Unraveling the Time-travel in “Faith”
After reading redpinkboxes post and everyone else’s comments, I was compelled to think about the time-traveling aspect really hard. Harder than I planned to. So much that I threw out the idea of writing an epic and thorough post on it because my brain hurt so much. I can’t wrap my head around it. Seriously, I tried really hard to figure Eun-soo’s time travel out but I kept on running up against holes in my theories. So I decided I would just do this kind of post instead, to create a separate thread and space to bring together hypotheses and speculations.
First, here is redpinkboxes theory, reposted from her blog with her gracious permission. I started tearing up when I read her post because of how she emphasized Eun-soo’s sacrifice and love for Young. If redpinkboxes’ theory is right, Eun-soo’s love is epic beyond comprehension.
Originally titled, “Faith, You Pain Me.” By Redpinkboxes
Gosh, it’s painful. I need a hug in place of Choi Young. At the moment, he’s pretty much convinced that Eunsoo doesn’t love him, and his love is unrequited. There was one line in 16 that goes… “She doesn’t have a heart”.
But Young, let me tell you, she does have a heart, and she will probably love you more than you love her. She probably relived life in different timezones many times, just for you. What we’re all thinking now is that… is that when she was living this time frame in Goryeo for the first time, Choi Young dies. In order to save him, she returns to 2012, to try to jump back to the same timeframe, to relive it and save Choi Young. However, she goes back way in time, and because she can’t correct it, she writes a letter to Eunsoo, herself, hoping it will reach her when she time travels to Goryeo, because technically, when she writes the letter she was in a time frame way before the time we’re watching in goryeo, which means technically, her time travel and meeting Young has not occurred yet. Those writings in her diary, is probably calculations on how she can travel to the write time in Goryeo.
If the theory about her going back in time to save the situation is true, that pains me even more… Because Eunsoo will love so much, that she’s willing to relive her life in the past, to prevent him from dying, which will then shape history to become what it is today. All these means everything was set from way before, all these were meant to be. Her making these changes to save CY was a part of history, it was meant to be. The changes are already part of history, making it to how history is today, that CY lives till 1388. Eunsoo’s existence in the past was set way before she even existed in the current century… way before she time traveled. Time is re-occurring in the show’s sense. When I’m typing, Young is being stabbed again by Eunsoo. When im typing, Eunsoo’s reading the letters again. Everything is re-occurring.. and Eunsoo can jump back and relive a time frame, if she jumps to the correct time frame she wants to be in. But what i am saying now is her re-jumping into different time frames is already fixed with the history we know today. The supposed history(this sounds weird) has been changed. Say, in the Goryeo Eunsoo lived in the first time she time traveled, CY died early. So if this were to become the history we know today, Choi Young would have died early, and he wouldn’t have had a daughter… and of course his daughter would be nonexistent, and never could have married U of Goryeo(The next king). If Choi Young died early, everything would be changed… Joseon probably wouldn’t have been the next dynasty, Yi Seong Gye probably wouldn’t be the next ruler… Everything would be different. So, back to this… Say in the Goryeo Eunsoo lived in, the first time she time traveled, Young died early… At the age of 30 something (This was probably history she knew, if she didn’t correct it). Of course, Eunsoo doesn’t want him to die early… As a result, Eunsoo returns to 2012, to re-time travel again, to relive the time frame she was in Goryeo(where Young died early, so she can change it for him to live)… But she probably went back further in time, where she wrote the letter to stop herself, and make her make the right decisions in her future time in Goryeo(because if she travels way before, the time where we’re watching now, technically hasn’t occurred yet).
So now, because she traveled to a time frame even before the time travel where CY died, now, this time travel has something different. It has the things she left behind… including the diary. Also, because she traveled to a time way before the period we are watching now, everything is changed now, because her existence in a time way before changes everything. So this probably follows the alternate universe theory… Eunsoo changed what is meant to be, in her life, and her time travel, and now, everything is resetted… So we start again… like in an alternate universe. She is born in 2012… lives till 33, and time travels to goryeo… Then, this time in Goryeo, the one we are watching, she makes decisions according to what she warned herself in the diary, which prevents CY from dying early, hence his able to live till 1388, an old ripe age, which is the history we know today.. So all these are already set.. All these are meant to be. CY might have been supposed to die… But she changed it, and saved him, allowing him to live till 1388… And this becomes the history we know today, whatever changes she made, shaped history to be what it is today.
