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Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo: Episode 20 (Final)

by HeadsNo2

We must not have wished hard enough for an ending that would magically solve the issues endemic to this production, since I can think of no other reason why this happened. It could’ve been worse (they all can be worse), but it’s certainly not what we would’ve hoped to see at the end of this sometimes rewarding, sometimes grueling journey through a modern girl’s integration into a time far from her own. Which leaves us to wonder, was it all about love? Altering history? Fate working in very mysterious ways? Who knows.

…No, really, does anyone know?

 
FINAL EPISODE RECAP

Su arrives at Jung’s secondary home, and finds herself thinking of So when Jung outstretches his hand to help her out of her palanquin. But since they’ve been forbidden from marrying by the king, Jung’s prepared a more secret ceremony, though he tells her not to worry—even married, he’ll just consider them as friends.

He explains how she’ll be set up nicely in this house, and that he’ll come to visit her often. She’s all smiles until he gives her back the hairpin she’d given him as a symbol of her desire to leave the palace, which carries with it the memories of So, who had given it to her.

The small box of belongings she brought with her contain the multiple copies of the poem she had So write, and she looks at them with tears in her eyes. We then cut to her married life with Jung, as Su etches a likeness of So on a stone, and Jung practices his swordsmanship.

But Jung gets the eerie feeling that they’re being watched, and suddenly leans forward as though to receive a kiss from his wife. She just smiles and dabs his sweaty forehead instead, which is when Jung gently takes her hand and tells her that he’s arranged for the recently retired royal doctor to pay her a visit.

It’s clear that Jung’s putting on a husbandly show for whoever it is that’s spying on them, but we can’t see who. Inside, the doctor feels her pulse to check on the baby in her womb—apparently this is something Su’s known about, but when the doctor first checked her, it was too early for him to tell.

However, he warns that her already shaky health will be tested with the baby, but Su is adamant that she’ll do whatever it takes to ensure the health of the child. Jung is taken by surprise with the news, and orders that the doctor stay with them for a time, since they can’t risk this secret getting out.

So receives an account of events from his spy, detailing how affectionate Jung and Su are. He’s livid since Baek-ah said the marriage would only be a formality, but this report claims anything but.

While completing her rock drawing of So, Su is suddenly overtaken by heart trouble, and So gets there in time to see Jung fret over her and carry her inside.

Adorably, Jung sleeps in a separate bed only feet away so that he can at least look at his wife. “Do you remember when we first met?” he asks. She wonders whether it was when she ran into the forest to save him, and the two reminisce over fond memories.

So can hear the two of them laughing from outside, and returns to his throne in a daze as he tells Astronomer Choi that he never wants to hear a single word spoken about Jung or Su ever again.

Meanwhile, Su imagines sitting across a table from So, both of them smiling at each other. “We have finally left the palace, and are alone together. You and I… we are the only ones left. We can forget the truths, lies, misunderstandings, and jealousy… the restless bickering over the throne and the many deaths. It is a time meant only for us, and I can love you to my heart’s content.”

Six months later.

Jung paces nervously outside the birthing room, the sounds of a crying baby coming from inside. The midwife comes out with a perfectly healthy baby girl, though Jung instructs the midwife to claim that the baby was stillborn to anyone who asks.

He goes in to find Su in a sorry state, though he reassures her that the baby’s in good hands—now all she needs to do is worry about herself. A tear snakes down Su’s cheek as she weakly hands him a letter to be delivered to So, though it’s not news of the baby. “I… want to see him,” she explains, and Jung readily agrees (though he changes the calligraphy on the front, claiming that his wife’s writing is too identical to the king’s).

Su holds her infant daughter in her arms, but is suddenly stricken by an illness that has her swaying on her feet. We don’t hear what the doctor has to say, and Su doesn’t seem to notice the letter she wrote to the king sitting on the table nearby. Or is it another letter? I can’t tell.

After discussing matters of state with Astronomer Choi regarding a plan to cut off supplies to the most powerful clans to silence their voice, So is given another letter from Su.

But since the envelope is in Jung’s handwriting, he believes it to be from his half-brother and throws it into a pile of other unread letters, all of them from Su.

Looking sicker than ever, Su wonders why So hasn’t come yet, considering how she’s sent him so many messages: “Does he hate me that much?” Jung stops himself from saying that he’s already sent messengers, instead claiming that he forgot while promising to get on that immediately. Aww. Just live happily ever after, you two.

In an effort to cheer her, he brings her outside, where he’s gathered musicians from the capital to sing for her. Su is too weak to speak, so Jung ushers the singer to sing anything she wants, and the singer opts for a song that a court lady sang which made the king fall in love with her.

Su’s eyes open a little wider at that, and the singer commences with her song. Su recognizes it as the song she did, in fact, sing at Eun’s birthday. So had overheard from a distance.

This sparks more memories to come flooding forth as Su murmurs, “Long ago, you promised that you would treat my life as if it were your own. Do you remember that?” Then she turns to Jung as she weakly tells him to protect her daughter in her stead, and to never let her go to the palace.

Jung looks like he’s trying to hold it together, but Su’s given up all hope on So ever coming to see her before she leaves this world. He pulls her in so her head rests on his shoulder, saying, “Su-ya, in your next life, you will remember me, won’t you?”

Instead, Su whispers, “I’m going to forget you. I will forget everything. Even in my dreams… I will forget all of you.” She dies in his arms, and Jung can only cry as he holds her to him.

So receives news of her death in utter shock, only now coming to realize that all those letters he ignored were from Su. He tears them open one by one and reads them, and in them, she explains that she loved him completely. She knew that she left him with hate rather than love, and wondered if he resented her for it.

He clutches the letter in his hands and sobs, only now realizing the depth of Su’s feelings for him. And too late, at that. We flash back to her writing more letters of her love for him, recognizing each time he was there for her, and each time he was there to save her.

The voiceover continues as So spurs his horse to Jung’s house as fast as he can:

“I still love you. In the rain, when you tossed everything aside and stood at my side, when you threw yourself in the path of a flying arrow for me, I became unable to forget you for the rest of my life. The opposite of ‘to love’ isn’t ‘to hate’ — it’s to throw away. That I threw you away, and that you threw me away… I’m afraid [we’ll] think that. I miss you, but I cannot be close to you. Hoping we will meet again inside a winding fence, I wait for you every day.”

Baek-ah finds Jung in mourning clothes, caressing Su’s urn. He hands him a letter, which Baek-ah begins to read with tears in his eyes. They’re interrupted by a frantic So, who comes in crying for Su to show herself.

But when his eyes come to rest on the urn, devastation hits. Jung blames him for waiting too long, but So blames him for writing his own name on the letters—he had no idea they were from Su. Jung says he did it only because her handwriting was so similar to his (again, what and why?), but he can’t believe that So wouldn’t have known Su was dying when he knows So was tracking them with spies.

Baek-ah is the one to tell Jung that So stopped receiving reports once he learned that they were getting on so well, leaving that realization to hit as So grasps Su’s urn and sobs his heart out. “Su-ya, let’s go,” he says, clutching it. “Let’s go.” Ouch.

Jung refuses to let him pass, reminding So that she was his wife. “Su may be dead, but she is still mine,” So cries, and it’s only with Baek-ah’s intervention that Jung allows So to take the urn. Baek-ah laments that Su spent her life caught between all of them, and urges Jung not to make it any harder on her, even now.

But poor Jung can only take out the hairpin he originally took from Su as he cries pitifully. Only then does Baek-ah realize that Jung actually loved Su, and embraces his half-brother in solidarity. Aww.

So takes Su’s ashes to the spot where she’d once stacked her prayer stones, thinking back to his memories of her, and how she promised she wouldn’t leave.

After what Won only describes as “a long time” has passed, he’s given a ceremonial cup of poison with which to kill himself. But before he does, Baek-ah hands him the letter Chae-ryung wrote in blood to Su, which Su had wanted delivered to Won.

While the soundtrack transports us to The Lord of the Rings, Won reads Chae-ryung’s letter and thinks back to their few scenes together. He feels a shred of remorse as the chyron tells us that he was put to death for treason. (He’s not worth the screencap, guys.)

Baek-ah finds himself shadowed by a small girl, who he recognizes as Wook’s daughter. He tells her that he’s her uncle, and is momentarily off-put by her name being Bok-soon, since that’s name Woo-hee tried to give him once (before she was promptly outed for lying). Even stranger, he recognizes the ornament that Woo-hee favored on the little girl, who claims to not know where it came from.

But in the time it takes him to flash back to his memories with Woo-hee, the little girl disappears.

An older, bearded, and seemingly ill Wook takes a walk with Baek-ah, mentioning the changes So has made since becoming king. Rather than have any aspirations for the throne himself, Wook only says that he wants to see the kind of king So becomes. “I wonder if perhaps Goryeo has its most powerful king in history,” Wook adds thoughtfully.

Baek-ah asks if he still misses Su, prompting a rueful smile from Wook. “I don’t know,” he answers. “I was always giving my heart, but I was always making mistakes. I’ve only come to realize that now.” He coughs, and you know what that means—it’s time for Wook’s obligatory flashback to the past, though he surprisingly thinks of his first wife, Lady Hae.

Yeonhwa tears into her husband for not going to see his firstborn son, Wang Ju (future King Gyeongjong), even on his birthday. She thinks he only sees his son as competition, reminding So of the royal nephews he’s killed in order to keep his reign secure. The least he can do is trust his own son.

But So basically says that he doesn’t trust Ju because he doesn’t trust Yeonhwa, and he knows the two of them will turn against him one day. Yeonhwa blames his thinking on Su, since she was the only person who ever said that all people should be treated as equals. That’s why she believes So passed a law emancipating slaves (this was a reform Gwangjong was well known for).

Claiming that she now understands why Su left, Yeonhwa is all too happy to bring that up just to hurt So. He says nothing, and goes instead to the spot where Su once set up her prayer stones.

A little girl bumps into him and makes a big fuss about it, which reminds So of how Su once did the same thing. And lo and behold, the little girl runs to the man she calls “Father.” It’s Jung, of course—and oh God, his sideburns have only gotten bigger.

Jung apologizes for breaking his exile to come to the palace, claiming that it was only because today is the anniversary of Su’s death. When So asks if the child is his, Jung says yes, though So notes that the child is too old to be from his recent marriage.

