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I think this show was amazing, its story and everything about itI like how there are parts which you cry, which you laugh, which you stop watching to calm down
even though it is super long, its very interesting and everyone who has a chance must watch this whenever they can, but to just say at the end when wang yoo dies and when her child dies you are going to cry so much and it is gonna take a while until you get over it but at the end its history and an amazing show,story,cast and acting
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I first watched this for JCW and wasn't disappointed at all. In the beginning episodes, I saw lots of resemblance in his character to Park BongSoo from Healer, which was a nice surprise. Literally the only issue I had with this masterpiece was the FL. I couldn't stand the actress. She might be the most stone-faced FL I've ever seen, and her only actual change of expression through the whole drama was staring awkwardly wide eyed and motionless when something surprised her.
Still highly recommended. One of the best dramas of all time.
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The first 5 episodes of the drama had me hooked and suddenly I was just so far into it that I started to see myself actually finish it and here I am. This is therefore the longest drama that I have watched and funny enough the longest drama that I had watched before EK was the drama that introduced me to Ji Chang Wook (which was one of the main reasons for watching EK).
I know a lot of people were annoyed by the not-so-historically accurate plot and the costumes. I did read a bit up on Empress Ki before the drama and tried to do a bit of research here and there while it was airing but it sort of doesn't bother me that it wasn't historically accurate (I feel the same way about Reign as well) because I am mainly watching it for the historical setting not the historical accuracy.
I am very found of period or costume dramas and while I liked it when they are historicity accurate (if I know th history beforehand or when I read up on it) but I am mainly just there for the costumes and the period setting and all of that and to me Empress Ki delivered on that. The set and the costumes were gorgeous and just really well done.
The drama says in it’s description that it is a “historical” romance drama and while there is romance in the drama (like there is in most tv shows or dramas) I felt like a lot of the romantic stuff was sort of put on the back burner for some parts of the drama, which I didn’t mind that much.
A lot of the drama was just about Empress Ki /Seung Nyang revenge and quest for justice/power and the political aspect of things and while I did enjoy it a lot I think a lot of other people where annoyed by it or by Seung Nyang and her politics. I liked how the women of the drama were powerful and involved in the politics and I really enjoyed that aspect of the show.
I really didn’t expect to like the politics since they sometimes bore me in these dramas. Maybe Game of Thrones is making me like that sort of thing more. It has happened that I am watching a drama and as soon as the plot goes away from the main couple I lose interest but that didn’t happen here.
I feel it was most of all a character driven drama and not necessarily a otp driven drama. The main story is not how they got together but how Seung Nyang became Empress Ki. The story does go on for a long time though, so there are bound to be plotlines that were more fun than others.
Now that I look back my favourites were between episode 1-6 and episodes 24-37. Those were the plot-lines that I enjoyed the most and I felt like were best written. For the most part I felt like the story was fast paced and all in all decently written. It went a little thin in the end but overall I found it very entertaining.
Because it is so long and therefore you have plenty of room for a lot of things happening at once and a lot of different side plots and side characters you really could flesh out some of the characters. Some for the better and some for the worst and I think most of the characters went threw some sort of character journey, except for some of the bad guys which were just evil and bad just for the sake of the plot like El Temur and his lot.
Aside from Tanashiri which I always liked even if she wasn't the best character. I felt like I could sympathize with her but not her action. I understood why she felt why she had to do what she did, because she was the empress and she needed to secure her place in the palace because that was her only job in life but I didn’t really like how she handled everything but I found her amusing and I liked the actress who played her and I will be keeping an eye out for her in the future.
I liked how I could understand most of the time why people did what they did within the palace because you had to be hard and ruthless if you wanted to survive in the palace and I especially liked how the women where written and that they were just as powerful as the men.
Wang Yoo however was one of the good guys and he was suppose to be the main lead until the public (and most of the fandom I think) decided that they liked the emperor more and he was sort of swept aside and he didn’t get that much character development at all. He was just always very consistent and noble but just sort of there in my opinion and I just found it sort of plane.
I couldn't even get behind his love-line with Seung Nyang and I just sort of feel bad for Joo Jin Mo but their love-line felt so much like a duty thing and that she was always just his subject that I never got behind it.
In the beginning I also rabidly shipped Seung Nyang og Ta Hwan / The Emperor but that sort of went away later in the drama and while I liked them together for the most part of the drama my rabid shipping never returned. I mostly saw them as friends later on but I don’t doubt their love for each other. I just really liked their
Ta Hwan did go threw a lot of character development, which is why for the longest time he was my favorite character on the show. Untill he became a bit too possessive for my taste and it almost looked like the writers forgot all about his character development and just decided to toss it out of the window because they needed a bad guy.
