Production,direction and cinematography in good levels.Nohing stunning.Good but basic. For a 2019 Drama i expected more.

The Music Department failed, big time, to dress this Drama properly.
Songs and music was excellent but way too modern for a Historical Drama.Unfortunately a total misfit.Especially the theme over all the fighting scenes!!Watch just one of those scenes and you will understand what exactly iam talking about.That music carpet is the perfect match to a modern action movie or series.Totally out of place when you watch a swords fighting scene.Many times i found myself distracted by it and i was really annoyed.


One of the main reasons i started watching this was Yi Bang Won.And yes,these days this historical figure is my fixation so i want to watch anything related to him.
Jang Hyuk is such a charismatic and gifted actor,he managed to own his character without been consumed by his over written role.
His acting deserves a 10 but the overall is an 8 just because to me everyone's acting felt too much.Many times the main characters exaggerated.I don't blame the actrors but every role was over- dramatically written.And i guess the actors acted accordingly.Over the top.


I will not talk about the romance as this factor never gets my interest.Iam not interested but every drama has a bit of romance so i just have to suck it.During the romantic moments my attention was somewhere else.It is not heavy though.Is the kind of romance where after one kiss and a long time separation(which you have been in hell during this period)you still "love" and thinking of that one person.Oh well,this plotline never works for me.But i guess if you like it i can say the romance was cute and sweet.


I came here after watching Six Flying Dragons,Tree With Deep Roots and few movies about the same historical era and characters..So if you have watched those 2 Dramas you are familiar with the historical frame,events and people who changed the country.

I was excited to watch another Drama as i wanted to view any aspect of the History and wanted to take a bit of something from every movie or series.
Of course this is loosely based on history but mostly is fictional.But this was ok with me.
I was too spoiled by the above Dramas so i was expecting to watch well executed schemes, heavy politics,plans,plots,traps and intrigue.
The viewer here is just assuming all these.Everyone has his own agenda but we get to see only the results,the outcome, without knowing the previous steps taken or the procedure.I wanted to be a part of it.To make my brain think along with the protagonists,to scheme with them all the way.This detail took the fun out for me.

The same applies to the time jumps this drama has.Nothing is explained about what happened during those missing years,we don't get any hints and we just assume the leads became stronger,richer,smarter..whatever.No i want to experience all the changes and events and reasons why the heroes and the vilains became like that at the end.I want to see their progress,their interactions,a part of the life they had before you throw me back to..present.After all is a 16, over one hour each, episodes drama so you had plenty of time to expand the story further.

I thought the drama is all about ideals and dreams about a new better country.
Maybe iam too dumb but i never understood the main reason the 2 friends drifted apart.I mean the real reason they ended up enemies.
All the misunderstandings,the grudges,the decisions they made was just too childish to me.
The story has a bad revenge plot.Both main leads supposed to"fight" for their ideals ,which never were clear enough during the whole drama.They chose parts without any ground,led only by circumstances.And they both ended up hating and wanting revenge on the same person.But still were enemies!Of course although their friendship was in bad terms all the time,we clearly see it was too strong to break,and they dearly loved each other.But as others well said,all this was just a repetitve pattern which stressed and tired me so much.So the whole "friends to enemies"trope was lame,bad executed and unnecessary to me.And sadly this is the main core of the story and the reason failed to excite me,overall.

Also too many flashbacks.And i don't mean those which explains the current situation and events.I mean just the same scenes all over again and again played as a broken record inside characters heads.I fed up because didn't add anything to the plot.The definition of fillers!

For me literally everything ended at episode 12.It should.It didn't..How on earth you pierce one's body with a sharp sword,through and through and he is still alive?That was the final drop for me.I overlooked dozen of those scenes where heavily injured human beings stand up and walk after 5 minutes.Yes this drama has many unrealistic scenes.But this one..too much,way too much to take.Im sorry for the mild spoiler.


Also one of the revenge plots was one of the many unreasonable issues in this drama.Until that point revenge made-kinda-sense.After was just crap.The new plan was to take revenge on the person who killed the one you wanted to kill for years.The target of your own revenge.Instead of been thankful,you get mad.Well im sorry for my plain thinking here.You lose your integrity the moment the seed of revenge grows inside your heart.Is a mean to an end.That simple.Anyhow as i said everything went downhills really fast after the 12th episode.As if wasn't a hot mess already.


The Second Lead Syndrome strikes again.After Lee Bang Won,obviously my fave char,Nam Sun Ho was the second best thing to love.More Complex and deeper character,made the most rational and hard decisions compared to Seo Hwi,who behaved in the most childish way from episode 1 to 16.Sun Ho does everything in his power to protect Seo Hwi for so many years.Yes he chose the hard way,nevertheless he was only been appreciated at the very end..He is a great friend concealing his motives and let everyone think he just want to harm Seo Hwi.Well at some point to me ended to be the fool .At the end iam not really sure if both knew what they were fighting for.The screenwriter did a very poor job creating the characters.Its really a shame.

I couldn't feel for our main lead,couldn't root for him.He was one of the most annoying hero characters ever.He was too superficial,too melodramatic without any character development.Seo Hwi was never the right material to make a great leader.He was always the dog,barking and biting and chasing Prince's tail.Unfortunately Nam Jeon was all right about this.

For me there are not good and bad guys.It was one and the same.Just indifferent.And this makes a drama ..not good.
The main villain(as i can name more than one here.The "bad guy"'s role is confusing depending on which side you stand for)always keeps his position and power.Always is been excused by the(very weak and occasionally coward)King who turns a blind eye,supporting Nam Jeon,like a fool. The whole world is falling apart and the King is like "who dares to oppose me?"Nam Jeon always threatening to kill our protagonist.And vice versa of course.And the years are passing by and they keep throwing threats to each other and running into an endless loop.Too tiring,indeed.

I don't care about the morality of the characters.I rarely judge them and to be honest most of the time i do love those who live in the grey areas.What annoyed me the most was the lack of depth of Sun Ho's char.You named him your main lead so Mr Writer you had to work harder on building this char with many layers.How you expect to make a successful Drama wihout strong characters?You cannot count only on Prince,who lets be honest carried the whole drama on his back.



Epilogue:
I gave a perfect 10 to SFD.A well deserved 10.Here the 7 is the best i can give.For all the reasons explained.I cannot solely rate this drama based only on the 2 good characters in it,but only as a whole.And it failed me so the 7 ,which is my average rate, is what it gets from me.If in your watch list is SFD and TWDR,watch those 2 as you can easily skip this one.As i said i mostly started this because of the Prince Lee Bang Won.I finished it only because of Jang Hyuk's amazing performance.So if you are a fan of him is the only reason i can recommend this drama to you!

P.s.The two hottest men holding fans,always and forever be Lee Bang Won and Wen Ke Xing from Word of Honor!