#do-hwa

[nettlestonenell]

The Mess Jang Gang Left Us With

Citizens of the Republic, Subjects of the Kingdom, Mages of Daeho, and Gentle Readers, it’s time to talk about--

The Mess Jang Gang Left Us With

Part of the Mess is frankly, just unanswered questions:

Such as (but hardly limited to) Why use/attempt to use The Alchemy of Souls in the first place? Ticket me if I’m wrong, but the first time he used the Ice Stone/Alchemy of Souls for sketchy purposes was at the request of Lady Jin to save her dead child in-utero, Jin Bu-Yeon. Ostensibly, a compassionate use of its powers; to save a life. Did he do this for Lady Jin PRIOR to Jang Uk’s conception and birth? b/c Jang Gang seems pretty burnt by the magic he was playing with when we see him following that, and seems to have promptly disappeared following the closing of Uk’s gate of energy.

#outie

It's not a far leap to assume Jang Gang played around with the Alchemy of Souls because the power of it/the challenge of it hooked him. We know he was a magical prodigy. We know he was [among?] the most powerful mage[s], made Gwanju of Daeho, and not yet old. He had accomplished much, but in greed such men often wish to accomplish/possess More.

Subset unanswered question: Who IS Jin Bu-Yeon’s dad? Season One/Part One seemed to state definitively that Cho-Yeon’s dad was not him. Does/Did Jang Gang know? Is there any possibility it could have been Jang Gang?

The main reason Jang Gang’s Mess continues, is that he managed to harm most of our main characters in some way.

Prettiest. Hands Down, Fight Me, Get Out of the Chat if you can’t deal

Kim Do-Joo – unrequited love and decades (despite the fact she loves Uk) of caring for her crush’s child. She watched Jang Gang hurt her beloved Do-Hwa, up and til Do-Hwa died [it’s of a broken heart, fight me, it’s a Much Ado Hero’s death of shame at being accused of adultery], and then she continued to serve the Jang family even as Jang Gang closed up Uk’s gate of energy and abandoned him. Any slight Uk has felt, Kim Do-Joo has felt it, too.

This task has kept her from being able to move on and pursue her own life.

Park Jin – was left with Jang Gang’s responsibility (wrt Uk), attempting to carry out his best friend (and Gwanju’s) wishes, keep his secrets, despite his love and deep affection for Uk.

Because of Kim Do-Joo’s arrested life, as she had to care for Uk as a mother, steward, and chatelaine, he was unable to move on and pursue her fully (and she was unable to be open to this)

Is the treatment of JBY a metaphor for abuse? Um, no. It’s actual abuse.

Jin Bu-Yeon – She was born/reanimated out of some sorcery Jang Gang used with the Ice Stone/Alchemy of Souls. Once born, she appears to have suffered as a pawn of both her mother, stepfather and Jin Mu/half-uncle. While being manipulated by them, she seems to have lost her memory and become Mu-Deok, where she continued to be used, even enslaved—and all that before her mom stuck Naksu’s soul back into her body.

Please note: An invisible fridge is still a fridge.

Do-Hwa. Poor Do-Hwa. How her husband’s rejection of her after that night of passion must have confused and wounded her for nine months. Ignorant of what had transpired, she paid for her husband’s transgression with her life.

Cho-Yeong/Naksu – Here we have a cocktail of blame. And another Unanswered Question: why was her dad replaced w/ a soul shifter, and where was he put? We haven’t seen anything but a switch (not counting the unique co-habitation of two souls in Mu-Deok/Jin Bu-Yeon), not just a simple casting out of one soul. It’s a swap each time. Perhaps her father was swapped to keep his mouth shut. And then the body he was put in was killed. But that’s the thing, we don’t know. Jang Gang’s transgression created the NEED for Uk’s birth star plate to be hidden/disappeared. Which got her father (or at least his body, see Unanswered Question above) killed, along with the rest of her family and their servants/household.

But even this doesn’t solely create the Shadow Assassin. No, it is Jin Mu—the particular creation of Jang Gang--that shapes the rage Cho-Yeong feels. Jin Mu, Jang Gang’s servant and unofficial pupil. The man Jang Gang had to instruct in the Alchemy of Souls in order to get himself free of the King’s dying body.

What? You wouldn’t want to live in it?

It is Jin Mu who finds and Thanoses Cho-Yeong into his personal Gamorra.

Did you see this moment? Baby Cho-Yeong taking Jin Mu’s hand?

