[Drama 2020] The King: Eternal Monarch, 더 킹: 영원의 군주

[Keikokoko]

2 hours ago, AgentQuake said:

Ugh, it's the subtitles.  I swear this country can't read or move their brains.  Although, considering Tiger King, 90 Day Fiance, Love is Blind, and whatever that other show was are trending, maybe us Americans just don't deserve Asian dramas hahaha.

 

@AgentQuake  Sorry, I have to jump in on this. I know you probably meant it as a joke, but I don't want it to leave wrong impression about American. In my extended family in both coasts, many do not speak any Asian language at all, but we watch Asian films if they are well produced with good story line. My niece in high school and nephew in college along with their friends (all very white kids)  watch many Japanese anime with subtitle all the time. In our circle of friends and family,  many of us speak multiple languages, enjoy theaters,  films and TV series from around the world. To say that this country (US) can't read is simply not true. 

 

OK, let's get back to more speculation, shall we? 

[CallieP]

12 minutes ago, AgentQuake said:

Stone!! I go to the one in Redmond and there’s one in SLU as well.  
 

TKEM is weird, it’s not trending at all in the U.S., although that’d go be expected.  It’s not popular in SK.  It’s absolutely destroying though everywhere else in the world.  

I think King  is popular in SK except on SBS. It is # 1 or 2 on SK Netflix, #1 on Wavve.

 

in US though never saw it as popular or trending whenever I look. CLOY , Rugal, Hospital LIst, Vagabond,  Hi Mama and Heirs are either trending or popular all the time or both but never saw King on either list. 

[MairaA]

I realized we never talked about the RING. The ring that Lee Jong In said was only meant for the King. It must have some sort of meaning in the grand scheme of things? Maybe it helps control something. Also, the shape/design on it seems a lot like either the scar that LR and LG get when lightening strikes or lightening bolts but it also looks like a sword/flute, something linear is running through it. It's odd. What do you guys think? 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by MairaA
adding images

[gwin]

1 minute ago, CallieP said:

I think King  is popular in SK except SBS. It is # 1 on SK Netflix, #1 on Wavve.

in US never saw it as popular or trending whenever I look. CLOY , Rugal, Hospital LIst, Vagabond,  Hi Mama and Heirs are either trending or popular all the time or both but never saw King on either list.

KDrama in general is just not as popular in the US. I don't think I've seen any KDrama make the top 10 list of most watched in the US this year, not even the behemoth that was CLOY.

And I agree that the reason for this is that many Americans still are averse to watching films and movies with subtitles.  Bong Joon Ho (Parasite director) commented on this many times during his various acceptance speeches during Parasite's awards run.

[Jad068]

20 minutes ago, mychoiyoung said:

 

I'd rather that LG relinquishes throne to Se-jin - Prince's daughter who is now next in line - so he can be with TE in both worlds. 

1. That squashes PM's greed to be queen - she cannot flirt with & thirst for another queen right?

2. People will have more leniency for LG's chosen wife since he is not King anymore

3. LG still secures the Kingdom with a proper heir.  It also gives redemption to the hardship the Prince's family had to endure

 

Of course, all of these theories can only be palatable if LG fails to find a beautiful solution & answer to his problem.

 

I have a feeing Se-jin is a Chekhov’s gun and I think she will play a role in the future. Cause why mention her? Maybe she will be the queen at the end.

[vangsweetie637]

26 minutes ago, CallieP said:

I think King  is popular in SK except on SBS. It is # 1 or 2 on SK Netflix, #1 on Wavve.

 

in US though never saw it as popular or trending whenever I look. CLOY , Rugal, Hospital LIst, Vagabond,  Hi Mama and Heirs are either trending or popular all the time or both but never saw King on either list. 

strange. I thought i saw King as a trending drama on NF. It fell into the category of “dramas trending now” for me. Of course, I am not sure about the popularity statistically though. 
 

edit:

 

never mind. I went back to check. It is under the category “Netflix Originals.” I thought i saw it as trending. I was wrong

[leeminhosny]

A MC tells to Korea a Korean drama

 

 

[scrawford]

59 minutes ago, Jad068 said:

same imagine the extra 20 mins per episode that is a total of 320 minutes so around 5 hours. 5 hours more of TKEM! And the bts videos and the promotion. But alas, we got SBS. This drama will still rock though cause it’s amazing!

Not to overly obsess in this theme. As someone who also wish that it would air on TVN, I wonder what else could TVN do better than SBS?. I personally would prefer cable, since Shows on cable TV have less restriction and they have the freedom for longer air time per episode. Given how complex the story is , they could reveal more in one episode.