So now, whatever changes she has done to history, making CY live till 1388, is the correct history we know today. How many times she time traveled, how many times she tried to change history, it is already set, because time is re-occurring. For example, her first time travel, was definitely without the diary’s existence. In that time travel, the history she probably knows from our time was that CY dies at like 30 something. But she changes history to save CY… And the moment she changed history, the reset is pressed on. It’s like some parallel universe…… CY’s dying was what it was supposed to be, but because she changed it, everything is changed, and CY is now not meant to die, he is meant to live till 1388, and he lives till 1388. And now history is changed forever. So when she was born in the current century, and as she grew up learning history, there is only one true history she will learn, which is the corrected history, the history we know today, that CY lives till 1388. Technically, she doesn’t change the history we know today, but changed the history that she knew (what it should have been if she didn’t change history). So all her doings shapes history to what it is today. Gosh, I’d like to hear everyone’s opinion on what’s happening in the drama now. Haven’t even stalked a forum in the longest time, but I’m doing this for Faith now. Talk about obsessive disorder… Little did i think i would fall this hard for Faith… Cause i even categorized Faith under crappy after watching episode 1-2. But now, goodness, I love you, Faith. Thank god i held on to this drama. Definitely, it might not be the best drama out there, but it makes me emotional, it makes me question, it makes me curious, it makes me want to take the pain away from these characters, or the pain they are bound to go through… Be it Choi Young, Eunsoo…. Gongmin and Noguk.
I wish i could take the pain for them.
Faith, you pain me.
Okay, I’m in love with this drama. Definitely not one of the best dramas, but one of those that really reaches out to rip your heart apart, making me hold on to it ever so tight… Not wanting to ever let it go. I wonder when was the last i watched a broadcast TV drama and went till this level of insanity. How much crazier do you plan to make me, Writer Song? Well, whether this drama is great or not, ridiculous in some ways or not…. This is one of the dramas where i go, “I love you, till death do us apart.” Okay, not till this extent, but this line really goes on in my mind.
Faith fans, *group hug*
From Episode 16 Recap comments
Nevermind
Nooooo… And I was gonna comment a while ago in E15 that Hwata may be an ancestor of ES, not ES herself time-travelling and losing her memory of???
lidy
wow, so eun soo is clairvoyant now?
Angela
Actually, the letter sort of confirms my suspicions from a while back — that Eun Soo is Hwata, but in the future, so it is a sort of time loop. Like, she goes back home, discovers another portal and travels back, but even further back in time, to become Hwata and to leave a letter for herself.
Gosh, could she have left Young once, and regretted it, and travelled further back to remind herself via letter, and change the “future” which is when she arrives in Goryeo (in the first ep)!
pam lee
I think ES is a time traveler and she’s bouncing around in time to ensure that CY stays alive for his role in Goryeo. I wonder if this is right, if she’ll cross paths with herself.
ES’s letter to herself finally revealed what what her sole purpose of time looping is: TO SAVE YOUNG’S LIFE NO MATTER WHAT, since he’s vital to the development of Korea.
And then Young is always sacrificing himself to save ES, because he feels obligated to return her safely to heaven AND because he loves her now.
I wonder if ES can learn to control she lands in time when she goes into the wormhole?
Sometime in the future, after this Goryeo experience, she might have tried to go back into the wormhole only to end up 100 years before Young’s time, hence the notes/letters in the diary is addressed to her future self? If so, how many times does she need to save Young? Can she then change his final FATE? I think some ppl have mentioned this theory already.
The fortuneteller was telling her “TRY TO REMEMBER”…what? Her journeys through the wormhole..and maybe not past lives with Young???
