Cho Na

Before the drama started airing, I read all about AoS on its tvN site. I found that there are so many characters and places, and they were quite confusing. I can imagine people got confused too, lol. People who don't like historical dramas because of the many names may avoid watching it. With that in mind I wrote this article with different layout ;D.

Not related to this article, but how is it going with Dilraba's UFG? It will be an interesting article to read since she's acted for a while. We need more UFG articles, but Idk what happen to the UFGs in the pending section, it seem a lot of them got stuck.

Yup... now that you mentioned... did you notice the FL's past princess costume style is similar to Jin Cho Yeon's? In FNOS it also seems the historical costumes don't belong to Joseon or any other Korean era...

I believe you will love this drama despite of what the ending would be, since both HDL and AKO have open endings.

HDL... lol... I wrote an article recently (not yet published) and was surprised the costume for Jang Man Wol is 100+ pieces!

I think Hong Sisters tried to include as many characters that's why the first episode has so much info, confuses people if they are not used to historical dramas (that tend to have so many characters). That's why they think Part 2 is necessary.

I actually prefer watching non A-lister actors, it seems like the ratings of their dramas are more objective and only people who like the genres watch those dramas so the rating is based on the story, acting, and technical stuff rather than fandom. Dramas with A-list actors tend to be rated subjectively by fans or anti-fans, lol.

OMG... I'm so sorry I didn't see this comment earlier. Only the main writers get notification of the comments. I'm not the main writer, cassiopeiastars is, but she's no longer on MDL. So nobody knew this comment until I just happened to check this article out of curiosity...

A lot of his personal life info came from his old live streams. I'm not sure if the original are still available or not, but these ones we found are translated in Youtube into English and other languages by his fans. Based on his popularity now, I doubted he will tell very personal stories like these anymore. Nowadays he should be more careful on what he says on live stream. I read some people commented (I think the one about Heroes) that he's more diplomatic answering questions, too. Can't offend anyone in the entertainment industry!

I think he has such a broad vocal range and can sing any type of song genre because of his experience being street performer. He took any kind of song orders so he got to know how to sing them ;D

Who's the first one?

Yeah, I agree with your opinion. I guess the original choice to cast a rookie for the main lead is for cost saving, since building that open set is really expensive. But they should've known already that Mu Deok's character is complex. I think Jung So Min is a perfect choice because she can bring up the feisty, coldhearted and boyish FL .

The community in the comment section have the same guess as yours, since it's emphasized from the beginning by tvN (in their site) that the Jins are looking for their lost daughter, so must be someone important, right? The direction of the drama already hints that in Episode 6 when Mu Deok is able to see the jade through the locked box. She is confused with that, since Naksu originally doesn't have the ability. I haven't seen Ep 7, but probably hints more since Mu Deok is able to enter the secret room. Did you watch Ep 7?

I hope I can catch those two up this weekend, I still need to finish my other article ;D

Yeah, since one episode is 80 minutes, they built the basic info right away by throwing so many names in the beginning of the drama ;D

lol... because the hair styling is modern. The director said it's a fusion culture, so we see some modern style too. For example Cho Yeon's costume, I see more like a Disney princess, since traditionally long skirt for Asian women is just straight not wide on the bottom. That's more like European's dress style.

I know right, I was pleasantly surprised actually, that the male characters in this drama don't wear that usual scholar hats, LOL. It's a given to see those hats all the time in historical Kdramas.

I just said 'prepare for open ending' since I read some dramas Hong Sisters wrote have open endings. I think this is a good move from the production team, announcing ahead that there will be Part 2. To build audience anticipation and 'forgiveness' if they don't like the drama ending. They want to know if this drama is a big success and what the audiences' feedback. What they want to see in Part 2, for example continuing the story about other interesting characters. Not milking cow dry I should say, more fan service, lol.

I just hope that they can make the ending of Part 1 satisfactory, for example the main issue is solved and the main leads get together, but there is a new problem arise, for Part 2 ;D

For romance, usually about half of the drama airs the couple should somehow get together or confess their love, or things like that. So if using the normal formula, for this drama it will be about Ep 10 ;D

Xianxia tells stories on gods, demons, and humans. There are no gods and demons in this drama.

Flirting... no, but bonding yes, since they keep secrets together and save each other several times.

Lol... you don't like the Joseon era?

Since you asked, there will be spoilers:
- When Naksu was just a little girl, her parents were killed by apparently the four families of mages. I said apparently, as it was seen so far during flashback, but it maybe a plot twist or a legitimate reason later. There is this villain I cannot spoil you whom raised her and trained her hard to avenge the deaths by killing the mages, with ultimate goal the heads of the four families. Of course, she needs high level of magic to kill the mages.
- The original Mu Deok appears to be blind, in the drama the blinds wear veil over their eyes. But we, the watchers, suspect Mu Deok is not really blind but pretend as one. The original Mu Deok is a special character seems like, if you already watched the drama you may have your own theory of who she is. Initially Naksu wanted to shift soul to someone healthy but it turned out she shifted with Mu Deok. I don't know if the shifting gone wrong, or something else happened since it was not revealed to us yet.
I hope the answers helps! ;D

Since I wanted to to write this article even before the drama started, I have watched it since the first episode, and show up every now and then in the comment section ;D. I think you also have commented somewhere in my other article, lol...

Probably I'm biased in the genres part, lol. Like I wrote in the article, I found what I look for action and fantasy dramas. I'm not biased on the actors, since I've never watched others than Yoo Joon Sang in The Uncanny Counter.