Fumiko

I do think that King Gogukcheon will be portrayed as a virtuous/noble character and that we will be sad that that he was gone way too soon.

The girl was also apparently only a village girl and it's said that she was called the Little Queen later merely due to giving birth to a boy.

It's also said that Woo became angry when she found out (hence sending the armies) thus her approval wasn't there in the beginning.

I was also amazed that in the accounts on Queen Woo people were actually sent as armies to kill the other woman (she was only spared due to being pregnant already).

It shows though that Woo had lots of power. She decided the new king. A big deal is made of the king cheating on her despite the marriage being childless even. Her stepson still showed respect to her even though she disliked him.

I think she should be the favorite character due to being ruthless.
The other favorite should be Prince Gyesu for the action scenes.

Yes, Ji Chang Wook plays her first husband whose death triggered the whole succession dispute in the first place.
Kang Young Seok plays Sansang who is her second husband in history.

Lee Soo Hyuk as Balgi makes sense in the main cast since he is a key character in the fight for the throne since he got the rebel label due to Queen Woo/U not siding with him.
Prince Gyesu the general is a support character since he became active pretty late and supported Queen Woo and Sansang and defeated Balgi.
You would actually think that Sansang would be a main character or that Ji Chang Wook rather should have been brought in as Sansang instead.

However maybe this is intentional. Sansang only got the throne due to Queen Woo giving him preference. Then when they didn‘t have children he cheated and brought in another woman who gave birth to his successior. Queen Woo was then described as a Disney evil stepmother to her stepson.

My theory is that her first husband is her actual true love in the show and appears in many flashbacks. Then her true love is the throne itself since Sansang just ends up using her.
In history she however she is said to have preferred Sansang to her first husband since she wanted to be buried next to Sansang. I don‘t think that Sansang will be her main love interest in the show though.

After reading up what I could find on her and watching a 45 minutes documentary on YouTube on her I wonder how the relationships will turn out.

They could of course write that her original husband was her actual true love that she won‘t find true love ever again and that the throne is the main focus. Problem is that in history she wanted to be buried next to her second husband Sansang.
Balgi is the biggest obstacle to the throne in history. Maybe there are some scenes in which they will have tension but I doubt that they won‘t have a fallout.
Sansang doesn‘t seem to be that important in this drama and if you read up doesn‘t seem like ML end game material. She approached both Balgi and Sansang after her husband’s death to see who she should back. Sansang succeeded mainly due to her support. In the end he didn‘t cherish this all that much though if you read how this marriage continued (clue it‘s what happened during the pig sacrifice).

I am also curious why they created a sister character for her. Their bond according to description like I saw someone mention seems very Anne Boleyn and Mary Boleyn from the Other Boleyn Girl like.

It sounds so interesting since it's not only set in an era that doesn't have many adaptions it also covers characters that haven't been depicted so far.

I think that it will largely focus on the conflict with Bal Gi. Her first husband will be used to explore her backstory. Her second husband Sansang will join her with mistrusting Bal Gi, the oldest remaing brother. Prince Gyesu I assume will later become important with the battle scenes.

Manpukumaru is somehow never shown when the Azai clan is depicted I would have also liked seeing him for once a bit.
In Sanadamaru you just see a glimpse of Manpukumaru‘s face only shortly when Hideyoshi is dying and Chacha mentions him once. Sadly Sanadamaru was a really bad adaption of the Sanada family and Chacha when you compare to other Chacha depictions in retrospect weak and not intelligent.
The best Chacha depictions are the cunning and intelligent ones like Nagasaku Hiromi in Komyo ga Tsuji or Nikaido Fumi in Gunshi Kanbei.

The best depiction of Manpukumaru so far was in the Taiga drama Hideyoshi (a great Taiga in general).
Hideyoshi is too little involved in it though.

Newer Taiga almost always try to avoid violence towards children.

Some older did have scenes that go into this direction:

Taira no Kiyomori which depicted Yoritomo's son called Sentsurumaru (whom he had with Ito Yae) being killed by Yae's own father Ito Sukechika.

Mori Motonari also depicted Mori Komatsumaru (Motonari's nephew) being the heir of the clan at age 8, being dragged along in battles and being shown a severed head then dying shortly after this since it was too much for him (this actually happened to this kid)

Kusa Moeru has Hojo Yoshitoki's troups chasing after Minamoto no Yoriie's wife Wakasa and forcing her to kill herself and her young son Ichiman by throwing herself into flames.

