The Last Empress
Jan. 19th, 2021 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satalasersPure madness. I absolutely adored it.
- When I say I got uselessly hooked on this show, I mean it. It sucked me in at the halfway point, and then it was like: I have to know what happens next. And oh boy, I did not mean to binge like, what? 10ish episodes in a row, but there we have it.
- Super in love with Shin Sung Rok. God, does his acting prowess know no limits? Lee Hyuk was so very terrible as the Emperor, who thought he could do wrong, to being paranoid as hell, as his mother and bodyguard made him insane, and cold, as he told his lover that if she said she would die for him, then that's exactly what she should do. And yet, he was goofy and slapstick and silly when he was genuinely in love, and I adored both sides of him, for he could switch between the two in a blink of an eye and I adored him for it. I just -- it was so hard to hate him, when he was just so nuanced and multifaceted and complex and he was fantastic.
- I very much adore Jang Na Ra though! She was fab in Go Back Couple, she's really good in this! Oh Sunny starts off as a very sweet and nice aspiring actress, and then gradually becomes disillusioned with the corruption and treachery of monarchy life, and the awful deception of her husband, and swears revenge. So we see her grow and develop and she's much less naive and trusting of other people, but she never loses her decency -- she has a temper, but she'll make amends if she feels she went overboard later.
- I'm like. Real predictable? I didn't expect to ship Oh Sunny and Lee Hyuk, but at first it was like, oh, at first I wanted Hyuk to fall for Sunny because of her sweetness -- she tried so hard to be accommodating and understanding of the reminders of his first wife, who loved him for him; even though something about Sunny ticked him off because he hadn't wanted to marry her in the first place, but he had to, in order to make a convincing alibi. But that didn't happen, because the Hyuk/Yu-Ra affair continued, and Sunny found out and that broke her heart. Not to mention the constant murder attempts! But after Sunny became more devious and rightfully angry at everyone, and decided to return, despite Hyuk making it seem like Sunny and U-Bin were having the affair instead, I began to love it because a) she was going to play his game on her terms, b) she hates him. And the thing is, I think that's part of the reason Hyuk sincerely falls for her -- just the way she endured and put with thing, which seems a little unromantic, but. IDK. I think, once he saw her poor living conditions (no heating, no money, etc), he *did* feel bad, especially because his own mother, Dowager Kang, was so dismissive about her. And from there, his love began to grow, and I think, part of him became unguarded in a way he just didn't expect.
- (I think part of me just misses Hans/Anna. They had some serious Hans/Anna or Kovu/Kiara vibes, and I'm so into it. But I also just loved the doomed curseness of it all, and how lovestruck both had been at separate parts. It's almost fairy tale turned nightmare, but these two were so captivating from start to finish, and I do believe that Oh Sunny loved him, at end, for who he really was, and not just for the gallant emperor he first seemed to be.)
- It makes me laugh a little, because yeah, Chul U-Bin and Oh Sunny were conspiring to make Lee Hyuk fall for Oh Sunny by making him jealous, but it honestly happened so infrequently, it felt like Lee Hyuk kind of fell for Oh Sunny on his own, so haplessly, and unexpected.
- People say it came out of nowhere, but I disagree. While I never thought that Lee Hyuk and Min Yu-Ra were in love, though certainly, they both lusted for each other, I do think for a moment he was moved that Min Yu-Ra was going to sacrifice herself and burn herself alive in the beginning, and that's why he was compelled to save her. So, I think -- Lee Hyuk felt protective over Oh Sunny in a way he couldn't describe, when he saw her new living conditions, in addition to his own terrible mother's comments about her lack of mother, and later, when he found out that he was saved in the past instead of Sunny's mother. I just. Maybe I watched Shin Sung Rok's facial expressions a little too closely, but. I just. I loved him acting goofy, and lovestruck, proof that he never really loved Min Yu-Ra. But, honestly, I think part of me think he even fell before then, when we saw his first wife in Sunny's place. Basically: parts of Sunny reminded Hyuk of her, at least initially, he tried to fight that. And then later, he just. He fell for Sunny because she's resilient and has a really strong spirit.
