tayo’s gallery

This show is all about the details. That’s why every scene, and every line matters. From the beginning, it was always mentioned that our Pyeha cannot be called by his real name, Lee Gon. So he wouldn’t even tell people his name. He would only ever introduce himself as the King of the Kingdom of Corea and that’s it. And this made him so deeply rooted into his role as the King, as if his sole purpose in life was to be the King and forget that ‘Lee Gon’ existed. So he dedicated his whole life to it.

But as he spent time with Jeong Tae Eul, he came to realize that with her, he’s not the King of the Kingdom of Corea, he’s Lee Gon. To the bare, he is a man in love. And that man has to be called Lee Gon, not the King. It was Lee Gon that held on to Lieutenant Jeong Tae Eul’s ID in hopes of finding her one day. It was Lee Gon that sneaked out of the Kingdom of Corea to meet Jeong Tae Eul. It was Lee Gon that made it back to 2020 after being stuck in the past, as he used his love to get him through. Which is why the first time he tells anyone in the Republic of Korea his name is right after he lands back in the right time, after holding so strongly onto the memory of Tae Eul for so long. He found his Lee Gon self as he trekked through time. Jeong Tae Eul showed him that he is more than just the King, knowingly or unknowingly.

So when the show basically ends with Lee Gon doing his duty as the king but also proudly telling the child his name is Lee Gon, with the dramatic royal music in the back as the camera pans to the portrait of him as the king, it hits you right in the feels. He no longer is only introducing himself as the king. He’s acknowledging that he’s now in a better place than he has ever been before. He’s finally acknowledging that he is both the King and Lee Gon, thanks to Jeong Tae Eul. And it’s much less of a burden on him this way. So it’s not only Lee Gon that impacted Jeong Tae Eul by making her world rounder, but also the other way around.