The King's Affection is off to a running start, with a wonderful and well-crafted premiere week. The story is both touching and compelling, and sets up the internal and external battles our heroine must face. Forced to hide her true identity and masquerade as the prince, her entire life becomes a well-acted play with life or death stakes.
EPISODES 1-2 WEECAP
We've got an epic 20-episode sageuk romance ahead of us, and like many before it, the drama opens with important backstory to set the stage for the drama to come. There's loads of characters to introduce, with their ambitions and political connections, the palace dynamics to understand — and last but not least, the story of how a young princess came to live under the guise of her brother.
It's a lot of exposition, but we need to know and feel it all in order for the present-day storyline to pack its punch. So first, an overview of our drama's setup.
The drama opens with the crown princess (Han Chae-ah) giving birth. She first births a son and heir, but everyone is surprised when the baby is a twin, and a little girl soon follows. Twins are considered not only a bad omen, but it's unacceptable for "the crown prince to share a womb with a girl," and no one in the palace will allow the infant to live. CROWN PRINCE HYEJONG (Lee Pil-mo) follows the king's orders and is willing to kill his own daughter, as is the crown princess's father, who is willing to kill his own granddaughter.
The crown princess is lovely and wonderful — a true sageuk heroine — and she risks it all to save the girl, first by faking the baby's death, and second by sending the baby girl far, far away from the palace. Better that she lives an orphan than dies at the hand of her family.
The royal infant grows up into the lovely adolescent prince LEE HWI (played fabulously in the past storyline by Choi Myung-bin). Rather than be conceited and arrogant, he's a lovely kid with a thirst for adventure. One day, he and his friend and servant EUNUCH HONG (Kim Geon) discover a girl that works as a palace maid. She's called DAM-YI (also played by Choi Myung-bin) and she's the spitting image of the young prince, and he of her. They're both speechless.
Soon, Lee Hwi requests Dam-yi's presence at the palace, and at his command, they start an elaborate masquerade where he can dress as her, and be free to roam around. In particular, his beloved tutor and father figure is condemned to death, and this has Lee Hwi cross-dressing more often, and Dam-yi sitting in his chambers awkwardly faking her way through the day.
It's important to note that though several years have passed since the twins' birth, there are a few important figures that still have their guard up. Among those is INSPECTOR JUNG SEOK-JO (Bae Soo-bin in both storylines). The man is ruthless when it comes to his palace duties, but is a devoted father to his young son JUNG JI-WOON (Go Woo-rim).
Ji-woon is a scholar-in-training, but like Lee Hwi, he also gets in trouble like the kid he is. One day he discovers the well-hidden courtyard deep on the palace grounds where young Dam-yi lives and works, and the two have an instant connection. They're only about twelve at this point (according to my reckoning), but it's every bit the innocent childhood romance.
They share important moments regarding a volume that Ji-woon copies for her, a near-drowning in an (extremely deep) fish pond, and a set of dice that will likely prove important later. For now it seems we just need to know their deep and immediate connection, and the fact that both are good souls who know right from wrong.
Having that moral compass is important, because the kids are soon face-to-face with lots of evil. Lee Hwi's masquerading as Dam-yi doesn't go on for long before it's uncovered(ish) by Inspector Jung. He believes he's found the twin princess... he does not know that the two were already acquainted and secretly switching roles. This key reveal (or lack thereof) is what causes the terrible tragedy that follows.
