Mr. Queen’s Real Tragedy Is That the Person Cheoljong Loved No Longer Exists

Written by: Sabreen Morsey

For most of Mr. Queen, we are encouraged to ask a seemingly obvious question: Who does King Cheoljong really fall in love with — Kim So-yong or Jang Bong-hwan?

But perhaps that is the wrong question.

Because the Queen Cheoljong falls in love with is neither entirely So-yong nor entirely Bong-hwan. She is someone created by both.

And by the end of Mr. Queen, that person no longer exists.

The Woman Who Makes Cheoljong Look Twice

When Bong-hwan first wakes inside So-yong’s body, the transformation is played for comedy.

The Queen suddenly ignores palace etiquette, speaks strangely, behaves impulsively, and challenges almost everyone around her. She is nothing like the woman Cheoljong thinks he knows.

One small scene captures the beginning of his fascination particularly well. When rain finally comes and begins filling the palace lake, Bong-hwan is ecstatic. For him, the water represents the possibility of returning home.

Cheoljong knows none of this. He simply watches his Queen celebrating in the rain.

It is a romantic moment built on a complete misunderstanding. Yet it also tells us something important: Cheoljong begins looking at the Queen differently precisely when she begins behaving like someone else.

Later, the misunderstanding becomes intimacy. Bong-hwan establishes a “No Touch” rule because he wants physical boundaries with Cheoljong. The King interprets the phrase very differently, turning it into an idea about accepting each other’s differences.

Eventually, Cheoljong even tries to understand the Queen’s bizarre modern expressions through her “Queen’s Dictionary.”

These moments are funny. But together they show something more interesting.

Cheoljong isn’t simply getting to know So-yong better. He is learning the language of the person she has become.

But That Person Isn’t Simply Bong-hwan

This is where the easiest interpretation of the romance starts to break down.

It is tempting to say that Cheoljong really falls in love with Bong-hwan. After all, much of what makes the Queen newly fascinating — her humor, irreverence, confidence, and unpredictability — comes from him. But Bong-hwan does not remain untouched by So-yong either.

As the drama progresses, her memories and emotions increasingly enter his experience. His relationship with Cheoljong changes alongside them.

The man who initially wants nothing more than to escape the Queen’s body begins caring about the people around her. He becomes emotionally invested in Cheoljong’s survival and his struggle.

Cheoljong changes too. The apparently weak King reveals himself to be strategic, courageous, and deeply committed to changing the political world around him.

When he risks himself to save a court maid, the Queen is furious at his recklessness. But his explanation — that learning to abandon one person makes it easier eventually to abandon everyone — reveals the man beneath the crown.

They are no longer simply two people thrown together by an absurd situation. They are changing each other. And that suggests a third possibility.

Cheoljong Falls in Love With a Third Person

Perhaps asking whether Cheoljong loves So-yong or Bong-hwan forces a distinction the drama itself has already blurred.

The Queen he knows has So-yong’s body, history, memories, and emotional connections. But she also has Bong-hwan’s humor, modern instincts, audacity, and experiences.

As the series progresses, those elements become increasingly difficult to separate. Call her So-yong. Call him Bong-hwan. Fans sometimes call the combined character “So-bong.” Whatever name we give this person, this is the Queen with whom Cheoljong actually builds a relationship.

She is the one who surprises him. She is the one whose strange vocabulary he tries to understand. She is the one who becomes his political ally. She is the one who discovers the man behind his deliberately weak public image. And she is the one with whom he falls in love.

That makes the ending far more complicated than simply asking whether So-yong or Bong-hwan “deserves” Cheoljong.

Everyone Goes Home — Except One Person

In the final episode, Bong-hwan returns to the present. So-yong remains in Joseon with Cheoljong.

Politically, the ending is triumphant. Cheoljong survives. His enemies fall. The Queen survives. Bong-hwan wakes in his own world.

The drama has restored everyone to where they belong. But in doing so, it quietly removes the person who belonged nowhere. The Queen Cheoljong knew existed only because So-yong and Bong-hwan occupied the same life. When they separate, she disappears.

This explains why the ending can feel happy and strangely sad at the same time. It isn’t necessarily because Cheoljong ends up with the “wrong woman.” And it isn’t because So-yong was absent from their love story.

She wasn’t.

The problem is that neither So-yong nor Bong-hwan alone is exactly the person Cheoljong knew.

The King Cannot Mourn Someone He Doesn’t Know He Lost

That may be the most tragic part of the ending.

Cheoljong can sense that something about his Queen has changed. But how could he possibly understand what happened? He never knew Bong-hwan existed. He never knew that two identities had shaped the woman beside him. So he cannot name what is missing. He cannot even properly grieve it.

And suddenly, one of the drama’s recurring jokes — Cheoljong struggling to understand his Queen — becomes unexpectedly sad.

For most of the series, he keeps trying.

He interprets “No Touch.” He learns her strange expressions. He tries to understand a woman who repeatedly refuses to behave as he expects.

But there is one thing about her he can never understand: why she is no longer quite the person he remembers.

Maybe the Ending Isn’t About Choosing Between Two Identities

This is why I don’t think the most interesting debate about Mr. Queen is whether Cheoljong loved So-yong or Bong-hwan.

Both answers make the relationship simpler than the drama itself made it. The romance works precisely because identity becomes messy.

So-yong influences Bong-hwan. Bong-hwan transforms So-yong’s life. Cheoljong changes because of the Queen, and she changes because of him.

For a brief period, all of those experiences exist inside one relationship. Then the ending separates them again. The political story gets its resolution. Bong-hwan gets his life. So-yong gets hers. Cheoljong gets his Queen.

But the person created by their collision gets nothing. She simply ceases to exist.

And perhaps that is the strange achievement of Mr. Queen: beneath all its comedy, romance and palace politics, it accidentally creates a surprisingly bittersweet idea about love.

Sometimes the person we love isn’t simply the person who existed before we met them. They are also the person created through everything that happens between us.

Cheoljong gets his happy ending.

But somewhere inside it is the absence of a woman he loved — a woman who technically never existed at all.

Images courtesy of tvN