenes you can literally see that it was filmed in front a green screen and its so obvious that the background is CGI. In some cases, the foreground, too.
Also, the music. Its so Western. If you want to put orchestral sounds to a SE Asian production, at least add in some SE Asian instruments. It doesn't fit to be seeing a SE Asian cast and hearing a SE Asian language, with distinctly Western music in the background. Also, try some composition that doesn't sound like Hollywood Symphonic Composition 101. (Being a musician, I find this annoyingly distracting. Maybe others don't care.)
It was hard enough to go along with the new casting. We all know that couldn't be helped. (Though I wish someone else was chosen for Tanya.) Downgrading everything else, though?
I guess Disney thought it just didn't have enough of an audience. Of course, if you don't promote it and you limit its distribution, that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Makes me sad that this was done to such a good story.
Disney have the rights to this season so it's on Disney+ in certain countries
Its too bad, because Disney seemed to think it wasn't worth investing in good production quality. Costumes, scenery, etc are all downgraded. In some scenes you can literally see that it was filmed in front a green screen and its so obvious that the background is CGI. Makes me sad that this was done to such a good story.
I guess it just didn't have enough of an audience.
I agree! The drama will only be loved till the end if the two end up together and not "dying" together although…
Weren't they at the wedding ceremony in that last scene where we seeing him looking in and she sees him? I think she marries. And, someday, maybe she'll be disabused of her misunderstandings and come to find out that this sleazeball gaslighted her and stole the MLs accomplishments and woman. But, by then, I won't care. They simply don't work well together. I wish them both satisfying, but separate lives.
So very well said!I 'd also support a character who stands to his/ her decisions sincerely.I can never justify…
they seem to be almost approaching the question of the value of a king, being the one person who represents the existence of a nation. they could pursue this and the role of the scholars to make sure that a patriarchal hierarchy is upheld. But, they won't, I don't think. They have servants who do the gatekeeping of the very system which oppresses them. I keep waiting for dramas which explore this dynamic and challenge it.
They have some good opportunities, with the setting of war and instability, to critique the construct of hierarchy and feudalism. Showing the women rise into their own skills and power and become leaders of families and industry and treating people more as equals. They have seeds of this here. But, sadly, it will be a toxic romance.
I'm highly unlikely to be bothered with Season 2, because of that.
Once again these mdl cmnts make me lose brain cells. I can't with misogynists hating fl for no reason. God forbid…
One can admire her audacity and ability to protect and sustain her family. One can admire her commitment and sense of responsibility with her choice to stay.
One can also find her cruelty to him toxic. One can find her persistent trait of assuming the worst about him to be toxic. One can critique her unwillingness to hear his story. He was gone for 2 years. There were rumors of his death. He was in a hostile land and she knows well the brutality of their overlords. Still, she doesn’t think, “what has he been through?”, she just accuses him of nit caring about her. She’s very narcissistic.
They are both too prideful. His pride gets in the way because he doesn’t disabuse her of misunderstandings. Hers makes her quite mean. She could have made that choice without being mean. She did a lot of growing up due to the war, but she’s still behaving like a childish jerk with him.
What utter nonsense! So, he was supposed to let the country fall apart and be with her all the time? What on earth?…
I’m with you. It’s the persistent worst assumptions that leave me cold to any romance. Her unwillingness to ever find out the whole story. We see why he makes his choices and they are usually valiant. Her choice to take care of her family is also valiant. But her cruelty to him is not. And she always chooses to be cruel. I don’t wish her hurtful toxicity on anyone. I will have less respect fir him if he goes back to her.
And the award for the piece of s**t of the year goes to none other than your truly, Ryang Eum. He deserves all…
He seems to harbor romantic feelings, but knows they won’t be returned, so he doesn’t express them out loud.
On age: isn’t he older than the FL?
The ML told him to call him “hyung’, so he sees him as a younger brother. The age isn’t the problem here, it’s the toxicity of his “caring” and how he really doesn’t want the ML to have anyone else,
She doesn’t deserve him. Not because she opted out, but because she perpetually holds the worst possible interpretation of him. I loathe “romances” where this the foundation. It was ok for a bit, as she was immature and nit worldly. But, after a certain amount of real world experience, it doesn’t make sense and she just comes off as a jerk.