- I just. It also got to me that Lee Hyuk tried to protect Oh Sunny on his own terms? He couldn't protect her by his own affection, as that would make her a target, so he tried to protect her by making her inactive, and not stir up trouble, and he wouldn't mind being the bad guy some more if it meant that she was safe. Like, there's no doubt that Lee Hyuk is a supremely fucked up person, but you can attribute that because of his awful childhood, being the puppet of his mother, who has destroyed things he loved. He's sometimes a child, extremely jealous and possessive, not afraid to get murderous when it suits him, but he's also deeply paranoid and scarred from the lifetime of abuse he's lived. And, yeah, it just. It worked for me. Seeing his daughter, A-Ri, who is sweet but spoiled, have elements of that -- of the monster she could become because they are emperor to be and that means that whatever they do, they are innocent, it's not hard to see why Lee Hyuk grew up the way he did. And then Sunny, who is one of the few good influences on A-Ri, saves her, and maybe he wonders if it's not too late for him as well. But he's a coward, is the problem, and he doesn't know any other way to act.
- I need to talk about Na Wan-Shik/Chul U-Bin. Oh god, he was definitely done dirty by the end -- though apparently his actor was unavailable for last four episodes, hence why they killed him off, but I. I found him engaging because he was willing to be some terrible things, tempted to kill a lot of people, mainly the emperor, but also Min Yu-Ra, and Oh Sunny, but I just found his desire for justice and vengeance interesting even when it could have taken him on a much darker path.
- The thing is, I couldn't have imagined him surviving this show. Like, They said midway, there was a bullet in his brain, he had maybe three months to live. I just. I think it's a shame he died by being careless, so he got captured, and then gets blown up, and he tries to lessen the impact so less people got hurt. I think it's fitting that he died, but I would have liked much more justice for his mother, who is the reason he set out on this revenge quest in the first place, I would have liked more people being sad that he died (Sunny!), and I just. I wanted better for him.
- (I am slightly more upset that Lee Hyuk also died. Maybe for shipping purposes. Maybe because I wanted Lee Hyuk to escape the horrible hell he lived in, even if he did feel unrepentant for his past actions still, but I wanted him to survive, and just be a normal person, free of the responsibility of monarchy.)
- Thing is, though, I never really felt Chul U-Bin and Oh Sunny fell for each other. They had plenty of cute moments! I just. It never felt particularly romantic, she reminded him of his mom, they were united because their lives had been ruined by Min Yu-Ra and Lee Hyuk, but honestly, they just felt like dear friends so me, companions of the cause. Even when Chul U-Bin said that he liked Sunny to the emperor, it felt not genuine to me, and only to get a rise out of him, and spite him. IDK. I did really like them whenever they interacted though.
- What else: oh hell, I loved the Oh Sunny family! Very cute!
- I absolutely adored the Grand Dowager Empress! Utterly sweet and wise, and I liked her genuine friendship with Oh Sunny, and eventual horror that she was complicit in Lee Hyuk's schemes, and corruption with the family. I could never have predicted that the murderer would have been herself -- and she committed suicide to spurn both Dowager Empress Kang and Lee Hyuk!
- Oh man, Dowager Empress Kang was great! That actress was having so much fun playing a terrible, terrible person. Like. The main reason everyone is kind of terrible is because of her, and she murders those who get in her way, and claims that she's the innocent party. I loved her pretending to be ignorant and sidestepping questions. I DID NOT EXPECT HER TO BE A DRUG RUNNER. HOLY HELL. She was so funny though, and I loved that the one person she was afraid of was Ms. Kim, her former nanny (I think?) but that was great. I loved her conspiring and turning against people.
- Seo Kang-ee was also good. I did not expect her to be THAT level of buckwild? I just. I'm against, because she starts off so meek and mousy, easy to be overlooked, even if sometimes her expressions were suspect, but like? She was so monstrous, and hungry for more, and the fact that she killed her best friend, the first wife of the emperor? MESSED UP. But JFC, I. I have to say that it was riveting! I could not stop watching this show!-
- Min Yu-Ra is tricky. I very much enjoyed her being conniving and using Lee Hyuk more for turning against Dowager Empress Kang, I also surprisingly enjoyed her backstory, where she was the fiance of Empress So-Yeon's bodyguard. What I cannot understand is why she decided to kill U-Bin's mother so heartlessly? When she was adored so much? What caused her to hate that woman, that family, I just don't understand. Her unexpectedly also having a revenge plot was great, and -- I feel like, if she'd died, at that point, it would have made sense. I don't like that she got amnesia, and didn't really recognize her child, and herself also seemed to revert into the state of a child? It just. It felt odd and unsatisfying to me
- I wish I was good at giffing because I do so dearly want to gif the moment where Lee Hyuk has been pushed off a cliff -- though I suppose he voluntarily jumped, more accurately -- and then because a bit mud stained, disheveled, .tattered, but because it's Shin Sung Rok, he pulls it off really well? Anyway, it's a Look.
