#Maidservant Kim

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Maid Kim and Lord Park have such a great relationship arc even though it's usually played for comic relief. (and I don't really like him, she's great)

In Season 1, she asks if he would save her from Jinyowon (Right after Jang Uk saves Mu Deok) and he says he would lock her in to save the world, but it would break his heart. She scoffs and asks why he can't just flirt with her like a normal person.

But it's not just a joke to him, he is serious. He would let her die to save the world. And she does not understand how important his job is and how serious he is about it.

And then of course it actually happens in Season 2 and Lord Park is the sentimental one, allowing relics to escape because he wants to save his wife, and Maid Kim screams at him to shut the door and kill her to save the world. She has fully accepted his responsibility and morality, to the point of sacrificing herself for it.

Somehow, I love both choices. Jang Uk would let the world burn to save Naksu, Lord Park would let Maid Kim die to save it. But it works because both of them are staying true to their version of morality and both pairs accept that choice.

[rhaenys-queenofkhyrulzz]

Tens but tag

Awww thx for the tag @pashminabitch

I’m gonna go ahead with the same reasoning you had of it being from any form of media so I choose Alchemy of Souls cuz I’m currently LIVING for just how sweet Jang Uk and Mu-deok’s relationship is (straight media, ik it’s a shocker)

Note that my char analysis is only based on up to where I’ve watched in ep 16 so far tho:

Naksu/Mu-deok: She’s a ten but murder of a specific Young Master is always on her mind

Jang Uk: He’s a ten but he owns a very extensive fishing rod collection

Seo Yul: He’s a ten but he’s still hung up on a chick that blew his whistle once (not a euphemism) 

Park Dang-gu: He’s a ten but he used to wear that neon green checkered hanbok despite not being under duress

Jin Cho-yeon: She’s a ten but she framed an innocent servant for grand theft cuz she was a bit clumsy^TM

Park Jin: He’s a ten but he can’t take a fucking hint (just talk to Maidservant Kim I’m begging you)

Maidservant Kim: She’s a ten but she keeps trying to compare a random girl to Jang Uk’s dead mom (I understand where she’s coming from but idt that any person would want to be with the replica of their parents during sexy time)

Tagging @crfmanoellaaaa @yalldownbad @seamayweed and whoever else wants to do this

[hollaringmountains]

SoooALL YHE ELDERS ESPECIALLY PARK JIN AND KIM DOJU GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK WHEN THEY DIED AND THEN HAVE YHE FREAKING AUDACITY TO BE LIKE SIKE AFSHALWHAHSKWSK LIKE I WAS LEGIT CRYINGGGGGGG MY EYES OUT BUT NEXT SCENE IS THEM GETTING HEALEDDDDD AND AND OH MY GOODNWSSS SO FREAKING GRATEFUL FOR MASTER LEE!!!!!

[meenawrites]

casually trauma dumps

[kodrama]

#kdramawomensweek

DAY 3: THE HELP

[slytherinshua]

maidservant kim never grew out of her delulu phase bcuz she’s literally the “would you still love me if i was a worm?” girl, she’s the “he loves me, he loves me not” girl but she’s just middle aged

[hangup119]

tale as old as time | series masterlist

the six ways you fall for someone you can never have.

or, a boynextdoor series about royals and not-royals who don't get the happy ending they think they deserve.

pairings. boynextdoor x fem. reader

genres + warnings. historical au, royal au, angst + general themes of royalty, hierarchies, unrequited love, betrayal, jealousy, religion, class division, family feuds

initially was one (1) idea for riize's wonbin but then it tangled out into this whole big idea, now here we are! no update schedule and not published in order of list - just some swag and vibes and hopefully i will complete it. enjoy :)

main masterlist | @onedoornet | riize ver.

without a trace | myung jaehyun

the world must have been playing a cruel joke on you when the nation's beloved prince suddenly confessed his love for you.

prince!jaehyun x maidservant!reader

envy | park sungho

when sungho falls for the princess of the royal castle he works at, he does everything in his power to deny it. because how can he want someone and also want to be them?

