Legend eps 19-24

[meganbmoore]

Ok, I watched about half of this before A-Kon, and the other half after getting back, while still tired and feeling kind of cruddy and trying to remember what was going on when I left off, so I'm afraid what i have to say is scattered.

Here, have a couple more reasons black armour (with shiny embellishments) should be considered more fashionable.

 

First, the 2 things that annoyed me:

1.  Sujini and Kiha never got to have a scene together as sisters.  Never.  They had the scene early on where Sujini was just some random girl with Kiha's boyfriend, the scene where Kiha got her memories back, but wasn't able to tell her because Sujini was trying to kill her, the scene where Sujini helps deliver Ajik, and learns they're sisters afterwards from Sa Ryang that they're siblings, and then at the end where Evil Master wants to sacrifice Ajik and they try to save him.  Even though Ajik being her sister's child seemed to be the biggest motivation in Sujini protecting Ajik, and Kiha seemed just as worried about Sujini as she was about Ajik, they never actually get to have any significant interaction.

2.  The ending.  It wasn't a bad ending, but the only reason we know what happened to Dam-Duk is because the narrator told us his reign continued for years.  Presumably, he and Sujini were finally able to get married, now that there's nothing in the way.  We don't, however, know if he was able to save Kiha, or if Jumuchi, Chuh Ro, and Sujini's master survived the final battle.  In all honesty, it felt like the "sequel" $$ signs were in people's eyes, and I don't like endings(at least in movies, dramas, and anime...print I'm more OK with) clearly designed to make me want a sequel.  Make me want a sequel because it was just that good, not because you left me hanging.

My two much milder, but not annoying, critiques:

1.  Way too long as 17 year olds when the leads were clearly much older.  It worked with Sujini, but not the others. 

2.  The middle chunk could have been shaved off a few episodes.  Should have, really.  I also would have liked more time to be spent in the final time arc.

All this probably makes me sound very critical of the series, but really, they're my only criticisms.  While the main story is mostly normal epic fantasy tropes and character types, it's well done.  There isn't a single important character I dislike(no unimportant/minor ones, either.)  Even if a character left me completely neutral otherwise, there would be some aspect of the character that made me enjoy them.  There weren't any characters that made me go "yes, ok, go away now."

I admit, once Kiha went evil and started killing people, I started to really like her.  Probably because she was actually actively doing things to accomplish her goals, and was fairly ruthless about it.  I'm very glad, though, that she didn't try to convince Ho Gae that Ajik was his son.  They had me worried on that front for a little while.

ALSO!  Dam-Duk managed to guilt Lord Yon into committing suicide without even being there or knowing about it.  This ability to pwn and guilt your enemies into committing suicide  without meaning to is an amazing skill.  More fantasy heroes wish they had this skill.  I'm surprised he actually killed Ho Gae in battle.

Jumuchi remained about the cutest thing ever.  Especially with his "I am a big tough guy and will cut off my arm before ever admitting I have feelings"  act.  I wonder if Dam-Duk did eventually make it an imperial order for him to marry Dalbi.  (If you want, I suppose another minor complaint is that it took them so long to reveal that he was the last guardian...I only realized it 19 episodes before they got around to it.  But that's amazingly minor.  I guess you have to save some revelation for near the end.)

For the curious(since I did have a few problems with her early on) yes, Sujini did end up my second favorite, after Ho Gae(third would be Jumuchi, then the "everyone else" pile.)  Around ep 10 or so, they started to tone it down a bit with the over-the-top rascally stuff, and she came into her own very well.

ANYWAY!  While It won't go down as my favorite sageuk or kdrama, I did very much enjoy it, despite various troubles in my actually watching it.

Comments

[sugarnoise.livejournal.com]

The ending of this seemed really confusing for me at the time I watched it. I dunno, I just kind of felt cheated. You naturally wonder about the other great characters like Jumuchi, as you mentioned. The show was fun and really addicting for me, but the ending felt really rushed and in the grand scope of everything a bit of a let down.

I totally agree with you about the 17 year old thing... every time the thought crossed my mind I couldn't stop laughing. It was totally obvious they all weren't in the same age group.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The last 2 episodes felt like they spent so much time transitioning and building up to the final arc that they realized they forgot to leave room for the final arc, and they just crammed it in. The last time period should have started around ep 20 at the latest, preferably a bit earlier.

The ending doesn't confuse me, and it worked, but I definately felt cheated. Instead of flashback pics during the end narration, there should have been something with the survivors of the battle seeing the light, and going to the palace or some such.

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

The last 2 episodes felt like they spent so much time transitioning and building up to the final arc that they realized they forgot to leave room for the final arc, and they just crammed it in.

I agree. It's not that climactic..

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Yup. Well said :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Again: Sequel $$$.

Silly bottom line.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Dude. Ho Gae looks positive hot in those 2 pics. Me wants to make icon :D Mind if I snag those 2 pics from you?

Dam-Duk managed to guilt Lord Yon into committing suicide without even being there or knowing about it.
I thought it was Kiha that did this..???

