mysteryqueen9

She slept with him because of the Head Gisaeng's advice. FL was drinking her sorrows and the gentle gisaeng that reminded her of her friend went to talk to her. When FL asked her if she had any advice to sever a relationship, Gisaeng answered that she recommended following the heart so you can arrive to the end of the road (aka: until love fades) and you realise the futility of love. FL took the advice to heart, so when ML discovered she is a female she wanted to kiss him and go all the way with him because in that way she may remove that thorn of her heart and "arrive at the end of the road". More or less like a lot of womanisers MLs in other dramas that think that sleeping with FL will make their interest in her disappear and surprise it doesn't happen , lol.

At least that's how I interpreted it, I could be wrong.

If the king has a son, even if the king dies they can not only retain their power but control court as the real power in the shadows as they act as regents of the child king. Queen Dowager and uncle minister are absolutely power hungry and ML very clearly clashes with them and lets them know he is not his puppet, so I guess king suspects if he has a son they may want to kill him and install a regency. But right now, he knows that no matter how much he rebels against them, they can't do anything because if he dies they only heir is his nephew, whose mother was the daughter of the leader of the opposite party and hates their guts for killing his mother.
Also, they clearly want a child from the court lady dong because she doesn't have a backing and she is just a commoner, they can control the child without restrictions. If the potential son was the child of the queen, even though the queen's father is dumb and a member of the same party as uncle and Queen Dowager, the queen's family will gain some influence and they may get some ideas, so they prefer a child from the Court Lady.

Oh I am not comparing the 2ML from SOML and CYP here. CYP is a lovely character and I really like him (not so much how rushed they have made Amai and his relationship evolved, but not complaining) I was comparing MLs because ML in SOML has also at first the goofy merry personality. I really hope we see SYZ as ML develop as a character as you think, because I really like the actor and his performance as Crown Prince in JOL, one of my fav dramas.

I think you are completely misunderstanding me. I am by no means the childish only looking for"fairytale love" you are accusing me of lol. In fact, I watch a lot of tv shows from very different genres, specially thriller. I never said I needed romance in this very drama, to be honest. But if romance is alledgedly an important part of this show (and the title is "Fighting for LOVE") I have the right to have my own opinion about how they are handling the romance aspect.
And of course I agree Story of Minglan's success is not precisely because of the mc's relationship. To be honest the love aspect of MingLan wasn't that amazing for me (I was much more interested in the family dynamics) but I put it as an example because ML is a really interesting character well depicted, and their relationship is very well shaped.
And btw, who said I am downvoting this drama??? That was your own assumption. I love this drama and specially FL, but I have the right to not like some aspects of this story.
I recommend in the future that you don't say others are childish and insinuate they are airheads because they don't share your opinion. I never looked down on your opinion, I just wanted to give you my input when you complained why some people don't like that much the romance between Shang and Mai why I thought like that

Although I agree ML's personality may not be the cup of tea of many, the problem for me it's not his personality, but the way it is portrayed. As an example, if you look at the ML in Story of Ming Lan, he began as a very goofy merry womaniser, with a good heart but pretty flawed, pretty childish (though he later had such a deep and good development) but even then he was likeable, a very complex character who made spectators fall in love with him, even though he wasn't this super cold genius CEO type of character.
ML in here feels flat and a pretty inconsistent character: the way he transitions from this super airheaded buffoon to serious smart general it is not well done in my opinion. The way he is portrayed, he feels like a comedy relief type of character without much depth. And the romance between ML and FL ... no chemistry, they feel like bff or siblings (to be fair, they have also rushed terribly SML and FL romance, it is too soon and in no way believable, bad done, but at least they have good chemistry and their interactions are exciting and their dynamic very interesting)

I really loved the "Saengbulyeosa" moment during the baduk examination. He said KMH had lost the game against our FL because he had tried to protect a worthless stone, and he should have discarded the stone in the moment it was cornered (clearly alluding to him discarding FL and her best friend, telling her protecting them was pointless). I guess he wanted to provoke FL and get a reaction out of her and boy, she didn't disappoint, because she told him the ugly truth: if you just examine the situation closely, you will find ways to save the cornered stone, so it was all out of convenience he discarded them instead of choosing a harder way in which he could preserve innocent lifes.

