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The Veritable Records: Commitment [7th Chapter]

[Summary]:

Inspector Nam Seon-ho insults the wrong person and is assigned the daunting mission of ending the illegal horse trade in Pyongan province. But those involved have no intention of stopping their lucrative lifestyle, and are not above using dangerous means to preserve it. Seon-ho and Yeon fall into peril, and desperate to save them, Sung-rok finds himself on a collision course with the last people he ever expected to see in his lifetime.

Chapter 7 now on AO3

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So, I finished ep 16 of My Country with subs

I posted some thoughts on the raws previously, but me being me, I always have more to say.

First off, thanks for the crying headache drama. No, literally, I cried so much I have a headache.

MC is a rare drama that remained perfect and consistent through to the last second. It is also not one I plan to rewatch any time soon because watching it is like drinking a nice, hot, steaming cup of depression. 

And now, before I get to the rest of my thoughts, I must sum up my n1 take on both the episode and the drama as a whole: FUCK YOU WITH A RUSTY SPIKE, YI SEUNG GYE!!!!

Ok,

Ahem.

Calmer now. 

I loved that the last episode went back to the drama’s beginning - the bond between Hwi and Seon Ho. Facing impossible odds, going to their deaths knowingly (and oh, it killed me so when, before their big rush, Hwi admitted he was afraid. To do this when he doesn’t want to die any more, when he wants to live - that is brutal. The fact that Seon Ho was also scared, but only a little, because he’s given up on life thoroughly, killed me a bit in a different way.) But doing it happily because they are together. Hwi has so much forgiveness in him, it’s amazing. It’s that grace that Seon Ho needs so much, that Bang Won was drawn to - clearly he is problematic screwed up guy catnip. I mean, he was willing to let it go that Bang Won framed and murdered his father!

But the tragedy is, Bang Won can’t trust him enough to let him live because this kind of mercy that Hwi has is so alien to him and he doesn’t get it. Through the ep you saw that it killed him to order Hwi killed, he kept trying to find ways out (at one point, he literally declared Hwi his man) and gave him chances to escape that Hwi wouldn’t take but ultimately, for all his bleak kind of honor (he is the sole royal we have seen acknowledge responsibility for horrible things he’s done; look at him desperately trying to egg Hwi on about how he killed Seo Geom just so Hwi would hate him and he can try to feel less bad about what he feels he should do), he cannot let someone not in his control know something this important, be a wild card. You are either his or you aren’t and Hwi never was, and so finally he had to get rid of him since he couldn’t own him, especially with the pressure cooker YSG kept cranking up.

And that’s Bang Won’s tragedy. He is a much better man than his father and brothers. Remember his telling his second in command that he cannot kill someone unarmed and with their back to him? But his ambition, his belief that he can make a better country for everyone worth any cost, and all the blood he has waded through already, combine to turn him into the lonely monster he is at the end, telling himself “You did well” because now there is nobody who would tell it to him - his father never did and he has ordered killed the one man who did. I think he tried his best to limit the sea of blood, but at the end of ep 11, after that confrontation with Yi Seung Gye, where he understood precisely how little his father cared and how there was no way forward except being dead or being a victorious and blood-thirsty, the brakes came off that train entirely. And even then he held off a little (see him at his mother’s shrine) but the subsequent events removed even that and now the steering is gone too. And Bang Won with no limits is terrifying indeed. At the end, he has gotten what he wanted but he has nobody at his side to do anything to soften him in any way. 

And Hwi! Hwi, so ready to die to save those Bang Won plans to kill (though he’s lucky he’s dealing with bang Won - YSG would promise and kill everyone anyway.) Restoring Seon Ho’s soul to him without even trying, saying and showing over and over how much he and SH belong together. Lying to Hui Jae about coming back because he is a caretaker. And the tragedy is all he wanted, his entire life, was not power or ideals or even revenge - it was, as he said, to have enough food not to starve. The fact that the world wouldn’t let someone with such small, safe, mundane dreams be is horrifying beyond words. 

But the thing is, while Bang Won is irredeemable, Hwi’s care really does bring Seon Ho back from the brink. And I love how SH begins to realize how warped his whole perspective has been - how all the choices he thought he had were awful - but they weren’t the only choices actually. But then how would he know otherwise, brought up as he was. Hwi says he’d have thought the same in his place and he is right. To use modern lingo, it’s as if SH was caught in the cycle of abuse really.

Oh, and I loved that Chido plain text acknowledged that Hwi and SH are each other’s best person (and thanked Seon Ho for taking care of Hwi back when; making it plain text that Hwi and Yeon would have probably starved and died without him.) SH needed so much to hear he was good and he gets this in the ep and it was so necessary. 

