I had started off this drama eagerly seeing as the concept "Flower Boys" was plastered over the drama. However, that captivating concept only lasted so long before it wasn't enough to satisfy, especially during the last half of the drama. Hwarang is built upon a seemingly promising cast that I watched for -- Choi Minho, Park Hyungsik and Taehyung -- they were eye candy, (especially Hyungsik) but they could not salvage what mediocre plot the drama had to offer. After finishing the drama, I can't really recall exactly what was the plot, which was my biggest issue with Hwarang. I found the beginning to be quite promising, but as the story progressed, it became dull, lacking, and grudgingly slow. While there are some subplots and I suppose one larger plot of discovering and accepting identity between the two male leads, none of them seemed rather relevant or worth binging for. It was repetitive and pointless, and the redundant and repetitive parallel ideas of a "Silla where the king is in agony, and the people propser, unifying Silla, becoming powerful" between Ji Dwi and Sun Woo were repeated with such grandure that it seemed almost comical, as though directed towards a middle school children audience. Despite that situation, there wasn't much political drama that occured worth mentioning, which was what I expected to see within historical dramas. All the questions and tension were dragged on until the very last episodes which was resolved extremely quickly through a few shared words between actors. Another problem that bothered me was the overemphasis of the Hwarang, the group of flowering knights who were to be Silla's army. They appeared to be a trophy to showcase at one point and I wished that they could have been given more challenges after the second half of the story to further character development within the Hwarang and encourage bromance, or used for some purpose to further plot development as to how they changed Silla. I suppose it is because the drama started to shift its focus from the Hwarang to drama between the two main leads and the romance that unfortunately, was also mediocre at best. There was no chemistry between the leads, and for once in my drama career, I did not care particularily for the love triangle, even though I rooted for one of them slightly over the other. Ah Ro isn't very memorable of a character either, simply because she isn't given opportunites to play a significant role in the plot. I have no idea why she's at the Hwarang house, she provides nothing but to toy with the two lead's emotions. I didn't really like her as the lead either, perhaps it seemd as though it wasn't her type of drama. Something about it didn't seem to click with her and watching her scenes became a chore because she cried so often over her little boy dramas. I also wished they could have given side characters more screentime, because I was very interested in Ban Ryu's story and his struggle with romance, family and status. I found Soo Hee and Ban Ryu to be very enjoyable, much more than the main romance. However, there were a lot of plot holes and questions that were never answered, and the Bone Rank system that created a lot of conflict was never explained in great detail. A lot of Hwarang's backstories were not explained and flushed out in great detail either, when the potential lied not in the main leads but the Hwarang, hence the title of the drama itself. The OSTs were alright but nothing special, just like the drama. Overall, the drama was lacking. It is an easy watcher, for middle schoolers to enjoy, but nothing worth serious investment and bingewatching that I would normally do. Unfortunately it was quite dissapointing after the last half when the beginning had a different atmosphere to it and some potential that was never flushed out.