The King: Eternal Monarch (더 킹: 영원의 군주, Deo King: Yeongwonui Gunju) is a 2020 Korean series starring Lee Min-ho, Kim Go-eun, Woo Do-hwan, Kim Kyung-nam, Jung Eun-chae and Lee Jung-jin.
King Lee Gon crosses a barrier from an Alternate Universe where Corea is still a kingdom and ends up in a reality where the Republic of Korea exists in its stead, and where he soon meets Jung Tae Eul again, the woman he's been in love with since she saved his life as a child. Or did she? Meanwhile his treacherous uncle Lee Lim is gathering an army while travelling back and forth between the two worlds.
As of July 2020 the series is available on Netflix for non-Korean viewers.
The King: Eternal Monarch provides examples of:
- The Ace: Lee Gon is tall, handsome, well-versed in mathematics and science, a One-Man Army, has a quick-thinking mind, is a capable military commander, and almost universally beloved as The Good King.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Jo Young at four years old, when he becomes friends with Lee Gon.
- Agent Scully: It takes Jung Tae Eul a while to accept that Lee Gon is royalty from another world, even though he brings proof such as money with his face on it which police forensics state is real. She only really believes it when he takes her with him to his world.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Kang Shin Jae, another police officer, has been in love with Jung Tae Eul since they were teenagers, but she never had any interest and sees him only as her colleague.
- Alternate Self: Most of the main characters exist in both worlds. Except for Lee Lim and his nephew, Lee Gon. Lee Lim killed both their doubles in the Republic. Lee Gon was killed to avoid competition, and Lee Lim's double's dead body was dumped back in the Kingdom to convince people that he had died.
- Ambition Is Evil: Lee Gon's uncle Lee Lim, who also qualifies as an Evil Prince. See The Conspiracy for the details of his plan.
- The Prime Minister's entire reason to go into politics was to be close to the king so she can make him fall in love with her and become queen. Not because she particularly likes him, but because she wants to be queen. And she is quite skilled at using the media to work towards her goals.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Yo-yo boy is the human personification of the power of the flute. He shows up in both worlds and talks with various characters, trying to balance the realities and get the flute repaired.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Jo Young, Lee Gon, also Lee Lim as a villainous example.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Lee Gon, whose affinity for mathematics solves a crucial problem.
- Badass Bookworm: Lee Gon is a badass and also a mathematician with a tendency to get lost in the world of numbers for days on end.
- Battle Couple: Jung Tae Eul and Lee Gon form one several times to beat up mooks.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- The series opens with this: a young Lee Gon is about to be killed by Lee Lim and his conspirators, when a masked figure in black steps in and wipes the floor with them.
- In Episode 11, Lee Gon and the entire Royal Guard, horses and helicopters included, come to the rescue when Tae Eul thinks everything is lost.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Lee Gon can defend himself just as well as his bodyguard Jo Young can, but usually doesn't engage in fights due to his position.
- Bodyguard Crush: A variation. Lee Gon first met Jung Tae Eul when she saved his life during his uncle's coup when he was eight years old or so he thinks, and carries a torch for her for the next 25 years until they meet again. He later gets to even the score.
- Broken Bird: Song Jung Hye, Lee Gon's alternate's mother from the Republic, has been kept under Lee Lim's close surveillance as his hostage for 25 years. She endures it with cynical calmness — until she can't anymore.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Michael Jang, the newest detective in Jung Tae Eul's squad, is a large, buff, ripped slab of muscle who dresses and looks like a gangster, and quickly becomes Team Three's muscle. He's also a sensitive guy whose nickname "Jangmi" means "rose", talks to his mom daily, and to Shin Jae's utter surprise, has an extensive knowledge of beauty products.
- Catchphrase: Lee Gon's "You'll be beheaded" until he's serious.
- The Cavalry: And how! White horse and all, Lee Gon shows up just as Tae Eul is about to give up.
- Character Tics: Tae Eul pulls her hair back into a ponytail when she's frustrated or angry. It doesn't take Lee Gon long to catch on.
