Faith episodes 1 and 2 - megapost

[dangermousie]

I am so obsessed, I have no words. I haven't yet watched the latest Gaksital, or the newly-started Arang, because I have been too busy fixating on this new awesome shiny. It's pretty much a pitch-perfect mix of heroic fantasy, humor, and cool characters.



I love Eun Soo, who is coping a lot better with this insanity that I would have - an armored man breaks into a medical conference, takes her hostage, makes her fix a man he just slashed to see her skills, and drags her into some insane place to stitch up a woman. She also gets kidnapped and held at knifepoint by thugs etc (who she does her best to fight). The fact that she is not constantly screaming is a testament to her guts. I also love how competent she is by the virtue of being a surgeon - all these warriors and political bigwigs, but none of them can do what she does, and she doesn't flinch at the sight of blood. And I loved it when Choi Young was trying to be a noble idiot and tell her to leave him to die, and she just yelled at him to shut up and that she will fix him and then he can live or die as he pleases. I also find it so realistic she refuses to believe she has time-traveled.

I think Kim Hee Sun and Lee Min Ho have oodles of chemistry and I love all the scenes between them. I love how he sneaks looks at her when she is operating, quietly impressed. I love how he crouches at her eye level when they talk, the way he picks her up and carries her around (and oh, that little amused grin). Even now, this early in their interactions, she sets him on edge, evokes a reaction nobody else can evoke in the deliberately phlegmatic general, who seems to spend his life controlling his feelings within an inch of their life - you can tell that he feels deeply but he doesn't allow it to show in any way. Just as he studiously disdains any attachments except for duty and honor - he lives and dies by his code of honor, even when that code makes him serve an unworthy (yet?) puppet king who abuses his loyalty (the scene where he tells the King that he has killed for the King, and the politicians lie for him, but the King has to be above all - chills. Chills. He wants to believe he serves someone worthy, so badly. I now wish there was a cross-over, where Choi Young rode under Dam Deok's banner).

Eun Soo seems to be a new and only chink in the armor. When the King ordered Choi Young to prevent Eun Soo from leaving (after CY gave her his word that she would be free after she treated the queen! And after he explained to the King that his word is his life. Psycho King, wtf, even his wife, the Yuan princess, understands that such an order means CY's death, either in defying the order or in dying to atone for the dishonor of the broken promise, but the King just doesn't think), it actually takes him a moment, even this early, to obey the royal order, to put away the sword he was threatening the guards with to protect her right to leave. He is this close to snapping and part of it is his word, but part of it is just her. And I love the self-loathing and shame in his eyes when he keeps her from leaving, when the portal closes and she is stuck there, with them. And then, when she runs at him with a sword, he lets her stab him through the abdomen, and actually pulls the sword in (!!!!) and when she whispers 'why?', he asks her if this will be enough to atone. OMFG. Though narratively, it's perfect - not only does it cement Choi Young as a man who wants to keep his word at the cost of his life, and the man who lives and dies by his honor, it's the only way to allow Eun Soo to move past hatred. Because let's face it - if a man dragged me away to some grungy past and then prevented me from leaving, breaking his promise (even if under duress), I'd hate him forever, even if he looked like Lee Min Ho. But with this, it's hard to hold on a grudge. The slate is wiped clean.

I do like that he is not just a 21-st century man in 15th century clothes - his swift, instinctive violence (remember his torturing the boat keeper for information? or when he slashed a guard to show where the queen's wound was?) is certainly in keeping with the times. I love that he can take out a battalion on alone, is focused and fierce and loyal and too literal. Or that he has a dry sense of humor, a detachment he wears like armor, and an almost suicidal devotion to honor and the right thing. I love that he has a rock-solid moral center.

I also like what we've seen of the dynamic of the king and queen (Team Queen), the characters are all complex. So far, the only one I truly hate is the King's chief minister, who seems to take great pleasure in giving an order that he knows would break Choi Young's honor, who does his best to kill CY when the latter is wounded so they won't have to tarry and wait and try to heal him. Die, scum! Oddly, I like the baddies so far - the flute-playing guy and the head honcho are both hot and I am shallow.

Some caps:

Choi Young seeing Eun Soo lecturing.








Watching her on a monitor.





Kidnapping her to come with him (after verifying she can do surgery by making her fix a similar injury).












































Promising her that once she fixes the queen, he will bring her back even if it means his life.











Here for the pretty.











Telling the King that his (CY) word is his life and he promised ES they will let her go, so they must let her go. And also quietly burning about what a king should be. I hope this King becomes worthy of the devotion of his life.








Hot bad guys...














