I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
MILDLY SPOILERY (for those who have come this far in the season no.)
I was ALMOST not wishing to watch this 4th season show when I realised it's a DIFF director (SOBBING, cause he is SO GOOD) and the actors have changed (OH NO!! I thought with a sinking heart) .. EVEN though I 100% admire the new FL - ML :-D I came to a screeching halt - you could hear the tyres LOL
It had happened for me in EVER NIGHT also .. changed SO MUCH of the main cast in Season 2 - that I dumped the 2nd season, feeling terribly cheated (cause I was NOT even expecting this change). For a year or so I didn't go back to it .. BUT during ONE DRAMA DROUGHT and having watched a DYLAN WANG drama (my admiration soared) I decided to give it a try PLUS OF COURSE I was DYING to watch the rest of the story - heck it was left on a high and dry awful CLIFF HANGER. Imagine the itch I suppressed for a year of a 10/10 drama cliffhanger end .. LOL
SPOILER-Y - sort of - when you SCROLL down
HOWEVER .. WHEN I read that these events happen a decade later .. YAY YAY .. that gives me a CONVINCING reason and a mental grip of plausibility to go ahead .. Of course in a decade the characters can mature and be different ..
AND WHOA was I bowled over by the 2 .. and it helped that Tagon AND his Queen stayed the same YAY!! I love watching those TWO So much .. they can do pathos SO WELL ..
TAGON is the HAMLET in this (as well might turn out to be LEAR in the end?). To do or NOT to do tears him apart .. as does his MADNESS ..
Lee Joong Ki (he stole the role in FLOWER OF EVIL) manages the transition that it's seamless .. eve his MANNER of talking echoes Song Joong Ki's; and Shin Sae Kyong GLOWS (pearly and godly - a NUMINOUS light behind her pupils). She is the high Priestess with a clicking gear in her head invisible to other .. she is not your 'DUMB' Goodie 2 shoes naive innocent.. BUT a highly intelligent GOOD HUMAN with smarts, who understands "importance of play and politics" in the goal of changing order .. it won't come easy and needs to be played.
MILDLY SPOILERY (for those who have come this far in the season no.)
I was ALMOST not wishing to watch this 4th season show when I realised it's a DIFF director (SOBBING, cause he is SO GOOD) and the actors have changed (OH NO!! I thought with a sinking heart) .. EVEN though I 100% admire the new FL - ML :-D I came to a screeching halt - you could hear the tyres LOL
It had happened for me in EVER NIGHT also .. changed SO MUCH of the main cast in Season 2 - that I dumped the 2nd season, feeling terribly cheated (cause I was NOT even expecting this change). For a year or so I didn't go back to it .. BUT during ONE DRAMA DROUGHT and having watched a DYLAN WANG drama (my admiration soared) I decided to give it a try PLUS OF COURSE I was DYING to watch the rest of the story - heck it was left on a high and dry awful CLIFF HANGER. Imagine the itch I suppressed for a year of a 10/10 drama cliffhanger end .. LOL
SPOILER-Y
HOWEVER .. WHEN I read that these events happen a decade later .. YAY YAY .. that gives me a CONVINCING reason and a mental grip of plausibility to go ahead .. Of course in a decade the characters can mature and be different ..
AND WHOA was I bowled over by the 2 .. and it helped that Tagon AND his Queen stayed the same YAY!! I love watching those TWO So much .. they can do pathos SO WELL ..
TAGON is the HAMLET in this (as well might turn out to be LEAR in the end?). To do or NOT to do tears him apart .. as does his MADNESS ..
Lee Joong Ki (he stole the role in FLOWER OF EVIL) manages the transition that it's seamless .. eve his MANNER of talking echoes Song Joong Ki's; and Shin Sae Kyong GLOWS (pearly and godly - a NUMINOUS light behind her pupils). She is the high Priestess with a clicking gear in her head invisible to other .. she is not your 'DUMB' Goodie 2 shoes naive innocent.. BUT a highly intelligent GOOD HUMAN with smarts, who understands "importance of play and politics" in the goal of changing order .. it won't come easy and needs to be played.
10/10
For all 3 seasons
I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
For all 3 seasons. As well as 4th season which I am watching now. How convincing and double-faced and difficult to assess the motivations running through the main character's minds .. the convincing turnarounds; showing of conflicts within the characters without making them flat or even doling it out to the viewers as pre-chewed slush, expecting viewers to just gulp .. The amount of slow time . slow watch is to mull over; CHEW your own morsel .. to suss what is happening in their minds .. and why.
