The title has an airy, genial feel and the show does have its airy, genial side, but it could be titled TRAPPED. Everyone was trapped by something that happened from the past, with some trapped physically as well.
It was fun trying to figure out who was who, who was on whose side and how the awful king would fall.
The scholars
It wasn’t too hard to guess that Kang San (Ryeo Un) is the deposed/missing prince and that he isn’t really gruff and disinterested although he’s exasperated and rolling his eyes most of the time. Shi-yeol (Kang Hoon) has the best ‘disguise’, with the nice contrast between his highly-skilled fighting and loyalty versus his silliness. It felt at times that Yoo-ha (Jung Gun-joo) was an extra but finally, he gets that one brave act of letting himself be captured to protect the rest.
Shi-yeol identifying himself to Kang San as his watchman was dramatic but the most shocking revelation in the show was that the Old Guy (Shi-yeol’s mentor) is the king’s watchman! However, I’m not sure how he protects the king when he doesn’t live or work in the palace. Also, why didn’t he appear during the hunting attack?
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| so funny when Dan-oh thought Shi-yeol was the prince |
Flower Garden romance
Dan-oh (Shin Ye-eun) and Kang San are cute and funny, like in a high school romance. She and Yoo-ha were boring, so good for everyone that they don’t end up together. Shi-yeol and Hong-joo (Cho Hye-joo) are boring as well, with the final few episodes dragged out partly because of them. However, Hye-joo is beautiful and she does express her emotions well. Yook-ho (In Gyo-jin) and Ms Najoo (Lee Mi-do) are amusing and cute.
Ban-ya (Hwang Boreumbyeol) is a wasted character. Her role as their mole at Buyounggak and her spying on Hwa-ryung (Han Chae-ah) could have been done easily by one of the three silly girls. Why not make her Yoo-ha’s love interest instead? Yes, she could be saved by Kang San, because we need to see him sympathetic and kind, but she could be drawn to Yoo-ha after that, since he’s always turning up Buyounggak for meetings.
Bad ideas
So many plot holes and poor decisions in this show!
Hong-joo
- keeping her hidden in the annex for years
- using bright-coloured lipstick when going out disguised as a man
- placing elaborate offerings at her dead fiancé’s grave
- [possibly the most major one in the whole show] castigating Shi-yeol for being a monster murderer when the dead fiancé was also being trained to kill, did kill and was about to kill the boy prince. How could she think he was “innocent”? She still didn’t get it right at the end. It wasn’t Shi-yeol’s “harsh fate” – it was his job, and she missed the most obvious point that if not for him, the prince would have died that night eight years ago.
Yoo-ha (and the other rebels)
- Yoo-ha using Lee Seol’s identity in the initial rebellion plan – has no clue about palace life and at some point, surely people would know
- Yoo-ha meeting the Queen Dowager (Nam Gi-ae) for the first (literally) time – was so stiff and emotionless and yet grandma didn’t think anything was amiss
- [possibly the second most major one] Yoo-ha taking the throne as Lee Seol – has a mostly academic approach to life and will have a mostly academic approach to running the nation; has no practical skills and no experience fighting to protect others; no bloodline coming from him (yet)
- my suggestion – pair him with one of the silly girls to truly symbolise the new world he was going on about, where even the lowly can have dreams
- deceiving a whole nation
I can well imagine it will fall apart eventually and the real Lee Seol will have to come back once again to put everything back on track.
Kang San and Dan-oh
- running away hand in hand when he’s supposed to be one of the guards chasing her
- following that by kissing in the open!
- gaping hole about Kang San’s background – where was he all those years, what was he doing, how did he learn martial arts?
Chief Administrator Jang Tae-hwa (grape man Oh Man-seok!)
– obsessed with avenging his son’s death when the watchman was doing his job protecting the prince, so of course had no choice but to kill his son – and he makes this a personal vendetta
- his son was about to kill the prince, and that’s okay (see point for Hong-joo), he himself has killed countless people, and that’s also okay but it’s not for the watchman
- overly interested in the watchman and only minimally wanting to track down Lee Seol but nobody in the palace realises this
- why does he want Hong-joo dead??
Former palace staff
- didn’t know that Chief Eunuchs could retire and move out of the palace, yet Chief Eunuch (Lee Joon-hyuk) gets to do it twice (no security issues?)
- Kim Chi-won (Bae Hyun-kyung) – how is it that the king doesn’t know of his existence, let alone of him helping Kang San all the while and running around protecting him?
Watchman trainees
- Shi-yeol frees them (great!) and tells them to “live” and “survive”, when they obviously have no idea how to – how does anyone expect them to fend for themselves when there is now no chief monk, no training and no purpose?
Double-crossers
Why are there so few double-crossers?? I only recognised one of the king’s men ending up on the other side, and there is also Kang San’s fellow recruit (Choi Tae-hwan), but he was more a guy who saw which side was the right side than a double-crosser. I thought the Chief Royal Guard would turn out to be one but alas, no, he was loyal to the king right to the end.
Scene stealers
Hyun Woo as King Lee Chang, looking very much his deranged, paranoid part! Quite a tragic character himself, I’d say, having to kill his brother and a whole lot of others just to be secure on the throne, which he never was. He has no heir, even though someone said he beds a different person every night! Clearly, the stars are not aligning for him at all, but they are for Kang San and in a lesser way, even for Yoo-ha.
Lee Joon-hyuk as Chief Eunuch – perfectly looked his slimey, sly character!
Who should be king?
Kang San, of course! Too many people know he’s Lee Seol and everyone is assuming that no one will find out – how silly is that! Why should Kang San and Dan-oh stay away from Hanyang and their loved ones their whole lives?
Kang San has the royal aura, and leadership, practical, planning and quick-thinking skills that Yoo-ha lacks. Grandma and Lord Shin (Ahn Nae-sang) will not be there forever to hold him up. He can learn some skills but his learning curve will be incredibly steep and painful as he is lost in his idealistic world. Him telling grandma that he wants to concentrate on learning more before getting married is proof that he does not understand royal life fully.
Kang San is betraying his own cause by handing his name and the throne over. What happened to his burning desire to retake the throne, set things right and protect his people? He chooses love over this in the end so that Dan-oh won’t need to go through life in the palace. It is not an easy decision, of course. Dan-oh isn’t very queenly, although she can gradually morph into a queen, also with a difficult learning curve. I think she is braver and more down-to-earth than Yoo-ha, and will fare better.
Then there are also the loose ends, such as Yoo-ha still liking Dan-oh and Ban-ya still liking Kang San. Queen Dowager and Lord Shin are hoping that royal life will now go on well. One of the most poignant scenes is Lord Shin prostrating behind Kang San as he leaves. See, everyone is still trapped, and it’s just that our lead couple is happy for now!
SBS, 18 episodes
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