Jang Gang’s transgression came at Cho-Yeong from two directions, and it grinds her chance at normalcy and a potential to love and be loved to bits. Because 1. Jang Gang put huge power into the hands of his unofficial pupil [he had to if he wished to escape his self-made predicament] and 2. Jang Gang had to conceal the truth of Uk’s birth in order to first and fore-most protect HIMSELF from what he had done coming to light. That’s right, I’m not giving him the pass that he’s some version of Daeho Dumbledore and everything he does is in service of protecting Harry [we see how well that’s held up in ensuing years].

And then we come to Uk...in the second part of this post.

1 of 2

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

The king knew Do-hwa's child would be his because Jang Gang had been completely ignoring his wife for like a year. Then "he" returns and is intensely affectionate for a week.

I'm guessing once they switched back actual Gang didn't touch Do-hwa because he was so psychologically messed up by her "affair", which would strengthen the rumours that she did have an affair and actually makes sense with how she's talked about in the show (man she got a raw deal).

And it also makes sense why Maidservant Kim would be so fiercely protective of Do-hwa's memory because she was her personal servant, brought from Do-hwa's hometown. She was the one sitting beside Do-hwa as she cried because for some reason her husband had sex with her for seven days and hasn't touched her since, and she can count days and she knows this kid is his. Kim knows that Do-hwa was faithful because she was there the whole time. She must have thought Jang Gang just went insane.

(Also, is this not the plot of how Mordred was born in the King Arthur legends?)

[nettlestonenell]

The Mess Jang Gang Left Us With 2

Citizens of the Republic, Subjects of the Kingdom, Mages of Daeho, and Gentle Readers, it’s time to continue talking about--

The Mess Jang Gang Left Us With

Jang Uk – The man who is not supposed to exist, who only does by the Alchemy of Souls

First – What? I mean, yes, Uk was conceived in a non-consensual encounter/assault [choose your terminology] while one body was occupied by a different soul than that of its owner. Biologically, Uk IS the son of Jang Gang. He carries his DNA, he is genetically his offspring.

I don’t think Jang Gang disputes this, I don’t even think that’s what he means to say when he says Uk is not his. In his mind Uk is not the son of his “spirit”, not the fulfillment of his actions.

But he is wrong.

Yes, it was the King animating the body of Jang Gang that impregnated Do-Hwa (with sperm made by Jang Gang’s body). It is the fact it is the King’s immediate doing that brings about Uk’s conception, but it is Jang Gang’s greed that allowed such a perversion to happen. Whatever has powered Jang Gang to investigate and use the Alchemy of Souls has brought him to that place, has created Uk. Uk is a product of that. 

Sidenote: I don’t know how much Koreans are into Arthurian Legend (The King: Eternal Monarch seems to indicate some of them might be), but Uk’s birth is very similar to that of Arthur’s (Uther gets Merlin to magically disguise him as Igraine’s husband, Gorlois, then sleeps with her and Arthur is the result who must be raised in secret)

Here, Uk is a manifestation of Jang Gang’s transgression. 

Uk’s fate is set as much by the King in another man’s body as by Jang Gang himself.

Uk suffers because Jang Gang tries to avert the fate he believes he sees for him, by closing his gate of energy and getting out of Dodge, instead of staying, training Uk and maybe, just like challenging anyone who disputed Uk’s parentage to a mage duel. We’re in young Luke Skywalker territory, here. Hide him, prevent him from coming into contact with magic, perhaps he can be saved from the hand life has dealt him.

Jang Gang both pities and fears Uk. And it’s easier for him to leave town and the reminder of his transgression (Uk) than to stay and make amends for it. 

Jang Gang is not into the 12 Steps. 

He makes no list of all persons he has harmed, and doesn’t become willing to make amends to them at all. Ultimately he dies “to take responsibility” we’re told, though this Western viewer really disagrees with that notion. Because dying solves nothing, heals nothing--other than ending your own earthly story, and leaving everyone else with a mess.

To clean up.

I mean, explain your treatment to your innocent wife. Were you resentful that she hadn’t noticed the man in the body coming in to her bedroom wasn’t you?

Did you fear the King did her harm? Or that he gave her pleasures beyond your mastery? For nine months you left her untouched, without any explanation. Why had you not cared to be concerned before making the Alchemy that the King might abuse or attack other women—those not related to you?

There are so many questions, two episodes will likely not answer them all—if any. I’m here for it, Netflix, if you decide to give it over: Season 3 as prequel. 

I’d watch that show.

2 of 2