Taking this as his cue to leave, Jung turns with the girl in his arms, which is when So notices that she’s wearing the same hairpin he’d once given to Su. He orders Jung to leave the girl with him, and Jung drops to his knees to give his firmest “No.”

He confirms So’s suspicions when he says that Su never wanted her daughter to live in the palace, leaving the poor little girl clueless as to what the adults are talking about. She looks over to her real father as So looks to Jung, officially releasing him from his exile. In fact, he wants him to come visit the palace as often as he wants. Aw, that’s going to be the only way he’ll ever see his daughter, isn’t it?

Astronomer Choi decides to retire from his position, but doesn’t leave without telling So to forget Su, who was never of this world anyway. Now it’s time—wait for it—for Astronomer Choi to get his own flashback to happier times. Has anyone not gotten a flashback yet? No?

The sky darkens suddenly with an eclipse, and So looks to the sky as the light disappears. A rider rides against the darkening horizon as we get a flashback montage of Su falling into the water and ending up in Goryeo under an eclipsing sky…

…And then, Su wakes in her own bed, in her own time, with tears running down her cheeks over the mysterious man haunting her dreams. Oh no. No no no no. You are not pulling the Dream Card on us. Anything but that!

While working at her cosmetics job, Su tells her coworker that she’s been having dreams about a man dressed in ye olde clothes with a scar on his face for nearly a year. Her coworker says it’s because she almost died from drowning, spent a year in a coma, and then woke up. Thanks, Exposition Fairy.

Su overhears snippets of a presentation being given on cosmetics in the Goryeo era (which she may have had a hand in helping along?), and is approached by the presenter afterward. It’s Astronomer Choi, although, not him, and he gives her an enigmatic smile as he reads her name tag.

Seeing her name as “Go Ha-jin,” he tells her that in the Goryeo era, “Go” was known as “Hae.” She notes that it’s a funny coincidence since she’s selling makeup inspired by the era, to which Choi says, “There is no such thing as coincidence. Things only return to their rightful place.”

But when she introduces the line of makeup to him, she remembers Baek-ah’s voice mentioning Bulgarian rose oil to her—though she’s confused as to where she remembers hearing that. Choi seems to study her knowingly, though Su does her best to shake it off and introduce some BB cream, which she claims was invented in Goryeo as well.

Saying that prompts her to think of So and his scar, leaving her severely shaken and confused. She leaves work early, but finds herself drawn to an exhibit of Goryeo paintings, each reminding her of scenes she doesn’t know how she remembers.

The paintings show the rain ritual, which she remembers in vivid detail, and King Gwangjong. “It wasn’t a dream,” she thinks, as some honestly random images are put forth in paint form—scenes that literally no one would have thought to paint, like her bowing deeply to the king on their first meeting, her saving Jung in the forest, etc. But we’ll just have to go with it.

Su looks around the gallery with tears in her eyes, seeing herself in every painting. Only then does she stop at a portrait of King Gwangjong, remembering So in detail. The biography accompanying the portrait tells of his legacy as a good king, which makes Su think of the day she’d been sure that So wouldn’t go down in history as a tyrant.

“I’m sorry,” she cries. “I’m sorry for leaving you alone.”

As she cries, the painting before her slowly comes into focus as we return to Goryeo during the eclipse. So looks up as though he’s heard her voice, which is when Baek-ah tells him that Wook has died, and he’ll be leaving the palace as well.

Standing alone like he was in the painting, So looks back over his shoulder, as though expecting someone. But he’s alone, and comments, “Life is fleeting.” It was the same thing his father said before he died.

He’d related what his father said to Su once, and had worried over her lost facial expression. He’d wondered what she was hiding, but Su only said that she felt anxious every day she was there.

“If we had met in another world, and in another time, I can’t help but think how great that would have been,” she said. “If only that were so, I wouldn’t fear anything. I could freely, truly, love you all I wanted.” The flashback fades, and So is left in the present (of the past) to rub the makeup off the scarred side of his face with a shaking hand.

“If you and I are not of the same world,” he thinks, “then I will find you, my Su-ya.”

Cut to: The two of them walking together in flashback, with So offering to carry Su on his back due to her hurting knees. Together and laughing, they run forward.

 
COMMENTS

Really, Moon Lovers? Not one hint that Su would find her present day So? Not even after that line? You chose to show a piece of flashback footage instead? That’s how you wanted to end this, by having So look to the future, but think of the past instead? That’s your big message?

I admit it would’ve been a cheap fix to have So appear in the present day, but I was willing to take anything. It’s not as if the show established any kind of rules when it came to Su’s time-traveling, but this ending gave me horrible Dr. Jin vibes, in that both were adaptations of much more successful foreign dramas, both protagonists woke up in the present day remembering the past, and no questions were ever answered. Ever.

While we can point to failures on many levels, it was really the execution that bogged this show down, and that was never more apparent than in the episodes leading up to this finale. Su gradually lost any sense of self she may have possessed, and we lost our eyes and ears into the strange world she’d entered into. Nothing solidified that more than when we found out she was pregnant this episode, which was something she already knew. There’s a cardinal rule for protagonists in TV, especially those whose point of view we’re seeing the show through: You can keep secrets from everybody else, but you can’t keep them from the audience.

Because at that point, we’ve lost our point of entry into the events happening on screen. At the point where Su had her own agenda that we weren’t privy to, why keep trying? Who were we following? Why did it matter? I hate how bad finales bring up existential questions, but I sat for a good five minutes after this show ended just trying to think of the why of it all. What were the resonant themes? Where was the dramatic clarity, or tension? How did Su hope to solve anything by leaving?

If her main reason was her pregnancy, then we were really cheated when it came to her realization happening off-screen. The reason why it sucks to have protagonists keep secrets is because we can’t follow them, and it would’ve been a great help for us to know whether Su was playing the noble idiot and leaving the palace because of the baby. But instead it felt like she left because she just had to, but she missed So every day because she left. So why? Why anything?

By the time we reached the end, I realized that what was missing was a central conflict. I still don’t know what we were supposed to want for this show and its characters, because I couldn’t buy into the love story between Su and So despite desperately wanting to. Unfortunately for So, he was virtually nonexistent for much too long, and we only knew he would be important later on by virtue of him being played by Lee Jun-ki. But were he a total unknown, and were this not an adaptation, we would’ve been sorely misled in the beginning with the Su/Wook loveline, the development of which seemed to outweigh the thought put in to the development of the Su/So pairing.

Which isn’t to say that they made a mistake in focusing on that loveline first, but they did make one in not laying down a better foundation for us to jump to the So ship later. It’s entirely possible that these two lovelines worked out great in the much longer original version, but there’s really no excuse for this show’s inability to tell the story it wanted to tell in the time allotted to it—and with it being pre-produced, it’s even worse. It’s not like that twentieth episode just snuck up on the writer, or that the writer didn’t have time to plan out how to adapt a longer drama into a shorter format. That’s the whole point of pre-production!

Going back to the episode, and bypassing all the WTF-ery surrounding Su’s return to the present, her year in a coma, presumably another year having dreams about the past, Astronomer Choi being back in the future (but not as a homeless man), the eclipse that somehow blurred the lines between both worlds, the paintings of scenes no one else would’ve seen or thought to paint, the fact that Su spent years in the past while only a year or so passed in the present, the fact that Su physically died in the past and all the questions that raises about whatever happened to the girl who used to inhabit Su’s body, what were we left with?

We’re left with Lee Jun-ki putting on a one-man show. And, okay, Ji-soo got his moment to shine this week, which made me desperately wish we’d focused on his love for Su rather than the tenth prince’s crush. But that’s neither here nor there at this juncture. I guess it’s the same as with any show that limps its way to its finale: I wish it had been better, because there was a good drama underneath all the nonsensicality and noise. But we can’t win ’em all.

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Tags: featured, IU, Kang Haneul, Lee Jun-ki, Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

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I think it was Baekah who painted those pictures...

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That was what I thought too, that the paintings were in Baek Ah's style and he is an artist and Hae Soo's close friend too.

But it's still a bit weird to see lol

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Yeah, me too. It was the first thing I thought when I saw them.

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Yeah it's just like the paintings Baek ah draws of woo Hee, he was always drawing stuff earlier.

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Been reading forums and comments the past few days and noticed quite a few people raising the question about why Jung chose to hide Soo's envelope into another envelope with his handwriting on it.

Maybe to give some context, this scene was also shown in the C-drama version, and back then, it was a crime for anyone to have the same handwriting as the king. It was seen as treason or smth equivalent, and punishment was by death. Not too sure about this being a law in Goryeo though

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..what you said makes sense.
that scene actually left me questioning on whats the implication of having the same handwriting with the king.
but i set aside that thought since i have to tend first with my broken heart.
my monday/tuesday/wednesday will never be the same.
I am hopefully waiting for the special episode.

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Yeah that's how I felt too, not clear why Jung hid her writing. If only they had him say why, we could understand better. He has a good reason to hide it!

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this is why I wish the drama had EXPLAINED that part - without the information on identical handwriting being considered possible treason, Jung hiding Su's handwriting for being identical to So's just comes across as him being petty or jealous.

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..... when he was actually trying not to provoke the king's anger and protecting Su.

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Has GHJ changed the history? Or did she serve merely as a catalyst for the history to play out?

I’d say that to really get the sense of this drama, we need to put aside our knowledge of the real history we know nowadays. This show has its own kind of history, both before GHJ went to Goryeo and after. Sticking to the real history would only cause the endless and pointless ranting and I decided to not let that hindering me from seeing the real beauty of the story.

Referring to my previous posts long time ago about Soo’s purpose in Goryeo and her premonitions (Eps 15 page 2 post 78 and post 100 ), I will quote the main sentences from the former post: “Despite of all the obstacles, So was destined to be a king, so it’s safe to say that with or without Soo, he would eventually become the king. But HOW he will achieve that goal is the true question and I think that is the exact reason of Soo’s time travelling to Goryeo.” and “The purpose of Soo’s time travelling to Goryeo is to change the history, by changing So’s personality and the way So takes to become Gwangjong specifically, in order to make the history the way that we know now.”

