User blog:Sirin of the Void/PE Proposal - Yeonsangun of Joseon (The Treacherous)

Here go my most evil real-life based villain to be proposed. Many may not know because he was so wicked that Korean historians tried ERASED his name of history to save their country's reputation. I'm marking this as mature because I'll not spare anyone from reading obscene words.

What's the Work
The Treacherous is a 2015 South Korean period drama film directed by Min Kyu-dong. The film tells the story of Joseon's tyrant king Yeonsan who exploits the populace for his own carnal pleasures, his seemingly loyal retainer who controls him and all court dealings, and a woman who seeks vengeance.

Prince Yeonsan (Kim Kang-Woo) becomes engulfed with insanity as he kills those responsible for his mother's death. He appoints his longtime friend Im Soong-Jae (Ju Ji-Hoon) and his father to the position of retainer. They are then ordered to round up beautiful women from all parts of the country to pleasure Prince Yeonsan. Women are taken regardless of their marriage status or social class, which causes widespread anger. Dan-Hee (Lim Ji-Yeon) is a beautiful woman, but she is a butcher from the lowest class. She saves Im Soong-Jae from danger and then begs him to take her to the palace. Im Soong-Jae refuses for his own personal reasons. Nevertheless, Dan-Hee soon enters the palace. Im Soong-Jae becomes conflicted and the Prince lusts after the beautiful Dan-Hee.

Who is He?
Yeonsangun of Josean or Prince Yeonsan was a historical figure whow as known as 10th king of Korea's Joseon Dynasty. He was the eldest son of Seongjong by his second wife, Lady Yoon, a concubine of his father who was later exiled for not having royal blood. It turns out this prince was a Psychopathic Manchild who saw everything for his sake, including all women of his country. Due to his brutal tactics and carnal desires, he is often considered the worst tyrant of the Joseon Dynasty, and perhaps all of Korean history, notorious for launching two bloody purges of the seonbi scholar elite for criticizing him. He also seized a thousand women from the provinces to serve as palace entertainers, and appropriated the Seonggyungwan study hall as a personal pleasure ground.

Because of his cruelty, Yeonsan-gun did not receive a temple name and his name was erased from the history of the nation.

What he has done?
The film takes after the first purge so everything that happens before the First Purge will not be here.

The first starts with the king's loyal retainers, Im Sung-jae and Im Sa-hong giving him a piece of old cloth that belonged to his mother, confirming that she was killed by a conspiracy. Taken by hate, the king personally goes after all the concubines who hated his father and beat them to death. When he was done with them, he mutilated their corpses and ordered his soldiers to spread their limbs around this dynasty to curse them after their deaths. But he was not done yet and brutally killed his grandmother. For the academics and messengers who spread to the news of his mother's death were arrested, tortured in heat chairs, forced to drink honey to be devoured alive by insects or decapitation. And for the "traitors" whom were already dead? He sent his soldiers to find their graves and defiled their mortal remains.

At the final of the purge, he captured 200 academica and cut them to pieces while they were alive and feed their rests to the pigs so they can suffer eternally on the mortal world. Their heads? Hanged in every gate of the dynasty to give a warning to all his opposers. With the purge ended, the king returned to his "matters" and left the country to die in poverty and hunger as he had a fascination for sexual contacts, so much he had his concubines having sex for hours only to create the "perfect piece of art". If they If they got tired too fast before he could finish his drawing, he would have his guards flogged.

When he was tired of his concubines he personally went to "hunting" with his guards around the dynasty, invaded villages, used villagers sparring targets to test his bow and arrow skills and takes at least two women he finds attractive for him to rape them in front of their families and lovers. Once he entered in the climax, he would say something like this: "well, the hunting today was perfect". Because of his tyranny, he perfectly knew he couldn't trust in anyone and so bet a race with one of his minions to test his loyalty but when he saw visions of assassins trying to kill him he fell from his horse and cut off the head of his horse before ordering his generals to kill every single stork of his dynasty for simply scaring him.

Injured from his fall, Im Sung-jae suggest the king to use his carnal desires to heal him from his injuries and promises to give him the best feeling of the order. And what happened? He created a group called Beauty Attorneys to capture all most beautiful women of the dynasty, independent of classes or position, including kidnapping the daughters and wives of honorable lords. With no women safe from his grasp, the all women of the dynasty hid from his soldiers he had his men bribing poor families with crumbs and old accessories but if they refused to give them their women he would have his men mutilate their families.

In his palace, when hundreds of women were finally brought to his territory, he threatened them if they missed their families or loved one he would personally cut their heads off. To satisfy his desires, he abolished the study section of the palace and turned it in a pleasure section where he would conduct orgies. To help the professor obey his orders and break the royal codes he brough his wife only to show the breast milk is his wife, revealing he had been constantly sucking her breasts only to keep their baby alive. His Beauty Attorneys then trained his concubines to be ready to satisfy the king but if ejaculated too fast he would beat them up because it was not satisfactory enough.

