#Princess Hwawan

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

I really like the Queen

She's good at palace politics, isn't evil, tries to be fair, is very annoyed with someone who challenges her power but in a human way. It's a very good depiction of soft power I think.

I wish she was opposed by a villain (Princess Hwawan) who wasn't so delusional.

[justsageukthings]

[moononmyfloor]

Yi San: Wind in The Palace/Red Sleeve Cuff poster parallels Part 2

Part 1 and 3

6. Queen Hyoui (I wish. I'm sad she's nonexistent in Red Sleeve Cuff. Yet. If she ever makes an appearance I'll add her. For now, just have the Yi San poster because we just.can't.forget.her)

7. Princess Hwawan

8. Princess Hwawan's son, Jeong Hu-gyeom (Jeong Baek-ik in RSC)

9. Hong Guk-yeong (Hong Deok-ro in RSC)

And last but not least, babies with adult counterparts!🥰

Yi San: Wind In The Palace vs Red Sleeve Cuff character posters!

Because I'm ocd. Lol.

1. Yi San

2. Seong Ui-bin (To be more precise, Seong Sung yeon vs Seong Deok im)

3. King Yeongjo

4. Queen Jeongsun

5. Ex-Crown princess Lady Hyegyeong

[wahgifs]

Why did you save me? I just wanted to. What? Am I not allowed to do something on my own? Am I not allowed to rescue the girl who lived next door when I was young? EPISODE THIRTEEN - THE RED SLEEVE (2021)

[vyinter]

I see a lot of 'is the relationship toxic or not' discussions in the tsc tag and my two cents on it is to gently say take off the shipping lens. like yeah the show may be sold as romance but anyone watching it knows it's less of that and more of a historical and the genre that it squarely comes under is 101 ways to not get killed in the palace especially by the king

[freesiablooming]

Yisan's love for deok-im through the years

Doek-im was the daughter of yisan's mother's family's butler. When she was around 10, Deok-im's father went bankrupt and was not able to support his family so she became an apprentice court lady. Yisan's mother took her and kept her in her place. Deok-im was like an adoptive daughter to her as her daughters were silmilar age as deok-im. People believe that yisan and deok-im knew each other since around that time when they were kids.

Around that time yisan got married to queen hyoui. It was of course arranged marriage. Joseon's royals usually got married around 10. After marriage, Princes and princesses live in a court with their spouses for a while. Around the age of 15, they go through coming of age ceremony and finally set a date to sleep with the spouse. Yisan and hyoui's relationship was bad at first because of complicated political situations and people came between them such as princess hwawan and hong deok-ro. Yisan hated his wife and talked bad about her when he was teen. They later Reconciled and developed mutual faith and respect with each other after yisan acsended the throne. they never had a child together.

Teen yisan didn't want to be close with his legal wife perhaps he had someone else in his heart, deok-im. Right after his coming of age ceremony, when he officially became a man that can have concubine if he wants, he asked deok-im to be his concubine. It seems that yisan asked her in person. Normally king or crown prince had someone else deliver his order to a woman. Like yisan had lady seo tell deok-im in the red sleeve. But he aked her himself. I think it's cute to imagine teenage prince confessing his feelings to someone for the first time. However deok-im rejected him saying she can't be his concubine because yisan's wife had not born a legitimate child yet. Yisan repected her rejection. If he insisted more he could have had her but he didn't pursue more.

"I undertood your mind and didn't push further" was his words

After all, He was in difficult political situation. He had so many enemies that want him disposed. His only lifeline was his grandpa yeongjo and he most likey wouldn't have approve yisan having low class women as concubine at very young. Yeongjo wanted yisan to be perfect confuciusist crown prince. So yisan didn't push it. From then and until yisan ascended the throne at age 25, he was so busy. Even after he became the king, he had to grow his own power over noron. He didn't ask deok-im again during that time. but later he revealed that he always considered her as his royal consort since he first asked her.