servant!sungho x princess!reader

if only | lee riwoo

there was a difference between risking your life for someone out of duty, and risking your life for someone because you loved them. riwoo, your dutiful knight, finds the middle-ground.

knight!riwoo x princess!reader

losing dogs | han taesan

the answer should be obvious, but you still don't know what's worse: betrayal from your most trusted aide, or losing the love of your life.

spy!han taesan x queen!reader

mulberry | kim leehan

only do you ever see the prince of joseon within the confines of the royal palace, and only do you ever love him when no one else is looking.

prince!leehan x noble!reader

seesaw | kim woonhak

woonhak has always thought that princesses were graceful and kind, but when he actually meets one, he is faced with pompousness and arrogance. how can he ever get along with someone like that?

newspaper boy!woonhak x princess!reader

story by hangup119. do not steal.

[ofrandomthought]

ayo this was by no means an invitation to challenge me to hate more parts of this season!!! killing maidservant kim? subjecting me to an even uglier version of jin mu? killing maidservant kim? forcing pathetic foolish heartbroken park jin to close the gate? keeping jin mu alive this long? killing park jin? giving the king and his assembly of old farts more screen time??? making go won cry? killing maidservant kim? subjecting me to jin mu's presence for 10 episodes straight? killing maidservant kim? how fucking DARE you!!!!!!!!

I will forever be bitter about so-i's death. it's perhaps what I hate about this season the most. she was cunning and smart and bold and had so much depth to her she felt the most real out of all the characters in the show! the actress was fucking brilliant and made her into one of the most intriguing elements of the story. she had so much potential and deserved so much better than to be killed off just bc her role in furthering the plot was over.

[meenawrites]

So.. I finished Alchemy of Souls

Guys, the amount of tears I just shed in front of my entire family in the last episode of part 2 is crazy.

They were just sitting there like, you good? It's fiction as I'm sobbing my eyes out.

Anyway.

I have many thoughts. So many. And I lowkey want to make a separate post for each of them.

But for now I do want to leave some of my impressions about the finale: (spoilers ahead obviously)

I thought it was pretty well done. I expected to be a bit more shocked about the whole Jin Buyeon is Jin Seol-ran plotline but it honestly made sense to me and I feel like it was actually foreshadowed pretty well for the most part, even in season 1.

Also they definitely got me good with the deaths of Park Jin, Maidservant Kim, and Jin Hogyeong (if that's how you spell her name). Like that's when I started crying tbh. (I could care less about Mama Jin tbh, she sucks, but that deserves its own post). And I'm glad that them actually being alive didn't feel like a cop out to me. They established early on that Jin Seol-ran knew what would happen and used that to their advantage so it was believable and didn't feel like a Deus Ex Machina move for them to be saved. Well, maybe one of them should have died (cough–Mama Jin–cough). But it's fine.

I do feel like the last two episodes were kind of rushed though. I don't know if they had budgeting constraints or if Netflix didn't give them more than ten episodes, but I think that they should have had at least 12. Two more episodes would have allowed for more expansion on the climax and allowed them to up the drama more, which I think would have done well for the series over all, and would have been a better payoff.

I think the time could have been used well to flesh out some of the side characters arcs more. I feel like Danggu and Jin Choyeon were kind of pushed off to the side this season, and especially in the latter half, but I would have liked to see more of them and their relationships not only with each other but with Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Buyeon.

For all intents and purposes, Naksu/Jin Buyeon lived as Jin Choyeon's sister for three years, and we can see that despite everything that happened three years prior, Choyeon did treat her as her sister even knowing the soul was Naksu's and cared about her. I think that could've and should've been expanded upon, her choosing to care about Naksu/Jin Buyeon or how that came to be. Also, after Naksu regained her memory AND found out Jin Mu had been for sure controlling her at the end of Part 1, I would have loved to see the conversation between her and Choyeon about what she did, an apology and an explanation that she would never have done that if she were sane of mind. What I said about Choyeon applies to Naksu as well because she lived three years as Choyeon's sister, and we can tell she cares about her, so I would have loved to see more of her feelings towards her, especially upon remembering all that had transpired in part 1.

