Character Consistency? Who. Logical Storytelling? Who. Emotion, heart and substance? Who.
I feel so disappointed, that we have to get into it.

❌ Acting:
I have said it before and I’ll say it again- Lee Joon Gi and I vibe. I think he is a better actor than SJK, does killer action scenes, has a lot of range and knows how to play complex and dynamic characters. That said, he sucked absolute ass playing a dual role in this drama.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, the man acted more than some actors will in their entire careers. He made all the right faces, all the right moves and you could see how hard he was working. Yet, it was like he accidentally brought Moon Lovers’ script with him and played the Fourth Prince for 12 episodes straight and nobody said anything,

Because whatever LJG played was definitely NOT Eun Seom or Saya. He played his own characters that lacked the essence of the ones we saw in the previous three seasons. I mean sure he didn’t have much to work with because the writing of the season was absolute trash but still- his Eun Seom and Saya were the exact same people. There was no difference at all and it was just annoying to watch. They knew it too which was why they just yeeted Saya out of the script and called it a day.

Other than that, we had Shin Se Kyung, I don’t wanna talk much about her cause the thought of her acting makes me wanna stab myself with a chopstick. She’s one of the worst actresses alive and this writer duo keeps giving her strong female characters to play which she effectively dumbs down with a portrayal that mostly consists of her wide eyed and sputtering like a fish outta water. The rest of the actors were good but really, when the two main leads who are constantly stuffed in our faces are so meh, what’s the point?

❌ Writing:
This has to be some of the worst writing done by these usually awesome writers. It’s abnormally bad. The characterization completely goes to shit in this season. Saya, who was arguably the most loved character of the first three seasons, becomes as useless as a doormat and has major side character energy. They completely dumbed him down and made him act like a cowardly weasel who keeps running from his enemies. I was so so so frustrated because it was like they wanted to effectively break all of his fan following so they could champion Eun Seom and make him a convincing hero considering he was Beta as hell in the first three seasons.

Speaking of Eun Seom, they decided to shove him down our throats as this overpowered God who was one-note as fuck, could never lose, was suddenly Machiavelli in a wig, hardened and ruthless as Inaishingi- which as we all know is a complete 360 from what his character was supposed to be. I really came to dislike Eun Seom because I didn’t connect with him at all. They killed his emotions and stuffed him with one dimensional heroism which was boring to watch after a while. All the rest of the characters were on some spectrum of dumb to dumber and lacked basic sense.

The best character was undeniably still Taealha- the vicious, tigress of a queen and mother. She’s the only person interesting to watch. It’s funny to me how the villains had more heart and emotion than the good guys who were just robotically going from one battle to another with surface level feelings.

❌ Lore:
What lore, really? They just made up whatever they wanted to. The prophecy that was driving the whole shitshow came into being with the most underwhelming climax of all. They totally ditched it last minute and added new stuff that frankly, insulted the audience’s intelligence.

❌ Direction:
Let’s be honest, the direction wasn't great as well. The previous director jumped ship and without him they never landed on their feet again. I hated the editing and abrupt cutting in this one and the camera work for a production this big was just average. That’s not to say the cinematography and special effects weren’t good, cause they were - especially with the fight scenes, it is to say that as far as scenic shots are concerned, none of them were good enough to be memorable. They focused too much on the fight and gore to really give a shit about anything else. Also I can’t believe that they decided to put an English song and used it as OST for literally a historical show based on the early civilizations of Korea. Make that make sense.
Every time it dramatically started playing as one ancient warrior slashed another ancient warrior, I stopped taking this shit seriously.

✅ The Good Stuff?
Honestly, there wasn’t much. The hype action scenes were exciting, yes. The strategies and politics were slightly interesting but they dragged way too much. Taealha kicked ass as always and the instrumental was good. It was fun to watch the gorgeous and talented LJG do his thing even if he was completely out of character for the roles he was playing and I sincerely believe his talents got wasted on this script.

❌ Other than that, this was a waste of time. I get that there were a lot of hiccups, I get that the time was short with only 12 episodes and I get that there were new actors but honestly, if you know all of these things, then you should be focusing on a few important themes than just overstuffing the drama with plot lines and hype scenes with no real substance.

I think this is one of those very few shows that had such a big budget and a lead actor that I absolutely love with so many strong female characters and still ended up being a complete basket case.

100% Jeana Disapproved
#JusticeForSaya