Disappointed

I really wanted to watch this series, I'm an IGOT7 , and I 've seen Jinyoung's other dramas and already know Ji Sung is amazing.

Now I've seen a lot of the other actors and actresses on screen elsewhere so I went into this with a lot of expectations. And those expectations were met for sure. I can see Jinyoung's growth although he needs to work on his crying and needs more practice in a lot of his facial expressions. I have found that his melodramas really are his strong suit. I was pleasantly happy with all the performances but that's the problem. The performances given by everyone was great. However, the story line had promise but somewhere along the line I feel as if they forgot the central plot and it fell flat. I think the script definitely needed some work to help instill the importance of some characters.

I loved the court scenes but that was the most excitement really given in the show on the basis of it being a dystopian society. I wish I saw more of the world and just how unorthodox it was, it felt a lot like it was a normal world with a lot of poverty. There was no sense of actual dystopian other than a few instances. They needed to build more on the story. The relationship between the characters weren't always so fleshed out and understood. Like when things happen between them and then in a next scene suddenly they are talking as if nothing happened.

Jinyoung's character as well felt very naive and even when saw the things happening around him, made idiotic decisions. The visual aspect was good but I feel it made things boring. It was too artsy and I get they were trying to make it dark and moody but the episodes are an hour and some change long. Add that with tense music, tense atmosphere, and waiting on some action among the long filler conversations and more moodiness, it led to some great naps. For right now I have dropped this series, maybe another time will I try to go back in and watch it.

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NOT DA AMNESIA

When this first came out and I was seeing the previews, I had high hopes. However, a few bad reviews kept me from fully watching this which is why I am only now able to see it.

Sad to say I should have kept those reviews in my heart because this show is really a bit of a disaster. I started actually liking the premise and the storyline. The humor wasn't bad I had moments where I literally fell out laughing. Until... the dreaded amnesia plot. Why oh why do they continuously do these stupid memory loss scenes.

The minute I realized I was going to drop this, but I told myself there's no way they would keep this in long, so I kept going. But then episode after episode kept going by with no real development. I was halfway into episode 13 when I realized there are three episodes left and the Prince still had no memories. To make matters worse he was now being used by the bad guy due to his memory loss. It was so frustrating. I immediately had to stop because I seen this all before. At the end I was sure it would be a rushed he remembered and closing.

Which from me searching the end, it was exactly that. They gave him his memories back and he got back with the female lead and whippie kie yay. -_- Amnesia plot aside......

My other grievance would have to be the character portrayal. I understood why the Prince was cold and hateful when his character was introduced due to his sad backstory. And I still understood during the amnesia plot when he treated everyone like they were beneath him. He may have forgot who he is but the mannerisms were engraved in him. Which was fine, until the main leads fell in love. He still felt cold and at a distance from her. Sure he would say endearing words but it was always in the same deadpan look that I couldn't tell if I was really supposed to believe they were falling for each other. Even in moments when he smiled with her, they didn't have me feeling the love or the intimacy. A majority of the moments with the leads really fell flat. So when they had to be separated I honestly felt nothing nor could truly understand why they had so much heartache.

The female lead's character was okay at best but I didn't really see the development of her liking the lead. At least the Prince would be honest on his feelings, but she never was really direct when it counted. Additionally, too many scenes were wasted on fluff when it should have progressed in a manner that moved the story along. Honestly, very disappointed in this, I couldn't even continue on to the last three episodes for how slow and boring the show was becoming.

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Do I Not Support Women's Rights AND Wrongs?

I want to start off by saying this drama was able to capture my attention from the first episode. It is very well done
within the cinematography. The scenery is beautiful and I love that they allowed for a more natural undertone within the musical composition. The instances where you were just hearing the bustle of the market or the vibe in the palace really allows for you to fully immerse yourself. Really well done.

Now, for the bad, or perhaps more accurately: the infuriating.

This drama is by no standard within the realm of which characters are inherently only good or only bad. They are very much all grey and we see this immediately from the start when it came to the ML. His decision to pretend to be the husband of what he knew to be his enemy's mistress was diabolical. I didn't agree with the lies he conjured up to take advantage of her amnesia. (I am not a fan of amnesia plotlines at all. I find them a scapegoat for plotline.)

But I continue my rant to say, the ML was not an issue for me. He was doing what was necessary for the good of the people and city he was in charge of. His enemy is a bandit, known for a lot of terrible things and honestly, this mistress would have ended up also being charged and sentenced alongside of him for his crimes. So to me his decision to start his deceit didn't make me upset as much initially once I learned of what was going on within the first three episodes. It was kind of like how police do a sting operation and pretend to be a criminal to get into the mob or something. You have to do the unthinkable a lot of times to achieve.

Plus he was actually thinking of giving her an out in a way by letting her go to a temple or something. He did find this woman half dead from an attempted murder. He sympathized with her the best that he could given what he knew of her and her correlation to the person he was after.

Now fast forward this to him being unable to catch the 'enemy' he wants because the emperor pardons all of them from their crime when he finally goes to arrest them. So he is left with this mistress and this fake life and is unable to break it off because he is falling for her.

I can understand despite being unable to rationalize his reasons for why he continued his ploy.
But does that mean he is the worse character I have ever seen as a main lead?

No.

He never took advantage of her or crossed boundaries. He knew his feelings and that he was wrong, he consistently spoke about his guilt for what he did. And even when it came to a point he realized she regained her memories and was playing in the role still, he lamented he would take her wrath and the punishment that came from his wrongs.

