lupisohu

What a dissapointment seriously! Why destroy ending of such a well written drama?

I was loving the characterization and acting, and that's rare tbh. But then, suddenly, all went to illogical kdrama void right there in the last episode. How do you destroy something so good in just 1 episode? It was 8.5-9/10 upto that point, seriously wth...

And what is up with this continuous tendency in kdramas of letting the actual wrong doers get away with what they did in the end? They are either conveniently forgotten or given their own happy endings. Noticing this pattern a lot. Are you afraid of showing something?

Anyways, here's the recommendation - AVOID. The drama is good with top notch acting, characterization, plot and acting but ending is piss poor. Blame whoever in script writing department had a stroke midway writing climax. I doubt its the original script writers though, otherwise how did they deliver the first 6+ amazing episodes.

Final rating: 4/10

Starts good, then goes down the drain.

Writers decided to butcher their own established characters because they can't stretch plot to 16 episodes without shoving in same overused, irritating and utterly idiotic kdrama tropes. And then they chickened out in the ending too.

If you can't handle an age-gap romance properly, then don't make one. Someone in comments below said this would be better if it was 12 episodes drama - I disagree. It would have been better with 8 episodes instead. So, to put it in perspective, there's almost 8 hrs worth of moping, unrealistic decision making, plot forcing and bloat in a 16 hrs series. The Pacing is also problematic.

Now I understand why people were saying to skip a lot of episodes from the mid section.

But I don't rate something based on disappointment alone. There is still stuff in this that I liked. Mainly, ML's character, his friend's character and side story, the office trio, ML FL chemistry at some points (First half mostly, believe it or not) and some side characters.

Overall rating 6/10

Good watch but later half was weird...

Thankfully, good ending

There are a few logical inconsistencies too but I am just gonna ignore them since I liked actors and characterization.

Tbh, the first half, I liked actually more than webtoon, and thats rare.

They do water down certain scenes from webtoon—as expected of a pg friendly drama—but its still bearable.

Rating 8.0/10 (First half 8.5/10)

Thank You! Well said! Sadly such reviews are rarely seen 😂

I literally abhorred the FL, she was repulsive beyond words tbh. Are we seriously supposed to watch this ungrateful and narcissistic hypocrite for more that 5 minutes? And are you seriously telling me this disaster of a brain power survived during joseon period and qing invasion too? WOW!? Go kid someone else.

If they can't do romance they should have eliminated it altogether. If they stuck with war storyline, like Kingdom did, this drama would have been much better.

I loved your ending, and if that happened it would have saved this dumpster fire but sadly that didnt happen.

So, yes, imo too, this was an "absolute shit" drama and a complete waste of time.

I have already put spoiler details in spoiler tag and any comment will take up space in comment section, iirc that's what comment section is for 🙄
Just so you know, your own review of drama is taking 5 paras worth of space, if you're that worried about comment section space, go trim that first.

No, I'm not disrespectful towards anyone. An analysis of a fictional drama with majority fictional characters and a criticism of its "general" opinion is not a "personal" attack on anyone.

TLDR: You liked this drama, I didn't, its as simple as that. That's called a difference of opinion. I would have much preferred if you talked about your own opinion or disagreement on drama instead.

Hope that clears your grievances.

My comment is harsh to drama, yes, but sometimes its needed.

Glad to know we both didn't like this. Good day to you too ☺️

True, but my major problem is with characterization of other characters who are a pure fictitious creations, right? Correct me, if I'm wrong.

See, the main purpose of any drama, movie, web series or whatever is to immerse you into its world is such a way that you don't start questioning its original plot or characters. There will always be mistakes or holes in plot, nobody's perfect, but as long as viewer's attention is kept "inside" the story, nothing breaks. In this one however, I found myself questioning character decisions a lot of times, to the point where it exceeded my suspension of disbelief.

For reference, I recently completed Penguin and not once did I question its characterization, and that's superhero fiction fwiw.

Sure, if you join me, we can have a long discussion about this drama. 😂

We have a difference of opinion, cope up 😉

Awards mean nothing tbh, drama can win award for acting and still suck at story or ending. I don't know what awards this won, but my problem is specifically with story and characterization. Acting, production and to some extent ost in this are, yes, award worthy. But for me story reigns supreme.

FWIW a lot of oscar winning movies are drag themselves. i don't know why awards would ever be a measure of one's entertainment factor.

It's not deep, its shit. Sorry, I don't mince words.

I have seen deep characterization and this is not it. I think what you're confusing with characterization is acting. Actors played their roles to perfection that's why characterization "feels" deep but actually its not. Just isolate the acting from character and look at character decisions in isolation, you will notice how stupid they all have been.

