calamariexpert

And it's a happy ending (Viki has the last ending part as part of the final episode 40, subtitled) and nobody important dies, thank goodness (I really dislike chinese dramas that kill off a lot of the cast, or important characters (like I Will Never Let You Go)). Everyone lives, it's a happy ending and a good king is on the throne. I have to go read the book now. It was partially translated, but a new translator has picked it up: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/jun-jiuling/

Female lead is smart, elegant, and composed for the entire story. (In other similar dramas, the female lead usually becomes weak/clingy/irrational, so this was a really welcome surprise). The actress acts really well and reminds me of Yang Mi in 3L3WTMPB or Tiffany Tang in Princess Weiyoung, and when she smiles she reminds me of Natalie Portman.

I actually like the male lead. He was charismatically villainous in Princess Weiyoung and Princess Agents. Here, his character was raised on the northern battlefields and he's smart, rough mannered, quick-witted, comedic yet valiant. He's a good match with the FL. If they were both smart, elegant, composed people, it'd be a very different drama.

I like that it was only 40 episodes, and the heartbreaking intro was only half an episode. Like all dramas, it slowed down a bit around episodes 30-35, but picked up again at the end. This was one of the best historical chinese dramas I've watched in a long time. Unlike other dramas, the villains don't get a lot of screen time (because that really annoyed me in Imperial Coroner), the female lead didn't become weak and frail (like in Legend of Fuyao), and (see spoiler below), so I was surprised and really enjoyed this drama.

From a youtube comment, "Guys if you're wondering why they sounds so funny and sounds different with their original voices. This supposed to be a flop song in the storyline so they had to do it". (They later gain popularity).

Another YouTube comment, "somebody need to tell kdrama lovers who don't know about them as kpop idols that theyre actually really talented and sound much much muchhhhh better"

Sparkling "Diamond" MV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMoXiDEm2fM&feature=youtu.be

It's on Viki.

Voting/Streaming counts are on for the next few days, if you'd like to vote/stream for your favs. There's more info on https://www.reddit.com/r/MnetKingdom/, the forum is really civil.

The music and performances are amazing. The album of new music just got released on Apple Music to compete for streaming/voting counts over the next few days. There's more info on the Kingdom subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MnetKingdom/

Dawon (the little brother) is in SF9's performance competing on Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQceNVqvwks

Ateez (they have 4 members in Imitation) performing "Answer/Ode To Joy" on Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDOYmJedFF8
SF9 (they have 2 members in Imitation) performing Taemin's "Move" on Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQceNVqvwks

Ateez was on Weekly Idol and they mentioned Imitation at 14:29. It's eng subbed and they have the same hairstyle as at the beginning of Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUDbOk3_Ns8

There are many dramas rated 5.0-8.9 on Viki. Anything over 9.0 is good. Maybe international viewers are easily pleased by the asian dramas. The other thing is this - Viki viewers like asian dramas, that's the whole reason the international viewers go to Viki. It's different from the domestic Korean audience, who can compare a Korean drama to everything else they have available to them.

Thanks. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't just my old eyes that were confused by his hair colour. It's pretty unique though, like his identity.

Loved the house set in episode 3 - don't think I've ever seen that in a drama before (I think this is vague enough not to require a spoiler tag).

What colour is the ML's hair? Sometimes it looks a bit greyish, sometimes dark green.

I love Park Bo Young (from Oh My Ghostess Strong Woman Do Bong Soon) and and Seo In Guk (from Master's Sun and Shopping King Louis)!

I was really surprised to see Dawon (SF9) there - he looks so different as the immature little brother, when I remember him as the boss/CEO of SF9 Sangsa - I loved the part where he chased off the man in episode 2.

Thanks for the detailed reply! I hope you don't mind, over at the Imitation board, a viewer was asking about Ateez and San, so I copied your comment to the viewer (but credited your username) because it was so helpful.

Also, WildlyMiniatureSandwich posted to me on the Kingdom board:

"A little late but if you're interested in more ATEEZ content the best place to find it is their official Youtube — https://www.youtube.com/c/ATEEZofficial — There you'll find all their vlogs, some of their shows like Fever Road and WANTED, as well some personal content from each of the members like MARS ASMR (Seonghwa exploring his love of ASMR), The Sanchelin Guide (basically just San eating a lot of restaurant food and reviewing it with a voice over of him sounding like an anime character), BY. HONGJOONG (some amazing song covers from artists like MJ, Prince, David Bowie, etc by Hongjoong) and a bunch of other stuff.

Their latest variety show Pirate Reboot: The Five Treasures can also be found on DailyMotion with English subs here — https://www.dailymotion.com/seonghwafiles — And that person also has their Idol Wonderland appearance subbed as well which I highly recommend because they're all dressed as Hogwarts students and it's just hilarious.

And last but definitely not least, their VLive channel is always worth keeping an eye on — https://www.vlive.tv/channel/C057DB — for their fun and incredibly chaotic lives that they do pretty frequently. I believe all but the newest Yeosang lives have been subbed (including a live that Seonghwa, San and Yunho did the other day), it usually takes a few days for subs to show up after new lives but they're still fun to watch even when you can't understand them because they're usually just pure chaos lol

I recommend watching Kingdom:Legendary War - there's lots of Ateez on there, all subtitled over at Viki. I'm watching Imitation primarily because Ateez and SF9 were on Kingdom, and I liked them (along with the other groups!).

9.8 rating at Viki, from 2,919 ratings.

I started watching Doom At Your Service, and to my surprise, she was there as a Goddess in episode 1! She had short hair.