How am I doing? Well, I just caught myself genuinely, seriously thinking about watching Hwarang again, but fine, fine, doing fine. How are you? 😉

sooooooo…my work website is down, but dramabeans is working just fine….

Re-watching Her Private Life to cope with all the angst Rookie Historian left me with (and all the angst from not getting new eps for two weeks)

WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHY????? So help me if this turns into Pretty Rookie Historian Who Buys Me Food
#RHGHR15 😡😡😡

4) Once upon a time there was a Renaissance man named Ho-dam. In addition to being a skilled scientist who ran a school called Seorowan, a father to a young girl who would grow up to be a female historian, and a member of the royal court, he was also a skilled novelist. He wrote a novel that exposed the wrongdoings of the current king (that told a story about a king taking the throne from someone else… alluding to someone closely connected to Rim? How does he fit into all this?), and so the king decided Ho-dam had to be silenced. Everything related to him and his school was destroyed and forbidden from being mentioned ever again. But there were a lot of great discoveries made in that school, and the Dowager Queen relied on one of the female doctor/scientists there…so she saved her and helped her hide. And of course, one of the Seorowan scholars saved Ho-dam\’s daughter, and raised her as his own sister, Gu Hae-ryung.

With all the loose threads Rookie Historian has lying around, there are so many insane theories you could come up with (assuming you are as insane as I am)…I apologize in advance, beanies. I am so sorry.

1) Once upon a time, there was a prince named Ho-dam. He was next in line for the throne, and his best friend was in line after him (I know nothing about the throne laws, so suspend lots of disbelief here). Anyway. Ho-dam was also in love with this best friend\’s wife, and they had an affair, and she got pregnant. The best friend was so infuriated that he killed Ho-dam and took the throne from him. But he didn\’t want to admit that his wife had had an affair, so he raised the boy as his own prince–a prince named Rim.

2) Once upon a time there was a court official named Ho-dam who had a school called Seorowan. He had a daughter there, but his wife had died many years ago. The queen, lonely because she was married to a horrible king, sometimes came to Seorowan to learn and be distracted from life. Gradually, the queen and Ho-dam fell in love. They had an affair, and the queen became pregnant. When she had the baby, she presented him as the king\’s own. But the truth will out. The truth will out, my friends, and tragedy will follow. When the king learned about his queen\’s affair, he destroyed Ho-dam, Seorowan, and everything related to them. He didn\’t realize that one of the Seorowan scholars had snuck Ho-dam\’s daughter out, and that she would grow up to be a rookie historian—who would then fall in love with her own half brother. Ew. Moving on.

3) Once upon a time there was a novelist named Ho-dam. He wrote a story, a novel, about two princes, one who didn\’t want to be king and one who did. The one who did not want to be king was, of course, heir to the throne, but he had no interest in court affairs. He spent all his time \”out in the field\” taking care of the people, and the younger prince realized that everyone loved him all the more for that. Blinded with jealousy, rage, amibition, and slight astigmatism, the younger prince killed the older brother and took the throne. — Thus ended Ho-dam\’s tragic novel. When the real-life king read this novel, he was furious. It was too close to the truth. What he didn\’t realize was that the queen loved Ho-dam\’s novel so much that she fell in love with Ho-dam and had an affair with him. She became pregnant with Ho-dam\’s child. The king, outraged but also sort of stuck between a rock and hard place, agreed to raise Ho-dam\’s son as his own, in exchange for the queen\’s and Ho-dam\’s silence forever.

Going into this week’s episodes of Rookie Historian, here’s all (some of) the questions I have–in no particular order–and some overall thoughts about them.

Questions
1) Why was Seorowan shut down?
2) What is The Story of Ho-dam, and why is it important that it not be told? (Also–is it true, or is it a novel? Does anyone know?)
3) Is The Story of Ho-dam connected to Seorowan?
4) Why does the eunuch seem to want to make Rim aware of The Story of Ho-dam (he staged that dream, right?)?
5) Who are Rim’s parents?
6) Who is Hae-ryung’s father?
7) What does Mo-hwa (and the Dowager Queen) have to do with it all?

Thoughts
A soompi recap says this: “The Story of Ho Dam…appears to be a little too similar to an undisclosed incident from the king’s past that seems to have something to do with the line of succession…but we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out more about that.” That’s interesting to me. I had been assuming the story was related to Seorowan, but maybe it’s a separate issue?

If The Story of Ho-dam is related to the line of succession, then maybe that’s why the eunuch wants Rim to know about it. But why? Unless the current king is totally not supposed to be the king and IT SHOULD BE RIM?!?!? Hm. I stand by my theory that Rim’s mother is the queen (http://www.dramabeans.com/members/thetinyl/activity/862416/#acomment-862603), but who is his father? Is it (DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM) Ho-dam?

Hae-ryung’s father appears to be the man in charge of Seorowan, but how does he fit into all this? Who is he? Is it (DUM DUM DUM DUM DUM) Ho-dam, too?????????? hehehe

So many questions, so many secrets. Hello, Wednesday!

with @midnight in mind.

Currently obsessed with light/fluffy/cheeky sageuks (Moonlight, Rookie Historian, My Sassy Girl 2017). Mixed-up identities. Court drama nonsense. Feisty eunuchs. Spunky heroines. Gimme gimme gimme.

Not been around much lately (and been lurking when i am around), not been watching much, lately, either…mostly buried by Real Life. but anyway, emerging just a little to say hello and that, funny/cheesy/awkward as it may seem, i really have missed you, beanies ♥♥♥

Beanies! I need help remembering a drama…I literally JUST saw it…like within the past few months, I think. The scene I\’m trying to place is in a coffee shop, a cute one, with a big table by a window. And the male lead buys the table for the female lead. I think he puts a plaque on it with her name on it, too. basically any time she is there, she can sit at that table and look out that window; other people have to move for her. it\’s her table, etc. Does this ring a bell? I can\’t believe I can\’t remember, because I feel like I *JUST* saw this show.

