901157
- Thread starter MangaDex
- Start date
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- Jan 8, 2019
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What in the worlds..
All I can say is The second prince is a monster
All I can say is The second prince is a monster
Group Leader
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2019
- Messages
- 57
Sigh
I am too tired to explain over and over again why Bongrim is the by-product of his environment. Why, though he might have developmental issues ("might" is the magic word here), he had as many chances, under the right guidance, to turn out quite well-integrated as he had of turning out bad. I did enough of that in the comment of the previous chapter. It is easy to compare him to Un and Sogeo whom everyone loves and whose mother is a favored consort. Two adorable little boys who get everything handed to them (at least, until now). At this point, I cannot convince anyone further that Bongrim is not a monster. Monsters do not exist. It is time to stop believing in bogeymen and start taking our social responsibilities. Only nature that has not been repressed by nurture exists. But these comments do encourage me to study harder so that I have an obnoxious diploma to roll up and legally hit anyone across the head with when the time comes to scream "extenuating circumstances". However, if you believe him to be a monster, you do not want to see what some of the greatest emperor's of China used to do. The founding emperor of Imperial China, Qin Shi Huang, was a sight to behold (and to fear). Bongrim is nothing compared to him.
Let us rather discuss Longhee. An interesting woman, Longhee. Who is she? She acts as an airheaded little ingenue in front of the Emperor and Empress, always bows as profoundly as she can in front of the Empress. Nonetheless, when facing the Empress's son, the heir presumptive to the throne of the Empire, she has quite the cutting tongue and some arrogance to boot. What is more, she questions his upbringing. And in a very hypocritical way, according to myself. Whatever behavior Bongrim reproduces has been learned from somewhere. Imperial Sons and Daughters were since their youngest age exposed to violence. As I mentioned in the notes of the chapter, one's living conditions dependent on many factors, but all of these factors came back to the concept of standing. Servants were of the lowest standing, though their humanity was never questioned. As they were of the lowest standing, their living conditions were so to say miserable. Depending on her own standing, a court lady, concubine or whatever, could very easily kill a maidservant or even an eunuch to vent her anger without fearing any legal backlash (nominal laws for many a crime, little enforcement, in Ancient Asian cultures). We see the Empress as a virtuous woman, since that is the image she projects. However, Intorno lets a certain cold cruelty seep through her perfect mask, mostly where Consort Deok is concerned. We also see that the servants do fear her (did we see that in chapter 5?), as they should. She is intransigent and appears, to me at least, like the type who would enforce her rules (which might be very reasonable, don't get me wrong) through severe punishments. How many maidservants have been brutally punished in front of Bongrim's eyes? Thus, Longhee giving Bongrim a lesson is by extension criticizing the Empress's upbringing. If that comes to the Empress's ears, I hope Longhee is quite sure of the Emperor's unwavering affection. Because she might end up like Consort Deok if something festers between Née Sookjung and herself.
Then, it is interesting how she seems to consider that manservants (I just love this part in hindsight) are not humans, whereas Sogeo is human. She clearly said that Sogeo cannot be treated as a manservant and that humans were not objects, thus that Sogeo would not be given to Bongrim. Humans were lower than material belongings and objects in that time. Any one of the ornaments on her head was more precious than the life of her Songha maidservants. And if ever one of her maidservants made a mistake, it would be expected of her to punish her, even if she did not wish it. In fact, all the women above her in standing, in this case only the Empress (and maybe Consort Deok since she is a native of the Empire, however since her paternal family is a merchant clan, slave-traders to boot, it is doubtful that she would be viewed as above Longhee - equal standing or even lower standing), would coerce her into punishing said servant and enjoy the show, knowing she did not relish it.