After episode 20, I know some of us may think that GHJ never did change anything actually; GHJ remembered GJ as a cruel king, and after she came back from Goryeo, GJ was still written as the bloody monarch. But if we look further into what defined GJ as that kind of king, we see that there is striking difference between previous GJ to present GJ. Previous GJ was remembered as cruel king because (according to Soo’s knowledge) “he killed his brothers, nephews, and loyal subjects”. I know some argue that GHJ’s memory was kinda vague, but the fact that even the weak-memory GHJ remembered that line proves that GJ must be really written that way in all kind of historical records. Meanwhile, the present GJ was written as bloody monarch because of the “extensive purge” which involved none of his brothers actually, and while still bloody, it was indeed necessary. The present GJ wasn’t written as the king who killed his brothers anymore and I think that’s such a defined proof of the history change GHJ had made (other than the invention of Bulgaria rose cosmetic, BB cream and the paintings of Soo in Goryeo gallery).

Now that the whole story has unfolded, I really want to re-write and revise some things from my previous post, so pardon me and beware for an EXTREMELY LONG post that’s coming. I didn’t write anything because of RL stuff and honestly the last few episodes surprised me in many ways that I needed days of pondering to really understand. So I’m kinda pouring out everything here.

I always like to compare between the history without Soo’s influence and the one with it. While the former was purely my theory, I think it’s crucial to draw the comparison in order for us to see and appreciate how important Soo as a driving force of the story. So this is the version of So without Soo’s influence:

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(continued)

We see how So longed for his mother’s love but could never get even a sip of it. Even after killing the monks to protect her on Eps 4, she wouldn’t accept him. Here we thought that So finally accepted and let it go, but the truth is he never stopped trying. His mother’s reason for rejecting him was because “you’re my shame, disgrace and flaw” and from that he got the idea that if he ever got the throne his mother yearned for, then it would change her perspective of him. This motivation led him to stay in the palace and we see a glimpse of his ambition from his convo with General Park. This ambition got flamed when he was chosen to lead the rain ceremony. Initially skeptical, he got his hope high by JM’s words that it was heaven’s will, only to be broken by the rejection from the people in the 1st ritual. He gave up, but when JM reminded him that there was a possibility for him to become a king, he was willing to take the risk for having the stone thrown at him. He was that determined to be a king.

But contrary to my previous post, I believe he wouldn’t stand the citizens; well, they might do everything possible to drag him down when they saw him leading for the second time. Yo would replace So instead, and like So and evil mother said, rain would eventually come down no matter who led the ritual, even if Yo wasn’t born under the star of a king. Yo would gain the favor of his mother and the people, meanwhile So would sink into depression and anger that he would become the version of Yo that we see after the rain ceremony. I think someone mentioned how So and Yo are alike, and I believe he would resort to the same mindset as Yo did after his defeat. Remember how Yo blamed Soo for the killing of his brothers, because she covered So’s scar and caused him to lose his seat? So would do exactly the same, knowing that he lost the seat that should have belonged to him. Driven by the ambition for the throne with the very same underlying reason as Yo actually (to gain his mother’s love), he would plot on how to get rid of his brothers and become a king. It’s arguably whether he would get rid of Moo too, seeing how he actually respected him because Moo saved him in the past. But GHJ’s memory on Eps 1 of Goryeo’s king actually consisted only of Taejo and Gwangjong, so I wonder if in the end, So would get rid of Moo and ascended to the throne right after Taejo. And also similar like Yo, So would get rid of the loyal subjects and the rest of the brothers and nephews to secure his throne. So would be known as the version of GJ that GHJ knew from history: the king who killed his brothers, nephews, and loyal subjects. And that GJ wouldn’t make create the law of the emancipation of the slaves, therefore he would never be written as a wise and good king.

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(continued)

Now the version of So with Soo’s influence (I’ll include my post about premonitions here):

What’s the purpose of JM bringing GHJ back to Goryeo? My theory is JM wanted to change the history by using GHJ as Soo. I believe JM loved and cared for Moo and So the most out of all princes, it was highlighted in their flashback on Eps 15 (both of them were the only ones destined to be king anyway). Seeing So becoming that kind of king and (arguably) killing Moo would hurt him very much. And that version of Gwangjong wouldn’t do any goods to the nation either. JM had to set the correct motivation for So to get the throne and it was obviously not because of the obsession over mother’s love that the previous So had. That’s why JM brought GHJ back to Goryeo. Her personality and value as modern girl would lead her to act in the way that JM had planned. Her caring personality led her to offer her sympathy towards So, that eventually led him to fall in love with her and abandon the obsession over his mother’s love. It was also her personality that led all the princes to adore her so and pretty much set their destiny later. Her value of justice and equality, something which didn’t exist in Goryeo, would influence So that freeing the slaves would later become one of his motivation to become a king. She also influenced him to care about his brothers that instead of killing them for the throne like what the previous So did, protecting them now became one of his motivation for the throne. And the most crucial part is, her value as modern girl led her to cut her wrist in order to cancel the marriage to Taejo. I’ve said that this wrist cutting basically changed the whole course of history into the direction that JM wanted (hence the premonition of the events in this new version of history started appearing and contrary to my post before, they actually all happened exactly the way they were, it was Soo that misinterpreted some). By cutting her wrist, she changed everything, started from the change of the Goryeo king’s order, that was Yo to become the 3rd king and So the 4th king (I will describe later how this was made possible). By cancelling the marriage, she also preserved her tie to Wook and So and started from Eps 7, we actually see the new version of history playing out.

Here is the explanation of why Yo became the 3rd king and So became the 4th and why it was important. Because she didn’t marry Taejo, she kept her relationship with So and it escalated to the point that she wanted to help him change his future by covering his scar. Because of Soo, he succeeded the rain ceremony, which led to Yo’s jealousy and him killing his brothers to get the throne (he was correct in blaming Soo for that) and he became the 3rd king of Goryeo. Yo’s ascending to the throne was actually the most crucial part in JM’s plan because he was the reason So got all the correct motivations to become a king: Eun’s death and slavery.

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(continued)

His reign was what made it possible for our lovey-dovey So with 0% interest of the throne to become 100% throne oriented. This way JM had succeeded in creating the version of So with the correct motivations to become a good, 4th king of Goryeo. This version of So also wouldn’t kill Moo thanks to Soo’s influence, much to JM’s delight.

But here is the cruel part: Soo’s personality and value came as double-edged sword in Goryeo era. Her wrist cutting was the one that made it possible for her to preserve her relationship with So but it was also the moment where the tragic fate of their relationship was actually sealed. She could become a queen if she was still that scarless Lady Hae Soo from relatively powerful Hae’s household, but because of the wrist cutting, she became the court lady Hae with a scar, with no powerful family background. From that point there was almost zero possibility for her to become a queen no matter how hard she and GJ tried later. Her affection towards all the princes led her to warn Wook about So which eventually led him to the ambition for the throne and to plot for Moo’s and Eun’s death, and to attack GJ to the point that made GJ plotted the death hawk’s trap and exiled him; led her to hide Eun from So which eventually led to So killing Eun; led her to give the throne to So (to avoid bloodshed among brothers) which eventually led Jung to question GJ’s liability and lead GJ to exile Jung. Soo also gave So the throne as if it was Yo’s last decree to protect So from becoming bloody monarch, but it was actually the main reason GJ had to kill the whole late king’s people because Soo’s way unavoidably cause people to question GJ’s liability. I could have written more but I think we get the picture here, that eventhough her action was all driven by her affection towards all the princes and intended to protect them, at the end she was the one who cause them to either die or suffer. JM wasn’t at fault when he told her to give up her marriage with GJ; he simply laid bare the truth to her. It really happens in such way that everything that Soo did, it would unavoidably, and without her even realizing, dragged her and everyone closer to their tragic fate.

The beauty of this story was how So and Soo tried to escape from their destiny and fought for their love till the very last straw. There was no room for “what if” because the other way simply never existed for them, they were always pushed to the edge of the road. In the end, after some denial moments, I’m left with acceptance that things had to happen this way and I’m glad that the writer kept their daughter, Seol alive. Seol was their last resort to preserve their love; Soo died giving birth to her, and So sacrificed his feeling for the her freedom.

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(continued)

Seol was the perfect living proof of their epic love, the love that indeed would transcend through the time because now they would have their legacy living in both world: Goryeo and the future (through Seol’s descendant).

I think now we can see that JM is the scenario maker. Everything started and ended with him. He had foreseen all of these tragedies the day he brought GHJ back to Goryeo, but he played his part as innocent astronomer while stirring the whole story from behind. If there’s anyone to blame for the misery of our OTP (and the audience), I’d say it’s JM. But like all the characters in this story, he had no choice. There was no other way for him to save Moo and So other than using GHJ as Soo. I believe he repented and tried to pay her back when he brought back GHJ’s memory though, because unlike most audience, I’m happy that he actually reminded her. I think some people here have pointed that the paintings were Baekah’s painting that GJ intended to use as a reminder for Soo in the future. If JM didn’t remind her, then all of GJ’s effort went to waste and so was their epic love, and what’s the point of this drama then? Thanks to JM, GHJ remembered the beautiful and sad memory in Goryeo and could see that she actually changed the history in sense that GJ wasn’t written as his brothers’ killer anymore; that was what really mattered to her anyway since the beginning. What perplexed her was the “bloody monarch” status though, how come GJ was still written that way when he didn’t kill his brothers anymore? But when she saw the last painting, she finally remembered about her last premonition and realized that it had come true like all of her premonitions did before: GJ had ordered the execution of those people (who supposed to be the royals revolting against him) and that’s why GJ was written as so. She finally understood what the purpose of her life in Goryeo was: to reform GJ so that the history would write him as a wise and good king instead, and instead of having the main title of “bloody monarch”, that status now served only as a necessary part of his effort to stabilize and purify the nation.

What really broke her was that last painting of GJ standing alone. Soo died thinking GJ resented her, and I believe this last painting was solely Baekah’s idea, to tell Soo how GJ never resented her in the first place which was obvious from the painting, how broken and lonely he was after Soo’s death. And when she said she was sorry, it wasn’t for the fact that GJ killed those people (she always could relate and understand his motive), but because she couldn’t accompany him in that hard time. She always knew from the moment So told her that he killed the monks, that So never killed anyone for fun. He got his reason and he never regretted his decision but he suffered through each of his crime.

