The Queen Who Crowns: Episodes 1-2
by Unit
The Queen Who Crowns premieres with a fast-paced set of episodes that’s full of numerous motion, data, and occasions. We’re additionally launched to greater than a dozen characters — every with their very own agenda and particular person spoons to stir the pot — and I can barely preserve observe of everybody’s names and faces! It’s all very thrilling and daunting on the similar time. However that’s the enjoyable of watching dramas like this, proper?
EPISODES 1-2
The drama begins with the coronation of our heroine, WON-KYUNG (Cha Joo-young), as queen. Gained-kyung’s coronation is a reward for her function in placing her husband, LEE BANG-WON (Lee Hyun-wook) on the throne. A little bit of historical past for context’s sake: Bang-won killed his half-brother, CROWN PRINCE BANG-SEOK, in a revolt to grab energy. His brother, BANG-GAN, initiated one other revolt two years later, and Bang-won’s spouse, Woman Min (now Queen Gained-kyung), spurred him on to defeat Bang-gan regardless of his reluctance to combat his brother. Via this revolt, Bang-won lastly ascends to the throne.
Gained-kyung and Bang-won are very a lot in love, and the ~passionate~ facet of their relationship additionally highlights the steadiness of their present energy dynamics. A royal consummation is solely for the aim of bearing an inheritor and by no means for the queen’s pleasure. However this queen will get pleasure from her time along with her husband, thanks very a lot, and the king doesn’t care if his spouse is “shamefully” above him through the act. Gained-kyung and Bang-won have promised to do life as a we/us versus an I/me, they usually’re equal companions in marriage and politics.
Gained-kyung and Bang-won may contemplate themselves as equals, however to everybody else, the facility dynamics are skewed in Gained-kyung’s path. The residents converse negatively of Bang-won’s legitimacy, Ming is but to formally acknowledge his kingship, and he’s rumored to share joint rule together with his in-laws as a result of the Min household was instrumental in his ascent to the throne. Gained-kyung’s brothers aren’t even delicate of their bragging that their sister would have been the king if she was a person. However Gained-kyung stays deferential to her husband. She offers him the only glory for profitable the revolt and encourages him to hold out his nice plans for the nation.
Talking of which, Bang-won’s relationship together with his father, LEE SEONG-KYE (the riveting Lee Sung-min), was irreparably broken after the revolt. Seong-kye swears to make the throne hell for Bang-won, and he makes good on his promise by sending an murderer to the palace. Bang-won acknowledges Seong-kye’s right-hand man when the murderer’s masks slips — and although the assassination is unsuccessful, he’s shaken as he realizes the depth of his father’s resentment.
Occupied with it, Gained-kyung and her household benefited extra from the revolt than he did, and for somebody who has at all times appeared as much as his father, Bang-won belatedly wonders if the throne was price ruining their father-son relationship. Thus, the cracks start to floor in his relationship with Gained-kyung.
The hole widens when YOUNG-SHIL (Lee Shi-ah) — a former servant who Gained-kyung saved from being crushed to demise by the late queen dowager — enters the scene along with her son from a relationship with Bang-won throughout his princely days. Gained-kyung is upset to study in regards to the affair, however no matter her emotions, the child continues to be a prince. She asks to deal with the state of affairs, however Bang-won goes in opposition to her needs and orders that Younger-shil be introduced into the palace together with the prince. Crack… crack…
The ensuing confrontation is so superbly and heartbreakingly intense, and it’s my spotlight scene of the week. Gained-kyung requests that Bang-won comes down from the throne as a result of she needs to talk to him on the identical eye degree as a spouse to her husband. However he interprets this as contempt and her want to sit down on the throne. To fulfill Gained-kyung’s curiosity as to why it needed to be Younger-shil of all folks, Bang-won brings up the humiliation he felt having to cling to her highly effective household with a view to survive the late dowager’s numerous makes an attempt to kill him. His insecure ass figured the simplest technique to humiliate Gained-kyung in return was to have an affair along with her servant, and that’s why he selected Younger-shil. Rattling!
Gained-kyung can not consider her ears and I can’t consider mine, both. She tells Bang-won that he doesn’t appear to be the individual she has identified for a very long time, and he tosses their equal partnership apart with a reminder that he is the king of the nation and she or he is his topic. “I’ll make all the choices and also you simply need to comply with them.” Crack… snap!
