Once upon a time (before 3/31/2014) I enjoyed Once Upon a Time (and titled my blog Storybrooke Logic.) OUAT is finally cancelled (in the interim, Story definitely BROKE Logic). Here you will find #fire o'clock (Swanfire posts), #hood afternoon (BBC Robin Hood posts), #amc turn, #bbc musketeers (S1-S2), TNT's Witchblade. I write #fanfiction, #the don't series (now COMPLETE!) (#channel islands UK). OUATiW stan, WWII never-forgetter. Two sideblogs mygangtome & true-thoughts-of-a-free-man
Bound by fate across time ... 10 more years pass, and one day, on a day that felt just right their paths begin to cross again.
I'm watching the 10th year anniversary special of "Goblin" and not even 5 minutes into the first episode, Gong Yoo and Kim Go Eun are already bickering LOL!
They're friends. GY acknowledges the age gap but adds they don't feel it at all. They hang out quite a bit, last-minute meetups (GY immediately points to KGE. He's a planner, she not so much). He says Lee Dong Wook doesn't reach out to him as much as KGE does, but KGE immediately reveals the two guys see each other the most: "And they only go to the nice places together!" I know, girl, I follow GY's Insta haha.
So apparently it was KGE who brought up the idea of doing something special to mark the milestone. She wants to showcase their off-camera chemistry.
Gong Yoo: "So basically you want to announce to the world we're idiots?"
LOL!
Lee Dong Wook as Yoo In Na laughs: "I just hope we don't fight."
LDW can already see KGE and YIN spending the whole time teasing him and GY. I love that he still calls GY "dokaebi" or "kaebi."
GY on the special: It will chaos. It will be a mess.
LDW and YIN had their interviews in a different place. And just like how the Goblin couple had the red door and the Christmas shop sign behind them, the royal couple also had the tea and her ring.
I love how In-na described Goblin as one of the things has has pinned at the top of her heart. GY called the show his "most radiant winter."
I’m usually traumatized by doing this much analysis on a show. So often, a script sets up incredible themes and psychology early on, only to throw its internal logic out the window in the finale for rushed plotting and fan service.
Instead of abandoning its setup, Perfect Crown's finale proves that every detail since episode 1 was intentional, psychologically sound, and structurally inevitable. It isn't boringly predictable; it’s that when the ending lands, every prior scene instantly locks into place. The script lets the audience look back and realize the symbolism, character flaws, recurring motifs, and thematic architecture were all part of one grand, coherent design. That is how you write a finale that feels earned!
I’m not even being dramatic when I say the writing for Perfect Crown is a rare find in the romance genre. The emotional logic is actually earned. You can criticize the show all you want, but I’m standing by my original take: this is one of the best romance scripts I’ve ever seen. And I have the receipts to prove exactly why.
The standout scene has to be Hui-ju’s confession. I thought the Grand Prince's confession was well-written, but this dialogue is on another level. It treats both characters like intelligent, emotionally mature adults who are completely in sync. The writer doesn’t resort to cheap, manufactured misunderstandings just to drag out the plot. That one line, "I know you’re not confused" is the absolute heart of their dynamic.
In most rom-coms, that scene would devolve into the typical "you don’t understand" back-and-forth, with the characters frozen in place for a dramatic pan-out and cut. It usually leaves the audience hanging with unresolved tension. But here, Hui-ju refuses to play into the "misunderstanding" trope. She identifies his emotional state better than he can articulate it himself. When he claims he’s confused, she immediately reframes it: "No. You understand perfectly. You’re hurt." It’s such a psychologically intimate moment. She bypasses the surface level to name the core wound. Real intimacy looks exactly like this, not explaining facts, but recognizing motives. The Prince isn’t angry because he doubts her feelings; he’s angry because he understands them perfectly.
Also, notice how her sacrificing herself to protect him wasn’t dismissed as random martyrdom. The show has already established her as strategic, proud, and deeply practical in her love. Because of that consistency, everyone (the Prince and the court included) immediately understands: "If she’s doing this, it’s for him." That’s excellent character continuity. You can see how disciplined the writing is because the conflict doesn't rely on the "idiot plot" where characters lose their brain cells to preserve the drama. The audience, the Prince, and the court all read the room correctly. The drama stems from the meaning of her sacrifice, not a misunderstanding of the facts. Peak romance writing, honestly.
Honestly? The kiss only lands because the silence before it does so much heavy lifting.