 

[SweetButters]

The similarities 

 

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1 hour ago, MairaA said:

 

I really hope this is the case cause I do agree with this. Upon first watch, I thought LG was from the future because JTE seemed a bit scared, nervous and stepped back. But then I watched that scene again and I realized she sensed something was wrong with the way he was communicating with her, he was setting the tone to say goodbye and she stepped back because she didn't want that and she didn't want to accept the flowers in case it solidified that and served as a parting gift, and then he voiced it and she grabbed his hand. Honestly, it could be either, both are convincing but I think its present LG.

 

@AgentQuake, I think you're onto something about her dad. 

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I don't know if you've seen the other spoiler picture where LG is seen crouched down talking to the little girl so I'm sure at that time or either before that time, LG would've met her dad? 

 

 

 

@MairaA could you post this pic in a spoiler for us? Or DM me with it?

 

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2 hours ago, Lisa_BB said:

 

My understanding here is that he was previously watching JTE's vid from 11/12/2019. He thought all CCTV captures were from that day. So when he saw the date, he wondered if it was a mistake. But then he noticed that JTE's clothes are different between the two vids he watched. 

 

@Lisa_BB oh ok thanks !!!

 

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1 hour ago, mamabear said:

Spoiler ahead pls don't click if you do not want to be spoiled. Saw this on IG

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Is that blood on TE's coat? 

At this rate, I'd get whatever I can to save myself from too much heartache 

 

 

 

@mamabear is that in ROK or KOC do you think? Also grocery bags? hmmmm

 

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43 minutes ago, gwin said:

 

Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies.  I've seen it countless times, I can write a treatise on it LOL.  I urge everyone to watch the whole trilogy as it is so entertaining and really is satisfying.

For now, I think the BTTF phone case is just an easter egg to give us a clue that time travel is involved, and nothing more.  The time travel depicted in BTTF is also one that is prone to loopholes (it creates the time travel paradox) so even though I love the BTTF films, I hope that is not the time travel that is used in TKEM.  Nevertheless, for those who haven't seen the movie, I'll summarize its main time travel plots so you can see if anything is similar (I don't think so, personally):

 

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1.  Marty (lead character) is friends with Doc Brown, who invents a time machine in 1985 (present time).  

 

2.  Doc Brown had to steal plutonium to make the time machine work.  While he and Marty were testing whether the machine worked, the terrorists he stole the plutonium from suddenly arrived and started shooting at them.  Doc Brown gets shot and dies in 1985.

 

3.   Marty goes into the time machine to escape the terrorists, and he is successful as he is transported back in time to 1955.

 

4.  In 1955, Marty meets both his parents.  Unfortunately, he unintentionally "interferes" with how his parents were supposed to first meet and fall in love.  Instead of his mom meeting and falling in love with his dad, mom meets and gets infatuated with Marty.

 

5.  So because he unintentionally altered the past, Marty had to find a way to make his mom and dad fall in love so that they get married and Marty gets born.

 

6.  Marty is successful in making his mom and dad fall in love (in a different  and more romantic way now) in 1955, therefore his future is guaranteed.

 

7. So now Marty has to go "back to the future" to 1985.   But then he remembers that if he goes back to the same time in 1985 as the time he left, he will go back to see Doc Brown already dead.  So he does two things:  he writes a letter to Doc Brown in 1955, telling Doc Brown the exact date and time Doc Brown will die in 1985 (Doc Brown originally rejects this letter) AND sets up the time machine so he goes back just a few minutes before Doc Brown is shot, so he can warn Doc Brown.

 

8.  Unfortunately, when he goes back to 1985, he is still too late.  He sees (from afar) Doc Brown getting shot and he initially thinks that Doc Brown is dead still.  But then it turns out that Doc Brown did read his letter from 1955, so Doc Brown  was forewarned and he wore a bulletproof vest to prevent his death in 1985.

THE END.

 

 

 

@gwin See like I thought how lightning was needed for time travel in both Back to the Future and maybe in TKEM, but who knows I'm trying to decipher it all. At this point, I wouldn't put JTE and LG having a kid and that kid traveling back to past to change things hahaha. I mean it happened in this show called the "Flash" where the Flash's daughter changes the past in order to change her father's future. Also in the "Flash", the guy Barry Allen got struck by lightning haha and thats how he gain his speed powers. So who knows what the whole lighting going in TKEM is suppose to mean. Maybe the Yo-Yo kid is the Sky/Thunder Deity in many Korean tales and thats why it thunders and LG/LR's scars light up haha. 

