_halcyon's note | spoilers alert

If you haven’t figured out what’s happening and if I couldn’t make it more obvious, I am watching the sageuk drama ‘When the Moon Embraces the Sun’ and holy moly, the cast is hot and can I say, the plot is absolutely fantastic.  I’ve just finished episode 12 but went and did the unforgivable and read the recaps on Dramabeans.

plot

The story of the secret love between Lee Hwon, a fictional king of Joseon, and Wol, a female shaman. Wol was born as Heo Yeon Woo, the daughter of a noble family who won the love of the crown prince, Hwon. Her enemies, jealous of her family's position in court, schemed against her and wrestled away her rightful place as crown princess and nearly takes her life. Years later, an embittered Hwon meets Wol, now a female shaman who has no recollection of her past.

(DramaWiki)

characters of interest

• Song Jae Rim (송재림) as Jin Chae Woon
  • Lee Won Gun (이원근) as young Woon (15 years old)

A 23 year old young warrior. He is the top swordsman in Joseon and is the loyal bodyguard of Hwon. He is blessed with the looks of his courtesan mother and the swords skill of his noble father. Though talented, he obtained a lowly status as he was born by a concubine to a noble man, he received care from the official wife of his father. He has deep friendship with Yeom and Yang Myung.

• Yoon Seung Ah as Seol
  • Seo Ji Hee as young Seol

She was the maid serving of Heo's family. She was named Seol by Heo Yeom and harbors an unrequited love for him. She is a swordswoman who protects Yeon Woo during her time as shaman Wol.

 

 

(Wikipedia)

the truth

I loved everything about it: the cast, the set, the time period, the makeup, the costumes, script, plot, the child actors/actresses, the stunts, the osts etc. etc.

Except one thing.

One important thing I was bitterly disappointed about.

There was no love line for Seol.

And a little part of me inside died.

No.

Actually, it went a little like this.

BRO. WHAT THE HECK. WHY IS SEOL DEAD. NO. REWIND. REWRITE THE SCRIPT. THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. NO NO NO NO NO WOON, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO COME AND SAVE HER AFTER SHE’S DEAD? WHAT THE FRACK IS THIS-

Somehow, I can sort of see the bigger picture and why Seol’s death was necessary for plot and character development and Woon’s just a laconic guy for the bromance between him and the King.

That was until I went online, did some googling and discovered that they were SUPPOSED to have a love line but it got cut from the finalisations because they could only cater for 20 episodes. They were meant to have 24 episodes. ._.

"I initially planned for Woon and Yeon Woo’s servant, Seol (Yoon Seung Ah) to become closer with each other, both being skilled in the martial arts. I wanted to cover a part of the story where they eventually fell in love.” She added, “[The drama] was initially 24 episodes in length, but as we shortened it to 20 episodes, I had to take out that part."

(Taken from an interview with the writer)

THE HECK. NO. NO. PUT IT BACK IN.

It’s the sort of disappointment you feel when the couple you’ve been rooting for in the start doesn’t even get a love story. I was actually shipping SeolxYeom but who cares about Yeom because he’s out of the picture.

5 reasons why someone should write a fanfic

1. Seol is the Queen’s servant and Woon is the King’s servant. Figure it out.

2. Seol is a sweet, beautiful girl. Her unrequited love for Yeom just kills me. SHE WAS SO BLOODY CUTE WHEN SHE WAS A KID.

3. There were numerous hints in the drama that there was a bit of chemistry going on.

4. For two people to be the only people skilled in swordship in the drama, and not end up together because of this shared common interest, is just illogical.

5. Just because. So don’t argue with me.

That is why (ahem) this is a love story between

Seol and Chae Woon.