My Royal Nemesis

had so much potential...

i absolutely loved this drama in the first few episodes. there were a lot of not-so-subtle feminist elements as seori learned about the modern world which was really refreshing to see. this kind of time travel trope is not rare, and yet so few of them make the most out of it -- here, too, they really could've milked it a lot more. after we see seori learn about the modern world through youtube and dramas, she is almost never confused about anything ever again which is a bad creative decision in my opinion.

i still mostly enjoyed the rest of the show, but as everyone else is saying, the last few episodes were just a bunch of bullshit. it almost feels like they originally wrote a 12-episode show but were told at the last minute they had to come up with 2 more, the way the last 4 episodes drag on.
- we spent this whole show watching choi mundo be the most evil person of all time, and in the end they resort to making a deepfake of him dumping a body to turn the press against him? and we're supposed to cheer them on for this? i'm glad he went to jail of course, but surely there was enough to leak to the press about his ACTUAL wrongdoings without making a deepfake???
- there was no need for the grandma to die, it added nothing to the story and seori's little monologue felt cringey instead of touching. side note, i feel bad for this actress always having to act out dying in every role she has 😭
- having jihyo get attacked by her ex JUST so that gwangnam can come in to "save her" and turn it into a romantic moment is so cheap and lazy. i could go deeper into this but mydramalist is not the place for serious critical discussions
- there was zero need for segye getting stabbed and seori going into a coma... literally just filler plots

i still gave it a relatively high overall rating because it was overall an enjoyable watch. wish i stopped watching after episode 12.

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Um casal tão bom pra uma história tão fraca

um casal muito bom com uma química absurda pra um roteiro tão fraco e raso, a seori e especialmente o segye carregaram esse dorama nas costas

me diverti muito com as palhaçadas dos dois e gostei do desenvolvimento da relação deles do início ao fim, gostei muito que quando oficializaram o namoro o romance não caiu em uma monotonia ou chatice, mas que continuaram com a mesma dinâmica (ponto positivo fortíssimo)

mas é só isso mesmo, o vilão não é bem desenvolvido, a vingança não é bem desenvolvida, a vida passada dos dois também, a relação familiar do segye fica por isso mesmo, ficou tanta coisa meia boca que eu poderia escrever mais 30 linhas sobre

a sensação que fica é que os roteiristas ficaram com preguiça de desenvolver tudo direito

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nonsense

This drama actually starts off really well. The female lead is pure chaos in the best way, making every episode fun to watch, and the premise has a lot of potential. It keeps you invested and makes you curious about where the story is going.

Unfortunately, everything starts to fall apart after episode 10. The plot becomes confusing, and many things happen without a satisfying explanation. It had the potential to be much better, but the writing never fully delivers.

Overall, it's a pretty mid drama. It has a promising beginning, but the second half holds it back from being something truly memorable.

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Mucho potencial pero alli queda

Spoiler


La historia tiene mucho potencial, uno ama ver el pasado de so-ri contrastado con su presente, su nueva "oportunidad" de vida pero del capitulo 9 en adelante todo pierde el rumbo, la protagonista que es fuerte y "detecta el peligro" derepente es bajada a ser simplemente una mujer vulnerable que necesita ser salvada por el chico (como 4 veces seguidas) ella llora y se sacrifica 3 veces mas, se despide de su amor otras 4 veces y al final me dejan sin saber que paso con su version del pasado de ella y de el para darme mas escenas sin sentido.
Lo que era serio en esta historia (asesinatos intrigas etc) lo vuelven comedia..que dolor ver como todas las relaciones de so-ri se centran al final en un solo hombre y despues de aprender lo que es una "segunda oportunidad" llega a la conclusión de que necesita venganza lol ah pero con el hombre mas "malo malote" de esta historia si va a decirle que cambie de vida, osea, que?
Desde el 9 en adelante se vuelve en un bucle de incongruencias, todos los cliches de romance mezclados y empujados a las prisas y problemas de la historia se resuelven en 3 min, horrendo.
El romance secundario tenia mucho potencial y lo dejaron en nada porque era mas importante enseñarme como so-ri volvia al pasado para decirle a su antiguo amor que solo lo necesitaba vivo para salvar a su verdadero amor y ese pobre hombre en el pasado que se desvivio por ella ademas de no recibir ni un buen momento me venden que al final si quedo vivo pero ni si quiera me dejaron ver si era feliz con la mujer que ama. En fin, horrendo.
P.d el que se atreva a decir que esta historia es una masterpiece...bueno, amigo. Te falta ver buenas historias, con todo respeto te lo digo♡

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Unstoppable Chemistry, Unhinged Comedy, and a Faceplant at the Finish Line

The drama kicks off with brilliant momentum, serving up a lot of laughs as the Joseon-era heroine attempts to navigate the bewildering modern world. She is delightfully unhinged, wonderfully chaotic, and completely steals every scene she's in. Naturally, the electric chemistry between the two leads is a major highlight, keeping me thoroughly invested in their dynamic.

