FICKLE PICKLE!

NO! I started watching it because I noticed the almost $4,000 red leather Gucci purse.

And that's how I realized the purse (along with everything else) was color relevant.

So now I am watching it because it's color coded.

But that's not the only reason I'm watching it! I'm also watching it because it's sun and moon coded/light x dark dynamic, which is why an eclipse happened in both timelines.

But also, there's a whole thing about red flowers, specifically peonies, "the king of flowers," and how they are the most beautiful flower in a garden full of beautiful flowers.

(The flowers are her)

Because she was the most beautiful flower blooming in the royal garden before she was plucked and crushed.

But she wasn't always the red flower and her love interest wasn't always the dark cloud.

He was blue. Loyal. Smart. Kind (to her).

And she was pink, even in the current timeline.

So I think the past and the present Shin Seo-Ri are the same person since the grandmother mentioned an accident occurred and Shin Seo-Ri forgot who she was then, so maybe she had an accident at work again and woke up with full memories of her past life . . . but that's not what this post is about. It's about the colors, and how slowly, these two are getting back to their softer colors.

Instead of always being red and black, they are gradually moving to pink and blue one color step at a time.

And it's probably because they found each other again in the midst of an eclipse with a shining red comet included.

Or maybe it's because love (mixed with this bokeh effect) reveals everyone's true color.

Either way, count me in!

and in this modern life, seori hasn't been brave until episode 9 ending because she thinks she has to avoid what happened in the past life. but segye? segye doesn't give a fuck about anything or anyone. he knows the world is full of bastards and bad things so he just says screw them let me go full fledged with what i want!

and seori at the end realizes that her HESITANCE. her not willing to fully accept her feelings was not protecting him or her; it was a repeat of her mistakes from her last life. but she has more power here and so does segye.

zero plot consistency, zero writing consistency, zero arc consistency, possibly the all-time worst writing i have seen for a male lead in ages (aura farming! is not good writing!!!!!!!!!), both the leads were just privileged losers who acted like high schoolers at the end, zero comprehension of how politics works. the entire drama was made to show off filtered glamour but it wasn't even entertaining. oh let's abolish the monarchy so i can go back to being a rich ceo and you can cook <3 that's how teenagers think. that's not how adults think. that's not how the world works. you do not just "abolish the monarchy girls" and everything goes back to normal! because now who did that power go to, prince yian? the very same cabinet and politicians like a story arc is not things going to the same place they started but even more childish.....

the villains were an utter calamity. noh sang hyun.......idek what they did to your character. queen mother was the goat of the drama because without her, what would the leads have even done? she fixed everything for them! what is more amusing to me is that goong and my princess that both aired like 1-2 decades ago had a more mature handling of the monarchy and showed better writing.

And My Princess, while I didn’t love it as much as Goong, was a lesson on having a fluffy Royal romcom with low stakes that is still not illogical.

People found The King: Eternal Monarch messy and it wasn’t about royalty anyway despite its protag being an AU King, but even leaving aside my loving it - it actually had things to say and functioned as a narrative.

Treat it as a vacation that the heavens gave you. Don't force yourself to charge forward. Don't feel flustered. Don't work hard. Just go with the flow.

Hey, why don't you try thinking of it this way? What? Treat this as a very long vacation. A very long vacation? I think there's no need to keep charging forward. There will surely be a time when everything doesn't go smoothly, or a time when you feel exhausted. Right? At a time like this... How should I explain it? Although it's a bit strange to say this, treat it as a vacation the heavens gave you. Don't force yourself to charge forward. Don't feel flustered. Don't work hard. Just go with the flow. And then? Things will get better.

You go on the offensive, you fight back.

Also, her threatening to shoot his cat and then bandageing his hand with her hair scarf (?), perfection

First, we have to look at the Queen Dowager’s true objective. In a Joseon-style court, a banquet isn’t a social event, it’s a ritual of hierarchy. Every detail is a calculated move: the dangui¹ signals your rank at a glance, the entry order dictates the pecking order, and the seating chart reinforces the political structure. By sending Hui-ju that specific outfit and forcing her to walk last and sit in the back, the Queen Dowager is publicly branding her as low-status and controllable. It’s a political declaration: "You exist only within my system."

Choosing the white suit over the dangui is Hui-ju’s way of rejecting the system's labels. If she wears the dangui, she’s acknowledging her place in the social order. By refusing it, she denies the court the power to categorize her. It’s a powerful statement of autonomy: "I don't fit into your boxes." This isn't a rebellion for the sake of aesthetics, it's a high-stakes narrative refusal to be a pawn in their political game.

