Deokman (Queen Seondeok's childhood name) was born a twin but was abandoned as a baby. She was later brought back to the Silla palace, where she joined forces with her twin sister Princess Chonmyong to oppose Mi-shil, who wanted to seize power. Mi-shil devised sinister plans to have the two Silla princesses exiled from the kingdom, and in a secretive battle, Princess Chonmyong was assassinated by Mi-shil. But Princess Deokman shrewdly enlisted the help of General Kim Yusin and eliminated her archenemy Mi-shil. She became the first female ruler of the Silla kingdom.
If you want to survive and be an upright, fight-for-justice kind of person, and have your love survive, stay away from the palace! It is not the place for righteous folk who have a cause. As bad as she was, Mishil manages to keep her people alive and safe, even Daenambo, who kills a PRINCESS and lives to tell about it. She worked the palace like Deokman never manages to do. She loses her people to crazy schemes, and it takes its toll. Mishil don't look lonely, and Deokman remains so. It's not so much that people are bad, it's the quest for power and more power that drives them to do bad, BAD things. Even Mishil wasn't going to destroy Shilla to get what she wanted.
As ruling queen, Queen Seondeok is deeply lonely and filled with despair. Yet she must hide her true feelings and stand on her own to be reborn as a true king.
Although Yusin and the Princess Deokman had a thing going on and planned to run away together fate and destiny step in their way when the Twin sister was killed by Palace lackeys. She had met her twin sister and had formed a strong bond and sisterhood relationship. Her death actually brings Deokman to life. When Deokman sees how far the opposition will go to prevent the king from moving forward she is determine to be the catalysis for change. She won't leave with Yusin as was their plan but stays to fight Musil. (Musil is the one who is running the palace affairs and not the King.) This changed the Princess life again as she took upon herself the mantle of her sister and was determined to carry out the goals her sister had set. I think her sister dying also changed her feelings for Yusin because both of them blamed themselves for her death and maybe also blamed each other. It was a deep hurt for both of them. Even though the love was still there it had changed.
I like Bidam. I'm going to defend Bidam (very capably played by Kim Nam Gil). Remember where we first meet him? Dude was sleeping in a cave and throwing chicken at Yushin. That's your great villain. Bidam is very conflicted,divergent and complex character, abandoned as a child then abandoned by Munno. And Deokman doesn't help once they get in the palace to help assuage his insecurity. Nobody ever gives him a chance: from the get go everybody is like, oooh, he's dangerous and can't be trusted. He's scary. He's violent. On the other side you got rat fink Chunchu (more on him later), also you got Misaeng, Yumjong and the rest of the crazy Mishil crew. Whatever Bidam turns out to be, he didn't get there by himself. If he and Deokman were just left alone, we could have avoided a lot of this. But we do have a coup, and I have to say, at least there was no whining, no pleading, no running away. Deokman knew she had to whack Bidam; Bidam knew he was going to get whacked, and he took it like a man, going down swinging!
Bidam is one of the most complicated characters I have ever witnessed. Any less talented actor could screw this role up. Because it was a tentative character. I don't care what other people say but I loved Bidam he hooked my heart he had his weaknesses but don't we all. His weaknesses, his vunerablity, his naivety made him human and loveable. Thanks Kim Nam-Gill your protrayal of Bidam was fabulous.
These two are the true villians, sneaky, scarface and clever Chunchu. Planned the downfall of Bidam and Munno. Can we talk about Chunchu for a minute? I know our righteous side is the forgiving sort, but am I wrong in believing that dude had Munno whacked? You can't act all innocent now, buddy. And I've been fighting it, but hey, I know that Bidam is headed for disaster, but he looks very sexy manly doing it! I can totally see how his behaviour is motivated by his failure to work out his abandonment issues coupled with Deokman's mixed signals when it comes to him and Yushin.
Sneaky, cunning Scarface -Yeomjong: like Georrrrge the Snail and regular lawyers, he left a trail of slam. He was the perfect scum, easy to bribe, easy to buy, but when he promised to do something, he did. He was able to pierce through one's own nature and reach to the most vulnerable part just to hurt it. When he appeared for the first time, he was Munno's trusted associate. His assassins killed Munno, and here it ends. Bidam had the chance to kill him, but he incited a remorse in Bidam's consciousness. So their peculiar pact started, he helped Deokman, but after that, he changed sides and went on Mishil followers' side (because of his ties to Bidam). He forged the last stratagem and Bidam fell in his trap (hell, who wouldn't, it was perfect). I despised him, I wanted to strangle him and rip off his veins one by one. But then Bidam found the truth and finally put his sword through him. I found that totally satisfying.
So here are the three Amigos who should have stuck together through thick and thin but no. This happens instead. Bidam and Yusin helped her and she became closer and closer to Bidam. They fell in love but Bidam was tricked and given bad advice by his advisors and he thought that she no longer loved him and he went down a bad and sad trail. She loved him because he was the only one who treated her as a normal person and not a Queen he spoke her name to her even though it was treason to do so. This is the saddest part when he finally realises that scarface has tricked him again but his own trust issues were partly to blame. This leads to the last terrible but awesome fight! Which was terribly, terribly sad! You will cry when you watch this as he fights his way towards her now marked as a traitor. She stood there tears running down her face and crying but her politics wouldn't let her stop the fight. I have watched it so many times and I feel her crushing sorrow and her devastated heart but I can't stop watching. She should have been like Mishil and taken Bidam as her husband and Yusin as her lover. Problem solved. Lol!