When she asks, "Don’t you want this?" she isn't questioning their physical chemistry. They both know the answer to that. She’s actually asking: "Are you going to keep punishing me even though you know why I did it?" His response is equally heavy: "I want this, but I’m confused." That basically translates to: "I love you, but I don't know how to reconcile that with the fact that you shut me out." It grounds the scene and keeps it from feeling like a typical soap opera. When she tells him he's only mad because he knows she likes him, it’s devastating. It's not just drama for the sake of drama. Hui-ju knows he’s only this angry because he’s actually vulnerable. It’s not about his ego, it’s about his heart.
He’s hurt because she carried the burden alone: she underestimated him and chose self-sacrifice over partnership. This is how you write "power couples" properly. Instead of falling back on tired tropes like noble idiocy, the show keeps the tension rooted in their psychological profiles. They feel like autonomous people rather than puppets doing the writer's bidding. Their choices are a direct result of their personalities and emotional baggage, which is why their dialogue feels almost uncomfortably real. The writer actually respects the audience enough to use subtext. The characters are allowed to actually read each other instead of spelling every little thing out.
Even the transition into sex afterward makes perfect narrative sense because it isn’t framed as some cliché "passion took over" moment. It’s reconciliation through mutual recognition. They finally arrive at the same emotional truth: he wants to protect with her, not from her, and she’s finally done pretending she’s in this alone. The intimacy feels like an extension of that emotional clarity rather than just a "reward" scene for the audience. That’s what makes it feel so adult.
So many romances infantilize intimacy just to artificially prolong the tension, but this show gets that being emotionally guarded isn't the same as being sexually naïve. It’s a nuance most writers miss.
the trees you grew up with have not forgotten you. their branches still whisper your name in the breeze and their roots remember the paths your feet once traced through their shade.
so i suppose i have to content myself with being thankful for the fact that it's the easiest thing in the world to avoid spoilers, even on tumblr, if you've decided to love a show that like 3.5 other tumblrs are watching (and some of them are hatewatching) and even fewer seem to be posting text content about
How did Jeong Tae Eul's ID end up with Lee Gon in the first place?
Tracking the journey between worlds and across time
There was a Twitter question about which show you'd like to watch again for the first time and I, of course, responded with "The King Eternal Monarch." I just remember how much fun it was trying to figure things out. A friend even had a virtual "murder board" for who's who LOL! In a reply to my tweet, someone asked: How did Jeong Tae Eul's ID end up with Lee Gon in the first place?
TKEM has one of those loop thingies with time travel so lemme just start with episode 1, with adult Lee Gon heading to the past, to the Night of the Treason. He gets into a shootout with Lee Lim's men, kills several, and after they escape, he goes to check on his younger version. As Gon feels the boy's pulse, Baby Gon lifts his hand. They hear an alert that the Royal Guards are coming so Gon stands up. Baby Gon catches the lanyard and pulls Tae Eul's ID card out of Gon's pocket.
In a flashback in episode 2, Baby Gon, now the king, asks Head Court Lady Noh if she has the two things he had with him on the Night of the Treason: half of the flute, which he suspected was in the riding whip she held, and the ID card. Head Court Lady Noh produces both.
And so that's how Lee Gon keeps Tae Eul's ID card with him in the kingdom for the next 25 years. In episode 1, we see Lee Gon has it inside a copy of "Alice in Wonderland," with the ID card right smack on top of the illustration of the White Rabbit. Symbolism much? LOL! The book, of course, is referenced a few times by both Lee Gon and Jeong Tae Eul.
One of the more interesting details of the time travel in TKEM is that at this precise moment (Sept. 10, 2019 at 7:45 p.m.), when Lee Gon is looking at Jeong Tae Eul's ID card while sitting in his private study in the Kingdom of Corea, the card doesn't actually exist YET in the Republic of Corea.
When Lee Gon decides to follow the White Rabbit, or rather the sound of the flute, into the other world and meets Jeong Tae Eul for the first time, she has an entirely different ID, one that shows her in her police uniform with her hair down.
This ID card is still with Tae Eul in episode 4 when she leaves the library (where she'd been researching parallel words, etc.). As she approaches her car, she finds her keys with the big-ass tchotchke in the form of a lion tangled with the lanyard of her ID. As she was separating the two, she is bumped by a boy on a bicycle, sending the ID card flying out of her hands and down a grate, straight to the sewer below.
BTW, the culprit on the bike is none other flute boy (fun fact: flute/yo-yo boy is actually played by a girl, Kim Bo Min).