I really wanted to give it a higher rating, but unfortunately, the show completely stumbles at the ending. The bizarre finale attempts a messy, parallel-timeline gimmick that fails to connect its narrative dots, leaving behind a rushed and unexplained backstory.

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8.3 average is a joke

I decided to watch this show because of the hype that was going on with it in the internet (and instagram) and the first 7 episodes where good. It was interesting fun to watch. Nothing serious. But from episode 8-10 it was “Ok. I continue because I watched half of it” and from episode 11 to 14 it was a challenge to make me stronger. Terrible ending. The show put every hints to say we will have a dramatic goodbye and then out of nowhere they decided to say oh no. It’s going to be fixed magically with 0 explanation. Or to be more accurate with 0 understandable explanation. They wrap it up with just few scentences lol
And after that the main show ending is terrible. They should keep the show fun, fantasy, and romance but they decided to focus more on the company and how MC takes his revenge on antagonist

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if you're K-drama hardcore fans, I'm sure you've seen 93489483 dramas similar to this one

My Royal Nemesis is your typical K-drama romance. A lot of drama, involving chaebols, a business contract marriage, yadda yadda. Honestly, I didn't really pay attention to the timeline, the business politics, or the family drama—because if you're here to analyze all of that, you're going to find a lot of plot holes. As usual, the female lead's rival—why is it always a rich, beautiful, successful woman who is completely obsessed with the male lead? Are there no other good-looking chaebols in Korea? If I were her, there's ain't no way I'm chasing after a man.

Moving on, there's only one truly evil character, and I swear to god, he’s just an ungrateful brat. As for the grandfather (the ultimate ML-FL relationship hater), he isn't the ruthlessly cruel, inhumane type. He's still warm, and honestly, his objectives actually make sense. BUT THE HIGHLIGHT IS: CHA SE GYE, THE MAN YOU ARE, I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU.

Now for the female lead—she was described as smart and manipulative, right? But approaching the final episodes, I don't know, her intellect kind of dropped. It’s like she started forgetting about everything that had happened. Maybe because she finally opened up to the ML, she became less aware of her surroundings and just felt safe.

Overall, it’s okay. Since the whole plot is similar to other romance K-dramas—time travel, reincarnation, chaebols, business matchmaking—it might be boring for some people. But for me, this is such a comfort drama.

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Came for the chaotic romance, stayed despite the boardroom snooze-fest.

If My Royal Nemesis was purely a rom-com, it would be an easy 10/10. The absolute strongest point of this drama is the hilariously chaotic main couple. Seeing the main leads step out of their signature "villain eras" to actually play positive characters is a massive treat, and they absolutely slay their roles. Their chemistry is off the charts, and I loved every single interaction they had. (I mean, THE WRIST KISS?! Hello?? I am still recovering).

But alas, this is a K-drama, which means we must endure the obligatory corporate filler. Enter: the company drama, the evil cousin, and the evil bambi-eyes female suitor. She spends most of the show trying to force a marriage, only to pull a sudden 180 at the end to help the male lead. Honestly? I couldn’t have cared less about these parts. And the secondary "couple"? No comment...

The villains also suffered from some weird writing choices. They gave the main bad guy a son to make him multi-dimensional, but it just felt forced. Was I supposed to sympathize with him because he has a kid he barely even sees? Weird flex, but okay.

As for the time-travel/isekai aspect, it started nice but frankly bored me toward the end. Something about their Joseon-era connection just didn't click, and I had a hard time buying into their feelings in the past timeline.

Finally, we need to talk about the angst. I feel like the writers wanted to break a Guinness World Record for the most tearjerker tropes crammed into one show. Seriously, give it a break, y'all! Halmoni deserves to live too.


Rating: 8.5/10 (Romance: 10/10 | Corporate Plot: 2/10

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Simply one of the most exciting K-dramas of 2026

Fantastic acting from the whole cast! Heo NamJun especially won my heart; his eyes and eyebrows deserve acting credits of their own! The production, acting, writing and plotline were solid till the end. Okay, looking back and reflecting on the whole drama, there were definitely quite a few plot holes. But the acting and chemistry from the leads, and even the villain, kept me so sucked in that I managed to bypass all that as I was watching.
I loved every single episode, and the chemistry between the leads was phenomenal. I wished they’d star in another Rom-Com together. They could do an S2 of the show that focuses on the story of their past-life identities and how they navigated their new lives in the Joseon era!

