Aramintai

The beginning is very slow and boring, it gets better after invaders come to the country. But it's a very slow paced drama, after the military conflict is over it even becomes draggy. And FL will likely piss you off for the bigger part of the drama - if it wasn't for her stupid infantile personality she'd have ended up with ML ages ago and be happy, but most of the bad s*it she gets herself and ML into is her fault, and this drags on for years.
Their inability to sit down for like 5 minutes and talk to each other like normal people instead of always jumping to wrong conclusions, not being able to get over pride and prejudice, joking around to deflect serious questions, etc. is basically the crux of this drama.

The leads conversations typically go something like this:
-ML tries to cozy up to FL.
-FL (while secretly liking him): No, you're trash and scum of the earth. I don't want to be with you, you can crawl somewhere and die for all I care.
-ML leaves and goes to secretly do yet another herioc deed risking his life, saving FL along the way, and then doesn't tell about it to FL.
-ML tries to cozy up to FL.
-FL (suspecting something, but being too dumb and hotheaded to figure it out): Where have you been? No wait, you're trash and scum of the earth. Also, why are you always leaving me?
-ML: You were waiting for me?
-FL: Who's waiting for you? You can crawl somewhere and die for all I care.
...

It also doesn't help that for half of the drama FL dreams of some kind of ideal Prince Charming from her dreams and selfishly pines for her childhood beau who is engaged to another woman, and who is the very opposite of ML - a weak self-righteous coward .

Showrunners love to post main characters short bios with ages, strange it's not available for this drama. Not sure where knetizen got his age, I haven't found anything, perhaps a speculation. Imho, it's free for interpretation. On the one hand, ML's actor is in his mid forties, but his face doesn't change in the drama through the years, he's fckn ageless. On the other hand, it's a historical drama with, as I've said above, being 30 was already considered getting old.

Why do you think ML is that old? Mental maturity often doesn't come with age, especially when coddled. And sometimes very young people have to mature fast because of what they've experienced. Especially in the old times - men could already be having a couple of kids, running a large business, be a minister or even a general even as early as age of 20.

If you haven't already, watch Alchemy of Souls - pseudo historical fantasy drama. A much better drama overall, imho. Especially when it comes to both leads personalities, very likeable and acting mature.

The political plot is quite interesting, it's based on real time events of Korea's final subjugation by China's last imperial dynasty. The romantic plot though is...an aquired taste. ML is an awesome guy here, sort of pragmatic reluctant hero. FL though is gonna make you want to kill her at times for her sheer dumbassery, idiotic stubborness and mistreatment of ML. For example, FL is so dumb and stubborn she's willing to marry some random dude just to spite ML and get a reaction from him.
And I'm 10 episodes in and the show's already starting to show signs of a draggy plot and forced drama to prolong the story. Also, I've read there's a ginormous time gap later in the show which I'm not a big fan of.

And let's be real here there's no treatment, it's a terminal stage. So there's nothing more for her to do than go out with a bang. She's gonna realize she's wasting time on this and gonna forgive ML, but then the plot's gonna change completely for some more fun stuff.

Also, since you're mentioning ML's amnesia you better get it under spoilers, especially considering that he just pretends to have it is several episodes in.

So, how many episodes have you managed to watch? Five? It's still far away from romance and ML becoming a better man. Half the drama is all about FL taking her sweet revenge and going through five stages of grief.

P.S. FLs getting dead drunk and embarassing themselves is a staple of basically every kdrama nowadays. And somehow it's just FLs, MLs are usually the white knights that are stoically suffering through this s*it.

Tell me about, it I'm about to finish part 1 and FL is one hell of a dumb bi*ch. Self-absorbed, always jumping to conclusions and an annoying tsundere in denial when it comes ML. What he saw in her I've no idea, must be her stupid angry rants that she throws at him all the time, the guy barely has time to make a retort. It sure is something fresh to him, I guess.

The last episode is just wildly unrealistic. Police does not exist in this drama - some hyperviolent brats are beating up people in the middle of the street and in a cafe and everybody just don't give af. And every bully is a psycho with no redeeming qualities, like they've all escaped from a looney bin. Just a brainless beat em, nothing else. That ML is atrociously dumb doesn't help either. On the verge of dropping this s*it.

Wdym? Those were 1600s, sexism was the norm everywhere back then. Don’t apply modern sensibilities to historical dramas. They show it as it was back then, not how it is today.
And Korean dramas don’t undergo heavy censorship and embellishment like in China. There’s no big brother watching over everybody’s shoulder . And considering that Korea adopted a lot from Chinese culture it’d be naive to think that it wasn’t the same in China back then.

ML actor, why is he always acting the same way? Is that his amplua or something? Are they typecasting him? All I'm seeing is One Dollar Lawyer in historical drama - same slow manner of speech and expressions, a rather annoying know-it-all with a hidden tragic backstory.

It's not an American drama. But we've already seen knives being used.

Yea, bullies often come from bad families with a wife beater/drunkard of a father or some other stressfull environment at home, causing children to vent their frustrations on other kids. However, majority of these kids come from low income families with poorly educated parents.
But kdramas love to put spoiled rich bitches and/or total psychos with no redeemable qualities as bullies, which is another story entirely. This here bully has everyone in his pocket, another spoiled brat?

The bully guy looks like your typical tough guy on the outside and cry baby on the inside, with daddy issues or the like. That's how they usually try to excuse bullies trash behavior towards other people.
But who knows, perhaps he too was secretly pumping iron from childhood.

I didn't. The guy who came from US is PGY. The bully is Han Ul.

I haven't read the webtoon, but from the drama plot it's rather obvious that the guy who came from the US recently lost his mother because of that bully. And looks like she was a teacher as well.
As for Ms. Lee herself, it's unclear so far, but something happened to her after she got her teacher certificate so she wasn't able to teach for a year and then applied to that crappy school, even though her exam scores were top of the class. Not sure whether it's related to that bully though.

Also, this drama plot may turn into a different direction from the original source, happens all the time.

Yea, there are polar opposite qualities about him I've already written above that make him feel very off.

There's season 2 coming actually:
https://kisskh.at/702271-weak-hero-season-2
Milking is on the way. I won't be watching that one though, because I dropped the first one.

I've even written my thoughts so far below. But I'm like 90% sure it's not gonna end on anything definitive with how few and how short the episodes are in this drama. Probably gonna be trying milking seasons after this one ends.

I was thinking where I've heard the whistling riff of the intro song. They basically stole it from MAMAMOO's song, fkn identical:
https://youtu.be/Vz508O9NNTg?t=14