Janggeum’s Dream and Character Episodes

Interesting for me, Janggeum’s Dream has had an impact on my thoughts about “character episodes”. In Seven of Seven, I enjoyed all the episodes which gave a single character focus, as it was character building, and learning about the character. I anticipated such as episodes as I watched through A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, as well. Janggeum’s Dream, on the other hand, looks like it might not go this route, and I actually hope it doesn’t.

From one episode to the next, Janggeum’s Dream gives tidbits of information about characters. A little here, a little there. Each character has their own use when necessary in various episodes, and they never appear to be “just there” to simply “be there”. There’s no need to, for example, give Yeong-ro a whole episode to explain her if they can accomplish the same character building and information telling throughout a handful or more of episodes, a little at a time. I’m thinking now, it’s more fun to piece things together, rather than having it all presented at once in a single episode (similar to an “infodump” in a novel, where a large amount of information is dumped on the reader all at once).

As much as I hate to say it, I’d rather not see an episode focused on Yeon-saeng. Or any other character. The series is Janggeum’s Dream, not Yeonsaeng’s Dream, or Geumyoung’s Dream, or Suro’s Dream. There are 26 episodes to the series, and devoting an episode to a single character for each character worth having an episode would be at least six if not eight episodes (giving the adult court ladies a shared episode). This is 23–30% of the series, which could be spent following Janggeum’s dream, and presenting information little by little. After all, what’s the point of having Changi in the background, then starring her for an episode, only to drop her off into the background as if her own episode never occurred?