Do we know what the 3rd Hwata item is yet? Maybe a wormhole opener/closer so ES can control the gate.
———————-lidy
you’re right…that why her fortune sticks came out in hanja instead of hangul. and the fortune teller telling her about her heaven sent man. i thought he was talking about a man from the past bc he read it wrongly (he had to look up the translations) but he could’ve both meant that and man from her past, which is why he said try to remember
and then there’s jang bin asking her if she can remember too…it’s a grandfather paradox!!! her dreams aren’t regular dreams or prophesied dreams but memories. GRANDFATHER PARADOX!
—————————————–pam lee
OMG! So true! According to wiki “A time loop or temporal loop is a common plot device in science fiction (especially in universes where time travel is commonplace) in which time runs normally for a set period (usually a day or a few hours) but then skips back like a broken record. When the time loop “resets”, the memories of most characters are reset (i.e. they forget all that happened). The plot is advanced by having one or more central characters retain their memory or become aware of the loop through déjà vu”.
This means ES may have time looped several times…depending on how many times she might have failed to save Young? if she remembers her memories or deja vu moments with her diary, then this might be the last time she needs to loop back to Goryeo to set history back on track…
Mimi
OMG! so do we have an answer now! the diary belongs to ES, and she wrote the letter to her future self!
If it’s true that means she witnessed CY death!! Or else how did she know it was trap!!
He died, she went back to 2012 gather some stuff (diary note included) use the portal to go back, again! Way before his death, and end up in much older past! As she mentioned the second time the portal will opened after 67 years! And to save his life again she lived on those old days and her only way to communicate with her future self is her diary, hoping the future ES will find it and save CY!!
———————-adi
we don`t know how many portals were open in the distant past (100 years before CY) and there is noting stopping her to come back through the same portal she previously used to leave (the one that`s going to be in month or so)… time might be linear but time travel is not…she could even come back through the first portal (the one CY used to brig her there in the first episode) and stay hidden till her past sefl leaves… the possibilities are really too many…i`m getting dizzy now
—————————————–Sunshine
Ooooo, Adi, that is a good theory.That would be something else…if she just starts back at square one. Things probably wouldn’t play put the same though since people might react differently to the scenarios if she wasn’t involved…DH wouldn’t be able to use ES as his ace card against Young, or GC…but I can definitely see how it would be beneficial to go back to the intial wormhole…with ES knowing everything she does about how they loved each other ( and keeping it to herself) so that at least it is her missing Young when she goes back, rather than both of them being lovesick. Since she’s the type to keep a brave face, and not want to have others hurting at her expense, I can see her just going back into the wormhold after saving the queen before the soldiers and Jo arrive to tell Young to stop her. Ooo
snoopy
My guess. I think in her last life as Eun Soo, Choi Young was trapped and died. It was too late but she realised he is “that someone”. There was no more reasons for her to stay in Goryeo. She waited at the portal and returned.
In modern korea, she must have endured a life full of regrets and loneliness. So she devised a way to intervene for a different outcome – as Hwata and 100 yrs before.
Nutty
The time travelling aspect is really making me confused! Imagine her time travelling again and again just to ensure CY survives to a ripe old age as in history …but that would mean either history was messed up previously and es is correcting it by her time travel and leaving notes for herself or es is actually the driving force in ensuring history is accurate (just like Rouxi in Bu Bu Jin Xin).
———————-Missy
I think she’s telling herself to stay behind and be with CY instead of leaving. She made a decision and he died, she’s regretted it ever since.
Missy
Regarding the letters, I think she warned herself in case she happened to come back to Goryeo. I believe she lived almost everything similar to what she’s doing now, but a little differently since she saw herself wearing different clothing and writing in pen. Since the legend says that Hwa Ta came back every 1000 years(or something), maybe she was brought back to save another royal family from dying. I think that before her and Choi Young were together & married, but she still longed to be home and ended up making the decision to leave. With that letter, she warned herself of what happened and she should do(which is stay by his side in Goryeo). I’m still not sure why she has no memory of ever going there, but we now know she was there. So I’m still guessing that she’s the famous Hwa Ta that everyone was talking about? Looking back at the first episode, it seems like her personality to not be swayed by power & Hwa Ta rejected an offer to become a powerful doctor.
