IdealLifeDreamRealm

I already explained everything from my point of view.
No point in continuing this conversation from my side either.

Oooh, I didn't think about that 'stepfather as danger' aspect.
Nice

True

Did anyone notice?
Kim Young Dae's expressive eyes and facial expressions as Do Ha as he gives Han Ri Ta a back hug at the herbalist's hut was so priceless to watch!
I loved it! Kim Young Dae's expressions were poetic in that particular 'confession of his feelings' moment.
I admire Kim Young Dae's acting style in this drama so far! ☺😍

Yes😅

Ha ha, your explanation kind of makes sense.
I think the female lead started to lose it... Can't fully blame her. She lost so much... But I feel bad for the male lead too.
I wish they had a happy ending in the past. 😅

I loved their acting in the 'historical part'.

It has Eng subs too.

What I think is, maybe the main leads' love for each other in their present life can break their curse.

His death that way would make more sense than dying at the hands of the female lead for whom he became reckless enough to break all principles. He didn't even get a warning. 😂The female lead deciding to kill him at this point makes no sense --- not after what they have been through together. This made his death scene almost comical to watch. 😄😅I felt bad for the male lead.
I think the best way would've been for the female lead to directly tell Do Ha that they must do their best to escape without unnecessary killing of the innocents. Do Ha would've listened. Han Ri Ta should've been more practical.

And when it comes to what happens after they reached Gaya, most probably they would've lived incognito or maybe if discovered, Han Ri Ta could try to sway her people to not kill him. We as audience, are not yet shown why Gaya people rebelled in the first place, and as we all know, Do Ha was just a pawn, playing his role, doing his duty till the moment he chose to 'live' & rebel fir Han Ri Ta's sake. So, Gaya people can't point fingers at him and say he's completely in the wrong. It's not like Do Ha was the crown prince who startes the war etc. After all, he saved one of their most reputed general's daughter --- who also represents Gaya.

We are yet to know the cause of the rebellion, who's started the rebellion etc.

Despite all this, yes, the chances of their survival in Gaya is slim, but why give up without trying? Why take the life of someone who's doing his best to protect you (that too without any warning 😅)?

I never 'normalized serial killers'.
Your conclusion is too extreme, and too sudden.

He was just trying to escape the royal forces in the only way he knew... It's not as if he was brought up to be kind.
Your explanation of why Han Ri Ta chose to kill Do Ha makes perfect sense from that character's point of view at that particular point of time.

But, Han Ri Ta killing the villainous dad of the male lead, set off this whole killing spree. Either he needed to kill Han Ri Ta or he needed to silence everyone and escape with her to Gaya. He was doing all that in the heat of the moment...
And when it comes to the matter of killing the old men sent there to catch him or scout him, Do Ha might have purposely said that most of them were 'old men'. He saw Han Ri Ta panicking and he wanted to reassure her. He mistook her 'panic & anxiety' as her safety concerns for him and her (which could've been true), but he didn't know there were other concerns such as guilt , confusion etc involved.
So Do Ha said that most were 'old men' and he can take care of them. She needn't worry about dying or getting themselves killed. Perhaps Do Ha thought this was the 'abyss' Han Ri Ta was talking about.
What I saw in that scene there, was, a communication problem for the female lead or maybe between both main leads.
Do Ha or anyone in that situation can't possibly escape without killing at least some of the old men sent out there to take them down. He was just being logical as he planned their escape way out if their perilous scenario.
Maybe Do Ha & Han Ri Ta would have even made it to Gaya or somewhere else if here was proper communication between them regarding both of heir concerns, worries, and if they worked as a team.

