This review may contain spoilers
There Are Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen!
Now, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this series. Hand to God, I enjoyed it. However, one major qualm I had with this series had nothing to do with the main leads/main plot. My major qualm had everything to do with all of the side characters involved in this drama.
I don’t mind B-Plot; I don’t mind side characters. I don’t even mind being allowed to experience their lives and their trials and tribulations when they’re not with the main characters. However, there are TOO many side characters in this drama. I am NOT exaggerating when I say this and I would like people to take heed of my words here. There are so many side characters that were introduced early on in the series that you will forget who they are and who they’re supposed to be. It doesn’t help that some of these characters look eerily similar to one another, which makes it even more difficult to distinguish this side character from another.
There are so many scheming and plotting female side characters in this drama that they simply began to melt into one another in my brain, I fear. That’s one of the major reasons I couldn’t rate this drama the 9-stars I originally was going to give it. I was honestly contemplating a 9-star rating (which is already rare enough from me); but as the drama progressed and we were constantly being thrown into the scheming plot of some side character that may have been introduced in the first 3 episodes, I had to knock off at least half of a point for my final rating. So much happens throughout the story, that you’re simply not going to remember the 45 characters that were introduced in those first 3 episodes. Now, THAT is an exaggeration. There weren’t 45 characters, but it definitely felt like it.
This drama would have benefited from picking one person or at least one set of people to be the antagonist/villain (s) of the drama honestly. There were far too many villains running rampant throughout this story and that also took away from the story they were trying to tell. If the evil has been defeated, then the evil should REMAIN defeated. Stop bringing people back from the dead! Metaphorically speaking, of course. It’s almost like after we think we’ve defeated one villain and tied up all loose ends connected to said villain, we’re forced to see them again a few episodes later. The problem with this is that the current ongoing villain is also putting their hooks into the leads and into the overarching plot, so why? Why bring back the low-level villains at all? Let them stay gone!
We’re in the thick of it; we’re at the meat and potatoes of the Big Bad for the entire series. We don’t need to keep dealing with minor villains with very very low stakes. And at some point, it seemed like they were forcing threads and connections from the earlier villains to connect to the Big Bad (s) of the series and I did NOT like that either. There was no reason for the FL’s ex-fiancé AND the FL’s sister’s husband to BOTH be connected to the Big Bad. None whatsoever. That seemed to be a little TOO convenient for my tastes; it was too much of a coincidence and it’s honestly lazy writing in my book. It became too convoluted. Less is more! Keep it simple, stupid (K.I.S.S). Speaking of which, there was a very common occurrence of many of the characters in the palace of being very incompetent and honestly quite gullible. There's no way all of the people within the imperial family should have fallen for the Princess Royal's lies that easily. So, all of them believed her? Not one person questioned her motives and why she needed them to believe that the leads were their mortal enemies? I don't buy it.
Also, ANOTHER major reason this drama didn’t work for me (even though I enjoyed it) is the gratuitous use of violence, specifically sexual violence against women. There were MANY scenes in the beginning of this drama (within the first 10 episodes) where women were being physically violated in every way imaginable. We watched the FL’s husband (who forced his wife to lure her own sister to their home so he could rape her in the original timeline btw) abuse his wife in a very graphic manner. It wasn’t alluded to; it didn’t happen off-screen. We watched him physically assault his wife. Honestly, it could be a huge trigger for some and I think there should have been some sort of warning that it was gonna happen. Damn the spoilers! Also, that same husband turned out to be a monster who kidnaps, rapes, tortures, and then later murders multiple women from the kingdom, including noble women. There were plenty of B-plots where innocent women were being kidnapped and trafficked and I’m confused as to why it was such a major aspect of this series. They could have gone in any direction they wished except for that one. It was lazy writing because it means they lacked the imagination and creativity to give us something else, anything else.
And I CANNOT stress this enough – the CAST saved this drama. The writing for this drama became even more convoluted towards the end. I’ve never been very fond of slice of life type of dramas; I’ve never been a fan. However, after finishing this drama, I find that I prefer slice of life wayyyy more than palace dramas. The last half of this drama lost me. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the first half of this drama with the slightly slow, slice of life-vibe was FAR more interesting to me than the latter half with backstabbing, scheming, and incompetent leaders. Don't get me wrong - the first half is actually decently paced. This is coming from someone who hates a slow burn but the pace was not painfully slow so it worked!
Would I recommend this? Ehhh, maybe? I can’t say for certain because the cast is quite strong and their chemistry with each other is VERY good but I don’t know if that’s enough to justify sitting through 40 episodes. Would I rewatch it? No. I’m not a rewatch kind of girl anyway but there have always been exceptions to that rule. However, this drama isn’t the exception unfortunately. I could see myself rewatching the first half while skipping certain things because watching the leads fall in love with each other was really entertaining. But after that, doubtful.
