Royal Feast is steadily becoming a favourite with its offerings of stunning food visuals, romance and palace politics. It’s always been the case that this is a drama primarily about the women of the Inner Palace in all their glamour and nastiness. Although the show features the reign of three emperors, the women are really at the heart of the storytelling. Cat fights which routinely make their appearance here are a time honoured tradition in these sorts of dramas because the "survival of the fittest" applies to all with limited options.
I loved this drama so much precisely for the same reasons you do. The unsaid words and actions, as well as the the unexplained broken etiquette. For example, the fact that he waited for her at the wedding ceremony and purposely escorted her to her palace was a big deal. It is an honor bestowed only to the wife and thus, it was a slap in the face to the current royal princess (his wife). He was announcing to the whole court that this was HIS consort, his wife. The only hint given to unknowledgeable audiences was the single line uttered by the courtier, "Royal Concubine, this is against etiquette" when Yijin walked toward the outstretched hand of her prince.
Things like that bring a sigh to my heart ;). We know what these two were to each other.
I do believe the cold war went on too long. Locking her up for four or six months in her palace without him actually investigating was not really how his character was shown to be in the earlier 30 episodes. He'd always been very perceptible, up to the point where he even broke harem protocol to interfere to save her (and causing the cold war punishment) because he knew exactly how she would never go to him to tell about personal problems. I'd have rather it was just two months, then the mother-in-law and Yijin's heart-to-heart, then the clam scene and the great reconciliation. Then they should have given us two nice episodes of happy reconciliation aka romance ;). I would have loved that.
Thank you for your excellent summary and analysis.
I loved this drama so much precisely for the same reasons you do. The unsaid words and actions, as well as the the unexplained broken etiquette. For example, the fact that he waited for her at the wedding ceremony and purposely escorted her to her palace was a big deal. It is an honor bestowed only to the wife and thus, it was a slap in the face to the current royal princess (his wife). He was announcing to the whole court that this was HIS consort, his wife. The only hint given to unknowledgeable audiences was the single line uttered by the courtier, "Royal Concubine, this is against etiquette" when Yijin walked toward the outstretched hand of her prince.
Things like that bring a sigh to my heart ;). We know what these two were to each other.
I do believe the cold war went on too long. Locking her up for four or six months in her palace without him actually investigating was not really how his character was shown to be in the earlier 30 episodes. He'd always been very perceptible, up to the point where he even broke harem protocol to interfere to save her (and causing the cold war punishment) because he knew exactly how she would never go to him to tell about personal problems. I'd have rather it was just two months, then the mother-in-law and Yijin's heart-to-heart, then the clam scene and the great reconciliation. Then they should have given us two nice episodes of happy reconciliation aka romance ;). I would have loved that.
Thank you for your excellent summary and analysis.