#Queen seondeok

[dream-thief-forever-amen]

There is nothing in the world I love more than an obsessive unhealthy single-focus romance. I am an OCD kinda gal and YOU and only YOU and what else is there in the world other than YOU romances are my jam. Yes, they are always a disaster. Yes, they always end badly. Yes, they are always 1000000 percent worth it cause while you are burning you are alive.

Anyways, all this to say Till the End of the Moon is buttering my biscuits. I very much approve of how they have stayed on brand with this romance since the first episode. Relief? Moments of reprieve? Sanity?!! Not on my watch, baby. Not even for a second.

I’m gonna have to watch Queen Seondeok after this to imagine Bidam if he were a cultivating anti-hero instead of just the baddest cat on the mat.

#till the end of the moon #tteotm #bidam #tantai jin #my obsessive boys #Queen Seondeok #how am I already on episode 27???

[starrynights23]

Big Canon Alicent Hightower energy. Kdramas and other foreign dramas have better female characters than most American shows.

#lady mishil #queen seondeok #anti hbo #anti hotd #anti alicent hightower

[rughydrangea]

I’m rewatching bits and pieces of Queen Seondeok and I don’t really have anything to say, but what a great reminder that Kim Yushin is my forever man and Kim Deokman is the queen of my heart. I’ve been wondering if I should do a full-scale rewatch (but how can I when there are so many old sageuks on my to-watch list?) just to fully revel in their glory, in the glory of my girl who gave up everything to take and hold her throne and the man who served her unwaveringly. Deokman is THE character for me, a woman who crashes the power structure of a country to take control of it, who leads with strength and compassion and love but completely empties herself out in the process. And Yushin, my man who does the most romantic thing any man could do: he gives up on loving Deokman to serve her, even though he had been ready to run away with her and build a life together. But when he understood that her only goal was the throne, he too threw away love in order to help her achieve it. Like... what more could I ever want?

I suspect that on a rewatch I would have new appreciation for Mishil (who I kind of couldn’t stand, mainly because she was Deokman’s antagonist, but also because when I first watched QSD eight years ago I was less familiar with GJH’s work and didn’t appreciate everything she was doing in her performance) and her very weird blended family situation. But I’m not sure I would like Bidam any better. Yes, my hottest take about this show isn’t that I prefer Deokman to Mishil (by, like, infinity), it’s that I really don’t like Bidam! Like, KNG rules, and Bidam is really fun at first, but the angstier he gets the more boring he becomes to me, and by the time you get to him courting Deokman in the most passionless way possible (I love KNG, I ADORE LYW, but they have like negative chemistry), when for him wanting Deokman is the same thing as wanting to take her throne and her country from her.... No thank you! It’s not romantic, it’s not compelling! And do I really want to live through it again? Like, I’ve watched a few of those scenes, and as much as I love Deokman telling Bidam that he’ll never get her the way that he wants, it’s still kind of annoying to have her endgame love interest be a guy who views her as a rival. 

Maybe I’ll do a grand rewatch one day. I just wish there were more sageuks about queens regnant! I get that history kind of gets in the way there, but still! Maybe the next time we get a fantasy drama à la Alchemy of Souls, the fantasy country can be governed by a queen regnant? As a treat?

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #i simply will never love anyone as much as i love deokman #queen seondeok #my commentary #such as it is lol #and yes i am fully aware that me hating bidam for the same thing i love sfd!yi bang won for is hypocrisy #i don't care! #when bang won covets power and plots to steal it from a person of great vision it's okay but when bidam does it it's not! #no further questions! #(now i'm thinking about sfd which makes me think about yai which makes me pretty sad actually) #no here it is: it's okay when bang won does it because he's usurping a man but it's not okay for bidam because he's usurping a woman #i love a good usurper but not when they come for female sovereigns!

[vegaseatsass]

Queen Seondeok spoilers below

Ok exorcising this post from my head before it gets lost in the brain attic instead of articulated. Truly will be of interest to me and only me but I want to SAY THESE WORDS and have a way to reread them months from now. So I don't actually know what the feeling on Nirvana in Fire 2 was in my current fandom circles, but back when I watched everyone was like "meh it's fine but it's no Nirvana in Fire 1" and that is kind of how I feel about the last 10ish episodes of Queen Seondeok after Mishil leaves. Like it's still a really gripping and compelling show but suddenly everyone is a LITTLE stupider and I'm spending a LITTLE more time yelling at the tv screen because all these previously brilliant strategists are taking years to figure out what I, a plebeian, have put together from anvilicious context clues. Suddenly the politics of our heroes are a LITTLE sketchier and we're getting what feels like a LITTLE too much nationalism for my taste*. That's all fine, it's just a drop in quality of writing, still interested to see where this all goes, but the real thing I hated was eps 52-57ish where Bidam...