I think the best character in the end was Tal Tal but he was amazing and he really started to bloom in the later half of the drama. Empress Ki is just a very character driven drama to me.
In the end the story was getting a little bit thin and a little bit wonky but I still enjoyed it for the most part and I sort of expected it to go a little bit like that just because of how long it was. I never felt like it dragged and I wasn’t really that annoyed by it or anything. It just felt like the writers didn’t know what to do with all these episodes and just started to add in some shock-value.
I don’t think it could have been ay longer than 51 episodes and 45 episodes or something would have served it just fine and made made the story just a bit more stronger and not at thin but I still enjoyed myself a lot while watching it. The last 10-15 episodes were not as good as the rest of the show.
The ending though didn’t bother me at all nor did I find it lame or anything. It was sort of what I had come to expect given how the story was going and how the story actually went (historically) so I was’t really mad about it. Empress Ki was such a roller-coaster ride and some parts were better then others and it did go a bit crazy in the end but I still enjoyed the drama a lot. It was entertaining and for the most part fun and easy to watch and I will miss it.
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It's such good drama and the ending made me cry like a baby.
It's my first historical drama and I was sceptical if I should start this one, but after one episode I was already hooked.
The music was very good, various songs, were very good !
Acting was excellent
10/10
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Music: Okay, can we just talk about the music? The OST is so beautiful and I've been searching for piano music sheets but it's not there. T^T Just listening to the music makes me think back on the whole drama and I get tears from the music alone. The dynamics and emotions just pour out of the music and it's simply so beautiful. Like even before watching the drama, listen to Main Theme-Empress Ki. BEAUTIFUL
Cast: They did SUCH a great job on casting like each person was MEANT for that role. I was so captured by the acting and this drama that I felt like I was IN the drama. That's why the emotional impact was 10000x more for me.
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Story:
The story is very well written and has so many twist. I really like how Empress Ki was a strong female lead and she was smart! She actually thought about her actions, didn't let people push her around and she planned smart. The story has everything from love, betrayal, politics, hate, power struggles and so much anguish. It's truly worth the watch.
Acting:
GREAT! Everyone did such a great job. Ha Ji-Won was killing it in this drama. She is a great actress. Ji Chang Wook has completely changed in my eyes. I saw him in healer and he was great also and here he doesn't let me down. He does a great job playing Emperor. Joo Jin-Mo did great also. It's my first time seeing him in a drama. The whole cast did great with the acting overall I could find no flaws. Also Jin Yi-han and Baek Jin-hee did great. This was my first time seeing both these actors and I will look for more of their work.
:
Music was pretty great in this drama. It fits well. I especially like the instrumental.
Rewatch:
I would rewatch even though it's so long! Just so many emotions. (Do I want to go through it all again? :))
Overall:
10/10
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The emperor that was never a coward.
When I first saw the number of episodes, I thought to myself, am I ready for this. You know the sad empty feeling you get after watching a very good drama. Yea I wasn’t ready for that but then again JCW made me watch it. I’m going to talk about my favorite characters. Firstly tanashiri , she delivered. Like there was no way you wouldn’t hate her character 😂. In some ways I could sympathize with her feelings but not her actions. She was purely evil and wanted power like the Queen dowager. In a way it’s actually understandable, because in the palace people did what they had to do just to regain their power and rights. Even though I pitied her, I loved her ending. Then my second favorite character is JCW, and yes I’m part of the fandom. His development arc was so wonderful. His acting skills was superb.The portrayal of emotions and feelings was just wonderful. The hatred he had for tanashiri was transferred to maha who didn’t deserve it. And he regretted his actions later on .He had no one he could really call family till he met sun nyang. This explains the abandonment issues, the tantrums and everything. General banyan was another person who believed in him but got greedy. Truth is the producers made him look like an obsessed lover for the most part of the series but after finding out what Kolta did to him, it’s understandable. For 5 years, he wrote fake love letters and poisoned his mind against the woman he loved. Fed him poison, made him loose his mind. Pushed him to the extreme that he raped her thinking she was cheating on him.( I don’t support the rape) though.He had to go through a lot, carried so much pain and burden for 5 years but still despite that he never gave her up but rather he made her what she was meant to be. I read someone review saying that they weren’t meant to be endgame but if you really watched the series from the beginning. You would remember the intense chemistry or when Wang yu asked if she would like to follow torghon back to yuan and she couldn’t say anything. If she didn’t have feelings, she would have refused besides wang yu was still her master. Even Wang yu noticed the growing chemistry and was jealous ( to think she was still dressed as a man then ) 😂 or the scene when wang yu proposed and after thinking of the emperor. She chose wang yu because of the betrayal.Thirdly my next character is the empress , she fought so hard for what she believed in . Wang yu was her first love but when she met the emperor. She began to like him and that made wang yu jealous. His betrayal turned her love to hate and she swore vengeance on him. In the palace, she saw another side of him and understood why he couldn’t make decisions and began to fall for him again, but at first she chose wang yu because she hasn’t forgiven him .The scene where she lost her son by falling from a cliff really broke me. You could feel the pain and frustration, seeing all the koryo women die just for nothing changed her. This sparked a new fire in her.
