In search of sanity while I am back on the writing for my degree grind I put on Goong. I had forgotten so much of it!! It’s so freaking cute! I also didn’t realize quite how much Perfect Crown was lifting from it…
Two princes and a shitty king/father figure ✅ (the king in Goong is kind of extra shitty what with the disparaging his own son in favor of his girlfriend’s and oh wait his girlfriend is his sister-in-law. Korea nobody was doing it like you in 2006. Anyway that leads me to…)
Sad marriage of convenience between the king and the queen✅
Dysfunctional and distant royal family ✅ (with the caveat that Goong has a Royal Grandma and a Royal Sister and they are both the cutest beans and also holding that family together with their bare hands)
A spunky!female lead who is insecure underneath it all and is falling far harder than she meant to for the prince she’s married ✅
Political shenanigans handwaved bc the setting is constitutional monarchy and we need to not think too hard about it lol ✅
Burdened but (mostly) willing to take up his responsibilities to the crown! male lead✅
Everybody wants to be king even though everybody knows it doesn’t mean anything in terms of real power! ✅
Ok this may be controversial but for all the wrist grabbings that were the hallmark of kdramas for the longest time and are rampant in Goong, I find the implicit sexism and paternalism in Perfect Crown far more jarring. Regardless, it’s there in both ✅😅
You know what Goong has that Perfect Crown doesn’t? 24 1 hour episodes. It ain’t right lol.
