kdrama: Chuno, eps 19-24 (end)

[meganbmoore]

I think I figured out why the slave rebellion never really worked or got interesting: it was so totally disconnected from everything else except for in the first episode and the end of the last episode that it felt shoehorned in. Which I understand it pretty much was. Happy Cho Bok got out, though. And is apparently travelling now with the girl Dae Gil saved back at the beginning.

Speaking of Dae Gil, his scenes with Baby Prince were the best thing ever. Ok, almost. But I enjoyed seeing Tae Ha almost have a stroke over some of it. I’ve mentioned it before, but I much prefer him gruff and snarky to aaaaaaannnnggggsssssttttting. (I mean, you can be angsty without wallowing in it, you know? See: Tae Ha.)

So happy we didn’t get endless scenes of Hye Won (it seems to be what she prefers being called now-and I think the scene after the wedding when the rebel who later betrayed them told her to leave Tae Ha and she told him to stuff it was kind of a final stage of transition for her…I really wish the plotline dealing with her brother hadn’t ended so early, as I feel it resulted in her getting the shaft in terms of character arc, as compared to the other leads) being torn between the two men. She seemed to be dealing more with the fact that Dae Gil wasn’t dead (given her comments earlier in the series, she likely thought she’d betrayed him, to a degree) than conflicted over who she loved. And I adored the scenes with Hye Won and Sul Hwa (and when the slave hunters were so weirded out when Sul Hwa was trying to act like Hye Won). I wish there had been more, especially since the other interactions between women were essentially “mentor/pupil with backstabbing rivalries under the surface.” I mean, I loved the Jumos and the gisaengs, but it was nice to see what would usually be a rivalry not be.

Was the series initially meant to be longer, though? Large chunk of the end felt like it was time to end things because it was the last episode. Though I laugh (in the good way) forever at Tae Ha getting stabbed and slashed about a dozen times and then telling Hye Won he was ok. So shounen! Though maybe he and Bhairava from Magadheera should have a contest?