When it comes to Danggu, I mean, he's one of Uk's best friends, and he was left out of the loop a lot when it came to anything Naksu-related. I would have liked him to find out or for Uk to tell him at some point and see how he makes peace with that. Because Danggu and Mudeok were friends in part 1 and he supported her (erroneously) in her supposed romance with Seo Yul. But then she killed his fiance's father and tried to attack him. I can't imagine the sense of betrayal he felt, but also finding out that it wasn't her fault and how he could come to terms with that would have been great to see. I also think his whole experience/trauma from part 1 was kind of glossed over. Like his main thing this season was his broken heart after Choyeon didn't end up marrying him, and I think that was making his feelings a bit too one-dimensional there. They do talk about how he feels slightly uncomfortable/doesn't know what to do with Jang Uk at the beginning of the show, but once Seo Yul comes back, that's kind of forgotten about and the three of them just start hanging out again no problem. I would've like to see a bit more about him struggling with becoming Leader of Songrim as well and how he adapted to that amidst his heartbreak for both his love and his friend who he doesn't even know how to act around anymore, and even towards Naksu/Mudeok who kind of ruined his future and that of his best friend but also being intuitive enough (because he is and he has one of the best hearts we've seen in the show) to realize that there's more to the story than her just going on a murder spree.

I've seen some talk about people saying they didn't like the actress for season 2 as much as season 1 (forgive me, I forgot their names), but I think both brought something good to the table.

Season 1 actress for Mudeok was really good. Her facial expressions were spot on and her chemistry with Lee Jaewook and the other cast members was really good. I think she definitely had great stage presence and made the show popular in the first place. I just don't agree that season 2 actress was worse.

I think season 2 actress definitely put in the work and embodied who Naksu/Jin Buyeon was for the majority of the series. There were times where she made expressions that perfectly resembled/echoed Naksu/Mudeok's that really got me like yes they are the same person even if she doesn't remember. She may have been cuter than we were used to with out sharp-tongued and emotion-resistant Mudeok, but I think Naksu needed that. As Mudeok and before then she didn't have the luxury to be more emotional and girly, it's only now in this body that she does, and I'm glad she had the opportunity to express that side of herself that had never seen the light of day.

We did get a glimpse of that side of her at the end of part 1 where she's playing around with makeup and what might make her look pretty, and it really spoke to all that she had missed out on and had to give up in order to survive. So yeah despite all the angst, I'm glad Naksu/Jin Buyeon had that opportunity through season 2 actress who played it really well while keeping in line with the essence of Naksu/Mudeok.

This whole thing about Naksu being the shadow to Jang Uk's light and if light exists then it needs a shadow broke my heart you guys, it was so perfect. And the fact that they were each other's light and shadow at different points but were also wholly necessary to each other in that was beautiful. I want to talk more about this in a separate post, so I'll table this metaphor for now.

Shout out to Crown Prince Go Won, a great character this whole season in terms of both comedic relief and massive character growth. So good.

Uk's arc was fantastic too but again want to save that for a full post.

Those are my out of order first thoughts about part 2, but I have SO MUCH MORE to discuss, so I will come back for sure. I just needed to scream to the world for a bit (virtually of course).

Question though for all of you more knowledgeable in the k-drama world: is there going to be a season 3?

[rosyfingered-moon]

2023 drama roundup

Unchained Love: I still hum the unhinged flute intro on a regular basis, easily my fave intro of 2023! I didn't actually finish the show due to dwindling interest, but for the first 14 episodes or so I took a keen pleasure in it (and it made me go on a eunuch webnovel spree, expertly curated by @mercipourleslivres). I love it when heroines are allowed to be truly funny, rather than just quirky or ditzy. Also appreciate the goofy Lamp Prince turning into a brutal incel tyrant the moment he got power.

