I think I might have over-hyped this drama for myself. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, but I think I expected more. I think I expected this huge climax and resolution, and it kind of fell flat. It was still good, but it felt like I was watching a documentary about the almost overthrow of a king, where the traitor's plan was kind of terrible and he kind of assumed that if he could get the king, one-on-one, he would win 100%. And honestly, yeah, Prince Lee Jae Hwa was kicking major ass. He was basically his whole army, but when it came the King Lee Kyung, who we had zero idea if he could actually fight or not, the prince was a mess. It was underwhelming.

I felt like everyone in this drama was a villain in their own way. The Kim family was wild-ing out because they thought they were better than everyone else, and raised their niece Kim Song Yi into this entitled woman who thought we deserved everything because of her family name. Home girl was about to "poison" all the other consorts so they wouldn't be able to have children, therefore, cannot produce an heir. Plus, she was getting help from King Lee Kyung's mother, a member of the Kim family. The Queen Mother (King's mother) was a different kind of evil. She would manipulate her son, the King, as well as the Great Queen Mother (King's grandmother) to get what she wanted. Out of all the women in this drama, even though both the Jo and Kim families were insane, I thought the Queen Mother was the WORST. The ending was satisfying, but also unsatisfying. I know it is insane to say or think this, but the King's family was executing people left and right with beheading, poison, and hanging. Why did most of the villains at the end get exiled? We were made to believe that Jo Young Ji, the daughter of the Jo family, was supposed to be the main villainess int his drama, and was, but it was super interesting seeing how all her plans failed because the King's men always kept an eye on Eun Bo, and would intervene. Jo Young Ji was a special character, where we thought that she was a friend to the main character at first, but because of her jealousy, she thought everything was justified. If she were to get rid of Eun Bo, the King would fall in love with her. She definitely had a screw missing. She was ok using her father's men (and their feelings for her) to carry out her petty, and terribly planned out executions and had the audacity to cry for her punishment rather than the punishment inflicted on her whole family. So badly wished for a different punishment. Another leader villain would obviously be Prince Lee Jae Hwa. Unfortunately, we were not given a long backstory on him and why he was seeking revenge in order to feel sympathy for him, only that he wanted to get revenge for his father being labeled a traitor. Then he went ahead and used the whole Enlightenment cause as a cover, thinking he was fighting for the people to govern themselves. I honestly really liked him in the beginning when he came off as this fun loving guy who kept saving Eun Bo at random moments. I knew something was up though; they couldn't introduce this guy as a love interest when he is competing with the King - you knew right away that something had to be terribly wrong or bad about him.

But that is what this drama was - it was compiled of different drama troupes. It was obvious what was going to come next.

That being said, I was intrigued to see how Eun Bo was going to enter the place during the selection, pretending to be her twin sister and at the same time pretending to be someone else entirely. The relationship between The King and Eun Bo was very sweet and their chemistry was really good, but I am not sure if that makes up for the first 10/11 episodes of the 16 ep drama of her lying to him about her identity twice. Especially since they both did not know about the twin prophecy. I think it makes it worse in a way. Like...you want to find your sister's murderer. You acting like that is a terrible reason to come to the palace. I think it is more plausible than coming in and telling certain people you are Eun Ki, but you will be entering the palace as consort Hong and hope nobody notices.

There seemed to be a lot of plot holes, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I am a sucker for Selection type plots. Plus, out of all the terrible people, and Eun Bo going back and forth between begin a strong character and then a weak one, I did enjoy the comedic relief of Wal's character (not only was he funny, but he solved hella cases and got stuff done) as well as the King's right hand Han Mo who was just plain a badass as well as an older brother type figure. You could ALWAYS count on him to kick ass and help protect everyone.

Eun Bo started off as a strong character for me, but later into the season, she was still strong, but it became more of a mental thing, and less of a physical thing. Then, the very last few episodes, she stopped being strong altogether and instead of finding a solution, she just ran away and hoped for the best. The King on the other hand, came up kind of weak in the beginning (given he thought that the love of his life was murdered, and then came back to life, but didn't want to tell him), but gradually became this cheesy romantic guy who would also fight the crown, counsel, and other consorts for his woman.

Overall, I just feel like this drama wasn't strong. It was good, but fell a little flat. It was like watching a historical drama about a possible overthrow that never really happened due to lack of planning and the two leaders fawning over the same woman, which made it become sloppy and personal. Like watching a documentary about an almost overthrown that just became a quarrel between two men. But I did enjoy the actors in this drama, as they all did a great job.