Deok-im seemed to maintained good relationships with yisan's sisters even after she rejected him. Deok-im and yisan's two sister transcribed series of books <곽장양문록> along with other court ladies kyeonghee, bok-yeon and yeonghee. We don't know about these court ladies. In the red sleeve they are deok-im's close friends. She was 21 when she transcribed the books. In late joseon royal and noble women liked to read very long novels to kill times.

<deok-im's handwriting, bottom right under red seal it says "Uibin's handwriting">

Yisan always said he was not that kind of man who seeks carnal pleasures. As his queen could not get pregnant, he had to have royal consorts. he was always reluctant when people around him pushed him. Royal consorts were all chosen by other royal women in higher positions or ministers not him. One-bin was too young, died young. Hwabin did not get pregnant as well and she really was a jealous type. Around age 30, yisan was still Childless. People at that time usually have first child at late teen so this was really really late for him. Around 30, yisan asked deok-im again to be his royal consort. She rejected again! He was a king not a prince then. Court lady who disobey king's order can be harshly punished for that but she did it. So this gives us something to think about. Yisan wrote about her so many times. So we know he loved her but are we sure that she did love him too? Normally people think all court ladies would be honored and thrilled to be king's woman. They would be happy doing nothing in her room and just waiting for the king to come sleep with them. We often forget that even though these women lived in pre modern era, they might have their own wishes and feelings. I love the the red sleeve making us think about what deok-im would have really wanted.

Anyway so did yisan punish her? Nope! He couldn't get mad at her. instead he punished deok-im's subordinate court ladies. So Deok-im finally cave in and slept with him. I don't think having a child was yisan's only purpose to keep her. At that time, 30 was an old age. If yisan wanted an heir, he would have picked more noble women from prominent family in their late teens. He chose deok-im because he never not thought of her since 15. It wasn't a teenage crush. It was long time devotion and faith. I imagine deok-im was really a wise woman like yisan praised so many times. An amazingly wise and generous woman. someone just like him that smart and cocky king loved for life. She was the only woman that yisan ever chose in his life.

After they got together, he huilt a new place for her. Building a new place for someone is king's way of showing affection. Her place was located between his office and his bedroom so he visited her whenever he wants.

Back in joseon, there were people that pick the best date for the king to sleep with queen or royal consorts from noble family. They set a perfect date to have royal heir according to astrology and stuff. They meddled with king's sex life so a king can't sleep with the queen anytime he wants. But with a court lady, king can spend night with them freely with no meddling. So i think yisan and deok-im made love a lot without anyone interfering them. He finally got together with his crush after so many years. Imagine his passion! isn't that why he built her place so close to him?🤣🤣

Deok-im immediately got pregnant. Unfortunately first two pregnancies end in miscarriage. In 1782, a son, 순(sun: pronounced as 'soon') was born. The first son of the king that he made with the woman he loved! He said he was happy that he finally became a father. He believed that with deok-im, he would have many children and they would be happy forever.

The next day sun was born, yisan built a new prince's place. It isn't like there was no place for a prince to live in the court. There was 저승전(jeo-seung-jeon) where crown princes of joseon lived traditionally including yisan's father sado. But yisan wanted a brand new place that has no tragic history. He built '중희당'(jung-hee-dang) nearby his office and deok-im's place. It was in the center of the court. He put many scientific device and astronomical instruments there expecting his son to use them and study as he grows up. New father had high hopes for the future of his son.

Deok-im received the only best from yisan. Normally royal consorts who were from noble families are ranked higher and treated better than those who were court ladies before. But yisan treated her like she was from noble family. Deok-im became first rank royal consort two months after their son was born. She got the title '의빈'(宜嬪, uibin)'. Usually the names of royal consorts"s title were chosen by other government officials. But uibin was named by yisan himself. '의宜' has various meaning. Firstly 'as it should be' or  'meant to be',. And 'peaceful, warm, beautiful', 'like'.