This man is not perfect, but he is not a bad person. He made a stupid decision.

I segue now into focusing on the FL.

I'll be 100% honest, it was clear from the very first scene she was the enemy. The buildup to the reveal of her remembering and him realizing fell short. Even if you are not an experienced drama watcher, it was not difficult or hidden well to not realize this fact.

The issue is, like i mentioned ML lied for a greater good, fell in love and kept lying to not lose her. FL remembered and wanted revenge. The revenge in question for his TERRIBLE action is to kill him. Mind you she is an actual criminal who was smuggling goods that started a war and lead to so many deaths and was the reason for a good majority of the corruption going on within the capital.

ML's entire plotline was to capture this bandit that was doing this and put an end to it. Funny enough he only knew about the stealing and the murders but had respect for the criminal at large because he saw through all of the ploys how smart and tactful this person was. But then he found out that they were not just doing petty shit but was smuggling resources which were affecting the nation. AND KNEW ABOUT IT WITH NO ISSUES. Like it wasn't as if FL lead agreed to a job not knowing the reason behind it. SHE KNEW EVERY SINGLE THING AND HELPED PLAN IT OUT. She consistently was talking to enemy nation and even after regaining her memories and understanding why ML started his lie, had no damn remorse.

She felt justified somehow in her actions. Even more confounding was how after stabbing ML for revenge she decided to go right back into selling to the enemy countries? Like why? She goes on this crazy revenge scheme against this other Prince who worked with her in the smuggling but then killed her side to hide everything.

I am not sorry to say I couldn't resonate or sympathize with her because I understand your people had the rug pulled from under you, but everyone knew the risks of this business and nothing that you were doing was righteous and was instead harming those around you.

So tell me why or how I'm suppose to be feeling all this emotional hrumph everytime she mentions avenging her brothers?

I feel this FL was meant to be strong and amazing in everyway to match up to the strengths of the ML. And while I can see that in a lot of instances, I do not think she is at all a good person. She does not reflect on anything she does nor cares if it is not for her benefit. She wants to live out this bandit fantasy life among her uncle, and it seems whenever their endeavors catches up to them , in her head its unthinkable for them to be met with any penalty.

Cause after all they are simply living young and free in their actions.

I say all this to say, it was very difficult to engage in this drama seeing all of this going down. Then currently being in the era of the ML pining over her and trying to get back this woman and her thwarting him every step of the way.

Because she hates him and can't forgive him for his lies. Like please be so for real woman. Your entire character is a lie in itself, you go around pretending to be actual workers but then murder, steal and all of the likes. Why do you feel as if you are so deserving and better than this prince who simply wanted to stop all the bad shit you and your brothers have been committing?

I think this was ten times harder to stomach because it was on viki. This was the first show I had to turn off the comments because they were excusing her every step of the way. None of the characters are perfect, but the FL gets off in everything she does, learns she is doing, and continues to do. I further hate that her and her loonies actions in their gang were exempted and essentially allowed them not to face any penalties for what they had been doing for the past several years.

It was crazy seeing people literally say her actions amount to nothing in comparison to the ML's lies. I simply seem to although being a woman myself, can not excuse all the things she did and continued to do. This woman does not deserve an excuse for any of the wrongs she committed.

And I hate that she was never given an instance like the ML had to and was called out on multiple scenes to realize that what you think is correct is not the way to do things. I did not feel growth from her character nor any semblance of my definition of a strong woman. She is simply a character who is intuitive and cunning but missing the qualities of a strong woman by integrity definition.

She did not have to be perfect. Honestly, if she realized her actions were not good and admitted her part in the inner turmoil going on within the court and still decided to avenge her brothers. I would respect her. But she fucked off instead on some wild revenge plot and immersed herself back into the lifestyle that started the ML on his lies.

I want to give her a zero, but that's not possible so instead I give her a 1.

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Female Lead Idiocy

It was a good start, i was pretty excited for a vampire drama seeing as they were pretty limited. I think all the characters did good and the acting was as good as it could be.

However, as the show continued I started becoming irritated with the FL, not even the actress, more so how they wrote the character. There is no reason she should be this stupid, like read the room woman. She has encountered ML countless times in his vampire form and exerting strength that isn't humanely possible but still goes around all confused on this and that. Not to mention everyone is trying so hard to protect her but she does everything out her way to make that protection invalid. ML really tried at least three to four times to send her away because Gwi (the main antagonist) knew her scent but each time she kept her family from leaving until it ended up with her father dead because she left a damn shoes in the house.

Like that’s why you’re suppose to be wearing the damn shit, no sense why he gave her shoes as a gift because she didn’t have any and yet she never wears it and carries it around like a trophy, simply ridiculous. And after that scene I never saw the shoes again or even her remembering it. It even pained me some more when she ran off into the palace because she didn’t know if ML was still alive,and then said she was being impulsive because she loved him knowing that he had to buy her slave contract and everything to even get her out of the palace in the first place, but i digress. Nothing could be worse than when the rogue vampire had killed everyone and ML finally had him down to kill him and she starts screaming not to kill the vampire, and now the vampire is of use to Gwi. After that scene I couldn’t deal at all anymore, it was ridiculous. I’ve seen countless dramas with female leads that are a bit of airheads but this honestly takes the cake. Semi high rating is only for the actors and team who helped put together this foolery despite the questionable character setups.

I barely remember any of the music in this, it was pretty forgettable.
The chemistry between the leads was hardly what I would call swoon worthy.

Sad I had to drop this after basically being at the end, but I couldn't stomach the cringe and the stupidity any longer.

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