Jeong Tae Eul gets her photo taken for a new ID card. She has her hair pulled back in a low ponytail and wears a cream sweater. The photographer advises her to put on something with a bit more contrast so her face doesn't stand out too much in the photo. Tae Eul opts for a navy jacket. And while she is not aware of her outfit's significance, we see the image Lee Gon has been staring at for 25 years.
Later, we see Tae Eul apply for a new ID card. Hilariously, she says the old one was "lost after a fierce scuffle with a suspect." She remembers Lee Gon telling her the ID card he has was issued on Nov. 11, 2019, and so she asks the civil service worker when the new one is going to be ready. Much to her relief, she's told about a week, in late October.
BUT Fate has other plans, of course. Kang Shin Jae tosses Tae Eul her ID. The agency apologized for accidentally leaving her out. Her ID was issued that day: Nov. 11, 2019. Lee Gon was right! Tae Eul is justifiably flustered. She gets even more flustered when she gets a phone call from Lee Gon.
She rushes home and finds Lee Gon standing in her yard, like a freaking statue. This is one of my favorite TKEM scenes ever but I'm gonna rush the summary here: Tae Eul asks Gon details about her new card, which he is able to answer correctly, proving he does have a version of her ID. He invites her to his world so she can see for herself. She accepts.
In the kingdom (episode 5), Jeong Tae Eul is asked by Head Court Lady Noh to put her belongings in a box as part of a security check. Lee Gon assures her it's something everyone does including court ladies and the prime minister. Tae Eul tosses in handcuffs, her wallet, the lion tchotchke, a Kahi multibalm stick lol and, of course, her newly reissued ID. She seeks assurance that she's gonna get all the stuff back, saying she'll be penalized if she loses her ID again. Head Court Lady Noh recognizes the ID.
Fast-forward to episode 6. Japanese warships are heading to Corean waters and Lee Gon has to send Jeong Tae Eul home earlier than planned. Lady Noh retrieves the box with Tae Eul's belongings — side-eyeing palace security here as the unlocked box is stored in a dresser in her room — and realizes the ID is missing. No way to check who took it as the CCTV was cut off in that area of the palace last night starting at 8 (because of JTE's unexpected arrival). Tae Eul ends up taking back the "old" version of her ID card.
So where did the newly re-issued ID card go? It shows up tucked inside a book in the bookstore of one of Lee Lim's minions with a note identifying it as "guestroom user." We later find out that Lee Lim's contact is no other than Kang Shin Jae's Corean mom, a court lady who has Lady Noh's trust.
In episode 11, Lee Lim captures Tae Eul's Corean doppelganger, Luna, and convinces her to switch places with our heroine by showing her the ID card and Tae Eul's family. Luna, who'd never known her parents, agrees. She's taken to republic with Tae Eul's ID and picks up Tae Eul's phone at a locker in a station. Her first order of business: Apply to take all of Tae Eul's 21-day vacation. Smart, LOL.
This is around the time Lee Lim's men kidnap Jeong Tae Eul and take her to the kingdom. Lee Lim plans to exchange her for Lee Gon's half of the flute. But she foils that plan by escaping and we get the famous "Protect her! She's the future queen!" battle cry from the king.
Jeong Tae Eul eventually returns to the republic with Lee Gon in episode 13. After introducing her boyfriend to her dad, she arranges to meet Gon after work. She gifts him with a black jacket, which he thinks looks a bit familiar. Later, as he's trying it on, the doorbell for his hotel room rings and he finds Tae Eul at the door bringing beer. It doesn't take him long to realize it's Luna he's with — she's got a look of anxiety that JTE doesn't have. He pulls Tae Eul's ID from Luna's coat pocket. As he's checking it out, he notices his image in the mirror and realization dawns, he looks exactly like the man who came to Cheonjongo on the Night of the Treason and saved Baby Gon. He saved himself!
Unfortunately, Luna had spiked the beer and Lee Gon goes down, ID card still in his hand at the beginning of episode 14. As Luna tries to search for the whip that contains the flute — she's not interested in taking his life — Jo Yeong arrives (he'd gone out to get drinks). She flees, minus the ID. The captain of the Royal Guard, with Tae Eul's help, takes him to a clinic owned by a friend of the medical examiner (Chief Park's wife). When Lee Gon comes to, he could hear the flute crying, just like he did when he was a boy on the Night of the Treason. It is the signal to go back. He enters the doors once again, ID card still in his pocket, as Lee Lim enters his, enabling them both to return to the past to try to fix things.
And we're back on the Night of the Treason. Lee Gon arrives at Cheonjongo and gets into a shootout with Lee Lim's men.
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