This review may contain spoilers
A Promise of Greatness That Fades into Tragedy Overload
I had always heard a lot about this drama, and for a long time I postponed watching it, especially knowing it was extremely sad and dramatic. When I finally gave it a chance, I realized that although the beginning had a lot of potential, the way the story was handled really disappointed me.Up until the death of the 3rd prince, the plot still made sense to me — although I already found his death a bit forced. He was someone who fought so hard for the throne, and then he dies from some unexplained illness, just like his older brother, the crown prince? That felt repetitive and like a wasted narrative arc. From that point on, it seemed like the writers were using any excuse to kill off characters and increase the suffering. There didn’t seem to be a clear purpose anymore — just a string of tragedies with little emotional buildup in between.
The death of Prince Eun, for example, made me cry a lot — it was genuinely heartbreaking. But after that, even with more “emotional” scenes, I couldn’t feel much. It was as if the drama had lost its balance and was relying only on pain to hold the audience’s attention.
As for the main character, played by IU, I thought she was fine, but nothing outstanding. I was expecting much more depth — especially since she was a time traveler. From the very beginning, we see she wakes up in the body of a woman who already existed, with her own life and personality, so different that other characters even comment on how much she had changed. And after that... nothing. No memories of the previous life, no internal conflict, no emotional weight. That identity was completely forgotten, as if it never mattered. That frustrated me a lot, because it was such a great opportunity to explore moral and identity dilemmas.
The same goes for the time travel aspect. The fact that she came from the future was completely underused. The drama never really explored the consequences of that, nor what she could have done with that knowledge. She basically reacts to everything like anyone else would. And when that plot point comes back — in the last episode — it feels rushed, thrown in just to wrap things up. It lacked coherence and follow-through.
In the end, I found the drama slow and dragging in many moments. I felt like it lost its focus as it progressed and relied too heavily on tragedy instead of properly developing what it promised in the beginning. Maybe if I had watched it when I was younger or as my first drama ever, it would have hit me harder. But now, I’d give it a 7/10. Visually, it’s beautiful, it has touching scenes and a great soundtrack, but it fails to deliver what it sets up — especially when it comes to writing, pacing, and developing its own concepts.
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