the writer went wrong from the beginning with the question “the king loved the court lady but did the court lady love the king?” because deokim obviously loved him very much, to the point that she chose him over herself, her freedom and agency, over everything that is dear to her. at one point, san says he went against his nature for her but it was her who did, she sacrificed everything for him — but love is never about transactions. and so this is not a love story but a tale of the oppressive regime of monarchial patriarchy and the success of this show owes it to its cast and its director.
i was not at all surprised that the scene where deokim bid her friends, her life and her freedom goodbye was not in the script but it was the director who added it out of courtesy and respect for deokim. short-sight from the writer but the first part with them being teenagers (1-6ish eps) and the whole arc of him pretending not to be the crown prince and chasing some kind of amusement with her especially with how she treated him and how wholesome it looked, really has a huge effect on how the viewer sits through the rest of the show. if not alert enough, it’s easy to absorb it as a romantic love story especially when the power dynamics between him as a monarch and her as a court lady were absent in the beginning — but it’s anything but that.
throughout the drama, san keeps chasing and confessing to deokim and she refuses him every single time because she knows that if she were to become his concubine, she’d lose all of herself and whatever is left of her freedom. he knows that too but he’s consistent, we even see an instance of him threatening to “bed” her to make her fear him. in e16 who was supposedly the one with their sweetest moments, you can see how deokim’s light was slowly leaving her, she can’t leave the palace for the rest of her life and he got her a residence of her own so all she can do is sit and wait for him. she can’t go on picnics with her friends, she can’t transcribe books like she used to because people will think she’s embarrassing the king by doing lowly work… a permanent state of not being in the position to expect anything from him (because at the end of the day, he’s not her husband and the kids she gave birth to are not even legally hers) but still having to wait for him constantly — it’s not romantic, it’s depressing.
during their intimate moments, he asks her if she loves him but she never says it back because if she does, she will have lost herself completely to him. what he replies with is “it’s okay if you don’t love me. you are still mine.” but love is never about ownership. when she asks him if he ever imagined what it would be like if they were commoners, he said he never imagined it and that she fits as a court lady — because he has her exactly where he wants her to be, he gained her love but she lost everything. even in the moment where he gives her the official title of “Ui” he says he wants them to live as a family, and although it sounds sweet, it is still a way of taming her and keeping her next to him despite it not being her place — no matter how dear he is to her.
i am not saying he didn’t love her or she didn’t love him, this is not the point i’m trying to make — it’s just a dominative love that goes against who she is as a person. a love that forbid her from her agency not just during her life but even in her death. i am not a fan of the ending or the last episode in general, there was no point in giving us a lengthy sequence of san’s state post her death when there were many narratives that were left unexplored: deokim’s friends, deokim’s train of thought… etc. i just think the ending goes against the essence of this story in my opinion. my heart goes out to deokim and all the women who fell into the trap of patriarchal monarchy — as queen dowager said: “the palace is nothing but a luxurious prison.” because it doesn’t matter how high or low you are on social hierarchy, the woman is always defeated.
janainaart
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
ellievsbear
2087
