Gigi

Me too🥺🙏

True ♥️ and i badly want king to be happy and free. I feel bad for him.. he’s really gone through a lot. He doesn’t deserve to lose the love of his life too. One way or another, I’m sure they’ll cross paths again. It might not be as perfect as we want it to be, but my gut says they’ll definitely end up together somehow.

That’s why I trust myself too.. let’s hope for the best 🥺♥️ So far none of my predictions have gone wrong, so I really do hope I’m right this time too 🙏💫

If my long history of watching kdramas is any indication, after ep 11 (and the preview of ep 12) I’m pretty sure this is gonna end happily 😁

This actually gave me some hope—and honestly, how wonderful it would’ve been if you wrote the story 😁♥️ (just kidding). Anyway, I’ll give ep 10 a try. I agree with most of what you said, but I do think the ML was somehow attracted to her from the very beginning. He threatened her so many times but never really harmed her, and since he’s not used to showing affection, I feel like he just didn’t know how to handle whatever he was feeling—that’s why he acted that way.

I do see some development between them romance-wise like you said, but it felt like it’s just not enough for us to savor, especially with 10 episodes already out. Honestly, I didn’t even know this wasn’t mainly a romance drama—I thought the romance was the priority and the cooking was just a side story to build their relationship. If that’s not the case, then I guess I can’t really complain about the slow-paced romance.

Still, I really hope things turn out the way you described. I’m also manifesting a satisfying ending, even though I keep wavering whenever I see some of the mixed reviews floating around. Thank you so much for giving me the hope to keep going—based on what you said, I think I’ll go ahead and watch ep 10 right away.

Although I’m a big fan of this drama, I have to agree with a lot of people here that it wasted so much potential. The leads have amazing chemistry and are both great actors, but now I’m just 10 minutes away from finishing ep 9 (I purposely waited until the last two episodes aired so I could watch ep 8-10 together) and I still see no real development in their relationship—other than the ML being in love, which was already obvious from the very beginning. Maybe there will be some progress in ep 10, but we need to remember there are only two more episodes left, and at this point just a little development won’t be enough. This is a ROM-COM, so of course people expect actual romance. No one can blame viewers for saying it hasn’t lived up to expectations—I’m one of them, honestly. After seeing their chemistry, I was really looking forward to some good romance, but it’s safe to say that hasn’t been delivered.
Also, I don’t think I’ll finish the rest of ep 9 or jump into ep 10 right now because based on the comments, it seems like ep 10 is mostly full of blood-boiling moments. Watching both leads walk straight into the lion’s den willingly isn’t something I want to see at the moment. And apparently, the ML’s fate as a tyrant isn’t going to change—which is exactly why I usually dislike time-travel dramas. What’s the point of sending characters back in time if nothing changes? If he ends up a tyrant, that just means the villains win, which I’m not a fan of.
The only thing keeping me from giving up completely is that the drama isn’t over yet, and of course, Lee Chae Min, who’s been doing an incredible job as a hopeless romantic. Even if I do watch ep 10, I’ll probably wait until ep 11 is out so I can go straight into it without sitting around in disappointment.

I noticed this too. If even one episode goes by without much chaos or if two episodes follow the same story line in a row, People immediately start complaining that there’s no story or it’s boring. No patience at all… maybe that’s why we don’t get 16-episode dramas anymore. Personally, I’d love to see more of their normal interactions like this. And honestly, if you think about it, so much actually happened in that episode to call it boring.

Yes, me too. You explained it well. I don’t think it was boring or a waste at all with so much happening, but I do hope they wrap up the competition in this episode without dragging it out any longer.

Agree 100%! This easily could’ve been a 16–20 episode drama—it would’ve been even better that way. I feel like they’ll have to rush through a lot with only 5 episodes left. I wish there was more balance between the romance and the cooking side, because right now it leans more towards cooking. The FL still barely has any feelings for the ML… And how great would it have been if the king had some character development—like letting go of his hatred and becoming a better king under the FL’s influence? But with only 5 episodes left, I don’t see that happening.

You’re kinda missing their whole point. Rather than just saying those dramas are great, what they're trying to emphasize is that some similar fantasy/time travel dramas actually had happy endings, so it’s not completely impossible for this one to have one too.

Yes, I agree… most of the time, the ones we expect to have a sad ending actually end up with a great one. That’s just how it works. Once you’ve watched K-dramas for a long time, you kind of learn their tricks—like how they always mislead us with previews. They’ll show one thing, but then the actual episode turns out completely different. Same with endings—when everyone assumes it’ll be sad, it often turns out fine. Best example is Alchemy of Souls. Everyone predicted a tragic ending, but it ended happily. So I’ll keep my hopes up till the end too…and we cant forget this is a romcom and romcoms usually have happy endings..hopefully they’ll give us a satisfying happy ending we can savor

True… it makes me sad to think she’ll have to leave her squad in Joseon, but if she stays, her fate would only be to become the king’s queen, stuck in the palace, giving up cooking and her entire life. The king himself doesn’t even have much emotional attachment to his life in Joseon—it’s more of a burden and a threat to him.