One night, when he was watching his concubines dancing in a festival, an assassination attempt happened but the assassin failed. Discovering the assassin was a member of one of his concubines' families, he ordered his men to go after all their families, killed their babies and children and arrested their parents and lovers. In his palace, he forced his concubines to "help" him use "traitors" as sparring targets... little did they know the sparring targets were their lovers and parents. During his execution, a very peculiar execution called the attention of most of Yeon's ministers. When the king showed the face of one of his concubines' lovers but young concubine said she had nothing to do with that man... and to prove that he had her sucking his penis right in front of her lover in exchange of not killing him... but it turns out he shot him down anyway stating if he wasn't her husband then he is nobody and deserved death. Angered by his death, the concubine grabs his sword and prepares to kill the king, much to his happiness and begged for her to kill him but instead she committed suicide, causing Yeon to cry like a child as there was no fun anymore. Tired, he revealed the parents of all his concubines and had his men killing all of them at once. Like always, he gave their corpses to the big to be devoured.

With only two concubines left to become his true bride and give birth to his heir, Yeon had the two concubines having sex with promise the winner would have the loser's head; the one who have an orgasm first loses. When he decided the winner, he prepared to cut the head of the loser but changed his mind and kept Seol as the winner's sexual slave, promising to impregnate the winner tomorrow.

When Seol was in his bed to have sex with him, she tried to kill the king but failed. To punish her, he search for her past and discover she was the daughter of one of the lords he killed in the first purge. He then arrested all people related to her, brought them to his palace and had them beheaded right in front of her. To push her to despair even more, he brings the mortal remains of her late father and destroy them with a hammer, seeing that Seol finally says everything he deserved to hear: that he was not a king, he was only a murderer who destroyed his own dynasty to satisfy his carnal desires. In a fit of rage, he smashes her head. However, those words shocked him to the point he questioned if he was good king...

So... is he reforming himself and changing his ways? NAAAHHH!

Much later, he had a meeting with two of his most trusted minister and states that woman was right. When the ministers said they did everything he ordered them because they cared for his well-being. With that said, Yeon could relieve himself from the guilty of destroying his own nations and blamed his ministers for his bad rule, calling them traitors and blaming them for the murder of all his concubines' families and for the death of thousands more. To finish this, he forced Im-Sa-hong to drink ink from his feet only test if he was a "loyal minister" or a "dog". Much later, he is seen AGAIN requesting for another "beauty hunting" to find a wife worth of giving birth to his heir... showing he didn't change after all.

This time, he went even more insane and ordered the death of all families of the captured women and used their naked bodies as "human-brushes" to draw erotic art. That was the last drop of water and a rebellion started to overthrow the mad king. In his palace, he was taken by Sung to a old warehouse to show him his new concubines but instead met his greatest humilliation; wet in blood of all the people he killed and surrounded by the pigs he loved so much.

It's worth to mention he kills the pigs at the end for thinking they were too ugly to be his concubines?

The rest? The history tells but this is where his madness ends in the film.

Freudian Excuse/Mitigating factors
Both real world and film gives us the same freudian excuse: the murder of his mother. He genuinely loved her as shown in the film... but the love of this man is very different from any human being. He saw all women alive as his sexual toys, including his mother. This is very described with his relationship with his consort Jang Nok-su, whom he saw as replacement for his mother. In the film, he uses Jang as tool to relax every time he is pissed off by sucking her breasts like a baby. Many consider Jang for causing Yeon's misrule but here? She is only an opportunist who is using the king to keep herself in power as the new queen. Even if he is being manipulated by Sung and his father, not even them could keep Yeon's cruelty in control. Yeon became so evil that not even them could hide their disgust from the king and sought to end his life as soon as possible by helping in the rebellion.

The film also turns him into a very complex character who is having conflict with his inner madness. There are times where he cries for being insane and knows perfectly he had become a monster for defiling thousands. He even begs to one of his ministers to finish his life for suffering too much for lacking virtue to rule over his dynasty, there is also the fact he said he couldn't finish off the life of a loyal subject. But all it takes to forget his dynasty people is a simple breast sucking or sexual act with one of his concubines for him to return to be the same sexual maniac he always is, showing in the end gives 0% fucks to everyone around him and cares only for himself. And LATER ON, he blamed his subjects and ministers for his misrule only to feel relieved believing his nations is suffering because of them and not him. He had no problem torturing and killing the family all his subjects for suspecting they were participating in a rebellion against him. In the end, he is a complete sadist who enjoy the pain of his enemies and see all his ministers, subjects and soldiers as mere pawns for him to continue in power and live a life full of pleasure.

Heinous Standard
Honestly, he carries almost everything in his back. Everything other character did, the king did much worse and was directly for his actions as most of them were following his orders.

Veridict
He may divide opnions (or maybe not) considering after the Second Beauty Contest he went even more insane and discarded his last redeeming qualities. His page is not here yet but I'm planning to make his page very soon.

For now? YES !