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

[koreaboooo]

1 minute ago, AgentQuake said:

makes you wonder how often stuff like this happens

i mean, three bloodbaths in one night and all the public cares about is stalking the new queen

 

I think the public only know about the 1 bloodbath with their new queen. The bookstore one seemed more done in secret, behind the scenes. The government officials who seemed too tune in on the new queen, might've think they can use her to take down the PM. They really dislike the PM. It'll be a surprise for them since JTE is "worse" than the PM, she'll rip them apart for all their crimes.  It'll be more of a surprise when they think their King is marrying a criminal and maybe try to take down the monarch that way. Power hungry officials might want to weaken the monarch for their gain.

[Umjicheok]

7 minutes ago, AgentQuake said:

girl was tryna disinfect herself ok

trying to get rid of COVID-19

oh god, they’re bringing COVID-19 over from south korea

this is why the balance yoyo boy is trying to shut the doorway

I wanted to click on 'insightful' just for fun but thought you all would think I was serious

[Heretorant]

TKEM nation: How many plot twists can you give us?

Writer Kim: Yes.

 

Let’s give it up to this show for having the most unpredictable storyline! And let’s take a moment to appreciate how amazing it is. Episodes 8-12 have been nothing short of epic and mind blowing! 
 

I feel bad for those who are not watching or those who refuse to recognize its beauty. 
 

Episode 12 did it again. It was absolutely phenomenal, chilling, heart breaking, and somewhat scandalous. It hits me right in the feels! In every way possible! 

[mychoiyoung]

2 hours ago, 1ouise said:

But, just to correct the record, there have been some on this thread who have suspected that Lady Noh is "in the know

 

Yeah, some of us pointed out that intriguing line OkNam said waaaaaay back in episode 1: when kid JY was approaching kid LG during the formal mourning ceremony and the guy beside OkNam commented: "He is not moving an inch. He is not supposed to talk to the King like that". To which OkNam replied: "It's all part of a plan"

 

What plan? And what exactly is JY's role in that plan? Is that why JY is so protective of The King that he talked to TE about their almost impossible situation? (e.g. Will you leave all of this behind? Can you be Queen? Can you protect the 2 worlds, forever?). Is JY concern about LG's happiness based on OkNam's secret?

 

Next & biggest puzzler was the conversation between LG & OkNam upon returning  - that she KNOWS where he has been going.

 

My best guess back then was that she used the flute during the time she kept the whip & ID for kid LG. But not as far back as 1950's!

[CallieP]

32 minutes ago, madmad min said:

CallieP PM Koo CROSSED OVER from ROK to KOC that is why Time again Stopped (Basic Rule, time stops when someone crosses over), but this time it did for 1.2 hours like @mychoiyoungmentioned.

I thought time stops only when LR crosses. Does he have to accompany all of them back and forth?  Then it should be way more than 4 times. There are so many of his henchmen coming to and from SK to ROC and back. 

[cpt_falcon]

41 minutes ago, Heretorant said:

Chingu, I’m as lost as you. 
 

Can we settle it once and for all?

 

THE ONE WHO MADE OUT WITH LEE GON IS, WITHOUT A DOUBT, JTE! 
 

No one can ruin that kiss for me. Not today! Not ever! 
 

 

 This could add fuel to that, but with a lot of the mirroring going on between the doppelgangers (though not all of them), but I believe JTE is a character tied to life, resurrection and future.  The future Queen of Corea (obviously that could be LG's wishful thinking, but that's certainly not the only Queen reference tied to JTE).  JTE is the one to plant the magical flowers (that are connected to the three worlds), flowers that will almost certainly bloom as they've got Chekov's Gun written all over them.  JTE who's a police officer because she chose to be brave (when not everyone can be) and defends those that can't defend themselves, including herself, regardless of the odds.  She preserves life and fights for life.  It gives LG, who just lost a close family member, a moment of levity and hope that with the loss he experienced, there's hope towards life striving on.  Losing one relative, he very likely gains another (in JTE, his future wife?).  LG kissing her is the promise of a vibrant future and a life together and lives they create together (if he marries her, they almost certainly secure the KoC royal legacy and she'd also likely be the mother of his future heirs.... and future travelers?  As she herself is also a traveler/his equal).