Six Flying Dragons: I don't think I can write anything succinct enough for the roundup format so I direct you to my "my sfd tag" if you want to access my enthused livetweeting. Show of all times, lives were changed.

Tree with Deep Roots: I literally can't think of a better topic for a tv show than Sejong the Great constructing hangul together with his band of nerds, one of whom he has a weirdly intense, vaguely erotic relationship with. Han Suk-kyu carried this entire show on his trembling shoulders. What an actor! What range!!! It was such a treat to watch him smugly debate his ministers, roleplay a farmer, and hiss half-mad soliloquies to himself in the dark. It took nuance and depth to portray the kind of inner conflicts and generational trauma that Sejong battles in the background of this drama. To be honest I didn't always enjoy the Milbon subplot which I felt got repetitive, and often found myself wanting to fast-forward the wuxia scenes. In a better world the show would have centered the whip-smart palace maids and their alphabet workshops. But I will definitely rewatch this soon. And maybe also write a fix-it where Sejong and Soo-yi fuck idk.

Quartet: Cute little murder mystery about a found family of freaks, liked it a lot.

My Country: The New Age: As entertaining as ever. Very fun to rewatch this back to back with Tree with Deep Roots, since Jang Hyuk plays diametrically opposite characters with the same vigor and commitment.

Gone with the Rain: Sometimes you watch something which you understand is technically a masterpiece but it doesn't do anything for you, and sometimes you watch a piece of campy silly fun and it makes you tingle with joy. This was the latter category for me. I liked the first and middle parts enough to make up for the lukewarm fizzle of an ending.

The Autumn Ballad: Has some fucked up elements that are difficult to stomach, but the parts that are good are really good.

Not Others: Bingeable! But imo they could have cut out the stalker/murder cases and just focused on the excellent family drama.

The Matchmakers: This surprisingly swooped in towards the end of the year as my favorite comedy of 2023, all thanks to a rec by @haraxvati. I adore Cho Yi-hyun in this role!!! She is so hot as a shrewd matchmaker with a fake mole and a twinkle in her eye. Love the virgin prince with his yearning-induced panic attacks (Rowoon didn't work for me in The King's Affection in a quite similar role, but he's so much weirder and lamer here, which is something I like in a man). I am obsessed with the side plot of the crossdressing romance novelist and the solemn police officer who is trying to capture her and ends up giving her free home renovations and smouldering looks instead. Also, Park Ji-Young and Lee Hae-Young are two of my favorite villain actors on their own, and here they are married!! Still have a few episodes to go, but I intend to binge them as soon as I post this.

Dramas I dropped or paused:

Our Blossoming Youth: I shipped the heroine and her cute maidservant a little too much to bear the dull prince they stuck her with. But I might rewatch it some day bc I want to write a Sherlock Holmes fic for the girls.

Little Women: A real disappointment, because I love Louisa May Alcott and I love Jeong Seo-kyeong. Once again, letting the women kiss might have solved much of it.

Island: Casting Kim Nam-gil as an expressionless cool-guy action hero offends me personally. (Yes Song of the Bandits I'm giving you the stinky eye also.) But Lee Da-hee and Cha Eun-woo were delightful!

See you in my 19th life: I couldn't, even for my most darling Shin Hye-sun, go beyond episode 1. There's something about a kid dating another kid even though she's a literal adult inside her brain that I can't really vibe with.

My Dearest: I do intend to finish this, but I lost the thread after the first half. It got a little too dark for me I think.

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

One of the most moving moments in the whole show is when Maid Kim learns about Naksu's past and feels so sad about it (and protective of Jang Uk) that she holds a funeral for Cho Yeong. And not just any funeral, a good funeral.

No wonder Jang Uk is a good person underneath his selfishness. He was raised by someone who is so loving and warm-hearted that she can't hear the history of a cold-blooded assassin without feeling deep compassion.