[Keikokoko]

18 minutes ago, gwin said:

KDrama in general is just not as popular in the US. I don't think I've seen any KDrama make the top 10 list of most watched in the US this year, not even the behemoth that was CLOY.

And I agree that the reason for this is that many Americans still are averse to watching films and movies with subtitles.  Bong Joon Ho (Parasite director) commented on this many times during his various acceptance speeches during Parasite's awards run.

 

US is simply a too competitive market with a lot of big budget production TV series and films. Shows like Crown, House of Cards, Mad Man, or new ones Ozark, Lucifer and so on are much more exciting and familiar to US viewers.  Asian dramas are hard to compete in scale, other than subtitle issue. That's the reality. However with Netflix getting more content from different parts of world, viewers' taste is gradually changing for sure. 

 

PS. Admin, if this is off topic, please kindly delete. 

[mychoiyoung]

Wish the TKEM special was subbed

[Heretorant]

@vangsweetie637 @CallieP I’m wondering if we see different things on our Netflix account. I clearly saw The King on the popular list a couple of times. I have a screenshot but don’t know how to upload it. Oddly, I don’t see Heirs trending and neither do I see the king under Netflix Originals . Regardless, I wish it would perform better in the US but as long as it’s top 10 in over 14 countries, and top 20 worldwide, I can’t complain  
 

[syntyche]

WDH IG update

 

I got him a license instead.

 

 

[mrsj3n]

Some random thoughts before I catch up on what I missed:

 

1) I don't think LR sent the newspaper articles of ROK to lady PM. I mean if LR wants to bring the pregnant lady over to KOC to replace the rich one, why would he send the newspaper to lady PM to pique her interest?

 

2) Luna is JTE's doppelganger. Why do you guys think she is the past / future self? I mean most characters have doppelganger so why not JTE?

 

3) Why can't JTE be the Queen of KOC? LG can pretty much declare it. I'm sure it's pretty modern era anyway. Lol

 

4) Don't you guys sleep?? Overnight.. more than 10 pages for me to catch up. Omg.

Lol

[MairaA]

@SweetButters I've edited the post to include the spoiler pic, everyone head over at your own risk! LOL Unless you've already seen that picture, you should be fine.. when I first saw it, and till now I've got no clue on how to put together the pieces, my brain just goes ????? WHYYY

[lyrically aesthetic]

[blobbityblobbityblob]

24 minutes ago, mrsj3n said:

Some random thoughts before I catch up on what I missed:

 

1) I don't think LR sent the newspaper articles of ROK to lady PM. I mean if LR wants to bring the pregnant lady over to KOC to replace the rich one, why would he send the newspaper to lady PM to pique her interest?

 

2) Luna is JTE's doppelganger. Why do you guys think she is the past / future self? I mean most characters have doppelganger so why not JTE?

 

3) Why can't JTE be the Queen of KOC? LG can pretty much declare it. I'm sure it's pretty modern era anyway. Lol

 

4) Don't you guys sleep?? Overnight.. more than 10 pages for me to catch up. Omg.

Lol

2) Yeah, I agree with you. I think the past/future self thing is an interesting twist but I don't think they'd go that path since it'll be kind of complicating an already complicated plot. And if Luna is JTE's past/future self in another timeline then there'll be questions about how come when JY/the police officer in Corea ran the fingerprints of JTE, only Luna's appeared, and not JTE's actual doppelganger (since each character has 2 selves - one in Korea, and one in Corea), so by right if the past/future self thing is true, there should be 3 "JTEs" - JTE, Luna, and JTE doppelganger in Corea. But since only Luna's appeared, I really do think Luna is just a normal doppelganger, and is not JTE being stuck after going through  alternate timeline.

That means ep 11 is likely to happen to the present day JTE. Will JTE die at the end? I hope not, and I think not (pls KES ahhh), because Luna has cancer with only 3 months to live, so if both versions of JTE (original + doppelganger Luna) die, then it'll go against the rule of the universe brought up by NR where one doppelganger always dies. (oof what will happen to ES and JY then :L )

 

3) JTE doesn't have an actual identity in Corea other than Luna's... and Luna is an infamous criminal... So I think it'll be really hard to explain why the King is marrying a criminal. And there's no way he's going to reveal that there are parallel worlds.

