Today is Sunday, 16^th April. I’ll aim to finish reading Episode 27 tonight.

Episode 25 Commentary 

We start with the police investigating what happened. It would be sad if Yoonhee really died.

#5..c17

‘As long as Yoon-hee was in the manhwa, she was a faceless zombie here.’ 

This gives me hope that she’s actually in the manhwa and not actually dead in the real world.

C#24….’ The best word to call this phenomenon is "fusion".’ 

This gives a clearer account on why Mr Oh, KC, and YH was able to go to the manhwa but remain as faceless zombie in the real world.

I’m still in denial that ‘
(heavy to bear) Yes. And Moon Mi-Ra really killed Yoon-Hee!’ 

C#34….They’re working on this hypothesis that Soobong had something to do with this phenomenon. If that’s the case, I’m not sure how you’ll take into account ‘the correspondent’.

#9 I had to check the name Moon Baeksoo and whether that’s the name if Mira’s uncle, and episode #24 confirmed that

This scene seemed random, but taking into account the Faustian pact you mentioned, it makes sense. I’m not sure how it happened, but my thought is that he was taken to Queen of Darkness manhwa, then killed there then transported back to the real world. I don’t see Mira having that power, but as Queen of Darkness, this evil act would be quite easy.

#10 and #11 for the stupid duo. I had high hopes that they would be allies with KC, but they’ve regressed a bit.. It’s not clear yet on why they were places here, but it’s possible that they might witness how Moon Baeksoo got murdered should the murder take place in the real world and not as I had supposed above in the manhwa.

#13 ‘The company's succession is expected to—' 

I haven’t finished reading this frame, but reading this line, shit will get much worse if Mira turns out to be the heiress. Another interesting angle is that how did she know that she will be the heir? If she did have knowledge prior to the murder, it’s another incentive for her to kill her uncle.

Or it could simply be the case that with her new powers, she could’ve forged the documents to show that she’s the heiress even though her uncle did not intend her to be so.

Let’s see if any of these hypotheses hold water.

C#17

‘
I had the feeling that she was the Queen of Darkness.
And I Wang Shin, although I have nothing in common with him.’ 

Was it planned from the start that Soobong would think that Wangshin was a stand-in for Soobong? Earlier, I had this hypothesis that Mira wanted to kill Wangshin due to how Soobong had dumped her. Now, with the knowledge of rape, I was trying to think if Wangshin could be a stand-in for her uncle, but it’s hard to do. I was thinking that an older guy had to be that stand in.

#16…c#2
Young-Sik!! (a miniature of the Queen of Darkness in his hand) 

So one of the duo is connected to the Queen of Darkness? The thick plottens!

C#7…so now Soobong saw the real Mira and had to break up with her.

At the end of #16, I now have a much clearer picture of why Mira is acting that way:

1)    Childhood trauma

a.    Her parents are crooks

b.    Sexual assault

2)    Evil influence from her imprisonment

3)    Break up with Soobong

With all these things that happened to her, I’m surprised that there’s some conscience left with her, unlike Lady Cha. It’s quite convenient to paint her as a stock villain with all this shit that happened.

Conclusion 

I love this episode so far. It gave a much more complete background on what Mira went through.

On the other hand, it’s sad to see Yoonhee go. As of this episode, she is dead.

But if there’s a plot twist that she’ll get resurrected, I’m all for it. I’m sure that Princess Dong without knowledge of the real world would be a different character to what Wangshin had always known. Which is why, if she is indeed dead, it might create problems in The Queen of Darkness manhwa.

• • Enchanteur

    Sunday 16th April 2023 at 09:00
    

    Hi. It's strange that you liked this episode, but so much the better. From my point of view, it's an episode that slows down a bit, but still dense. I mostly rate episodes on how exciting they are, how much they advance the story and how many key scenes they have. Key scene: a scene that I think is impactful. Here, my favorite scenes are : 

    #6 to #9: the crime scene. Because it doesn't give the information directly but the audience can guess easily. And it amused me to have the cliché of people vomiting on a crime scene.

    #16-5: the mad scene with the golden pen as a dagger. (payoff: now we know why she's on probation).

    #26: the final confrontation between Kang Chul and Mi-Ra.

    There are also various small moments, but I can't make the inventory.

     

    5-C#24

    Indeed, we have to go back to episode 13. The way Kang Chul was going in Butterfly Girl was not by chance.

    About this big montage scene: much rewritten because the previous version was heavy with too much voice-over.

     

    #9

    As it was not easy to remember the name "Beak-Seo", the policeman has a final line of dialogue where he says that Mi-Ra is his niece. No doubt, we know who it is in the last line, and why he died. This scene begins with a mystery... why are we seeing a crime scene? Then little by little, the crime gets stranger and stranger, until the final revelation of how this is connected to the story.