Deok-im got pregnant again. This time yisan looks like he practically lived in her place. He even worked in there. That was their happiest moment. With a baby son babbling and another child growing in her belly. He talked to her when he got bored. They laughed a lot. He held a birthday party for her. I once read that he taught her mathematics and she learned right away. I imainge that was during this time. The king counted on her. They were not equal but they shared their souls. He was by her side when their daughter was born. He was so happy to be a father of both son and a daughter.

Unfortunately the baby princess died in only two months. They were both deeply devastated. Afther their daughter died, it seems like yisan wanted to cheer up deok-im. Two months later, He appointed their son Sun, 22 months old, as the crown prince of Joseon. This was quite a shock because usually, a prince should be older than at least eight to be the crown prince. The day that Sun became the crown prince, yisan offered food to government officials and released prisoners. He even cut taxes. He wanted to share blessing in all over the country. Yisan had people record every royal ritual crown prince Sun went through. Everything was so special.

By the way Deok-im and yisan's queen seemed to have mutual respect for each other. They were same age. They probably had known each other since kids. Deok-im rejected yisan for the queen at 15. Deok-im was humble even though she was the mother of the future king. She always looked up to the queen. As deok-im's children are legally queen's children and deok-im didn't threat queen's authority, queen cared for deok-im as well. After all...it was queen's duty and virtue to not be jealous of royal consorts. People wrote that queen cried like someone who lost their sibling when deok-im died. Yisan's mother took care of deok-im as well. She sent her servents when deok-im was giving birth.

Their happiest moment didn't last long. Their son, crown prince died at age 5 of measles. Doctors thought he was cured but then he suddenly died. This broke yisan and deok-im. At Sun's funeral, deok-im was there. She clutched her son's grave and cried. She must have felt like she lost everything. Yisan wrapped his son's body with his clothes, a king's attire as a way of expressing father's love and put him in the casket. Yisan lost his loving son, an only heir to the joseon dynasty but he had no time to be drown in sadness. As he was the king he had to deal with measles outbreak in the country. Even though he couldn't show it, i imagine he would have broken down when no one was watching just like in the red sleeve.

Sun's death completely broke deok-im mentally and physically. She was pregnant at that time. Yisan worried about the health of her and the baby in her. He sent her to the other palace for her to recuperate. Back then, it was believed that sick person should move to somewhere else to cure disease. Two month later she came back with heavy belly. But it was uncertain if she was able to give birth. She was so weak. As yisan studied medicine, He stayed with her and took care of her. He watched her take bath every day. He looked over her medicines. He inspected every little medicine tools that were used for deok-im.

Despite all his efforts and devotion, deok-im died in 1786 at age 34. She was nine months pregnant. Doctors then didn't know the cause of her death. Could be toxemia or her son's death broke her too much. There even is a conspiracy theory that she was poisoned by hwabin. But there is no way of knowing now. She died leaving yisan deeply devastated. He cried loudly. He stopped working for 20 days. He lost his only heir who was supposed to carry on joseon dynasty's legacy, only infant daugter and the love of his life in few years. He thought Sun would come back to him and deok-im as the third child but the baby in deok-im died with her. He cried that Sun's trace is now all gone. Life was so cruel to him. How did he have to lose everything he loved? He never asked much. According to yisan's mother's memoir, his body got so weak because of grief after death of deok-im and children. I can't even imagine how he got himself together, continued to do kingly duties, and In fact became the greatest king of late joseon.

Yisan couldn't bear the thought of deok-im's existence get lost in the history.

"Uibin's trace will be forgotten forever. If i don't write how she was the most amazing person, who would leave her story and let it known?"

He wrote that behind deok-im's tombstone. In epitaph, he wrote short biography of her and how wonderful she was as a person (he literally wrote that she was the perfect woman in every way) and how devastated he was to loose her. A king of joseon never did that for a concubine. A king of joseon rarely express their romantic feelings towards a woman. A king of joseon never mourned a concubine's death for long. But for deok-im, he did all of them. I think she wasn't just a concubine to him. She was a whole woman he respected and loved. He was her man.

