#no wonder lee gon is smitten

[coreancitizen]

"It's your first time here, but you speak our language so well." "Well, I studied liberal arts."

#the king eternal monarch #lee min ho #kim go eun #jung eun chae #witty jeong tae eul #no wonder lee gon is smitten #she makes him laugh #quick with a comeback

[punchdrunkdoc]

The King: Eternal Monarch

What follows is a stream-of-consciousness, spoiler-filled bunch of thoughts and theories about TKEM, which I can’t stop obsessing over. I knew it was a mistake to start this show instead of waiting to binge it! It’s the first K-drama I’ve watched in ‘real time’ and the wait between episodes is KILLING ME!!

Overall, though, I’m really enjoying this show. It’s right up my alley (which is why I couldn’t wait to start watching it): magical realism, parallel worlds, time travel, a dashing King and a capable, no-nonsense heroine. The plot is really intriguing and there have been some great twists and genuinely heart-pounding sequences so far. It’s also GORGEOUS to look at and there’s a great streak of humour.

I admit I found the romance a bit lacking at the start. It felt a little rushed, to be honest. I could see why Gon would be instantly smitten with Tae-eul - she’s been in his head for 25 years and when he finally found her, she was smart, spunky and treated him in a refreshingly frank and ‘real’ way - so different from all the fawning adoration he was used to in Corea.

So the fact that it was Tae-eul who was the first to say ‘I love you’ was a little jarring and it seemed to come out of the blue. But I went back and binged just their scenes together for all 12 episodes, and I could see the connection better. 

She comes to realise that fate has dropped this guy in her lap - this amazing, smart, funny, handsome, rich, cool guy - and she also has the sense that it can’t end well between them. So, at first she retreats from him; when she’s in Corea the first time, she keeps asking to see her ID badge - the pretence for her being there and the only thing stopping her from leaving. It’s clear that she’s trying to protect herself. She doesn’t want to get too close to this guy when there is no future. So she leaves without giving him a sense that she returns his feelings in any deep way.

But then she can’t get him out of her head, and has weeks to think about how she left things with him and how she might never see him again (he did go off to battle after all). When he finally returns, and she sees him just standing there in her yard…she decides to go all in. “It is better to have loved and lost…” as the saying goes.

And I like that this is where the show chose to go. It’s not a story about will they/won’t they. It won’t end with them declaring their love. They’ve already done that. This is a show about two people who desperately WANT to be together - and are really great together - but the universe is trying to tear them apart. And I’ve really enjoyed the scenes of them attempting to have a normal life - they’re so easy and natural together and the show has done such a good job, with relatively little screentime, of showing how well they work as a couple. They make each other laugh, they’re impressed by each other, and they can confide and support one another.

And that’s why these last few episodes have been so heartbreaking.

Lets talk about that scene in the bamboo forest, when they briefly reconnected. Tae-eul absolutely broke my heart in this moment. I do wish the show did a better job of conveying how much time passes between Gon’s visits - is it weeks, months?? - but even without a definite timescale, the actress absolutely sold that it had been a significant period of time and she missed him so, so much. It was beautifully done. And it did nothing to advance the plot - it was just a tiny moment to show how much these two love and miss each other. I’m glad the writers have remembered that this show is about the characters as much as its about the Lee Lim/murdering dopplegangers plot.

And then what about this:

When I first saw it, I assumed Gon was crying with grief over his uncle. And I thought it was a nice way of calling back the conversation between PM Koo and Court Lady Noh - that Gon would never cry in front of Koo, proving that she is not the woman for him. But here he is shedding tears with Tae-eul, and bringing her flowers from across the universe.

But now that we know this is Gon from the future, his words and his tears have much, much more poignancy. It’s turned a sad scene into a gut-wrenching one. This felt very much like a last goodbye: bringing her the flowers he never brought, finally being able to tell her how much he loved her, and sharing one final kiss.