———————-Iluvlee
I think she travels every 100 years since she her self said the diary looks about that old… and she is 33 Y.O and the portal opens every 67 years so it’s just a cycle that keeps repeating itself once the one hundred years comes around and at some point she realizes this and starts leaving notes to herself.
—————————————–Missy
Yes that makes sense, but how do you explain CY dying? She wrote that she had to save that person because they wee heading to a trap. If CY did in fact die, that doesn’t explain the history Eun Soo studied in school because it said he died at an old age. Unless there are multiple dimensions….eehhh nvm on that one lol
My input
I can’t coherently put this theory together without driving myself crazy so I will just leave my notes/hypothesis and clues I gathered.
Current Goryeo time- 1351
Hwata existed around 1000 yrs ago so around 1250
From the shots of her diary that we got, Eun-soo started calculating years from 1151. So her diary might be 200 years old, not 100 years old like she thought.
If we look carefully at the years that she wrote down, Eun-soo only highlighted the years with X next to it. From what I can see those years were 1160, 1171, 1185…1258…. What those X’s mean? I don’t know.
The formula that Eun-soo has basically calculates the relative sunspot number. Sunspot activity is cyclical and reaches its maximum around every 9.5 to 11 years.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm……………Can anyone figure this out? Should we even bother trying?
Scattered Joonni 
So if the we have a raft and we need to get the geese to other side but we cant have the fox eating them midway and somehow we end up with a sheep and a shoelace?
I think I am leaving the time travel stuff to those much smarter than me.
I think we will be getting answers in the next couple of weeks. It had been a crossing thought that Eun Soo could be Hwata, but I always hear about Hwata being male. Then again that could just being a effect of a 1000 years and oral history playing telephone.
Also her diary is less than a 100 years old. Modern paper doesnt survive that well spcially not if people keep touching it.
But I like I said. I will leave the time travel to those smarter myself because I think I need a drink and white board to make sense of any of it.
On episode one of faith,they talked about hwata i dont know why but this drama just reminds me of my dream actually i dont know wether it was a dream or reality but faith just seems familiar to me anyways it could be that ES is hwata and that the pages in her diary are from different universes that ES recorded those so that when she goes back she corrects her mistakes,about the hwata part the big question is could ES be hwata and since during those times a woman was not allowed to be a doctor so it may be possible that ES was living in disguise.I also think ES wrote those pages every time she went back so that CY lives longer and the history we know today is what it is maybe right now ES is travelling back in order to correct her mistakes and obviously she will begin with curing the queen and maybe history will change and CY will live longer than 72years.thank you for reading
So guys exactly how many times did eunsoo go back to past or time traveled? How did the past eun soo had the mini projector which have the present eunsoo’s project and her father mother’s videos?
This is just my two cents.
I slightly disagree that the first history that Eun Soo knew is Choi Yung died on his early age (around 30). If that history tell like that, why Eun Soo knew all details that happened everyday between her and Choi Yung?
I think the order like this :
1. Eun Soo time travel for the first time in Goryeo.
2. Choi Yung died, but please note, remember when Eun Soo was sick and leaned on Choi Yung? She said, the time gate (that’s what I called) will be opened 1 month again. so, after Choi Yung died, maybe she felt so helpless and stressfull to live in Goryeo, the she plan to go back to 2012. But instead she goes back to 2012, she was jumped to 100 years before Goryeo time.
3. She felt that she had given chance by God to re-write the history. So she wrote all her memory to her diary (I believed she brought the diary in her bag up to present). She believed, that “she” in the future will travel back to Goryeo.
4. But now I have a question that hard to solve by myself. On the first age of her diary, she wrote that only memories will make her remember everything. What make Eun Soo forget everything about her experiences when she travelled through times? If goes back to 2012 made her amnesia, why Choi Young didn’t get that when he picked up Eun Soo on 2012 and brought her back to Goreyo time?