- Close-Enough Timeline: The new timeline that Lee Gon creates at the end — things are more or less the same as in the old timeline, with some divergences here and there.
- Commanding Coolness: Both Lee Gon and Jo Young served in the Kingdom of Corea Navy, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander before going reservist.
- The Conspiracy: When Lee Lim's coup to assassinate his brother the king, Lee Gon's father, and Lee Gon himself only partly succeeded 25 years ago — with Lee Gon surviving, if barely, thus ascending to the throne — he ended up with half of a legendary royal heirloom, an artifact which enables him to cross over into another world. Over the next decades he begins to assemble an army of soldiers and co-conspirators made up of people of both worlds who will aid him in executing his next coup to take over the throne, his methods involving murdering, kidnapping and exchanging people from one world with their counterparts from the other in order to obtain the support he needs. Of course, the other half of the Interdimensional Travel Device has landed in Lee Gon's hands and the king soon starts interferring with his uncle's plans. Then there's Prime Minister Koo, who has her own agenda ...
- Cool Car: Na Ri has several really cool cars that only sit two people, apparently.
- Cool Gate: The gateway between the Kingdom of Corea and the Republic of Korea is a very cool one, made up of two monoliths standing in an old bamboo forest. The monoliths only appear if you approach them with the Interdimensional Travel Device in the form of the Manpasikjeok, an ancient flute (see Loyal Phlebotinum). Lee Lim and Lee Gon each have one half of this travel device, and the gates they open are not in the same place.
- Cool Horse: Lee Gon's horse, Maximus. It's even included in the promotional poster!
- Cool Old Guy: Lee Jong In, also known as Prince Buoyong. See The Mentor.
- Cool Old Lady: Lady Noh spends much of the series hunting down Lee Lim's spies in the Royal Court and covering for Lee Gon during his absences.
- Costume Porn: As befitting a show where the protagonist is a King, Lee Gon often wears beautiful ceremonial outfits. Even his casual clothing consists of variations of a cashmere Badass Longcoat.
- In an attempt to make him less conspicuous, Jung Tae Eul gives him a more subdued outfit which oddly is the same outfit worn by the younger Lee Gon's savior ...
- Cowardly Lion: Jo Eun Sub runs away from fights and is a little nervous around guns, and not the bravest person at all. He also throws himself in front of a bullet meant for Lee Gon with zero hesitation.
- Creepy Child: The boy with the yo-yo. He's actually the human personification of the flute, trying to keep the worlds balanced.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: Jo Yeong, for whom cynicism and expecting the worst of others is in the job description, and Lee Gon, who despite his position and troubled past is a mostly cheerful person.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Kang Shin Jae, holy Lord. His rocky family history and his mother's gambling addiction give him plenty of problems to deal with even before he realizes he was actually abducted from the Kingdom of Corea as a child and substituted for his Republic of Korea counterpart.
- Death by Origin Story: At the beginning of the first episode, Lee Lim executes a violent coup to assassinate the king and prince of Corea and succeeds in murdering the king in front of his small son's eyes. Thanks to a mysterious intervention, Lee Gon survives badly injured, and Lee Lim can flee (to another world, as it turns out). An eight year-old Lee Gon is crowned the new king and his first act of office is leading the national mourning for his father. The little boy's boundless grief is heartbreaking, but it also secures him the near-complete love of his people for the rest of his reign.
- Down the Rabbit Hole:
- Discussed Trope. Lee Gon reads the beginning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — specifically the scene in which Alice falls down the rabbit hole — to a group of children. He later discovers the gateway between worlds while pursuing a woman in a rabbit-eared hoodie, even leaving a message to Jo Young that he's following "the rabbit with the clock".
- Tae Eul invokes Alice in Wonderland when she first arrives to the Kingdom and Lee Gon serves her food, telling him to taste it first, just in case the food has weird effects on her like it does to Alice in the book.