I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
Uhhh if you're asking if the drama is centered around romance, then the answer is no
oh no! Not at all.. I meant is there a romance line in the weave?
For example I am watching Arthdal Chronicles now .. and NO ONE in their right mind would call in a romance .. Nor would anyone call Star Wars a romance ;-p BUT .. A 'romantic' thread is ESSENTIAL to its weave, its structure. Another example Kill It. It cant be called romance but has it ingrained in it's structure .. won't work without it.
Same with Prison Playbook.
This Drama brief does NOT have a 'romance' tag so was wondering if this had zero romance thread .. Eg Psychopath Diaries (nil)
And OBOY am I frustrated with the LOW ratings and negativity ..
This drama is EPIC.
And yes .. I am a very impatient watcher too .. SO OFTEN a Drama scene of intentionally dragged out or repeated .. UFFF MY HAND is on the FFD button ..
BUT BUT this drama takes JUST the RIGHT amount of pause and slowness at the right moments ..
It allows SO MUCH to sink in ..
I'd like the compare it to a musical piece's LENTO - LARGO - ADAGIO sections ..and especially when it comes at the heels of an ALLEGRO .. PRESTO ..
BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL Drama
I have watched (COMPLETE) some 300 dramas (C and K) and this one is EASILY in the TOP 5 ALL TIME ...
BUT YESSS - It's going to speak to HISTORIC fantasy LOVERS .. who love it when a drama addresses the BIG themes of HUMAN CIVILIZATION from the MACRO to the MICRO .. at the human to human level
And OBOY am I frustrated with the LOW ratings and negativity ..
This drama is EPIC.
And yes .. I too am an impatient watcher .. BUT BUT this drama takes JUST the RIGHT amount of pause and slowness at the right moments .. It allows SO MUCH to sink it .. I'd like the compare it to a musical piece's LENTO - LARGO - ADAGIO sections ..
I was getting SO frustrated with reading such LUKE WARM response to the drama.
Ahem I have watched some 300 drama COMPLETE (and similar number of those that I part watched until mid-way, or dropped after frost few eps - so that's like some 600 total drama ;-p)
And THIS IS AMONGST the TOP 5 EASILY!!!
I am SO GLAD I am watching it in 2025 .. at leisure .. chewing and slurping my way through the seasons in BINGE mode .. Blows my mind that THIS DIAMOND was hidden in the mountain of dramas ..
It's th first time I am seeing the actor who did TAGON. Shoots out of the ball park.
And Song Joong Ki!!! He SLAYS the ROLE of both Saya and Eunsom. He makes SUCH A CLEAR boundary between the TWO. IMO this is one the BEST roles he did EVER. I have seen ALL his older dramas and some of the newer ones ..
I am usually not a Kim Ji Won fan .. BUT here SHE TOO SLAYS it .. I am seeing her with new eyes ..
OK I HAVE to give the ENTIRE cast a salut - each and everyone is written with SUCH CARE and delivered with such fine tuning ..
I AM SO HAPPY I am watching this in 2025. Without a GOT hangover LOL
IMO its one of the reasons that contributed to it not getting >9 rating amongst historic, fantasy loving audience ..
I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
To say is it's REFRESHING is an understatement .. Has shot up to the TOP of my personal BEST DRAMA LEADERBOARD .. WOW!!
I just finished. All 4 parts.
And immediately started my rewatch.
SPECTACULAR!!
❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
6 years after release.
Thank God I found it
After this review you wrote - it was just a 7/10
😱
Did I miss something the drained it's ratings so badly 😂
Of course some of us do rate dramas by the emotions it leaves us with.
🥴
Curious why this drama didn't cut >9
Watching it 6 years later I am looking up reviews - no one seems to be watching this 😭
I've left raves on the MDL for all the 4 parts.
So happy I am watching it now in 2025.
Id have died if I had to sit for 4 years for last part.
🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
✨✨✨✨✨
I haven't watched a Drama as HEART-POUNDING!!
(Dugun Dugun 💓💓💓💓💓)
There's REAL BATTLES and then there are PSYCHOLOGICAL BATTLES.
War of Minds
Not watched anything like this on KDrama or any Drama I've been watching all these years.
Anyone else watching this 6 years after it's release.
