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

[lyrically aesthetic]

 

 

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

[4evrkdrama]

The king eternal monarch was indeed a memorable drama

No matter how much I say 

but still my heart keeps on asking me to say it again 

 Each and every actors in this drama had their own charms and 

shined in their own niches that made the ”scenery “ more beautiful and bright !

 

Thought of placing KES from A to Z 

but i gotta take back my words !

she is one of the “zero” for me ! 
How beautifully she unfolded things straight in ep 16 ! 
Each scenes were breathtaking and warming ! 
And park won sang’s ( chief park -head inspector ....bad that i saw him with eyes of suspicion) his character was so warm ! 
 

And KES’s dramas never fail to engrave certain of the characters dialogues in my heart ! This drama did it too !

 

“I am the king of kingdom of Corea, and my name, that can’t be called, is Lee Gon”.

 

“It took me a long time to realise this. When its fate there are no coincidences. Your fate is determined by the choices you make, but there are times when your fate chooses you”

 

“there will come a moment when it seems i have disappeared. I don’t want you to worry too much if that happens. It just means I am walking through the frozen moments in time”

 

”you can never know what will happen in life.But if there is a place you want to reach, even if your life maybe at risk, that is fate. The footsteps you take by risking your whole life is what’s fate !

 

“Your choices determines your destiny but no one gets to choose their parents.

so change this ‘choice’ of your’s , for the choice you make will determine ‘this boy’s’ fate. “
 

 

“I wish to be able to love tirelessly “

 

 

I thank every “monarchs” for making this thread bright, positive, friendly, naughty and warm. 
Wish to meet you all with a new drama.

Stay positive stay safe ! 
Gonna miss everything about this drama including monarchs !

 

@syntyche your effort to tag all of us was indeed touching ! Thanks a-lot  !

 

[asul_03]

since most of the things i have to say have already been said by the other monarchs, let me just say, to everyone, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR EVERYTHING (theories, pictures and even the drawings). watching TKEM was so much better and understanding it was easier because of the interaction in this thread. i learned from the various theories contributed by the monarchs. it was a joy unlurking and sometimes joining the conversation of the monarchs although i was mostly lurking because i couldn't keep up with the LTE speed of the thread, which is actually not surprising as this is Soompi after all.

 

@vangsweetie637, i knew the green dumpster was on standby yesterday & i was so happy it was of no use after all.

 

@SweetButters, i will miss your legendary drawings.

 

monarchs, see you around.

[aidanelle]

2 hours ago, marshemell0ws said:

Did anyone understand the leaves part? The part where they found the Joseon period and TE was looking through the luggage asking LG why he brought leaves. I couldn't understand what he meant

 

Just in case they end up in this time period 

 

[Tangerinecultivator]

When we already prepared our fragile hearts anticipating an intense ending, it turned out to be so light and left us with good feelings. I am gonna rewatch this episode again and again!

 

Btw kinda relieved that Lady Noh didn’t turn out to be JTE 

[lyrically aesthetic]

CAN THE BTS COME ALREADY??? I WANNA SEE LEE MIN HO'S REACTION TO DIFFERENT TAE EULS HAHAHAHA

[aidanelle]

18 hours ago, lyrically aesthetic said:

CAN THE BTS COME ALREADY??? I WANNA SEE LEE MIN HO'S REACTION TO DIFFERENT TAE EULS HAHAHAHA

 

Especially his reaction to Jeong Tae Ra. He was holding his laughter in that scene  

Tae Ra Byte! Genius!

