READ THIS | FAQ

Answering FAQ about the drama. Yes in case you didn’t know yet the drama is cancelled after 2 eps and you cannot watch it on any legal platforms except pirated sites such as Kissasian / Dramacool.

1. What happened with the drama?
1) Koreans are offended because of the heavily Chinese influenced props (such as costumes and foods) used in a Korean historical drama. Even C-netz saw the striking resemblance and they make fun of it. China is claiming Korean cultures (such as kimchi and hanbok) as theirs, so Koreans think that this drama is fueling Chinese people to push the claim even further (said a Korean history professor)
2) Koreans are offended because of the portrayal of the royals in a wrong and disrespectful way. They are written very out of their real life character. For them this is not an AU or a what if story anymore. This is a misleading narrative that gives a bad image on their most respectful historical figures (King Taejong and his sons, especially JDY's character Prince Chungnyung who will grow up to be King Sejong The Great).
3) They made a petition to cancel the drama. So far the petition has been signed by 200.000 people.
4) The royal family association also asked for the drama to be taken down. They are obviously offended at how the drama portrays their ancestors.
5) They initially went on a one week break to edit and reshoot, but the filming location won't give them permission to shoot anymore so they couldn't do that.
6) Brands such as Samsung and LG cut off their contracts and sponsorship until there's none left. They don't want to be associated with the mess.
7) The cancellation is confirmed today 26th of march 2021
8) The only 2 aired episodes of the drama will also be erased from International broadcasting platforms (WeTV and Viki).

In addition
* Knetz used this opportunity to bring back the previous MrQ issue since they have the same writer.
* As the result , SHS lost brand deals (Chicken Plus deleted her pics and videos from their website's frontpage due to Knetz's protest and backlashes)
UPDATE: SHS did not lose the WeMustM mask deal.

2. Why are Koreans offended? Why are they so angry?

Here’s what they have to say:

1. A prince like Prince Chungnyung won't just stand in the corner of the room or even poured drink to a priest. Moreover, the said prince is going to be the very very respected King Sejong The Great
2. Lower-class people (read: non-royals) won't use informal form of speech (Like Marco did with Chungnyung). So in the Korean language there are 2 types of speech: Formal (Used when talking to someone more respectful or an older person) and informal (casual everyday talks with your friends / people your age). You need to use them accordingly.
3. Prince Chungnyung said "My great grandfather was head over heels over a courtesan. His blood also flows in me". A prince won't say things like that.
4. General Choi Young is a nobleman / aristocrat in real life but in this drama he's just a regular person.
5. In history, King Taejong is a king who always protected his people. He even initiated war against the Japanese and criminals to defend his people. But this drama depicted him as a cold-blooded person who massacred his people in blind rage.
6. In history, King Taejong really loved his kids. When one of his kid died he's so devastated he won't eat or sleep properly for weeks but in this drama he locked his son Prince Kangnyeong in a freezer to left him to die. This too is out of the historically documented character. This is not the king that Koreans are familiar with and respect.
7. Some characters are talking with Chinese dialect
8. Characters performing Nong-Ak-Mu which is a dance that the Chinese registered to UNESCO as theirs.
9. Ulju region belonged to Joseon territory. SBS clarified that Ulju is the border between Ming and Joseon. This is false. There's no clear land border at that time because they interacted with ships not by land.
10. The background music used is made using Chinese traditional instruments
11. Prince Yangnyeong used Chinese-styled sword not the usual sword you normally see in Korean historical dramas
12. The shamans performed their ritual not in Korean-style. Korea has their own shamanism tradition. What they did is not it.
13. Hairstyles and outfits that resembled Chinese culture. https://twitter.com/kdramasekki/status/1375199695006363651?s=20. Altough the drama is set during the trasition period between Goryeo and Joseon, C-netz are reaching for it and they’re saying that Koreans appropriate their drama, basically saying Koreans have no culture of their own.
14. Palace interior that doesn't resemble Korean palace design and is too Chinese-influenced which is noticeable with a lot of red colors here and there.
15. The writer's previous unresolved controversy with Mr. Queen.

Source: Kdramazone_unnie on instagram.

Note: Please read it thoroughly and try to position yourself in their situation. Altough I’m completely against their cancel culture and cyberbullying, I hope you can see why they are offended. 

3. So will the drama air on Netflix / Viu?
Most likely no.  If you want a honest opinion from my pessimistic ass, my answer is never. Not in this lifetime. Netflix/ Viu wouldn’t want to get cancelled by a whole country. They won’t take the risk.

4. How much did they lose?

32 Billion won = 28 Million USD. They already finished filming until episode 10 or 20 (If you count part 1 as episode 1)

5. How did this even happen???

I blame  the production team’s stupidity. There is no way they didn’t see it coming. They just chose to ignore it and it’s harming everyone involved. 

6.  As international fans, what should we do now?

Pray that the cast won’t get cancelled by Knetz. Send your faves  love and support. All of this must’ve make them very stressed. Remember that this is not their fault and will never be. Please anticipate their next comeback!!

 Tae Ho:

i think you meant episode 20 right? since the episode count was 32. gahh so sad. but i just finished episode 1-2 (one hour), and the opening scene when Yi Bang Won massacred the whole village because he was hallucinated was crazy. as a non-Korean even i felt disgusted by that. should have just settled with a fictional character completely, sighh.

p/s THAT'S FCKIN LOT OF MONEY TURNED TO DUST, HOLY SH*T. someone's never gonna make a career comeback, probably the writer. and he's the one who supposedly writes Doctor Prisoner 2, damn.

Yes I meant episode 20. 

Additional explanation on Korea-China cultural tension.

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/03/25/entertainment/television/joseon-exorcist-park-gyeok-vincenzo/20210325191100360.html

 iamzammm:

I read about the Vincenzo thing last week and was worried for a moment that something might happen to the show cos I’m loving it and didn’t want anything to go wrong!

Vincenzo is most likely going to be untouched because there's nothing in the script about historical distortion, only false advertising. Good that people captured that so drama productions will be more careful about accepting sponsors in the future.

 iamzammm:

Thanks for the link btw! It was nice reading more about it because I didn’t watch the first two episodes because I was normally wait for a show to have at least like 6 episodes before I start so I can binge them but then I saw it got cancelled so in a way I was glad I never got invested in it.

Still would be nice to watch for what it is. I read a comment saying "I'll just treat this as a 2 hour movie with an open ending" and it made me watch it right away. It's definitely sad it had to come to this but even with some petitions demanding Netflix to pick it up, it'd still be an incomplete drama with 6-one hour episodes left unshoot.

Yes I'd love to convince you or anyone else to give the two episodes a chance despite the cancellation. The reviews saying the production is really high quality made me super curious and I was able to enjoy it despite some discomfort, as I was empathizing with the issue - excessive violence while banking on the coattails of real historical figures.

Korean cultural appropriation as always. Yes, the historical inaccuraly is whole Korea matter, but Kimchi  and hanbok originated from China. Hanbok is now a totally different dress from Chinese hanfu, but kimchi is too similar to some Chinese regional dishes. So being cancelled was right.
Cultural appropriation is a crime, and it's not the first time this happened. Moon Lovers, Empress Ki, Alchemy of Souls, Hwarang, Kokdu Season of deity. are other examples.