Kevun

For the punishment, his father died, he's had to spend years away from his family and now he even got switched against his will. I think he was punished enough, especially since he's always tried to make up for his decision.
I don't really see why he wouldn't be able to recover his memories with his own spoon, especially since they included that line about him being hungry, kind of indicates his spoon is important.

I feel like dramas do this a lot. They get you super invested in the family aspect, but then only focus on the much less engaging romance. :/

lmfao not Na Inwoo getting poisoned SECONDS after switching. 😂😂
In the beginning it seemed like a useless cameo, but it turned out hilarious.
Still sad that this drama started off so promising only to disappoint, but at least it had a ridiculously entertaining ending. And as far as open endings go, this one wasn't so bad. We can reasonably assume that SC got him memories back and that he and JH will get back together. Only sad that he won't be reunited with his family.

Honestly I'm kind of disappointed with how they killed Maha off, it was wasted potential. It would have been fun to see a timeskip whith both brothers at the head of enemy states. Or rather, with how things developed in the last episodes, see Ayu in exile and Maha in Goryo, training to avenge his father.

Also they really did Tal Tal dirty with killing him offscreen. I don't get why a drama with 51 episodes tried to cram so many things in the last 10 minutes.

But it was still a very good drama overall. Nowadays they really don't do sageuks like they used to.

Didn't the lawyer say she'd only get probation if there was a retrial? I assumed that's what happened. But I doubt the judicial system would be that quick either way.

I don't even dislike Taeyong that much but that triple slap was so satisfying 😂

Joon Young: Basic work ethics and morals should be maintained at the least.
Also Joon Young: *leaks the team's data to the scheming director*
huh??? As much as I'm rooting for him, that's really unacceptable imo.

I feel like I missed the point of the subplot of Il Deung paying Ah Yi for failing the exam. I actually quite enjoyed it and the commentary on Il Deung's privilege, but it just felt disconnected from the rest of the drama. It's not what lead to Il Deung's character development, didn't really affect their relationship in the end and was unrelated to the drama's main themes. Was it only to show how shitty Ah Yi's life is and how everyone around her is kind of an asshole?

I know right, I'm seeing so many people complain about the pacing, but I never thought it was too slow either. I'm honestly kind of confused.

She was so cute in The Last Empress! I love how you can see that she's having a lot of fun acting.

The ending really suffered from Choi Jin Hyuk's absence. They got too greedy, if your male lead can't shoot more episodes, don't extend the show! More generally, I feel like perhaps the writer has a hard time writing satisfying conclusions(?). Penthouse is the only other drama from her I have watched, but there too, the ending fell really flat. Perhaps it's because the crazy twists work when the story is fast-paced and you don’t have a lot of time to think about it, but it doesn’t work as well for a conclusion. But unlike Penthouse, here I think it can mostly be attributed to Wang Shik missing. Everything was built up for him to die heroically and get his revenge, but instead he ends up getting taken out in a car crash and dies off screen, so of course we as viewers will feel like something is missing. If Wang Shik could have been there to take out the the empress dowager and gotten a proper sendoff, I think the ending would’ve been fine. Because otherwise, the scenes of the villains getting what they deserved were pretty satisfying.

Of course, this drama was also a lot of fun. Shin Sung Rok really stole the show for me. His acting was as over the top as his character, but he made it work. However, I feel like they butchered the emperor’s redemption during the scene when he realizes that everything is playing out the same way as seven years earlier. He fully knows how that turned out, yet he still tries to strangle Sunny, just like the previous empress. That moment proves he hadn’t learned anything and had not changed one bit. So for him to still get his redemption afterwards was a bit strange.

Min Yu Ra was also a very memorable villain for me you just love to hate her anytime she’s on screen. Imo she was probably the evilest out of all, her reasons for killing Wang Shik's mom were simply crazy. All the other villains kill out of greed or jealousy, but not her, she kills the woman who adopted her, loved her and even raised her son in her place because she dared to be poor lol. But although I agree she absolutely did not deserve a redemption, I was happy to see her survive in the end. I think I had to suspend my disbelief so much that at that point I didn't even question her rushed transition from despicable enemy to ally, and simply enjoyed the ride.