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(continued)

His gentle soul was dying by each of his killing, and she knew without her accompany, his soul had ceased living completely. She was broken because in the end, she failed to protect the soul she loved the most.

If the show ended at this point, I’d curse the writer. But no, the writer added the scene where in all the hopeless and gruesome circumstance, GJ refused to give up (how one ever expect that someone like him to give up anyway?). His soul might die but his love never wavered. Wiping off the concealer to show his scar was very poignant; he first met her with his scar, and he was gonna to find her in the same condition. And the vow that he made pretty much saved the ending for me because we know that So/GJ never broke his vows. He vowed that he wouldn’t go back to Shinju and he did it. He vowed to become a king and he achieved it. So what would make us think that he wouldn’t fulfill his vow this time?

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love your review and your analize patpat...

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Nice to hear from you again @patpat!

This is a very good interpretation of the show. With this point of view, the drama indeed ended sadly but beautifully! This one is a drama a lot here wouldn't probably forget, not just for the story but because of our experience as viewers.

Thanks @patpat and the whole dramabeans community for the nice experience of engaging in this drama :-)

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@Patpat I'm crying while reading your analysis T__T

"Seol was their last resort to preserve their love; Soo died giving birth to her, and So sacrificed his feeling for the her freedom."

Now I can forgive GJ for not even try to hug Seol, which originally I want that to happen

This Scarlet Heart was the very first drama that makes me do history hunting, searching for others opinion about everything that happen in the drama. Am I regret watching this drama? No! In fact, I'm going to re-watch it again and maybe find some bits and pieces to put it together with Beanies revelation comments :)

Although it would be nice "if" we can get a glimpse of So fulfilling his vow on finding Soo *darn stubborn me* :p

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Patpat, you fixed this drama for me! Thank you for sharing your analysis..

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@patpat I read ur post late but thank you for it, it makes me feel so much better. I'm thankful to all the commenters here who tried so hard to make the ending satisfactory.

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@patpat - it's good to hear from you again! I wish I could respond properly but I'll have to mull over your points and come back later.

I agree with you that there's a difference between the history that didn't feature Su, and the history that did - we've been speculating for ages that Su's influence on So might change history/change the way he's remembered, and that seems to have been the case (Su didn't seem to remember Gwangjong as the empancipator of slaves when she was in Goryeo, only as the one who killed his brothers).

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Royal families fighting for the throne as the main plot is interesting. I think this drama could do better if it was written properly. While watching, I could feel that some details are lacking from the story. Or maybe the writing is not to blame? Maybe it could be the editing of the scenes. (Apparently most of the watchers of the show blame the editing). Also, some characters lack development. For example, it feels like just yesterday 8th prince Wook is the calm and righteous prince there is, then the next day he’s the smart antagonist greedy for the throne. It needs some transition or some indication that a certain character could possibly turn into that kind of person. The ending is also unsatisfying for me. It feels like it’s a cliffhanger for Season 2. If they will not be having a Season 2, they could’ve at least shown us that So found Soo in the future. In the gallery scene where Soo is crying hard, they could’ve inserted a scene where So offered Soo a handkerchief and then end the drama with Soo longingly stare at So.

As for the actors, I really could not blame them for the low ratings. They've done their part. As expected, experienced actors (Lee Jun-ki and Kang Ha-neul) have acted there characters very well. Also, Hong Jong-hyun surprised me with his well done evil character. Baekhyun also surprised me in his last scene in the drama. As for IU, she is really good in mellow and crying scenes. But sometimes, I could not get the emotion that her character is feeling when she puts on her wide-eyed acting.

As for the production, for me it was good. I'm always fascinated with Asian royal setting, clothing, and colors, so the production is a feast for my eyes. But I saw somewhere that compared to the original Chinese drama, it was bland. So I searched for some photos and yes, I do agree that the Korean production is bland. For example, the Chinese version's royal clothes were very detailed (consisting with beads and laces for intricate designs).

All throughout, netizens were disappointed on how Scarlet Heart: Ryeo didn't keep up with the original Chinese version. I could not say that myself because I haven't watched the Chinese version (though I will find time and watch the Chinese version to see the difference). For me, I didn't regret keeping up with the drama series for 2 months. (It's the series that made me a Kang Ha-neul fan so no regrets). With all its disappointments and low ratings, it's still a drama full of emotions. After all, no K-drama fan could resist handsome princes and strong beautiful ladies fight for throne and love.

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its took me a few day to come here, reading this recap n i cry again??? oh come on, not again... TT_TT

MLSHR is really failure for pre-production drama but I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH!!!

the 1st time i watched the ending, iam cried so hard, and can't accepted the ending. 2nd time i'am start to realized, the ending is not too bad. and for the 3rd time, i can accepted the ending and realizing it's beautiful sad ending. very beautiful sad ending and definitely unforgotable and memorable for the viewers...

the story line and the main cast specially LJG is amazing. the editing is such a mess. still iam really love this drama and definitely the best drama i ever watch.

thanks for the recap HeadNo2...

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Hi Moon lovers Scarlet Heart Goryeo :- actors, actresses, writer, director and all who worked so hard for this series Thank you all for making me Happy to know about the BLUE MOON OF KOREA -- GWANGJONG/WANG SO was not only the SUN that shone brightly but was also the Fantastic Brilliant BLUE MOON of Korea itself, such a Great Brilliant Emperor. Can't believe this is my first time ever commenting for a k drama. Usually k drama reduces all my stress and make my heart light, were as this one gave me stress and hard sad feelings but still it is one good k drama

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Blue Moon of Korea?

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Rare one - In order to shine brightly like the SUN one should be burning like the SUN, this series revealed how he was burnt.... and how he shone brightly doing reforms like emancipation of slaves, introducing national civil service exams and so on.... (Once in a blue moon - Rare personality)

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Actually, thinking about it I'm even more pissed off at Ji-mong - it's his discouragement that leads to Su not marrying So/rejecting the proposal she'd waited so long for, because he drove it into her head that she couldn't be a fit queen. And he's the one who turned up in the present day and tried to trigger Su's memories of Goryeo?

If I were Su, I'd have told him exactly where to get off for being such a hypocrite.

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(more Ji-mong ranting to follow later, but anyone who sees this, please feel free to add your own!)

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Forget LJK or IU inside info, I want to ask the actor who played JiMong what his take on his character role was. He's kind of what Robertson Davies calls 'fifth business", neither hero, villain, friend or confidant, the joker in the pack, not paired with anyone (unless it's Mu in a gay pairing as I speculated previously), acting as catalyst without participating much in the story. He has definite shades of TH White's time travelling Merlin character, or could be more a time-traveller as much by coincidence as Su, similar to Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Every time he speaks, we listen with bated breath, because he seems to know SOMETHING, and might enlighten us, but more often than not what we hear is inscrutable or too obvious, so we gain almost nothing from him. The fact a character such as this appears three times at different time periods with Su suggests their fates are intertwined, or he could be manipulating her fate and appearing at key moments, like a psychopomp from shamanistic mythology, a guide on a journey to the underworld or in this case a repressed incarnation. But he never seems to actually guide her except to tell her to live in the present and not to marry So. Anyway, I'm confused by his purpose. He's not really fitting any pattern. But his two roles - a seer in the past and a historian in the future - but homeless if he's not either - connect him to the causal loop of history. Except that we're shown this is not necessarily a causal loop!

Moreover when he says that things are now exactly as they should be you have to wonder why they weren't before. I mean, was Su's time travel a corrective to his own time travel to Goryeo many years before her arrival? Things went wrong for So the very day JiMong told the royals he had the star of a king, the same day his mother scarred So and started hating him, leading to the boy who would have killed all his brothers and be known as a bloody tyrant, except Su was drafted to put So back on track.

Aargh!

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Actually I think the last hypothesis most fits the evidence. History was meant to go a certain way that led to Ha Jin's and JiMong's current present at the end of the story, where So is known as Goryeo's greatest king, a reformer but ruthless to his enemies, a wise and good king.

But some chance of fate sent JiMong to Goryeo. JiMong's knowledge of the time period, like Su's, is partial though perhaps more thorough. He seems to have a better knowledge of Taijo's reign, and knew Mu would be king but have a short life. He also knew that Gwangjong would become king and be the greatest king. He explains his partial knowledge of the future by saying he reads it in the stars.

The mistake he makes is telling people about So's star/future. The queen, in her fury at Taejo, knows that while Taejo might regard So with suspicion (he can't become king unless Mu dies), he would also see the boy as the one to continue the dynasty. The queen's action, whether killing or scarring him, was meant to rob the king of what he prized most, a continuation of the fledgeling nation he had founded. Her fury at the king turns to self-hatred for what she does to So, but she projects that outward onto So, leading him to be the semi-psychotic young man we meet at the beginning.

History continues from that point onwards to Su's present before she takes the plunge. A present where JiMong has become a begger because there are fewer opportunities in this Korea, there might not have been a Yo as king, and Gwangjong is only remembered as a bloody tyrant known for killing his brothers.

This is where Su comes in. She's not there to change history but to set it back on course by bringing out the real So from before his mother scarred him.

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In short, are you saying that it was all about JM using GHJ to correct his own mistake?

Okay another reason to hate JM. I was kinda understanding him if it was like @patpat's theory that he did it for Moo and So. Now it sounds totally selfish.

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Ji Mong is the hardest to figure out, he's like the inscrutable key to this story. He never really let on what he was thinking, and to me, seemed to intervene negatively: telling Su not to marry So. I think he also ordered her arrested earlier in the show? He didn't seem to know everything then, which is why I doubt that he always had a plan for setting history right.

It would be incredible if Su went back in time to fix Ji Mong's mistake, but then he would have to have some kind of superpower. Thinking of Barbrey's water imagery, is there some god or character from Korean mythology that controls water/river of time?

Or he's merely figured out the way to control this time portal and has been going back and forth trying to fix his mistake, ending up as a drunk hobo before Hae Soo came around and said she felt like sleeping for a thousand years.