...went from a delight of a character to an uncomplicatedly manipulative bastard who kept feeling sorry for himself that his grotesque attempts at controlling the object of his obsession were destroying her trust and affection for him. But it wasn't just a consistent personality switch, it was this confusing dynamic where he would be a smirky piece of shit in one scene, then the next he'd be earnestly crying and begging for attention. He would be doing dumb shit that fucked over his queen and nation one scene, then characters would comment on his selfless one-sided love a scene later (the comparisons to Seolwon, who truly did love his evil wife with zero attempts at owning her: I was flabbergasted!). It sucked because he's my fav dude in the show you see! What was the point of him wishing after Munno died to learn to be good at Deokman's side, what was the point of him telling Mishil he'd love in his own way, what was the point of Deokman comforting him beautifully over his mom only for him to choose her over Deokman, are we really going the determinism route where he can't escape his own evil blood? But I tried to make sense of it, like "hey, don't make this already morally flexible guy responsible for corralling all the most toxic people in your court and expect him to come out in one piece, my queen." "Okay, he always just wanted parents and now that he 'knows' his mom who left him on the floor as a baby 'loved him' he has to follow her evil plans after death." (I understood this to be the textual justification but I kinda hated it because he def didn't come across as if he was trying to do his evil filial duty but as if he was trying to follow his evil unfilial dick.) "Well, if Deokman is the hilt for his feral blade or whatever and now she's queen and has to be cold and distant, maybe he's just back in Hwarang tournament mode, causing problems in a desperate bid for attention, rather than because he ACTUALLY BELIEVES destroying Yushin is the path to 'winning' Deokman." I was compelled by a combination of these reasons, but I still missed old Bidam! I missed when he got to be cunning and vaguely amoral and Deokman would go, no we're not going to poison the entire fortress, BUT your idea gives ME an idea! (Instead of like "oh he just went and poisoned the entire fortress w/o me, pinned it on Yushin, and left me to pick up the pieces then cried when I yelled at him for it.")

However!!! Somewhere around ep 57 (sorry I don't have the specific number, we were binging), his personality... switches back?!?!?! Suddenly it's like no time has passed between Mishil's death and this moment, suddenly he is the Bidam Deokman and the audience know and love. Glad to have him back! LOVE that Deokman decided to prioritize keeping him over punishing him for the fuckery of the past bunch of episodes, that is a fun and consistent character choice. But!! I still feel like the writers did not do enough to justify or acknowledge his 5ish episodes of pure fuckery. He didn't just try to knock Yushin out of favor, he failed to stave off the Baekje invasion when they had everything they needed to get the leg up on them. That is something neither Deokman or his mom would have forgiven so easily! And hey maybe Deokman doesn't blame him because the entire court was agitating to bring Yushin down and ignore his information, but it was very frustrating to watch Bidam fuck up that bad for that many episodes in ways that almost wiped out their army and got who knows how many civilians killed, and never be held even verbally accountable. All to try to control Deokman into wanting him, while the narrative kept telling us he just has a selfless crush and some unrelated "manipulative DNA" issues. Well anyway!!! I solved it for myself!!! By deciding!!!!!! He is possessed by Mishil's ghost for those episodes!!! HAHA

It's perfect because everything fucked he was doing was consistent w/ her style of strategy (and it is genuinely more sympathetic to me to try to destroy Yushin for power than for "love"), and it means all the atonal Jekyll moments of earnestness he has in between the fuckery are just actual Bidam coming up for air before his mom's ghost takes the reins again.

More importantly it's perfect because I needed more of a motivation for my absurd time travel fuck-it fic concept (where Deokman travels back to the moment as a trainee where Mishil tells her to take off her clothes, is like, YES MA'AM!!, and then proceeds to seduce her utterly) than "Deokman is sad Mishil is dead and wishes she was around to help hone her as a ruler." Well, ha ha! Now when Deokman gazes into the abyss of the time vortex at the end of her life (don't spoil meeeee for the very last 3 episodes, but I'm p worried that's coming up any minute), and tells the time gods that she wants her shot at a do-over instead of passing into the next life, it won't just be so she can make Mishil love her more than she loves Silla, so Mishil takes her deal to come home w/ her during her coup, it won't just be to try to save Cheonmyeong and Sohwa's lives and get more time with them, it will also be to avert or at least get the leg up on a disastrous surprise war for her country.