She’s knows what rumors are like and how people twist reality and spread it as truth. She knows that he didn’t go with them to refuge, because he was planning a way to protect them from the invaders.
She saw him on the island.
She believed a stranger over her own eyes, in that moment. She didn’t even spend 30 seconds looking for him. Just let a stranger override her lived experience. Stranger dude f’ing gaslighted her. He’s sleazy and she has no judgment.
She knows that Nam sees him as his savior.
She is young and immature. Ok, she can be that and be bratty and too proud to acknowledge her feelings for him. But, she, and those around her, have enough experience of him in the village and after to know that she should question those rumors and take them with a grain of salt. Yet, she repeatedly demeans him and accuses him of things he didn’t do. He tells her what he has done and how he feels and she refutes it. She’s so utterly disrespectful.
She could have just said, “I thought you were dead. It took me this long to sort of move on. I had to become the head of the family and so many people are relying upon me. I won’t feel good about abandoning them.”
I’m not a fan of story narratives where a character is mean and cruel “for the sake of helping the other person let go.” It’s bogus. It’s disrespectful. Leave them their dignity by speaking truth and standing firm in your decision. Also, I really have never known of anyone to do this in my 60 years on this planet. So, it feels very contrived and unnatural. It pulls me right out of empathizing with the character. I’m just done with them. I end up not wanting them to have a romantic partner because I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone. I don’t understand why this is such an overused storytelling trope.
But, ok, we’ll go with this bs. Only, I no longer want them to be together. Ever. If she had been honest, then I could see them finding their way back. But, she always hurts him to the core and never takes responsibility for that. He deserves better. And no pair should be a couple when there is that much willingness to be hurtful. It’s not love. It’s toxic. Move on and find partners where your time together is founded on mutual respect and admiration and trust.
As much as I hate what Ryang did and I hope he suffers for it, I agree with him that she will just hurt him. She always has, so why would anything be different? Run away. Run very far.
I’m only on ep 3. Will someone please tell me if Gil Chae becomes likable? So far, she’s narcissistic and mean-spirited and sacrifices other people for what she covets. I can’t see why anyone would fall for her. I don’t even want to watch her awful antics from a distance, any longer. Does it get better? How soon?
Agreed. 17 was a green flag but Jing definitely not. He become a weak chicken when it comes to his grandma and…
It’s the never seeing what’s coming and never investigating that gets me. Best chess player in the world? He’s the dullest tool in the box. (Not to mention that he’s kind of boring. They’ve got a thousand years to hang out. What do they talk about? What do they do to pass the time? What do they laugh about? In the main, life is mundane. Fawning is interesting for about 5 minutes. You have to have things which keep you life dynamic.)
No one, not one single person is saying he is not worth her love. Show me where anyone in this thread has said that. Noting deficiencies isn’t erasing worth. It’s impossible to have an interesting dialogue when people can’t discern this and are arguing about things no one said. What purpose does this serve?
Also, people can have opinions/analyses based on the point in the story to which they’ve gotten. Obviously, as characters develop and story unfolds, those may change. Being upset that someone has a view based on Season 1 drama and insisting on using future points in the story to defend your different view is unreasonable and spoilerish.
It’s very clear why XY would prefer the nature of Jing. It also seems clear that this is who she ends up with, if anyone.
I was simply pointing out that, at this point in the drama, all 3 men display solid reasons to avoid romantic partnerships with. They sort of serve as a team, but, individually, each is dangerous on their own. Just in different ways. That Jing is no exception. His just looks softer on the outside.
He’s got a psychopathic brother and a murderous fiancée/wife. He’s supposedly the best chess player but he loses at their game every time. He’s passive and he’s not even wary/smart enough to see what’s coming at him. I’d never risk being with him, if I’m someone reliability.
XL is literally toxic. The beauty of him is that he knows it and doesn’t want to poison her life with his problems. He hurts her when he is triggered or wants to stop himself from expressing his feelings. However, he is reliably there for her. Of the three, his love is the most selfless. Even using her for the medicine isn’t for him, it’s for “rebels”. He serves them even though they despise him. All out of gratitude to the general who saved him. In a way, he’s the most dignified of the three. Still, I’d never wish for her to become his romantic partner, unless he went through some dramatic changes down the road. I find him the most exquisite but the least possible.