I am too tired to explain over and over again why Bongrim is the by-product of his environment. Why, though he might have developmental issues ("might" is the magic word here), he had as many chances, under the right guidance, to turn out quite well-integrated as he had of turning out bad. I did enough of that in the comment of the previous chapter. It is easy to compare him to Un and Sogeo whom everyone loves and whose mother is a favored consort. Two adorable little boys who get everything handed to them (at least, until now). At this point, I cannot convince anyone further that Bongrim is not a monster. Monsters do not exist. It is time to stop believing in bogeymen and start taking our social responsibilities. Only nature that has not been repressed by nurture exists. But these comments do encourage me to study harder so that I have an obnoxious diploma to roll up and legally hit anyone across the head with when the time comes to scream "extenuating circumstances". However, if you believe him to be a monster, you do not want to see what some of the greatest emperor's of China used to do. The founding emperor of Imperial China, Qin Shi Huang, was a sight to behold (and to fear). Bongrim is nothing compared to him.
Let us rather discuss Longhee. An interesting woman, Longhee. Who is she? She acts as an airheaded little ingenue in front of the Emperor and Empress, always bows as profoundly as she can in front of the Empress. Nonetheless, when facing the Empress's son, the heir presumptive to the throne of the Empire, she has quite the cutting tongue and some arrogance to boot. What is more, she questions his upbringing. And in a very hypocritical way, according to myself. Whatever behavior Bongrim reproduces has been learned from somewhere. Imperial Sons and Daughters were since their youngest age exposed to violence. As I mentioned in the notes of the chapter, one's living conditions dependent on many factors, but all of these factors came back to the concept of standing. Servants were of the lowest standing, though their humanity was never questioned. As they were of the lowest standing, their living conditions were so to say miserable. Depending on her own standing, a court lady, concubine or whatever, could very easily kill a maidservant or even an eunuch to vent her anger without fearing any legal backlash (nominal laws for many a crime, little enforcement, in Ancient Asian cultures). We see the Empress as a virtuous woman, since that is the image she projects. However, Intorno lets a certain cold cruelty seep through her perfect mask, mostly where Consort Deok is concerned. We also see that the servants do fear her (did we see that in chapter 5?), as they should. She is intransigent and appears, to me at least, like the type who would enforce her rules (which might be very reasonable, don't get me wrong) through severe punishments. How many maidservants have been brutally punished in front of Bongrim's eyes? Thus, Longhee giving Bongrim a lesson is by extension criticizing the Empress's upbringing. If that comes to the Empress's ears, I hope Longhee is quite sure of the Emperor's unwavering affection. Because she might end up like Consort Deok if something festers between Née Sookjung and herself.
Then, it is interesting how she seems to consider that manservants (I just love this part in hindsight) are not humans, whereas Sogeo is human. She clearly said that Sogeo cannot be treated as a manservant and that humans were not objects, thus that Sogeo would not be given to Bongrim. Humans were lower than material belongings and objects in that time. Any one of the ornaments on her head was more precious than the life of her Songha maidservants. And if ever one of her maidservants made a mistake, it would be expected of her to punish her, even if she did not wish it. In fact, all the women above her in standing, in this case only the Empress (and maybe Consort Deok since she is a native of the Empire, however since her paternal family is a merchant clan, slave-traders to boot, it is doubtful that she would be viewed as above Longhee - equal standing or even lower standing), would coerce her into punishing said servant and enjoy the show, knowing she did not relish it.
We're starting to see a bit of the hypocrisy behind Longhee's perfect facade... "you cannot manhandle him as if he were a manservant" indeed. The question is, who sent Bongrim? He's clearly a tool in someone's plot against Longhee, and what health problems is he suffering from? I really hope he hasn't been poisoned because if the empress' maidservant sees that the empress' son has been injured intentionally in Longhee's residence after threatening Longhee's son, it's not gonna look good for our favorite heroine.
