Moonlight Drawn by Clouds 12

They got married.

No, kidding.

No kidding.

Drama gives me Meet the Mom as OTP wore matchy CP hanbok color-coordinating with the sweeping, warmest, illuminating sunset.  It is an episode of Yeong wearing mostly violets and purples, the color for royal, ceremonies, marriage of fierce passionate red and calm stable blue. Just off the interweb: In the meaning of colors, purple and violet represent the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded.   And you do not suppose my crazy head wouldn’t…

The character/hanja for marriage, 婚/혼 《禮》：娶婦以昏時，从女，从昏,故曰婚 : Take your bride at (昏)sunset.

We begin the episode proper rhyming back to the first ‘date’ at the lantern festival. I thought, under the heightened awareness of connecting with another soul…it was just a vision RaOn projecting Mom on Prince at the bridge ep FIVE.  No, Mom was there, and the serendipity is, that is exactly the piece of information Prince connects, especially when he was overwhelmed then, thus made a deeper connection with RO yearning for Mom, the theme of the entire lantern wish scene.  Mind is boggled in such cohesiveness, in patiently layering a thought, a scene, this drama.  I love how a conversation is revealed in truncated progression, all in due time, and we experience what’s said with the exact proximate intimacy as the characters, or whatever the characters in the know try to veil,  protecting the other.

This drama speaks volumes of beautiful poetry to me every freaken scene I can’t take in healthily. A sudden downpour breaking brightest sunset, as they ride off, promising her Mom he will take greatest care of her (how is this not them entering a union as a man and his lady, tell!me!).  They pause and takes in the shelter of a conventional shade.  Never a moment forgetting her station as his servant, as his eunuch, is a life line, the ultimate solution to the dilemma of staying by his side, she should fetch Prince his umbrella while he stays dry.   Instead he reminds her their vow, they are first and forever lovers, she is his most precious he can not bare not having by his side even a moment, especially suffering for his sake.  They are slowly strolling like under the cover of moonlit nights, her hand is his to hold this time, for better and/or worse weather, such improvement than leaving her holding in sobs alone that night.

Her finger runs on his thumb, at the reflex point relieving distress

He has run the palace grounds before, with her on his back, not blatantly as ‘a Prince in love with a eunuch’ then. Now, in those plain words, fate just happens, he said.

He will protect her come rain and come shine, in whatever unexpected marvelous storms…like running happily with his love, in a downpour.

He had run in the rain, a happiest moment, barefoot with his Mom, and another vision he must be experiencing this moment of her dancing, when she first captivated him irrevocably an alluring enigma he helplessly could not touch.

And now those most gorgeous eyes are bestowed upon him with the joy she has always deserved.  How is this not a marriage of souls?!

And I would coin the insanely romantic intimate subsequent scene in his room the most breathtaking consummation pertaining such fantasy union.   This is not the usual doting puppy in love bright gaze of Prince on RO, but a man at his betrothed, thick with want pouring from dazed eyes fixated on her. His lips parted at just the touch of the kerchief she is drying him, worry he would catch a cold, while her dripping gat is still on.  It is a revelation this is a moment of her initiating a physical intimacy as his love RaOn, not eunuch Hong.

He is hit by a fresh dazzling, she is so sweetly serious on her promise to him to be his lady by his side.  After her emotional reunion with Mom, she could have excused herself from servitude and he would have granted her freedom, yet she is swept with the new worry, doting on him over such a trivial thing as fear he would catch a cold.

He takes off her gat, as if taking off her bridal veil, taking the care not to startle her further, his fingers do not even grace her skin. For the second time, he reminds her of their ‘vow’ he is her man, she is his most precious lady he most respects, waxing poetry without a word, just action.  When we (and lol RaOn )are anticipating the natural progression to a kiss or more, our conventional physical token of love, what if Prince does not want to shower her a representation, but the entire enormity of his love for her?!

Sweeping her off her feet, carrying her like his bride, holding her on his lap, he loves her without breaking his most innocent gaze on her.  Her head higher than his usual towering stature, worshiping her, his most endearing childlike smile back on.  He only allows the physical intimacy of his fingers to linger while he takes the handkerchief in her hand, tending to her instead.  With this kerchief, I thee wed, he must be saying his oath.