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KSalad Reciepe: Time travel + Soul Swap + Modern day drama + Flashbacks + Loovey Doovey Rom-Com

One thing about me is that I love time travel kdramas. Its one of my top 5 tropes, hence why I had HIGH expectations about My Royal Nemesis.
From the very first episode I though this was going to be an interesting experiment. A rom-com fantasy drama with a cast notoriously known for being ruthless villans. Like seriously BE IT MAIN LEADS or SUPORTING CAST they all did an AMAZING JOB. As far as ACTING is concered 10/10.
Music was also on point. I think I have at least a song that stayed in my memory and playlist so its a solis 9/10.
And now about the PLOT. I get why many people could consider this a salad. Way too many things happened simultaneously and there plenty of unexplained things left on the air.
First incredient of our KSalad and the major plot device its TIME TRAVEL. Obviously a lot of flashbacks and memories and switches from past to present. Ofc one might argue about its originality as well. Its giving Rooftop Prince meets The Story of Park Mariage Contract meets any modern chabol drama you might think of. HOWEVER the execution was exquisite up until the secound half where the writers started to complicate and intricae things in order to somehow set this drama apart from others. One one hand we had the reincarnation of the Prince being Sae Gye and of the shaman being also a shaman. And then we had some sort of soulw swap/transmigration phenomenon on Seori/Danshim side. Which left people confused. First because we though initially she was going to be a reincarnation too. Turns out there were 2 complete different souls that were swicthing supposedely because of the COMMET. The COMMET was absolutely missused turining from the time travel mecanism into a simbol for bad karma. Giving that it was reveled that the switch started from present time when Seo Ri was a kid, when there was no commet, and ended with Seo Ri choosing to return from the limbo to the present AFTER the commet that suppoosedely comes every other couple hundred years completely VANISHED. Writers wanted to be ambitious and somehow lost the control over this most important plot device over the episodes.
Another plot device was THE COMEDY + THE LOOVEY DOOVEY ROMCOME + THE MELODRAMA in the ending which was super cute and cpuld have worled a million times better into a less crowded plot. The Romance became more important then the time-space logic of the story. Don't get me wrong, I ADORED THE COUPLE and THE CHEMESTRY. I found Sae Gye a liitle bit childish and possesive but never the less, cute. The ROMANCE part that remained unclear to me is how and why would the real Danshim and the Prince end up togheter. The Prince supposedely fell in love with Seo Ri in Danshim's body. He died for her and that is why she needed to go back to change the fate. But the thing is if Sae Gye is a reincarnation it means we are talking about the same soul. Why would Seori look at them as totally diffrent human beings? Could not she have stayed with the Prince in that lifer and then reincarnate togheter in the present? Why should she let another women THAT LOOKS LIKE HER have her men for a life time? But then again...what would have happened with the real Danshim then? I feel like instead of trying to save the Prince she should have punished the King in the past. That would have changed the present Mundo's trajectory and meaby this way she could have given a happy ending both to Saegye and to Mundo's kid.
Which gets me to the 3rd plot device: The FIGHT AGAINST MUNDO/ The King: The king was left unpunished in the past and somehow Mundo was punished in the future with some stupid proofs that could and should have come to light earlier. The ML's family was completeley usless + a filler + a massive cliche. Aunties that want the money, a grandfather that wants to force a marraige upon him that has no control over Mundo but somehow threatens him with the kid. And the kid that was supoosed to show Mundo has a good part ended up as an extra in his own house cause Mundo ended un imprisoned. The entire fight against Mundo felt very repetitive. At least 3 poisonings in each timeline. Accident. A lot of hospital scenes, but NEVER a proper investigation over the murder attempts.

Another filler which makes this drama feel like 7 dramas in 1 was the actresses that somehow hated Seo Ri cause of her good acting. One became a friend, one tried to posion her (twice) and ended up not imprisoned but with a childesh BO HO HO threat on the wall. Gwang-Nam was the cutey puppey of this show. The stress relief factor. Kuddos to Min Seok's puppy harmless face. But his potential relationship with the frienemy actress was also left into a WHAT IF?
The grandma part was somehow need for Seo Ri to understand what happened to her. And the acting of mrs Haesook actually made me cry rivers. Such a good actress!!

The beginning was Rooftop Prince style. The ending was 98% copy pasted from The Story of Park Marraige Contract with the only difference being that the one in the past was not left alone in this one. (Spinoff meaby??)

Final thought/questions:
At the end the shaman kept telling Seo Ri that her punishment has come to an end. Why was she even punished for? She did not choose to spontaneously time travel and deal with idiots that try to kill her. She supposedely made a sacrifice. Which did not seem like a sacrifice at all in the end.
Why was Seo Ri in present time left in a sudden coma? Why did we not get to see Danshim? It felt like Danshim was asleep all the time and only walk up by the ending.

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