Group Leader
- Joined
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@frogs23
My froggy! You did join the conversation! Well, I am seated here and I really wonder about Longhee. Is she a hypocrite or did Intorno just make an error in logic. On one side the manservant comment on the other side the people as object comment. The two simply do not go together. But, as a scribbler, writing stories here and there, I have made so many errors in logic that I have to understand that one does get carried away by one's thoughts. The same with the maidservants and Longhee calling Imperial Guards. Men in a women's apartments were never a good idea in pre-postmodern times. (Talking about errors in logic, have you read the latest pay-walled chapters of The Queen? - you can get them for free on that Chinese aggregator I told you about; we are about to get the ending, TUTU truly has been just crushed by KuaiKan, it is bad; I just want her to get out of this nightmare right now; besides there is an artist on KuaiKan who is shamelessly plagiarizing her, you can check out the images I posted in The Queen's comment page on here, it is frightening)
Longhee might be YOUR favorite heroine, but I am a Consort Deok gal (everyone loves Ling Zhi, I love Saya; everyone loves Longhee, I love Gwok Hyomnan/Consort Deok - there is a pattern here). I mean, back in Chapter 6 or so, Longhee did not even know what Un was up to, where he was, what he was doing. Which I understand. Un must have been a traumatic experience for her. Getting sent to the Empire as a slave and plaything to the Emperor, having Un, living this life. It is obvious she only communicates with her own nationality and has little contact with the Empire's natives. I think that, though she is not a bad mother, even an affectionate one, there is something absent in her mothering. At least in comparison with Consort Deok who is the mother image par excellence. Then there is the Empress. I said it before, I will say it again. We did not see her interact with Bongrim yet. I am looking forward to that. But spoiler:
Well, we do not need a PhD to know that what will happen is the servant seeing Bongrim convulsing on the ground. That is the whole point of all this stretching out the sauce. Season 1 is a lot of stretching out the sauce, but it does set the tone to the interactions between the different characters. There is something else … have you noticed that the main cause for all these women acting so desperately (namely, the charming Emperor - kindness incarnate) has been absent for a few chapters now. He is bound to come back. The shit is about to hit the fan, I daresay.
My froggy! You did join the conversation! Well, I am seated here and I really wonder about Longhee. Is she a hypocrite or did Intorno just make an error in logic. On one side the manservant comment on the other side the people as object comment. The two simply do not go together. But, as a scribbler, writing stories here and there, I have made so many errors in logic that I have to understand that one does get carried away by one's thoughts. The same with the maidservants and Longhee calling Imperial Guards. Men in a women's apartments were never a good idea in pre-postmodern times. (Talking about errors in logic, have you read the latest pay-walled chapters of The Queen? - you can get them for free on that Chinese aggregator I told you about; we are about to get the ending, TUTU truly has been just crushed by KuaiKan, it is bad; I just want her to get out of this nightmare right now; besides there is an artist on KuaiKan who is shamelessly plagiarizing her, you can check out the images I posted in The Queen's comment page on here, it is frightening)
Longhee might be YOUR favorite heroine, but I am a Consort Deok gal (everyone loves Ling Zhi, I love Saya; everyone loves Longhee, I love Gwok Hyomnan/Consort Deok - there is a pattern here). I mean, back in Chapter 6 or so, Longhee did not even know what Un was up to, where he was, what he was doing. Which I understand. Un must have been a traumatic experience for her. Getting sent to the Empire as a slave and plaything to the Emperor, having Un, living this life. It is obvious she only communicates with her own nationality and has little contact with the Empire's natives. I think that, though she is not a bad mother, even an affectionate one, there is something absent in her mothering. At least in comparison with Consort Deok who is the mother image par excellence. Then there is the Empress. I said it before, I will say it again. We did not see her interact with Bongrim yet. I am looking forward to that. But spoiler:
she never, not once, interacted with Bongrim. Not in "No Desires", not in "Winter". Not once.
Well, we do not need a PhD to know that what will happen is the servant seeing Bongrim convulsing on the ground. That is the whole point of all this stretching out the sauce. Season 1 is a lot of stretching out the sauce, but it does set the tone to the interactions between the different characters. There is something else … have you noticed that the main cause for all these women acting so desperately (namely, the charming Emperor - kindness incarnate) has been absent for a few chapters now. He is bound to come back. The shit is about to hit the fan, I daresay.
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