Thanks ;-p
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
I was ALMOST not wishing to watch this 4th season show when I realised it's a DIFF director (SOBBING, cause he is SO GOOD) and the actors have changed (OH NO!! I thought with a sinking heart) .. EVEN though I 100% admire the new FL - ML :-D I came to a screeching halt - you could hear the tyres LOL
It had happened for me in EVER NIGHT also .. changed SO MUCH of the main cast in Season 2 - that I dumped the 2nd season, feeling terribly cheated (cause I was NOT even expecting this change).
For a year or so I didn't go back to it ..
BUT during ONE DRAMA DROUGHT and having watched a DYLAN WANG drama (my admiration soared) I decided to give it a try PLUS OF COURSE I was DYING to watch the rest of the story - heck it was left on a high and dry awful CLIFF HANGER. Imagine the itch I suppressed for a year of a 10/10 drama cliffhanger end .. LOL
SPOILER-Y - sort of - when you SCROLL down
HOWEVER .. WHEN I read that these events happen a decade later .. YAY YAY .. that gives me a CONVINCING reason and a mental grip of plausibility to go ahead .. Of course in a decade the characters can mature and be different ..
AND WHOA was I bowled over by the 2 .. and it helped that Tagon AND his Queen stayed the same YAY!! I love watching those TWO So much .. they can do pathos SO WELL ..
TAGON is the HAMLET in this (as well might turn out to be LEAR in the end?). To do or NOT to do tears him apart .. as does his MADNESS ..
Lee Joong Ki (he stole the role in FLOWER OF EVIL) manages the transition that it's seamless .. eve his MANNER of talking echoes Song Joong Ki's; and Shin Sae Kyong GLOWS (pearly and godly - a NUMINOUS light behind her pupils).
She is the high Priestess with a clicking gear in her head invisible to other .. she is not your 'DUMB' Goodie 2 shoes naive innocent.. BUT a highly intelligent GOOD HUMAN with smarts, who understands "importance of play and politics" in the goal of changing order .. it won't come easy and needs to be played.
MILDLY SPOILERY (for those who have come this far in the season no.)
I was ALMOST not wishing to watch this 4th season show when I realised it's a DIFF director (SOBBING, cause he is SO GOOD) and the actors have changed (OH NO!! I thought with a sinking heart) .. EVEN though I 100% admire the new FL - ML :-D I came to a screeching halt - you could hear the tyres LOL
It had happened for me in EVER NIGHT also .. changed SO MUCH of the main cast in Season 2 - that I dumped the 2nd season, feeling terribly cheated (cause I was NOT even expecting this change).
For a year or so I didn't go back to it ..
BUT during ONE DRAMA DROUGHT and having watched a DYLAN WANG drama (my admiration soared) I decided to give it a try PLUS OF COURSE I was DYING to watch the rest of the story - heck it was left on a high and dry awful CLIFF HANGER. Imagine the itch I suppressed for a year of a 10/10 drama cliffhanger end .. LOL
SPOILER-Y
HOWEVER .. WHEN I read that these events happen a decade later .. YAY YAY .. that gives me a CONVINCING reason and a mental grip of plausibility to go ahead .. Of course in a decade the characters can mature and be different ..
AND WHOA was I bowled over by the 2 .. and it helped that Tagon AND his Queen stayed the same YAY!! I love watching those TWO So much .. they can do pathos SO WELL ..
TAGON is the HAMLET in this (as well might turn out to be LEAR in the end?). To do or NOT to do tears him apart .. as does his MADNESS ..
Lee Joong Ki (he stole the role in FLOWER OF EVIL) manages the transition that it's seamless .. eve his MANNER of talking echoes Song Joong Ki's; and Shin Sae Kyong GLOWS (pearly and godly - a NUMINOUS light behind her pupils).
She is the high Priestess with a clicking gear in her head invisible to other .. she is not your 'DUMB' Goodie 2 shoes naive innocent.. BUT a highly intelligent GOOD HUMAN with smarts, who understands "importance of play and politics" in the goal of changing order .. it won't come easy and needs to be played.
10/10
For all 3 seasons
I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
For all 3 seasons. As well as 4th season which I am watching now.
How convincing and double-faced and difficult to assess the motivations running through the main character's minds .. the convincing turnarounds; showing of conflicts within the characters without making them flat or even doling it out to the viewers as pre-chewed slush, expecting viewers to just gulp .. The amount of slow time . slow watch is to mull over; CHEW your own morsel .. to suss what is happening in their minds .. and why.