This excerpt got famous and people began to have intrest in their love story.

After her death, he mourned her for three years of traditional royal funeral process.

He buried deok-im next to their son Sun aka, crown prince munhyo. Accroding to the royal law, a concubine can not be buried next to royal born even though they are mother and son. But yisan let them be together. He visited deok-im and son's graves often. The hill he used to pass when he visit them is now called "거둥고개".

Remember jung-hee-dang that yisan built for crown prince? Yisan used that place as his office until he died.

After losing the love of his life and the son who was supposed to carry on his legacy and joseon dynasty... he had to produce another heir.. it was his duty. I think he must have felt quite miserable to sleep with some woman whom he had never seen before after he buried his family. Regardless of his feelings, subin was chosen by others. She gave birth to a son and a daugher. A son became the crown prince at age 11 and ascended the throne after yisan died. Yisan respected subin and the son but he never treated them like he treated deok-im and munhyo.

Yisan died at age 49. His 11 year old son ascended the throne. Because he was too young, yeongjo's young queen who was the most senior of the royal family held the power. She revoked yisan's great policies and works. Joseon dynasty went downhill after that. Some people think if yisan and deok-im's son didn't die young, he would have been around 20 years old when yisan died. He would have never let yeongjo's queen and other norons screw up joseon dynasty. So It's a tragic for everyone.

It was fun watching the red sleeve with you guys and telling you about korean history. We talked about romantic side of yisan mostly but he is really interesting person and a great king other than that. Hope more people get to know him. Thank you for reading very long post.

*historical facts about the red sleeve

[freshbling]

Everyone worries that yisan will go crazy like his father but the one who always seem to be on the verge of having a mental breakdown is princess hwawan

[for-dramas-sake]

The Red Sleeve eps 5-7 Thoughts:

>Get this woman a crown! She is the queen of schemers! 

She is behind the love story of the Crown Prince and his maid. She gets my applause...and my apprehension. She has more than just romance planned here and I bet she will use Deuk Im against the prince somehow. I’ve my eyes on her. 

>That scholar guy is WAY TOO CREEPY! He’s all smiles and “oh no I didn’t recognize her without her maid uniform” talk, but he’s also a schemer and I don’t trust him. I hear they call him “Two Face” back at school. I bet he’s gonna have an evil laugh in the future.

> I 100% the king loves his grandson and I also 100% believe he’s paranoid as hell. Side note: He either has dementia or he’s faking it.

> My favorite scene: The poetry scene!! A man who can quote poetry in a historical setting makes my feminine side blush. I loved it! I loved it! I loved it! It would be better if it had a double meaning (like the orange scene), but I’ll take this too.

>Oooh lala. Both maid and prince were checking each other out at the bath. Is it getting hot in here or is it just the steam from the bath water?  

> The way our two lovebirds are always protecting and helping each other makes my heart sing. She’s running around doing the little she can for him and he’s going against friends and family to save her life. 

> I swear the queen and the princess are sisters in real life. They are almost twins with how much they look alike. I thought they were the same person until they were shown in the same room together. 

>Princess Hwawan has this wide-eyed cat look she’s perfected when she’s mad... or crazy. It’s those bug-eyes. 

>I also like warrior types over scholar types. *blush* 

[kimchislaphearts]

Crimson Moon (2015)

Genre: Drama, Historical

Plot:

Crown Prince Sado gets sent to Jeoseungjeon where Gyeongjong the Great and Jang Huibin used to reside due to his father Yeongjo's political ambition. One day, a dead body of an eunuch gets thrown in Crown Prince Sado's room. Crown Prince Sado and Princess Hwawan try to find the culprit but things get more mysterious. Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, the mother of Crown Prince Sado visits Jeoseungjeon to check on his son and happens to witness a big secret... (source: KBS World)

Cast & Crew:

Kim Dae Myung as Crown Prince Sado

Supporting cast - Park So Dam, Lee Hang Na, Park Ha Na, Kim Myung Gon, Jo Mi Ryung, Ahn Ji Hyun, Kim Yoon Tae, Kim Jong Hyun

Director - Bae Kyung Soo

Screen Writer - Yoo Young Suk

Music: No tracks of note, but the backing music fit the drama special well and added to the atmosphere.