She let’s him in, into her inner fear, how nerve wrecking anxious she is this very moment in joy , so happy it could only be unreal, she does not have faith it is not borrowed time, never destined to be.  He does not speak as directly his own fear, but being foreboded reuniting RO with her Mom will put him in danger by Teacher, even if that does not measure against RO’s happiness, thus his happiness, it is a looming thought haunting.  And he expresses his wist RO is able to be happy without him outside the palace.

Vowing for the third time, he has her words, how can she leave him without his permission, she can be coy.  Still antsy even it is a truth, he himself would never allow her to leave his side, as he is proclaiming the myriads of ways just the afternoon.  He asks her rhetorically yet again if she means it.  Her smiles so wide, he loves her so.   He holds her wedlocked in his embrace, keeping this sweet distance as he drowns in her joyous eyes.

I can only scream how much I love there is never a contrivance to torture our loveliest Guy2 into more misery bombarded by OTP sweetness.  He is there on business of urging on the royal wedding proceedings,  I am sure he will fit in a concerned word to Prince he just learned the rebel leader Hong’s daughter is undercover in palace.  And it flows so organically with the usual of our Prince uttering his RaOn-ah provoking her to gift him her gorgeous smile he is obsessed with. While shocked to core, YS continue with taking his leave, not having the agency nor heart to burst the cuteness overload he witnessed.

It is only later on when situation gets most dire, he conveys to Princes in direst words:

You will be in danger too, Your Highness!

-If I lose faith just with these words, I would have never started.

This intricate work over a predictable plot point,  my love for you Writer, knows no bound.  Because I have never cared how a Guy2 loves un-reciprocated, the passive aggressive coaxing, bombardment of unwanted love sacrifices, creating guilt and any continuing of denying the affection will slap heroine labels of cruel/ungrateful.  Since RO’s refusal, he has never consciously intruded in her face, kept his distance while he exerts his love for her only when it serves a higher code of honor, often without her awareness.  He has a respect for Prince and RO so genuinely in love with no place for even a third wheel.  He was going to walk out discreetly regardless, and his hesitation was more about that dull pain hitting his own heart learning his dear ones, RO and Prince will be shattered.

温无破夺 is his nickname (stealing hearts ruthlessly not showing warmth)  and this is the episode we taste how ruthless a kickass martial artist he is under that draped in finest flowery embroidered silks gentleman.  JinYoung is now in my good promising pile, of course his perfectly symmetrical born for saguek face is a rare beautiful unicorn on its own

Where are you hurt?  Is it serious?

Who does not love the Yeong/BY bromance because whenever there is a misapprehension about to rear ugly head causing a crack, their faith in their genuine friendship always prevail even if it is just a inner precious bearing to soldier on.  In their relationship, they are armored in a tri-layer of self, a calm innocent front they each want to present to the other with enough genuine sincerity, hiding under which are their own sharpest intuitions and stern responsibilities to their vocation, for Prince, it is to employ the most perceptive critical judgment on everyone round him with so much at stakes and beyond his control;

BY is to remain loyal to WhiteCloudClan AND Prince with some white lies involved, he meticulously carves a balance of serving both fractions he is chivalrously or emotionally invested in, never losing focus on the betterment of the citizens first.  Then in the deepest softest part of their heart are the innocent boyhood bffs, each the other’s one and only purest love and trust they are trying mightiest to preserve.   Yeong clearly remembers vividly picking up the clue of BY’s with secrets back in the street fight, he chose to trust BY then, and telling him directly how BY is the only one he could trust the most, repressing the suspicion deeper within he has been refusing to mine more, but with the fresh lies and clues this episode, he could not ignore, the last thing he would want to be a truth.  His face looks a hellish agony all his pain from the presumed betrayal the guttural hurt it is ‘BY’ about to slay him alive, I doubt he is even feeling physical pain from the gushing slashes.

Was BY performing another WhiteCloud secret mission, out of palace, thus late to scene?  It could also simply he was in his quarters resting his fresh injuries the attack was too stealth escalating too swift for him to rush to scene.  But if YS shows up so timely…why not BY?!

KimClowns said they hired 10 hitmen, 9 corpses found, but I saw 11 masked men. Just my old eyes or Should I be worried?!