He rescues her from the kidnappers and tells her the queen woke up so he is going to take her back to the portal. And picks her up. OMG.
























































At the portal, the Chief Minister shows up and tells him she can't go, she has to stay.

















Even after being told that this is a royal order, he doesn't lower his sword right away. But ultimately he is put between duty and honor, an untenable choice, and with eyes full of self-hatred (he really does look broken), he goes and drags her away from the portal. And then the portal closes, gone forever. And she is left scrabbling, and the look in his eyes!






























































And she really loses it, and comes at him screaming, with a sword. Which he could easily avoid (and she knows and everyone knows), but instead he steps into its path. And she runs him through and they stare at each other and then he pulls the sword in deeper. As atonement to her for breaking his word to her. OMFG!!!! A man who is willing to die because he broke his word to you is...a keeper? Ummm? (Also, what is it with LMH dramas and propensity for wounds inflicted by the OTP?)















































The King and the Queen. I love that the King appears shocked that Choi Young is now dying as the outcome of his breaking his word. Psycho King seems to have done it as some sort of insecurity-driven test and is shocked that CY meant it when he said his word was his life. Queen spells it for him in small words.








Meanwhile, chief minister tries to kill the barely-alive CY to speed their travel (!!! WTF!). Luckily, Eun Soo tells him to fuck off and transports him for surgery. She also yells at CY to shut up when he tries to be a martyr. Go, girl! (I love CY's deadpan humor, which seems to be present no matter what - when she is asking him if he's awake/conscious, he mumbles that with her talking at him, how can he be otherwise).



























































Here for the pretty. Did I mention he fights with a fan. A fan!






This is pretty much every fantasy novel, wuxia, and romance novel I ever wanted, wrapped in one.

You get a prize for slogging through this!

Comments

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I loved the way CY in the present day was handled - our world looked like an alien planet, and dangerous. It's a great point about him vs Boong Do - I think the fact that there is twice as much time between CY and modern time as there is between BD and modern time explains a little of the difference, and the fact that BD is a scholar while CY is a warrior does too, but most of it are the vastly different personalities (which probably led to them choosing different professions in the first place). BD always felt to me like a man out of his time in the 17th (?) century. He fit better in our world. To me, one of the tragedies when he was trapped back in his own time in the last few eps wasn't just his separation from Yoo Inna, but the fact that our world. the world that was more suited for him, with all the new knowledge he wanted, was closed to him. But CY is different - he is very much a man of his own time. I agree, if he ends up in the 21st century, that would be an incredible culture shock and dangerous, too - BD was good with a sword but he was a scholar. CY is a warrior who used to be a Korean equivalent of a ninja prior to that -- he's a trained killer with morals. But that is not how one should react in the modern world unless one's time travel is going to be spent in a maximum security prison or some sort of government lab for electro powers. I have no idea how they will resolve this - is she going to stay in the past? That doesn't sound appetizing to a normal woman, LMH or not.

Re: the King. From what I read, he is going to have a massive growth arc, which ne desperately needs, because now he is a little douchebag. (I get that he dislikes the Queen in large part because she's Yuan and he is lashing out his Yuan-related frustrations on the only Yuan person available, but that was still a jerk jerk move).

That's true, I didn't realize nobody told her when/where she was!

[shadowkeeper.livejournal.com]

I think CY in modern times took away the possiblity of the main couple ending to together in her timer period. (From the writer's previous dramas, I don't think one can predict if the couple stays together, are forced to separate, or if CY dies -a historical possibility) If CY goes back to the future, he's probably a wanted fugitive for attacking that security guard and kidnapping EunSoo. Even if he wasn't, could he be trained out of reacting to everything violently?
EunSoo remaining in the past might be more of a possibility? Like, there are all those restrictions on women in ancient times, and a normal modern woman isn't going to like that at all. But, she is a genius (in their standards) doctor everyone thinks is from heaven. If that terrible minister never finds out the actual truth, she could probably be granted a whole lot of freedoms to do what she liked while working as a surgeon there.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can't see CY adjusting well to modern times at all - leaving the culture shock, I just don't see him being able to overcome his innate level of violence, one appropriate to a 15th-century warrior but not to anyone in 21st century Seoul. He seems to literally have been trained for it from the cradle and overcoming that kind of conditioning - yikes.

Plus, Choi Young is a noted historical figure (even if one who, probably, didn't produce lightning from his fingertips) - dragging him to the future and thus robbing history of decades-long presence in it he would otherwise have is kinda a big deal. It's not like with Boong Do (who was not only fictional, but also a minor historical figure even within the drama world). It's as if I traipsed back into long-ago England and brought the Duke of Marlborough back with me before he had a chance to make his mark on history.

The thing with her staying in the past, I can buy it, but I would never do it myself, love or not.