     

    #11

    They regressed on the Kang Chul case. But if you look at it more closely: Lee Sang-Deuk is much more successful in his normal job as a journalist. Thanks to his nerve and his work-aholic temperament, he is a good journalist. Here, the duo informs Kang Chul via television.

     

    C#17

    This sums up what we actually know since episode 1. And confirmed in dialogues/situations between Yeon-Hee and Wang Shin (I don't remember which episodes). Out of nostalgia for Soo-Bong, Mi-Ra couldn't kill Wang Shin while normally the Queen of Darkness always kills the heroes. She was in a love-hate relationship, torturing the character without deciding to kill him. Until she finally decided to finish him off (and thus forget about Soo-Bong for good). This moment takes place during episode 1. She is determined to kill him. But episode 8, she is in an apathetic phase where she doesn't feel like working. The orders she gives to Yeon-Hee are unclear. (episode 14) Yeon-Hee knows she should kill Wang Shin, but out of sheer necessity, because it's too hard to finish the next episode, she has to let him live.

     

    #16-c#2

    We already knew that Young-Sik is a manhwa fan ;-)

     

    #16 (other)

    We also have the payback of two foreshadowing.

    Episode 3: Soo-Bong throws pictures into a fire. We see the photo of him and Mi-Ra at this comic convention. And in the picture, she is holding the golden fountain pen.

    Episode 7: Soo-Bong is with Do-Yoon in W. He remembers the moment when he visits Mi-Ra in the cell at the police station.

     

    end of #16

    "Evil influence from her imprisonment". Not really. We discover rather in this mini-scene that she is at ease with the other prisoners. But for the rest you are right. The portrait of the character is quite complete at this point. Without giving away any spoilers because now we know all this:

    she can't manage to be happy because of her pain and trauma. Morbid bouts of absence. However she manages to have a normal life and has a moral conscience. Not very good in some aspects, she is quite bad, but not to the point of killing people. Except in fits of madness. And unfortunately, the evil that eats away at her also causes her own misfortune or destroys the relationships she would like to have. Which is a pity because the first part of her relationship with Soo-Bong shows that she can be adorable. And for Yeon-Hee, we know it from the beginning. She loves Yeon-Hee but by ambivalence, she is regularly hurtful. Same pattern, she destroys unwillingly. Self-destructive behavior as shown by her suicide attempts in episode 14 and episode 24. Maybe you can guess now what she was looking in the tablet (episode 14) and why she hit her head in the tablet.

    Although Ren-Bo and Mi-Ra do not know each other, they both have the same kind of problem. A trauma and the difficulty to get out of it. That's why there is a symbolic correlation between the two characters when they have a pink stuffed rabbit. Episode 11, Ren-Bo loses her stuffed rabbit when her parents go to have her operated on. (It's stupid, but it's the kind of detail that brings tears to my eyes). Later, we know that she finally found her rabbit (because she has it during episode 3). Episode 14, Mi-Ra's uncle rips off the head of her pink rabbit, while she was drawing an enchanted landscape close to the world of Butterfly Girl, with a fairy and a rainbow. But then she draws morbid things. Episode 24, her first drawing is a swamp with dead trees. The irony is that her mother asks her to draw a happy landscape with a rainbow (episode 23), while her parents are also responsible for her suffering and the fact that from now on, she can only draw macabre things.

    The pink stuffed rabbit is also a symbol of comfort for suffering children. At the beginning of episode 14, a young girl is crying and is about to commit suicide. Because she is unhappy (we guess she is beaten or bullied like Ren-Bo) and she is a fan of Butterfly Girl. She identifies with the character because Ren-Bo is also unhappy, but she gives her hope. So when Ren-Bo dies, the girl is about to commit suicide. She imitates Ren-Bo (paper wings, pink rabbit). She is about to jump off the roof of a building. Like when Ren-Bo was pushed off the roof of the high school (episode 19). And like Ren-Bo, she can't fly. Flying being a symbol of emancipation from her problems (the conclusion of a scene with Ren-Bo episode 7).

    Ooops, I've been a bit long here. There are others correlations of this kind.

     

    Conclusion

    Yes but don't forget that the character of Princess Dong is now dead too. The royal doctor was able to recognize a brain death. (episode 24).

Now I had to backtrack to episode 14.

Interestingly, I was drawn to episode 14 flashback #39: We were already given that her uncle abused her. For some reason, I did not retain that information, which is why when it was mentioned again, it felt to me as new information.

Any, about the rabbit. There’s too much detail that I failed to catch. Ugh.

Anyway, I make this promise that once you’re finished publishing the entire set of episodes, I will let some time to pass, then reread it.

I may be able to notice more details I failed to catch the first time around. These interesting details make rewatching/rereading seem worth it.