I beg I’ll definitely know more on BY that night next ep.  It would break my heart if he was with Eunuch Han going along some scheming and they camped out just to this crucial moment of rescue, to cash in earning back Prince’s complete trust and shutting his suspicion BY has connection with WhiteCloud.

Please no, even if it makes cruel sense, it would break me on both BY and eunuch Han’s account… because my hinge is Han won’t resort to a bloody revolution, as he reassured BY, but more playing mind game manipulating Prince through RO.  As long as citizens are served, I can live with Prince being a wifey slave of RO.

Faking as WhiteCloud and framing them with Prince’s assassination was as clever as the Kim duodolts could come up with for life, I guess. I am befuddled with a few details:  do they truly intend to assassin Prince?!  This is scarily literal in the cutting him to size instilling fear in him to never cross Kims.  Why would they hold only RO hostage when they brutally killed EVERYONE else?!  *was sooo worried for Eunuch Jang!*  Is it such a best known secret lil Eunuch Hong is Prince’s fav?!

This episode is not as accessible to me under the exhilarating luster. The sword dance is kickass beautiful, of course, but I could never imagine myself thinking I would rather do without RO almost entirely in the fighting and just let her witness Prince injury very end.  I love KYJ, but even in the shock and trauma I could not process the Hong SamNom/RaOn we met in ep1 to be nothing but passive, as exquisite she is giving us precise nuance through every slightly different and natural deer in headlight faces throughout the entire scene.  I have a hard time dissecting why RO did not leap to Prince as soon as he was slashed, eunuch Jang, anyone would’ve thrown entire body between Prince and’BY’.  I bet the too subtle point it might be trying to convey is while Prince has been warned by Teacher, then YS, it has never crossed RO’s mind, a commoner’s mind, for whom seeing CP is some godly miracle.  CP is royally invincible and untouchable, it is beyond her scope to imagine an assassination could take place in the heavily guarded palace, especially when her Mom must’ve kept the bloody revolt 10 years ago from her the best she could.

RO is still living with utmost cautiousness for Prince’s preservation, she has never initiated any physical intimacy since knowing his identity, closest was her fingers hovering on his veiled forehead when he was napping on her lap, hesitant to ever touch it…till this precipitates all her caged up physical expression of her love.  I wonder if I could suspend my disbelief RO is just in a stupor shellshocked as she put it to words to him later on she is so beyond scared of losing him.  It is perhaps still not something she could imagine, Prince throwing away his sword, surrendering his life buying her a very slim chance to live.  His life, for his country he is working so hard towards bettering, is nothing she thought measurable to lose whatever the circumstance.   She has zero command of a sword and might’ve been savvy trying to be out of way…perhaps she is overthinking if she gets hurt, Prince will not be able to fight with as sharp a mind as he is doing along with YS, thus she is better transparent.

^I love this perfect touch of cinematographic magic when Prince’s safest stagnant room is about to shaken with the quivering blurring of the background at flickering candlelight.

This is the first scene I am as unsure what is going on with RO’s mind.  I had rather have a simpler scene of RO being shoved out of room, focusing entirely on the love and loyalty of YS (and BY) towards Prince.  It is not really a bother though because if I put it in context of the stifling social norms of Joseon it is boring fluffiness if classism is cured by romance miraculously somehow, so I will just take it as even with all the genuine swooning of Prince all along, it is impossible for RO to shake deeper roots of inferiority as a member of commoners.  And such prejudice affects her thoughts, shaping her words, her actions/nonactions, becoming a habit of how she loves Prince so inconspicuously guardedly under the smiles and that’s what putting Prince on edge with insecurity, in fear of her leaving with her Mom, quite convinced she could live contently without him.  With his fresh onslaught of loving her as equals, she is just comfortable enough to express her underlying stress and fear of being so unrealistically happy, too happy…because they can never be equals.  She is completely powerless his person at his command…and disposal, and devastatingly now as a pawn threatening his life.   Without letting much be known to Prince, nor even us audience, RO has been bottling in every moment with Prince expecting it to be finite because she could be nobody, a notion Prince actually had the faith he somehow has the power and wit to find a way out till the dire caution of Teacher and YS…now the assassination.  In the face of life and death, not by noble idiotic lofty sacrifices and preservation of the other…OTP is brought down to truer equals, Prince is allowed to be tested in another regard, not just of RO leaving him as if he has the power to control, but eternally leaving RO himself, his own very fragile morality hitting him full on.