Her cousin is a whole ‘nother mess. He harbors romantic desires but hides them. In a different way than XL; a way I find creepy. He’s so obsessive about power that he has neutralized all emotions and passions. He sort of dead inside. And I’d never trust that I wouldn’t be used as a pawn, even though he claims such a strong bond is there. He doesn’t know how to emotionally bond. Too much loss and family hostility as a young child. He can bond over goals, but the goal will always mean more than the bond, in the end. Her instinct that he’s not reliable seems spot on.
So, for me, I prefer her as an independent person. The intertwining relationships gives her a mix of what she needs along with some checks and balances. I’m not sure why she has to have a monogamous marriage. It’s sad that there is such an assumption of that outcome that we are deprived of more interesting storytelling. And that people are actually going to get themselves all worked up and hostile over some fictional romance competition.
No one has to be perfect to be worthy. Different people will prefer different imperfect personalities. Romance isn’t a life requirement. Romance could be asexual. Romance doesn’t have to be monogamous.
These are all social constructs devised mostly by men. They are not natural laws. Fictional stories can be a great opportunity to challenge our acculturated “norms”. Why box ourselves in and alienate one another by holding onto these competitive notions?
Tanya's dress is the one I noticed the most. It went from being elegant to being a gunny sack. Tealha's hair, this time seems a bit much.
Its not as though any of it matters. It catches one's attention when you watch a few episode of Season 1 right before watching Season 2. I definitely experienced the feeling of going from a lush production to one that was more spare. Even the way they made the twins look completely different from each other in Season 1, by giving Saya makeup and long, well-kept hair, while Eun Som had short, tussled hair and a more natural face. In Season 2, there is very little visual distinction between them. I don't know why they made that decision, but it feels like it was a money-saving choice, because it would be easier to film the actor as both characters in quick scene changes, if they didn't have to apply and remove different makeup applications.
Again, it doesn't really matter. Its just noticeable and, somehow, left me feeling sad.
And I probably wouldn't have even bothered mentioning anything outside of my head, except those bad green screens. Yikes.
I also still like the show.
Its too bad that Disney seemed to think it wasn't worth investing in good production quality. Costumes, scenery, etc are all downgraded. In some scenes you can literally see that it was filmed in front a green screen and its so obvious that the background is CGI. In some cases, the foreground, too.
Also, the music. Its so Western. If you want to put orchestral sounds to a SE Asian production, at least add in some SE Asian instruments. It doesn't fit to be seeing a SE Asian cast and hearing a SE Asian language, with distinctly Western music in the background. Also, try some composition that doesn't sound like Hollywood Symphonic Composition 101. (Being a musician, I find this annoyingly distracting. Maybe others don't care.)
It was hard enough to go along with the new casting. We all know that couldn't be helped. (Though I wish someone else was chosen for Tanya.) Downgrading everything else, though?
I guess Disney thought it just didn't have enough of an audience. Of course, if you don't promote it and you limit its distribution, that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Makes me sad that this was done to such a good story.
I guess it just didn't have enough of an audience.
They have some good opportunities, with the setting of war and instability, to critique the construct of hierarchy and feudalism. Showing the women rise into their own skills and power and become leaders of families and industry and treating people more as equals. They have seeds of this here. But, sadly, it will be a toxic romance.
I'm highly unlikely to be bothered with Season 2, because of that.
One can also find her cruelty to him toxic. One can find her persistent trait of assuming the worst about him to be toxic. One can critique her unwillingness to hear his story. He was gone for 2 years. There were rumors of his death. He was in a hostile land and she knows well the brutality of their overlords. Still, she doesn’t think, “what has he been through?”, she just accuses him of nit caring about her. She’s very narcissistic.
They are both too prideful. His pride gets in the way because he doesn’t disabuse her of misunderstandings. Hers makes her quite mean. She could have made that choice without being mean. She did a lot of growing up due to the war, but she’s still behaving like a childish jerk with him.
On age: isn’t he older than the FL?
The ML told him to call him “hyung’, so he sees him as a younger brother. The age isn’t the problem here, it’s the toxicity of his “caring” and how he really doesn’t want the ML to have anyone else,
She’s knows what rumors are like and how people twist reality and spread it as truth. She knows that he didn’t go with them to refuge, because he was planning a way to protect them from the invaders.
She saw him on the island.
