Title	Empress Ki
Credit	Victory Contents
Media	Korean Drama
Genre	Romance, Historical, Melodrama
Year	2013
Character Type	1 Obsessive Character and 1 Yandere (Minor)

This is a story of Ki Nyang, a girl from Koryeo, who fought her way up to become the Empress of Yuan with her wits and strength.

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

Empress Ki is a 51-episode drama, centered around Ki Nyang, and the two man in her life: Wang Yu and Togon. Incidentally, Wang Yu is the deposed king of Koryeo, and Togon is the emperor of Yuan.

In the beginning, Nyang disguised herself as a man due to the cruel treatment of females in her country. While under disguise, she met Wang Yu, and quickly formed a comradery with him. Along the way, Nyang’s disguise was broken by her enemy, Tangqishi. As Nyang and Wang Yu were already developing fond feelings for each other through their journey, they soon fell in love with each other, and Nyang became pregnant with his child.

In a cruel turn of events, Nyang faced a tragedy during the time when Wang Yu separated from Nyang to attend to his duties. On her way back to Koryeo, she witnessed the gruesome murder of her friends and lady Park, all of whom she held very dear. Worse, she lost her newborn baby when she fell down the cliff during the massacre; her baby was washed away along the river.

The tragic encounter made Nyang furious and vengeful, and she swore to bring the murderers down. To achieve this, she gave up on returning to Wang Yu. Instead, she turned to Togon, the emperor whose life she had once saved, to earn a place as his consort. While her initial plan was to make use of him to obtain power for her revenge, she slowly came to love him.

Unfortunately, their path together was not a smooth one. Tension between Koryeo and Yuan persists, and internal politics in Yuan caused tremendous strain on their relationship. Nevertheless, Nyang eventually attained the status of Empress Ki.

However, Empress Ki’s political power, wisdom, and courage was insufficient to resolve the deep-rooted problems in both Koryeo and Yuan. Eventually, her loved ones in both countries met ill-fated ends, and herself embroiled in a heart-wrenching tragedy.

Empress Ki has been one of my favorite dramas of all time, especially so when I watched it as it was just released. Now, as I re-watched it, it still remains an incredible drama, though some scenes I now find incredulous. Even so, I must emphasize that this show is filled with incredible actors and actresses, each of them portraying their role and emotions with excellence. The cinematics were done incredibly. I definitely recommend watching it, even if not for the yando characters.

It was really enjoyable to watch the journey of Nyang as she starts from the lowest point and battled through all setbacks to reach the very top. It was really cool when Nyang disguised as a man, led a team, and fought her enemies with bow and arrow. It was also fun to watch how Nyang use her wits and cunning to emerge victorious over her enemies in the Yuan palace as a consort.

However, as the drama progresses, the plot seems to weaken slightly. For example, when Tanasiri, the original empress of Yuan started to lose against Nyang, she sought out a witch to perform a curse on Nyang. With this curse, Nyang will suffer from nightmares every night, which will weaken her until her ultimate demise. I am confused. Is this Harry Potter? I had thought this is a historical drama, but it suddenly turned supernatural amidst all the ongoing politics. There are also other instances which are similarly silly, which I feel are weak plot ideas.

Towards the ending, all the important figures started falling one by one, like dominoes. Yon Feisu, Wang Yu and half of his closest subordinates, Bayan, Empress Dowager of Yuan, Tal Tal, you name it, you have it. All of them died.

Tal Tal especially, I felt died for almost no reason. His death was only mentioned in the last few minutes of the final episode. For such a prominent character, no death scene was dedicated for him. It was as if the director just wants him dead the last minute, and decide to make the actors say a few lines about his death and roll with it.

Otherwise, I would also like to briefly talk about my favorite characters. They are Bang, Dokman, Yon Feisu, Wang Yu, Tal Tal and Nyang. Bang for being such a comedic and loyal servant, Dokman for his kind and reserved personality, Yon Feisu and Wang Yu for their endless self-sacrifice for their unobtainable loves, Tal Tal for his intelligence and impartiality, and Nyang for being the most awesome female lead.

If it were up to me, Wang Yu is by far the better choice compared to Togon. All of Wang Yu’s action were to protect Nyang. He is awfully aware of Nyang’s circumstances, and made it such that Nyang would never feel burdened by his actions. He went out of his way for her to ensure her happiness, all without expecting his actions to be acknowledged or be reciprocated. In the end, he was willing, and indeed, died for Nyang. To me, his death way more regrettable than Togon’s, and he will always be my favorite among the two.

CHARACTER SPOILERS