While Luna represents the opposite imo.  She's dying from a terminal illness.  She's a thief, so can only steal from others and only able to find shortcuts to whatever goals. Even her name is stolen from a cat, she has no roots, no origin.  She can't or won't go on that journey herself to achieve what she wants.  In her case, maybe more can't due to her illness.  Her kiss can only represent goodbye.  Some brief respite stolen and a mimicry of what, for example, LG/JTE have, but never meant to truly be hers and not wholly tangible or real.

[ms_inquiry]

Such a great episode 

 

Will make a post about what I thought and about where I think things are going. First I wanna theorize about the lightening and the painful scars though.

 

Also I just want to give a shoutout to @bebebisous33 for being right about the PM turning evil and for your brilliant post analyzing her and why she would turn evil! I love reading your different theories of what's going on. Such a dark move of the PM to side with LL, did she even kill her doppelganger?

 

1 hour ago, bebebisous33 said:

But SJ's doppelganger died a natural death... in my opinion, it only happens if the doppelganger was killed with the intention to erase the identity/switch the identity. For LJH, he was killed by his uncle... to ensure that the doppelganger wouldn't become a source of thread for him. When they were killed, the people responsible for their death knew about the existence of the parallel world.

@mychoiyoung Thanks for the info.

 

I agree with most of this and I think:

 

The lightning scars, balance and God

I believe that it is the doppelgangers of those that have been murdered by world crossers that are experiencing the scars. However isn't that unfair, as people have pointed out (LG importantly didn't kill his doppelganger)? So how does that make sense? Because their deaths have all upset the balance of the universes, which is what is felt by their living doppelganger - no matter if they are responsible or not. It is not only the why but also the what behind the painful scars. We have seen that the doppelgangers are somewhat connected, we were reminded of this fact through Na-ri's doppelganger in this episode. 

 

SJ replaced a dead child, and I suspect Lady Noh was able to go to the Kingdom because she replaced a dead important royal member. So there is only meant to be absolutely one of these characters alive across the two universes - this is balanced. But LG's doppelganger's, the henchmen, (probably) the PM's etc. were killed by people of the other world - upsetting the balance. Since their doppelganger's are meant to be alive. It is not about there being balance in such a way that there should always be two living doppelgangers, nor that they must be in the right world: It is about the balance that, as we have been told through LG and his father, only God has the right to determine (ep 1 and ep 8 I think?). Murder is a huge sin and I don't think it is a coincidence that LG revealed in this episode that his mother was Catholic nor the fact that the Church is one of the few - if not only - building in the same spot across the universes.

 

[mrsj3n]

36 minutes ago, koreaboooo said:

 

I think JTE got lucky when she found a gun on one of his men. Rare drop if anyone games. 

Good thing LR doesn't fund his men well on weapons. Even at the bookstore raid, they seem to run against the SWAT team empty handed.

 

Actually no. Hmmm... I think the Royal Guards pulled out their gun too and they did fire if I remember correctly. 

 

Actually... I'm thinking..

 

Those with lightning scars..

Could it be because they had held the flute by crossing over hence the scar?

It's like a mark on those who touched it?

I mean.. if LR did duplicate the "keys" and his minions each used the umbrella to cross over at ease.. (as they can't expect the big boss to do the heavy lifting right?), this could explain why so many of LR's minions has the mark too.

 

So that is why JTE, JY, ES, SJ do not have the mark because they were riding on with LG who is the holder of the key?

 

Make sense no?

 

Same goes for Lady Noh. Someone brought her over hence she did not cross over by touching the flute.

So who is that someone?!

 

@bebebisous33 what's your take on this?

Could this also be considered as a punishment/sacrifice for using the flute?

 

@scrawford Nope. The world is not flat... 