Since Bang-won has chosen to be an I/me as an alternative of a we/us, Gained-kyung refuses the following royal consummation. She tells him she’d by no means have utilized her whole household to make him king if she knew he’d change this badly, and Bang-won storms out to do what he does greatest: take Gained-kyung’s beloved court docket girl, CHAE-RYEONG (Lee Yi-dam)… by pressure! *Inserts inappropriate phrase decisions*
With Younger-shil it was humiliation, however with Chae-ryeong, Gained-kyung is definitely harm. She saved the lady from a lifetime of petty thefts out there and promised to assist her dwell in a world the place she’s not appeared down on for being weak as a girl. However her personal husband violated Chae-ryeong, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it as a result of “each girl within the palace belongs to the king.”
The “royal favor” is a boon to court docket girls who want it, however to Chae-ryeong — who struggles with the guilt of “betraying” her mistress — Gained-kyung says it’s one thing to be offended about. She’s not upset with Chae-ryeong for what occurred as a result of if anybody is to be blamed, it’s the king. However as a Favored Courtroom Woman, Chae-ryeong has to depart the queen’s service, and Gained-kyung instructs the pinnacle court docket girl to verify nobody seems to be down on her for her lowly background.
An bold Younger-shil (now PRINCESS HYOSUN) enters the palace with one aim: to monopolize the king’s affection. She is aware of his weak spots and how you can therapeutic massage his ego, and it’s straightforward peasy. Hyosun may care about Bang-won a bit of, however she’s additionally utilizing him to advance her personal function — whether or not or not it’s gaining energy as a concubine or for materials advantages. However I assume the king doesn’t thoughts getting used so long as the person doesn’t fan his insecurities or make him really feel threatened by their highly effective household.
As queen, Gained-kyung is the official mom of Hyosun’s prince, however she’s very strict along with her youngsters’s schooling. In modern-day, she’d completely be the helicopter mother who sends her youngsters to 101 completely different after-school academies. After she whips the prince for refusing to review, Hyosun accuses her of taking her anger out on the child as a result of she’s jealous that she has misplaced the king’s affection. She goes on responsible Gained-kyung for making Bang-won lonely within the first place, and says that he felt suffocated whereas dwelling with a “fierce spouse and imposing in-laws.” The nerve!
Gained-kyung has managed to retain her queenly composure amidst the affair drama, however Hyosun’s undesirable opinion on the problems in her marriage ideas the dimensions to breaking level, and she or he slaps the dwelling daylights out of Hyosun. In fact, belief Hyosun to make use of the handprints on her cheeks to win sympathy factors with Bang-won. Tsk.
Hyosun proposes a “let’s survive the evil queen collectively” alliance with Chae-ryeong — who runs again to Gained-kyung as a result of she’s not prepared for palace politicking. However the queen refuses to take her again, and she or he assumes that Gained-kyung has deserted her. “[The queen] didn’t abandon you. Reasonably, she gave you a wake-up name,” says the pinnacle court docket girl correcting Chae-ryeong’s assumption. A Favored Courtroom Woman is now the king’s girl, and she or he has to behave as such if she desires to outlive within the palace. Chae-ryeong is reluctant to latch onto the king, however since her survival hinges on his favor, she bribes his attendant girl to create a possibility for the king to hunt her out.
Curiously, the bribe Chae-ryeong offers the attendant is the hairpin Gained-kyung gave her once they first met. It’s a prized possession and an emblem of her loyalty to her mistress. Now that Chae-ryeong has given it away, she makes a take care of Bang-won: she’ll inform him of Gained-kyung’s conversations along with her brothers if he visits her quarters not less than twice a month. Bang-won accepts the deal they usually get all the way down to enterprise. However Chae-ryeong seems to be like she’s dying on the within. Poor lady.
In the meantime, one among Gained-kyung’s brothers insists that Bang-won do away with the personal troopers gathering round Seong-kye earlier than they amass a big military, however Bang-won refuses to go to struggle in opposition to his father’s males. Quickly, Seong-kye invitations Bang-won to a ritual ceremony to mark the renovation of a Buddhist temple. Gained-kyung and Bang-won are individually suspicious about this invitation, however they’re pressured to attend the ceremony as a result of they don’t have a justification to refuse the invitation. On the temple, Gained-kyung will get late data that they’ve walked right into a entice, and she or he rushes to warn Bang-won simply as Seong-kye pulls out a mace and swings of their path. Omona! That is the stuff that epic cliffhangers are manufactured from.
It’s an appearing get together over right here in The Queen Who Crowns, and I’m loving the vitality everyone seems to be bringing to their very attention-grabbing and complicated characters. The present’s manufacturing worth is superb, and its cinematography and normal aesthetics are eye-catching. There’s not a lot to say about what I count on from the present plot-wise because it’s majorly predetermined by precise historic occasions. However for one, I’m glad a lot of the inner court docket drama on this present appears to revolve across the queen, the king, his father, and the concubines. The drama gods know we want a break from these left, proper and heart state ministers and councilors that populate the royal palaces of Joseon.
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