Mehhh....tbh

Forget ending, it starts losing pace midway around. Story tries hard to create twists yet fails, still its somewhat there so I won't blame it completely. Comedy really takes away from the horror element making the immersion and seriousness go out of window real fast. I would have preferred if they would have concentrated on horror element more. FL's characterization takes a nonsensical radical shift in last 2 episodes which was a bit annoying to watch tbh but at that point I stopped caring about any characters at all....so yea. ML's characterization remains same but was nothing special in start too.

So overall....mehhhhhh....can't say more. 5-6/10

Because writer wants it that way, nothing else. Her obsession with that crush is a joke tbh, its unrealistic and immersion breaking IMHO.

Wanna see a real well written triangle, go watch Before We Get Married. That's what a person question their love as real love or infatuation looks like.

I didn't find it realistic at all tbh. Nobody is "that" ungrateful to their savior just because they heard some gossip. Nor is anybody "that" enamored with a crush. People "move on".

Just imagine yourself in real world scenario, if you meet a new person in neighborhood who has a bad rep, would you outright insult him? I think not, our first reaction is to be courteous and then we reassess our opinions based on other party's reaction. Gossip only gives us an idea of what world thinks of a person not what "we" think. Its a sorta starter base but never a driving force in face to face impromptu interactions.

Sorry for unexpected, unwanted and unneeded psychology lesson though 😂

Lets be real, not in part 1, she marries some other guy first. I haven't seen part 2, I might not even, because romance is distorted beyond point of repair.

Seriously ML was better off without this wreck of a FL

This, queen of tears....all cliche fest. I think people rate more based on cast, production, etc etc instead of actual story a lot of times.

She is, and its confirmed in first episode of part 2. Also part 2 starts right where part 1 left off. So anyone watching part 1 will be continuing to part 2 most probably.

Exactly my point too, who even likes these kinda stories. Its not romance its tragedy rather. ML in my viewpoint is a loser in love tbh. FL, on the other hand, is shallow and indecisive.
And why should I watch this failed romance of a loser?

Also did you notice how sneakily they introduced it, up until last episodes there were no signs of it. I would have dropped this earlier or even not started this at all if I knew beforehand.

Whats wrong with this series,

1. FL marries a guy who was introduced in last 2-3 episodes, why? just because. = Shallowness/Disloyalty or Bad Characterization/Writing
2. FL keeps condemning the ML throughout, even after him sacrificing and saving her so many times. = Unrealistic Characterization/Bad Writing
3. FL being infatuated with that scholar guy for prolonged period....like get over it pls = Unrealistic Characterization
4. FL's reaction on meeting ML after believing he is dead = Unrealistic beyond saving/horrendously bad character writing, even people who hate each other have better reaction
5. ML being a cuck throughout. Believe me this is the whole romance of this drama -> a cuck ML. He is always the second guy in FL's viewpoint so why's he even pursuing her. Any real person would have gone away and not gave her a second glance back.
6. They created a fate connection and then contradicted themselves, because if there's a fate connection there can't be a marriage to someone else.......that's basically the definition of fate = Nonsensical writing

Those were some, there are many more. What's driving this drama is the great cast, acting, production and cinematography but story and characterizations, especially romance, is a disaster.

Absolute BS should I say? Are people delusional or what? Calling this romance or masterpiece? This one's sheer nonsense.

Okay first lets get few thing out of way,
I love the cast, no problems there
I love production and cinematography too, its pretty well done
I love actions scenes, its pretty well directed
So there you have it, I don't have any complaints in those areas

But, despite all that, its a disaster in writing and characterizations!

Let me summarize it shortly then,
ML is a glorified cuck
FL is a glorified joseon two/three timer
2ML or whatever is a retard
And finally 2FL is....your friendly neighborhood good girl

Story is a bungled up mess of all these tropes combined -> Misunderstandings, love triangle, forced separation, noblesse oblige, two timing, forced triangle(yep you heard it right) etc etc etc.....think of all nonsense tropes and you will find all those here. I heard there's even amnesia in part 2, amazing right?
Politics is filled with an incompetent king who can't do shit and is surviving solely on the sacrifice of his subject. If you can't do the job, then get off the throne, I'm tired of watching incompetent people messing things up. Politics was better on villains side tbh.

So red flags for prospective viewers, without spoiling anything
1. This is not a satisfactory romance, its a romantic despair tbh, you're warned
2. Going in you have a mostly irrelevant love triangle but later on you will have a much more relevant forced love triangle.
3. FL will be indecisive and annoyingly obtuse "throughout"
4. Politics will be filled with incompetent idiots and unrealistic decision making but action scenes will be fun

Read spoilers below for exact details if you want. IMO, don't go in this one blind.

Final Rating: 3/10

Amazing chemistry between leads but series dragged a lot due to politics in later half.

Romance, Story, Cast 9/10
Politics 4/10
Final Rating 7-7.5/10