baekseol

this couple is so stressful to watch. they fight every damn episode and its not even cute.

the characters are all poorly written and some are unimportant for the plot, it doesn't matter if they're there or not.
the most normal is ML even though he has his own anime moments, he just acts like a typical overprotective romantic provider rich ML, nothing new. also another thing about him is that they haven't really explored or makes sense of his past life. at first he was dreaming of joseon era which was really important to build up the time travel connection but its all forgotten like this whole drama wasn't about time travel. it makes the whole time travel/reincarnation part totally pointless because it just looks like ML would believe anything FL says even without proof whatsoever

my main problem is the female lead. they baited us by getting the actress who played villain in 'the glory' and making us believe she was a strong political figure in joseon. you think it would be interesting how this woman would navigate modern korea. if you are expecting a master manipulator mature woman then you will be disappointed because she is just your typical damsel in distress who acts like a teenager. she is hostile all the time like a tsundere anime character (and its really cringe btw), but thats all you will get for a 'strong' character. its all a facade. she is neither smart or has strong intuition, she is very childish. she sometimes acts like she finally figured things out then goes back to square one like she learned nothing. then she blames everything to ML and take out all her anger on him. its exhausting to watch. her self esteem is very fragile and ML has to comfort and spoil her while she treats him like crap. she switches up easily on ML just by any inconvenience. her character is very unlikeable and she has absolutely no chemistry with ML. she always look uncomfortable and awkward with him. if theyre not lovers in this drama i would be more convinced that she hates him.

its not a good time travel romcom either, it doesnt have that funny element of culture shock whatsoever, everybody just treats her like a modern korean girl despite her weird way of speaking. it doesnt evn feel like watching a time travel drama, its just a lil story about a couple who are constantly bickering about problems they create for themselves because theres really no strong forces in the plot that would get in their way, even the fantasy aspects, and the main villain has no strong reason to be a villain either. its like hes just forced to be a deadbeat dad so he can fulfill his stalker duties. he clearly cares about his son but the plot assigned him to stake out ML 24/7 like a walking CCTV literally watching from the dark.

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king yeonsan references

I really like Yoona and the ML but this show is clearly based on king yeonsan and its feels so unbearable to see how they theyre whitewashing his character. this king has killed so many people, evicted innocent people out of their homes for his haunting ground and kidnapped the whole female population for his own pleasure. sickening how the drama is making excuses for him. not only he took away lives but he also stripped away that very little hope left in humanity by banning hangul and abolishing sungkyunkwan . all because of his mommy issues. and oh btw his mom was known to be highly jealous and temperamental who poisoned another concubines and she also scarred the King's face which was a sin in jeoson. the king even tried to hide his scar when she shoulve been deposed long ago. i guess we know where king yeonsan got his tyrannical genes from. but ofcourse in this drama she and yeonsan are the victims and the previous king is demonized. the history distortion is just insane

this show couldve atleast use a different tyrant king like gwanghae but nope it has to be yeonsan.
guess what, romanticizing him is not going to erase the dystopian world he ran for 12 years. imagine how many people suffered. i'll give you an example, he also executed his eunuch who served 3 kings, forced people to watch him cut off his limbs and his innocent bloodline to 7th degree was also punished. he is the most vile and depraved ruler to ever exist.

even whitewashing him feels so forced in the drama itself.
the entire first episode he did nothing but try to kill ji-yeong without hesitation. he has clearly no ounce of humanity in him, just like he was in history hes willing to kill innocent people. yes he got reminded of his mom by her cooking but his switch-up is just unbelievable to be honest

and oh in the manhwa, she also never went back to korea and just stayed in joseon which was pretty damn stupid. imagine giving up your entire career and human rights like freedom of speech just for a man who tried to kill you at first sight lol. im curious if theyre going to change that in the drama but i cant support a drama romanticizing such figure

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mixed feelings

I don't know how to feel about this drama. So far, it sucks but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt as Its still on going .

I feel like the drama is making a good job when it comes to suspense because after watching the first 7 episodes, I still don't know who's the evil villain despite the multiple obvious antagonists. There some potential character development for some of them. We have the same villain from 'Moonshine' portraying a similar role, however in this drama, he has some internal dialogues that I wouldn't describe as pure evil. Then we have his rebel son who has issues and is projecting his miserable life to FL, I'm not sure if he's in love with her at all but even Wang So of Scarlet Heart Ryeo wasn't this abusive to FL. All his screentimes he's either always saying something hateful and mean to FL, or he's plotting against his father or the crown prince. Its a mystery if he will redeem himself later or not. Its also a mystery if the 2nd female 2nd lead would turn into a villain because for some reason they decided to make this a love triangle even though she did seemingly liked the 2nd male lead at first. There's also a mysterious character thats not revealed yet, and then idk if its only a cameo but I've seen Choi Kwang II on the first episode and idk if he's going to have a major role.

I disagree to other comments criticizing the body swap acting. They did not act cringe in any way and theres no exaggerated crash outs which is understandable given their situation. I also think its sexist to even assume how a woman or man should talk and behave. Not all men are hypermasculine and not all women have to talk or behave a certain way just to sound like a woman. This drama doesn't really have that overly comedy vibes like Mr.Queen or Moonriver. It also didn't have much weird fantasy lore to explain the body swap. Its more focused on politics and romance. The male lead spending time with FL and the bodyswap feels like a relief because she's always bullied by her brother in laws

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