This also means if any fuckery does happen w/ Bidam in the remaining three episodes lol I can justify it as "oh well trust was broken between them in 52-57 but if Deokman had exorcised Mishil's ghost - or better yet averted her death with irresistible sex - that never would have happened, and Bidam would get a happy ending too, which she very much wants." I am going to tag this in case I never write the fic, in case another person one day watches this 2009 drama, gets obsessed with Deokman and Mishil's relationship, and also cares overly much about Bidam's character consistency, but I apologize to everyone else who checks the tag, for being such a niche weirdo with tunnel vision. Oh a post about fan favorite Bidam! No it's actually about my Mishil/Deokman agenda... I just think it would be fun for trainee!Deokman to be like "oh, my lady, oh! I'll take off my clothes but now you're going to have another secret to control me with! But I simply can't resist you~~" and like, not actually dispel Mishil's correct suspicions that she was working for the princess at that point, but dangle this delicious opportunity before Mishil to at least compromise that loyal bond w/ sex, all whilst Deokman works to be sexy and mesmerizing enough to compromise Mishil's loyalty to her own dreams. I am prob not talented enough a writer to pull this off ANYWAY lmao, but I think it would be FUN!!! * This was about the Deokman vs. the Gaya plot and that was well worth sticking it out for imo, but my god I got nervous when she was stamping her feet about them not appreciating her enough for the rights she doled out. I guess I was used to Deokman being in the moral right, so I didn't trust that they were doing a storyline where she still had more growing to do. But they did and it kind of ruled imo. EDIT: WE JUST WATCHED EPISODE 60 AND SURE ENOUGH THERE'S MORE BIDAM FUCKERY!!! LOLLLL it's not his fault this time though :( more fodder for Deokman to want a time travel do-over

#queen seondeok #queen seondeok spoilers #are you a true mishil fan if you want her to give up and go home w/ deokman instead of going out like an absolute boss? #idk but i have needs #and some of them are to be able to love bidam w/o qualifications #and some of them are for mishil to preen under the power of being a queenmaker!! #and thus this incredibly convoluted post where i talk to myself was born #next time i post about this drama it will be with a final tally of all my ships #sometimes you just watch something from almost 15 years ago that you need to treat like a megafandom #in your head #even though it is not #dear diary

[zahhaxx]

seondeok

gave her a makeover since i'm getting better at making sims and @simnasimsworld made her crown and robe which is a HUGE help thank you SO SO much!!

#sims4 #civ6 #civ vi #civ 6 #queen seondeok #korean sims #asian sims #historical sims

[nikitinha]

“The man that kills me will go down in history!” |

Bidam, Queen Seondeok (2009)🍂

#kim nam gil #kdrama #queen seondeok #bidam #선덕여왕 #김남길

[themagicalshrimp]

i usually hate looong childhood flashbacks but queen seondeok tricked me because i went in wishing for it to be over already and then by episode 5 i was like ‘don’t get attached don’t get attached’ except the girls became reluctant allies and made a great team saving each other lives and started bonding and then the kids went into training camp to make men out of them... and then *poof* flash forward

#i'm gonna miss the kids #but at least there's alcheon my man #as the so far only competent hwarang around #(please i need these people to grow up already what was the time skip for just to get ride of my girl shin se kyung?) #queen seondeok

[fear-hope-soup]

We often talk of the importance of rest, letting the mind rejuvenate itself before we embark on another task. There was one TV show I watched that really drove this point home. A Korean historical drama that came out in 2009 called Queen Seondeok which chronicles the life of the first reigning queen of Silla (wielding the powers a king would).

In the show, the reigning King had two daughters and no son. Power was de facto held by Lady Mishil (played by Go Hyun-jung) who has built up her own networks of power over time and did so via nefarious means (she is the antagonist). Despite that, her greatest desire was to become queen by marrying a king (she was a royal concubine). Because of her beliefs, she saw no other way of seizing legal power because marrying the king is how it is always done and no woman can be queen regnant.

Then came the protaganist, Princess Deokman (played by Lee Yo-won). She makes a bid to be king (queen regnant) despite being a daughter on the basis the main family's blood flows through her. Another claimant for the throne was Deokman's nephew who is a man but is not considered to be from the main family. Just like that, two pillars of Mishil's belief were shattered. Despite all her intelligence, she never once imagined about vying for the throne directly as she was both a woman and from the secondary family line.

She then disappears from the palace to go for a vacation (I cannot remember the precise details - it has been over 10 years). The second claimant believes this means Mishil is just out of the picture and moping. Her closest allies believe she is starting to doubt herself. It was straight out said she was just sleeping all day. Even the protaganist is baffled as Mishil has always been such a dangerous opponent. Turns out Mishil was just taking the time to sort out her thoughts and emotions (and not just devising her next big plot). This leads to the dramatic final confrontation between Mishil and the protagonist.