She was ready to fight even if it meant bringing her close to the person she liked before.
Also, I liked Wang yu but he chose his throne over her, not that I fault him though. He was a honourable man , a man of strong beliefs and fought for what he believed in. I really wished he ended up with that other lady that liked him but she died early on. His love relationship with Sun nyang was more of duty. A master to his subject kind of love. He was her first love and yes she still had that soft spot for him and that explains the sadness whenever she saw him. The thought of what could have been if circumstances were different but the emperor was her epic love. She sacrificed a lot for him , saved his life a lot of times and even took poison for him. The love they had was unfathomable yet unconditional.
The Smartest character was tal tal and I see a lot of people shipping him with the female lead but if you observe closely. They had a brotherly kind of love. A familial love, he was her support and wedge. He helped her to make smart decisions I really wished he didn’t die. Watching him kill his uncle was really sad but just made me realize he was indeed a man of his words. He fulfilled the promise he made to his uncle to kill him whenever he became like el temur.
Generally it was a lovely series in all, I liked the political moves and everything. El temur was purely evil. His dying scene sparked a lot of controversy. You would really understand why people made certain decisions, the reason that drove queen dowager and general banyan . Although General banyan was bound to become like him. Right from the beginning he never cared about Justice but only cared about the winning side. That’s why he chose to spare the emperor early on. He chose to make a bet because he believed through him, he could get the power he wanted. To el temur he was just his dog that he used and nothing more . That’s why he decided to take el temur down but later on saw that sun nyang was gaining the Favour of the emperor and high court. That’s why him and the empress dowager didn’t want sun nyang to be empress. They knew how much he loved her and knew she couldn’t be controlled.
One thing I learnt from the series is that you could have so much time yet little time. The ending was just bittersweet. Sun nyang realizing how much she loved the emperor. And the emperor realizing all those 5 years, she truly loved him, and he only believed the lies kolta fed him . At the end Sun nyang fought the battle and she suceeded.
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Wonderful drama indeed
First of all this is the first time i'm watching Korean drama (1 hr per eps.) with 50+ episodes, i usually watchChinese drama i.e. 40-50 episodes (50 min per eps.), i found out that Kdrama that long will not
inspired me to watch another 30 to 40+ episodes in the future, i'll stop eatching long episodes kdrama
completely because from what i know it's that 2013-14 where producing drama that stream straight online
isn't a thing yet so they produce solely for television purposes (Nation wide & selected countries TV network),
the longer the episodes the more the story gets extended. EMPRESS KI is based from real life person but it only
adapted as a structure to create the theme of the plot since EMPRESS KI story lack details during that time about her
life and mostly mythical stories. Thats the reason this drama got a chance to extend the twisting storyline for the
audiences, there's many unexplain miracle that happened dramatically just for the sake of entertainment. NGL this drama
worth my time, EMPRESS KI/NYANG is well written character, WANG YO was the most perfect character and the weak EMPEROR,
NYANG & WANG YO is the perfect couple but not per-fate couple, NYAN want to help WANG YO to get back his
throne and defeat the old regent villain at the palace but little did she know her decisionback fired on her, she got her baby then thought
it died from falling and found out later soon he died from poison arrow, now that's a depress for NYANG & WANG YO
... EMPEROR is the most pathetic character in the drama, he maybe smart for like 8% in his screentime but 92%, he's a
silly, stupid, childish, cowardly man ever. BATOLU/YON love WANG YO only one-sided which is very sad. Also spoiler alert, everyone dies
in the drama and only NYAN herself was there. even though i liek WANG YO character but the death of EMPEROR was definitely too sad.
