Different Worlds Apart

And tonight I will watch TAEGUGKI with His Hubbiness™ :D

So it is half past 9 on Friday morning and the panic I felt yesterday about a probable failure in this year's NaNoWirMo has slightly decreased. I'm still fretting but at least I have started to counteract the whole silliness going on in my head - paralyzing me - and I have written 22353 words so far. Still over 4000 words short to reach this day's goal but at least I'm getting there.

I'm writing scenes ... little snippets of conversation like in a drama and I will slip them in between bigger scenes where it is appropriate to make the characters more rounded and further the plot. I also want to extend on the sageuk plot that they are filming in the novel. Perhaps even starting each chapter with a scene from the sageuk and then in between developing a scene that furthers the plot of the sageuk while they actually film the scene. I hope I can pull it off though.

I also made a cover/collage (or two) to inspire me LOL I'm still not sure if my Lee Jin-Ho should look like Ji Hyun Woo or Lee Min Ho - I guess in my mind this character has a bit of both :)

Gosh, I feel old! Yesterday His Hubbiness™ and I drove 230 km to look at a second hand Opel Agila and we bought it.
There was just one problem, we needed to get the car back home. So I ended up driving my longest so far ... three hours behind the wheel and my neck and shoulders are killing me today. I know for some driving 230 km is nothing, but for me it's HUMONGOUS. BUT!!! Now I have a little Aoi-chan again ... and even better than the one that was totally wrecked by that stupid driver. :D

( Pics under the cut )

I seem to make it a trademark with Faith fan fics to have one word titles LOL

This little fic takes place directly after Marked - General rating. Choi Young and Eun-Soo return to the palace.

( 'you have a lot to discuss' - a Goryeo euphemism for making out? )

I have started to re-watch FAITH (after two weeks I just needed a fix of our IMJA Couple) and I noticed that the writer Song started out this sageuk as a traditional love triangle thing.

It is such an amazing story and now watching it a second time around I can see much more clearly what writer Song started and then abandoned completely (a love triangle between Choi Young/Queen/King and Choi Young/Eun-Soo/Jang Bin). Thank goodness she saw what amazing characters (and actors) she had to abandon the usual drama tropes and just tell a wonderful love story.

A visible break is noticable from ep 5 onwards. While in ep 4 he is asked (near death) if Daebak Ma-Hee is still in Choi Young's heart he answers in the affirmative only to be saved by Eun-Soo by using CPR (and waking him up through her tears).
Then in ep 5 he tells Ki Cheol that he came for the woman he loves which he actually doesn't say. He says I like the person behind me and will leave with (her). There are two ppl actually behind him ... Daeman and Eun-Soo. And he even admits that he only said that to throw off Ki Cheol and to give a valid reason for the king to appear innocent.
I think the first time he realizes Eun-Soo is more than just an annoying woman who drives him up the walls is in ep 6 when she examines the abdicated Child King. From then onwards he actually memorizes stuff she tells him, even the negative stuff (that she hates him for having blood on him, esp. the Child King's blood etc.).

Eun-Soo on the other hand is only flattered and part of her knows that Choi Young's confession was just a subterfuge, but she is a stranger in a strange land and for all she knows Choi Young is the only person she really knows the longest there and she trusts him ever since he took the stab wound from her. She knows now he wanted to keep his promise or try dying which he almost did - twice. As she knows that he is a legendary hero in the annals of her time she also gets very protective of him.

If writer-nim would have followed her initial idea of the typical jealousy/spurned lover/true love trope, Faith wouldn't have been so epic as it turned out to be I think. It is just a minor detail but made the impact oh so stronger.

Talking about minor details. I have come across a very interesting series of vids on youtube where someone did an alternate version of Faith with footage of The Myth, Bichunmoo and of course Faith. It changes the on-set of why Eun-Soo is called from the Heavens and it turns more into a traditional re-incarnation sageuk kind of thing ... well done, and if the drama would have been made this way, it would have been interesting too, but I'm glad we have the love story we all watched and came to love.

( Under the cut )

These are just too cute - seeing these two no one in their right minds would think about the 9 - 10 years that are between them. KHS is just so silly and child-like sometimes :)

Set directly after the ending of episode 24. Slightly M (for mature - not too graphic :P)
( Just re-united to immediately be separated again? )

What can I write which is not already written about this episode? An episode that picked up even more speed than the two episodes before and which - given it was the one before last - should have felt rushed with all the things happening and unravelling, but surprisingly it didn't.
It felt as if we were in these rooms, breathing the same air as our OTPs, seeing what they see, and hearing what they hear. What an amazing episode.



I so love Eun-Soo and her strength. Willing to poison herself to counteract the poison - what kind of strength and what kind of faith/belief/trust she must have in fate to even considering this? She knows that without Choi Young she is nothing, she cannot live without him. She might survive in her world but that would not be living and she is determined and so composed and so quietly un-heroic for a drama heroine.
We see Choi Young caring, his love and care for Eun-Soo tearing him apart inside and yet he keeps it all in, functions in his duty to the king and tries his best not only to make the best out of the days that remain but also supports Eun-Soo in her decision even if he doesn't like it.

Their love is so epic, so big and yet it doesn't need big confessions and shows of THE LOVE. They quietly love and endure; believing that this is all worth it that there is a chance even if the future looks so drab and insecure.

FAITH. 신의. Shinui - and yet so much more ... faith, trust, belief. These words were the akai ito of the drama. That continuously worked its thread through the drama, through every character's actions and thoughts.
They have to trust their own abilities and keep the faith, believing in themselves as well as their loved ones. Gongmin who has to trust his own judgment and that of his advisors. Who had faith that the ministers will do the right decision for the good of Goryeo and the citizens. Nogook who has to belief that she will have a child one day and live. Choi Young who has to trust the king, believing that despite all he and Eun-Soo will live together happily ... and Eun-Soo who has literally to do a leap of faith by taking the poison to counteract the other poison raging in her body, believing that she will survive, trusting that Choi Young will live well even if the unthinkable happens.

When Choi Young squares off with Ki Cheol at the end of the episode, Ki Cheol inadvertently gives Choi the reason to continue. Not only as a human being who is in love with Eun-Soo (lovers is such a shallow word compared to what Eun-Soo and Choi Young are to each other) but he also gives him the confidence, the faith, to continue as a warrior. He absolves Choi because being a warrior, taking up the sword is to protect his woman. And it is important that in this moment Eun-Soo wakes up, even if the situation for Choi Young looks not too well at that very moment.

All in all a fast paced and insightful episode with lots of little quiet shippy moments which lead to an epic finale.

Smoked too many cigarettes today, cried too many times so I'm exhausted. Written after I have re-watched the last ep RAW. After the live streaming, my mind was too jumbled, too exhausted to form any coherent thoughts, but now I'm calmer, more collected. Something I couldn't forget though was Choi Young's voice over. So I wrote the following.

( Beware vignette contains spoilers for the last minutes of EP24 of Faith )

12 weeks … 12 weeks where those who watched Faith laughed, smiled, cried, shouted and got angry. Today and tomorrow there will be the last two eps and what a finale it will be. Will we be happy seeing our favourite OTP getting their well deserved HEA? Or will our hearts be torn out and all will end in tears? Up till now this little drama series with all its flaws was immaculate as it took us on a journey to 14th century Korea, made us fall in love with characters that evolved and grew throughout the series, made us cry for characters that were killed off. If it ends in tears, this series still is an enjoyment, if it ends in a Happily Ever After than it will be doubly so. Let's have Faith that the staff and writers will give this drama an ending which it deserves.
Keep the faith :)