- Discussed again in a much later episode when Tae Eul cites Alice to Shin Jae. He tells her he thinks she's bullshitting him, but can't prove it since he's never read the book himself.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: When taking his first steps in the Republic of Korea, it takes Lee Gon a while to accept that people treat him like a normal person, since nobody believes he is a king. His reactions are often hilarious, and he comes to appreciate being treated as a normal person.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The statue of General Yi Sun Shin is shown in its place in Seoul to indicate the scene is set in the Republic of Korea, or close to the sea when the scene is set in the Kingdom of Corea.
- The End of the World as We Know It: From his observations of how long time stops whenever Lee Lim crosses worlds, Lee Gon forms a hypothesis that with each event, time will be frozen for a longer duration, until it will be frozen permanently for both worlds. This flaw will only be solved when the Manpasikjeok, the magic flute, is whole again.
- Establishing Character Moment: We first meet Lee Gon as a child, having the presence of mind to strip his uncle of his Royal title and have the Royal Guard apprehend him despite the fact he's eight years old and has just seen his father die in front of him. He goes as far as reaching for the Four Tiger Sword to do the job himself. We first meet Jung Tae Eul working a case, easily besting a group of mooks and holding her own using both her smarts and Action Girl skills. And then, we meet Lee Gon as an adult riding Maximus and refusing to take the concerns of his court — like the need to find him a wife — seriously. He also easily dismisses the Prime Minister's faux-romantic advances.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Prime Minister loves her mother dearly.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Lee Gon has admirers of both genders, and so does Jo Young.
- Evil Me Scares Me: This is true for a few of the supporting characters that Lee Lim uses for his schemes.
- Evil Uncle: Lee Lim, for Lee Gon.
- Famed In-Story: King Lee Gon, naturally. Also his murderous uncle Lee Lim.
- Foil:
- Lee Gon and Lee Lim. Both of the royal family, both highly intelligent with magnetic personalities. But Lee Gon is a good guy with few ambitions (seeing how he already inhabits the highest position his country can offer) and his uncle is a murderer set on conquering the throne from him.
- Lee Gon and Jo Young. The curious and (mostly) cheerful king and his grumpy and stoic head of security (and best friend).
- Jung Tae Eul and Prime Minister Koo. A somewhat tomboyish and sceptical police officer and a sexy and ambitious politician. Both are potentional love interests for the king.
- Lee Jong In/Prince Buoyong and Lee Lim/Prince Imperial Geum. They come from the same generation of the royal family and both have been kept from ascending to the throne due to Lee Gon's precedence in the order of sucession. But while Lee Lim is set on reaching his goals by any means necessary which most certainly include killing Lee Gon, Lee Jong In seems content with living a life as a doctor and professor of medicine, occasionally being attended to by his nephew.
- Flashback Cut: Widely used throughout the series, usually to backtrack parallel events, to show how an event actually ended, or to do callbacks to explain the current scene.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: Both Lee Gon and Lee Lim realize at the same time that it was Lee Gon who saved himself as a kid.
- The Gambling Addict: Kang Shin Jae's adoptive mother is one of these.
- The Good King: Lee Gon's approval ratings are constantly monitored and are always very high.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: The king and his "unbreakable sword", Jo Young. Their friendship has been going strong for 25 years, despite the difference in station.
- How We Got Here: The entire series is essentially this, as Jung Tae Eul's Establishing Character Moment in the first episode is a flash-forward to the penultimate episode. Many episodes in between also use this trope.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Lee Gon is almost a head taller than Jung Tae Eul.
- I Will Find You / I Will Wait for You: Lee Gon promises that if the door between worlds closes, he will open all the doors in the universe until he finds Tae Eul. Which means Tae Eul has to wait for him all that time. Also, she has to wait for Lee Gon every time he goes to the Kingdom since he's the only one who can use the flute.
- If My Calculations Are Correct: The king calculates that continuing to use the dimensional portal will eventually result in time itself breaking down, with disastrous results.
- In Spite of a Nail: The Kingdom of Corea isn't that different from the Republic, except for being, well, a monarchy (and written with a C instead of a K!)
