This is one hell of a damn good drama that will shatter your heart to a million pieces. It is a lush, breathtaking, and stunning epic historical drama set during the Joseon period of tumultuous change with foreign influences each having their own agendas on what they want to get out of Korea.

The areas the drama really excelled in:

- Impressive Immersive Storyline, very well written, good pacing, and tight plotting.
- Well thought out character back stories and narrative storylines, the viewer feels emotionally invested in the main characters. It is one of the best portrayals of strong female characters, Go Ae Shin and Kudo Hina top my list of favorite female characters.
- Excellent Acting, each of the main and support actors played their parts so well. They really captured the nuances and grey areas of their characters.
- Stunning Cinematography and Production, so many scenes where the cinematography just captures your attention. It is done exceptionally well with deliberation and it is simply breath taking.
- Great Chemistry between the leads and love interests
- Amazing OST, some of the songs are ethereal, sad, and whimsical at the same time.
- While it deviates from actual history and inserts fictional aspects to it along with some controversy, it still highlights a fascinating and absolutely tragic time. It explores the greed of corrupt internal traitors, sacrifices and the courage some make for a better future, meddling foreign countries with their selfish self interest, and Joseon caste system politics that leads to devastating childhood loss and trauma and makes their love forbidden.

It will be considered one of my top dramas for a while.

Absolutely stunning watch.