newgrl

Commercials. In South Korea, there weren't commercial breaks in the dramas, only a bunch at the beginning and the end. A few years ago, they started breaking the episodes in the middle to show commercials. So a 16 episode drama would turn into a 32 episode drama. This one is really a 20 episode drama that had commercial breaks in the middle when it was shown on TV (MBC network)

She is a downright beast in that episode. It. is. awesome.

Ok. What's up with the cutoff jean shorts and the jean fabric boots? Like... what?

This would be a 10 without the stupid stupid ML and the shoehorned in romance. It wouldn't even have changed the story that much as this was more about power-dynamics than romance anyway. This drama didn't need a romance at all and the few scenes we had between the awesome FL and the ridiculous ML were cringeworthy at best. There were plenty of other potential MLs in this story that were more suitable. Even adorable little ErDan, that the FL met on the first day of military camp, would have been a better choice. God I hated the ML... in every way.

But other than that pairing, it's really an excellent female-centric drama (not harem, but still revolving around a female lead) with an amazing cast of characters and a few great villains. It's totally worth a watch. If you're looking for pretty costumes and romance, this is not your drama.

She's sooooo skinny. It looks unhealthy on her. With the extra-white makeup and the deep red lipstick, she looks half dead. She's pretty and all, but she looks really sickly. Her acting is... fine. It's nothing to write home about, but it's fine. I wish the scriptwriters would have made it more clear that she was acting like a dunce the first few episodes to be more like Shangguan Zhi and I think that would have been better.

This isn't a second season. These are 12 episodes that were all basically cut from the end of the drama. Yes, you definitely need to see the first 60 to understand what's going on.

This is a crazy sad show... and it's not just the ending, it's everything. But without these 12 episodes, the first 60 are cry-cry-cry then bamb! the end. Like What? What just happened? If you're going to bother watching the first 60, definitely include these 12 in your plans.

Very sad (be in the mood) but good when paired with the 12 missing episodes from the Special. Silly without them. It's like it's missing half the story. Lots of crying and then a stupid, can't-understand ending. The 12 extra episodes from the special explain so many things.

If you're using MDLs search interface to look for Historical or Wuxia dramas, you can set the "Themes/Tags" drop down to "Short Length Series" (which will select it as a tag and then click on it to TURN IT RED (which meas it will search for all Historical dramas that are NOT short length). It's sooooooo helpful.

When I search I always set up NO: Short Length Series and Naive Female Lead

In the 5th episode, when the Shens walked out of her house after the coming-of-age ceremony all weird and shaking in their boots, I really wanted her to look at them all and yell, "Boo!!!" I'm truly sorry that didn't happen.

It felt like the start of a series. Like, from there, Mom could have wrecked havoc on that company, killed her original body, or found out they cloned her daughter's brain. The weird director-guy could have survived and become a fun villain with no morals whatsoever. He could have taken out the director and taken over the company entirely. I would have loved more scenes between him and his female clone (would have felt like the Male Loki/Female Loki love affair I think).

Anyway... ya... it feels like the story is in no way finished. What was there was ok, but it kind of went nowhere.

This is a fun, Friday night popcorn movie. Love Ma Dong Seok.

This is cut too much to call it great. But there is something good here, and I enjoyed the main couple a lot, as well as some of the side characters. Even the villain wasn't mustache-twirling evil. I wish the censors would have left it intact. I think it could have been much better with whatever was left on the cutting room floor.

Anytime the leads talk excessively about what they're going to do after everything is over... you know they're going to bite it. Or they won't end up together or some such.

It's not just lousy, it was wrong. Why in the world was Chu Yue the ending character for that confusing bit of nonsense? Most of the drama was about Princess Yang Ying's journey, both to An and her maturity. Why not show what's going on with her and her memories? Also, they really didn't have to kill every single one of the characters here. I get this is Cdrama and one or two of the mains are going to go, but holy hell... it was all of them. Even a bunch of minor characters. And why would the writer have the crappy rescued Emperor go learn this life changing lesson just to kill him off one episode later? The only moral I got from this was: Don't be a hero. You will die. Which is really annoying for such an awesome drama.

China is of the opinion that if all gay content is banned on television and movies, then gay people don't exist. They'd like them not to exist. Therefore, there have been no gay couples in China since 2016... .... comrade.
So... no... they're not gay.

No. There's a nice depiction of a strong marriage, but there is no romance to speak of.

Everybody dies... because it's 50 years later. It was a natural death. I know this post is 4 years old, but someone else might want to know...

This is an awesome drama (along with The Advisors Alliance first) if you're into political intrigue and battlefield tactics. Well filmed and acted. Good script with minimal harem annoyances. And a very interesting protagonist. There's no romance here. It's just 86 episodes of the fight for the throne.

There shouldn't be. That's the end of the Jianwen Emperor's reign in real history. It was a natural end. I'm sorry the romance sort of ended up in the air.