This review may contain spoilers
I *wish* this were better, the first half was a real struggle for me, the second half was ok at best
I don't review often. Something has to really spark or bother me.
I powered through, because I am stubborn like that, and something has to be pretty abysmal for me NOT to finish it, even if my soul is making banshee noises by the end.
TL;dr
~ If you need your characters to remain true to their introduction qualities, or at least to gracefully evolve with experience. Turn thine eyes elsewhere.
~ If you don't like relationships rife with willfully ignorant misunderstandings. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, put the game away.
~ If you need a plot that's thicker than broth. You're going to be sad until past the 11th episode, and then they'll add, like, some corn or something.
Suggestions:
- If you want a great 'discovering emotions' drama with interactions/interpretations that actually make sense to the events, go watch *Love Between Fairy and Devil*.
- If you want a ML who is a pure, innocent discarded prince, go watch *Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung*.
Side note: Increasing speed past 1.5 makes all their manly striding away look like little boy toddler tantrums which, I admit, pleased me to no end. X3
--- No spoilers yet
I can only say: *So much lost potential.*
The acting and production are good. The chemistry is ok, but without substance, better in the second half if you can forget how they got there.
I like the story premise, they could have done so much.
The *basis* of the characters is honestly good too, if only their interactions and interpretations had been better.
I can suspend a lot of disbelief. My issue is in the writing of the character behaviors for the first half of the series. If you're ok with characters that behave in ways immediately contrary to the person they're introduced as, then you're good to keep going. The plot does raise from child to pre-teen quality between the 11-13th episode.
I didn't have my first actual laugh until episode 14, I was too focused on the poor characterizations.
--The spoiler bits aren't until the end, and I'll note it.
If you want my irritated observations, feel free to read on.
The ML, for a guy who has never physically or emotionally felt anything, if he weren't actively trying to keep her at hand despite his contrary shared thoughts, you'd never know he was actually experiencing anything new, much less enjoying it. He's not surprised, or interested, he mostly just goes on robotically with the addition of stoically insisting she stay at hand.
The Grinch had more reaction to experiencing a feeling for goodness sake.
- The premise leaves so many opportunities for him to experience the new in a guileless way, while she overcomes her prejudice and grows fond watching him develop past his previous unintentional stoicism. - This, did not happen, at all.
And the FL. She was set up to be smart enough to figure out he had no feeling(s) in less than 24 hours of interaction without being told. She then proceeds to keep getting angry because he doesn't understand the emotions he's never had. And her ignorant insistence to apply emotions to him when she factually knows he hasn't/doesn't have them, and by extension wouldn't know what they were or how to cope with them if he *did* start experiencing them, is just, gut wrenching for me (possibly biased as someone with invisible disabilities that people constantly expect me to not be affected by).
- She was set up to be a swindler, lover of money, distrustful of the rich, not a helpless romantic who falls for every non-angry interaction that comes her way. So just let her be in it all for the money, catering to him as a rich noble, slowly falling for his innocence as he discovers so many new things. - Instead, she almost immediately assumes he must love her, in the face of him repeatedly telling her that he just values her for the senses, and then is repeatedly upset when he is emotionless and behaves aromatically. - Have a brain, or don't, but don't make a smart character who immediately turns into a shallow unaware idiot.
The ways in which they attempt to set up the initial 'this is past events as the characters know them' has an absurd number of loopholes and info that just make no sense in this setting. I like a silly story. I like a serious story. I like marvelous cheese and intense country altering plots. I don't like when I'm presented a plot so loose and full of holes that I can't possibly be taken serious as a viewer.
SPOILERS
They swap senses/senseless, and apparently, not having senses makes you a martial arts demi-god without the need to know or practice martial arts previously, or at all, or something.
- The FL sure does display a LOT of emotional turbulence, and impulsive behavior, for someone who is supposed to not be able to feel anything anymore unless she's touching ML.
- By the second half, they're both displaying inconsistent physical and emotional senses, regardless of who currently possesses the senses. It practically becomes a moot point, except for this prophecy thing.
The main (read, ONLY) antagonist.. I mean. He was fine, I guess. Obsessive, sure.
Unfortunately the final twist feels like it took away pretty much everything that was supposed to be on the line previously.
- There was no prophecy, it was a lie concocted by the consort and her dad.
- They made sure they prophecy would stick by feeding something to the pregnant Empress that resulted in the prince's lack of senses.
- The second prince, who they were doing this for was *at least* in or near his 20s already, since the FL was in her preteens during events 10 years prior. I can't imagine that this full adult wouldn't be in on the prophecy plot, since he was literally there for, if not actively participating in, the killings designed to frame the ML. I suppose they could have set him up as becoming obsessive and privately psychotic after his mother's death, believing the lies - but they didn't do that.