So of course for younger me, that kinda blew my mind. Most shows I watched then never ever showed the unglamorous parts of people having to sort through their emotional baggage by doing something like sleeping/thinking. It is usually some dramatic moment which gives an epiphany. I guess the lesson here is... sleep more when your mind is a jumble. Maybe it'll awaken the sleeping dragon.

#Queen Seondeok #Korean Drama #Writing #Rambling

[feanoriangrindset]

being one of those attendants in queen seondeok must be wild fr. theres your girlboss queen and her cringefail soon to be malewife baring his soul like a slut in the living room. i know the shipping discourse in the kitchens is crazy

#bidam: *yelling the personalest stuff in broad daylight* #the attendants looking at the floor: 👁👄👁 #queen seondeok

[nikitacomk]

Kim Nam-gil stealing all the beauty in the world in one scene! 😂💓

Kdrama: Queen Seondeok (2009)

#kdrama #dorama #korean actor #kim nam gil #the great queen seondeok #queen seondeok #bidam

[lefisheu]

#bidam #kimnamgil #kim nam gil #kdrama #queen seondeok #queenseonduk #kim bidam

[iamkimnamgilwife]

Nahh i just missed them 😅😅 so glad Kim Nam Gil will return to sageuk genre after 13 years with Song of the Bandits (best thing about it is that it is a NETFLIX ORIGINAL) I just hope he won't d word this time😭

P. S. I also need an IU ost in SOTB 🙏🙏

#kim nam gil #김남길 #songofthebandits #queen seondeok #선덕여왕 #leeyowon

[vegaseatsass]

Queen Seondeok spoilers (~ep 50)

Queen Seondeok, where the worst character dies stupidly and his devoted disciple ultimately becomes best friends with his murderer like nothing happened (V SATISFYING, V DELIGHTFUL, GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD PARENTS+), but the best character dies so epicly and maddeningly that it keeps you up at night*.

*night = tonight. There's so much adrenaline in my body, I can't live again until I read or write fix-it fic

+she was a bad parent too, to the same exact kid as the other guy no less, but it's DIFFERENT because she's sexy

#i'm also still not over the second best character death #so the fic i'm borderline feral over needing to write will fix all of it #but not in a way that focuses on plot implications at all #literally just gonna write a fic of deokman time traveling back to when she was a trainee and mishil asked her to fuck #and have her seduce the shit out of mishil. 'i'm gonna make her love me more than she loves silla' #but i need to watch the last 11 episodes to decide like what precipitates this #but i don't want to wait i need to write or read fic NOW #queen seondeok #queen seondeok spoilers #lady mishil the goat #she would LITERALLY RATHER DIE than just let a nice girl take her back to her bedroom and treat her nice #gdi #anyway her bad parenting came in the form of leaving her baby on the floor #she was like 'i don't need you anymore' and peaced out #so when he came back i was like OH MY GOD THAT'S THE BABY MISHIL LEFT ON THE FLOOR #every scene IT'S THE BABY SHE LEFT ON THE FLOOR #you see how that is a superior kind of bad parenting to a guy who yells a lot and makes you feel worthless #for not understanding his oblique paternalistic morality w/o explaining? #her other bad parenting is that she's literally dying and tells him that it's bad for him to like love unselfishly #her dying words: be shittier to the woman you love. trust me #but he doesn't seem to take it to heart lol so it's fine #unlike everything munno says which he completely takes to heart #forever #i'm so glad he befriends munno's murderer. it's WHAT HE DESERVES #'would it have killed you to hug me?' dude seriously #i came back to this post and added more tags because i have no one to talk about this with #i love mishil and i love the twincesses and i love the baby mishil left on the floor #dear diary

[nobodys-saviour]

speaking of kdramas- no ship has ever made me more devastated than in queen seondeok, when bidam. you know. That Scene. forever heartbreaking, i'll cry if i watch it again.

#queen seondeok #선덕여왕 #seondeok yeowang

[zahhaxx]

seondeok

it's been so long since i've made a semi-realistic sim and i just hate her face so much i feel like i got everything wrong...like i feel like i was just throwing skin details at her face and redoing things over and over

@pralinesims @okruee @pyxiidis @miikocc @nords-sims @blahberry-pancake @simverses @coloresurbanos @northernsiberiawinds @vibrantpixels @sclub-privee @simandy @sims4nexus @nesurii @crilender

#sims4 #civ 6 #civ vi #queen seondeok

[nikitinha]

“You made a home out of me… i just wish you choose to stay.”

Bidam

선덕여왕 Queen Seondeok (2009)

#bidam #kim nam gil #queen Seondeok #선덕여왕 #김남길 #kdrama