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I enjoy reading your analysis @Barbrey, but there's a point that I'd like to discuss. According to your theory, the history was supposed to be the same with the present history that we have if it wasn't for Jimong's mistake of telling people about So's king star. So you're saying that if Jimong didn't tell anyone, then So would be a wise and good king and he wouldn't need to bring Go Hajin back. But how will So get the idea of freeing the slaves then? If So was raised in the place by a mother like Queen Yoo, wouldn't he become someone like Yo instead? We see in eps 1 when Soo asked So to apologize, So asked for her status instead; it showed that something like equality didn't exist in his mind yet, and he had the same mindset as all Goryeo people have, that is to treat people according to their status. That version of So would never make the law of emancipation of the slave and that's why I don't agree with your theory that if Jimong didn't tell anyone then the history would write So as a wise and good king who freed the slaves. Go Hajin's existence was the sole reason for Gwangjong to become a wise and good king; without her, the present Gwangjong simply didn't exist and the history would never be written in the present way. I think it wasn't about correcting Jimong's mistake, it was about shaping Gwangjong into a kind of king which otherwise would never exist in Goryeo era.

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You are quite right. I was thinking out loud as I was writing that and hadn't thought it through yet.

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The scriptwriter failed to fill in the blanks on Ji Mong's identity, at the conclusion of the drama. Some viewers assume that he is a time traveler, while other viewers assume that the Goryeo Ji Mong and the 21st century hobo/historian are separate entities. The same opinion applies to Hae Soo and Ha Jin. I have the feeling that neither the scriptwriter nor PD even thought it through, otherwise they might have enlightened us at the very end.

Strangely, I watched Doctor Strange today, that I assumed, to be about space-bending and time-bending.

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@Barbrey..enjoy your analysis...Ji Mong is the only character I simply can't figure out...so thank u for this....when I read your analysis it always helps me understand motivation so much better. The things you posted on reincarnation inspired me to understand the last episode. I'll be posting my thoughts here.

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Thanks Maui. I'm just speculating here, trying to put puzzle pieces together. It's funny because the love story never grabbed me as much as it should have - lacked scenes of Su falling for So - but as a narrative, the author's intentions have obsessed me. I look forward to seeing your thoughts!

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Oh my goodness, the final seconds of this OST video make no mistake: the water imagery is real! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMEWleG9DJQ

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@WishfulToki...loved this...will share it.....

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That's what I didn't understand. ...... this is a love story, why they don't show properly how the heroine falls for the hero? They have time to make all those random scenes with Baekhyun at the start but they cut out things that were so important to the main characters of this story?

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Oh and also I'm pissed off at Ji Mong too.

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Hmm, regarding Ji Mong. There is one character missing from the myth of Yuhwa (posted on page 3 of this thread) that doesn't appear as a character in this drama, but it's possible the author borrowed from Greek myth to flesh out the idea of the River God.

Yuhwa is the River God's daughter in Korean myth. I don't know much about this Korean God. It's he that forces Hae Mo Su, the son(sun) of Heaven into various transformations to prove his love and commitment to Yuhwa. I never got any sense of fatherliness from Ji Mong to Su, which is why I didn't peg him earlier.

However, in Greek myth, Okeanos is both the God and the River of Time itself. I noticed how water imagery was almost always connected to Su in the series, but it is also always connected to time and travelling through it. Okeanos is the great river of time, connecting past and present in a great circle that meets up around the world.

Ji Mong has this circularity too. A historian in the future and a seer in the past. Moreover, we first see him as a begger, with Su, beside a body of water that plunges them into time, the past. The River God and his daughter, Yuhwa?

If so, it gives another mythological foundation to the story and provides a missing piece to where myth and Moon Lovers meet. The characters, as I've said, work as both real people but according to their mythological counterparts.

We can therefore see Ji Mong as the River of Time God and Su as Yuhwa, his daughter, whom he deploys to correct a history his real persona - capable of traversing that river - messed up.

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I'm actually liking this interpretation a lot (though that Ji Mong screwed up is still a speculation, not quite sure, still thinking about it) the more I think of it. Ji Mong as a person really lives in different time periods, an unknowing human avatar of the River God of Time, but also outside time, with powers to traverse time, see the future or understand the past as deep knowledge.

It makes sense of why Ji Mong and Su seemed paired at three points in the time line. Notice too that she never mentions a father, only a mother, in her real life. I mean, she would have a real father, but the author chose to leave him a blank. Also, it's interesting in the myth that the River God tells Yuhwa she can't marry Hae Mo Su, just as Ji Mong tells Su she can't marry So. He only allows it when Hae Mo Su (So) passes a series of transformative "tests" - and notice how right from the very beginning, Ji Mong seems to be testing So's loyalty to Mu. It's like he's always rooting for him but wary of him at the same time.

It makes sense of his attachment to Mu, if you know the myth of Mu. Mu's mother, a Lady Oh, was also a water maiden, found by Taejo bathing, just as Su is found by the princes and later by So. While the drama did not make our Lady Oh his actual mother, it does show Mu being bathed with water, and we're told from the beginning he's always found either at battles or hot springs, and he drowns in poisoned water. Ji Mong, then, as the River God of Korean mythology, with Lady Oh a water maiden daughter, can be mythologically seen as Mu's grandfather.

I guess I'll have to write this all up as one essay, though don't know if I will. Bits of it are scattered throughout the threads. I'm just starting to see Ji Mong as fitting into the myth foundation but it makes sense of a few anomalies, such as the water dripping on Yo's head (he enters history as a king) before he dies.

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Interesting thoughts, thank you. I'm getting Illiad vibes and reminded of the Shield of Achilles surrounded by Oceanus. 'Time is brief' (the last words of the show, courtesy Taejo), and time is eternal, together seem to structure the show as they structure the Illiad. Hmm, I could happily spend some time looking at connections between Moon Lovers and Greek mythology, but that may be pushing it too far, and the Korean mythology works for the most part. I'll keep thinking about it though, can't help it!

I'm much more at peace with the drama after dissecting it like this. I think I may even enjoy watching it again after I read up on the Hae Mo Su/Yuhwa myth. I don't recall BBJX having such thematic cohesion, so in that way I like Moon Lovers better (and I am a big fan of the C-version!) :) Let's all build a praying mound so that the director releases an extended edition with the definitive version (maybe there are more Ji Mong scenes in there).

And I would definitely read that essay!

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I don't think there's too much Greek mythology, I think it's just brought in as part of the Korean River God myth, which I think is fairly bare bones (though don't really know as so little of Korean myth is translated into English).

I started posting about the water and sunlight imagery fairly early, about episode five or so, as it connected to the Gogoryeo founding myth of Hae Mo Su (So)- the sun (son) of Heaven, and Yuhwa (Su) - the River God's daughter because it seemed to be so consistent and somehow telling a story.

I was also interested when Hae Su's clan name was revealed by Goryeo relatives to be Hae Ha Jin, and then found out that Hae was changed to Go in history. Hae comes from Hae Mo Su of the founding myth, or Haeboroo one of his descendents, and the child of Hae Mo Su and Yuhwa, Jumong, changed the name to Go at the founding of Gogoryeo, though many still called themselves Hae for some time. The dynasty of Gogoryeo is a list of kings with the surname Go but interspersed with the occasional Hae, the same name.

That meant that Hae Su's clan name in the past, Hae Ha Jin, was the exact same name as her actual name in the future, Go Ha Jin. I was very glad that JiMong actually verified my guess work from episode five and made reference to it in the last episode, as if steering everybody, like I was, to the history of a name like this, connecting Hae Su of the Hae Ha Jin clan of the past to Go Ha Jin of the future, but also to the founding myth of that dynasty itself of Hae Mo Su and Yuhwa.

On page 3, you'll see where I give a very basic recounting and interpretation of how the Hae Mo Su/Yuhwa founding myth fits with So and Su and the way they interact throughout the drama. It even includes the hair pin. Elsewhere, I've shown how the water, sunlight, rain imagery follows a consistent pattern throughout. However, I never touched much on Time, because I thought it all part of Hae Su's time travelling experience.

But...this theory about Ji Mong not only makes him an avatar of the River God but of a River of Time God, and therefore Su is literally a Daughter of Time as well as Water, .... and my own circle is complete because any anomalies in the imagery I had noticed are now explained.

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Oh love your Shield of Achilles thoughts, WT. I read the Iliad a hundred years ago so didn't remember anything about it. Certainly, the shield is an example of both time is fleeting - all the scenes of everyday life - surrounded by time is eternal, Oceanus. I just looked it up! Like what they say about ekphresis too - you could almost say Moon Lovers is a poem in the same vein.

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i can't understand why recap a drama you don't like... the result is souless...
anyway i love the drama and i thank you for the first recaps i enjoyed them

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Well, the last couple of month's Mondays have been great with Moonlight and Moon Lovers...however bad Moon Lovers turn out to be, it was still worth watching because of Lee Jun Ki's acting and hot-self.

I read the spoilers to the original Scarlet Heart C version and saw that present day So was gonna meet Su at the exhibition so I thought that's why Hae Jin showed up at the exhibition...but So was not even there! Why director? WHY?! Can't you slip in a 30 sec Lee Jun Ki in modern day clothes and meet IU for a sec? I will even accept her zoomed-in surprise expression!!!

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Agree with you. I know the ending is good, but i still want to be swooned by modern Wang So.

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Exactly, it's not that hard! The scene is there, it's not like they didn't film it! They just don't freaking use it :(

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Me too, I am patiently & hopefully waiting for the special episodes.
I feel so lonely without MLSHR .?
Though it has lots of time skip scenes and oftentimes it is up to us to analyze some of it, I won't deny that I love it to pieces.?
Without it, I can't seem to enjoy watching other dramas.
This is a terrible after effect.

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Ugh I know it's been a week and I should totally be getting over it, but i can't... So just one more comment...

The part when WS meets his daughter:

His first instinct when he came to the realisation that the girl was his daughter with HS was to order Jung to leave the child behind.

Jung pleaded with him on the basis that HS last wish was for the child not to enter the palace.

Now, a good use of the flashback mechanism at this juncture, would be to flashback to ep 7 when WS showed HS around the palace and had that little talk with her at the lake about his views on life in the palace, namely, that it is a place that’s hard to enter and even harder to leave. You end up dying if you trust anyone. You’ll live if you remain alert and wary of those closest to you. It’s that kind of place. Everyone here is alone. That is one thing that WS knew for certain.

