MOON LOVERS: SCARLET HEART RYEO
 
Lady Hae’s death impressed on
the royal princes that life was fleeting. Wang Wook couldn’t shake off his deep
regret and sadness. He realised that he loved his deceased consort but it was
far too late to tell her. Her body had burned to ashes.
Unknown to Hae Soo, Lady Hae’s
death would bring a huge change in her life. While alive, Lady Hae was Hae
Soo’s protector. A dead person wouldn’t be able protect the living. Only the
living could be of assistance to the living. Pain and love united the princes.
Not long after her cousin’s
death, Hae Soo received the shocking blow that a marriage had been hastily arranged
for her by her avaricious male relatives. It seemed that a sixty-year-old man
with many sons would be her husband. It was a marriage certainly not made in
heaven.
None of the Wang princes were
pleased as many of them loved Hae Soo – Wang So, Wang Wook, Baek Ah, Wang Eun
and Wang Jung. The princes had only a sketchy idea of the man to whom she was
betrothed. They took stock of the unpleasant situation. The nagging idea that
she was to be wed to an old man with many children created a high level of
anxiety among those princes who cared about her. The marriage was a mystery
that they couldn’t unravel.
When Baek-Ah informed Wang So about
the impending marriage, he was, at first, nonchalant about it. He soon
changed his mind when he realised that it was not exactly a marriage but a
political transaction; she was being sold off.
Alarmed, the united princes
conspired to stop her impending wedding; they schemed to whisk Hae Soo away
while they could.
While awaiting her marriage, she was living under constant surveillance. The groom had to be a person of great standing and
influence as guards were posted strategically around Wang Wook’s mansion and
were continually prowling around. Her every move was scrutinized.
Despite that, the guards were no
match for the clockwork efficiency of the princes. The right moment came.
After distracting the guards who
had watched over her, Wang So bundled Hae Soo off on his horse. Wang Wook and
Wang Eun would be the decoy. Wang Wook would trick them into thinking that
the bundled-up figure in the purple cloak on his horse was Hae Soo. Was it an
ingenious idea or a hare-brained scheme?
As Wang So and Hae Soo rode off into the night, his black mane
like that of his stallion was flying in the night breeze. Heavy mists draped
the bleak forest. Wang So explained to Hae Soo that
he was helping her because he did not want her life to be controlled by
others. ‘A life controlled is not worth
living.’ He knew exactly how appalling that kind of life would be. He, as a political
hostage previously, had been under constant surveillance and pressure. Imagine
Hae Soo living in a gilded bird cage.
A chase by the relatives of Hae
Soo ended in the forest. To their utter disbelief, they realised that they
had been tricked into thinking that the purple-cloaked Wang Eun was Hae Soo.
Hae Soo’s escape required a leap of faith on their part. But, to their
dismay, their plans had been derailed by the appearance of Choi Ji Mong and
the palace militia. It was not easy for Wang So and Hae Soo to escape when
the militia converged on them. They were at a dead end; their plan was an
unmitigated disaster.
A palanquin had been prepared to
carry the intended bride back to the palace.
Tension mounted. They were about
to find out the identity of Hae Soo’s suitor. It was a bombshell. The lucky
man was King Taejo. Did they hear it right? They must have felt a bolt of electricity
shoot through their system when they learnt that Taejo was the old groom. But,
if Hae Soo’s groom was Taejo, it would come as no surprise to the
princes. Their father was conducting yet another political marriage to make
himself invincible.
Hae Soo was not one to downplay
King Taejo’s authority. She could not trivialise the seriousness of the
issue; Taejo was the law of the land. It only took Hae Soo an instant to decide
to surrender herself to her fate. The princes might be killed for obstructing
royal orders. Hae Soo did not want blood on her hands. Wang So stood speechless
for an agonising moment. It occurred to the princes that a little rationality
was in order.
Upon arriving at the Damiwon Palace where she was to await for her
wedding, Hae Soo was personally attended to by Concubine Oh, the Head Court Lady.