White² isn't just a snub, it’s controlled ambiguity. Per the show’s own internal logic, white is the color of the Queen Dowager and mourning, but also the mark of a commoner. Hui-ju uses this to play all sides. She tells the court she’s above their ranks, tells the Dowager she doesn't own the color, and tells the public she’s one of them. It’s a genius bit of visual storytelling. She isn't just throwing a "gendered jab," she’s making a massive power move by showing that the court’s symbols have no power over her.

When Hui-ju puts on a Western suit, it pits economic power against inherited power (by far the biggest thematic clash in the show). The court is defined by the yangban bloodline system, while Hui-ju is powered by modern wealth. The visual contrast is immediate. A dangui signals allegiance to tradition, but the suit tells the world she plays by a different set of rules. It’s about breaking free from a political cage.

Don't mistake the Prince’s intervention for a "rescue" because there's difference between a "Damsel in Distress" trope and a strategic political alliance.

It’s easy to misread this as simple gender dynamics, but it’s actually pure court politics. When he takes her hand, he isn't "saving" a weak woman, he is publicly validating her defiance. In the rigid logic of Joseon, walking order is synonymous with hierarchy. Since the Prince belongs at the front, pulling her forward serves as a real-time re-ranking. He’s telling the court, "She stands beside me, not beneath you." It’s a political endorsement. Hui-ju made the first move by causing the disruption, the Prince simply followed her lead to legitimize it. The power flow is clear: she acts, and he escalates.

I love her "playing dumb" strategy! When she tells the press she’s "just a commoner" who didn't understand the court's rigid rules, she’s building a shield against punishment. She knows that if the Palace retaliates, they’ll look like bullies picking on an innocent outsider. It’s a calculated manipulation of the public’s expectations. She forces the royals to act with "benevolence" whether they want to or not 😌

Hui-ju wasn’t attacking the Queen Dowager as a woman, nor was she rejecting femininity or making a simple "girlboss" statement. Instead, she chose to reject being ranked by aristocratic rules and introduced a new power system. She forced the court to engage with her on entirely different terms and triggered the Prince to publicly choose a side. Had she obeyed, she would have become controllable. Had she openly defied them, she would have been crushed. Instead, she disrupted the status quo without direct confrontation, shifting the battlefield entirely. That’s why it works.

¹In the world of Korean hanbok, the dangui is the go-to formal jacket for the elite. It’s the standard silhouette for royal women (from the Queen down to the court ladies) and the high-ranking noblewomen of the yangban class. It serves as a narrative signal of status, whether it's being worn for a major ceremony or as part of the daily palace wardrobe.

²The color-coded hierarchy of the Joseon era.

In Joseon, the King’s primary state robe was known as the gonryongpo (곤룡포), and it was traditionally a striking bright red. This color choice was rooted in Confucian hierarchy and influenced by Chinese imperial standards, specifically those of the Ming Dynasty, which Joseon used as a model for its own statecraft and protocol.

Red symbolizes supreme authority and vitality; in East Asian iconography, it represents the central life force and absolute power.

Historically, red and the dragon insignia were reserved exclusively for the King to mark his sovereignty. Joseon had an incredibly rigid dress code that controlled everything from fabric to patterns. If a Grand Prince were to sport that same look, it wouldn't just be "disrespectful," it would be interpreted as a symbolic coup. In a palace full of rival factions, wearing the King's colors is basically announcing your intention to take the crown. The stakes couldn't be higher.

While white is associated with the Queen Dowager, its meaning is actually much more nuanced. Joseon society is famously known as the "Nation of White-Clad People" (Baeguiminjok / 백의민족). For commoners, white was the color of daily life, symbolizing purity, simplicity, and humility.

White serves as a powerful visual marker for mourning and high rank. In this Confucian setting, white is the color of widowhood, and since the Queen Dowager is the eternal widow of the previous King, she essentially "owns" that status. The Queen (the King’s consort) wore vibrant ceremonial colors like reds and greens to symbolize her active power. Concubines and noblewomen were restricted to specific palettes dictated entirely by their rank. The Queen Dowager, meanwhile, transitioned to more restrained, pale, or white-based tones (a symbolic shift rather than a literal requirement). When she wears white or muted tones, she signals her seniority and moral weight to the rest of the court. It is a way of asserting her power without saying a word.

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