- I really loved Lee Hyuk's dream, where Oh Sunny visits him, and he apologizes, and she says the play is over. Maybe that was a sign to say, everything was coming to an end, and his fate was sealed, but oh, I wanted so badly to believe that he knew that everything had got out of hand and he had to put a stop to it, and if there was a chance -- his only chance! -- that he could attain Sunny's heart, this was it and he shouldn't waste it and hide away. Like, he tried to fool himself for a while, and live in denial, and be extremely cute as a normal person, but even self-deception can't work forever.
- I super loved the epilogue though. I'm glad I found it -- where in another universe, Oh Sunny is the more popular star out of the two, and Lee Hyuk is the understudy, hapless but adoring, and Oh Sunny is frustrated by him, but. Somehow she's a little charmed by him nonetheless. If they had actually added that the ending, instead of having me find it on YT, I would have been happier with the show, TBH. Because this is the parallel universe where they got their happily ever after. (Maybe.) But I so badly wanted it to be the universe that I got addicted to instead.
- I watched like the latter half in 2 days, because for some reason, I just got hooked, but I hate main character death TBH. I rarely thinks it works with the show, and here, because I shipped Oh Sunny and Lee Hyuk, I am especially sad, TBH.
9.5/10. Had they not had the main character death, it would have been a 10/10 for sure. Never the less, the majority of this show was wonderful, just because of how bonkers and ridiculous it became, and I loved it for that. Although, really, this show was that from the start, and I was hooked on the drama. I definitely want to check out more of the stuff that the person has written.
- When I say I got uselessly hooked on this show, I mean it. It sucked me in at the halfway point, and then it was like: I have to know what happens next. And oh boy, I did not mean to binge like, what? 10ish episodes in a row, but there we have it.
- Super in love with Shin Sung Rok. God, does his acting prowess know no limits? Lee Hyuk was so very terrible as the Emperor, who thought he could do wrong, to being paranoid as hell, as his mother and bodyguard made him insane, and cold, as he told his lover that if she said she would die for him, then that's exactly what she should do. And yet, he was goofy and slapstick and silly when he was genuinely in love, and I adored both sides of him, for he could switch between the two in a blink of an eye and I adored him for it. I just -- it was so hard to hate him, when he was just so nuanced and multifaceted and complex and he was fantastic.
- I very much adore Jang Na Ra though! She was fab in Go Back Couple, she's really good in this! Oh Sunny starts off as a very sweet and nice aspiring actress, and then gradually becomes disillusioned with the corruption and treachery of monarchy life, and the awful deception of her husband, and swears revenge. So we see her grow and develop and she's much less naive and trusting of other people, but she never loses her decency -- she has a temper, but she'll make amends if she feels she went overboard later.
- I'm like. Real predictable? I didn't expect to ship Oh Sunny and Lee Hyuk, but at first it was like, oh, at first I wanted Hyuk to fall for Sunny because of her sweetness -- she tried so hard to be accommodating and understanding of the reminders of his first wife, who loved him for him; even though something about Sunny ticked him off because he hadn't wanted to marry her in the first place, but he had to, in order to make a convincing alibi. But that didn't happen, because the Hyuk/Yu-Ra affair continued, and Sunny found out and that broke her heart. Not to mention the constant murder attempts! But after Sunny became more devious and rightfully angry at everyone, and decided to return, despite Hyuk making it seem like Sunny and U-Bin were having the affair instead, I began to love it because a) she was going to play his game on her terms, b) she hates him. And the thing is, I think that's part of the reason Hyuk sincerely falls for her -- just the way she endured and put with thing, which seems a little unromantic, but. IDK. I think, once he saw her poor living conditions (no heating, no money, etc), he *did* feel bad, especially because his own mother, Dowager Kang, was so dismissive about her. And from there, his love began to grow, and I think, part of him became unguarded in a way he just didn't expect.