Overall:

After visiting Hwaseong Fortress and reading about the story of Prince Sado I became fascinated by his story. Earlier this year I watched The Secret Door which was an incredibly whitewashed tale of history, in comparison to that this drama special was at the other end of the spectrum.

I thought this drama special was an interesting take on how Prince Sado’s behaviour due to his mental illness may have been perceived and dealt with. It was a thoroughly dark and depressing watch.

I thought that Kim Dae Myung did a good job portraying the Crown Prince’s battle with demons that no one else could see.

Considering they only had 72 minutes to tell the story I think the writer and director did a decent job, with a quick set up using the discovery of a body in the Crown Prince’s bed and the consequences that followed. As it was only a short drama it wasn’t as emotionally fulfilling as The Secret Door which had 20 hours to get to the rice chest scene.

Overall, it was an okay watch and I would say it is worth your time if you are interested in a darker take on Prince Sado’s story.

Rating: 7 /10

Watch it: KBS World YouTube

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Review: The Red Sleeve

I felt like it was so unbalanced. The ML and his struggles and journey were so well written and well acted (and King Grandpa), but the FL was flat and boring and confusing and it drove me insane.

She keeps saying that she wants "freedom/choices" but the drama never makes it clear what she would be losing or gaining as a concubine. And please don't explain to me, because my problem is the drama should have explained. They did explain for the Crown Prince, I totally knew and understood his sacrifices and his state of mind, but not hers. And then even in the latter half of Ep 16 when she is a concubine, sure she can't leave the palace, but she still sees her friends a lot. She has to wait for the king, but she also used to stand around waiting for hours to give him his medicine, so... Every so often the female characters would say something about their lives sucking, but they never really got into it in a meaningful way. And just saying, "We're stuck here", I mean wasn't the FL basically stuck there as a maid? Wasn't society in general pretty restrictive for women? Just telling me every so often that life sucks isn't enough!

Even the other female characters seemed to be less well-written than the male ones. Princess Hwawan was delusional, The Evil Concubine of Evil was cruel to the FL before she even had a reason to be jealous, the King's mother was just kind of flat, The Evil Head Court Lady had a great motivation for her plots and then they ruined it by making her motivation jealousy, and then the Queen Dowager, my beautiful Queen Dowager got character assassinated in the second last episode!

I think the Queen Dowager was trying to gain some influence over the king but I hated this because it made her look petty and she was such a rational character for the whole show:

Even her fight with Princess Hwawan wasn't petty, it was about establishing her power. What was this? So dumb. Why do you keep destroying your female characters drama?

And to go on about how dumb this was, the FL could have taken this out! She had no reason to refuse to work for the Queen Dowager the second time. Her options were, explicitly:

The king will rape you

The Evil Concubine will Keep Evil-ing

Work as a Court Maid for the Queen Dowager

And she takes none of the above? I don't tell me she gave into love, she looking like someone was stabbing her the whole time she was being prepared to sleep with the king.

Uhhh.... and then her wonderful "defiance" at the end is to never tell the man she loves that she loves him? Am I supposed to find that strong of her? I mean it's a messed up relationship all around but what?

The drama also never gets into the happy parts of her life with the king, they basically skipped the whole part with her kid. Having a kid is pretty cool since her only other option was virgin. And I wouldn't bring this up, except her friend died to have a relationship, so the drama brought this up. There are clearly things the FL has gained.

I wish I liked it, I respect the people who recommended it, but it didn't work at all for me.

Minor things: loved the relationship between the senior Court Lady (Seo?) and the Chief Guard. I didn't think the group of four friends with the FL had good friend chemistry. I wish they had dwelt more on the tragedy of 12 year old concubine Hong and her shitty, shitty brother trying to be the uncle of a prince. I hated that the FL forgave him, her death was totally his fault because of his ambition.

