FIrst of all, SHS and JKH are the GOAT. Esp SHS. The eps without her were dull and their scenes together were electric, whether funny or intense. Give them all the awards. The show was funny but I do feel a lot of the humor was forced (like the court ladies' side stories which I would skip sometimes) and the political plot was underdeveloped (this is often the case with sageuks but this is mostly a comedy so ok).

Looking at the finale reviews, I realise people are in three camps:

1. Either they wanted to see So-young as her own person and Bong-hwan was a driver to make her more assertive and fight back which you can look at it as

a) it's problematic bc we are (or the show is) saying it's only a man's characteristics and disposition which would have made her finally rise up

b) it's fine and Bong-hwan is strange anyway so his character would make anyone seem strange. They also wanted to see So-young the woman fall in love with the king and vice versa separate from Bong-hwan. Imo the problem here is that we feel sorry for her situation but we (and the King) fall in love with Sobong, the relationship with just So-young feels empty and thin.

c) it's lowkey homophobic and queer bait and the sigh of relief response that it's just So-young is getting the side eye

2. Or they want the King to only love Bong-hwan and So-young gets out of the picture which

a) is misogynistic and erases the woman

b) then they could've reincarnated the King Goblin style and gone full BL (Korea I dare you, Run On did it on the mainstream why not Mr. Queen)

3. Or Sobong remains and the King stays with them and if they showed So-young is present in more scenes throughout the show you erase no one and develop both. Or have a convo btwn the two somehow (like explain how the swapping happened/why he was chosen). Furthermore you have an interesting commentary on gender identity, sexuality and labels (see how the fandom struggled with Sobong's sexual ID and gender and finally merged their names and ID them as *they*) just like Black Mirror sn 5 episode 1. And imagine, *imagine* if the King knew as well and you get to explore that with him too. We're given crumbs in one of the last scenes but now you're literally killing Bong-hwan in So-young off (and breaking my heart). This is the loss of the series imo. I like how this was almost explored in Love in the Moonlight when the Prince was in love with Ra-on thinking she was a man but ofc they copped out and "revealed" they were a girl. And just imagine if Bong-hwan acknowledged his feelings outright with no joke to hide behind.

If you've read to this far I think you get the sense that I wanted a version of no. 3 to happen. Because I think love is love, whether or not the labels mattered. I think they both did and didn't.