How could love so deep and true be ever withheld from the one your truly love?
Such is the tragic love story of Queen Seondeok and Kim Yushin who both let their "noble" cause of unifying the three (3) Kingdoms by extracting Lady Misil (Mishil) from the seat of power and restoring it back to the Royal Family, come in between of their once in a lifetime opportunity to find that elusive one true love.
What is power without love to nurture it?
What is success without the happiness in achieving it?
A life lived but unshared with the one you truly love is a life not fully lived.
While to live for others is a noble cause, to live for oneself is equally a noble cause. For one cannot give to others something that is wanting in his own life.
In the final episode, the dying Queen Seondeok made known to Kim Yushin, the identity of the lady in her dreams - herself, giving advice to her younger self. That in her quest for the throne, she will lose her true love and it will be painful from thereon. Of all the things she said, the most touching were the words..."I seem to have everything...but in truth... I've got nothing."
She let go of the chance to live life with Kim Yushin at the first instance her identity was known. Despite Kim Yushin's firm resolve to live a new life with her, away from Shilla, choosing her over Princess Cheonmyeong, she decided to go back to Shilla. Kim Yushin devotedly followed her and staked everything to achieve her goal.
The second chance to finally have Kim Yushin would have been choosing him over Bidam to be her husband when the Gaya descendant disbanded their restoration movement, finally vanishing the issue of Kim Yushin gaining the throne for Gaya' sake.
She let go of this too!
In the end, she died alone and lonely...presumably having second thoughts if not regrets in the choices she made and the two chances she wasted. But then again, the nobility in spirit far outweighed her mortal inclinations.
Not everyone is priviliged to be Queen. It beckons only the most extraordinary of mortals.
