To be honest I don't know why I have decided to write a review on this drama. It was by no means my favourite, yet I felt compelled to write it.

Non Spoiler stuff...

Reasons I ended up watching this drama:
1. It's a historical K drama. I've recently been watching historical K dramas, (Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Tale of Nokdu, Rookie Historian)
2. Park Seo Joon - I watched him in 'What's wrong with Secretary Kim?' and heard good things about his general acting and wanted to see him in a different role.
3. Seo Ye Ji - I watched her in 'It's okay to not be okay' and she quickly rose to be one of my favourite actresses.
4. It's a good looking cast...

Reason you should watch:
1. Bromance and Friendships
2. Popular cast
3. It has good message of 'actions speak louder than words'

I gave Hwarang an 7.5 (more like a 7.3) , I probably would have given it something different, if I hadn't an idea of what a good historical drama should look like.

Spoilery (ish) stuff

Story
The story was the weakest part of the drama.

The pacing of the story at the end was rushed and wasn't completely satisfactory. The purpose of the Hwarang was to act as guards and to support King Jinheung. But in the end we barely got a glance of how the Hwarang would be put into play with the faceless King now on the throne. Nor did we see how Sam Maek Jong would do as King. Throughout the drama he talks of wanting to make a difference in Silla but that could have merely been words as we never got to see the better Silla.


Cast/ Acting
There is no denying that this drama has a star cast.

Most people that came to watch this show will have come for BTS V/ Taehyung (Hanseong) seeing as the comments are filled with him despite not being in the scene.

The best actors in the drama I would say were Park Hyung Shik (The King, Sam Maek-Jong, Second lead), Do Ji Han (Ban Ryu) and I guess, Park Seo Joon (Moo Myung , Male lead). Hyung Shik and Ji Han presented raw pain and emotions extremely well and Seo Joon demonstrated a good contrast between the awkwardness and innocence in terms of love compared to his anger and sadness.

Go Ara did alright. She wasn't the best actor in the drama, it may be due to my growing disinterest in her character that I didn't seem to click with her acting.

Romance/ Chemistry
The romance was a bigger aspect of the story than I thought it was going to be. Before going into the drama, I wasn't even aware that there would be a female lead. The romance was fine at the beginning because it built tension and brought the characters together, but after the reveal to Ah Ro that Moo Myung was not her brother I was put off by the romance. It might be that I am salty about the ending couple. But I am probably not the only one who thought that Ah Ro should have ended up with Sam Maek-Jong (Jidwi). In my personal opinion they had better romantic chemistry than the main couple. I felt that Ah Ro and Moo Myung would have been better with a sibling relationship.

The romance that was done perfectly was between Ban Ryu and Soo Yeon (Soo Ho's sister). The romance was sweet and opened doors into Ban Ryu's true character.

The bromance between the Hwarang was what gave the whole drama a boost in rating for me. I could tell that they all cared about each other. When Hanseong died, I started crying despite not having a huge attachment to the character, just because of all of their reactions.

Overall I would say that I'd rewatch this drama, but not all of it. I'd probably skim through the episodes or rewatch a specific episode for a scene that I enjoyed.