So what the hell has happened to this Gon? It appears that he loses Tae-eul at some point…either through her death or some other permanent separation. And why is he in that particular coat? I think it’s his wedding outfit (worn ‘at the most glorious moment’). We know he tends to get ahead of himself - she hasn’t agreed to marry him, but he’s already declared that she is the future Queen, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s already got the royal tailors working on his outfit!

But that brings me to the awful theory that he is marrying PM Koo in the future, which is why he feels the need to have a final moment of closure with Tae-eul. We know Koo has her eye on the crown, and its possible she blackmails him into marriage e.g. by threatening to expose the parallel world.

The other heartbreaking moment in this last episode was the photograph scene. Gon has already worked out that they can’t keep using the gateway between the worlds. Each time they do, time stops for longer and longer (I love that he is a mathematician, and his logical brain figures this stuff out so quickly. Its refreshing to have a lead who knows almost as much as the audience does and you’re not constantly waiting for him to catch up and clue in).  

So during this latest time-freeze, he can’t help but cry. It a lovely juxtaposition with the first time he’s with a motionless Tae-eul. Back then, he was full of wonder at the beauty of the moment. Now, it’s just a reminder that their time together is limited.

Each moment they share together is now touched with bittersweetness and an air of melancholy and its bloody PAINFUL to watch. The angst in this show is tearing my heart out!!

This moment was a bit lighter, and I’m glad they’ve moved their relationship forward in this way. It was a bit ridiculous that they’re in love, finally together in the same world, they both know time is running out…and yet they’re still being so platonic! C’mon, I know this is a k-drama (which are super-PG)…but this was starting to stretch my credulity!

And…wild baseless theory coming up…could she be pregnant as a result?? The doctor made a point of saying she was on antibiotics (which stops birth control working) and there’s a tiny snippet in the trailer where she says ‘I think I’m-‘. So, my mind couldn’t help but go there! Because this show doesn’t have enough angst!!

(Extremely wild, baseless theory number 2…could yo-yo boy be their child? He belongs to both worlds, which would make sense if his parent were from both worlds too…and he has that connection with Luna…

No. I don’t like this theory at all, because he’s obviously not been raised with his parents which means a super-sad ending is coming. And he seems a bit more like a God-like character than a mortal boy, so I’m probably waaaay off track, and I really hope I am).

My last point (and, boy did this get long!) is that I struggle to see how the show can possibly tie everything up in just 4 episodes. We have Lee Lim’s plan that has barely come into play, all the dopplegangers to sort out, Shin-Jae’s background to explore, Lady Noh’s background (!), PM Koo’s ambitions, who saved 8-year old Gon, and of course, how Gon and Tae-eul will resolve their star-crossed lovers thing.

It’s either going to end tragically, or there’ll be loose ends…or they might be setting up a season 2. If that’s the case I’ll be PISSED! One of the reasons I became addicted to K-dramas is how they (usually) tell a complete story in 1 season. There’s a clear, satisfying ending and it doesn’t get dragged out for multiple years. 

There’s also the risk that there won’t BE a season 2. I gather the show is popular on Netflix, but I see things on twitter about it not doing well in South Korea. For such a lavish, expensive show, is a second season even guaranteed?

UGH, I need to have a happy ending guys!

#kdrama #the king eternal monarch #TKEM #join in me in my angsty hellhole #tell me your thoughts and theories

[kaahaani]

Your Jo Yeong and Myeong Seung Ah headcannons are so cute! Can you do headcannons for what their relationship is like?

Thank you! I wanted to make this short...but that didn’t happen, sorry for the novel. Haha. 

At first they’re awkward little children.

MSA has always been obsessed with him but tries to act cool, on the inside she’s regularly melting into a puddle of goo because she never thought she’d be dating the guy she’s dreamed about for years.

MSA teases him a lot, mostly with sarcastic comments that fly right past his head, and he responds with a huh – she then has to explain the joke. After a while he picks up on the sarcastic jokes but he still says huh because he loves the way she smiles and explains herself after.  