- (I think part of me just misses Hans/Anna. They had some serious Hans/Anna or Kovu/Kiara vibes, and I'm so into it. But I also just loved the doomed curseness of it all, and how lovestruck both had been at separate parts. It's almost fairy tale turned nightmare, but these two were so captivating from start to finish, and I do believe that Oh Sunny loved him, at end, for who he really was, and not just for the gallant emperor he first seemed to be.)
- It makes me laugh a little, because yeah, Chul U-Bin and Oh Sunny were conspiring to make Lee Hyuk fall for Oh Sunny by making him jealous, but it honestly happened so infrequently, it felt like Lee Hyuk kind of fell for Oh Sunny on his own, so haplessly, and unexpected.
- People say it came out of nowhere, but I disagree. While I never thought that Lee Hyuk and Min Yu-Ra were in love, though certainly, they both lusted for each other, I do think for a moment he was moved that Min Yu-Ra was going to sacrifice herself and burn herself alive in the beginning, and that's why he was compelled to save her. So, I think -- Lee Hyuk felt protective over Oh Sunny in a way he couldn't describe, when he saw her new living conditions, in addition to his own terrible mother's comments about her lack of mother, and later, when he found out that he was saved in the past instead of Sunny's mother. I just. Maybe I watched Shin Sung Rok's facial expressions a little too closely, but. I just. I loved him acting goofy, and lovestruck, proof that he never really loved Min Yu-Ra. But, honestly, I think part of me think he even fell before then, when we saw his first wife in Sunny's place. Basically: parts of Sunny reminded Hyuk of her, at least initially, he tried to fight that. And then later, he just. He fell for Sunny because she's resilient and has a really strong spirit.
- I just. It also got to me that Lee Hyuk tried to protect Oh Sunny on his own terms? He couldn't protect her by his own affection, as that would make her a target, so he tried to protect her by making her inactive, and not stir up trouble, and he wouldn't mind being the bad guy some more if it meant that she was safe. Like, there's no doubt that Lee Hyuk is a supremely fucked up person, but you can attribute that because of his awful childhood, being the puppet of his mother, who has destroyed things he loved. He's sometimes a child, extremely jealous and possessive, not afraid to get murderous when it suits him, but he's also deeply paranoid and scarred from the lifetime of abuse he's lived. And, yeah, it just. It worked for me. Seeing his daughter, A-Ri, who is sweet but spoiled, have elements of that -- of the monster she could become because they are emperor to be and that means that whatever they do, they are innocent, it's not hard to see why Lee Hyuk grew up the way he did. And then Sunny, who is one of the few good influences on A-Ri, saves her, and maybe he wonders if it's not too late for him as well. But he's a coward, is the problem, and he doesn't know any other way to act.
- I need to talk about Na Wan-Shik/Chul U-Bin. Oh god, he was definitely done dirty by the end -- though apparently his actor was unavailable for last four episodes, hence why they killed him off, but I. I found him engaging because he was willing to be some terrible things, tempted to kill a lot of people, mainly the emperor, but also Min Yu-Ra, and Oh Sunny, but I just found his desire for justice and vengeance interesting even when it could have taken him on a much darker path.
- The thing is, I couldn't have imagined him surviving this show. Like, They said midway, there was a bullet in his brain, he had maybe three months to live. I just. I think it's a shame he died by being careless, so he got captured, and then gets blown up, and he tries to lessen the impact so less people got hurt. I think it's fitting that he died, but I would have liked much more justice for his mother, who is the reason he set out on this revenge quest in the first place, I would have liked more people being sad that he died (Sunny!), and I just. I wanted better for him.
- (I am slightly more upset that Lee Hyuk also died. Maybe for shipping purposes. Maybe because I wanted Lee Hyuk to escape the horrible hell he lived in, even if he did feel unrepentant for his past actions still, but I wanted him to survive, and just be a normal person, free of the responsibility of monarchy.)