And then the fact that the girl she is honouring is actually in her house is just, I can't even

[photodumppps]

“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

musings_004

Just finished watching Alchemy of Souls :') and would like to rate this series a solid 4/5 which starred by Lee Jae Wook, Jung So Min and Go Youn Jung. I was never a fan of traditional style dramas but I never expected that this drama can pull this one of a kind genre along with scifi <3. Have many thoughts about the 2 seasons but I just want to highlight several things on each for those:

Season 1 was full of intense and plot twist and even though the sole reason why I watched this drama is the chemistry of Jang Uk and Mu Deok, never thought I would fall in love with fantasy and magic because of them.

The figurative language they use when it comes to their feelings with each other is soooo angst coded and type of enemies to lovers coded ༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ!! Like, guys I can do this all day—watch them how they'll argue, show how they deeply. insanely. profoundly! INLOVE! Although this season did not really focus on romance (which my type of genre I love the most), I still love them (omg I miss them now ;() Another thing! I love the side stories of the season specially Park Jin and Maidservant Kim :') A slow witted X coquette kind of trope hahaha (girl, i made it up :|) I even love other characters specially Seo Yul and The Crown Prince (protect these two pls.) They're just one of the green trees in a green forest <33 I am actually thinking that if these two will die girl I'M OUT. To you Sang Ho, well, boy you played well (Thank God you weren't killed).

Here we go on Season 2 which the romance took place (I didn't like or dislike that either). Most of the watchers didn't like the 2nd season for different reasons. And the popular one is that the female lead was changed which in fact was really casted for that (watch the S1 pls.) I get it, I understand why Bu Yeon was like that during S2 (idontwanttospoilyouanythingsogojustwatchhahaha). There are times and scenes which I think, “Well, this is very Mu Deok (the one in S1)” but maybe we just miss how So Min, who portrayed Mu Deok gave the vibes and personality of Mu Deok/Naksu. Well, I appreciate how Naksu played significantly in this drama but during my dramarathon, I always pitied with real Bu Yeon (like this young lady didn't even have a great life and was just used all the time) but then when I watched the remaining episodes, I realized a few things (which made sense why Hong Sisters never highlighted the importance of our best girl Bu Yeon)

And to be honest this season also gave me the feeling of a roller coaster ride (sometimes).

As this was made by Hong Sisters, I already knew that this would be a tragic and entertaining at the same time (Kudos to HS u did it once again!). Overall, the cast and production did well to make this series incredible and deserved to have great ratings as well.

what about you? what are your thoughts on this drama?

you can share down on the comment section and we can have a talk about it (i wish i still remember everything i think i just love yul that's all >_<)

[anotherfanaccount]

Maidservant Kim and Park Jin didn't deserve this at all😭😭😭

Why why whyyyyyyy

Mama Jin did deserve this

[recurring-polynya]

Writing Update/Art Update

Man, I have been bringing a real "do not feel like doing anything" vibe to this week and I really don't like.

Maybe it's because I finished both a) a long book series that I love that I have been working on re-reading/finishing since November (it's Temeraire) and b) a season-and-a-half long kdrama that Mr. P and I got completely obsessed with and spent hours and hours talking about (Alchemy of Souls). In the second case, I really thought the end of AoS was gonna leave us hanging and I was going to finally be able to write a piece of fanfic that was not Bleach, but it was very satisfying actually, and I haven't even wanted to *read* fanfic for it and I'm very disappointed in myself. (sorry to any other Park Jin/Maidservant Kim supertrash out there, if you even exist, I'm sure you would have loved me waxing rhapsodic about Jin's dreadful cooking)

How about your fanfic, Polynya, how is that going? Well...it could be worse, I guess. I did write some. I finished the scene I had not finished last week and wrote a few more. Then I happened to see a post complaining about a trope that I happened to be using and how it was dumb, and it honestly made me want to throw the whole thing in the garbage, because I am a dumb, sensitive baby! This is why I try really hard to never say negative things online!! Anyway, I will not throw it in the garbage, I will soldier on, but it really harshed my vibe, is what I am saying. Anyway, we are up to 15,545 words, which includes about 200 words of trash (trash is when something is not working and I keep my various attempts there for salvage purposes until I can get it to work), which is a little under 3k of progress for this week, overall not too bad. The story is also now twice as long as it was when I started working on it, so that's kinda nice, too. I've made about 7500 words of progress on it, which is about 1/3 of my way to my goal of 20k.