“Your wish is my wish.”  Is Prince Yeong promise to RaOn e5, e11. RaOn’s wish at the lantern festival: Let our crown prince’s wish come true instead of mine!  It was meant for a better Joseon under his future rule, but RO has worked it in since then, as if obeying his every ‘command’.  She senses his unnerving doubts in her.  Do not worry, Your Highness (my love).  She senses what he fears most is she will leave him. I would not leave without your permission. … But in other words, if he so chooses to let her go, understandably, she would comply.

Please do not let go of my hand.

I give you my hand,

my heart,

and my love,from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.

ie, the Most traditional wedding vow nowadays.

The many many ways they keep holding hands and be married.

Come back before sunset.

That little touch of new inner calm of Prince, immersed in his studies, with RaOn having a day off seeing Mom, lovely subtle progression of their love.  She is happy thus he is contented… forgetting time till his servants ritually lights his candles.  Just like any newly wedded husband.  I am sure we will get to savor the conversation right after the big reveal between RO, Mom and Teacher Grandpapa next episode before she acts on her promise to be back by his side.

Sidenote: Ep 5, same lantern festival scene, King intently read all his citizens’ wishes trapped in the palace walls with his confidante eunuch Han.   He read all the well wishes for King’s good appetite, good health, wistfully, gratefully…and also made an intimate wish only to Eunuch Han, his most loyal trusted competent servant who could read him inside out.  King must’ve leaned on Han for hope in his darkest days, projected his dreams, expressed his thoughts, his ideals, even his love towards his son he could not, through Han.  He is, to emperor, like lantern shining a tiny glow of hope towards a sky beyond his reach.  He is asking, begging him for a promise, to take good care of CP in his place.

Please help him, so he won’t follow my vapid footsteps of compromises and vanquish.

Ah, I know WriterShii better now, the wonderful obsession of cohesiveness. There are glimpses of Han more precipice scorn towards ministerKim, investigating those assassins his foot.  It should only be logical he might join alliance w Prince to take out Kims first.  I have faith, faith changes destiny.  Lets, WriterShii.

Fate is not something you can wish upon, nor shy away.

I LOVE the moon MinisterKim is gazing upon, is eclipsed by dark clouds.  Yay.

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”

“Have a bias towards action –let’s see something happen now.   You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

The drama, this episode has me staring at Gandhi quotes picturing PBG saying them. Thoughts I felt from CP’s actions are screaming he could have reincarnated into Gandhi, and obviously we have a title ‘Faith becomes Destiny’.

Obviously, I park my bambling idiot here whenever I am so overwhelmed with feels over this silly dramawatching hobby, but when eyes out so wrung out, esp after some heartwrecking Kmelo of v damaged poor things I care too much (e19 of  친구 Our Legend is one, which I rewatched tonite, because of that little scene OTP touches the rain is exactly an idyllic scene of FOL OTP), I go play the easy bit of Beethoven’s Pathetique w wine, its abundance of tragically beautiful dramatic musical flares…crazily purging.   This drama is never one I have any use of this weird anecdote.  Instead drama has me obsessively watching a lot of Bach canons because some synapses in my crazyhead made an analogy MDBC is how one would adapt Bach into ShoujoSaguek. The backbone is so predictably (boringly) simple, yet with meticulous care, it is the root of composition genius.

Let me just savor some fine touches so trivial, but had me droolzing:

Gorgeous different styles of calligraphy that takes time to master individually, totally unnecessary to denote different persons, let alone to almost the social status.

Of course I love the bold black and white dragon in dignified brush strokes.

K Will’s music is too ‘predictable’ in composition, as all music in this drama no matter how befitting, and I am very peeved with engrish lyrics any saguek, just me.  This instrumental though, the percussion flows like a crude classical canon.  And of course I jumped to the go to wedding canon Pachebel’s  and thus I see those babies walking down the grassy aisle with the blessing of his Mother.  Fate just happened.

It is never easy, to tread a committed romance,  you can’t stop smiling while crying, and you have to try hardest trapping the wailing within while braving a reassuring smile.