I have been racking my brain trying to figure this out, I failed miserably lol I agree with you, especially #4. We know she’s traveled before, but what made her forget and where did she originally leave the diary and the letters to herself? And if she was previously with CY, what decision was made that she felt the need to write to herself? Like I have previously stated, I think she was there in the same time she is now(how else could she know about certain things that happened) & made a decision that she sadly regretted and couldn’t take back, so she wrote herself a note to save him and to stay by him. What’s stopping me from believing this person’s theory is that she didn’t go back(this time) by choice, CY took her. Unless she made herself available in order to go back to Goryeo in order to be with him. But then that would mean she remembered everything & we know she doesn’t. You are right, if going through the portal causes amnesia, then why didn’t it affect CY?
i`ve been thinking about point 4 and if it were me after all that time (she wrote the diary way after his death)…how would i describe the day CY died? i mean, did she even know the exact date (calendar was different too back then)? she could have written “on September the 15th CY was killed”… but what if she couldn`t remember the exact date, she needed to remember all the little details of that day.
think about it… how could you pinpoint a specific event in your life that happened at least months before if you had no exact date…it`s hard and the details are the first to go from you memory… so she needed to write them down to never forget them
I might be wrong but that was what i understood when i watched the episode
Oh, Joonni, instead of doing my homework, here I am for the 100th time today! LOL!
I’m glad I am not the only OCD shipper here! LOL!
As far as the time looping theory goes, we know that ES has gone into the past at least 4 times so far: the 1st time she was in Goryeo, Ki Chul killed Young in their face off; the 2nd time he died must have been during this booby trap episode, the 3rd time she must have miscalculated the wormhole and went back some 100 years before Goryeo’s time, hence she wrote the letter to her future self warning of Young’s impending deaths. So, this must be the 4th time she’s in Goryeo.
However, we don’t know how many times she looped yet because she hasn’t read all the diary’s content..there may be more times that Young has died because she failed to save him.
This is all the theory I can piece together for now..it’s 11:32 pm, Central!.
If only the darn fortune teller had been more specific!
Good night!!! Be back tomorrow!
Ha pam lee, am getting my confusion cleared by u…. thanku so much… ahhh, my mind was abt to blast coz of confusion, but now my heart is abt to blast coz of Eun soo’s luv, how many times she travelled to save her luv…. Wahhh, Eun Soo u r so adorable, Luv u Eun soo, wanna hug you now;(;(
TBH, I couldn’t finish reading that. My brain started to hurt and I became confused after a while lol It seems she doesn’t remember anything, so how does that explain her going back to save him? Unless she’s gone back many times and finally made herself forget about him. But then how would that explain Eun Soo knowing the history that she does? She knows the history we all know, CY died at an old age. If she was too late to stop him from dying then does that mean there is an alternate dimension?
Hi, ever watched “Somewhere in Time”? Christoper Reeve and Jane Seymour? It’s an old movie from 1980. Try to find it on youtube.
I guess Faith story is similar to that movie (I always love Time Travelling movie, and that was the first reason I watched Faith, before I jumped into their shoes (CY & ES)… LOL..)
In “Somewhere in Time”, Christopher Reeve met an old lady who gave him a watch and said “Come Back to me…” at the moment, Christopher Reeve didn’t get what the lady mean.
Eight years later, Christopher Reeve found a way to go back in time and he travelled to 1912 (from 1980) and found his love one, a lovely actrees (the old lady in the future).
From this movie, I get some conclusions :
1. There’s no parallel world. The old lady who met Christopher Reeve, had met him before in 1912, but because an “accident”, Christopher Reeve travel back to 1980. While from 1912 to 1972 (the first time the old lady met your Christopher Reeve, she get old and she waited the whole time to meet her love one, even she saw her love one was borned the funny idea)
2. The young Christopher Reeve (who met the lady on 1972), didn’t remember anything about the old lady, because he has not travelled to 1912 yet.
3. After he travelled to 1912 and met the old lady when she was young and a beautiful actress, and he travelled back to present time, he is now understood, why the old lady said “Come Back to Me” in 1972 (8 years ago).
