Ooooof, this scene!!! And it's such a believable fissure in their marriage - she believes in imperial rules and power of the clans - ie status quo forever (and it's clear she's always been a traditionalist - we saw it consistently - she was willing to bend a little for him but ultimately this is her whole way of life) and he's the reformer. Yes, she does not want another woman in the harem (and the irony is he doesn't either - he's as cut out to be monogamous as any period man can possibly be) but ultimately, it's about their incompatible world views.
And the tragic but inevitable thing, she does not learn, she still pushes. And another tragic thing is despite saying this, he still clearly loves his queen and she's gonna wreck it. I mean, you see his wedding night with the minister's daughter and the sheer mortifying awkwardness of it is conveyed so well. She doesn't fancy him and he doesn't fancy her either. He married her literally for reforms and her father. He eyes the prospect of sleeping with her with as much delight as eating a bag of nails. During their convo, she can tell he still loves the queen. And yet none of it is gonna be enough - not to save his marriage to the queen, not to put them on the same page, or even to make anyone involved truly happy.
And he leaves without touching her.
The one thing I love about her is she's very clear eyed about life. She didn't go into that marriage expecting love or even companionship - she went in to protect her father and for political goals. Paradoxically, I think she is much more compatible with him in personality (and goals of course) than his empress. We shall see. He honestly is portrayed as someone who doesn't have much of a libido (probably because he was a monk for so long) and it actually makes me wonder how annoying it must have been to have a harem if one isn't particularly horny all the time.
PS This was such a glorious conversation but this was my favorite part:
This drama is so good - so adult, so measured, so solid, so well written. It is honestly pretty rare to be catered to in terms of a solid historical that's not just an adult character piece or a romance (not that there is anything wrong with those), and we are not talking about all the fluffy/ahistorical teen-oriented things (once again, nothing wrong with that but...) I am just delighting in watching an old school, proper period epic about court, battles, politics. IT IS SO GOOD!!!
