I begin by thanking fellow user, XxsmeixX for the links she shared with me.

1. prime number and the exponential duration of time freeze, https://twitter.com/apocalypse_chc/status/1264544598761836545 

2. exponential increase of time freeze from the first moment it began and traced in Lee Gon's calculation the second moment it happened afterwards. https://twitter.com/minhowluv/status/1264232679764922368 

3. Some explanation of the Euler's number of e - the natural language of infinite growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuA2EAgAegE 

some hypothesis:
1. the time may have stopped in an exponential duration every time someone crosses over the portal because there's been killing/disorderly/imbalance in both worlds which did not happen pre-Lee Lim owning the Manpansikjeok.

2. if Court Lady Noh was indeed from ROK and brought over to KOC under Lee Gon's grandfather's rule (ep. 12), we can hypothesize that time may not freeze during that era because there was no killing/violence involved that caused imbalance in both worlds. but it still doesn't make much sense, since why did Court Lady Noh needs to be brought over to KOC in the first place? WE ARE MISSING THE MOTIVE THAT DATES BACK AND NEED HER BACKSTORY DESPERATELY!

Interesting thanks for posting this! 

—it still provides more questions than answers. Am I interpreting this correctly? So the conclusion is that the portals or the method to cross both worlds must be destroyed to prevent super long time freezes? So now the goal is to retrieve Lee Rim flute piece and destroy it along with his piece? 

—so crossing over the worlds is not what causes time freeze but killing the doppelgänger? —the imbalance is due to the doppelgänger dying? —so is time freeze permanent now since certain counterparts are dead and that the length of the time freeze is increased with every doppelgänger killed? 

—is the balance suppose to be that the counterparts  in both world must be physically living At the same time? So when they die, they both die at the same time to prevent imbalance? Is that the universal law? 

Yeayy! Great that you replied to this. Your episodic analysis has been great :)


Yes if you read more on the second twitter link above, she already hypothesized that the door to cross both worlds need to be closed forever and for that reason Lee Gon must take the other half of Manpansikjeok from Lee Lim. That's where I believe the ending of this love story could be really sad indeed depending on how the writer chooses to wrap the drama.


The second point you raised, it could well be the correct explanation but hopefully the last 4 episodes will make it clearer.


Your third point! Maybe since the crossover already happened. If the crossover didn't happen, the death of a doppelganger in one world will not affect the order of life in the parallel world.

Haha thanks for providing this topic page! 

—the twitter person is detailed with providing the math to calculate the time freeze moments. But now I’m wondering, hasn’t lee rim been traveling back and forth for years and killing a decent number of doppelgängers? (So weren’t there an imbalance for a long time) How come there weren’t any time freezes throughout the years? The first time freeze shown in the series was really brief, I’m confuse why it’s so short. —so wouldn’t this throw the math off because he doesn’t know how many times Lee rim been traveling before Lee Gon discovered the portals? —also let us say that the quantity of doppelgängers murdered  increases the length of the time freeze, lee gon isn’t aware of how many of them died so how does he factor this in the equation? —I’m not a mathematician, so I’m not equip to fully understand this yet haha 


—I’m not quite sure it will be a logical sad ending if that’s what the writer is aiming for because will the balance really be restored if the Real Koreans remain in Korea and the Real Coreans remain in Corea? 
•how will the deaths of certain doppelgängers be compensated to restore balance? 
•lady noh crossing over 60 years ago, is that considered an imbalance? If she can cross over why not TE? 
•I think time travel may be needed to restore balance, they need to travel to a time where none of the doppelgängers died, so I suppose it’s back to the first scenes in ep 1. 

—I think the most logical way to give TE and LG a happy ending is if TE is actually a corean. And it’s possible since I think TE and Luna were switched when they were young due to Luna having cancer just like TE mom. 

 Pranksalot:
the twitter person is detailed with providing the math to calculate the time freeze moments. But now I’m wondering, hasn’t lee rim been traveling back and forth for years and killing a decent number of doppelgängers? (So weren’t there an imbalance for a long time) How come there weren’t any time freezes throughout the years? The first time freeze shown in the series was really brief. —so wouldn’t this throw the math off because he doesn’t know how many times Lee rim been traveling before Lee Gon discovered the portals? —also let us say that the quantity of doppelgängers murdered  increases the length of the time freeze, lee gon isn’t aware of how many of them died so how does he factor this in the equation? —I’m not a mathematician, so I’m not equip to fully understand this yet haha 

1. 

 Pranksalot:
How come there weren’t any time freezes throughout the years?

now, i think the answer could be either one of two:
i. time may have frozen in the past 25 years since Lee Lim started killing his doppelganger, but because Lee Gon hasn't traveled to the other world himself, he is just like everyone else who freezes like a statue when that happens, and Lee Lim was the only one who can move in the frozen time.

alternatively, 

ii. the time freezes only started when Lee Gon himself has also travelled to the other world, since he has the other half of Manpansikjeok and somehow the time freezes began only when both of them have crossed to the other world, LOL.


