dangermousie | Liveblogs and screencaps of eps 14 and 15 of The Legend. Why yes, I am still at it.

I have officially decided that Dam Deok is my favorite drama hero ever. Any drama. Also, The Legend is bucking for my favorite drama, period, status.

The entry into that fortress? Most pwnage ever. I love you, DD!

Meanwhile. Jumuchi and Sujini are fake messengers. That girl loves to fight.

Sujini takes time off in the middle of battle to give Jumuchi, the tough mercenary leader, sex advice. LOL.

DD is so smart he ends up taking the later fortresses bloodlessly, through preceeding reputation (i.e., citizen, you can have stuff you give to your overlords back).

Ho Gae is single-minded when it comes to Kiha. But glad to see he still has time for requisite crazy breaks.

Ho Gae, you are hot but insanity is fast losing you that advantage. In fact, right now your monomania over symbols, manhandling messangers, and just genrally being BUGFUCK insane, makes me want you punch you. Repeatedly. While wearing chainmail gloves.

Ho Gae, if you do not do what DD asked of you, I will crawl into the screen myself, so help me, and strangle you!

OK, that's it. By killing that poor messenger, I don't care how hot you are, I hope someone offs you painfully.

Ministers, stop whining. I think you should just all kill each other.

Great, Kiha has progressed from whiny and useless and ambivalent to evil and not useless but still whiny. Great, now she should definitely reciprocate Ho Gae's feelings and they can be psychos together.

Yup, Kiha is definitely Kajin reincarnated. She has her selfishness, her 'mememememe' attitude to everything. Well, Kajin, look at it this way, at least in this life you got to get it on with him first.

Kiha, I hate you. You are a stupid, selfish, evil &**&^&%%. And you always need a focus for your monomania. Working things out with DD would be too hard and too 'real' so you'll fixate on your future kid, who will obviously be dependent on you. You'll probably be like Ho Gae's Mom, which says interesting things about that whole dynamic.

Poor DD, Sujini et al are so exhausted they are literally sleeping sitting up during counsel.

If I didn't love you with love of a thousand suns already, I would after the counsel scene, DD. Because he won't send his men to certain death and will retreat and give back the fortresses if he has to and oh...I seriously have no words.

God, I haaaaate Lord Yon and Evil Elder. Why don't they outevil each other to death?

But not as much as I hate Kiha, who has just committed an equivalent of matricide.

Mmmm, even Ho Gae's generals are all 'we are not going to help the King bwa??????'

Great, more self-loathing for DD, because someone else died carrying out his orders.

Eee, Jumuchi and Julno Chief left for that suicide mission because they knew DD would never order them to (or anyone) so now DD is going to join them. Seriously, guys, did you really need to give Suicide Boy more excuses to join you in a doomed endeavor?

Yup, so DD is going to ride there. Alone. Because he won't risk more men. OMG. And his Chief General is 'King cannot ride alone' so DD is 'Fine, six soldiers shall accompany me, is this good enough' etc etc and there is yelling and I get hormonal. General Note: I am having trouble following the plot because the general hotness of Bae Yong Joon in battle armor has sort of fried some essential portion of my brain. (Though the use of 'fried' in context of freaky Kiha is probably not advised)

'I won't let them die again. I will never let anyone die because of me.'

Oh OH OH that is such an (unspoken) flashback/burden of those Julno men from ep 9.

The General kneels to him. And he kneels back. And promises to make sure he (general) keeps the promise to the dead King to have no harm come to DD. If anyone, DD understands the pressure of promises to the dead.

Ok, the warlord of the Gwanmi Fortress is Cheoro. You mean this is what is under full-face mask? Whoa.

OK, the ages thing is all screwed up here. No way is Cheoro almost 10 years older than Kiha (but I don't mind at all, especially with all the weird supernatural stuff, for all I know it's making them age differently. Basically, I like it enough not to care).

I can't say I care for Cheoro's living arrangements. I am all for fresh air and natural look, but ruins? Overgrown ones? Not so 'home and garden.'

OMG, Cheoro has ISSUES (well, if you had his childhood, so would you). And very weird scabby hands (that even a good moisturizer won't help).

I love that even in going to help with an utterly suicide mission, DD still has a plan. And guess who is going to come with him, despite all his protests? Yup, Sujini.

OMG, Cheoro is all despairing because he hates having to kill all these people and he just keeps hoping that maybe they will go away, because that's sort of a curse, they always come to conquer and he always kills them because what is the alternative, but he just wants to be left in peace.