Then cut back to him looking at his daughter's innocent face, and telling Jung that he was released from his exile and to visit the palace from time to time

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Nice!

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I understand he wants Jung to leave the child behind, it's his daughter with Soo after all. But I liked that after Jung says that about the child's mother wanting her to never enter the palace, So understands and let's her go.

It would be nice to have a flashback but I'm ok with it being this way too, So finally understand that Soo truly loved him but life in the palace is impossible.

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@darkheart Great suggestion!

He states something similar when they are caught trying to get HS out of the marriage to Taejo and again when he offers marriage/ divorce so that HS could have freedom.

He knew HS was right in that deciding moment. He had to trust her decision, Jung.. and himself.

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after a week, i'm still coming back here. i'm still longing and waiting for special episode..
and just now, i've found this picture in IU's IG. hopefully it's one of screen of special episode :) this picture brightens my day

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMf9bZSh4PV/

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Lol everyone from this cast is not happy with the ending it seems

First Jun Ki and Ji Soo said the ending was longer than what got show

Then Kang Hanna and Jin Ki Joo said there were lots of scenes that were filmed but not shown

Now IU leaked the actual stills of the ending we should have seen.

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I'm sure it pisses them off to see a different story being presented now, not what was originally agreed upon. Ending was contradictory to the rest of the show about changing fate and bringing about a happy ending for the couple in the present. LJK even said that the drama will have a happy ending. After I watched this episode, I thought he was just saying that to make fans stay hopeful. But now it makes sense if the cast didn't know the end scenes were being cut.

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Yes exactly.

At his fan meeting to watch the final episode, people said he got flustered when talking about how it ended, as if he didn't expect that kind of ending. But who would expect it when the scene is actually there but the PD just chose not to use it?!

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I admire Joon Ki for standing in the line of fire of his few hundred fans. I imagine that the fans were crying during Hae Soo's death, and were stunned by the lackluster ending.

The final scene of So giving Soo a cheerful piggyback ride, was off-putting. It was used, to diffuse the grief and loss of Hae Soo and Wook (...I did not cry when Wook went to the other side). One of the earlier scenes should have been shortened, to retain the film footage of So giving his handkerchief to Soo in the museum. The fans and viewers would have cried with happiness, at that split-second encounter.

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@Lin_K - I'm having bad flashbacks to CITT, only this time it's an entire cast and story being screwed over, not one person alone /sigh

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Yep.... (“If we had met in another world, and in another time, I can’t help but think how great that would have been,” she said. “If only that were so, I wouldn’t fear anything. I could freely, truly, love you all I wanted.” “If you and I are not of the same world,” he thinks, “then I will find you, my Su-ya.”) these dialogue made us feel disappointed , unsatisfied and unable to move on with the ending, making us longing for special episode or second season damn that editing......

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Mondays without Scarlet Heart feels weird. I miss the drama!!

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I miss it too ??

It's so hard to let go

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Yes :( It.Is.Very.Hard.

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Someone said in previous comments that it's like we went through a breakup. It really feels that way, so many regrets and 'I wish this was better' and then being angry.

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I really bad break-up with a jerky ex-bf who comes knocking at your door every week, sweet talking you into giving him a chance and of course since we're so in love with it's concept of "epic great love", we give in and hope for the best but it breaks our heart every chance it gets.

Much like Hae Soo's and Wang So's love for each other, passionately dysfunctional, perfect for each other but not workable in the long run. Or maybe the drama would have worked better on a longer run? Lol. The withdrawal struggle is real.

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I read on kkuljaem that IU leaked some stills of Wang So in a suit giving Soo a handkerchief in the present day?

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Really? I wish she leaked some more photos or a short video clipping so we can see what they originally filmed. There was always the "what could have been?" factor with this show.

Strangely, I was okay with the sad ending even if I was screaming "happy ending" for the last 19 episodes.

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She only had pictures of the camera screens showing Hae Soo getting Wang So's hanky.

I don't think she can release official stills or the scene since that's probably belonging to the production company or SBS. Still, she showed us this much!

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I actually feel bad for IU, she got the most hate from this drama but she's not a bad actress

People were criticising her expressions but in Producer her expressions were actually what got her so much praise. Makes me think it's the PD fault, not her.

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I have seen IU in two dramas, and she did a very good acting job in both of them. The PD was obsessed with close-ups, instead of directing, and overseeing camerman and the editor. If the camera was not shoved in her face constantly, IU's performance would have been "under the radar". She was not the only victim of the excessive close-ups. Joon Ki and Ha Neul were sitting in my living room most of the time.

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AAAGH AAAGH AAAGH WHY DIDN'T THEY SHOW US THIS, WHYYYYYYYYY

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may the Buddha of Goryeo bless this cast's passive-aggressive game lol.

I can easily believe they're not happy about how things ended up, even if professionalism ties their hands when it comes to expressing that sentiment.

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Oh and there were actually stills shown of Wang So in a suit....the suit had a tie and matching hanky with the same pattern as the hanky being given to crying HS ...so obviously he's there.

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I want to buy the dvd or blueray, but I want all the deleted scene including modern Wang So with English sub!

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+1

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+2

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seriously ill even forgive everything if they make the dvd properly.... but I'm sure PD will screw up again. Just make a proper version with proper editing and soundtracks and include the deleted scenes so things don't become confusing.

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Yeah, Im pretty sure they will screw up again. ?
For them to reedit all is very unlikely. Seems like we should accept whatever it is and move on.

I wonder if someone try to sabotage this production. For me, only editing got issues.

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I don't understand how all the pre produced dramas this year other than DotS, are so bad. First Cheese became weird in the middle/end, then UF was boring and now Moon Lovers editing horribly screwed up.

Do these people not look at what they put out?

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i hope that there will be a season 2 for moon-lovers-scarlet-heart-ryeo.

all of us will be happy for the comeback of this korean drama.

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Season 2 will only be acceptable with proper editing. And I don't trust this drama's editors or even PD.

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SBS should turn over all the scripts and all the film footage of this drama to a film school, and give the film students a project to re-tool the scripts and episodes into a coherent seamless creative story, and fix the bad editing and reduce the amount of exaggerated close-ups.

SBS should then compare the two versions, and identify where they fell short of the vision. If the student version is superior, SBS can award these future filmmakers with contracts to vet future drama projects.

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Seriously if SBS did that the film student version would probably come out a lot better than what Kim Kyu Tae did. I don't mind seeing that version.

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Same here! I'd love to see the "practical", seamless version of this drama. I am just grateful that SBS did not embark on the 50-episode odyssey (Wikipedia definition; a long trip or period involving a lot of different and exciting activities, esp. while searching for something).

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Sorry. This is a correction. The source is Cambridge Dictionary; "A long trip or period involving a lot of different and exciting activities, esp. while searching for something).

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+1 SBS most certainly should!

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@Shqaz or if they want to milk the drama more, they can have a contest on who can do a better re-edit of the script and the footage and the winning re-edited eps gets to be released in the limited edition dvd set. LOL. That way, they save money and time redoing the whole post prod plus satisfying the fans. Everyone happy.

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But they might not allow the film student version because it's embarrassing to them that even students could do better.

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Sorry this was meant to be a reply to @SHQAZ

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Ok still not over MLSHR...

After much discussion with MLSHR rehabbers.. I have this last theory of the paintings.

Hae Su painted them while pregnant.. wanting to record something of her time there, but also reflecting the brothers in important moments. Her intention to one day give them to Wang So/GJ. These are your brothers, these were important moments in their life.. this is your family.

Years after her death Jung gives them to Wang SO/GJ. He understands now what she was trying to do.. her love for him, her love for all of them. (Yo, Won and MU not included). He preserves them for Herstory.. GJ knows if these are maintained HS will not be erased, what she did will not be forgotten and one day they will be seen by HS again. She will know he still loved her and understood her. ..

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with the flack that PD Kim Kyu Tae is getting right now, I think people will now remember him as the PD who screwed up a "what's supposed to be an amazing adaptation" of a well beloved novel and c-drama. I don't understand where he screwed-up? This is the same PD who gave us:

*A love to kill
*Padam Padam
*Iris
*That winter the wind blows
*Its okay its love

All of them were amazing dramas. Can it be that his modern sensibilities just doesn't tie well with Sagueks? Technically the techniques (camera works, prod design, acting) when considered as stand alone is really great but when thrown together in the editing, its just doesn't work well. So much materials, too many bad calls but quite brave to give us that kind of ending.

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Something went wrong...badly wrong. As you say, the problems were not with the camera work, design or acting. They lay with how the whole thing was put together. This is why I have surmised that this show was written for at least 24 episodes. I went back and looked at the promotional material and right up to the last minute the show was advertised as either 24 episodes or, earlier, as 35 episodes.

When a writer is asked for a script, the number of episodes is specified, e.g., "We want a 24 episode script adapted from the BBJX novel but incorporating Korean history instead of Chinese." This was a huge demand in and of itself, mixing these two together, but the writer also added a lot of original material and thematic imagery to shade it with Korean myth. She would need to have made every scene count so that all of it was consistent with the whole.

So what happens if the writer, or the script editor, or even the production editor (we can't know when it was changed), was told that four hours of this complete story needed to be cut?

As a writer, I know that even if this was a script I wrote myself, and I had to make the changes in a hurry, the result would be disjointed and choppy because of the nature of the tale itself being so multi-faceted. And perhaps the writer wasn't even involved, it might have been a script or production editor that cut it down.

This is the ONLY explanation I can come up with because I have never seen such a bad editing job in my rather long life. And I can not see a director passing this to the public - particularly a very competent director like this one - unless he/she had no choice.

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+1000
And I believe the scene where the bracelet made it way to Wook and the hairpin back to Hae Soo also chopped off. ?
Why this happened???

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its supposed to be 24 eps? wow, I would have love to have seen the whole thing in 24 eps. Come on, even Jealousy Incarnate is on 24 eps (hey Kim PDnim!, see how well the characters were fleshed out!)

I'm one of those people who doesn't need season 2, just a re-edit and a few extra mins to tie up a loose present Go HaeJin-Choi JiMong-WangSo sequence and I'm good to move on. I don't need them to meet in the present, just an explanation for Jimong's existence and why Go Hae Jin is the lucky/tragic it girl to go back to the past is enough.

