The King: Eternal Monarch Thoughts
Jul. 28th, 2020 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaOverall, I really enjoyed this series.
+ I adored Gon, Tae-eul and Yeong. All three characters were wonderful and I loved how they expanded and grew as characters as we got to know them. The relationships between Gon/Tae-eul and Gon/Yeong were wonderful. I wanted/want more of all of them.
+ I wish we'd had a little more time spent on Tae-eul/Yeong and they had been given an their own connection beyond their shared love/loyalty to Gon, or even have them bond over their shared love. I just wanted them to have a relationship and they didn't quite.
+ The Ok-nam/Gon relationship was a delight. My favourite after the above two. I liked what we got of By-yeong/Gon and Ok-nam/Gon too.
+ I liked a lot of the supporting characters - Ok-nam, Shin-jae, Eun-sup, Secretary Mo, Jangmi, Bu-yeong.
+ I was very into the mystery and story, and was invested in where it was going.
+ My biggest dislike/hatred of individual story choices both came from episode 14. I will never be over the stupidity of Yeong not protecting Tae-eul when Gon asked him to and Tae-eul confronting Luna alone with no plan or defence and getting stabbed. They we're both OOC! It could have been easily solved by showing Yeong shadowing Tae-eul and Tae-eul either fighting back against Luna or getting caught unawares. (And then Yeong choosing to save/stay with Tae-eul instead of chasing down Luna, just as he did with Gon.)
+ I think there were some obvious pacing issues especially looking back. There were a bunch of characters/minor plots in the first half that didn't really go anywhere and that time could have been better spent elsewhere. A lot of Lim's switching of people could have been conveyed with less time spent on them considering how little they ended up affecting anything. I would have liked it if Se-jin had been an actual character because I think that would have added something to the story.
+ I wanted more scenes of everyone investigating Lim especially Tae-eul/Yeong/Shin-jae when they were left in the Republic alone to do that.
+ Luna ended up feeling not well used. I wish we'd seen more of her earlier in the story and gotten more Luna/Tae-eul interactions sooner. Luna/Gon interactions could have also been interesting.
+ Seo-ryung's plot ended in a disappointing direction. Perhaps if she'd joined Lim earlier it might have gone better? Maybe if she'd made a play for Lim's flute, attempted to kill him and almost succeeded, wounding him but being killed in the process it would have felt like her story in the latter half of the series had more of a point? [Her ambition getting her killed, more cracks appearing in Lim's plan, Lim making a mistake in a play, Lim being wounded going into the final episodes making their capture of him, and him not fighting back effectively make more sense.) I don't know, I just wanted Seo-ryung's plot to have an end and meaning and it didn't feel like it did.
+ I actually ended up rather enjoying how we'd get a scene in an episode and then in the next episode (or two) we'd get an expansion of that same scene that showed us a little more and added more meaning to it. I was a little disappointed they didn't do it as much in the latter half.
+ There was some really beautiful cinematography and visuals.
+ The PPL was definitely the worst/most in your face I've ever come across in a show (even worse than Chuck/Subway) but it honestly didn't usually bother me. A couple times were terrible but I ended up being kind of amused by most of them and some I didn't even notice. I still love the blatant saleslady PPL the most. I also enjoyed Seo-ryung trying to use her helmet and getting interrupted gag, and Eun-sup playing iron man with Gon's helmet.
+ I adored Gon, Tae-eul and Yeong. All three characters were wonderful and I loved how they expanded and grew as characters as we got to know them. The relationships between Gon/Tae-eul and Gon/Yeong were wonderful. I wanted/want more of all of them.
+ I wish we'd had a little more time spent on Tae-eul/Yeong and they had been given an their own connection beyond their shared love/loyalty to Gon, or even have them bond over their shared love. I just wanted them to have a relationship and they didn't quite.
+ The Ok-nam/Gon relationship was a delight. My favourite after the above two. I liked what we got of By-yeong/Gon and Ok-nam/Gon too.
+ I liked a lot of the supporting characters - Ok-nam, Shin-jae, Eun-sup, Secretary Mo, Jangmi, Bu-yeong.
+ I was very into the mystery and story, and was invested in where it was going.
+ My biggest dislike/hatred of individual story choices both came from episode 14. I will never be over the stupidity of Yeong not protecting Tae-eul when Gon asked him to and Tae-eul confronting Luna alone with no plan or defence and getting stabbed. They we're both OOC! It could have been easily solved by showing Yeong shadowing Tae-eul and Tae-eul either fighting back against Luna or getting caught unawares. (And then Yeong choosing to save/stay with Tae-eul instead of chasing down Luna, just as he did with Gon.)
+ I think there were some obvious pacing issues especially looking back. There were a bunch of characters/minor plots in the first half that didn't really go anywhere and that time could have been better spent elsewhere. A lot of Lim's switching of people could have been conveyed with less time spent on them considering how little they ended up affecting anything. I would have liked it if Se-jin had been an actual character because I think that would have added something to the story.
+ I wanted more scenes of everyone investigating Lim especially Tae-eul/Yeong/Shin-jae when they were left in the Republic alone to do that.
+ Luna ended up feeling not well used. I wish we'd seen more of her earlier in the story and gotten more Luna/Tae-eul interactions sooner. Luna/Gon interactions could have also been interesting.
+ Seo-ryung's plot ended in a disappointing direction. Perhaps if she'd joined Lim earlier it might have gone better? Maybe if she'd made a play for Lim's flute, attempted to kill him and almost succeeded, wounding him but being killed in the process it would have felt like her story in the latter half of the series had more of a point? [Her ambition getting her killed, more cracks appearing in Lim's plan, Lim making a mistake in a play, Lim being wounded going into the final episodes making their capture of him, and him not fighting back effectively make more sense.) I don't know, I just wanted Seo-ryung's plot to have an end and meaning and it didn't feel like it did.
+ I actually ended up rather enjoying how we'd get a scene in an episode and then in the next episode (or two) we'd get an expansion of that same scene that showed us a little more and added more meaning to it. I was a little disappointed they didn't do it as much in the latter half.
+ There was some really beautiful cinematography and visuals.
+ The PPL was definitely the worst/most in your face I've ever come across in a show (even worse than Chuck/Subway) but it honestly didn't usually bother me. A couple times were terrible but I ended up being kind of amused by most of them and some I didn't even notice. I still love the blatant saleslady PPL the most. I also enjoyed Seo-ryung trying to use her helmet and getting interrupted gag, and Eun-sup playing iron man with Gon's helmet.