Now… can we get an idea about how ES did her time-travel based on this movie story?
I am still confused and nothing is making sense anymore. I kinda get what you’re saying, but that still doesn’t answer anything for me. We won’t get any answers until probably next episode when she will *hopefully* get the rest of the letter from Deok Heung. I get what you’re explaining, but I still want to know why she went back in time and how many times did she travel. Also, the part about him dying is still perplexing to me because she told herself to save that person before he was trapped. Also, she had to have lived those days before and left either before or after he died. I still say she was there with him before and made a decision or something happened and he died, then she regretted it. Though her not remembering anything could go along with the movie you’re talking about.
I think I need a few days to recharge my brain, I’m confusing myself even more lol
Okay, so I get these from what y’all had written (just trying to make it simple to myself minus all the math stuff):
– ES time-travels for the first time in Goryeo (long ago, whenever that was) where CY died early… But both ES and CY had no memory of them meeting or knowing each other (no “dejavu” for them) during this time of Goryeo in the drama?? ES is reminded only about that 1st travel when she encounters (her) journal and starts dreaming about it.
o During the 1st time travel, she witnessed CY dying early (at her hands or maybe because of her)
o Then she goes back to the present and learned about (true) history where CY did not die until at age 72yo (she did not have interest in it until after her chance meeting with CY)
o So ES tried to “re-enter” history (and several times, in fact) to correct what she had witnessed
– Then ES re-entered history to prevent CY from dying early but lands in earlier periods. During the last travel which was about 100yrs (or 200yrs) earlier, she wrote down a warning for when she will be able to re-enter in the present Goryeo time where she left the journal together with her medical tools.
My supposition on this theory (folks, I need to establish in my mind about the “why’s” ):
– CY has no memory of his prior meeting with ES bec. they didn’t exactly establish a relationship then. It was at that stage when he was so eager to “sleep” and follow Mae Hee to the next world so that he forgets ES’ character altogether
– Everytime ES time-travels, all memory of Goryeo past vanishes. ‘Xept for that time when she wrote her warning bec. it had been only a few years apart so she had “dejavu” about her coming a lot of times at an earlier Goryeo period (maybe around 1160 then 1171 then 1185)
– So that would mean ES always carried her journal and tools with her until that time when she went back to the present forcibly maybe bec. she avoided being used as a political pawn (as per the animated legend of Hwata in the drama)
– ES was Hwata herself. Maybe she posed as a male doctor during that time when a female doctor was still taboo? So the legend had Hwata as a male doctor (I remember Dae Jang Geum—she was supposedly the first lady-doctor, is that right?)
Whew! Napagod ako! (That was tiring!) I need a break. I haven’t read Joonni’s last post on E17’s preview. Then I’m still supposed to write my (love letter) for our OTP. (I’ve stopped working as it is ‘though I’m writing this at the office.) I’d like to wait for Monday but I’m guessing that we won’t be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together until maybe on 2nd to the last if not on the last episode. Ciao, folks! I’ll sleep in tomorrow as it is Saturday. Thanks for the brain teaser, Joonni (and Redpinkboxes).
So frustrating….
I know…every time she gets looped back to Goryeo, the record is on repeat and everyone’s memories has been erased…including Young’s so no, he would not remember Eun Soo.
I am completely stumped about what accounts for the one time she did loop back to Goryeo 100 years before Gongmin/Young’s time and remembered the events of Young dying so she writes herself a vague letter of warning???
Eun Soo is the key to piece all of this together, since she is the time traveler, not Young.
If only the damn fortune teller had been more specific because at that time ditsy ES was more interested in finding a rich, handsome guy then figuring out what he meant by, “you will find the man heaven has meant for you from THE PAST and TRY TO REMEMBER…” Can’t be more vague than that!!!
We will just have to wait and see.
I want to know what Hwata’s final item is…I think it’s the key to the wormhole…maybe how to control it from going forward to the future or back to the past. Ki Chul had no words to explain it so it must be super important!!
Is Monday here yet????
