Release Year: 2025
No of Episodes: 12
Know the Main cast:
Cha Joo-young as Queen Wongyeong/Lady Min, Min clan.
Lee Hyun-wook as Lee Bang-won, the king of Joseon.
Lee Yi-dam as Chae-ryeong,The queen’s lady in waiting who became the king’s woman.
Lee Si-a as young-shil,The Queen’s previous Lady in waiting who became another Concubine(King’s woman)
Main Plot:
A strong optimistic Queen who chose to marry her love of life, Despite differences, she never lost her thrust in stablilizing her husband’s power and his dignity.
Episodes Summary:
Episode 1:The Royal Proclamation
A beautiful woman walks in with King for their marriage ceremony. One group of ministers are happy to see them while the others are in distress.The king seems to be unpredictable, but whatever, Lady Min now becomes the Queen joining the royal household.did the king marry her out of his own will or because of political pressure? the story tells further.
In the Party hall, The king dances before all and to everyone’s surprise the Queen joins. Yes, both of them loved each other, helped each other through miseries, passionate kisses and cant wait to consummate before the royal announcement. The court ladies feels that Queen is not bold and dont follow royal etiquette. but the queen is in no mood to hear all those stuffs.
The retired king, the king Lee Bang-won father is furious on him as he cant forgive his own son for killing the other beloved Son, the Previous Crown prince. He could not control his anger seeing this child coveted the crown by laying his own’s brother head. He wanted Lee Bang-won to suffer after hearing that he got married to the one who supported him in the coup. But who is Lady Min, now Queen and which family she belongs to , is she that powerful to successfully seize the government and make her man the king. is she that violent to help in killing a Crown prince before his own father? doesnt seems so.
Lady Min is from the Powerful “Min” family that controls the King. The king needs min family support in order to run the government. Though reluctant, he has to keep Queen’s brothers in royal position and so his father. His father is a powerful player in the royal court and its not the king but the other way round, the Queen’s father made him the King.
Though the King remains silent, he could not tolerate his own brother in laws hailing Queen and calling her a Man.The egoness could not outsmart his inability to fight with those people. he is a king in royal stamp, but not for real,a common problem faced by almost all kings of Joseon.but he hits back to some extent and the commotion was stopped when Queen min asked her brothers to stop. but the brothers never forget that the King is once a nomad and only able to seize power because of their elder sister.
According to the King and Queen who once were rebels, its not a coup but a revolution. They believed by fighting with his father, the previous king, they can unfold the world that they want.but what for it happened? though Lee Bang-won(the now king) is reluctant initially, it was only the Queen Min who wanted this revolt very badly. but what on earth happended during the revolt and what even made them to revolt? whatever the reason could be, the incumbent king is still not accepted ny his very own people because of this so called revolt.
Lady Min, though initiated the revolt never intended to kill the Crown Prince Yi Bang seok, she infact tried to stop him but all of this had been out of her control for a minute.
As a political move, the King wants the people of jeonjo to retrive back their commoner status. Their properties were stolen by the noble families so the court fears of snatching it from them as it will cause severe discontent. The king dont mind as he believed whomsoever in his regime cannot steal property from any.so the king wants to be a righteous man. The king had a son with other woman and he does not know any. The woman now vows to enter palace at cost. she wanted to meet the King and say that they both share a son. but his informant told the king and queen now wants to meet the child though she is sad that her husband cheated on her. In Royal household, probably this is not cheating. when this was happening, there is an attempt made by a black masked man to kill the King commissioned by his father. He failed to kill him but caused a chaos. The father planned this with a man whom Queen sent to deliver Grapes. He is eventually caught and turned approver to be beheaded by the King.
The Queen visited the child’s mother,Young shil, who was once her lady in waiting. she was very much embarrased and could not forgive herself for doing such heinous betrayal. she agreed to follow whatever the queen says where as the latter swallowed her distress in the name of courage. The King on the other hand dont want to believe that his assasination attempt was made by his father but he doubted that the Queen families might involved. He want to retaliate the min family by bringing Young shil into the palace to discomfort them. The infuriated Queen orders her husband to meet her eye eye which cause the egonistic King to reply back not to order around. The problem the King failed to understand is, its not between a Queen and a King but a husband and a Wife.A series of further baseless arguements created even more distance between them.
It is their official last day of royal consummation.but instead he did it with Queen’s now Lady in waiting,Chae-ryeong!
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Episode 2: The Two Concubines!
The Lady in waiting is too sad. she could not do anything to the beloved lady who brought her up when she got no food. Queen took her in and cared for her. Though she wanted to inform the her majesty first, the other court ladies did not allow so. she now becomes a concubine to be approved. Young-shil becomes another concubine and her son will be a prince now.
The Queen beat the child severely for not learning. The Queen will take care of princes education responsibility. but still young-shil could not forgive this and confronted the Queen directly. which mother could ?
now that she becomes Queen’s rival, she wanted to accept the invitation from the King for the night. Her help also came back to the palace now as court lady and she gave her a scent that drives man crazy. Chae-ryeong, whom the king recently chose instead of Queen wants to go back to Queen after she got a proposal from Young-shil. The Queen never wants to see both of them! why would she ? as she dont want to die alone, chae-ryeong too wants to be with the King. she is now able to become informant to the King on exchange of two nights from the King.
The King visit his father upon invitation to rekindle? will that works,after hearing froms someone, the Queen understood the plan and tries to stop a ritual that involves her husband and father in law.
Episode 3: Double Informant,Chae-ryeong
The Father hits the King, but the Queen takes the blow. king, emotional and loved and wanted the father to be arrested once he completed the ritual. His father’s private army is also under fire. one by one soldiers got hunted down by the King.
The next day, the king wanted the Queen to be deposed. hearing that, the Queen asked his people not worry as he fear of her influence, he tries baseless.
But the reason he states was how could someone know the attack from his father beforehand without spying which means she should have know that his father is creating armies.why not she revealed everthing to the king is his Question!Despite deposing threats, the Queen refused to stop deploying informants by stating that he is not level headed to know between right and wrong which further annoys the King!.
Now Queen too wanted chae-ryeong to become informant without knowing King’s agreement. She accepted the same. The king on the other hand promises that he would give himself to chae-ryeong if she is not two-timimg and only truthful to him. She accepted the same. but why she accepts all ? whats her plans? possibly she also dont know! what a mere servant can do when two opposite giants want her to serve!!
None is good and none is bad in this drama! everyone wants to live and to be loved like chae-ryeong!
Review:
A Mature Korean drama of historical genre, Good one to binge-watch!. It might be boring in the mid but totally a no-regret watch. The story is about very normal historial drama in which the king fights for his power from a controlled family probably his Queen’s. but rather here, its all about lack of understanding between a husband and wife. The story is bit mature and intense and not like normal korean drama flings. Leaving the royal title aside , the story is between a normal egoistic man who could not tolerate his woman’s wisdom and boldness eventually leading to a miserable life. but did the witty queen overcomes it? watch it!!