I don’t mind B-Plot; I don’t mind side characters. I don’t even mind being allowed to experience their lives and their trials and tribulations when they’re not with the main characters. However, there are TOO many side characters in this drama. I am NOT exaggerating when I say this and I would like people to take heed of my words here. There are so many side characters that were introduced early on in the series that you will forget who they are and who they’re supposed to be. It doesn’t help that some of these characters look eerily similar to one another, which makes it even more difficult to distinguish this side character from another.
There are so many scheming and plotting female side characters in this drama that they simply began to melt into one another in my brain, I fear. That’s one of the major reasons I couldn’t rate this drama the 9-stars I originally was going to give it. I was honestly contemplating a 9-star rating (which is already rare enough from me); but as the drama progressed and we were constantly being thrown into the scheming plot of some side character that may have been introduced in the first 3 episodes, I had to knock off at least half of a point for my final rating. So much happens throughout the story, that you’re simply not going to remember the 45 characters that were introduced in those first 3 episodes. Now, THAT is an exaggeration. There weren’t 45 characters, but it definitely felt like it.
This drama would have benefited from picking one person or at least one set of people to be the antagonist/villain (s) of the drama honestly. There were far too many villains running rampant throughout this story and that also took away from the story they were trying to tell. If the evil has been defeated, then the evil should REMAIN defeated. Stop bringing people back from the dead! Metaphorically speaking, of course. It’s almost like after we think we’ve defeated one villain and tied up all loose ends connected to said villain, we’re forced to see them again a few episodes later. The problem with this is that the current ongoing villain is also putting their hooks into the leads and into the overarching plot, so why? Why bring back the low-level villains at all? Let them stay gone!
We’re in the thick of it; we’re at the meat and potatoes of the Big Bad for the entire series. We don’t need to keep dealing with minor villains with very very low stakes. And at some point, it seemed like they were forcing threads and connections from the earlier villains to connect to the Big Bad (s) of the series and I did NOT like that either. There was no reason for the FL’s ex-fiancé AND the FL’s sister’s husband to BOTH be connected to the Big Bad. None whatsoever. That seemed to be a little TOO convenient for my tastes; it was too much of a coincidence and it’s honestly lazy writing in my book. It became too convoluted. Less is more! Keep it simple, stupid (K.I.S.S). Speaking of which, there was a very common occurrence of many of the characters in the palace of being very incompetent and honestly quite gullible. There's no way all of the people within the imperial family should have fallen for the Princess Royal's lies that easily. So, all of them believed her? Not one person questioned her motives and why she needed them to believe that the leads were their mortal enemies? I don't buy it.
Also, ANOTHER major reason this drama didn’t work for me (even though I enjoyed it) is the gratuitous use of violence, specifically sexual violence against women. There were MANY scenes in the beginning of this drama (within the first 10 episodes) where women were being physically violated in every way imaginable. We watched the FL’s husband (who forced his wife to lure her own sister to their home so he could rape her in the original timeline btw) abuse his wife in a very graphic manner. It wasn’t alluded to; it didn’t happen off-screen. We watched him physically assault his wife. Honestly, it could be a huge trigger for some and I think there should have been some sort of warning that it was gonna happen. Damn the spoilers! Also, that same husband turned out to be a monster who kidnaps, rapes, tortures, and then later murders multiple women from the kingdom, including noble women. There were plenty of B-plots where innocent women were being kidnapped and trafficked and I’m confused as to why it was such a major aspect of this series. They could have gone in any direction they wished except for that one. It was lazy writing because it means they lacked the imagination and creativity to give us something else, anything else.
And I CANNOT stress this enough – the CAST saved this drama. The writing for this drama became even more convoluted towards the end. I’ve never been very fond of slice of life type of dramas; I’ve never been a fan. However, after finishing this drama, I find that I prefer slice of life wayyyy more than palace dramas. The last half of this drama lost me. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the first half of this drama with the slightly slow, slice of life-vibe was FAR more interesting to me than the latter half with backstabbing, scheming, and incompetent leaders. Don't get me wrong - the first half is actually decently paced. This is coming from someone who hates a slow burn but the pace was not painfully slow so it worked!
Would I recommend this? Ehhh, maybe? I can’t say for certain because the cast is quite strong and their chemistry with each other is VERY good but I don’t know if that’s enough to justify sitting through 40 episodes. Would I rewatch it? No. I’m not a rewatch kind of girl anyway but there have always been exceptions to that rule. However, this drama isn’t the exception unfortunately. I could see myself rewatching the first half while skipping certain things because watching the leads fall in love with each other was really entertaining. But after that, doubtful.
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