And I still didn’t get it…
CY couldn’t really remember anything at all bec. in his lifetime, the whole event hasn’t happened yet. ES is the time traveller so she’s the one who has to relive everything esp. from that part when CY’s life was in danger so that she could correct the (true) history and allow him to live until age 72yo.
As Jomo said, we’ll just have to wait how the writer will take their story from thereon…
BTW, what do you think about this post at Faith’s FB page? Can’t wait for Monday, too… https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=444873362232315&set=a.350934844959501.98835.350877554965230&type=1&theater
I am in the group of folks who cannot try to figure out how the loops work.
Reminds me of when I watched the Star Trek movie the second time, after hurting my brain the first time. I realized doing all that heavy lifting with my neurons made me miss the beautiful love/friendship story that just happened to have time travel elements.
I just let the events happen before my brain, and accept that the filmmakers would deliver a story just coherent enough for me to understand.
(I actually wrote a time travel novel, because it is my absolutely favorite story element. In the introduction I wrote something like: The historical dates and facts in my story do not exactly match what really happened in the past. But if you are willing to accept that a 14 year old girl can travel back to the past, you will also have to accept the fact that [the pivotal important historical event] happend in August not July of 1963. LOL)
It isn’t exactly the same thing here, but I guess I decided to take Choi’s advice, and not to work too hard!
i think you have to take it as two worlds/realities…1 the original world and 2 the one altered by ES. in the first CY dies and ES goes back 2012 but then she decides to go back again, she ends up 1000 years in past (that should be year 350 or so, creating the legend of Hwata) then she goes to about 100 years before CY and writes the diary to try to save him… this way she changes history that affects the future she will be born into, creating a predetermination paradox (i think that`s what they are called) which erases the original world/reality creating instead the altered reality that now both CY and ES will be born into (having the memories of the new reality)… so the new CY and ES are born into this world already containing this loop, they meet for the first time again and fall in love… the problem is: if ES doesn`t retrace the path of the loop the diary and her previous efforts will disappear erasing this reality again…that`s why paradoxes suck big time
its a little complex…hope this makes sense ;D
but i thought about something else…so the portal needs a solarflare to open…i guess the distance it takes you depends on the intensity of the solarflare (big solarflare takes us back 1000 years while small takes us only about 100), at first i thought it unites open portals throughout the time frame the solarframe powered up but there might be many portals opened even in a 100 year span and those portals might have other spans connecting to hundreds of other portals so..it might be too messy to get from A to B… that means the exit point might not necessarily be an open portal!!! in the first episode in 2012 there was no portal until CY arrived , he opened one. in Goryeo, he got into the wormhole that took him as far as it had power from solarflare and dropped him there, stayed open for a while and ensured the arrival back to almost the exact moment he left. that means you only need open portal for entrance point not for the arrival point too.
sorry for the messy thoughts but i had to get this out of my head and what better place than here. Also, if its true than this would be awesome as ES would be able to come back in any moment no just when a portal is open… she wouldn`t be able to leave but she would be able to come (back to her CY) 😀
lol…it just occurred to me while i was sitting here like an idiot, obsessing about time travel, that this is a romantic drama and the writers probably haven`t thought about this too seriously… who knows what explanation (if they give any) we`ll get. hahaha… just remembered the previous time travel dramas` explanations and realized that over-thinking this is a waste of brain cells.
As long as CY and ES end up together i don`t really care even if it`s the Easter Bunny that opens the portals :))
Hi Joonni… It’s my first time to comment here (and a long time lurker :lol:).
IMHO, let’s just say that ES travels to different universe (so ES disappear from this universe). So whatever ES do there won’t change our history and will only change “that universe’s” history. Stephen Hawking once said that our universe may be one of the huge number of universe (related to M-Theory in Quantum Physics). So even though in “our History” CY din’t die early, it’s still possible in “that universe” for CY to die early and the history output become different.(OMG, please don’t die!!!). As a comparison, a (not too) similar case also happened in Dr Jin’s story (explained in last episode).