- Two major differences are that Corea has never been divided into North and South Korea (Jung Tae Eul being surprised when she meets people with North Korean accents there) and that the country is a lot richer due to becoming a world leader in the export of rare earth materials.
- The Lancer: Jo Young.
- Leave Me Alone!: Kang Shin Jae's reaction towards Lee Gon when the latter offers to help after Shin Jae's Tomato in the Mirror revelation. He gets better though.
- Leitmotif: The "Empire"
theme, which serves as the leitmotif for the series as a whole, and is reworked to make "The King", Lee Gon's personal leitmotif. - The Mentor: Lee Jong In is Lee Gon's uncle and, thanks to the lack of a son on Lee Gon's part, the heir to the throne. Due to the Court fearing that he might make a bid for the throne himself, he is kept in a sort of exile and apart from his children, who all live abroad. He and Lee Gon, however, have an excellent relationship, with the king often visiting his uncle for advice, which Lee Jong In can easily give due to his experience in dealing with court affairs all his life.
- Missing Mom: Something Jung Tae Eul and Lee Gon have in common.
- Mundane Utility: In the Finale, Lee Gon and Jung Tae Eul use the magic flute to travel to parallel worlds ... so they can freely go on dates where nobody will recognise and bother them (usually).
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Discussed. Unlike most versions of this trope, it turns out there aren't any side effects from doppelgangers being present and interacting in the same world. If you don't have a doppelganger in the other world — because he's been murdered — is when there's a problem ...
- Not His Blood: When Lee Gon arrives with an unconscious Tae Eul at his palace, Lady Noh asks him if he's hurt, since he has blood over his face and clothes. He says it isn't his. (In the Korean dialogue, though, he says "It's just a stain.")
- Our Time Travel Is Different: An odd mixture of Set Right What Once Went Wrong, You Already Changed the Past and Reset Button; with everything leading to a Close-Enough Timeline in the end.
- Out-Gambitted: Koo Seo Ryeong is an extremely canny manipulator who worked and connived her way up from humble origins to become Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Corea, but she's swiftly and ruthlessly outmatched by Lee Lim.
- Parental Substitute: Head Court Lady Noh raised Lee Gon after his father's death and they have a close and loving relationship to this day, displayed via their snarky dialogue.
- Prince Buyeong also helped raise Lee Gon, and the two share a father-son relationship.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Jung Tae Eul is a small woman, but she's a badass police officer with a black belt in taekwondo.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Jo Eun Sub, who's doing his military service as a member of Jung Tae Eul's police squad, fits this character type for the story. Of course, much of his cheerful joker personality is a front for his lack of self-confidence.
- Post-Victory Collapse: Tae Eul can barely stand after running from the bad guys for hours and barely escaping a truck ramming against her. When Lee Gon appears with the cavalry and saves her, she barely has time to hug him and say she's missed him before collapsing of exhaustion.
- Premortem Oneliner: From Song Jung Hye to Lee Lim: "You let your guard down. You fool. Did you pray? I prayed every day for God to kill me. And finally, I'm going to die."
- Product Placement: Both the prime minister and the king like to relax by wearing Cellreturn LED Masks, laser helmets that cover the face, supposedly good for your skin. Go to their website and the first thing you see is Lee Min-ho, Lee Gon's actor. And you can't have a meeting, whether as a couple or as a group, without having some chicken at BBQ Olive Chicken. The restaurant chain appears in most of the episodes, and sales had a big upswing during the months the show was running. And finally, please have a cup of The Alley, a Taiwanese bubble tea and a must for any monarch.
- Protagonist Title
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lee Gon is the red and Jo Young the blue.
- The Reveal: In the penultimate episode, Lee Gon reveals that he has known about the other world's existence, and Lady Noh's origins there, for a long time — because he hid Tae Eul's ID card in Lady Noh's book of poems, which was printed in the Republic.
- It is Lee Gon as an adult who goes back in time to save his younger self.
- Lady Noh met Future Lee Gon and knew all along he would travel in time to that night. Even Lee Gon is quite surprised about this.