I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
Not at all..
I meant is there a romance line in the weave?
For example I am watching Arthdal Chronicles now .. and NO ONE in their right mind would call in a romance .. Nor would anyone call Star Wars a romance ;-p BUT .. A 'romantic' thread is ESSENTIAL to its weave, its structure.
Another example Kill It. It cant be called romance but has it ingrained in it's structure .. won't work without it.
Same with Prison Playbook.
This Drama brief does NOT have a 'romance' tag so was wondering if this had zero romance thread .. Eg Psychopath Diaries (nil)
And OBOY am I frustrated with the LOW ratings and negativity ..
This drama is EPIC.
And yes .. I am a very impatient watcher too .. SO OFTEN a Drama scene of intentionally dragged out or repeated .. UFFF MY HAND is on the FFD button ..
BUT BUT this drama takes JUST the RIGHT amount of pause and slowness at the right moments ..
It allows SO MUCH to sink in ..
I'd like the compare it to a musical piece's LENTO - LARGO - ADAGIO sections ..and especially when it comes at the heels of an ALLEGRO .. PRESTO ..
BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL Drama
I have watched (COMPLETE) some 300 dramas (C and K) and this one is EASILY in the TOP 5 ALL TIME ...
BUT YESSS - It's going to speak to HISTORIC fantasy LOVERS .. who love it when a drama addresses the BIG themes of HUMAN CIVILIZATION from the MACRO to the MICRO .. at the human to human level
And OBOY am I frustrated with the LOW ratings and negativity ..
This drama is EPIC.
And yes .. I too am an impatient watcher .. BUT BUT this drama takes JUST the RIGHT amount of pause and slowness at the right moments .. It allows SO MUCH to sink it .. I'd like the compare it to a musical piece's LENTO - LARGO - ADAGIO sections ..
Thank you thank you .
I was getting SO frustrated with reading such LUKE WARM response to the drama.
Ahem I have watched some 300 drama COMPLETE (and similar number of those that I part watched until mid-way, or dropped after frost few eps - so that's like some 600 total drama ;-p)
And THIS IS AMONGST the TOP 5 EASILY!!!
I am SO GLAD I am watching it in 2025 .. at leisure .. chewing and slurping my way through the seasons in BINGE mode .. Blows my mind that THIS DIAMOND was hidden in the mountain of dramas ..
And Song Joong Ki!!!
He SLAYS the ROLE of both Saya and Eunsom. He makes SUCH A CLEAR boundary between the TWO.
IMO this is one the BEST roles he did EVER. I have seen ALL his older dramas and some of the newer ones ..
I am usually not a Kim Ji Won fan .. BUT here SHE TOO SLAYS it .. I am seeing her with new eyes ..
OK I HAVE to give the ENTIRE cast a salut - each and everyone is written with SUCH CARE and delivered with such fine tuning ..
I AM SO HAPPY I am watching this in 2025.
Without a GOT hangover LOL
IMO its one of the reasons that contributed to it not getting >9 rating amongst historic, fantasy loving audience ..
THIS IS EPIC!!
It's th first time I am seeing the actor who did TAGON. Shoots out of the ball park.
And Song Joong Ki!!!
He SLAYS the ROLE of both Saya and Eunsom. He makes SUCH A CLEAR boundary between the TWO.
I am usually not a Kim Ji Won fan .. BUT here SHE TOO SLAYS it .. I am seeing her with new eyes ..
I AM SO HAPPY I am watching this in 2025.
Thanks it was simple and easy.
I AM wearing HEART SIGNS in my eyes.
True ..
I was didn't want the the series to end (I just finished the 3rd part last night) .. looking forward to watching the 4th (2023 season).
I am JUST SO HAPPY that the 10/10 reviews are THE MOST POPULAR and NOT one by a poor rater (palms together)
For all 3 seasons
I am a Johnny come lately to the show .. Gobsmacked that something this beautiful and complex existed on Kdrama and I'd missed it all these years.
Yes it can ONLY be enjoyed by those who love world building dramas which is based on the historic arc of Human kind and Civilisation in general ..
Using a fictitious world to examine and think about the BIG questions of Life and what it has meant to be human as we moved up the ladder of cognitive evolution.
To say is it's REFRESHING is an understatement .. Has shot up to the TOP of my personal BEST DRAMA LEADERBOARD .. WOW!!