(no subject)

[skygiants]

It was a couple months ago now that I watched The King's Affection and I'm still thinking about it -- it came close to being something I really loved, and in the end it wasn't that but I'm still fascinated by the take and by some of the choices they made.

The King's Affection is a classic Identical Male and Female Twins story with a twist: due to a series of wildly unfortunate events, the girl twin (who was supposed to be killed at birth, found her way back to the palace by accident, and had no previous idea that she was a princess of Joseon) ends up trapped in an ongoing impersonation of her royal identical twin. At the time the main plot begins (after a few episodes of child-actor setup which, fair warning, result in several tragically dead children) she's been living as Crown Prince for over a decade, grimly surviving all the usual palace pressures plus the additional burden of a secret identity with the assistance of two trusted servants. She is Responsible! She is Tired! She Misses Her Previous Identity And Community But Nonetheless She Is a Tiny Cold Royal Professional who Will Not Allow Herself To Put A Foot Wrong Lest She Be Exposed And Immediately Executed Or Maybe Just Normal Deposed But It Would Probably Still Be Bad!



This is such a different position than the standard run of hijinks-driven crossdressing girls in kdramas and I found it immediately compelling, except for the small problem that icily competent Dam-yi aka Crown Prince Hwi is handed a significant number of idiot balls by the plot, usually when it relates to the romance.

Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed the romance! It was cute! As is required by the law of contrasts, her love interest is a bubbly do-gooder who gets hired on as a royal tutor and almost immediately falls head over heels with a pleasantly minimal degree of gay panic, and what there is could just as easily be read as class panic: bad idea to be in love with a prince! This is especially exciting for me because a pattern I have noticed time and again wrt cross-dressing narratives is that the romantic interest for your plucky Mulan or Viola or Alanna is generally always older, or a social superior, or in a position of authority, or all at once! Got to reinscribe those shifting gender power dynamics back in some other way! So the fact that this is a romance in which Hwi/Dam-yi does in fact hold all the social power [except for the fairly major element that her identity can be life-threateningly exposed at any minute] is really interesting to me, and, again, he is very charming and the romance is very cute.

I just also have never watched a drama where we found ourselves shouting "STOP KISSING! PEOPLE CAN SEE YOU!!" at a couple that we generally supported so often at the screen, not just because they were right in public and people could see them, but also because Hwi had been set up as a character who has been coping with a Big Secret for over a decade, and has had time to build plans and should really have made all her rookie mistakes already. And sometimes she did get to be enormously prepared and competent, and it was deeply satisfying, and then other times the romance needed her to wander off into the woods and go bathing in a random pool without taking any basic identity-protecting precautions, and we screamed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS!"

There's a lot of other stuff I could talk about wrt this drama -- there are a number of really interesting dynamics that are set up, though many of them end up underused -- but this post is already going long so instead of talking about the second lead (charming!), the villains (some more narratively effective than others!), the family dynamics (fascinating and occasionally really moving!), the other female characters (all sympathetic but deeply underutilized for a show that makes such an interesting and deliberate point of how Dam-yi's role isolates her from female community in a way that she regrets!) I am INSTEAD going to talk about the two old kdrama men that genarti identified with unerring precision as exes back in episode two or three and was so richly rewarded for her keen eye:





One of these men is Dam-yi's most loyal retainer and the other one has been tasked with killing her since she was an infant. They have been nemeses for twenty years and their love is perhaps the most compelling relationship on the show.

Comments

[sovay]

the girl twin (who was supposed to be killed at birth, found her way back to the palace by accident, and had no previous idea that she was a princess of Joseon) ends up trapped in an ongoing impersonation of her royal identical twin.

I understand it is effectively backstory, but that sounds like an entire novel in itself. (Is she recognized as the missing crown princess, or does she just think she's a doppelgänger rando engaged in the impersonation of her life?)

[skygiants]

(Initially and the prince both think she's a doppelgänger rando! The prince is very excited to have stumbled into the possibility of a Prince and the Pauper plot; the unknown princess is deeply stressed but has difficulty saying no to the crown prince; their mother the queen, who knows immediately who she is, is screaming internally for twelve different reasons. She does reveal Dam-yi's identity and their relationship -- and the fact that her father and grandfather wanted her killed -- once the situation becomes permanent, which leads to fascinating tension between Dam-yi and her father and grandfather throughout the rest of the show as Dam-yi plays the role of Beloved Only Son And Heir to the people that she knows ordered her death.)

[sovay]

which leads to fascinating tension between Dam-yi and her father and grandfather throughout the rest of the show as Dam-yi plays the role of Beloved Only Son And Heir to the people that she knows ordered her death.

That does sound compelling.

[asakiyume]

as Dam-yi plays the role of Beloved Only Son And Heir to the people that she knows ordered her death. --wow

Dad and Granddad: We couldn't love you more, son.
Dam-yi: *quietly simmers*

[aurumcalendula]

Ooh! This sounds way more interesting than the summaries I read made it sound. *adds to to-watch list*

[skygiants]

I did not agree with all their choices but I found most of them really interesting, they made some big and compelling swings!

[theladyscribe]

I really loved this show, for many of the same reasons you did! And the two old soldiers were SO GOOD and so compelling, and I would watch an entire show of their relationship tbh. Top contenders for a Yuletide fic, truly.

[asakiyume]

This sounds really fun! I have never watched a k-drama, and the only C-drama I've watched is The Untamed</>, which sure does feature your law of contrasts... and I was surprised, because while I've never really liked the idea of opposites attract, I really liked those two. No cross-dressing in that, though. I get what you're saying about how refreshing this one is for not reestablishing the male-female power dynamic--it sounds charming!

And well done genari for identifying the exes.

[lirazel]

Huh. The premise does sound really good--I'm sorry it didn't quite work for you.

[imbir]

And sometimes she did get to be enormously prepared and competent, and it was deeply satisfying, and then other times the romance needed her to wander off into the woods and go bathing in a random pool without taking any basic identity-protecting precautions, and we screamed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS!"

Sounds a bit like a narrative double bluff where the identical twins were actually triplets and the other female sibling was gearing up for an elaborate revenge plot, but then found it too hard and decided to have a good time at everyone else's expense instead.

[chestnut_pod]

Huh! That is a really compelling set-up! I'm glad it's out there to be engaged with by other creators, maybe, even if this show didn't quite hit it out of the park.