In Yoshitsune Yoritomo orders the execution of Yoshitaka (12 years old) the fiancee of his daughter Ohime (9 years old).

While not a Taiga Sanada Taiheiki actually depicts Sanada Daisuke as a child soldier and shows his suicide when Chacha, Hideyori and Ono Harunaga all kill themselves.

Okada Junichi would have certainly eaten up the Nobunaga drinking out of Nagamasa's skull scene.

Shingen also sired Katsuyori (who is on this show) with his stepniece Suwa Goryonin (14 years old when married, 24 when dead) after killing her father (33 old Suwa Yorishige).

Masamune like you mentioned killed his brother.

Sanada Nobushige (also known as Yukimura) around age 30 married Otani Yoshitsugu‘s 13 year old daughter as a childbride (Otani Yoshitsugu is now due to new evidences also believed to have only been 2 years older than his son in law).
Nobushige also trained his 12-14 year old son with Otani‘s daughter, Sanada Daisuke, into a child commander and the boy committed suicide along with Chacha and Hideyori during Osaka.

With Hideyoshi I won‘t even start (Chacha, Korea invasion, becoming a tyrant). At least episode 30 so far portrayed him as super creepy with teen Chacha.

Kato Kiyomasa who will soon appear historically slaughtered Koreans, murdered Christians (including babies) and treated women abysmal. The Korea invasion will only be narrated like always thus we certainly won‘t see it.

You can find dirt about pretty much anyone.

According to Ieyasu’s third son’s Hidetada‘s personality description it mentions that he is now supposed to brighten up the atmosphere when Ieyasu starts destroying the Toyotomi (this is also how it’s like in Aoi Tokugawa Sandai).
Ieyasu wasn‘t particular nice to most of his sons.
Yuki Hideyasu who will soon appear (Ieyasu‘s second son) was mostly ignored by him due to being a product of Ieyasu‘s random affair with the maid Oman and only got a bit of attention due to military success.
Hidetada was Ieyasu‘s heir but even with him Ieyasu was never really content and only tolerated him since Hidetada was easy to control and the son of Oai.
Regarding wives it was better to be a sidewife of Ieyasu like Hidetada’s mother Oai or Hidetada‘s stepmother Acha no Tsubone who were highly praised as advisors for the clan.

No Chacha announcement yet (will likely happen soon though), however many Sekigahara participants were announced so hopefully it will be really large. Adult Hideyori was announced later on for Osaka.

Still unannounced:
Chacha
Kobayakawa
Naoe Kanetsugu

So today they finally announced new characters again like Hidetada, Acha no Tsubone and Yuki Hideyasu.

Tomorrow they will likely announce the older cast for this show's final boss: Chacha

There are now also many hints that they will actually show the Siege of Osaka and not stop with Sekigahara since an older cast for Ieyasu's granddaughter Senhime was announced.

Yeah last episode was ok and it gave Nobunaga a proper and well-rounded good bye.

Sena herself and her end was too saccharine I definitely think she was historically more like Nanao depicted her in Onna Joshu Naotora (there she was very entertaining) or Ikegami Kimiko in the old Ieyasu Taiga or Maya Kyoko in an old Ieyasu special.

Curious how the dynamics will change with Hideyoshi on top soon and new major players like Ishida Mitsunari and Chacha. Very often Mitsunari and Chacha have to entertain during the Osaka court scenes thus I hope that they go more into the tyrant depiction of Hideyoshi for once.

For Kusa Moeru I own the condensed DVD version. Someone has also uploaded the entire condensed version of Kusa and split everything into clips on nicovideo:
https://www.nicovideo.jp/search/草燃える?ref=nicotop_search

Kusa Moeru is my favorite regarding Heian/Kamakura era along with Taira no Kiyomori. I also like Yoshitsune since it was good (Dan no Ura for example was great) despite Yoshitsune being sanitized.

For Hana no Ran I own some DVD as well. It was also entirely on YouTube several times even with subtitles. At the moment it seems to be removed again.
Hana no Ran had the advantage that it was in a line of shorter Taiga (along with Homura Tatsu). It showed that shorter Taiga could also end up really well and interesting.
The Onin War was also a terrible time and you have stuff like Kyoto burning and people starving, a Shogun with Ashikaga Yoshimasa who is the most incompetent Shogun Japan ever had and a crisis regarding succession since Hino Tomiko wants her young son Yoshihisa to be heir which the brother of husband Yoshimasa doesn‘t want to accept since he was the emergency heir when Yoshimasa didn‘t have a son yet.

