So, another drama that was really difficult to rate for me. I don't think it's as bad as most top reviews make it out to be, but it's also not nearly as good as it could have been.

The beginning was promising and it wasn't really a difficult drama to finish, but the quality definitely drops in the second half of this drama. The main couple becomes particularly annoying, which is sad cause I really liked them initially, but in the end I only finished the drama to know how everything would unfold.

Honestly it really enraged me how Cheon Gi kept making up excuses for Ha Ram, like I know it's not his fault but the dude is still a menace to everyone around him and he tried to kill her multiple times whe he was posessed by Ma Wang. He should totally be imprisoned but somehow Cheon Gi acted like Yangmyeong was some sort of monster when he tried to do that. It's like when any minimal thing happened to Ha Ram and he was separated from Cheon Gi she suddenly could not produce one rational thought anymore and just started crying pathetically. Her only redeeming quality by the end is that she was still determined to finish the King's portrait, even if it was just to save her boyfriend.

One of the main gripes I had with most of the characters (main couple and the other painters from the academy) is that they were against Cheon Gi painting the King's portrait because something bad MIGHT happen to her but none of them really took into consideration that if the demon was not sealed in the painting it would cause havoc everywhere it went and nobody would be able to stop it. Like, they're supposed to be the good guys, but they can't even think about all the innocents that would die and how the country would've been thrown into chaos if the portrait was not finished. This is about the greater good people, seriously, that was so irritating.

The ML was a very difficult character to root for as well. From the beginning he was more of a sinister character, since he just cared about his revenge (even executing it against innocents like hello, Yangmyeong was a child when that happened) and not really caring about the consequences of his acts. Even then I was at least intrigued cause I thought it was a different approach to a male protagonist, but later he becomes even more insufferable as he seems to only care about the female lead and makes stupid decisions because of it.

So basically that's why I kept watching mainly for one chracter: Yangmyeong. He seemed to be the only one with some common sense and who put the wellbeing of the nation and the people first, fighting to complete the Sealing Ceremony and basically saving everyone's lives by doing so. I even think his character was underused towards the end, but he was still one of the best. Damn, how I wish he was the first lead. So I don't think I even have to comment on the epilogue, my boy deserved so much more.

The last character I want to talk about is Sam Sim. She was such an useless old hag lmao. Honestly I couldn't tell if she was trying to help or to be a nuisance. Everything could've been much batter if she intervened when everybody needed her. Like why did she have to wait until Ma Wang got his eyes back to try to stop him during the Sealing Ceremoy????

Although the story was interesting and gripping, it still was full of plot facilitations, holes and they simply kept creating more rules that mostly made no sense or contradicted things stablished previously. It's like the writers just straight up forgot certain characters existed, too.

The CGI was kinda bad but that was to be expected. The OST was good and the acting was pretty good as well, except that the male lead couldn't really act blind. The romance could've been much better if they werent' so annoying and if it was developed properly. I understand they were like soulmates, but I really think the show lacked scenes of them bonding or getting to know each other better.

Overall I did have fun and managed to finish this drama pretty quickly, but honestly I don't know if it's worth a recommendation as it's pretty forgettable and has quite some issues. Some might think my rating is a bit high for this show, but I just don't feel passionately about it to rate it lower to be frank.