Wow! What a masterpiece! Where should I start from?!
The ACTING was amazing especially Ji Chang Wook. Almost all actors did their best to portray their character. I could deeply feel for each of the characters, even the worse evil ones. The strong point about this drama was that except Wang Yu, none of the characters were idealized. Each character had its own reasons and attitude. Nobody was completely right or wrong. Even the reasoning and arguments of main evil character seemed logical sometimes. Except Wang Yu, each character had interesting and exciting aspects and time to time you may have different feelings about them.
* Wang Yu was too perfect from the first second to the last and this made his character boring. Actually they should have left some space for him to develop.
* Empress Ki was really, really admirable. The strongest female character I have ever seen in dramas. She was a perfect warrior as well as being extremely wise and very attractive.
* Emperor is the character that distinguishes this masterpiece from a lot of dramas of its type: A very weak and hopeless character that at last becomes strong and wise. A really great and amusing character development that also shows how great was Empress Ki that had such an intense effect on him.
The STORY was really great, almost never got bored because each time another surprise came and I got shocked. It included interesting and intelligent plots and there were a lot of times I said "WOW! How could they ever think about such a plan?!". Empress Ki's plans and efforts were really impressive. It assures you that she truly deserves such a high position.
The ROMANCE was really intense and complex. Until the last episode I was not sure about Nyang's true feelings. That made the romance part really exciting. The weak part of a lot of romantic dramas is that after leads find out their true feelings, it gets boring and you just wait for the potential happy ending.
I believe that before strong romance, close friendship should happen and deep love without personal interactions and close friendship is just a fictional subject. To summarize, individuals should spend a lot of time with each other for the love to grow and get deep. This drama confirms my opinion.
Even if the romance is not the only and most important part of the show, but you will watch a satisfying and intense romance that makes you think about the emotional interactions between the leads.
The MUSIC was good and satisfying but not perfect. Actually after Moon Lovers I hardly accept drama OSTs as perfect.
About the REWATCH value, this types of dramas that are highly based of unanticipated incidents and you mostly watch to see who would win the struggle this time, rewatching is not a usual desire. I would also not rewatch it completely but because of the complex romance I will watch scenes with interactions of main leads for the second time.
The ENDING was wonderful one. Now I feel it's not important if ending is happy or sad, it should be meaningful. Not a simple and ridiculous happily ever after ending and not a sad, awful and what-the-hell-has-happened one. A really satisfying ending. For whom is hesitant to watch because of the ending I strongly recommend to try it.

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Thrilling, funny and romantic

From an only-romantic-watcher perspective
The drama has a balanced amount of comedy, thriller and romance.

THE STORY:
The story is quite exciting, starts of with the romance of our leads, when four dominant families Yan, Ban, Shi, and Xie try to maintain their power in the court, and Ban family, the family of the female lead, struggles through troubles and try to solve them with the help of the male lead. Then male lead tries to find out about reason behind the death of his family, Rong family. After that the story is about the power struggle in the palace and second prince's plots to take over everything. In this last part of the plot, the drama becomes darker and a lot of serious troubles occur.
The romantic relationships are interesting and very entangled between different families and between good and bad people. The good thing about the plot is that neither evils or good people are hopeless or overpowered. Both sides have their side enemies and struggles.
They are some senseless incidents throughout drama, especially in the 4th quarter, but overall the plot is solid and exciting without much fillers or dragging periods. The story is not very smart are complicated, but it's easy to follow and makes sense. I will give it a 9.5/10.

THE CHARACTERS:
Rong Xia (male lead): He is very smart and never gets manipulated by others. He never gets behind villains mentally or strategically. He is somehow dull and passive, and can't express himself very well. He is neither a romantic freak nor a warrior, he is a scholar. He is not vey good at martial arts, though have some fighting scenes. He is very gentle and handsome that even though the second male lead is very nice, you can't let female lead be with anybody else.
Ban Hua (female lead): She is very bossy and straightforward. She has a huge amount support from a lot of people and has a very high self-steam and pride. She literally does anything she wants, talk and behave however she likes. Mentally and physically strong with good martial arts skills. She is very beautiful, and also looks very sexy and attractive when becomes shy in romantic moments. Her red glossy lipsticks are a bit strange at first, but soon becomes very attractive.
Jiang Luo (2nd prince, the main villain): He is very stupid, but has smart people alongside, guiding him and making plots for him. He is very evil, but also very funny. He is not likeable, but when the comedy moments come, he acts very well that you cannot stop laughing.

THE ROMANCE:
Our main lead start to admit their feelings somehow soon and the start of the drama is almost all about them finding out about their feelings. Most of the drama is about their love being tested and them cooperating to win over the troubles and villains. They have a lot of screen time and work a lot with each other, but female lead is so bossy and hard to get (despite the fact that she chases the male lead first) that male lead waits and struggles a lot to completely win over her. She hates male lead keeping secret from her (even when she herself keeps secrets from him) and even after a misunderstanding is solved, she is still mad for some time.
One annoying thing about the romance was that after a misunderstanding is solved, we don't have any passionate reunion. They still are somehow on the breakup stage while naturally and gradually come back together. I felt a bit disappointed.
They have enough kissing and hugging. Kissing are bad, if you compare them to dramas like General's Lady or Love By Hypnotic. It is more enjoyable watching them staring at each other rather than kissing like that. No passionate or steamy kisses.
Overall the romance is enjoyable and intense, but not passionate.
The side couple are very cute and I enjoyed their story a lot. Wan Yu is so cute and Ban Heng is very adorable and nice. They don't have much screen time, but it was really worth watching.
In this drama everybody goes into a pairing, even our villain couple are with each other in the end.