JY is smitten with her but not used to using words so he shows his affection through actions – which is how the hand grab started, it’s a hi, I missed you, I can’t wait to spend time with you. It’s in the way he holds her, the way he pushes her hair behind her ear, and the way he listens to her ramblings with a small smile on his face. If anyone else talks to him as much as she does he gets annoyed, but he can listen to her all day.

She becomes the person he whines to when he’s annoyed or had a bad day, she finds it amusing how JY is always lowkey annoyed with the King. She is taken off guard when he just corners her in a hallway at the Palace one day and pulls her into a long hug without a word.

After this they have “check-ins” at work, she’ll just arch her eyebrow at him and if he sighs she knows he needs a hug – so they meet at their spot – an alcove outside MSA’s office because she can see him walk by. Her colleagues definitely notice that she seems to jump up and remember something every time Captain Jo walks by the office.

His temper is legendary, he gets frustrated at things that happen but she’s always able to calm him down with a smile, a hug and a few sentences.

They spend a lot of time at JY’s home because they know the tabloids will go crazy if they’re seen together outside, when they do go out they go to really small places without a lot of people. 

JY learns how to smile and laugh more openly with her, he turns the filter off and they talk a lot about everything - she becomes the person who knows him best.

One thing MSA learns very early on is that JY is a tactile person, he’s always touching her, pulling her into his lap while they talk or kissing her out of the blue, she loves it.

She says I love you first, he doesn’t say it back but she can tell from the way he looks at her that he does love her.

The first time he whispers I love you is a few weeks later, into her ear while they’re cuddling in bed. She lights up like fireworks and he finds it a lot easier to repeat the words afterwards.

MSA is obsessed with JY’s body and it amuses him to no end, he loves the way she looks at him so he’ll walk around and wear things he knows she loves. He lives to hear her whisper the words he’s so cool. He makes sure she catches him shirtless all the time – because he knows how to flirt like this, without words – it always works ;)

MSA is like a jealous little kitten when other women hit on JY, she stomps around the Palace and glares at him every time it happens even though he doesn’t react to any of the flirting. She does it because he follows her around inconspicuously to pacify her, she somehow ends up pressed against his locker in the locker room while he kisses her every time. He also smiles (very small) when he looks at his locker now which freaks Seok Ho-Pil out.

MSA also likes to make him jealous by talking to other men while he’s around - it always gets him worked up and she...enjoys the consequences (yes, your mind should be in the gutter rn)

JY thinks no one knows about their relationship but the whole Royal Guard is aware, they all notice how their Captain’s eyes light up when MSA is near. Or how he always seems to be the one that collaborates with the Royal Public Affairs Office rather than assigning it to other people like he did before. And they all definitely notice the subtle flirting -  JY and MSA are oblivious to the wide eyed looks and snickers around them though. Jang Mi-Reuk even catches them in the change room, MSA pressed against the locker while the Captain kisses her – he can’t look Captain Jo in the eye for days after it.

LG outs them then – in a weird way it’s like approval – they go public and the world explodes. They go out on dates now, MSA is on cloud nine because he’s all hers and all the other women can suck it. She’s awfully possessive and JY enjoys it immensely.

They fall out of the news when Lee Gon and Jeong Tae-Eul announce their engagement.

JY becomes MSA’s home, where she feels the happiest and the safest. Her whole family is still in Canada so she adores spending time with JY, the twins and even his parents – they love her right away.

When JY finally meets her family, her sisters don’t stop going on about how she was obsessed with him for years – he teases her about it mercilessly.

He just finds himself wrapping a straw wrapper around her ring finger one day, cutting it so it’s her ring size – it’s all unconscious until he ends up outside a jewellery store to pick out a ring.  

He carries it around for months wondering how he should propose until he asks JTE for help.