I wrote heaps about this drama but can't put it all in here. Just know that it is complex but so awesome. I really need to find time to just watch it one more time.
If you want to survive and be an upright, fight-for-justice kind of person, and have your love survive, stay away from the palace! It is not the place for righteous folk who have a cause. As bad as she was, Mishil manages to keep her people alive and safe, even Daenambo, who kills a PRINCESS and lives to tell about it. She worked the palace like Deokman never manages to do. She loses her people to crazy schemes, and it takes its toll. Mishil don't look lonely, and Deokman remains so. It's not so much that people are bad, it's the quest for power and more power that drives them to do bad, BAD things. Even Mishil wasn't going to destroy Shilla to get what she wanted.
As ruling queen, Queen Seondeok is deeply lonely and filled with despair. Yet she must hide her true feelings and stand on her own to be reborn as a true king.
Although Yusin and the Princess Deokman had a thing going on and planned to run away together fate and destiny step in their way when the Twin sister was killed by Palace lackeys. She had met her twin sister and had formed a strong bond and sisterhood relationship. Her death actually brings Deokman to life. When Deokman sees how far the opposition will go to prevent the king from moving forward she is determine to be the catalysis for change. She won't leave with Yusin as was their plan but stays to fight Musil. (Musil is the one who is running the palace affairs and not the King.) This changed the Princess life again as she took upon herself the mantle of her sister and was determined to carry out the goals her sister had set. I think her sister dying also changed her feelings for Yusin because both of them blamed themselves for her death and maybe also blamed each other. It was a deep hurt for both of them. Even though the love was still there it had changed.
I like Bidam. I'm going to defend Bidam (very capably played by Kim Nam Gil). Remember where we first meet him? Dude was sleeping in a cave and throwing chicken at Yushin. That's your great villain. Bidam is very conflicted,divergent and complex character, abandoned as a child then abandoned by Munno. And Deokman doesn't help once they get in the palace to help assuage his insecurity. Nobody ever gives him a chance: from the get go everybody is like, oooh, he's dangerous and can't be trusted. He's scary. He's violent. On the other side you got rat fink Chunchu (more on him later), also you got Misaeng, Yumjong and the rest of the crazy Mishil crew. Whatever Bidam turns out to be, he didn't get there by himself. If he and Deokman were just left alone, we could have avoided a lot of this. But we do have a coup, and I have to say, at least there was no whining, no pleading, no running away. Deokman knew she had to whack Bidam; Bidam knew he was going to get whacked, and he took it like a man, going down swinging!
Bidam is one of the most complicated characters I have ever witnessed. Any less talented actor could screw this role up. Because it was a tentative character. I don't care what other people say but I loved Bidam he hooked my heart he had his weaknesses but don't we all. His weaknesses, his vunerablity, his naivety made him human and loveable. Thanks Kim Nam-Gill your protrayal of Bidam was fabulous.
These two are the true villians, sneaky, scarface and clever Chunchu. Planned the downfall of Bidam and Munno. Can we talk about Chunchu for a minute? I know our righteous side is the forgiving sort, but am I wrong in believing that dude had Munno whacked? You can't act all innocent now, buddy. And I've been fighting it, but hey, I know that Bidam is headed for disaster, but he looks very sexy manly doing it! I can totally see how his behaviour is motivated by his failure to work out his abandonment issues coupled with Deokman's mixed signals when it comes to him and Yushin.
Sneaky, cunning Scarface -Yeomjong: like Georrrrge the Snail and regular lawyers, he left a trail of slam. He was the perfect scum, easy to bribe, easy to buy, but when he promised to do something, he did. He was able to pierce through one's own nature and reach to the most vulnerable part just to hurt it. When he appeared for the first time, he was Munno's trusted associate. His assassins killed Munno, and here it ends. Bidam had the chance to kill him, but he incited a remorse in Bidam's consciousness. So their peculiar pact started, he helped Deokman, but after that, he changed sides and went on Mishil followers' side (because of his ties to Bidam). He forged the last stratagem and Bidam fell in his trap (hell, who wouldn't, it was perfect). I despised him, I wanted to strangle him and rip off his veins one by one. But then Bidam found the truth and finally put his sword through him. I found that totally satisfying.
So here are the three Amigos who should have stuck together through thick and thin but no. This happens instead. Bidam and Yusin helped her and she became closer and closer to Bidam. They fell in love but Bidam was tricked and given bad advice by his advisors and he thought that she no longer loved him and he went down a bad and sad trail. She loved him because he was the only one who treated her as a normal person and not a Queen he spoke her name to her even though it was treason to do so. This is the saddest part when he finally realises that scarface has tricked him again but his own trust issues were partly to blame. This leads to the last terrible but awesome fight! Which was terribly, terribly sad! You will cry when you watch this as he fights his way towards her now marked as a traitor. She stood there tears running down her face and crying but her politics wouldn't let her stop the fight. I have watched it so many times and I feel her crushing sorrow and her devastated heart but I can't stop watching. She should have been like Mishil and taken Bidam as her husband and Yusin as her lover. Problem solved. Lol!
I wrote heaps about this drama but can't put it all in here. Just know that it is complex but so awesome. I really need to find time to just watch it one more time.