Hana no Ran had poor ratings back then but not because of the acting or since it isn‘t interesting.
The Onin War isn‘t covered much and people thought that it was too dark as a theme and were unfamilar with the content
Nowadays people estimate it more highly since it had a really great cast.
The Onin War manga Shinkuro Hashiru and several Onin War books also revived interest in this little covered era.

Taiheiki and Hojo Tokimune as well as Mori Motonari are all also really good.

Fuurin Kazan was a great Taiga sadly the recent huge scandal regarding Shingen‘s actor (Ichikawa Ennosuke) taints the memory of the Taiga.

Toshiie to Matsu and Komyo ga Tsuji are both similar centering on a couple.
I prefer Komyo ga Tsuji since it had more mature themes and writing. Toshiie to Matsu is popular outside of Japan however it often had really childish scenes and cheesy writing and interestingly isn‘t that popular in Japanese polls.

Regarding the Sanada Clan instead of Sanadamaru I definitely prefer Sanada Taiheiki.
The Siege of Osaka is well depicted in Sanada Taiheiki and it showed the group suicide of Yodo, Toyotomi Hideyori, Ono Harunaga and even Sanada Yukimura‘s/Nobushige‘s son Sanada Daisuke (12-14 years old when he commited suicide). In Sanadamaru you saw none of these people dying.

Mori Ranmaru I would love getting more screentime as well. I think the most decent depiction of him so far was in Toshiie to Matsu since that was one of the few times he was a bit charaterized.

If they ever remake a Nobunaga Taiga I hope that they use the chance to properly depict Ranmaru and his relationship with Nobunaga.

It's the typical protagonist syndrome 'everyone has to smile'.

Aoi Tokugawa Sandai didn't sanitize much that's true.

Also Hana no Ran (about Hino Tomiko and the Onin War, considered the darkest Taiga yet), Taira no Kiyomori, Taiheiki and one of my favorites Kusa Moeru (Hojo clan and Kamakura shogunate) were good in this aspect.

Gunshi Kanbei, Kirin ga Kuru and Komyo ga Tsuji were also decent.

However Dousuru along with Kirin, Kanbei and Seiten is one of the better Taiga recently.

Idaten was a waste and Kamakura dono a disappointment with annoying characters and lame battles thus Dousuru which has decent battles is watchable in contrast.

Just to raise discussions:

Who were your favorite performances so far?

My are:

Abe Hiroshi as Takeda Shingen
Maeda Gordon as Takeda Katsuyori (finally Katsuyori got screentime and a good portrayal)
Okada Junichi as Oda Nobunaga
Kitagawa Keiko as Oichi (a good looking Oichi with a nice charaterization, she isn't just reduced to being Nobunaga's sister).

I also liked seeing more of Nobunaga's daughter Gotoku.

As for Hideyoshi:
So far it seems likely they will show more of an unpleasant side of Hideyoshi which I hope will happen.

Also finally Hidetada is on the show (he was introduced under his childhood name Chomaru this episode).

They still haven't announced yet who will play older Hidetada.

The other keyrole they haven't announced yet is Chacha (aka. Yodo), the woman who will be Ieyasu's major enemy. Since Shizugatake will come soon we will see her soon at least.

Well next week is Honnoji. I will miss Okada as Nobunaga a lot.

The dad was actually the most awful character in my opinion since he was the person who could have prevented the most damage and ended everything way earlier if he only had a backbone. He was passive and completely indifferent towards his daughters, it took forever to clear Satsuki‘s name, the current state of the Mitari family etc.

To tell the truth I actually hated him way more than Makiko. He was a weakling and pathetic throughout the series and everything could have been solved much quicker if he would have any kind of backbone. I don't even see why someone like Makiko would actually want to be with him however I think like she said she merely just wanted to live in Satsuki's house and have Satsuki's lifestyle.

I liked that there were various twists towards the end.

Suzuki Kyoka's Makiko was good as a villain but I liked that she didn't actually set the fire (since it was the son Shinji who ironically never was hidden) and just ran with the opportunity to upgrade her staus by marrying the Mitarai dad.

The Mitarai dad was just a super weak person most of the time. Everything could have been clarified sooner if he were stronger.

Kiichi was the most decent person in this house.

Glad that Anzu's and Yuzu's mother could return to a normal life in the end.

Loved the manga. The drama is good as well.