- Thing is, though, I never really felt Chul U-Bin and Oh Sunny fell for each other. They had plenty of cute moments! I just. It never felt particularly romantic, she reminded him of his mom, they were united because their lives had been ruined by Min Yu-Ra and Lee Hyuk, but honestly, they just felt like dear friends so me, companions of the cause. Even when Chul U-Bin said that he liked Sunny to the emperor, it felt not genuine to me, and only to get a rise out of him, and spite him. IDK. I did really like them whenever they interacted though.
- What else: oh hell, I loved the Oh Sunny family! Very cute!
- I absolutely adored the Grand Dowager Empress! Utterly sweet and wise, and I liked her genuine friendship with Oh Sunny, and eventual horror that she was complicit in Lee Hyuk's schemes, and corruption with the family. I could never have predicted that the murderer would have been herself -- and she committed suicide to spurn both Dowager Empress Kang and Lee Hyuk!
- Oh man, Dowager Empress Kang was great! That actress was having so much fun playing a terrible, terrible person. Like. The main reason everyone is kind of terrible is because of her, and she murders those who get in her way, and claims that she's the innocent party. I loved her pretending to be ignorant and sidestepping questions. I DID NOT EXPECT HER TO BE A DRUG RUNNER. HOLY HELL. She was so funny though, and I loved that the one person she was afraid of was Ms. Kim, her former nanny (I think?) but that was great. I loved her conspiring and turning against people.
- Seo Kang-ee was also good. I did not expect her to be THAT level of buckwild? I just. I'm against, because she starts off so meek and mousy, easy to be overlooked, even if sometimes her expressions were suspect, but like? She was so monstrous, and hungry for more, and the fact that she killed her best friend, the first wife of the emperor? MESSED UP. But JFC, I. I have to say that it was riveting! I could not stop watching this show!-
- Min Yu-Ra is tricky. I very much enjoyed her being conniving and using Lee Hyuk more for turning against Dowager Empress Kang, I also surprisingly enjoyed her backstory, where she was the fiance of Empress So-Yeon's bodyguard. What I cannot understand is why she decided to kill U-Bin's mother so heartlessly? When she was adored so much? What caused her to hate that woman, that family, I just don't understand. Her unexpectedly also having a revenge plot was great, and -- I feel like, if she'd died, at that point, it would have made sense. I don't like that she got amnesia, and didn't really recognize her child, and herself also seemed to revert into the state of a child? It just. It felt odd and unsatisfying to me
- I wish I was good at giffing because I do so dearly want to gif the moment where Lee Hyuk has been pushed off a cliff -- though I suppose he voluntarily jumped, more accurately -- and then because a bit mud stained, disheveled, .tattered, but because it's Shin Sung Rok, he pulls it off really well? Anyway, it's a Look.
- I really loved Lee Hyuk's dream, where Oh Sunny visits him, and he apologizes, and she says the play is over. Maybe that was a sign to say, everything was coming to an end, and his fate was sealed, but oh, I wanted so badly to believe that he knew that everything had got out of hand and he had to put a stop to it, and if there was a chance -- his only chance! -- that he could attain Sunny's heart, this was it and he shouldn't waste it and hide away. Like, he tried to fool himself for a while, and live in denial, and be extremely cute as a normal person, but even self-deception can't work forever.
- I super loved the epilogue though. I'm glad I found it -- where in another universe, Oh Sunny is the more popular star out of the two, and Lee Hyuk is the understudy, hapless but adoring, and Oh Sunny is frustrated by him, but. Somehow she's a little charmed by him nonetheless. If they had actually added that the ending, instead of having me find it on YT, I would have been happier with the show, TBH. Because this is the parallel universe where they got their happily ever after. (Maybe.) But I so badly wanted it to be the universe that I got addicted to instead.
- I watched like the latter half in 2 days, because for some reason, I just got hooked, but I hate main character death TBH. I rarely thinks it works with the show, and here, because I shipped Oh Sunny and Lee Hyuk, I am especially sad, TBH.
9.5/10. Had they not had the main character death, it would have been a 10/10 for sure. Never the less, the majority of this show was wonderful, just because of how bonkers and ridiculous it became, and I loved it for that. Although, really, this show was that from the start, and I was hooked on the drama. I definitely want to check out more of the stuff that the person has written.
