Goo Seo-ryung is being wasted in this drama. WASTED. They turned the most powerful woman in the land into a bitchy, jealous second lead and I take 4 mins to go over why this is dumb. /festerfaster
OP, I think you’ve very neatly laid out exactly why this character is just so great and also so frustrating to watch in the show.
I don’t know much about the kdrama world, and haven’t really watched other KES dramas, but she’s been described to me as a “fauxminist” before, by someone whose opinions I trust, and who does watch a lot of kdramas! But I have no real idea of her body of work to judge that for myself, so take what comes next with a pinch of salt.
I do feel though KES *must * be at least somewhat familiar with the struggles that Koo Seo-Ryeong faces in the show- her fight to be taken seriously, her having to perform femininity while also be vilified for it, basically being an ambitious working girl in the modern economy- and has probably more thoughts on it than is evident from Koo Seo-Ryeong’s trajectory so far on the show.
Anyway, initially my feeling at watching this show and this character was to ascribe the hatchet job they’ve done on her to sexism/ internalized misogyny, whatever you want to call it. Yet, now, after episode 12, I feel like the sexism that we see is more a result of lazy writing that has taken refuge in the easiest and most tired of sexist tropes: the inherent “evil” of ambition in women. I mean, of course, misogyny IS also always lazy writing, because frankly, it means you’ve failed at what’s fundamental to good writing- putting yourself in someone else’s shoes- but here I just mean that they literally didn’t think through the character when they created her and then had to rely on the easiest way out of the conundrum she represents to the fundamental philosophy/ nature of their show.
Simply put: I think Koo Seo-Ryeong, just by being who she is in terms of her identity both as a woman, and as someone with a working class background who’s risen up through the ranks- just belongs in another kind of show- a political drama or some kind of actual revolutionary narrative- than in a story about a literal prince/hero who’s the ‘once and future king’. Not only is this show basically about Lee Gon, but it was probably also written as some kind of a “comeback” vehicle for LMH? (Guesswork on my part! i think i read that he’s in a show after a long time?)
In other words, this show is literally written around the idea of the inherent goodness of the powerful upper class heterosexual male (a fantasy if ever there was one, but also, like, a familiar fantasy!)
The problem they have with Koo Seo-Ryeong seems to be that once they introduce a character like hers; she can have no place except as an antagonist, because that’s where her own identity places her, and then there’s literally no way to actually give her any real power in the narrative without bringing down the entire damn fantasy around your ears. If you had Koo Seo-Ryeong standing there in her high heels and shooting knives out of her eyes with the character motivation of “I hate the institution of monarchy and I want to bring a democratic revolution to my country and I will do what I need to achieve that”- and thereby also force you to question the entire premise of the show- wow, that bit where Lee Gon literally puts his own subjects in mortal danger (ep 10) or goes on a killing spree in episode 12 for no other reason than just to be a Dramatic Bitch ™ begins to read a lot differently, right?
So then, they have to shoe-horn her into “evil bitch”, and do it by relying on the sexist tropes I mentioned above; they have to dress up her ambition as being REALLY about the man than the idea of him, or what he actually represents.
And yet, somehow, they slip up SO often, that it’s actually kind of hilarious! Even that one line about her wondering why Lee Gon doesn’t smile at her, becomes a sort of a problem-solving exercise, rather than any indication of how she feels about him. Because it’s made clear over and over again that she really doesn’t like him. It’s textually acknowledged by herself and other characters ( eg Lady Noh doesn’t like her because she knows that Seo-Ryeong doesn’t care for Lee Gon, the person), but because this show is what it is, they can never actually explain that dislike. The show plays it off as “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, but the venom with which she says “Let’s see how honest you are” in ep 11 (or 12?) after she finds out about Lee Lim, hints at something else entirely. To pull at that thread would mean unraveling the construct of Lee Gon, and that is what the show can’t afford to do.
So we’re stuck with this character who’s basically badly stitched into a narrative where she doesn’t belong and the result is that some of us are tearing at our hair while also going, Madam Prime Minister please sit on my face.
The torture is REAL.
Uh, op, I might have hijacked your post a bit? Sorry?
I enjoyed your video and hope you make more! :)
