I am completely lost by this illogic

[dangermousie]

Am on ep 15 of Tree and Chae Yoon sneers at the Crown Prince that the King is OK with having insignificant people killed for his great cause but would never let his family member (i.e., the Prince) suffer the same way. OK, valid opinion even if not necessarily factually correct.

The Prince counters that nope, the King won't give up letters for anyone, even his son. So he and CY make a bet - CY will write a kidnapping note saying that he has the Prince and if the King doesn't give up creating the alphabet, the Crown Prince is toast. And they'll see what the outcome is. Suicidal but valid way to test the hypothesis.

CP proudly says that nope, the King won't stop even if that means his son's head on a platter. CY says if CP is right, then Chae Yoon will follow the King unquestioningly (and if CP is wrong, CP gets offed).

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCKING FUCK? To me, it is obvious that a man who would sacrifice his own son for a cause is a horrifying monster, a fanatic that would be OK with the biggest bloodbath to achieve his ends (because if he can off his kid to get it, he can create seas of blood, too) and who views humans are pawns - all humans. It's worse than a person who's OK sacrificing those he doesn't know but not those he loves. Infinitely worse. This is how you get historical monsters like Robespierre and Stalin (who refused to exchange his son when he was captured by the Germans as a matter of principle) or those terrorist family members who give interviews that they are proud their son/father/etc blew himself up. This is not a good thing, this is a monster on a scale an average bad guy won't be able to follow, someone who can't be reasoned with, someone who needs to be put down.

AND THE DRAMA SEEMS TO BE TELLING ME THAT THIS IS WHAT WILL MAKE SEJONG A WORTHY PERSON TO FOLLOW?

The fuck!

I don't mind CY instituting such a warped test and seeing the results the way he does - the man is a barely-functioning mess with a chip on his shoulder about inequality. But to expect me, as the viewer, to see "Sejong can have his kid offed for the greater good" as a positive thing? What the fucking fuck. And yet it seems the drama is going that way.

Do not go there drama. If you do, you will remain incredibly acted, well-written, but ideologically so incompatible with my view of the world, this is seriously going to affect my enjoyment.

Comments

[estel-913.livejournal.com]

I know that you already posted above about the resolution to this, but I still think it's an interesting discussion.

This is all theoretical for me, as I don't have kids and so I don't really know how a parent feels, nor have a felt that sense of responsibility. But I do have seven younger brothers and sisters that I helped raise and I love them very much, albeit not as a parent, so I think I have some kind of perspective. I think the conflict here is between the king's duty to his people, and the king's duty to his family. Basically, the conflict between the roles of father of a nation and father of a family. I imagine most people would say that the loss of a few lives is acceptable when the gains are great and benefit the whole nation or group of people. This is the whole premise of war, after all. Also, the practice of marrying off royal children for the political well-being of the nation is fairly standard in pretty much every culture that has royal/ruling families. I suppose I was approaching the whole Crown Prince/Chae-yoon debate from this standpoint, that the Crown Prince believed that his father felt that the benefit of the alphabet to the common people would be so great that even the life of his son would be worth it. From what I saw, the Crown Prince didn't feel like this made his father any less his father, or a bad father at all. It even seemed to be a point of pride to him. And he seemed just as passionate about the project as his father was, and ready to sacrifice his life for a cause he believed in. The Crown Prince is an adult and aware of the risks of helping his father with the alphabet. If everyone's life is of equal value, than should it matter who dies to achieve the ends? Of course Sejong would be devastated, but if on principle he felt that it was worth it, is letting his son die really worse than letting thousands of peasants die?

Not that I'm advocating letting your kids get picked off. I absolutely, 100% believe that parents have the obligation to provide and protect their children, and if Sejong was trying to promulgate a fashion, I would be disgusted at him risking the life of his son. I suppose it boils down to what you believe about the purpose of life and what happens after death. I personally believe (hypothetically) that there might some cases (and I'm not saying that this is one of them, just that I believe there are some) where death is not worse than the alternative.

Like I said, this is all just hypothetical. I'm not making any promises that my view might not change after I have kids.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You make excellent points. I do have a major distrust for anyone willing to sacrifice a loved one for anything but it does make a difference that the son wants it. Hmmm.