[blobbityblobbityblob]

5 minutes ago, lyrically aesthetic said:

CAN THE BTS COME ALREADY??? I WANNA SEE LEE MIN HO'S REACTION TO DIFFERENT TAE EULS HAHAHAHA

Especially jung tae ra!! hahahhaha 

[mychoiyoung]

2 hours ago, Joanna Alfson said:

His not a deity but his the flute. I never agreed with these theories but nobody also predicted the Yoyo kid being the flute with all these theories you won't find one of them that gets it right with the flute kid 

 

For me, being the flute is still tantamount to being a deity  such that being they possess supernatural powers, esp in the TKEM context.  I just couldn't appreciate Yoyo Kid being the bully. If it is to emphasize the initial ties that brought TE & SJ together like what @SweetButters proposed, I think there are more ingenious ways of showing that.  Perhaps I will find better context after I binge watch the whole series

[AgentQuake]

Good night everyone.  It’s our first Saturday morning for US fans that we get to sleep in and catch up on rest.  
 

I realize we had a Saturday off when the Contagion showing happened but if I recall right, we all raged about it for hours and didn’t believe it and woke up early anyways only to be disappointed and rage again.

 

Sleep tight, dream of Cousin getting his neck snapped by Jo Yeong, and the Security Room Inconsideration.

 

[vangsweetie637]

Guys..

 

so my sister tells me she is watching the last episode of TKEM.

 

Me: “You ain’t gonna understand anything if you didn’t even watch the drama.”

 

She ignores me and I hear the episode with sounds that goes on and off (because she is skipping scenes).

She keeps saying omg this, omg that. She reaches the ending in like 2 mins and tells me “This drama is way too complicated.”

This is me to her, again.. :

 

She then tells me “This drama is too hard to understand. Too complicated. Too complex.”

 

“I just told you earlier that if you didn’t watch the whole thing, you ain’t gonna understand shitzz.”

 

”Well, I understood nothing.”

 

Me:

 

 

 

Goodnight everyone!

 

 

[AnisNisa]

Ok I was rewatching episode 16 again and it struck me...where did they change into the appropriate attire to wherever that they are going? We see the in between portal with suitcases...but where do they change their clothes? Maybe that is what the leaves are for 

[mychoiyoung]

56 minutes ago, AgentQuake said:

lady noh was awfully excited about the inconsideration 

 

are we sure she isn’t a sleeper agent on this forum

 

OK I will confess. I am Lady Noh. See how I ship, eventually? And notice how grumpy I can be at times?  Am guessing am probably the oldest also in this forum.  We are also of the same height bahahahahahaha

[AgentQuake]

6 minutes ago, AnisNisa said:

Ok I was rewatching episode 16 again and it struck me...where did they change into the appropriate attire to wherever that they are going? We see the in between portal with suitcases...but where do they change their clothes? Maybe that is what the leaves are for 

Nudie beach

 

[mychoiyoung]

8 hours ago, Dramanoona said:

Did LG go back in time again to save JY or was it the same timeline and he ran back to the palace to get JY medical help (so in fact JY was not dead) ?

 

Same timeline. They never left the palace grounds.  JY had the vest.  Check the scene where he had bullet holes on his back - no blood.  So he was not dead at all. So it was easy for LG to bring JY to the present time 2020

[SCSfanz]

there was this character i didn't get, Chief park's wife. Was she ever in the drama? What role did she play? and who were the kids they were visiting?  *confused*

[AgentQuake]

Wow I just read through some of my old theories that I posted on here

 

I AM SOOOOO DUMB HAHAHAHA

 

LITERALLY GOT NOTHING RIGHT

 

except the vacations 

[heroonthebeach]

What a sweet finale for the show! It was a largely satisfying finale with a good balance of intense moments and funny moments. Yes there are aspects of the show I felt didn’t work so well, but it was definitely one of the most original and interesting shows this year! Sharing more of my thoughts here:
 

https://kdramaanalysis.com/2020/06/13/the-king-eternal-monarch-finale-review/

[Wanderer062287]

Finally finished backtracking! Extra long post ahead again 

 