The best way would have been for Han Ri Ta to tip-off Do Ha regarding his father's plans instead of keeping him in the dark, and taking action on her own. Two heads are better than one. Had Han Ri Ta revealed all of her villainous father-in-law's plans, then Do Ha could've come up with his own counterplans to protect himself and his wife. Or maybe he and Han Ri Ta could've planned their escapade together without assassinating his villainous dad. Or they could've come up with a plan to assassinate his cruel dad together as a team.
When one team member is kept in the dark, things can spiral out of control unless if course, the team member who acts by herself is sure of herself to not lose control over her mind etc or has a careful, proper plan. But open discussion with the other team member(in this case, Do Ha) is the best in such perilous situations.
And even if Han Ri Ta did choose to act on her own like she did, she should've just knocked down or tied-up or in the worst case scenario, killed the maid who spotted her at the crime scene, and no one would know. Instead she just stood there passively, without knocking down the maid unconscious, thinking that the Do Ha would kill her. A smart character like her should've intuitively known by now that Do Ha can't possibly kill her. So, she should have taken calculated steps like knocking down or killing or silencing the maid to stem the aftereffects of the damage, and thus, protect herself as well the male lead . Then the others wouldn't have been able to find out the true culprit. They might point fingers, but with no proper evidence. There would've been enough time for the main leads to escape too.
As for Do Ha, from his position, the more practical way would've been to just save Han Ri Ta, kill or threaten the few people at his manor who stood in the way of saving her, and then focus on their escape plan alone.
Instead, Do Ha 'chose to go back' and focus on 'silencing each and everyone' at his manor. That was a real bad move from his part, and totally unnecessary. That was very inconsistent with his character, and totally foolish of him. It won't help much with their escape plan. It won't buy them time, and will attract unnecessary attention.
There was potential for their past life love story to be written in a different way. The writers could've cut out the scenes where Do Ha 'decides to go back to his manor' to silence everyone.

As I said before, the writers wrote out the rest of the story in which they made the 'careful male lead' behave recklessly. But I don't think Do Ha was a serial killer. In ancient times, duels and sword fights were common. People used to get killed right and left because the society was less tolerant, less liberal, and even today society is almost like that. It's just the 'laws' keeping everyone in check. Also, today people don't display their evil side, hostility and discrimination openly like people of the past did.


But yes, the moment he thought of killing a child, Do Ha was on the verge of turning into someone like a serial killer. But he hadn't become serial killer yet. That's why he listened to Han Ri Ta 's urging to not kill the child.
Do Ha hadn't completely lost his sense of rationality yet. I don't even blame the male lead here at this point. I just think the female lead should've seen the bigger plan (like the male lead did) , and worked with him as a team. They could've escaped or at least got the chance to experience more happy moments together...

And even if she wanted to kill Do Ha, she could've given him a heads-up😂.
Just imagine from his point of view. It would be a shock to get an unexpected death blow from someone for whom you sacrificed your standard principles and everything --- that too, without any warning! 😆

Most probably not, but you must remember that the male lead met Han Ri Ta 'after' he killed her parents not 'before'.
Also, for some people, even in today's world, love has no reason. It can spring up anytime in ways least expected. And once love blossoms, it can change people, their perceptions, even influence their motives, purposes , sense of logical reasoning etc no matter what kind of person they were before.
Also, the male lead did offer her one or two chances to run away. Maybe the male lead was hesitant to rebel all along, but loving the female lead maybe gave him the courage to rebel which he was hesitant to do all along.
Also, the male was not brought up and groomed from childhood to show kindness to enemies. From what I saw in episode 11, I guess it's Han Ri Ta, who shows him that killing needn't be the solution to all problems all the time(when she prevents Do Ha from killing the child.).
As for the male lead, yeah him hanging the rest of the family members in public was extremely excruciating to watch, but at that point in time, he was the 'old Do Ha'. Maybe, had he caught the female lead with the rest of the family members, he'd have hung her too...
What I think is the writers could've designed the scene in which Do Ha dies in his past life a little bit differently. If the writers are so bent on giving this couple a sad ending in their previous life, they could've just written a scene where the male lead feels remorse for killing the other family members of the female lead, and him dying in some other way(forcing the female lead to kill him or dying at the hands of the people of Gaya to save the female lead etc rather than get killed by the female lead (who's in panic attack mode) when Do Ha was least expecting it😂.
Maybe the writers could've even written the plot in such a way that the audiences get to know why Gaya people were rebelling in the first place, so that the audience can judge for themselves whether this rebellious from Gaya was just or unjust in the first place.