The 30 year time jump was hilarious because no one looked 30 years older, they just gave the ML a lil beard and called it a day.

Also, after the king banished the FL and she was living with the princess, she should have just avoided the king that day. You think it would be simple enough to tell her very nice employer, "The king ordered me to stay out of his sight I need a day off." That's a royal command, her employer likes her, it shouldn't have been a problem. It just felt contrived.

And is she allowed to say no when she was recalled by the king's mother? That wasn't clear.

[justsageukthings]

Loving the details of this orange coloured wonsam! 

[vyinter]

out of all the scenes in the red sleeve cuff the scene that got me by the neck was when princess hwawan's son sacrificed himself for her

the crown prince said since he's adopted he just needs to nullify the adoption papers and he'll execute the princess, who btw is one of the most annoying characters in the show scheming and bratty and fussy and always throwing a tantrum and also easily manipulated, in short she's just not the kind of person you'd like, she and her son cooks up most of the problems in the show and yet AND YET when he strikes a deal with the crown prince in exchange for his life and goes to his mother to tell that she'll only be exiled but she doesn't know he's going to die and asks him why he's bowing is he going somewhere far away and he tell her how much he loved being her son and how grateful he was that he got adopted by her choking over his words and she doesn't get it at first but then it hits her and now you see this haughty prickly prideful woman who dares to insult even the Queen who you'd never think had a loving bone in her body beg and cry and plead for him to not leave saying she has power when they both know she doesn't anymore saying she'll protect him when they both know she can't anymore begging her son to stay she'll protect him come back she'll protect him and the while screeming and crying

[moononmyfloor]

Yi San: Wind in The Palace/Red Sleeve Cuff poster parallels Part 3

Part 1 and 2 here

10. Consort Won-bin

11. Consort Hwa-bin

12. Crown Prince Sado

Baby Munhyo and parents

Older Jeongjo in glasses :)

Yi San: Wind In The Palace vs Red Sleeve Cuff character posters!

Because I'm ocd. Lol.

1. Yi San

2. Seong Ui-bin (To be more precise, Seong Sung yeon vs Seong Deok im)

3. King Yeongjo

4. Queen Jeongsun

5. Ex-Crown princess Lady Hyegyeong

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Mid-series review of The Red Sleeve (Ep 11)

This drama is so weird to me because it's really good and very serious and then silly or illogical. I feel like it could have been so much better!

Like one of the things I liked the most was when Deok-im is told/realizes that they've been grooming her to be a concubine, without her agreement, the whole time. That is interesting as a story and a commentary on court maids' ability to make choices in their lives, but it doesn't actually match at all with what we've seen so far. The Crown Prince and Deok-im almost always met accidentally. It would have made far more sense if the court ladies were "accidentally" pushing them together and arranging little meet-cutes if this was their master plan. And come on, they have a whole secret organization I'm sure they could pull it off.

Some of the court drama stuff, the character Hong Deok-ro with his two-facedness, and the King Grandpa/Crown Prince relationship is AMAZING and I just wish that the rest didn't pale in comparison.

For example: Princess Hwawan just comes off as screamy and stupid. What exactly does she think will happen? Grandpa will defy nature and live forever if she deposes the Crown Prince? Is the other heir going to let her live in the palace forever? How is constantly offending the Queen helpful at all to her cause? And I know, some people are just stupid, but she has advisors and her son seems pretty bright.

And Deok-im always being the secret solution to everything. She's the king's favourite servant, she has secret messages tattooed on her, she knows how to fly signal flags, on and on. She is basically magic at this point. The Crown Prince trying his best to endure despite being hobbled by his circumstances is way more interesting (to me at least).

Anyway, I generally like it, but I don't think this is making my top 12.

[justsageukthings]

[mysageukinbio]

Hong Guk Young (MBC, 2001)

Yu Hye Ri as Princess Hwawan