Last week Empress Ki fans lost out on two new episodes of the drama but won out on seeing the entire main cast attending the MBC Drama Awards and taking home lots of trophies including the coveted top prize Daesang for Ha Ji Won. I understand the rationale for awarding the Daesang (or even acting prizes) to actors and actresses for dramas that aren’t anywhere near finished. Network drama wards are not objectively in the least and meant to acknowledge the works that have brought the network success (mostly in the form of ratings). For a drama like Empress Ki which is currently airing and already a ratings success, by lauding the cast and even giving it a best writing award MBC is giving more exposure to the drama so that it can bring in more fans or at least keep the ones who are already watching. Giving to the Daesang to an actress or actor in completed drama isn’t going to have any ancillary benefits the way it might help out EK. I have no problem with Ha Ji Won winning it now, I love her and she could easily win the Daesang next year had MBC chosen to wait until the drama finished and included her in the 2014 awards. I just like to acknowledge the mercenary decision making and backstage politics in network awards shows because believing its all based on quality is just a ridiculous and laughably naive.
Anyhoo, back to EK and what looks like another shift in narrative direction. Seung Nyang is going back to her Goryeo warrior roots and shedding her Yuan court maid persona and the latest stills show her with Wang Yoo and his band of merry men. I am sooooo happy to see happy smiling Seung Nyang, and I mean genuinely happy and not moments of random mirth in the last ten episodes that she’s been in the Yuan palace with Ta Hwan. Setting aside the shipping preferences, Seung Nyang is a Goryeo citizen and she hates the Yuan with good reason. I just don’t see her being happy in the Yuan other than a bittersweet type of sacrificial happiness like she’s enduring a lifetime of being the Empress in order to help Goryeo from afar. I want to see Seung Nyang making her own choices and picking her own destiny, but it doesn’t appear to be possible since it’s impossible to separate her feelings for either guy and the country they represent. Ta Hwan is the Yuan Emperor, Wang Yoo is the deposed Goryeo King. I hope the drama starts upping the romance so that the narrative can get moving faster again. She can move through both men and then move right onto running the Yuan and effectively also governing Goryeo.
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I love Seung Nyang as a fighter. Being with the Emperor makes her too boring for me. I can't wait to see her fight again.
agree..
I love seung nyang back to Goryeo with Wang Yoo and the friends
i agree as well…love her in action. In the Yuan palace, she's a servant to a needy king…it's sometimes funny, but mostly annoying when Ta Hwan is acting like a baby most of the time >_<.
I think HJW is great in anything she does. She is so great at physical feats and her facial expressions are wonderful!
In her last drama (King 2 Hearts) she went from kick-ass North Korean agent to Queen of South Korea and now she's going Goryeo warrior to Yuan slave/empress. She also made LSG a king S. Korea would be proud of (don't get jealous Ta Hwan) and she will also do the same for TH. Sorry, Wang Yoo! Apparently she goes for goofballs (hahaha)!
I agree with you.In the beginning I like her to be with JJM but after the episodes with the baby emperor I think I'll be changing ship.JCW is really doing a great portrayal of the immature and helpless emperor.I hope that he'll be better so that I will feel justified jumping ship.He needs HJW to make him an emperor and she an empress.Fighting Empress Ki.HJW deserved the Daesang award.
I love the stills! Seung Nyang is alive when she's with her people. Look at that smile!:)
If Seung Nyang with Ta Hwan it will be boring just like pupies love master,but doesn't mean I hate ta hwan I like when Ta Hwan with Danashiri
Well I think these episodes doesnt make sense. If you ask me, the writer's timing is in mess and just juggling around where this Empress should be to reach 50ep. The real enemy and where the action should be happening is in Yuan; whereas Goryeo is simply like a colony or protectorate state. Or maybe, they were trying hard to build that lovestory w/ the King, w/c was cut short earlier, didnt work well as expected. Sorry to SN-WY shipper, they're both great actress & actor, but SN as a character has more spice & color w/ the young Emperor.
For me, it is much more exciting to see SN and WY. There is a much wider range in emotion and conflicts! I have been really really bored with all TH/SN interactions. Those are like silly interactions among school kids.
I don't really agree that Sungnyang has more space with the Emperor. (Tho I do kinda-sorta-totally ship it. lol) In fact...she has no space at all cuz she's a slave/servant there.
I'd like it more if Ta Hwan was actively interacting with her like an adviser but he really is just having her pour him tea, taste test his food, wipe the morning crust from his eyes, and expecting her to love him. ????????????
I mean, she's snarkily hilarious with Ta Hwan and he's adorably pathetic but he does need to show growth as a person/leader before I can 100% get on that ship. And yet just when he'd FINALLY decided to improve himself (learn to read/fight, etc) and utilize her skills more, she's leaving. :/
I want her to stay longer so Ta Hwan, Wang Yoo, and Sungnyang can all defeat El Temur together.
At the same time, I want her to leave with Wang Yoo cuz I'm just so damned tired of all these longing looks between Sungnyang and Wang Yoo. Their love is almost entirely conceptual and based mostly on intangible ideas like "longing," "honor," "loyalty," "duty," "homeland," etc. That's nice and all but I'd like some actual conversations and interactions and experiences on screen to back up this epic romance they're supposedly enthralled in.
I know that they knew each other for months before they went to the Yuan Kingdom but we didn't see any of that cuz of the double time skips in the beginning. Also for that entire time Wang Yoo thought she was a man, wasn't gay/bi, and therefor didn't have any solid romantic thoughts about Sungnyang. She was just his buddy that he sometimes intimately spooned while teaching her to play music.
I just really need some more concrete interacting between them as a couple to justify all this romantic music they play when they're looking at each other.
I do, however, agree that their enemy is in the Yuan Kingdom so having them leave the palace is an interesting choice. Unless they leave to foil El Temur's douchily evil plans in the field.
I tell you, right now I'm having a real hard time with this series. Sungnyang's all teary eyed and anguished, Wang Yoo's all stoic and regal, and Ta Hwan's all meek and cowardly. I can't friggin connect to any of them.
Of the dramas I've seen from this writing couple (Giant, History of a Salaryman, Incarnation of Money), this is probably my least favorite. I really hope it picks up once Sungnyang's back in the field.
Thank you for the article! I love what I saw in the preview! I love the acting of JJM and HJW. Especially, I think JJM is wonderful. I can sense his unspoken pain, his regret and his love. His acting is subtle, but extremely powerful!! Although I think JCW is doing a great job, I like JJM's performance much much better.