That is so true, the whole 'I need to save men no matter what' and 'I love to fight' feelings are totally at war in DD. That is why he can 'relax' when it's just him fighting so he is the only one at risk, or when everyone is already as committed as they can ever be and so he has no choice, so to speak, just clean fighting ahead.

OMG, the smile on his face when he sees Sujini with the mercenaries, her own unharmed, fiercely cheerful self.

Ep 15!

Kiha, you are a %&*^&. What else is new.

I love that Tiger Trige automatically assumes that the symbol must be in Gwanmu because why else would DD invade such a formidable place with so few men. I love how they are bound by their evil. (Just as men who follow Ho Gae do so out of love for his 'reputation' and image and those who follow DD do so out of real knowledge and love of real him.)

Battle! And DD's forces are doing really well, except now Cheoro decided to get involved so...

OMG, Cheoro/Jumuchi fight is amazing. Now Cheoro is about to kill Jumuchi so of course Sujini and the archers charge off.

And Cheoro has them all knocked down and on the ground (unconscious?). So? DD charges off. Seriously, not waiting or anything. EEEEE! Because of Sujini. !!!!!! Nobody messes with her and lives, clearly.

OMG, Cheoro's heart is hurting now, that DD is near, because that is where his father thrust the dragon symbol.

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! He is no dummy, he picks up Sujini (unconscious) and has her on his horse with him. Because anyone can tell who DD came for OMG OMG DD sees OMG

Cheoro, brilliant plan. Except now instead of a Jooshin King you got a super-pissed-off, psycho protective Jooshin King because you took the woman he loves!!! (I think he is beginning to realize that love, too!) Great.

Jumuchi/Accountant is the sweetest thing ever.

OH OH OH
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Even her own father-type 'Master' plans to abandon Sujini but not DD! He orders the troops to withdraw but OMG OMG he is so going to go in alone to rescue Sujini and he is not admitting it but Sujini's master can tell and is all 'don't even think it'

There is now a brewing mutiny in HG's army. I wonder why. Not.

And now he is sick and still fixating on Kiha 'is she still not here?'

Kiha is here and the scene where she cools his face made me die. OMG, I get so pissed off at HG and then when he is with Kiha, all intense and devoted and so helplessly in love, and I melt all over again. Plus, stubble! And when he says 'this is a dream.' OMG, and she tells him she will make requests etc and he says she doesn't have to even request, as long as she tells him she wants him, and he will be hers. OMG.

Kiha's response? 'I want your soul. When I have it, I will use it. And when I am done, I will discard it.' I HATE YOU KIHA. Kiha, seriously Ho Gae has issues but not even he deserves to have his head screwed up even further.

And she wants him to kill DD for her and he smiles, rather sadly, and asks 'will I be disposed of the same way sometime in the future?' and she says 'perhaps' so he just stares at her and tells her if the time comes, to do it herself.

Oh the DYSFUNCTION. I wonder if he sees in Kiha a reflection of his mother: another unstable, magnetic, powerful yet broken woman, only this time he can save her.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! DD left. On his own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For Sujini!!!!!!!

He left a note. No idea what is says but probably not 'don't wait up.'

Eee, and now Jumuchi and Teacher are off to rescue her too :)

Sujini's waking up in Cheoro's 'lair' has a very fairy-tale-like quality.

Side-note observation: It's clear now that both DD and Sujini (as well as some secondary characters) can put the good of others, the well-being of the person(s) they care for, above their own needs or wishes. But Ho Gae is only capable of that with Kiha (oh, what a waste. He could have been such a good person, if he was from a different family. Of course, now Kiha is completing the head-trip his parents left him with). And Kiha is not capable of it for anyone. Which makes sense: being brought up by Tiger Tribe isn't really going to instill good ethics. It's just for a time she loved DD more than her 'upbringing' but then it proved too complicated and difficult and painful and she reverted.

DAM DEOK I WANT YOUR FICTIONAL BABIES I WILL FIGHT BOTH KIHA AND SUJINI FOR YOU. EXCEPT I WANT SUJINI TO HAVE YOU OH THE DILEMMA.

Why? He rides up, all by himself, to the FREAKING fortress, with a messenger flag, saying he is a messenger who wants to meet the warlord.

I

cannot

breathe

now.

Jumichi and Teacher (hiding) think they are hallucinating!

