dangermousie | Spoilers through ep 14 of Tree with Deep Roots (Reply)

Bad guys get So Yi and this incredible scene follows. I love that So Yi gets back her voice because she wants and needs to protect the temporarily-blinded Chae Yoon. And how they are about to be taken out and CY shields SY with his own body. And then the King and guards show up.

The King knows he's Ddolbok and lets him know and I love how CY tries to reach for the sword. But the King lets him and So Yi leave.

Ohhhh, this scene killed me. The way he takes care of her in such encompassing little ways and actually smiles and his little fantasy of their future life OMG.

And then she drops the bombshell that she wants to back to work on the alphabet. That was such a painful scene - both are principled and driven by damage into opposite directions. I confess I wanted to smack her though - I would never pick ideology over personal feelings. So Yi seems to live by 'personal isn't the same as important' (tm Carrot from the Guards books) but that has never sat easy with me. I hope I warm up to her again because as of first half of ep 14, I've cooled down towards her considerably. Also, fine, do the alphabet, shouldn't you make sure your suicidal OTP doesn't decide to off himself before you ditch? She's damaged and driven and I understand her, but her priorities are not mine.

Yup, hello there, suicide attempt. He has nothing to live for now - no revenge, no So Yi.

But he decides that ancient version of suicide by cop is better. Brilliant plan, So Yi, with your 'he'll totally come back and Sejong can persuade him about our great cause.'

The confrontation between Sejong and Chae Yoon in ep 14 is pretty much why drama exists - the dialogues, the acting, the ideological confrontation. That was beyond incredible. Oh, the bit where CY tries to kill himself and yells that in his last will, his father told him to be useful to his master (slavery of the soul indeed) kills me. FWIW, I agree with Chae Yoon - powerless people aren't mistreated because they are illiterate, they are mistreated because they are powerless. If they can read, they will still be mistreated, in different ways. Sejong isn't wrong - more knowledge is a good thing - but what really needs to change is political structure, which isn't happening in 15th century (we see what happens when even the most fusion of sageuks - Hong Gil Dong tries - I still have emotional scars).

She asks him to stay and he walks off. Honestly, just jump off a bridge, So Yi. Did you really think your stunt was going to end up in any positive fashion? Seeing lack of corpsicles, this is about as well as it could have gone, and it's still somewhere beneath awful.

And now I need an emotional break. Also, my craving to rewatch Tamra the Island is getting kinda insane. I posted this MV before but have it again.