- The Yo-yo Kid or Flute Spirit has been several people, and has been influencing the characters' actions all along.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Only Lee Gon, Jo Young and Jung Tae Eul remember both timelines in the end, due to having been world-traveling with the help of the magic flute when the change happened. Lee Gon and Jo Young were in the past and Jung Tae Eul was in the space between worlds.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The title character Lee Gon does everything. He's a mathematician, attends scientific conferences, plays an active part in the government, and was a serving Lieutenant Commander in the Kingdom of Corea Navy, separate from his role as Commander in Chief of the Kingdom of Corea's military forces. And this is all before the plot starts. Later, even with Tae Eul staying in the Kingdom for one day, he spends most of it fulfilling his royal duties.
- Running Gag: Lee Gon likes to calmly note that as a king, he could have someone beheaded. Or do it himself, as it turns out.
- Every time Tae Eul encounters Lee Gon for the "first time" she assumes he's a criminal (2019), a nutjob (2016), or a kidnapper (1994), leading him to say to her five year old self, "Your personality hasn't changed in 30 years". She never assumes he's a decent guy.
- Sacrificial Lion: Lee Jong In is murdered by Lee Lim shortly before the series' climax.
- "Save the World" Climax: In a way, though it's downplayed; if the broken flute continues to be used, Lee Gon assumes that time itself will eventually implode.
- Scars Are Forever: Lee Gon still bears the scars from when Lee Lim tried to murder him on the side of his neck.
- Sentient Loyal Phlebotinum: The flute named the Manpasikjeok, an heirloom of the Corean royal family, is secretly an Interdimensional Travel Device. After it has been cut in two Lee Gon and Lee Lim each have a half, which means each of them can use part of the flute's full power. This causes a problem that only gets worse with each use.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
- Lee Gon's motivation to go back in time to the coup in the finale.
- Lee Lim tries to do the same, but ends up murdered by his past self, who isn't interested in sharing the flute with anybody, even his future self.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Lee Gon wears different outfits each time he crosses over to the Republic to visit Jung Tae Eul and all of them are very sharp.
- Also Jo Young in his suits.
- Lee Lim always appears in a sharp, well-tailored three-piece suit.
- Simple, yet Opulent: Lee Gon is lucky that he wears an outfit like this when he first crosses over into the Republic, as he can sell its diamond-studded buttons in order to obtain funds. In the finale, he starts wearing simple coats with gold buttons to sell when he goes traveling to parallel worlds.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Lee Gon wears reading glasses when poring over official documents (even though he's only in his early thirties).
- The Slow Path: A weird variety of this crossed over with Year Outside, Hour Inside happens to Lee Gon after he changes the timeline for the first time, as he stays in the place between worlds, waiting to align himself with Jung Tae Eul's timeline again.
- The Smurfette Principle: Jung Tae Eul is the only woman on her police squad.
- Stable Time Loop: Lee Gon realises that he's in this in Episode 14: it wasn't Jung Tae Eul who saved his younger self, it was himself, and he spends the next several relative months (and 25 years in the real world) setting up the pieces to keep the time loop stable.
- The Stoic: Jo Young to a T, which contrasts sharply with his Republic counterpart Jo Eun Sub, who is something of a joker (and a coward). When the two meet up, Jo Young's expression of disbelief is priceless.
- Supreme Chef: Surprisingly, Lee Gon. Since there's a real risk of being poisoned, the only food he can eat without someone tasting it first is the one he cooks for himself.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Shin Jae's selfless decisions are doubly rewarded in the final episode: In the revised timeline, he's partnered with Luna in the Kingdom of Corea's police force. Lee Gon also manages to prevent the accident that put the original Shin Jae into a coma as a child, with the result that he's healthy and successful (and apparently quite wealthy) in the present.
- Taking the Bullet: Eun Sub does this for Lee Gon in the Kingdom, when he's doubling for Young on a mission in the Republic.
- Team Power Walk: When Lee Gon, Jo Young and Kang Shin Jae finally capture Lee Lim.