I think the male lead was a victim of his circumstances. Perhaps the writers could've created a stronger , more resourceful male lead who comes up with a way to spare the lives of the rest of the family members of the female lead, but then had the story been written that way, there will be no dark, twisted background for the love story of the main leads which is perhaps, the writers intentionally left the 'family members' hanging scene unaltered...

But deep in my heart, despite the twists and turns, I wish the nain leads had a happy ending in their past life, and even if they had to die, they died in some other meaningful way that is more consistent with their relationship and love story...

Well, the way I see it, the male lead is not evil to the core. If the male lead were that 'evil', he wouldn't have given in to Han Ri Ta's persuasion to not kill the child.
All that the male lead was trying to do was escape to the North in Gaya with the female lead, and hack down anyone who comes in their way to harm them. Yes, thinking of slaying the kid was going too far, but from Do Ha's point of view, he was just thinking practically like a general during war times. Still, yes, thinking of doing such a thing was wrong.
But his circumstances made him stony and cold inside.
The female lead was the only light offering warmth in his bleak life.

That's why he couldn't stand the idea of losing her, because this was the first time he was standing up against everyone to follow his heart.
Maybe the writers could've have written out the scene in such a way wherein Do Ha uses his martial art skills to knock down the child unconscious(in order to prevent the child from alerting the royal forces indirectly) and then escaped with Han Ri Ta.
Their past story had so much potential. It could've been written out this way too...
And the male lead is not crazy. The circumstances were driving him crazy, and the main flaw is in the way the writers chose to write out certain scenes where they make the maun lead behave in ways inconsistent with his core personality.
All in all, the male lead was not crazy, he was becoming desperate... He just didn't show it.

Anyone planted in dire circumstances might try something unthinkable(out of desperation) which they wouldn't do under normal circumstances (unless of course they are sages).
But still, the male lead is not 'crazy'. Because if he were crazy, he wouldn't have been sane enough to listen to the advice of the female lead to not kill the child(when that was the easiest option for him).

Episode 11 left me with mixed feelings! And the preview of ep 12 left me screaming with frustration!
I don't understand... Why did the writers have to write the story this way? Why did they have to make a careful male lead turn alm reckless enough to go back and silence everyone who saw him releasing his wife from punishment? Why did they have to create a decisive female lead who goes all weak, muddle-headed, indecisive, over-anxious during the most critical, pivotal moments of their story? Aaah! 😖Everything in ep 11 was perfect uptill the point where the main leads sought refuge in the hut of a herbalist. The story could've been written in a better way with a better ending from that point onwards...
Everything about the plot was proceeding exactly the way I secretly wanted it to, but a little past the mid of episode 11, the story just took a turn for the worse. Even if it was anticipated by us audience (regarding that twist, the sudden betrayal by the female lead), it was too much for me to take.
I mean, I was literally clapping with admiration when the female lead killed the nasty villainous dad of the male lead, but after that I don't understand why did the writers had to make han ri ta go into panic mode... Han Ri Ta could've just followed the the male lead's plan & together they could've just escaped to Gaya, and even if they didn't survive, at least they could have told each other that they tried, but creating this character designed to kill the male lead when he least expects it (simply because she is in panic mode because of her anxiety & guilt), and her modern version breaking up with him because of what happened in the past!
This is too much to watch!
Why does this trope repeat all the time? The female lead dumping the male lead just when he needs her the most, because of what happened in the past... I expected that incident to make her instantly feel more attached, bonded to Do Ha. The outcome could've been written out that way too. And their tragic past could've been designed differently wherein the male lead died because he got killed while protecting the female lead etc, and the female lead getting killed while trying to sheild him etc. There was no need to include this bizarre act of being killed by one's lover(who's suffering from a bout of anxiety) 😅. Seems this trope is now starting to make a trend in kdramas...
Now, I'm starting to get 'Destined with You' vibes. 😄 I really had high expectations for this drama, but I shall continue watching (out of curiosity, of course). 😅

Anyone know where to watch this (youTube and youKu aside)?

Yes!

I guess so

I agree with the 'dragging' part. No need of filler scenes. Just the scenes involving the main leads (crucial to the plot development) are enough.

Agree

So my hopes are up!