But first of all, I would like to say thanks to @syntyche and everyone in this forum. Tbh I first came across this forum as a lurker because I had so many questions (particularly in the first episodes) and no one to talk to about the drama, but the more I read about your thoughts the more I got inspired to join in on the interaction as well. I also had a very hard time during the first episodes because of all the criticism various article writers were writing about the drama, coupled with bashers everywhere, toxic comment sections, and the lower-than-expected ratings, so coming across this forum is really a gem for me. This is the first time ever that I joined a forum about a TV show/movie that I watched, and I must say with everything that has happened in my 2020 so far, this is definitely one of the highlights of my year 

 

I think I have also mentioned this before, but I'm really thankful that I got to watch this with all of you and theorize endlessly while waiting for the next episode week after week, because it made me become more invested and connected with the drama and with people who love it the same way that I do. I'm sure binge-watchers will still enjoy it, but they would never get to experience the level of anticipation and the torture of theorizing and having to wait for weeks just to find out how much of a clown we were hahaha. All in all I just want to say THANK YOU. This drama became even more meaningful to me because of you guys. 

 

Now on to my clownery thoughts hahahaa

 

12 hours ago, SweetButters said:

After rewatching the episode again, this is what I concluded:

 

1) The whole flash of their old hand holding each others' wasn't suppose to in my mind signify that they weren't going to get married, rather it symbolized they would love each other forever. They probably did end up getting married and her being Queen, but we just didn't get to see that lol. We as the viewers just got a small glimpse of a moment. The moments after that we probably may never get to see, but one thing that resonates throughout it all is that their love for each other never dies and will continue to persist regardless of whatever happens next. 

 

It's like that saying "where there is a will, there is a way". Therefore, I am sure LG would have found a way to have JTE to be Queen in KOC and JTE would have found a way to balance her career in ROK or heck maybe she would bring her dad over to ROK and let him be the part time babysitter for their child lol.

 

2) JY and ES will meet again! All of ES dreams did come true if you think about, even in the reset he completed his 64th dream of getting a license. Therefore, he will complete his 65th dream of meeting JY again lol.

 

I love love love this interpretation! I would like to believe that yes we ended with that very very short glimpse of their old hands together, but that is merely to assure us that they would end up together forever. That doesn't mean though that our other dreams - TE getting an identity in KoC while still maintaining her life in RoK, them getting married and TE becoming Queen, them having kids, etc - would not/did not happen: we just didn't see them happen anymore. But hey at least we're all free to come up with our own versions of their life together! 

 

2 hours ago, SweetButters said:

Ohhhhh I would have never gotten that!! All I saw was JY holding a piece of paper and getting angry haha!! Wait did JY cuss? Maybe Netflix translated that scene wrong lol.

 

2 hours ago, koreaboooo said:

Yupp, he cursed at the King.

 

I don't think he really cursed haha I thought JTE was just messing with LG with the 'lip-reading' 

 

2 hours ago, SweetButters said:

Yea in the end, the whole JY and LG bromance just was so superficial not really satisfying. Hence why if there was a scene to be cut, it should have been Chief Park's scene. 

 

Ohh I would have to disagree a bit with this huhu JY has always been there for LG ever since and even up to his ultimate fight, he came along with him with absolutely no hesitations (despite LG giving him orders as a King to stay outside of Chonjyeongo or something haha). Because of this both of them also have memories from their original timeline, making their bond stronger than they can have with anyone else.

 

But I agree with your second statement HAHAHAHA CHIEF PARK I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND YOU

 

11 hours ago, ms_inquiry said:

I suspect though that the drama ran out of time to tell its story, I think starting from around ep 14 especially.

 

I wonder - is it really possible for writers to run out of time in writing dramas? Cos I've always thought before a script is approved and begins to be produced it is already completed from beginning to end. So do they change the script while in the middle of production? What about the actors/staff who agreed to work on the drama because of the original script?

 

10 hours ago, ck1Oz said:

Corean Lee Gon cannot have a public wedding when there are 2 women in Corea who looks the same. Either way I can't work out how the debt- ridden Corean mother- who was a descendant of a royal concubine- ended destitute and suicidal then he ended up a police officer. Ok he can be the police but where did I miss the romance part with the Corean Go Seo- what'shername?