THE ACTING:
The acting of female lead was very good, I went back to see her cute or sassy expression over and over again. Male lead's acting was not bad, but his character didn't allow him to express himself a lot. But, he could transition from a calm scholar into a jealous or protective lover very smoothly and naturally. Complementing such a bossy and bold female character is very hard. You can't be very aggressive and overprotective and should let her do her things in her own way, while you should maintain your manly character, or it becomes awkward or boring. He wasn't overprotective and in the same time his role was so dominant so that even the very strong female lead couldn't succeed without his help.
Main villain is funny and disgusting at the same time. He acts very well that in comedy moments, you totally forget how evil he is. Female lead pestered and outsmarted him a lot.
Other actors played the characters very well, especially Ban family members were very adorable.

Good things:
- Female lead's custom's are stunning. She looks gorgeous in them.
- Male and female lead are both smart and complement each other very well, each one has the thing the other one lacks.
- Main Leads have a lot of screen time and work together a lot.
- Second Main Lead is very nice and never crosses the line.
- Villain is funny.
- Female lead's family are so cool and loving. They love each other a lot and only care about the family, not wealth or power.
- Main Leads are very beautiful and handsome.
- Story makes sense. (but not very surprising plot twists or sophisticated story)
- Adorable side leads
Bad Things:
- Some senseless incidents throughout the story.
- Female lead is a bit unforgiving and male lead is a bit unexpressive.
- Bad kissing.

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First, I would say I enjoyed it a lot. Second, I am angry about it. It was a very enjoyable drama for me.
I really like this type of dramas where main male lead is physically strong, and also love fighting films. The development of main lead in fighting skills was very realistic. Mostly, in this kind of movies the hero goes to learn from a very skilled master and in drama time, he learns aalll he needs to overcome enemies at most in 20 or 30 minutes. That's when I say how? How could he be so much strong? But in this movie you can watch slow development of our hero and what he learns from his every fight.
I also like historical dramas, but actually this is the first drama i saw in this era, when we have both guns and  swards. I hated guns because cowards used them when their skills weren't sufficient to win.
I am angry about the drama because at episode 23 a very sad incident happens that wasn't at all necessary and logical. The only reason for that to happend was to make people never forget the drama and put a somewhat forced emotional impact on them.
I didn't liked Gaya's character from her teen age and liked Ok Ryun. People say Gaya was strong and Ok Ryun wasn't, So she was the one who should be with Jung Tae at the end. First, i don't think it is true, because Ok Ryun suffered a lot and still kept loving Jung Tae. Second, love is not about being strong, it is about give all you can to the one you love. And as a lover she did her best. So as a lover she deserved Jung Tae more than Gaya. Third, Character of Gaya was not full good and even it made the drama interesting, but she didn't deserve a full positive and good character like Jung Tae. Forth, in my opinion, men like Jung Tae does not need a physically strong girl. The only thing they want from their woman is pure love and trust. Jung Tae does not need Gaya's fighting skills nor her brutal character and capability to kill people. He was himself strong enough to overcome his enemies.
------ACTING------
About the acting, it was great. I liked the characters a lot. A lot of independent characters each with it's own goals and attitude. A lot of grey characters who could not be categorized as bad or good. The main leads were attractive to death. Kim Hyun Joong is very handsome and has a special look. He can eat his enemies with his look. Jin Se Yeon is very beautiful and attractive. After this moving I am going to watch her other movies. Both of them acted great. The drama had a lot of lovable characters, especially General Mo was verrry verry cool and awesome, very confident and wise character. His fighting style was master-style. Beside his strong character, he had very cute smiles. I usually do not like characters that are not at main lead's side (Especially second leads). But in this movie, Shinichi was a big  exception. I really loved him. His strong determination in protecting Gaya, was adorable. There were very few characters who you could call them bad guy or good guy and this is a strong point for the drama.
------STORY------
Story was good. Actually I liked it a lot because it was my type. But being fair, it had holes and inconsistencies. I do not pay attention a lot to the detailed parts of story so it was not annoying for me, but as I said, the incident in episode 23 was one of the plot issues that really made me angry; I was angry rather than sad, when it happened. The romance part was good but not satisfying. That may be because I didn't like Gaya's character from the begining (though It changed a bit at the final episodes.) so I mostly ignored Gaya's feeling for Jung Tae. And from Tae's side I really was angry about him, ignoring Ok Ryun's feelings and foolishly loving Gaya. Actually I couldn't figure out when he fell for Ok Ryun. And couldn't realize how the hell he could love two girls in the same time. :|
------Music------
Music was also great. It had two rapturous musics. When these musics came to start with the fighting and exciting moments of the drama, I somehow lost my control :XD.
------Rewatch Value------
I won't rewatch it, because don't have much time, but think it is worth watching it one more time because the action scenes and character development of Jung Tae  are really, really interesting.

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