 

[AgentQuake]

19 minutes ago, CallieP said:

So what you are saying that those who are there with evil intentions get hit by lightning because they deserve to be hit by lightning. Seems like you are on to something. Why is LG the exception? Why is he punished? Calling him to defeat evil, she does not have to make him feel pain though.

@AgentQuakeYou stated LG wants to disrupt the balance for falling for a person in another world , thus he deserves to be punished. JTE loves LG too so she is also disrupting the balance...

I don’t knooooow it hurts my head too much  

 

 

[mychoiyoung]

2 hours ago, plappi said:

6 hours ago, plappi said:

@bebebisous33 my dear, I will die without your explanation )))

There are 8 people in my translation team; for three hours we tried to find sequence or regularity of calculations, but we didn't understand. Is this a script bug? Have you tried to count?

@bebebisous33 

I seem to be good friends with mathematics, but apparently too distracted by the translation.

11-13-17-19-23-29-31-37-41-43-47-53-?-61-67...
The whole regularity is a table of primes. 

 

@plappi Are you trying to figure out what LG is calculating on the board?  Yes it is about prime numbers and its use on computing for the lengthening frozen time.  See the table below:  This is what LG meant when he said "The amount of frozen time is multiplying by the square root of the prime number. At this rate, time will stop the whole day the 62nd time it happens..."

 

If we go back to the later portion of the epi 12, the board was again shown where LG marked, 4,489 (see 1st yellow highlight). My assumption is that he marked that to anticipate the next instance time will freeze. Time froze when they were at the church when the priest was taking their photo.  Time stopped for LG for 1.2 hours.  Imagine that... really sad...

 

[1ouise]

41 minutes ago, madmad min said:

Basic Rule, time stops when someone crosses over

 

We're up to the 20th prime number, but haven't there been more than 20 crossings??

 

 

 

[ms_inquiry]

12 hours ago, AgentQuake said:

I don’t knooooow it hurts my head too much  

 

 

@Heretorant

 

I posted a theory of why some people are experiencing the scars and some not. I think I might be somewhat right . I have attached the gist of it below 

 

The lightning scars, balance and God

I believe that it is the doppelgangers of those that have been murdered by world crossers that are experiencing the scars. However isn't that unfair, as people have pointed out (LG importantly didn't kill his doppelganger)? So how does that make sense? Because their deaths have all upset the balance of the universes, which is what is felt by their living doppelganger - no matter if they are responsible or not. It is not only the why but also the what behind the painful scars. We have seen that the doppelgangers are somewhat connected, we were reminded of this fact through Na-ri's doppelganger in this episode. 

 

SJ replaced a dead child, and I suspect Lady Noh was able to go to the Kingdom because she replaced a dead important royal member. So there is only meant to be absolutely one of these characters alive across the two universes - this is balanced. But LG's doppelganger's, the henchmen, (probably) the PM's etc. were killed by people of the other world - upsetting the balance - since their doppelgangers are meant to be alive. It is not about there being balance in such a way that there should always be two living doppelgangers, nor that they must be in the right world: It is about the balance that, as we have been told through LG and his father, only God has the right to determine (ep 1 and ep 8 I think?). Murder is a huge sin and I don't think it is a coincidence that LG revealed in this episode that his mother was Catholic nor the fact that the Church is one of the few - if not only - building in the same spot across the universes.

 

Edit: Also as a Scandinavian I feel I should point out that lightning was for a long time believed to be a "weapon of God", like in the case of Thor for the Vikings, but also in other faiths such as the Christian faith. When lightning strikes it causes the imbalance that the ungodly actions have caused to be revealed, if one wants to give it a very religious interpretation. 

[plappi]

2 minutes ago, mychoiyoung said:

 

@plappi Are you trying to figure out what LG is calculating on the board?  Yes it is about prime numbers and its use on computing for the lengthening frozen time.  See the table below:  This is what LG meant when he said "The amount of frozen time is multiplying by the square root of the prime number. At this rate, time will stop the whole day the 62nd time it happens..."