He is offering all ten fortresses he conquered back for Sujini. !!!!! Both awesome AND clever, as he was going to have to give them up anyway, as no reinforcements to keep them.

They lower the drawbridge! Man, how much do I love the fact that he rides into the lair of his enemies. ALONE. Almost as much as you see that he has to steel himself to do it, because he is afraid.

He has no weapons with him OMG. (Obviously, because he is supposed to be a messenger).

General of Cheoro's asks him his name and he says he cannot say otherwise he'd have to lie.

OMG, General remembers that awesome, brutal polo game and recognizes him because he was a spectator and you can see he is thinking DD is both awesome and insane (true on both counts) and all he says is 'did you watch game at the [name] castle? It was a magnificent spectacle.'

BYJ seriously has the most expressive face ever.

OMG, poor Cheoro. I love that scene where Sujini (armed with a stick, that girl is never daunted) finds him in thay enchanted-type wood, and it's such a beauty and the beast scene, where he is all 'I am not human, I have never been ill because I am not, everyone screams and runs away when they see me' and he has so much loneliness and misery in his voice and you can see Sujini's anger turn to pity.

I loooooove love love the scene with her and Cheoro to bits. Because he truly is horrifically deformed and scary to look at but she doesn't run away and she touches his hand and...eeeee. Seriously, if I wasn't such a rabid DD/S shipper, I could so ship them.

'I will relinquish all ten of Baekje fortresses as long as you return the girl you took.' Am dead now, thank you.

'Is she your woman?' asjgjitjgjfjdjdjdjdjd

The scene where DD frees Cheoro from his curse is amazing.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I so called it. They made the connection between Kiha and Ho Gae's Mom (for Ho Gae) explicit. Lord Yon, with all his many evils and faults, is no fool, and he definitely could tell about his son and he basically said as much to Evil Elder.

Oh. I love that bit, where Lord Yon says to Evil Elder: 'to his mother, Ho Gae was the sky, what is he to [Kiha]?' I can answer it: 'The ground on which to walk on, Lord Yon. Sorry.'

EEEE, at the scene of Cheoro seeing his face for the first time since he was 10. Mmmmm. And since I know what kind of face it is, I am all eager anticipation :)

Heee, the bickering on ride back between DD, Sujini, Jumuchi and Teacher. Teacher is all 'even if they give us the fortress' (which they did), we can't rule it, who sends army away and goes to meet enemy by himself, we can't return to Gogureyo blah blah blah and DD grins and is 'so, shall we stay at the fortress and rule it with the four of us?' LOL, I love you DD!!!!!!

The army is here anyway!!! because the general wouldn't leave and DD is angry they disobeyed but after the most awesome adorable scene ever, he just can't be mad any more and seriously. BYJ? You have the most awesome, contageous grin ever.

And now tons of caps.

Map superimposition:

Ho Gae is sort of sliding into insanity. I think it's all the creepy red backlighting, myself.

How to win friends and influence people, Ho Gae style (he just killed DD's messenger):

Kiha has come to kill the Oracle. Ugh. I hate Kiha, now.

Awww, DD and his band of few are so exhausted they are sleeping sitting up:

This is here for the pretty:

You can never have too much of this scene (from ep 9, flashbacked to):

I really like him:

Eeeee, this flashback time, I did manage to capture Sujini covering shellshocked DD with her own body in 9:

Yeah, yeah, you be crazy. But still hot.

I like this shot:

His men are off by themselves on a suicide mission:

Brilliant but clearly death-wishing-if-he-is-thinking-of-going DD off to join them:

Confrontation with the General:

Geee, I wonder who will come with him?

That is what I call an unhappy camper:

Awww, hell, do I need an excuse to post pretty caps of BYJ?

General kneels to him and he kneels to the General. OMG

Pretty:

Cheoro with his father and his general, when he was a kid:

There he is now:

Mmmm.

He sees Sujini OK, eee!

Preview:

And now caps from ep 15.

Evilness:

Ready for battle:

Staredown? Hard to tell, with a guy in a mask.

Pardon me while I swoon:

Sujini is taken!

Accountant Lady/Jumuchi awwww:

Oh boy, he is so thinking of going off alone to rescue her, isn't he?

Missing Kiha:

Kiha, aka Evil One, is here:

This whole scene killed me dead in a totally totally totally total way. (also, how sad, he saw her as a connection to his goodness but she is the gateway into destruction and evil instead):