Honestly, I was well late into the party when I joined. I was running out of kdramas to watch when I decided to pick up Scarlet. I went into watching it knowing only that its headed by Lee JunKi, IU, and Kang haneul. Thinking it was only 16 eps and since 13 eps have already aired, it would be an easy watch and an easy wait lol, how wrong was I. 13 eps into it and I was so lost that I had to hit dramabeans recap and read the comments to get the story straight. Then just like everyone else, did my own research in history, c drama version and novel. What a work but I enjoyed doing it with everyone.

In defense of the video editors, its not their call. Sure they are tasked to do the edit but still it's the director's and producer's call on what story and what seq goes into the editor's timeline. They also make the call what gets to be broadcasted so the blame sits on the director's and the producer's shoulders alone.

Ya Kim PDnim and Producernim! please do well next time but I won't be watching any of your next Saguek projects for a long time.

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My scenario of many hours of cut scenes puts the blame here squarely on whoever shortened the drama.

But in the end it's speculation. I guess we'll never know. I'm still waiting for an explanation for Cheese in the Trap's ending ; )

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I second your suggestions, above. I watched the drama diligently, but midway, I stopped trying to make sense of the jigsaw puzzle, and just watched the episodes.

My recommendations would be:
1 Re-edit the episodes, and de-emphasize the one million close-ups, and show the characters interacting naturally with each other. They must have shot the same scenes from different angles, and would have the unused film footage).
2 Reorganize the final episode, grouping together, the Goryeo scenes and the Seoul scenes. Remove any silly scenes. Make that final scene grab the viewers' heart, and make them cry.
3 Add some narrative, to fill in the blanks.
4 Fix the Shaky Camera scenes.
5 Ji Mong's role explained, past and present. It is obvious that he had knowledge of the modern world. He mentioned people travelling in the flying contraption (...my words).
6 Hae Soo/Ha Jin's role explained, past and present
7 Clarify if the Ji Mong and Hae Soo solar eclipse time slip was due to time travel, astral projection, out of body experience, reincarnation.
8 Make the PD, Production Executives and Scriptwriter write one thousand times, "Moon Lovers, Scarlet Heart, Ryeo".

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I've always been of the opinion that given the breadth of material to draw from both the novel Bu Bu Jing Xi and the successful 2011 Chinese tv series adaptation Scarlet Heart, the powers that be should have insisted and planned for the kdrama remake MLSHR (especially since it was being pre-produced) to be at least a 40 if not 50 episode drama. It's not like there isn't precedent for this in recent memory - a fusion of Saguek and fiction airing on Monday & Tuesdays...Six Flying Dragons was 50 episodes and Empress Ki ran for 51.

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When I watched episode 19 for the first time I really cant understand why they would make Soo leave her love of her life behind. Then, after I wached again I really do understand its not only about Chae Ryung, its about his possesiveness and the very unhumane way to deal with things. In the first half of the drama (I think episode 3), she witnessed Wook killing a man, she watched over So crying after killing people, she lent over her shoulder to So after he thought that he killed his brother. She could justify for all those kill each other because she knew that those thing should be done in that period of time.

But with chae ryung she couldn't justify his action because the way he deals with that traitor is just too cruel for Soo. Even though chae ryung was a traitor, she has been Soo's companion for a long time and public execution was just too cruel. Besides that, she knew that chae ryung was only a mere puppet therefore she could not justify his action. Then, her last straw was when So showed pleasure for framing Wook. Its not because she was Wook's lover before but its because she knew So evil intention and hate towards Wook.

Soo knew that she is pregnant and her time is short. She knew that if So knew shes having his child then he would never let her leave. And she really understand that she could not be there for her child. The palace is a dangerous and cold place for a kid and Soo knew that So has become a change man that could do anything in his capacity as a king. Thats what makes her to leave him cause she knew her time is too short to make the king became a humanistic and non-ruthless leader (a la 21st century). Then, she make sacrifice for her child to leave the king so that her child would live in a nice environment while growing up and never being touched by the greed and evil politic inside the palace. Anddd finally I could understand her character.

I really understand for those hate Soo character getting from the audience. Its because the drama did not really give the viewer inside her way of thinking and the other reason is we, the audience was just swooning over the handsome king love for Hae Soo hahaha. Still I think the epic part of their love story here is refer to their longing for each other in any situation given. So love Hae Soo in her time as a noblewoman, slave, courtlady, or even when her trust to him is waving. Hae Soo love him in his time as a unworthy prince, good man, or an evil king. She literally makes him king by proclaiming him a king in front of everyone. She understand his greed and try to make him in right path of greed. She loves her man as a whole good or bad. Yet, by the end of the day she understand that her body could not bear with it anymore and she called it quit.

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I tried this game and I really enjoyed the ending. I got ending#12 :)

http://www.joysofasia.com/game-choose-your-own-ending-quiz-for-moon-lovers-scarlet-heart-ryeo-while-waiting-for-part-2-special-episodes/

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rewatching the director's cut 1 - 3 does give me an entirely different feeling. The cuts are really much better. For example, the horse meet cute is much much longer, a few extra shots and smoothing out the transition from when WS picks up HS from the ground to the horse. The broadcast version is very awkward (maybe because there's that additional cut of HS where it looks like she's airborne b/c of the wiring as the SFX). Also an extra beat of WS clutching HS's waist. Hawt.

Also noticed that first shot of WS entering the palace, he's completely alone and he vows that he'll never been sent to Shinju again. What a contrast to the last scene in the series when he's completely alone in the palace. No one will definitely send him to Shinju but he's trapped there. Good symmetry when I think about this.

In ep 2 of the director's cut - there's an extra scene where Chae Ryung and HS talk additionally about the lines of sucession. HS remembers that there was a very bloody struggle between the princes after Taejo. But Ep2, she still does not remember any kings of Taejo. There's an additional flashback for HS before she chases WS into the woods. Again, showing this very different direct relationship between HS and WS, she wants him she goes after him (vs. her relationship with Wook).

In ep 3 - The additional scene between HS/WS by the prayer rocks. I also noticed that WS has a bloody kind of flashforward to when he kills the monks that's also splashed in red. Weird, because I thought the bloody flash forward were kinda Hae Su's thing. Also, when HS explains to him what a mother is: "Someone you can go to no matter what wrong you've done, someone who will be there for you who understands you. Someone who's always on your side." and that is absolutely something that HS becomes in as a stand in Mom for WS. Oh man, the mommy issues are like all over the place in this show.

If you think about those three lines, they become repeated as motif in the show.
1. Someone who understands you no matter what wrong you've done - Wang So goes to HS after he stabs Yo because he's devastated. He tells her he remembers her words from before, when she saw him after the monk killing, she doesn't think forgiveness is in the cards, but she understands him.

2. Someone who understands you - When he takes HS to the sea after the forced kiss, he tells her that she's his only friend and only confident. So in effect, she's the only one who understands him.

3. Someone who's always on your side - This comes up when HS allows Jung to see his dying mother. WS says to her, why aren't you on my side? In WS's mind, because HS has occupied this almost mother/lover role in his life, it's an unforgivable sin for him.

Ep 20 finale thought - I realized why the scene with their daughter comes exactly after YH's confrontation with WS about their son Yu. First, it sets up this huge contrast between who WS could be as a father (kind to the...

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First, it sets up this huge contrast between who WS could be as a father (kind to the girl he doesn't know) to what kind of father WS felt like he had to be to his son Ju (because of palace politics). [This is the additional reason that HS did not want their daughter in the palace, as a potential pawn to be played.] Also, since the previous scene with YH ends with her telling WS she know exactly why Hae Su left, the scene following CLEARLY explains to WS why Hae Su did. It's like the show wanted to answer the the question posed by YH to WS. And there's this moment because WS is standing near their (HS/WS) lake that he's I think clearly thinking about YH's statement: why did HS leave me? And bam, out comes this answer in the form of the cutest little girl who acts exactly like HS and wears her hair pin. It's kinda beautifully done when I think about it retrospect.

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@seltzwater Pray tell, where can we watch this director's cut? I've been watching the international version since the one I've finished originally was the SBS version. I can't tell which one is better it depends on what story you want to buy. In terms of telling stories of side characters, I guess international version is better. E.g. scenes of Jung, in the international version, they've established well when did Jung fell for Hae Soo, when did Hae Soo stopped being a "nuni" to Jung's eyes, when did Jung got the decree to marry Hae Soo from Yo. Scenes like these that were cut from the SBS version in favor of giving more screen time to Lee JunKi (no complains here. lol.). The SBS version tend to give more emphasis on Wang So and Hae soo's relationship yet they still failed to give justice to the epic love they were selling.

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@Seltzerwater - is the director's cut of 1-3 viewable on any of the usual sites? Because I gave up looking for it pretty early on when I couldn't work out how to register for the SBS website in time, and I would love to see how the changes affect the final version of the episode.

(and once again - what was Kim Kyu-tae thinking?!!!)

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@pogo I'll try to help ya in the google hangout!

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Director's cut engsub eps 1-3: idowhatiwantwheneveriwant.tumblr.com

If you want high quality Torrent, this is the link: https://m.torrentkim3.net/bc.php?bo_table=torrent_tv&wr_id=113704
But it's 8gb each.

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WOW! GREAT REVIEW! I agreeeee with everything! Especially how the show made it so difficult for us to root for SO. So-Su didnt have as much and strong foundation as compared to Wook-Su!! :( :( ALSO, does this mean the Gwangjong who Su knew from her History class or her world in the drama is different from the real Gwangjong? So many questions! I wish I can talk to someone to pour all these feelings out!

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join us on google hangout @marie
https://hangouts.google.com/group/JPgabHVWapTcLFpY2

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So-Su didn't have much and strong foundation like Wook-Su? Are you kidding me? Did we watch different version of drama? Or are you sure you have actually watched the whole episodes without skipping some crucial parts? LOL

So was ready to die for her. He sacrificed his feeling and left her to protect her. Su waited for him for two years without any news, plus he had broken up with her but she still had faith on him. Su sacrificed her freedom to be with So. So was ready to sacrifice his throne for Su if only Su didn't say she wanted to marry Jung. And if you haven't realized yet, Su left So because she wanted to save their daughter from the palace threat to prevent her become like Lady Oh's unborn child. She sacrificed her life to give birth to her daughter with So. And the last, So sacrificed his feeling by not acknowledging his daughter in order for her to be safe and free, and to respect Su's wish.

