Six Flying Dragons

October 5, 2015

The late Goryeo Dynasty in collapse. Yi Bang-won (Yoo Ah-in) as a young man — his intelligence and ruthlessness already visible. The drama's political world in its initial state. Gyeongbokgung area establishes the founding geography.

October 5, 2015

The six people who will shape the founding of Joseon — their different origins, their different investments in the new kingdom.

October 12, 2015

Yi Bang-won's political vision for Joseon — what the new kingdom should be, and what he is willing to do to create it.

October 12, 2015

The drama's central conflict — military power (Yi Bang-won) versus bureaucratic vision (Jeong Do-jeon).

October 19, 2015

The founding of Joseon — what it costs and what it promises.

October 19, 2015

Battle sequences using the Hwaseong Fortress walls — the military violence of the transition from Goryeo to Joseon.

January 4, 2016

Gyeongbokgung being constructed — the physical symbol of the new dynasty.

January 4, 2016

What Yi Bang-won has paid for his vision — the people he has destroyed.

January 11, 2016

The war among Yi Taejo's princes for succession — the specific violence of a family fighting for a dynasty.

January 11, 2016

The drama at its midpoint — the founding complete, the power struggle beginning.

January 18, 2016

Yi Bang-won's ascent — the political price of becoming king.

January 18, 2016

Jeong Do-jeon's fate — the visionary bureaucrat and Yi Bang-won's final reckoning.

January 25, 2016

What Joseon actually becomes — versus what each of the six dragons imagined.

January 25, 2016

The specific human cost of founding a dynasty.

February 1, 2016

The man who became King Taejong — what the vision cost him.

February 2, 2016

The finale. Yoo Ah-in's most epic performance — Yi Bang-won as one of Korean history's most consequential figures.