So honestly, instead of her staying, it would make more sense for both of them to leave Joseon together. After the deposition, history doesn’t really tell us what happens to the king anyway, so why not? There are plenty of ways they could give us a happy ending, and hopefully that’s the case. My only concern is that with just 5 episodes left, will they have enough time to wrap everything up in a satisfying way? There’s still so much to cover… Anyway, let’s hope for the best!

I’ve seen a lot of people saying this might have a sad ending. They usually base it on three reasons:
1. Many time-travel dramas end with sad or open endings.
2. The Mangunrok, which shows the yearning of someone longing for his lost lover, was written by the king himself.
3. The king is remembered as the worst in history, and people think he became that way after losing the FL.

While I get where they’re coming from, am I the only one who feels like this could actually have a happy ending? Some time-travel dramas do end sadly, but others—like First Night With the Duke and The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract—had extremely happy endings. And unlike China, Korea doesn’t really have censorship issues about changing the past or staying in another era, so it’s not impossible for them to go that route.

Also, the whole thing with the Mangunrok disappearing when the king started writing it actually felt positive to me. If the book the FL read on the plane is the same one the king is writing now, then technically the future version shouldn’t disappear unless the context itself is changing. That makes me think the story is being rewritten into something different—maybe one without the king’s yearning because he doesn’t have to long for her anymore.
And about him being the ‘worst king’—he was already ruthless before meeting the FL, so I don’t think his title as the worst king comes from losing her.
That said, I still don’t think the FL will be stuck in the past—she has too much to lose if she stays. My guess is they’ll either meet in 2025 with the ML reborn, or the king will follow her into the future. Either way, I really hope he remembers her in every lifetime so their reunion feels worth it.

I was going to wait until the drama finished so I wouldn’t have to wait every week, but I’ve seen a lot of predictions about it having a sad ending. It’s honestly too good to skip just because of that, and if I knew for sure it had a sad ending, I probably wouldn’t even start it.
It’s been so long since I felt this kind of heart-fluttering excitement while watching a kdrama. The actors are amazing—you can’t even tell the leads have a 10-year age gap because their chemistry is so good. Chae Min really lived up to my expectations. I’ve liked him since his early supporting roles, and his expressions always amazed me, so I was really happy when he finally got a main lead role, even though some people complained about the male lead change.
I always love it when the ML is ruthless but only soft toward the FL. I wanted to see more of his character development and maybe some changes to history, but with 7 episodes already aired, I’m not sure there’s enough time. Still, I really hope we get a satisfying ending because the ML has suffered enough—he deserves happiness too. Nobody liked the Moon Lovers ending, so I hope the writers don’t go that route again. Sure, many time-travel dramas have sad endings, but there are just as many with happy ones. I’m keeping my hopes up—my gut says this one will end happily. I had the same feeling with Alchemy of Souls when everyone thought it’d be sad, and I was right. Hopefully, I am this time too.

I think she will. This is a Korean drama—if she loses, that would mean they’re underestimating their own country against China, so they’ll definitely make sure Joseon wins. They’ll face a lot of challenges, but in the end, they’ll win the contest

Well, for the adult leads, there’s a love triangle involving the ML, but it’s not dragged out and gets wrapped up within a few episodes. For the younger leads, the ML does have someone who likes him, but I wouldn’t really call it a love triangle since it’s such a short and non-serious part of the story. She moves on really quickly after realizing the leads like each other, and even ends up becoming best friends with the young FML.

I loved the whole series and every case they handled, but I’m not 100% satisfied with the ending. Since romance was listed as a genre, people would naturally expect some development between the leads. But even in the last episode, the ML showed no real interest in the FML (which was clear from his statement on their unplanned date), and the FML, who seemed to like him at first, ended up going on a date through a dating app. If she truly liked him, why would she do that? Honestly, I only felt a senior–junior vibe from them, which was disappointing because I really wanted to see them end up together as a family. At the very least, the last episode could have shown a little progress in their romance. Unless they release a season 2, I can’t say I’m fully satisfied with the ending — though overall, it was a good show.

That’s what I thought too… even if something bad happen, they wouldn’t spoil it in a preview like that. It’s probably either FML’s friend or her mom

24?? I felt like it should’ve been longer—some stories were wrapped up way too quickly when they could’ve been more detailed.

I heard from someone who both read the novel and watched the drama that the drama actually covered about 80% of the novel’s story. According to her, it’s impossible to adapt the entire novel because it’s so detailed and long—you just can’t fit all of that into 30-something episodes. She also mentioned that due to strict censorship in China, some parts of the novel couldn’t be included in the drama.

I haven’t read the novel yet, but I do have a general idea of the plot, and personally, I like that they didn’t follow it exactly. A lot of novel readers also said that both the ML and FML’s casting was spot-on compared to the book. I really loved the FML—she looked both strong and petite at the same time, which was so refreshing.