- Temporal Suicide: When Lee Gon and Lee Lim travel back to the day of the palace coup, Lee Lim goes to his younger self to warn him to revise the plan. His younger self rejects the advice and kills him to take his flute-half for himself, only for it to vanish. The Lee Lim from this timeline, however, doesn't meet this fate, so he's still around advancing his plans when Lee Gon returns to the present.
- Time Stands Still: Happens to both Lee Lim and Lee Gon. They later find out it signifies that the dimensional gateway has been crossed.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Kang Shin Jae eventually realizes that he was abducted from the Kingdom of Corea as a child and switched with his Republic of Korea counterpart, who was hospitalized in a coma. He was young enough that he repressed the memories until getting involved with Tae Eul and Lee Gon's investigation re-awakens them.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: A contrast like this could be drawn between Jung Tae Eul and Prime Minister Koo; the latter changes her outfit multiple times a day, invests a lot of time into personal care, and has several assistants to look after her every whim. As for the former, see below.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Jung Tae Eul isn't much interested in typical girly things, being a police violent crimes officer with a background in martial arts. That said, she takes her appearance seriously and jokes about having considered plastic surgery to get double eyelids.
- Took a Level in Badass: Jo Eun Sub starts the series as a wimpy security guard who runs away from fights ... and then takes a bullet for Lee Gon; he also discovers his hospital room has been bugged and sets a trap for the assassin sent to kill him. In the new timeline created by Lee Gon, he's now an agent in the Republic of Korea's National Intelligence Service.
- Lee Gon is also an example. In the beginning of the series, he's a poor marksman, having been at the bottom of his class in shooting and barely able to hit a target at a shooting game. By the end of the series, he is able to take out a number of Lee Lim's guards and emerges from the fight unscathed, unlike Jo Young.
- Trauma Button: Lee Gon has a hard time with ties, which trigger the memory of being strangulated by Lee Lim when he was a kid. He can withstand them to some extent, as he's required to wear formal ties to certain events, but both Lady Noh and Jo Young are aware he needs to get the tie off as soon as he can.
- Unkempt Beauty: Jung Tae Eul's hair is often unkempt or worn in a messy ponytail. Notably, Lee Gon's hair is usually neater than hers!
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Lee Gon and Jo Young again.
- You Already Changed the Past: When Lee Gon discovers that he set up the Stable Time Loop himself by traveling back to the coup he was involved in as a child.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Invoked and discussed.
- You Must Be Cold: Tae Eul wonders why she trusted Lee Gon to go to the bamboo forest when it's freezing. Despite how angry she is at being fooled, she suddenly nonchalantly receives Lee Gon's coat as he passes her by.
- Wham Line: From Lady Noh to Jung Tae Eul: "I haven't had any news of my home village for 67 years. Do you know what happened in the war? The war that broke out in June 1950?"
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: In the finale, showing the penultimate results of the Close-Enough Timeline in 2022:
- Kang Shin-jae inherits his father's company and is a CEO in the Republic, having never gotten into the accident that put him in a coma.
- With Lee Lim dead, it's Prince Buyeong who stops Kang Hyeon-min's mother from trying to commit murder-suicide. He ends up working as a police detective in the Kingdom.
- As a child, Luna meets Prime Minister Koo's mother, and is adopted by her as Koo Se-gyeong, and in 2022 is a police detective in Hyeon-min's squad.
- Prime Minister Koo is now former Assemblywoman serving a jail sentence for corruption and misappropriation of funds; her aide from the original timeline is now a prison guard.
- Jo Eon-sup is an agent of the National Intelligence Service and is married to Nari.
- Jo Yeong's parents got back together in the new timeline, and he now has his own versions of Eun-bi and Kka-bi as his younger siblings.
- Working the Same Case: Over the first half of the series or so it turns out that the murder cases Jung Tae Eul has been working on are connected to Lee Lim's conspiracy.
- Would Hurt a Child: Lee Lim tries to kill an eight year-old Lee Gon and then later succeeds in killing the other world's version of his nephew without even a hint of remorse.