 

[gwin]

1 hour ago, SweetButters said:

 

 

@gwin See like I thought how lightning was needed for time travel in both Back to the Future and maybe in TKEM, but who knows I'm trying to decipher it all. At this point, I wouldn't put JTE and LG having a kid and that kid traveling back to past to change things hahaha. I mean it happened in this show called the "Flash" where the Flash's daughter changes the past in order to change her father's future. Also in the "Flash", the guy Barry Allen got struck by lightning haha and thats how he gain his speed powers. So who knows what the whole lighting going in TKEM is suppose to mean. Maybe the Yo-Yo kid is the Sky/Thunder Deity in many Korean tales and thats why it thunders and LG/LR's scars light up haha. 

 

In BTTF, you need a high amount of electricity to make the time machine work. In 1985, they used plutonium. Since plutonium did not yet exist in 1955, they had to use lightning to generate that amount of power to make the time machine work again in 1955.

 

The reason why I  think the BTTF phone case is just an easter egg is because the time travel in BTTF appears to be different from how it will be used (I think) in TKEM:

 

1.  Marty's friend Doc Brown dies of a shootout in 1985.

2.  Marty goes back in time to 1955

3.  Marty gives Doc Brown a note in 1955, to warn him of the exact date place and time Doc Brown will die in 1985.

4.  Because of the note from Marty, Doc Brown wears a bulletproof vest on that date he's supposed to die in 1985.  Although the shootout still happens, Doc Brown lives because of the bulletproof vest

 

How do you think something similar to the above can be used in TKEM?

 

[Edgar Pordwed]

 

On 5/16/2020 at 8:14 PM, bebebisous33 said:

 

Spoiler

 

The world in numbers: science versus belief in The King: Eternal Monarch

Be prepared because this is a very long analysis!

 

 

In one of my past analyses, I had already pointed out that our hero Lee Gon is first a mathematician and physician before a king hence he loves the book “Alice in Wonderland” written by the famous mathematician Lewis Carroll. But if you pay attention to Lee Gon’s world, you will actually notice his obsession for these sciences.

 

episode 3

Notice that the walls of his study are actually blackboards full of mathematical and physical formulas. There are not just blackboards full of equations and physics formulas next to his desk but also on different floors. We even learn that he sometimes disappeared in his study for research. This reveals that for Lee Gon, the world can only be explained with math and physics. His head is full of Natural Sciences hence when Jeong Tae Eul mentions MSD (Mixing, Shaking and Drinking), he thinks, she is speaking about Most Significant Digit. His obsession and fixation is also reinforced in another taking.

 

Here the windows of his suite are covered again with formulas.

In Republic of Korea, he doesn’t even abandon his old habit, although it is a new and foreign world. Sure, we could say that when he discovered the existence of the parallel world, he needed science to reassure himself and understand how this could even exist. He needed reason and logic in order not to become crazy. The more rational and logical he was, the more he was perceived by Jeong Tae Eul and the others as weird and crazy. No one could believe him, although he tried to explain this with Einstein and Quantum mechanics Theory. And now you can perceive the dilemma in this story. This is about the conflict between belief and faith against sciences (math and physics). Even theories from Sciences can be rejected by people, although it is proven scientifically. I could mention Global warming or Jeong Tae Eul who keeps denying that Earth is round, as she has never seen it with her own eyes.

And this dilemma (belief versus Sciences) is even underlined in the love confession of our king. Striking is that Lee Gon is using Math to express his feelings. Since Math are considered as a rational and logical science, it actually contrasts with the concept of love as the latter can not be scientifically measured. Furthermore, we shouldn’t forget the famous quote from the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (17th Century):

”The heart has its reasons that reason knows not.”

(Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point)

As you can observe, love has nothing to do with logic and rationale… yet Lee Gon is desperately attempting to rationalize his feelings. First, when he asked her to be his queen, he added that she had just become the reason why he should stay in her world. Striking is that Lee Gon connects love with reason all the time. It is clear that he wants to marry her out of love, nevertheless he is rationalizing his decisions. When Jeong Tae Eul was explaining that thanks to the DNA analysis he could find his family, the king associated “family” to his family status (single) and led him to the proposal. As a family member, his future wife, she would be allowed to know his name and his origins. Therefore in this scene prior to the love confession, the viewer sense that Lee Gon is extremely rational and is not led by a huge passion. However, this is actually a mistake to underestimate Lee Gon’s burning passion for Jeong Tae Eul (JTE), despise his calm manners and rational words.