The original source it's the novel, and it's well stablished both in novel and manhwa that YJH is the most handsome character in the whole story (and since he is MC in the original novel Dojka read, it does make sense) and KDJ is the type of person in real life that is often overlooked and in the shadows since he is not extroverted, not handsome... like typical cannon fodder. But it should be no surprise than in the art of webnovels they tend to depict their MC as beautiful for aesthetic purposes. But like I said even in the webtoon where he is imo handsome the characters in the novel see him as plain.
My only problem is if they try for example to incorporate some plots like the "ugly king" title. How can they expect us to keep a straight face if they are refering to AHS as ugly? I just hope they don't insist too much in him being ugly, plain...though given it's going to be just several movies they will need to cut toooo much content of the novel/manwha so don't think it's going to be that much of a problem at the end. It's not like a korean drama that I watched (forgot the name) where the central focus of the story was how FL was very plain in contrast to her 3 brothers who were astonishingly handsome and how that made her hate handsome men and wanted an ugly/plain boyfriend, and they dared select a super beautiful actress for FL's role (sighing). I digress, the thing is the main problem I really see it is not the casting, but choosing movies instead of a drama to adapt such a long and complex story as OR.

well he is more plain looking than ugly, though he was called the ugly king, but even then some people commented after meeting him that they were surprised he was called ugly because he wasn't, just not handsome.

In my opinion I have the opposite feeling: I don't really see AHS as Dojka (though I like the actor and I don't feel opposed to the cast) at least not in the looks aspect: AHS is very handsome and Dokja is described as the typical ordinary plain man who would never attract your attention in a multitude. But I guess all depends in the acting and the stylists choices can also help. I totally see LMH as YWH. YWH is described as the typical ML: stunning in looks, smart, powerful and very cold and ruthless. Lee Min Ho fits the stunningly handsome part, and I don't know if you have seen Pachinko, but he played the ruthless cold gangster alike man very well in that drama.

I think he did that to FL and the best friend not for showing no weakness to his ministers, but because of the gisaeng's bro. One of his conditions to be loyal to Jin San was to get the baduk player (FL) punished, and he also hated his sister, so ML was cruel and discarded them because he needed to make that sacrifice for that rat's support and loyalty. Understandable from a political point of view, but he should also understand in the future that FL will never see him again as a friend but as an enemy who betrayed his own moral principles, and everything he stood for. Of course it is inevitable that monarchs have sometimes to make concessions and take some very dubious and reprochable decisions, but Imo it is very questionable that in this situation ML really had no other way out, I really think he had other alternatives and he chose the most convenient for him.

Even in the case he may have done all this because he has the "greater good" in mind, we would be in a moral dilemma (like the famous train dilemma) because he has sacrificed innocent people, like discarded pawns. And even if he did those deeds looking into the big picture, I think it is also necessary to acknowledge that FL has the right to try and destroy him, after all he has caused the death of her most beloved friend and betrayed everything he alledgedly believed in and made FL crushed on him (his love for his people and the commonfolk).
Let's put on FL's shoes for a moment. She was willing to be tortured horribly and put to death, just for not framing an innocent person, and that person who in theory was her friend (said by JinHan) and would never give up on his people (reason why she admired him so much in contrast to his elder brother, who gave up Korean people as slaves to the Qing Dynasty) betrayed her and all the other poor souls involved in the plot. She begged him not even for herself but for her friend who was already half dead and it was evident she wasn't gonna survived if he didn't help and he just told her to f*ck off. Personally, I don't care if someone has had a horrible pitiful life if he is hurting me, that's not an excuse for shitt? behaviour.
I think we are going to see him turn more and more like his paranoid elder brother and late King, so it's gonna be fun.