 

If we go back to the later portion of the epi 12, the board was again shown where LG marked, 4,489 (see 1st yellow highlight). My assumption is that he marked that to anticipate the next instance time will freeze. Time froze when they were at the church when the priest was taking their photo.  Time stopped for LG for 1.2 hours.  Imagine that... really sad...

 

 

 

I figured out the numbers a long time ago, thanks ))

[koreaboooo]

4 minutes ago, mrsj3n said:

 

Actually no. Hmmm... I think the Royal Guards pulled out their gun too and they did fire if I remember correctly. 

 

 

No to what? I was saying LR's men doesn't have good weapons since they were all empty handed during the bookstore raid. LG's men had the guns but LR's men were so unguarded. We can tell they were unguarded during the capture of JTE too. They just use blunt weapons. None of them have guns, but somehow JTE was able to take a gun from one of his men... so that gun she was able to obtain is a considered a rare drop. The Royal Guards work for LG not LR so they have guns, but I was referring to LR's men not using guns. 

[briseis]

Do you even know what “scandalous” means?

Spoiler

 

[mrsj3n]

3 minutes ago, koreaboooo said:

 

No to what? I was saying LR's men doesn't have good weapons since they were all empty handed during the bookstore raid. LG's men had the guns but LR's men were so unguarded. We can tell they were unguarded during the capture of JTE too. They just use blunt weapons. None of them have guns, but somehow JTE was able to take a gun from one of his men... so that gun she was able to obtain is a considered a rare drop. The Royal Guards work for LG not LR so they have guns, but I was referring to LR's men not using guns. 

 

Oh my bad. I thought you meant the Royal Guards. Sorry!

 

I must be sleepy. Lol

 

@briseis if they didn't pan out and show us to the door... that will really be scandalous!!

But yes.. that kiss... gotta love it! 

[plappi]

51 minutes ago, madmad min said:

@CallieP PM Koo CROSSED OVER from ROK to KOC that is why Time again Stopped (Basic Rule, time stops when someone crosses over), but this time it did for 1.2 hours like @mychoiyoungmentioned.

 

Ji-Hoon was murdered , not natural death Hence LG gets the scar from what I understood likewise LR's right hand man from ROK was Murdered by LG's Royal Guards he was not killed by his KOC Doppleganger , so the live doppleganger (KOC ONE WHO now is in ROK with LR) is getting thE scar with thunder.

At first we discussed that a scar is a punishment, a retribution. It turns out that the scars of those whose doubles just were killed and it does not matter who killed.

[Kdramatic]

Do you guys think LL broke the flute into many pieces? When Luna went into his apartment, there were multiple umbrellas in the umbrella stand.

 

I guess this would allow whoever he wants to go to and from each world without him actually accompanying them every time.

 

It will also make it harder for LG if there are various pieces he has to find to hold the complete flute.

 

[mychoiyoung]

3 hours ago, LorenHaze said:

but if I may be so bold to add that while domestic ratings are desired, international success, is a broader audience that I’m certain the entertainment industry strives for. So in that respect, TKEM is a winner. 

 

I have never commented on the ratings issue, probably because am not Korean & I maintain that as long as I enjoy a show., that's what's more important. 

 

However, the domestic reception is indeed puzzling.  And right now, am just pissed off that domestically, there is not enough PR to trumpet the show's international success. I don't get that from the SK media & I have been checking the news.  What I see are the negative write ups about the TV ratings. Isn't the success of this drama or any kdrama for that matter, a success for SK entertainment as well? I do not understand the hate.  Is it jealousy with KES' success? LMH's?  Is it because it is such a hyped-up project? Cos most of the negative comments are targeted at these two...

 

My 1st & last comment about this topic.

[AgentQuake]

And remember too that LR left one of the umbrellas for years with the Prime Minister’s mother.

 

Back to the time loop concept, maybe each time they loop, LR brings back another umbrella to give to his henchmen?  What if Lee Rim is the one who is ALWAYS unsuccessful?  Or LR initiates the time travel and LG chases him back?