Before Concubine Oh proceeded to check Hae Soo’s body
for scars, a mandatory examination for royal brides-to-be, she made
an enigmatic remark. ‘A
woman with scars on her body cannot be the king’s consort’. Was she hinting
to the flustered Hae Soo about what she had to do to get herself out of her
predicament?
Queen Yoo dropped in at Queen
Hwangbo’s quarters ostensibly for a friendly visit. She babbled about trivial
affairs: Queen Hwangbo’s spartan living quarters, Buddhist religion and bronze mirror. Then, she came to the point and discussed the weighty
matter of Taejo’s impending marriage. It was something for the elderly queens to ruminate over. Taejo already had 29 queens and concubines.
Baek Ah pleaded with Wang So to champion Hae Soo's cause. It was a sore point that he, himself, was virtually powerless to intervene as he had no influence in the palace. His mother was from Shilla, a fallen kingdom. Only good-looking people with powerful and well-connected families could make their voice heard.
 
Being a tough-minded and determined young lady, Hae Soo was not going to resign herself to her fate. Having been held captive against her
will, the young lady flirted with the idea of escaping from the clutches of the king.
Wang So, together with Wang Wook, courageously spoke up for Hae Soo and
pleaded with Taejo to halt his wedding. The nerve of the two princes. Taejo explained to them that he needed the
help of the Hae clan to prevent a war between Goryeo and the Khitans.
Wang So insisted that his father hear him out. His audacity
nearly sent Taejo into an unbridled rage. Wang So was cautious not to
alienate himself from their father, whom he had recently reconciled with. The worldy-wise Wang So quickly proposed cutting the Hae clan down to
size with the evidence that they had been conspiring with the Khitans. In the
highly polarized Goryeo kingdom, it was such an inflammatory accusation but he would soon be proven right.
However, it was also not Taejo’s idea
to marry Hae Soo. He realised that the Hae clan was too greedy for power.
This segment of the drama paints a dismal picture of the political alliances
that Taejo had been forced to make for the sake of peace and security of his
kingdom.
While the other agitated princes were completely silenced, the spirited
modern girl had better ideas. By comparison, Hae Soo was quick-witted and courageous. A
crucial difference. She summoned up her courage to do what she had to do to determine
the course of her life. Little did they know that the bride in her red wedding robes had already decided to
disobey the royal mandate.
THE TWIST IN THE STORY. Though it unnerved her, Hae Soo suddenly
slit her wrist with a shard of broken porcelain and pleaded with the king to set her free. The princes thought Hae Soo had lost her mind. She pleaded that she
would have a scar on her body and therefore was not eligible to be his bride.
Her argument was impossible to ignore. Intelligence and courage had ruled the day.
Losing blood, Hae Soo fell unconscious on the floor. The royal
wedding plan was truncated.
In the Goryeon palace, where importance was placed on beauty, a
royal bride-to-be had to be ‘perfect’. A scar would render the young lady
ineligible to be the consort of the king.
Hae Soo had, with great insight and wisdom, played the game according to the rules and, as it
turned out, her ploy was an ingenious idea.
This twist makes the audience roar with approval. They pay
tribute to the scriptwriter for creating this stunning turn of events.
A new door opened in Hae Soo’s life due to her strong will
power. King Taejo
was magnanimous in forgiving Hae Soo and assigned her to be a court lady in
the Damiwon Palace. It was amazing given the times that they were living in. The princes could barely conceal their delight that she
was single again. They would miss her
but they promised to drop in regularly for a visit.
Hae Soo spoke to all the princes present but the only prince that she refused to look at was the Fourth Prince. Suddenly, Wang So was besieged by a terrible loneliness. An undercurrent of sadness was beginning to creep into his life again. Did Wang So feel a tinge of
jealousy when the Wang princes crowded around the popular young lady before
she took up her duties at the Damiwon Palace?
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