When Hwi wished SH could lead an easier life with more smiling in it - oh. But of course Hwi was going to sneak away on his suicide run by himself because he protects everyone. And I love that SH would not let him go alone - when he told Hwi that Liandong was the last place he let Hwi go along omg; let’s face it if he did, he’d kill himself anyway the moment Hwi died. This way he dies in Hwi’s arms (though when he told Hwi he is exhausted and he could never sleep well bot now he will rest, and he can face Yeon now, I started ugly crying), with meaning, and when he told Hwi that he and Yeon were his country - OMG. The drama does ram it home that the most worthwhile ideal is people you love; the other way lies insanity and butchery and innocents killed for your ideals.

In conclusion, Seon Ho’s last words to Hwi were “I missed you so much.” 

That’s when I lost it and continued to bawl and bawl and bawl. Even now, I feel like crying.

We are not even getting into Hwi telling him he will follow soon, so very done with everything, protecting others with his last breath.

Anyway, MC was a giant bucket of pain and I am not OK.   

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Thank you. 

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Here is Seon Ho, utterly losing his mind and self-control, fighting like a feral animal, when he sees Hwi surrounded and about to be killed.

And here is Seon Ho begging his father to spare Hwi (daddy didn’t need to say a word for Seon Ho to understand what he meant to do)

And here is Seon Ho when he thinks Hwi is dead, trying to crawl while bound to Hwi’s body, only being stopped by being knocked out.

Then there was his face when he learned Hwi was alive…

Or the fact that he went to warn Hwi his father’s assassins were after him even as they shot him! And stood there with Hwi to protect him and his sister (doing the whole I am so tough I am gonna pull an arrow out of me by myself and throwing a sword to Hwi when he needed it, in perfect sync.)

Sure! 100% platonic bros there, nothing to see here, move along…

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⚔️🏹🗡️ SWORDMATES part 1 /  ∞  — 1. my country: the new age (2019) / house of flying daggers (2004) 2. my country: the new age (2019) 3. this post 4. credit 5. the carnivorous lamb, agustín gómez-arcos, tr. william rodarmor / house of flying daggers (2004) 6. this post 7. mulan: rise of the warrior (2009) / my country: the new age (2019) 8. the song of achilles, madeline miller / mulan: rise of the warrior (2009) 9. this post 10. ghost of tsushima (credit)

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I tried my best to hold on to it, but I can’t hold out any longer. So I’m just going to let it go now.

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I only looked too far ahead and too high up. When I finally looked back behind me, I saw you and Yeon. My country was just one step behind me. 

If only I had known that sooner.

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I’ve been shifting between “yes! They’re going to go there! It’s Tim Miller! And it looks so gay!” to “they’re gonna make them related even though one is a 5 feet tall latina and the other is a 7 feet tall caucasian”. I just can’t make up my mind, because how cool would it be if the f/f romance were the central one, BUT with no promotion, no patting themselves on the back? How groundbreaking to be treated as normal? But at the same time I’m like, this is Hollywood. They’re not going there.

Hahaha, that description. But yes, I feel exactly the same way! The way it looks, it’s so romance-coded. NOBODY gets to this scene and doesn’t at least raise an eyebrow:

It’s not just Grace physically protecting Dani, it’s Dani open to that and caring about Grace in turn and trusting her and falling asleep on her! The moment of connection with the shoulder touch! 

Like! What are we meant to feel about what they’re going through? It has to be something, right?? But if they went there, it’d be leapfrogging over all kinds of steps we’ve made in representation, look at Disney getting all kinds of articles for background characters. If a Terminator movie went there, we’d know. Right? We’d know.

Same anon:

[same anon] As for the ship name, I think a few months back I saw Gramos or Drace as portmanteaus. As for a combination of who they are we gotta know more, I agree. Because like EnhancedSaviour would be nice, but maybe these “cyborgs” have an in-universe name and Dani is not the actual saviour. Anyway, I’m rambling… I’m just so excited!

Oh, don’t love those portmanteaus. Maybe we’ll know a bit more them and their roles soon? Yeah, not necessarily going to be Terminators or mother of all destiny but something. Or we might get Grace’s last name.

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*Cough* *Cough* boyfriends *Cough* *Cough*

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julie and the phantoms week | day four ↳ pop culture: alex vs. the future

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JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS APPRECIATION WEEK ★ day 5: favorite friendship - sunset curve

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From Freddie's Twitter:

❤

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Two Men Dancing, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1984 ..

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Amo los "okay" de Alex

JATP Week - Day 6 - ‘Play it on Repeat’ No one: Alex: Okay

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wait who’s willie???

[ inspired by this post by @secretly-of-course !! ]