She believed a stranger over her own eyes, in that moment. She didn’t even spend 30 seconds looking for him. Just let a stranger override her lived experience. Stranger dude f’ing gaslighted her. He’s sleazy and she has no judgment.
She knows that Nam sees him as his savior.
She is young and immature. Ok, she can be that and be bratty and too proud to acknowledge her feelings for him. But, she, and those around her, have enough experience of him in the village and after to know that she should question those rumors and take them with a grain of salt. Yet, she repeatedly demeans him and accuses him of things he didn’t do. He tells her what he has done and how he feels and she refutes it. She’s so utterly disrespectful.
She could have just said, “I thought you were dead. It took me this long to sort of move on. I had to become the head of the family and so many people are relying upon me. I won’t feel good about abandoning them.”
I’m not a fan of story narratives where a character is mean and cruel “for the sake of helping the other person let go.” It’s bogus. It’s disrespectful. Leave them their dignity by speaking truth and standing firm in your decision. Also, I really have never known of anyone to do this in my 60 years on this planet. So, it feels very contrived and unnatural. It pulls me right out of empathizing with the character. I’m just done with them. I end up not wanting them to have a romantic partner because I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone. I don’t understand why this is such an overused storytelling trope.
But, ok, we’ll go with this bs. Only, I no longer want them to be together. Ever. If she had been honest, then I could see them finding their way back. But, she always hurts him to the core and never takes responsibility for that. He deserves better. And no pair should be a couple when there is that much willingness to be hurtful. It’s not love. It’s toxic. Move on and find partners where your time together is founded on mutual respect and admiration and trust.
As much as I hate what Ryang did and I hope he suffers for it, I agree with him that she will just hurt him. She always has, so why would anything be different? Run away. Run very far.
Also, people can have opinions/analyses based on the point in the story to which they’ve gotten. Obviously, as characters develop and story unfolds, those may change. Being upset that someone has a view based on Season 1 drama and insisting on using future points in the story to defend your different view is unreasonable and spoilerish.
It’s very clear why XY would prefer the nature of Jing. It also seems clear that this is who she ends up with, if anyone.
I was simply pointing out that, at this point in the drama, all 3 men display solid reasons to avoid romantic partnerships with. They sort of serve as a team, but, individually, each is dangerous on their own. Just in different ways. That Jing is no exception. His just looks softer on the outside.
He’s got a psychopathic brother and a murderous fiancée/wife. He’s supposedly the best chess player but he loses at their game every time. He’s passive and he’s not even wary/smart enough to see what’s coming at him. I’d never risk being with him, if I’m someone reliability.
XL is literally toxic. The beauty of him is that he knows it and doesn’t want to poison her life with his problems. He hurts her when he is triggered or wants to stop himself from expressing his feelings. However, he is reliably there for her. Of the three, his love is the most selfless. Even using her for the medicine isn’t for him, it’s for “rebels”. He serves them even though they despise him. All out of gratitude to the general who saved him. In a way, he’s the most dignified of the three. Still, I’d never wish for her to become his romantic partner, unless he went through some dramatic changes down the road. I find him the most exquisite but the least possible.
Her cousin is a whole ‘nother mess. He harbors romantic desires but hides them. In a different way than XL; a way I find creepy. He’s so obsessive about power that he has neutralized all emotions and passions. He sort of dead inside. And I’d never trust that I wouldn’t be used as a pawn, even though he claims such a strong bond is there. He doesn’t know how to emotionally bond. Too much loss and family hostility as a young child. He can bond over goals, but the goal will always mean more than the bond, in the end. Her instinct that he’s not reliable seems spot on.
So, for me, I prefer her as an independent person. The intertwining relationships gives her a mix of what she needs along with some checks and balances. I’m not sure why she has to have a monogamous marriage. It’s sad that there is such an assumption of that outcome that we are deprived of more interesting storytelling. And that people are actually going to get themselves all worked up and hostile over some fictional romance competition.
No one has to be perfect to be worthy.
Different people will prefer different imperfect personalities.
Romance isn’t a life requirement.
Romance could be asexual.
Romance doesn’t have to be monogamous.
These are all social constructs devised mostly by men. They are not natural laws. Fictional stories can be a great opportunity to challenge our acculturated “norms”. Why box ourselves in and alienate one another by holding onto these competitive notions?