It's like the clever political moves (and there are a lot of them) are played for emotional stakes rather than political consequences, which I totally couldn't put a name to.
My theory is that this is related to the fact that the underlying driver in everything is heaven-directed or heaven-ordained. It makes a lot of the end-result pretty much predestined, to a great degree: if heaven is truly powerful, then it'll find a way to make its heaven-chosen this or that be what heaven chooses. I'd consider it a subset of "man vs. nature", except it's more like "man vs the entire freaking bureaucracy of heaven". All the best-laid plans of mice and men, y'know, so there's not really any suspense about whether the end result will be X or Y. (Not that there's any major suspense when it's a significant legend, anyway, especially one with historical roots: you pretty much know A is gonna be the winner, and B is going to disappear into history.)
Overall, I find the story a great deal less compelling than, say, Hong Gil Dong, which had certain aspects going for it that make it almost the opposite twin of a story like Four Gods -- in that the protagonist is not at the top of the heap, but must fight not just to have his good ideas heard, but to be heard in the first place. A king, pre-ordained not just by right of birth but by heaven (with fancy lightshows!) does not have to fight to be heard, so if the conflict isn't in gaining his audience, it's in finding his voice -- and because Damduek has a pretty even voice from the very beginning, he's not truly challenged on a political or ethical level, only on an emotional level (can he keep going, can he handle being betrayed, etc). The conflicts between Gildong and Changhwe were far more fascinating, because both the protagonist and the secondary protagonist had equally good points and views of most of their conflicts -- but the scriptwriters for Four Gods couldn't or wouldn't grant the same balance to Damdeuk's antagonists, so there isn't really much substance to their conflicts other than "I don't like you" and "once we were friends" and the ever-ridiculous "you killed my mother!" blather. There's no justifiable depth to the disagreement, and that makes any conclusion foregone -- because Hogae brings nothing to the table.
So, yeah. A lot of emotion, but even then, it could've been considerably heightened emotion, for all that, if only the actress playing the major female antagonist (Kiha) had been able to emote more than two emotions. Or at the very least, if she'd just had more than one expression. I just roll my eyes when it comes to Ming's appearance (although by the time I got to ep22 or so, all I could think was: OMG now he's got ANIME HAIR! I should take a screenshot for everyone's amusement) but when it comes to Kiha, I just disconnect. She's not poker-faced; she's just... there.
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Date: 3 Nov 2010 05:40 am (UTC)My theory is that this is related to the fact that the underlying driver in everything is heaven-directed or heaven-ordained. It makes a lot of the end-result pretty much predestined, to a great degree: if heaven is truly powerful, then it'll find a way to make its heaven-chosen this or that be what heaven chooses. I'd consider it a subset of "man vs. nature", except it's more like "man vs the entire freaking bureaucracy of heaven". All the best-laid plans of mice and men, y'know, so there's not really any suspense about whether the end result will be X or Y. (Not that there's any major suspense when it's a significant legend, anyway, especially one with historical roots: you pretty much know A is gonna be the winner, and B is going to disappear into history.)
Overall, I find the story a great deal less compelling than, say, Hong Gil Dong, which had certain aspects going for it that make it almost the opposite twin of a story like Four Gods -- in that the protagonist is not at the top of the heap, but must fight not just to have his good ideas heard, but to be heard in the first place. A king, pre-ordained not just by right of birth but by heaven (with fancy lightshows!) does not have to fight to be heard, so if the conflict isn't in gaining his audience, it's in finding his voice -- and because Damduek has a pretty even voice from the very beginning, he's not truly challenged on a political or ethical level, only on an emotional level (can he keep going, can he handle being betrayed, etc). The conflicts between Gildong and Changhwe were far more fascinating, because both the protagonist and the secondary protagonist had equally good points and views of most of their conflicts -- but the scriptwriters for Four Gods couldn't or wouldn't grant the same balance to Damdeuk's antagonists, so there isn't really much substance to their conflicts other than "I don't like you" and "once we were friends" and the ever-ridiculous "you killed my mother!" blather. There's no justifiable depth to the disagreement, and that makes any conclusion foregone -- because Hogae brings nothing to the table.
So, yeah. A lot of emotion, but even then, it could've been considerably heightened emotion, for all that, if only the actress playing the major female antagonist (Kiha) had been able to emote more than two emotions. Or at the very least, if she'd just had more than one expression. I just roll my eyes when it comes to Ming's appearance (although by the time I got to ep22 or so, all I could think was: OMG now he's got ANIME HAIR! I should take a screenshot for everyone's amusement) but when it comes to Kiha, I just disconnect. She's not poker-faced; she's just... there.