And what had Wook sacrificed for her? Nothing.

If that's not what you call epic love then I don't know anymore.

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Pei or anyone.. can send me the hangout group link for MLHR rehab? Thanks

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Okay, I cannot be the only one who actually liked the ending, can I?

I cried during Hae Soo's flashback when they were singing the song she sang at Eun's birthday. I cried when Soo died. Although I didn't realise she had died till I saw the urn in the next scene; I thought she just fell asleep on Jung's shoulder. I cried when So ran into Jung and their daughter after the time jump. I cried when Soo woke up crying in modern day. I cried when she was in the museum and she said she was sorry for leaving him alone.

But I really really really really cried at the end, the last scene, after So says he will find Soo, that final flashback where he gives her a piggyback ride. Oh, the tears came and it beat and it boiled and it rang. Because in the previous flashback scene he'd said that although life is fleeting and short it matters because of moments like this (him and Soo together). And for me, that was the 'WHY' of it all. That scene was so poignant and perfect to end it all because in life, after a long period of pain and suffering, what makes you cry are the happy times before that pain, not the pain itself. Oh, the nostalgia. At the end, what remains are only our memories. That is all life is, a collection of our memories.

Also, anyone notice that Jung was actually the luckiest brother?
1. He didn't die at the end.
2. He was raised by a mother who actually loved him.
3. He didn't have to kill any of his brothers.
4. Was never imprisoned or tortured (unless one considers his banishment to his hometown imprisonment, which I don't)
5. He was the one Soo was with when she died.
6. He got to raise Soo's daughter.
7. At the end he remarries and gets to live his life with his wife and his first love's daughter away from all the palace politics.

I agree with the commenter who said that Jung was what So would be if his mother had loved him.

The saddest part for me wasn't that So and Soo never got to meet after the end, but that So was alone. All "his" people had left. But I guess it had to be that way. And that's why I was soooooo glad when So lifted Jung's punishment, even if it was only for his daughter's sake.

However, if I had to change a few things at the end for better closure, this is what I would change.

1. Wang So would love his son in spite of his differences with Yeon Hwa. He should know better than anyone how important the love of a parent is.
2. I wish that Wang So didn't kill Chae Ryung so brutally. It's the one thing I can't forgive him for.

In my mind, Wang So became Gwangjong, the great king. And Soo moved on, married some guy, had two babies and vacationed and travelled all over the world with her family. Of course, they both had the dreams and still pined for each other but c'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

P.S: Am I the only one worried about Baek Ah's choice of women? First his brother's wife who is, what, 15 years older than him... Then, a girl who wants to kill his father?...

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Can someone tell me, how can Wook's daughter named Bok Soon, and why she had the "horse ornament"(?(

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His wife was a Baekje like Woo Hee, that's why she had that emblem like Woo Hee's.

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Since the South Korean writer could not replicate the Chinese novel or the Chinese drama, he or she made up a story, combining Goryeo fact and fiction (aka creative writing). Two questions come to mind. 1. Was it, a love story or a historical story? 2. Was it, the story of Soo, or the story of the Goryeo dynasty?

The writer weighted the story more on Taejo and Wook, than So, who was the primary character. Many viewers commented early in the drama broadcast, that Wook seemed to be the lead character. Many of the supporting characters had little character development, that could be attributed to the short drama timeline (20 hours).

I compliment the casting director and the costume designer for their excellent work.

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Does anyone know the song that was playing while she was crying at the photo exhibit? It was nice and intense, its not included at the OST I think.

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Were you referring to the song sung by the female opera singer? I re-watched the scene, and the song that stood out, was "Will Be Back' by Sun Hae Im, available on Itunes.

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it's been weeks and i can't move on. i watched the finale again and I'm so mad at that missing scene of present day wang so.

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Guys we all know moon lovers scarlet heart ryeo is one of the best kdrama with emotions overloaded and lee joon ki's amazing acting.
A season 2 is needed to complete the story so please sign the petition. Link is below:
https://www.change.org/p/sbs-make-scarlet-heart-ryeo-season-2-possible

Let us all vote moon lovers scarlet heart ryeo as best kdrama and actors lee joon ki and lee ji eun as best actor and actresss
link is below:
http://vote.kdramastars.com/best-k-drama-2016

May be voting as best drama can compel SBS to make a season2

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Isn't there going to be another episode or a bonus episode. like d Chinese version, I was hoping they like meet again in the 21st century.

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I recently watched the drama, moon lovers; scarlet heart ryeo.. and it is beyond awesome , the cast was totally amazing... Please, there should be a 2nd season, there should totally be... Please, I hope they are working on one... Moon lovers;scarlet heart can't end like this, it can't..

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i visualized that Su become goblin like Kim Shin and they live together in the present time.. :( :(
omg i need closure! it's like a very very bad break up and you don't know why..i can't move on..

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Sooooo i just finished watch this drama, i know you guys going to think "You are a bunch of train schedule late melina !!!!" Please dont kill me.....

I have always refrain watching live drama because i just can't handle waiting new episode, the only drama i watch live even with no subtitle is My Love From Another Star because, duh, it's Kim Soo Hyun.

Back to the drama, i read so many people are dissapointed with the ending, well i think i am one of those people who doesn't need a happy ending drama because what i love is the journey and even its cheesy to say, with this kind of drama we ought to learn do the opposite in our own real life. NEVER make our life makjang....

As for IU, am I the only one who thinks that her acting is much better, not at al gruesome bad in my opinion. She deliver more convincing line and expression. And for Jung Gi, well i am not impressed with his attitude in Running Man when he become a guest but lo and behold this drama fixed some of that prejudice I've had for him.

Thank you dramabeans for the episode recap, always applaud your never ending efforts.....

Cheers,

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Okay. I love the story and everything. But I cant help but want a better ending. Like ghad how could you do this to me? Where's the happy ending where they'de meet in the present? Why? Just why didnt the creator do that? Now im crying here so much.. im just not satisfied.. im very sorry for being like this huhuhu.. HOW I HOPE THERE WILL BE A SECOND SEASON! I'LL DEFINETLY CRY IF THERE WILL BE!

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"...her handwriting was so similar to his (again, what and why?)" hen she arrived in the past, she didn't know how to write their language so she started kind of shadowing So's handwriting until she finally learned it all. That's why their handwriting is so similar.

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Oh. Interesting. She did keep rewriting So's letter to her. Makes sense.

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I have just finished the series and it was so unsatisfying. It felt like an unfinished business. There's a lot of questions left unanswered for me. I guess that's why I ended up here on this post. I agree with the character build ups. They could have executed it better. I do hope they make up for it by having a second season. I hope there's truly a chance for it. I need closure too.

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The heck I gave this show a chance since it said to be darker and more serious than Hwarang (I really like something that get me deep thinking) plus I saw the raining of comments it earned on DB!
I take someone’s comment on Allkpop, “This is not a saeguk but a parody of saeguk.” I just couldn’t take the story seriously because the lackluster in mostly acting, writing, and directing.
Acting: IU was my biggest disappointment since she was the main female lead. She didn’t have any facial expression at all just plain so every time I saw Su to me she’s just IU the whole show. What bothered me most was IU’s too cute for this role. Yes first quarter of the series Su be like sweet and cheerful but as it got more tense as when Su was made the head court-lady, she must be assertive and commanding but again her facial expression and body language were not there she looked like teenage girl trying so hard to be a woman. And that’s also that made the romance impossible to buy. With Ha-neul it’s still passable but with Joon-ki it’s like an elementary kid had a crush on a college student. IU couldn’t bring out the aura of a mature woman and I don’t know whether it’s her face, voice, or petite figure. It would work for me If she was paired with Baek-hyun.
Joon-ki’s feature fitted saeguk the most, his face, voice, speech, everything to be So he’s perfect for the role. His acting was good but not that charming to leave me a big impression. Ha-neul was the only one that could manage to make me care for his character. Ji-soo and Baek-hyun made me laugh ridiculously just by looking on their faces which totally didn’t fit saeguk ohgad I really couldn’t take it. Joo-hyuk was slightly better than the two in terms of acting and adaptation. Jong-hyun succeeded to get me cursing his portrayal of cruel wicked Yo proof he acted really well.
Writing: To make it worse than IU’s soulless acting, her character was written poorly. She’s the heroine and I supposed to root for her instead I wished her dead and forgotten. It’s absurd to begin with how they made all princes except 3rd and 9th who were clearly evil, to fall for Su. Everyone was convinced about her love for Wook and she was ready to marry him. Without knowing the reason and trying to find out why Wook turned his back on her while actually still much loved her, she turned her heart to So. Eventually when marrying So was not possible, she took Jung’s hands. Yeah you just gonna marry any guy who asked you to, go for it Su!

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I agree with u except last part "Eventually when marrying So was not possible, she took Jung’s hands. Yeah you just gonna marry any guy who asked you to, go for it Su!".
she loved wook but then fell in love with another guy so easily, that makes her lose character. i think the writer make a big mistake there.

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I know u all are sad for king wang so, but i am very sad for wook. he waited for hae soo , loved her missed her didn't force her but waited silently. I wanted to see more of wook but.......

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Firstly, I want to thank you very much for your extensive recaps. I rarely made it through an Asian drama and when I want to know the ending but can't stand anymore of the drama, this is the place I come. I made it to episode 17 which I consider an accomplishment.

Secondly, I deviate from the norm here in that I actually liked the ending. I read the recaps of the Chinese drama and I like this one way more.

Thirdly, what other people liked about the Chinese drama-the character development, I call a waste of time. I dislike long stories and that one seemed too tedious. I stopped about 15 episodes in or so, less than halfway

I really do hope for a second season but with the caveat that they both have their memories. Because it seems simply unfair that only she remembered their past love after his declaration to find her. Although, I would have preferred that he said something along the lines of 'I will hunt you down,' because he's always been called a dog/wolf.

Again, I totally want to thank you for your lovely recaps. I have been on this site multiple times for many series recaps that I just can't make it through.

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