Final Thoughts about HPL (Spoilers)
– I’m happy with the ending. It was cute. It’s not the best ending I’ve ever seen, and it didn’t quite leave me with all the feelings I wanted (or even nearly as many feelings as most of the episodes), but I’m happy with it. It was fine. It wrapped things up well enough and followed 15 episodes I really enjoyed (fine yes even you Ep8. I give you your status back.)

– I wasn’t sure who Eun-gi would really end up, but I knew it’d have to be Choi Da-in or Cindy…I’m glad it was Cindy, honestly. Would watch that spin-off in a heartbeat. Her character is one I disliked at first but really came to enjoy. Wish we had gotten more of her AND HER MOM <3. And I know a lot of people didn't care for Eun-gi, but I liked him throughout, so…

– The dad and his rocks. I love it. I love it so much. In the middle of Ep15 there is a shot of him caring for rocks, and I wondered if they were contrasting it with caring for someone who can be hurt. But I was even more pleased with the story about Deok-soo's hand. I cried at this, I'm not going to lie.

– The Deok-soo connection came out of nowhere (and it felt a little too intense for the rest of the show) but then, it did for Deok-mi, too, so….And honestly, I am happy that the rest of the show was more about our couple than Deok-soo and their childhoods, so no complaints from this memeber of the audience. (A more critical viewer could complain, and i'd have to respect that, though. I know there's room for it.)

– Themes I loved in this show: hands (holding them, healing them, creating with them, etc), mothers (and by extension family and friends…what determines who we are to one another, etc), art, people, how we show affection, the "objects" of our affections (emphasis on object; pun intended).

– Now just waiting around for the report that KJW and PMY are together for real, don't hate at me—i love my little fantasy world (sorry JCW i will find you someone new).

– Annyeong. Still one of my favorite moments in a drama ever. <3

I honestly really liked HPL15…well, the very beginning was a little too sweet, but the rest of the episode worked really well for me. That being said, I know there\’s room for critique, but I\’m just going to tune it out for now and be happy about it. *guilty sheepish grin*

I don’t know if you’re familiar with a website called “The Wayback Machine,” (https://archive.org/web/), but it’s a website that basically keeps an archive of what the internet looks like at random intervals. (It takes a screenshot, sort of, and stores it.) You can go through the wayback machine’s calendar and see what a particular webpage looked like, “way back when,” as it were.

I tell you this because one of the archived pages I found in the wayback machine was…the original list of beanie levels that DB had posted. The definitive list. The whole enchilada.

Pics are below, but before you scroll down, decide for yourself if you want to see all the levels; I don’t want to destroy the suspense if you are loving it. (Many thanks to @modernflapper for providing me with the exact link!!!!) (cc: @sicarius @greenfields @ally-le @neener @nightmoon)

(I have to admit, I was a little sad to see that the list sort of has an ending…I wanted it to keep going forever! Although, given how long it’s taking me to get out of Errand Boyhood, maybe it does go on forever, in essence. Heh. And who knows, maybe they have it set up so they can add more!) Anyway, without further ado:

So I have some thoughts on Her Private Life, but they are all disjointed, and if any beanies have some similar insights or can help bring some sense to all this, I would absolutely love to hear it.

Overall it seems like the show is trying to say something about the line between art and people, objects and humanity, and the feelings we have for each and both.

• Deok-mi\’s fangirling isn\’t of the violent/abusive kind, but it\’s still an objectification of Si-an. My favorite evidence of this is the fact that you can look at him but not touch, hehehe, like he\’s a painting in her museum. But also, she\’s made tons of pieces of art of him. She\’s literally turned the boy into art.

• That pairs well with the fact that she\’s also an art curator—a person who collects marvelous objects for others to admire and appreciate. (I appreciate so much that the show avoids the \”loves art but can\’t relate to people\” trope. This isn\’t a show trying to draw a line in the sand; it\’s not even making a hard-and-fast rule. She has great relationships with her BFF and family and with her fan-friends.)

• Another beanie pointed out that as Deok-mi\’s relationship with Ryan develops, we see less of her fangirling over Si-an and more of her adoring Ryan. Some of that is just because the show\’s a romance, of course, but I think there\’s a message in it, too. (Interestingly enough, Ryan teases Deok-mi, saying how he wants to be her fanboy, which would imply seeing her more objectively, but I think that\’s just a cute line, not to be taken too philosophically.)

• Si-an has his own arc, too; he starts out as an idol to Deok-mi and a means-to-and-end (the paintings) for Ryan, but he forcibly makes himself more human to Ryan, coming over unexpectedly, chatting genially, etc. As the arc progresses, he becomes pretty much as close a human to Ryan as another human can be (brothers). Deok-mi may still be his fan, but she\’s also now his cohort (helping with the show, helping to reconcile Ryan and the mom). Si-an completes his arc (up through ep 14 at least) by reaching full personhood to both Ryan and Deok-mi, I think. I like that Si-an is, in effect, a rebellious piece of art lol.

• The paintings themselves: First, the fact that they were painted by an unknown person…they are art without a person, in a way. But the show revolves around the search for that person. The person behind the art. And when that person is found, these objects end up humanizing Lee Sol to Ryan and allowing him to connect to her. (I like very much that some of these paintings have to be restored.)

• Something should be said about the late photographer and his last picture; the anneyong photo. That\’s a piece in this puzzle, for sure, somewhere…

Am I making any sense at all?? Well, anyway, just some thoughts. If you made it this far, then thank you!

still an errand boy…forever an errand boy.