I powered through, because I am stubborn like that, and something has to be pretty abysmal for me NOT to finish it, even if my soul is making banshee noises by the end.
TL;dr
~ If you need your characters to remain true to their introduction qualities, or at least to gracefully evolve with experience. Turn thine eyes elsewhere.
~ If you don't like relationships rife with willfully ignorant misunderstandings. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, put the game away.
~ If you need a plot that's thicker than broth. You're going to be sad until past the 11th episode, and then they'll add, like, some corn or something.
Suggestions:
- If you want a great 'discovering emotions' drama with interactions/interpretations that actually make sense to the events, go watch *Love Between Fairy and Devil*.
- If you want a ML who is a pure, innocent discarded prince, go watch *Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung*.
Side note: Increasing speed past 1.5 makes all their manly striding away look like little boy toddler tantrums which, I admit, pleased me to no end. X3
--- No spoilers yet
I can only say: *So much lost potential.*
The acting and production are good. The chemistry is ok, but without substance, better in the second half if you can forget how they got there.
I like the story premise, they could have done so much.
The *basis* of the characters is honestly good too, if only their interactions and interpretations had been better.
I can suspend a lot of disbelief. My issue is in the writing of the character behaviors for the first half of the series. If you're ok with characters that behave in ways immediately contrary to the person they're introduced as, then you're good to keep going. The plot does raise from child to pre-teen quality between the 11-13th episode.
I didn't have my first actual laugh until episode 14, I was too focused on the poor characterizations.
--The spoiler bits aren't until the end, and I'll note it.
If you want my irritated observations, feel free to read on.
The ML, for a guy who has never physically or emotionally felt anything, if he weren't actively trying to keep her at hand despite his contrary shared thoughts, you'd never know he was actually experiencing anything new, much less enjoying it. He's not surprised, or interested, he mostly just goes on robotically with the addition of stoically insisting she stay at hand.
The Grinch had more reaction to experiencing a feeling for goodness sake.
- The premise leaves so many opportunities for him to experience the new in a guileless way, while she overcomes her prejudice and grows fond watching him develop past his previous unintentional stoicism. - This, did not happen, at all.
And the FL. She was set up to be smart enough to figure out he had no feeling(s) in less than 24 hours of interaction without being told. She then proceeds to keep getting angry because he doesn't understand the emotions he's never had. And her ignorant insistence to apply emotions to him when she factually knows he hasn't/doesn't have them, and by extension wouldn't know what they were or how to cope with them if he *did* start experiencing them, is just, gut wrenching for me (possibly biased as someone with invisible disabilities that people constantly expect me to not be affected by).
- She was set up to be a swindler, lover of money, distrustful of the rich, not a helpless romantic who falls for every non-angry interaction that comes her way. So just let her be in it all for the money, catering to him as a rich noble, slowly falling for his innocence as he discovers so many new things. - Instead, she almost immediately assumes he must love her, in the face of him repeatedly telling her that he just values her for the senses, and then is repeatedly upset when he is emotionless and behaves aromatically. - Have a brain, or don't, but don't make a smart character who immediately turns into a shallow unaware idiot.
The ways in which they attempt to set up the initial 'this is past events as the characters know them' has an absurd number of loopholes and info that just make no sense in this setting. I like a silly story. I like a serious story. I like marvelous cheese and intense country altering plots. I don't like when I'm presented a plot so loose and full of holes that I can't possibly be taken serious as a viewer.
SPOILERS
They swap senses/senseless, and apparently, not having senses makes you a martial arts demi-god without the need to know or practice martial arts previously, or at all, or something.
- The FL sure does display a LOT of emotional turbulence, and impulsive behavior, for someone who is supposed to not be able to feel anything anymore unless she's touching ML.
- By the second half, they're both displaying inconsistent physical and emotional senses, regardless of who currently possesses the senses. It practically becomes a moot point, except for this prophecy thing.
The main (read, ONLY) antagonist.. I mean. He was fine, I guess. Obsessive, sure.
Unfortunately the final twist feels like it took away pretty much everything that was supposed to be on the line previously.
- There was no prophecy, it was a lie concocted by the consort and her dad.
- They made sure they prophecy would stick by feeding something to the pregnant Empress that resulted in the prince's lack of senses.
- The second prince, who they were doing this for was *at least* in or near his 20s already, since the FL was in her preteens during events 10 years prior. I can't imagine that this full adult wouldn't be in on the prophecy plot, since he was literally there for, if not actively participating in, the killings designed to frame the ML. I suppose they could have set him up as becoming obsessive and privately psychotic after his mother's death, believing the lies - but they didn't do that.
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