Yes, he may have done all this because he has the "greater good" in mind, but even then we would be in a moral dilemma (like the famous train dilemma) because he has sacrificed innocent people, like discarded pawns. I think it would be very interesting to see the evolution of a character initially righteous and good that trying to overthrown tyranny and the evil elite becomes as bad as his enemies. And even though he did those deeds looking into the big picture, I think it is also necessary to acknowledge that FL has the right to try and destroy him, after all he has caused the death of her most beloved friend and betrayed everything he alledgedly believed in and made FL crush on him (his love for his people and the commonfolk)

Loved ep 4. I just can't believe how dirty they played poor FL, when I read the synopsis I just thought she would want revenge on ML because of some misunderstanding but no, she really has reasons to hate his guts. I look forward to the revenge.
Btw, I am bewildered how some people are making excuses for ML. I don't have a problem with gray characters or even villains as main characters, in fact I find it refreshing in contrast with the typical goody two shoes main characters in a lot of stories but... there is not justification possible for ML. Not in the moral sense, I mean, so why trying to make excuses for him? I just hope they make of him a really complex "villainous" character and we see how power and love changes him, and they don't go the route of santimonious hypocrite character who does a lot of evil things but thinks himself a righteous man and plays the victim, because I really hate that type of characters.
In fact the way he acted tolerant toward gisaeng's bro who is a treacherous rat but cruel and dismissive of innocent people who remained loyal makes me think of him as weak and spineless.
Give me characters with little moral, ruthless people, but not weak hypocrites please

That just makes it even worst lol. For me it is even worse than ruthlessly using someone as a pawn and behaving in a totally evil mode, letting just others do the bad deeds and turn a blind eye when you have the power to stop it, and later act like "I am a victim of circumstances, it was them, I just went along with flow"
Give me anytime a real villain that knows how bad he is behaving (just doesn't care) and not a villain who thinks of himself as a good person and just makes excuses for his bad deeds and passive attitude before evil

How insensitive, wrong and upsetting is your comment.
He was no alcoholic, he didn't do that because of any addiction
The lesson for everybody else should be that this man, like so many other celebrities in Korea, are being persecuted and put under crazy pressure at the minimal mistake. In fact, in this concrete situation he didn't even do drugs, he was unfairly accused. But even if he did drugs or was an alcoholic, does that give anyone the right to judge him and ostracised him like he was an evil man?? The terrible thing is how other people, like actor like Lee Geungyoung was tried because of prostituing minors and he is acting again, he just took a break of some years and came back.
I am sorry, but if a society punishes a lot more doing drugs than prostituing minors, there is something really wrong with this country.
Korea entertainment business is one of the most rotten things in this world, and it is sad that an "advanced" country puts such a pressure in their citisens in all aspects; even to poor teenagers, the way they get pressured to have great marks is something that doesn't happen in other countries.
The real lesson is: you shouldn't judge other people private lifes if they aren't doing any harm, and never without proof. Cornering someone to the point they kill themselves is awful, and Korean society should reflect on themselves (and they aren't going to do it, because this is a story that happens a lot there and they just prefer to blame the victim).

I don't know if comedy is "despised" by people in MDL, but the hate this show is receiving it is not because it has comedy, it's because is an awful show. I have watched many many dramas, and never I have cringed so bad at a character's acting as Jade. I am sure it is not an actor fault, but a scriptwriter/director, but still it was painful to watch. And the comedy in the show...it was so unfunny, if they were trying to make a good comedy they failed in all acounts. If you like comedy I recommend "Kill me, Heal me", or "Mr.Queen", super good funny dramas which by the way are very high rated in MDL. Though it's true that for me asian dramas usually aren't that good at comedy as a main genre as western shows, they excel more in thrillers.

thanks for the info

When you said the big bad character you mean also towards FL? Because I already guess that she could be a likely suspect on the attack to the mistress cutting the brakes (since she knows mistress is pregnant), but since she seemed to worship FL I thought that perhaps she could be a bit of a psycho obsessed with FL, hurting those that go against FL,
Is there in the original story a murder plot?? I think it really would fit well into this story to be honest, the mistress character is giving me "I am gonna be murdered" vibes

It reminds me too of that drama but it reminds me a lot more of Misty, with that mystery arch about her past etc, in fact I think we can expect a murder mystery plot in the drama (hopefully a hateful character like the husband or the mistress, though the mistress would be my bet LOL).

If LTG succeeded in killing YSS or YY, I have 0 doubts that even without taking into consideration RuYi (and Ruyi would for sure kill him if he dared harm YangYing) ML would hunt him to the ends of the world; after all YSS is a good friend of him and YY like a baby sister. Leaving aside that An Emperor would finish him for killing the prince envoy.