 

Re: LG and JTE not getting married nor having kids - @SweetButters has a wonderful theory about this. It's here in the first part of my post 

 

Corean mother - are you referring to Corea SJ's mom who was supposed to commit suicide with her son? In our original timeline she didn't have a good lineage - LL just made it appear that way so she can work in the palace. In this altered timeline though, Prince Buyeong helped them. Maybe she still ended up working in the palace as the tea lady (Prince Buyeong invited her to tea after that encounter). Corea SJ grew up to become a police officer because he and his mom lived a nice life thanks to PB's help. Corea SJ and Luna's love story was not shown anymore, but I think we can infer from the scenes that we got - they grew up to be police officers and became workmates, and from there the love story could have developed (it also seems like they have always been meant to be together - in the original timeline, SJ (our Corea SJ) loved JTE dearly, and when Luna first saw SJ, she kissed him).

 

10 hours ago, ck1Oz said:

I meant the King in Korea as in Lee Gon's father in South Korea. He was originally murdered by LR when he time travelled. Not JiHun; I meant the mother mentioned someone died.

 

In our reset timeline JiHun's dad was still murdered by someone else somehow, but it wasn't Lee Lim. It could have really been his time to die in the hands of someone else. 

 

10 hours ago, ck1Oz said:

I need to find someone to tell me which minute in ep 16 where it was shown that SJ was with Luna- forgot her new name I was half asleep- I only noticed the report of his name and rank with Lee Gon. Oh now I remember he met her for her birthday? But that was confusing to me. Him as a chaebol so he wasn't in a car crash so wasn't comatose in Korea? Then he as a police so he grew up. I am very confused about Sin Jae. Who and which Sin Jae did I see in episode 16? And the birthday moment was in Corea? Like what was Corean Luna's job? Since the Taesung bookstore was shown so it was in Busan.

 

It was in the scene that showed the May 2022 CCTV footage that LG saw in Yeong's laptop. You can see the scene at 51:50 of episode 16.

 

For the sake of clarity let's refer to Corea SJ by his real name - Hyeon Min. SJ as a chaebol is in the Republic of Korea. Hyeon-Min grew up to be a policeman. In episode 16 we saw RoK Shin Jae and KoC Hyeon Min. 

 

As I mentioned earlier, Luna grew up to be a policeman too, which is how she met Hyeon Min.

 

10 hours ago, ck1Oz said:

I will say it again. I read sci fic all the time. And the rules KSE put on for a 16 episode drama is darn obscure even by sci fic standard. Back and forth. Here and there. Unclear where the premise is meant to go. I have watched multiple world travel or split universes books and movies with less confusion in my brain.

 

I'm not so sure about this. A lot more scific are much more convoluted than this. Primer, 2001: A Space Odyssey, just to name a couple. TKEM is really convoluted in the middle, because that's where all the mysteries were introduced, but answers started to be uncovered from episode 13 onwards. Once the arcs were finished by episode 16 I can say it actually makes sense as a whole picture (unlike Primer which I still don't 100% understand until now lol). 

 

8 hours ago, Dramanoona said:

One thing I am not sure. Did LG go back in time again to save JY or was it the same timeline and he ran back to the palace to get JY medical help (so in fact JY was not dead) ?

 

It is the same timeline. He ran back to the palace to save him (he was wearing those wonderful bullet proof vests so he did not die) 

 

7 hours ago, SweetButters said:

So Luna was always suppose to have cancer and die early like that was her fate so I don't get why she's still alive at in 2022.