Speaking of harshing my vibe, my new computer was supposed to come tomorrow, but it was delayed and now will get here in two weeks. Maybe?? Who knows!! I feel like a good 50-75% of anything I order online anymore does not come when the website said it would come, in a way that feels like the website was lying to me to start with. This means that I will have to share my computer with my kids for the next two weeks. It's probably for the best, because I'm sure I've been wasting too much time in front of the computer lately anyway, and maybe this will help me to treat compy-time like some sort of precious commodity. (lol, it probably just means I'll spend more time on my phone, being even less productive)

I started a drawing. It's not going well. Once again, I am soldiering.

I did have an idea to go with one of the Bleach Returns prompts. Remember when I said I was gonna try to go outside my usual bounds a little bit? Ha ha, it was a lie, it's a Renruki story. I haven't started yet, but I'm hoping to give that a go this week and see if I can spin anything out of it.

Anyway, that was my week! It's summer now! Be sure to sign up for your library's summer reading program! I already earned a cool tote bag.

[watchinglikeafangirl]

Alchemy of souls season 2

Okay, I've only reached the middle part of episode 2 but something about this second season seems off. Many things make sense but many also seem like a stretch.

For example, Lady Jin is acting out. Yes, she was highly manipulated by Jin Mu the first season and kept on acting agaist Songrim but she stayed true to some boundaries. So, locking her long lost daughter up in a room with one window only, seems a bit too harsh even for her. I thought she loved her daughter so much, she couldn't let go. Yes, I know, Bu-yeon looks like Naksu but that doesn't mean she's not her daughter, that doesn't mean she can't interact with her. Like she doesn't treat her like a human being which confuses me a bit tbh.

I love, love, love Jang Uk's dark era. Everybody longed for the ice stone, a whole war has risen and in the end, it's in Jang Uk's "posession" but we see how it would have been way better to let it stay at Jinyowon. It's a great power, it brings back the dead, it's something very unnatural, made by nature. It's too much to bear. Jang Uk is very strong, he was born under the King's Star, but he desperatly wishes to get rid of it. He gave up his powers, he was more than ready to live without anything and then he came back to life with too much going on. It must be hard and he's suffering.

But we don't get to see much of him. He is not the protagonist any more. It was Naksu and Jang Uk and now it's just Naksu. Jang Uk is a relict of the past, kind of like a shadow to remind us the first season existed but he's not talking, he's not seen, he's not there. I don't like that at all.

What really stocked me is Bu-yeon living in Naksu's body because it makes so, so much sense since both their souls and energies were extremely strong. It was Bu-yeon's body keeping Naksu in check and now it's the other way around. It's a balance and I absolutely love it. Still, the chemistry is not the same, the pacing of their love story is a bit weird. It's rushed and slow at the same time. Why does Jang Uk take her with him, why does he agree to marry her, why do they bring their faces so close together after 5mins? The overall start of their encounter is not very good since it doesn't seem to be thought-through and like they just looked for a way to make the two characters meet and fall for each other as fast as possible.

I don't like how Dang-gu and So-yeon did not marry. Like why? A bit unnecessary, I would say. At the same time, I like to see these two heartbroken, I don't know. They have always been cute and they are still cute when they're sadly looking at each other.

Don't get me started on Park Jin and Maidservant Kim...I despise what they're trying to do. Park Jin and farming. I know, it's supposed to be the comedic part of this show but it absolutely doesn't work for me.

[ifeelfreewithoutmyshoes]

And I’m crying again, I love Jang Uk and maidservant Kim’s relationship so much