My conclusion is, the only thing we can do is to be patient and wait for the next episode. 😆
P.S: Thanks for you and softy for your wonderful recaps.
Joonni, this drama has created a life of its own “FAITH”. Faith will make it or break its own emotional dilemma. It will take everyone on high end of screaming/crying & all that heartache that you’ve never thought you had!! That’s what makes a great drama over all! To top it all, it has also that controversial of the Time Travel portal, parallel. I loved everyone’s comments from sanity to calculate every angle of the Time Travel. LOL!! I compliment everyone whose put so much thoughts/words on a “Faith”, it makes it more interesting to read & watch from the side line.!! Over all everyone might be in a right track. But, you have to give credit to our writers who’s story line has given you an incentives for thinking. Thank All
I actually read this post on Friday, and instead of being productive at work, I spent the afternoon trying to figure this out…it’s the early hours of Monday morning here and still my brain refuses to process this time travel puzzle or let me sleep!
Some more clues from the show
The Hwata Legend: Hwata arrived 1000 years ago and every 300 years a disciple would arrive.
From the screenshots: there’s 4 crosses…
Could the 4 crosses be the period when she time-travels and arrives in Goryeo trying to save CY’s life?
Am thinking the 3rd item that Ki Chul has would really answer all our questions!
uhm…so if Choi Young married and had a daughter, is Eun Soo is wife in the corrected Goryeo history?
If the idea of CY & ES having a daughter in the later years in Goryeo history! Whatever ES decides on saving Young on that trap; that will put a test on Young’s feelings for ES. Young never really put his feeling forward on his first “love”, because of his warrior status..so it died before he can reacted on it. It’s a different situation w/ ES, she has put more life into Young’s feelings and his listening to ES request.
ok people.. i know im late.. but this is what I think happened 🙂 .. this writing contains Things i gathered here and there too 🙂 FAITH is all about faith, time travelling and time cycle.. so this is what happens..
Choi young travels through the portal and brings Eun soo from the present Korea which is 2012 to Old Goreyo which is 1350.. thats ES’s first ever time travelling.. and the confusing letters and tools she finds… let me come to it gradually..
now,
remember when CY and ES run away from palace to wait near the gate and she insists on going back to the palace? that is because she saw CY looking at the direction of the palace, that she thought that he must be missing it.. that is what CY too says later… and the certain writings she finds in critical time.. il explain later..
so when all the problems of 1350 are almost solved, when CY and ES decide to go back to 2012 to bid Good bye to those who she loves prince of the court interrupts them.. and he almost kills CY.. but he doesnt die..
this is what happens, ES runs through the portal, packs her stuff and comes near the portal, looks back at the city somewhat hesitating and goes through the portal and ends up in 1250 (100 years back from CY’s time) she is worried but keeps on believing that one day she will meet him again.. so she writes down all her memories, the ones she could remember, in her diary and leaves it behind in the 1250 time along with her projector and tools.. during her stay in 1250 she treats people too.. (remember the officer from Yuan once told her that she treated a child who later became an enemy to the nation so his grandpa has written down on his diary to kill dat woman when they find her? yes that woman is ES 😀 ) the writings she finds in 1350 are the writings she left behind in 1250, she travels to the places once she travelled with CY, alone this time and hides her writings here and there.. the time she leaves those writing everything in 1350 has already happened.. those notes are ES’s memory 🙂
CY shaking hand problem was solved cuz ES had FAITH that it will be solved, ES had wavering FAITH when she tried to come through the portal for the 2nd time so it took her back to 1250 (not 1350) but then again she was so determined to see CY and she had FAITH so she was able to travel forth in time (1355) and see him again.. so basically its all about FAITH 😀
FAITH movie is just amazing. you travel to time and made you wonder why?? obviously her time travel was basically all about faith. that it will always be a moment in time that she can make the connections. all because of LOVE. thats how ES got reunited with CY because she HOPE that history will relive itself as she travels through time. by Faith. 🙂
crissygb jan.15,2015 ❤
I don’t remember in which episode but I remember Eun Soo saying that Choi young would live to be a grandpa….