 

7 hours ago, SweetButters said:

her life as a whole was "better" because she got adopted by the PM's mom and experienced love from a parental figure

 

^This is actually what I was thinking too. In our original timeline by 2020 Luna was supposed to be dying already, but we saw her in 2022 in the reset timeline and she's still doing pretty good. I think her upbringing had something to do with this. She lived a relatively better and healthier life. Although I believe she is still bound to have cancer later in life. Maybe this is where other monarchs' theories in this thread will kick in - when Luna dies of cancer, they can introduce JTE in KoC as a long lost twin or sumth. This would be super tragic for Luna's family and Hyeon Min tho. I hope there is a way to avoid it 

 

7 hours ago, koreaboooo said:

Tyrant LG may never meet his JTE or he might later on. His lover might not even be a JTE doppelganger since we see Luna might end up with KHM.

 

Ahhhhhhhhh this part of your post was particularly mindblowing for me!!! This throws away my theory that when you're 'soulmates' you will always end up with one another even in different worlds. Cos I've been thinking about this parallel universe thing, and it just boggles me that we exist in different universes as we are, because that implies that our parents and our parents' parents and basically everyone in our lineage always, in a way, end up procreating with their spouses. But yes Luna ending up with Hyeon Min changes this and supports my original thoughts. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh (sorry just rambling haha)

 

6 hours ago, Alice Wonderland said:

I thought he should have the complete piece of the flute but yeah as I told you he still carries the half one like he always does.

 

Maybe the whole flute is in the whip? I have always thought that the whip now contains the whole flute hihi (would it fit? lol)

 

5 hours ago, AgentQuake said:

Actually I realize that in a way, Luna and PM got punished because they now have to deal with each other for all of eternity.  Or until one of them gets annoyed enough that they kill their sister.

 

Love this! Haha. I really loved these two tho. They looked like love-hate sisters who would do anything for the other.

 

4 hours ago, Killa92 said:

Haha the jail officer is the man who always help PM before right?  Lee Gon wardrobe person if I am not mistaken.

 

He was Secretary Kim, PM Koo's secretary. Loved his character! 

 

3 hours ago, AnisNisa said:

One thing that confuses me though, is Lee Se Jin the daughter of the traitor cousin?

 

2 hours ago, AgentQuake said:

Question though, is Sejin the daughter or granddaughter of Prince Buyeong?  Why did I feel like Sejin was his daughter, and the neck cracky cousin’s younger sister?

 

As far as I remember, Se Jin is Prince Buyeong's daughter; essentially that traitor cousin's sister  (Correct me monarchs if I am mistaken tho)

 

2 hours ago, AgentQuake said:

Didn’t they say that the PM gets to form the cabinet with LG’s blessing?

 

@Heretorant I will send you my resume

 

Can I please apply for this too

 

Lastly I totally get what @mychoiyoung said about the lightness of the ending - definitely agree with your point regarding the fact that LG is the King of a country and he can't just go around traveling and going on time-defying dates every weekend (lol) without facing his responsibility to keep the Royal Court stable, but I think with all the other theories mentioned here as to how they can eventually create an identity for JTE and how they can still get married and have Papa JTE babysit their heirs (lol) is a good enough reconciliation for me. I appreciate the lightness of the last episode because mygooooodd we all deserved that after enduring a lot HAHA, but I'm pretty sure they will get to business matters eventually and everything will be alright 

 

As for Season 2, I am personally content with how episode 16 ended, but I wouldn't mind having it as long as it is still written logically and beautifully. I mean who would say no to a show that has multiple LMHs lolololol

 

I will probably still go back to this forum every now and then to see some further developments and maybe news about Season 2, LMH and KGE dating, or LMH and KGE having babies LOL, but I need to go back to real life - 2 months of unproductivity is already enough HAHA

[Time loop]

21 minutes ago, AgentQuake said:

Wow I just read through some of my old theories that I posted on here

 

I AM SOOOOO DUMB HAHAHAHA

 

LITERALLY GOT NOTHING RIGHT

 

except the vacations 

 

Hahaha. You got that one right and that was actully impressive. I never saw the vacation coming just being completely honest. 

 

I just didn't envision a vacation in all of that rollarcoaster