The drama synopsis explain that NYAN true love is EMPEROR... which is partially wrong. She admired WANG YO but soon she like him romantically
whereas She only want to be close to EMPEROR because she want to become EMPRESS to avenge those who killed her
love ones and to save her homeland nothing more nothing less, of course she did care, norture, respect & trust him but not love him passionately, we
only see she truly love him when WANG YO died and she move on and then the moment she reveal her love to EMPEROR
he died peacefully.
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even though the story somehow contradicts the history of Empress Ki, it's still awesome. the story isn't really common
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politics, love, destiny, patriotic ideals.
This drama got off to a cracking start, with fast action, witty dialogue and intriguing political machinations. Yang's story is immediately captivating and entertaining. The narrative continues at a very fast pace and it never gets boring.At around the episode 39 mark the story started falling apart in my view, this is a show that has always had life and death scenarios at every turn and each conflict is quickly followed by another leaving no opportunity for reflection or satisfaction. I started to tire of this cycle and at times the show feels like it creates villains and conflict just for the sake of it with no real impact to the overall narrative.
I was especially disappointed with the lack of meaningful resolution to the love story (and it's product) of Yang and Wang Yoo, it felt as if the show was always trying to push the Tae Hwan / Yang loveline even though the very first episode tells us that she ends up with the Emperor, so what was the harm in fully exploring the separation of Yang and Wang Yoo? It was just very sloppily done and I for one was never convinced that Yang loved the Emperor, her relationship with him was a matter of survival and the best way of achieving her goals.
That being said, the acting in this was excellent by some and ok by others. Ji Chang Wook is very good at portraying the weak, childish and selfish Emperor Tae Hwan, whose character is shown to us in the first episode he actually never changed or improved; his portrayal of this character is so well done that even though I never warmed up to this character, I was moved at times by his suffering and his ultimate helplessness, being Emperor means everyone is always trying to use you for whatever they can get.
Wang Yoo portrayed by Joo Jin Mo is the direct foil to the character of the Emperor. Wang Yoo is everything the Emperor is not, brave, strong, selfless with clear political and patriotic ideals. Wang Yoo is a stoic character and he and Yang share the same ideals and aspirations.
I must give special mention to Wang Yoo's band of merry men especially Eunuch Bang, their loyalty to their King is so heartwarming.
Yeoncheol is another character that is portrayed very effectively, he is convincingly evil as is his daughter Tanashili.
Tal Tal also became a firm favourite of mine, I loved his calm assurance and his formidable intelligence.
The last quarter of this show certainly did not do justice to its first three quarters. It ended on a bit of a wimper, and I was especially outraged at the identity of the villain who was exposed in the last few episodes, this was definitely not a credible plot twist.
I was fully prepared to give this show 10 out of 10, but as the show progressed the score lowered because of the many plot holes and the failure to fully explore some emotional aspects of the relationships between characters, and it also seems that at some point the show was determined to kill off as many characters as possible, which in most cases was redundant.
Music is good and well employed.
Final score 8 out of 10.
Rewatched April 2025:
My previous sentiments still stand. However, I'm even more outraged at the villains, and two I have to mention are Yeon Byeong Su - there was absolutely no reason for him to have lived for so long and in fact his treacherous actions led to the majority of the heartache and chaos in the story. - also the emperor’s weakness was unforgivable, in the end he chose brutality over bravery, he was a coward to the end.
The show feels like it was being rewritten in the last episodes, characters' behaviours and motivations were not consistent with what they had been previously shown to be. Did all those people have to die? death was a cheap dramatic device the writers used to keep the momentum up, it's very lazy writing and they seem to have misplaced their brains in the last 12 episodes. I've downgraded the score to 6.5. The downhill slide of the show at the end is unnecessary and undid anything that was good about it. The first three quarters of the show were so good and the cast is amazing, also the set design and costumes - but it was ruined at the end. this could have easily been a 10 out of 10.
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By far one of the best sageuks!
This is by far one the best sageuks ever made! I was intimidated by its length at first, and I expected the story to drag, but I was very impressed with how tight the writing is and how well all narrative threads are developed and come together by the end.The entire cast is phenomenal, but most importantly, this is a drama that avoids most clichees. Its female characters are not the typical wimpy, submissive women we often see in historical dramas. Yang (brialliantly played by Ji-Won) is self-sufficient and outshines almost every male character in the story! I was also pleasantly surprised by Chang Wook's versatility; he plays the weak-willed (but also possessive) emperor amazingly! And finally, Joo Jin-Mo was born to play the King of Goryeo!
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