While It won't go down as my favorite sageuk or kdrama, I did very much enjoy it, despite various troubles in my actually watching it.
Yay!! :)

I basically thought that ep 24 was far too rushed. Too crammed. Esp after the final battle. I understand that originally it wasn't supposed to be that way. The original script was supposed to be: http://coolsmurf.wordpress.com/2007/12/08/furore-over-tae-wang-sa-shin-gi-ambigious-ending/

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Pics: Go for it. They're actually either alexandral's or dangermousie's.

Lord Yon: *thinks carefully, it was right before my hair was hacked off* Lord Yon told Dam-Duk that, if forced to choose, he would side with Ho Gae, no matter what honor Dam-Duk gave him. Kiha let him think Ajik was Ho Gae's baby, so Lord Yon stole the symbols from the treasury/vault/whereever, then asked Kiha for the same poison his wife had taken. In his voiceover, he basically said that he couldn't live with the shame of having betrayed Dam-Duk after everything Dam-Duk had done for him, so he was going to kill himself. So he betrayed Dam-Duk because of Kiha's machinations, but the rest was his own guilt.

ep 24: I honestly think they got to the end and realized it would do well enough to get a sequel if they played their cards right.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Now I would be totally gleeful for a sequel, especially if they brought their whole cast back. But I have been let down by sequels far too often to not be wary even for a Legend season 2.

Btw. Just a trivia. There is a movie titled Mr. Socrates, and I swear the director must have been watching that first before he made Legend because there were so many actors from that movie taken into Legend (ie. Jumuchi, Sujini's mentor, Ho Gae..)

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

Dude. Ho Gae looks positive hot in those 2 pics. Me wants to make icon :D Mind if I snag those 2 pics from you?

I don't know if it's just me...but I don't actually find Ho Gae that *hot*. Well...he actually reminds me of my gay cousin! LOL! =)

peace hon! *wink*

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Mwahahaha. Don't worry, no offense taken! :) But reminds you of your gay cousin, LOL. I think Ho Gae looked good in everything, especially towards the end when he had long hair :D Oh well, to each his own!

[jacganda.livejournal.com]

I agree that the ending was really rushed, most especially after reading the original script. I also felt cheated. I agree that they could have done something about it instead of having flashbacks.

Yes, I agree that it was Dam-Duk who managed to guilt Lord Yon into committing suicide. =)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's Dam-Duk's special skill. Possibly, he wonders how he can turn it off.

[lostopenwindows.livejournal.com]

While the ending wasn't that bad, it felt really anti climatic. I looked like a huge question mark at the end of the series mostly because there's no indication whether the three other Guardians survived. Seeing as they were my favorite characters, I was not very happy.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yes. I like Dam-Duk, but he suffers the eternal flaw of his character type: Being a good lead, but not being as interesting as the other people around him.

The ending really should have been done better. (I hope this doesn't end up like the TW Hana Kimi, where my initial disappointment with the ending eventually grew to an overall mild feeling of annoyance with the whole thing. (Though there were other factors there, too, and initially, there WAS supposed to be a sequel, and that had a complete non-ending.)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I loved the free will theme at the end and I am ready to forgive everything for it, even the fact that we never see DD and Sujini married. I believe Kiha has died.

17 year old thing was silly but this is repeated so much in so many other dramas that I stopped to care at some point.

I have a glimpse of "Kiha is an awesome evil lady" at one moment but she was too much of "woe is me" even in her evil state to continue to be awesome for me.

However, Jumichi was awesome!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The thing about the 17 year old thing is that other dramas will write the character as the age they're supposed to be, even if the actor clearly isn't that age. After the first few eps, neither Dam-Duk nor Ho Gae were written as anything resembling 17 year olds.

Most of Kiha's "woe is me" is pretty justified. Enough of it that I can't hold it against her.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked!

For me, the ending was one of my favorite things about the drama: the openness yet not about it, plus the culmination of all the discussions about free will. But it was certainly a very controversial one and you are not alone in not caring for it. They had to shoot around Bae Yong Joon's injuries, so I think that is part of the reason the ending is the way it is, but for me it totally turned out to be a blessing because I much prefer this to the ending the writer originally intended.

Re: Kiha and Sujini. I didn't even think about a sibling scene just because even if they were, they spent their whole lives apart, fighting for opposite causes, becoming vastly different in the process. I happen to think blood is not really a good connector (you share same dna, so what) absent other things, so I suppose it's a personal idyosincratic take on it. Plus, my hate for Kiha just didn't want her to have more screentime :P

Btw, do you know that the actors who played Jumuchi and Dalbi are actually now dating in RL? I find that amusing.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And everything you listed off as far as their lives go is why I did want a scene with them. Whether or not a person has a sibling/close cousin/etc does tend to affect how much importance you place on being related beyond parents in fiction, I think, but Asia especially seems to place importance on genetic connections, especially in the reincarnation theme. (This is why I can handle incest tones in anime and manga with reincarnation themes, or other extreme supernatural interference, but you won't get me to touch it otherwise.)

I can believe the actors who played Jumuchi and Dalbi are dating in RL. They had better chemistry than anything else.

The problem with the ending, for me, wasn't so much the ending itself as it was that it seemed clearly designed to leave room-and invite requests-for a sequel. It's a kind of narrative manipulation I don't have much tolerance for.