So, I just finished Mr. Queen and I have some problems with the ending, as i’ve noticed many are as well.
Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to be satisfied with it. I’m already aware of how consistent media is about censoring queer themes in TV, so this didn’t come as a surprise. It just left me disappointed. Although, admittedly, I was a bit shocked at how far they were willing to go amongst other things throughout the show’s entirety. But I could also tell they were holding back with how they were to approach the gay undertones between Bong-Hwan and Cheoljong.
I feel like for a someone that was such a large aspect of the story, Bong-Hwan was disgustingly disregarded as a character during the finale and it felt painfully empty without him. The story just didn’t seem resolved without him being there. He lost everything; his friends, his love… It should’ve been presented as something much more sad but the narrative widely overlooked that. So-yong filling his place and reclaiming her body so early into the conclusion gave very little homage to his memory as her. Even Cheoljong felt like he lost something but will never find closure in that because So-yong neglected to reveal of Bong-Hwan’s presence.
But, above all else, my biggest peeve about the ending is how adamant people are to defend it despite how poorly they handled Cheoljong’s relationship with Bong-Hwan. Many are eager to deny that they had any feelings for each other. The argument being that “The feelings he feels is So-yong reclaiming her body” and I disagree with that. You know how I know thats bullshit? The fact that the show literally shows us otherwise. Even when Bong-Hwan was gone, he still influenced her personality. She still has his rotten mouth and his mannerisms. So I believe that her feelings for Cheoljong intermingled with his and he was influenced by her too. Therefore, he grew to love the king as well. Even if in the beginning, So-yong’s heart for Cheoljong definitely interfered with Bong-Hwan’s, that doesn’t mean they both didn’t grow from that point. And in the end, we’re shown that they’ll never truly be the same, and being apart of one another proved to change them.
As for Cheoljong, I believe he fell in love with Bong-hwan too (As they say, you fall for the personality more than the looks). Irregardless of whether or not he grew some feelings for So-Yong post learning that she was a member of the Kim family, doesn’t mean he didn’t fall in love with the version of her that was possessed by Bong-Hwan. We see he was already interested in him without So-Yong’s influence there.
With that all said, its disappointing that we never got to see an ending for the two when there was obviously a BL in there.