In fact, his love confession proves the exact opposite. Since he has been obsessed with math, he can only describe his own feelings with mathematical formulas. The more math he is using, the deeper his feelings are for her. As you can see, the love confession gives us a good insight about Lee Gon’s personality hence we need to analyze his little speech.

“Among real numbers, zero is my favorite. You have the nature of that number. A zero means there is nothing but it’s actually a number of absolute power. It can nullify any number or take everything away from it. What makes money powerful is not the number at the front but the number of zeros behind it. A number trapped in a root symbol can escape under only 2 circumstances. They need to have a square root or meet the powerful number, zero. You’re standing in front of the root symbol. I’m trapped in. Do you believe me?”

Striking is that just like JTE is a number, Lee Gon considers himself as a number too. While she is the powerful zero, he is one (1). In this love confession, he didn’t mention the number one but he revealed it much later, when they were going through the passage between the two worlds.

 

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This taking happens in Monarchy of Corea

 

episode 3 :The bank note has been analyzed and confirmed as real.

 

episode 5: JTE keeps calling the palace as she has not enough money to travel back to Busan

 

 

 

 

episode 4

 

 

He is trying to observe the phenomenon scientifically. He has no rational explanation and his unique watch can not even resist the phenomenon. But the problem is that he can not prove this phenomenon to Jo Young and Jeong Tae Eul. Both couldn’t feel or see it. Therefore he uses a note in order to prove the reality to Jo Young. When they are in the passage, he explicates that he has already determined that time flows differently here. One minute in the passage means 1 hour in her world or his world. Nonetheless we can feel a certain despair from him: “There is no air, no wind and no light”. With his knowledge and as a scientist, he fails to explain this strange world. The red balloon doesn’t move or disappear… every physical law he knows can not be applied here. Simultaneously he is not admitting that magic exists which he would see as the contradiction to his own belief. That’s why he doesn’t believe that the seeds can grow in this strange world: no light, no air, no water… He has no hope, unlike Jeong Tae Eul. She hopes that the plant will grow that’s why she is definitely deaf to his statement.

Then when he is looking at the autopsy report of his uncle, he is using math and ratio again in order to tell his friend that he thinks that his uncle is alive.

“Sometimes, symbols of mathematics or science are useful when understanding a certain phenomenon. For example, the + sign doesn’t have a meaning itself, since it’s a symbol that means adding something.”

For him, the body is a symbol that Lee Rim used. He is definitely seeking for a logical and rational explanation as his intuition is telling that Lee Rim is not dead. And the more he digs around his uncle, the more desperate he is to prove that every strange phenomenon has a reasonable and logical explication. The following scene from the episode 9 represents the climax of this denial that god or magic could exist:

 

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episode 4

 

episode 4

 

of the burns, you will notice that it looks like “streams” and “mountains” as the streams have relief. This is an illustration of the prayer: “As the mountains and streams form, lightning strikes”. And the special sword is definitely the ultimate weapon against Lee Rim and the flute. Why? The former owner of the flute was the Dragon King of the East Sea. There is a relation between the “mountains/streams” and the “Dragon/Sea”. All streams lead to the sea and Dragons are often associated to mountain (many different fairy tales or e. g. The Hobbit). Like I had mentioned in one of my former analyses, Lee Rim took the words from the Memorabilia too literally. He is a fundamentalist and never questions the authenticity of these words. Since he doesn’t age, he believes that it is connected to the Manpasikjeok, whereas Lee Gon has already figured it out scientifically: it is related to the world between his world (1) and her world (0). At the end, Lee Gon will become a supporter of Blaise Pascal. A leap of faith is possible, even for mathematicians. There is no real contradiction in reality. A scientist can be a believer and the words from the sword will become a prayer again.

Please feel free to comment. Please have faith that this is going a happy ending!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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episode 4

 

episode 4

 

 

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Thank you for tagging me Bebebisous33! You have terrific observation skills as you've caught so many numbers from so many scenes. Your take on Lee Gon's journey to believing in the legend and the powers of the flute and sword while attempting to explain it scientifically is really interesting and here's hoping his knowledge comes to use in restoring balance and defeat his Uncle. Hoping for a happy ending too! Also thanks for sharing about Blaise Pascal's quotes and belief in God.

[mamabear]

17 minutes ago, Edgar Pordwed said:

A scientist can be a believer and the words from the sword will become a prayer again.

Please feel free to comment. Please have faith that this is going a happy ending!

Thanks for always tagging me @bebebisous33! I always love reading your theories and explanation because you always have a point, and it helps in making me understand each episode more. Looking forward to more of this for the last 6 episodes