2. 

 Pranksalot:
also let us say that the quantity of doppelgängers murdered  increases the length of the time freeze, lee gon isn’t aware of how many of them died so how does he factor this in the equation?


i think Lee Gon didn't began theorizing by thinking about the number of death, rather he went straight into 'most important mathematical constants', and Euler's number of e being the most relevant one since it's about the formula of exponential growth. he probably figured it quickly enough since he's a mathematician and tracing the exponential duration of the time freeze in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time would've given him enough clue.

 3. 


 Pranksalot:
•how will the deaths of certain doppelgängers be compensated to restore balance? 
•lady noh crossing over 60 years ago, is that considered an imbalance? If she can cross over why not TE? 
•I think time travel may be needed to restore balance, they need to travel to a time where none of the doppelgängers died, so I suppose it’s back to the first scenes in ep 1. 

honestly, i feel very uncomfortable with the idea/theory/hypothesis that they need to time travel back to the time when the doppelgangers haven't died to restore balance. doesn't that automatically mean that they will reverse everything including their love story as if it has never happened? LOL WTF i am losing braincells!

First, thanks for making this thread, secondly can I use some of these theories for an upcoming article at the end of this summer? Ps. I'll give proper credit.

 Cryssy Anne:

First, thanks for making this thread, secondly can I use some of these theories for an upcoming article at the end of this summer? Ps. I'll give proper credit.

Sure, since the theories mentioned in the links are fully credited to the fellow Twitter users :)

I wonder how you are able to respond back to my comments in quotations because when I try to do so, and click “quote”  it says the posts are too long for me to do so. 

1. 

i. Maybe this theory doesn’t work because I feel like the time pauses should have been way longer because there is absolutely no way within the 25 years, Lee Rim didn’t kill many people including Shin-Jae and Lee Gon and Lee Gon father doppelgängers. He seems to have an army of people. —so I’m beginning to think that the number of people killed shouldn’t contribute to the time pauses. The correlation doesn’t make sense to me now thinking about it. —if the show is saying a combination of factors are contributing to time freezes, deaths plus crossing over, but still it’s kind of shaky because many deaths and many universe crossings have occurred within the 25 years.  

ii. Maybe you’re right that the time pauses was ignited by lee gon traveling with his piece of the flute. I think that’s a lame explanation if this is the show said logic. —the flute as a whole was used prob numerous of times in the past by the Royal members of the family including bringing lady noh over. Back then there was no time pauses. So crossing universes alone  did not lead to the side effect of time freezes. 

Summary: —I’m really confused because if we contribute death to time freezes, it doesn’t make sense to me because there’s been many deaths and the number is an unknown, so this can’t be used in any calculation —if we contribute world travelings to time freezes, it doesn’t make sense to me because there surely has been many universe traveling throughout corea history. No one is just going to travel to a new world only one time once they discover the flute abilities—the show is going to have to conveniently ignore some unknown factors to explain the time freezes. 

2. —okay I think I understand the calculations and mathematics to a certain degree. Now in my opinion, number #2 theory that I suggested in an earlier post is invalid in my opinion. It’s possible that only one “unnatural” death is require to start an imbalance once the “entire flute” crosses over and from that point on, whenever someone crosses the universe, it will lead to a time freeze. So Lee Gon first crossover to Korea is the final catalyst. —Idk this is also another lame, lazy explanation if this is where the show is heading hahaha 

3. I agree but sadly I think this where the show is headed with time travels playing a crucial role. Now it’s becoming more likely that Lee Gon saved his young self. There’s a constant, unending, “eternal” time loop at play. TE probably died in a different time line, maybe multiple of times, so with the flute he’s probably constantly time traveling to prevent certain events from happening. —maybe he’s failing a lot, that can perhaps explain why LG is super clingy and emotional in certain scenes because it’s the residual emotions he received from LG(s) from different time lines...LOL 

—I’m just getting more upset, the most I’m contemplating what’s going on LMAO

My 2-cents regarding whether time froze before Lee Gon crossed the portal:

According to Lee Gon's calculations, the duration of the freezes is the square of the prime number corresponding to the number of times the freeze occurred.  At the 62nd time, the duration will be close to 24 hours (86,400 seconds).  Following are the first 62 prime numbers; 293 corresponds to 85,849 seconds:

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, 211, 223, 227, 229, 233, 239, 241, 251, 257, 263, 269, 271, 277, 281, 283, 293

 The duration of the second freeze he experienced was 121 seconds, the square of prime number 11, the 5th prime number.  This means that the very first freeze he experienced was 49 seconds, the square of 7, the 4th prime number.  This, in turn, means that time had frozen 3 times before, for 4, 9 and 25 seconds.