He proposes to her based off of a fanfiction she wrote, a picnic under the stars with fairly lights and Italian food. He’s rehearsed the proposal in his mind a hundred times but when he starts talking he spews out this long unrehearsed paragraph about how much he loves her and wants to spend his life with her but forgets to say will you marry me at the end.

She goes “just to be clear, this is you asking me to marry you?”, he nods and she giggles and reminds him to ask.

Basically, I can go on forever – but the moral of the story is that they’re each other’s happy place. They tease each other, comfort each other and are fools in love. 

#the king eternal monarch #tkem #kdrama #jo yeong #myeong seung ah #Anonymous #tkem headcannons

[kaahaani]

Okay so after reading certain lines throughout your fics and your meta analysis on LG dating, I have to ask haha, what are your headcanons for him dating/the possibility of any previous attachments? I kind of have this headcanon that /maybe/ at some point he was pushed out of exasperation to go on a date or two via Lady Noh and Secretary Mo, but ended up walking out halfway through but wanted to know your thoughts! And as an extension of that, when do you think he started to see Tae-Eul (Part 1)

Ooooh, such an interesting ask!

Omg yes! I can totally see Lady Noh working with Secretary Mo trying to set him up with women they think would be appropriate as the next Queen once they meet PM Koo and realize she’s after him. They both seem to hate her and are afraid that he’ll fall for her charms, she’s gorgeous after all!

I think they’d try to find all these beautiful women in power to set him up with and arrange “meetings” for one reason or another because they know he won’t agree to a date. I think Lee Gon would catch on pretty quickly and bring Jo Yeong to all these meetings and act like he’s in love with his best friend – the rumours had to start somewhere! Also the way he leans into JY in the first or second episode and asks him if he’s enjoying himself while JY goes “don’t” SCREAMS that he’s probably done that in front of women. JY is so exasperated with him like “stop doing this please”.

I also feel like he was propositioned all the time by women but it just seemed like too much of a hassle to take any steps even if he was remotely interested. He’s always followed around everywhere and I don’t see him letting people into his space unless he absolutely trusts them and there is no way he could go into another person’s space without his bodyguards.

I think LG is inherently afraid of letting people close to him because of all he’s gone through – so even if he did think these women that he was being set up with/propositioned by were attractive he still had a feeling of what do they want from me at the back of his head. I honestly believe Tae-Eul was his first crush – like imagine growing up with this picture of this woman who you think somehow saved you throughout the years where you’re developing. I think he’s like in his early teens when he catches himself staring at the picture more and more, wondering if she’s the woman he’s going to end up with but then he forces himself to not think about it too much but his mind strays to her often.

I think he’s too obsessed with math and the Kingdom while growing up to be crushing on girls/women he meets? Imo, he probably went to an all-boys school growing up and didn’t have the opportunity to meet many teenagers/young women, and the ones he did meet were like overly smitten with him which turned him off. All of this further drives his crush on Tae-Eul, she becomes the only option that makes sense in a way because he already trusts her despite not knowing anything about her because she’s tied to the most pivotal event in his life and in his eyes she saves him. Also like she’s gorgeous – he’s so soft, this guy is 100% comparing every girl he meets to her picture and thinking that she’s prettier. Like he would have LAUGHED if he heard PM Koo say she was prettier than JTE.

I totally got “I loved you before I knew you” vibes as well – he literally went up and hugged her and told her she was better than he’d imagined?! Homeboy was TOTALLY thinking about her all the time. He also went 0 to 100 real quick and asked her to be his Queen (and the math confession?) because she is like a breath of fresh air. And I think he appreciates that she doesn’t already “know” him like most people in his world, he gets to share things with her on his own terms and give her his side of the story.

I feel like this is something we’ll always be thinking about hahaha. Someone needs to write Kim Euk-Sook and demand an answer lol.

#replies #the king eternal monarch #tkem #kdrama #the king: eternal monarch #anastasiaromanovas #tkem: headcannons