I was finally able to watch this 50 episode drama. It was one of the most infuriating “historical” dramas I have seen. I do like some romantic dramas but this one was a bit ridiculous. The lead character,Jang, was very selfish and by many of his selfish, arrogant and ignorant actions, caused the deaths of many persons. He did not care of anyone but himself and a foolish woman. I did not see how special he was that everyone put their lives, love on the line for him and his love interest. His character in my opinion is as bad as the other villains in the series. All the hardship and agony many persons had to endure because of Jang’s plan is unforgivable even if it worked out in the end. The initial traumas and shock is in my opinion not worth it for his so called plans to put himself on the throne.

I find that the Main female lead’s character was very annoying. It is amazing how she went from being privileged and wanting to live a peasant life but still kept her ladies in waiting and he guard. Her whole persona and her actions (selfish) caused many to die but she never took responsibility for her actions and were even ignorant of her actions. I thought that she was a strong woman but when she groveled at the feet of Ki Ru - it was a pathetic scene. She had information to use against him but never used it - why?
No offense to the actress but her acting mannerisms were quite annoying and irking. After a while, her speech and mannerisms were like nails sliding across a chalk board. she spoke with this strange intonation and body movement that was so annoying. Normal persons do not speak and behave like that. The same goes for the male lead acting - he was very robotic and stiff.

I did not observe any chemistry between the ML and FL and it appears that the romantic emotions were one sided (female side).
It is sad that many of the characters wasted their lives loving persons that did not love them. All of the regrets is utterly sad.

There were so many illogical aspects of this storyline and all the mistakes that the film people made that stood out like a sore thumb. For example, who wears a ring whilst working in a quarry carrying big rocks and the ring (wood) stays on their finger and does not get damaged.

The dialogue involving the princess handmaiden and Ru Jin were like being in a fish market. It was annoying and I fast forwarded the scenes that they are involved in. I do not know where in the world that servants can speak back to their employers like these do - it is funny.

Overall, I wish they had less romance in this drama and showed more about the story of a peasant becoming a king. The story is always going forward and reverting 10 steps. Unfortunate!!