Wow what an epic show, it had me at the edge of my seat each episode.
I liked the overall story and even more I liked the character and how fully fleshed out they felt. I especially have a soft spot for the villain because he is my favorite out of the whole ensemble.
If I had to rate them:
1- Kim Myeong-il aka the villain, that actually felt like a proper human being that's blinded by greed and that would do anything to get what he wants. He also felt like an actual mafia boss, from the way he organized his surroundings to his expansion projects.
He is actually intimidating, and I will not shut up about how powerful Park Sungwoong is as a villain. Fucking hell he ate that and left not even a little droplet of h20.

2- Obviously Gun Woo and Woojin. I can't rate them separately because there is no Gun woo without Woojin and vice-versa, they are so adorable and funny when they're together. I especially loved how they first met, it felt so real and sincere I can only hope to meet such a friend like that in this lifetime. They lift each other up and support one another no matter what, especially during such hard times where its to each their own. They uphold their values, morals and integrity, so I can't tell you how broken I was when Gun woo broke down as h realized that he himself had become a bloodhound but his big bro Woojin was there to remind him of what brought them to this point. I love their dynamic sm, I just smile whenever they come on.
I could write tons of paragraph about how they are the best bromance pair I have seen in all of k-drama history, but imma hold back lol.

3- Mr. Choi. I don' t have much to say other than I liked how they built his character, how the actor managed to actually make us feel that this man had been through sm and was trying to change but also tired of the world he had once ruled. Maybe I don't actually like the characters lmao, I have some mad respect for the acting. Once he left the show, the hole that he left was truly massive.

4- Hyeonju. Oh, dear Hyeonju what a missed opportunity you were. For those who don't know, Park Saeron who portrays her had a DUI scandal during the filming and thus why she was hastily written out. Her presence was really important, and it felt too unnatural that she of all people would run away after the death of Mr. Choi, they tried to replce her with Dami, but it was a failure especially since she was introduced only two episodes away from the end.

5- Im Beom...why? I just really liked seeing that huge mountain like Blackbear get squandered like a bug by Gun woo and Woojin, so I put him here. Appreciate the actor for being so good to the point of making me want to punch him even though I would just break my bones.

I would add the other characters such as Duyeong and Yangjun (the knife masters) who were really cool but I'm still mentally recovering from what happened to them.

So why was I pleasantly surprised? I was pissed off when the story decided to kill off 3 of, if not the most, important characters in the show. The knife maters and Mr. Choi.
But then I cried, complaining that I was watching the show to escape reality and they were just serving me a cold plate of wake-up soup. Yes, I hate how sudden their death was, but it felt so gut wrenchingly realistic, reminding us of how dangerous this was, how high the stakes are and in the words of Mr. Choi: "All this will end with someone dying".

Which pisses me off even more because as we got closer to the ending, I was surprised how easily KMI had gone down. The same fearless man who fought knife to knife with a master but couldn't have a go against two rookie boxers. When he killed the Mr.Choi and his men, KMI had understood that his boys could not stand against the Gun-Woojin duo and so calculatively attacked them from all sides. But you're telling me this man went down after a simply auditing?

I'm not very happy with the ending nor the characters introduced around that time except for the chaebol's cousin. Speaking f I hate the chaebol and would never trust him with the gold, he looked like he would be laundering it all away from the main guys.

Overall, I still like it and I understand that the difficulties that arose externally to the show, shaped the ending. Still highly recommend it. 9/10!

Also I refuse to accept Duyeong, his wife and kids are dead... they died off screen so bring me the proof!!!!