Lee Lim probably did not take much notice of the first few freezes because of their short durations. He only found out the significance of the freezes when he received  intelligence about Lee Gon coming in and out of the palace.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I didnt pay attention before, so it’s good to know that time did freeze before haha 

It makes me ponder these two questions: 

—let’s say time froze three times before LG crosses worlds, why only three times? 

—why/how time freeze is activated?

I've been wondering about that, too, whether the time freeze is activated every time the portal is crossed. Following are LL's possible movements before LG first crossed the portal:

1. In winter 1994, he went to Korea after the assassination. He probably set up a base of operations there.

2. During LG's coronation, he was back in Corea because Sin-jae saw him there

3. He brought Sin-jae, among others, to Korea

4. Stayed in vacuum where he remained for less than 10 years of outside time. If a day in the vacuum is equivalent to 2 months in outside time, this means he stayed for approximately 60 vacuum days in that place. This happened before #5 because his aide noticed he did not age

5. He was shown in Corea recruiting his aide 10 years after the assassination

6. Stayed mostly in vacuum to prevent aging 

I am counting at least 4 times LL crossed portal before LG first experienced time-freeze.  So, yes, there seems to be another factor, other than LG or LL crossing the portal that caused time to freeze.

 Pranksalot:
I wonder how you are able to respond back to my comments in quotations because when I try to do so, and click “quote”  it says the posts are too long for me to do so. 

yes you can't quote an entire long post. i am usually on my laptop when i want to type a lengthy post, so what i did was that i highlighted a small section of the post, then suddenly a 'quote' option appears which comes up to the above :)

1. 


 Pranksalot:
ii. Maybe you’re right that the time pauses was ignited by lee gon traveling with his piece of the flute. I think that’s a lame explanation if this is the show said logic. —the flute as a whole was used prob numerous of times in the past by the Royal members of the family including bringing lady noh over. Back then there was no time pauses. So crossing universes alone  did not lead to the side effect of time freezes. 


 pcharlotte787:
I am counting at least 4 times LL crossed portal before LG first experienced time-freeze.  So, yes, there seems to be another factor, other than LG or LL crossing the portal that caused time to freeze.

yeah, that was a very interesting observation! do you think the show will ever explain it to us? my wild theory at this point would be something related to the deity/yo-yo boy. but we still severely lack wisdom/reason/motive behind it. another wild theory of mine would be related to the use of different portals by Lee Gon and Lee Lim to cross the other world. as in, if only one portal was used, then no time freeze somehow, and if different portals are used, then time freeze starts to happen. but that theory is still lacking because it needs to match the first time Lee Gon crosses over, and the first moment he detected it was already the third time freeze. WTF my brain is fried.


“I am counting at least 4 times LL crossed portal before LG first experienced time-freeze.  So, yes, there seems to be another factor, other than LG or LL crossing the portal that caused time to freeze.”

—Thanks for making that list! And that’s not counting returning trips. Round trips are considered as crossing the portals twice haha

—and let us say he stayed in that vacuum magical space for *60 days. There’s no freaking way he could survive without food/water without going like grocery/supplies shopping at least once a week, also I’m expecting no refrigeration, no food storage. Unless he’s living on food cans and water hahaha I want to see his get-away dwelling in the space LOL 

@baek in ho

—all we can do right now is shoot out wild guesses and see what hits and stays stuck on the wall lol 

—no wonder you’re able to use quotations, I’m typing all of this on my phone lol 

The 60 vacuum-days duration is equivalent to 10 real-world years.  I am assuming that if there is no light, wind and air in that place, people would not need anything for sustenance.  Just the fact that there is no air is really intriguing - how could they breath?  In any case, their physical bodies probably behave differently there, that is why they don't age.  And if Lee Lim did not age much in 25 years, he stayed there for as long as he could.

 pcharlotte787:

The 60 vacuum-days duration is equivalent to 10 real-world years.  I am assuming that if there is no water, sun, wind and air in that place, people would not need anything for sustenance.  Just the fact that there is no air is really intriguing - how could they breath?  In any case, their physical bodies probably behave differently there, that is why they don't age.  And if Lee Lim did not age much in 25 years, he stayed there for as long as he could.

That’s a convenient way for the show to explain it off LOL It bothered me early on in the show when lg explained there was no air. I thought the exact same thing, how are they breathing? haha 

—it also made me wonder where the light comes from and why there’s gravity if the natural laws don’t come to play. And why are the balloons able to stay floating in one spot lol I suppose it looks aesthetically pleasing LOL 

—also why is it one day in the vacuum equals two months? Time shouldn’t even exist at all in this vacuum, it’s just a convenient explanation LOL