irmar

Resting for three whole years? And he said he would just review from home the most essential documents.

This text seems to be written by a 12-year old. Ugh!

Not that unique. We already had dramas with modern Korean monarchy and I've seen them all, LOL!

Princess Hours (2006)
The Vibe: The ultimate classic. An ordinary high school art student discovers that due to a promise made by her grandfather, she is betrothed to the aloof, brooding Crown Prince of modern Korea. She must navigate strict palace etiquette, royal rivals, and a brewing romance.

My Princess (2011)
Lighthearted romantic comedy. An ordinary, quirky college student discovers she is the great-granddaughter of the last Joseon Emperor. She is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, and a wealthy corporate heir is appointed to be her diplomat and tutor to help her assume her royal status.

The King 2 Hearts (2012)
The Vibe: Political black comedy and action. Set in a fictional South Korea where a monarchy rules alongside a parliament, an arrogant South Korean prince is forced to participate in a joint military training unit with North Korea, where he clashes with (and ultimately falls for) a fierce female special forces officer.

The King: Eternal Monarch (2020)
The Vibe: Sci-fi romance and parallel worlds. This fantasy thriller follows Emperor Lee Gon of the Kingdom of Corea (an alternate universe where Korea is a unified constitutional monarchy) as he crosses a dimensional portal into the modern-day Republic of Korea and meets a tough detective.

The Last Empress (2018)
Makjang revenge and mystery. Set in an alternate reality modern constitutional monarchy in 2018, an upbeat, aspiring musical actress marries the Emperor of Korea. She quickly finds herself tangled in a web of dark royal secrets, murder plots, and corruption, pushing her to team up with a palace guard to expose the royal family.

We are not told. We are also not told a few other things.

Abolishing the monarchy doesn't abolish status. Just as the non-royals are divided into aristocrats and commoners. That family will forever belong to the yangban class.
Even in real-life Korea, where the whole class system has been abolished, the descendants of the aristocrats are considered more high-class. Same in Europe, by the way, where some are still referred to by their nobiliary title by the people around them. Monarchy in Greece has been abolished since 1974, but still the king (he recently died) and his family hold on to their titles unofficially. His son's instagram account is "Pavlos Crown Prince" and people in the comments address him as "Your Highness". https://www.instagram.com/pavlosgreece/
So our heroine will still be elevated in status.

If you want impressive outfits, watch Hotel del Luna - if you haven't already. Every scene where she appears is a gasp.

The more aristocratic one is, the less they want to impress. So her look has gradually become more subdued, since she was married into the royal family. Have you notice how Princess Catherine of Wales dresses? She doesn't wear Met Gala style clothes.

People of the royal household are supposed to dress classy, elegant but not overly flashy. See how the Princess of Wales dresses. Flawless elegance but very subdued. In fact, English lords and ladies don't dress in an eye-catching manner. Very plain clothes, although they will be of top quality. We have read multiple accounts of people who went to visit an aristocrat and took him for the gardener. Flashy haute couture is more for stars in the world of entertainment and of course the nouveau riches, the parvenus. Old money never flaunts, they don't need to show off their status, they have nothing to prove.
Our heroine was not old money, on the contrary she fought tooth and nail to get what she got, and she was a sort of influencer, so she was flashy in the beginning of the drama. But she married into the royal family of aristocrats, so she adapted to that style. I think the costumer's choices were on point regarding that.

For me it's intensely pleasurable, I can't wait for the episodes to drop and I savour them hungrily, but a bit like eating junk food or empty calories, it leaves a shallow feeling afterwards.

You're right, this definitely needed 16 episodes. But do you remember, in the scene where the queen mother talks with her father and he suggests that she put fire on purpose to kill her husband, she says, horrified "That's what you've been thinking of me all these years?" Indicating that she didn't mean it to happen, she just wanted to burn the document.
I don't know for sure, but that's the impression that I got from that scene.

I don't think that this kind of drama wouldn't have a happy ending.

They haven't had the time to flesh out anyone's story. I think it's a very good role as it is, and she's wonderful in it.

I also agree with you.

Yet they say "Episode 37 ends with....". How can they do that? The show has ended yesterday, hasn't it?

I found another article from May 13th, I think that this is the ending. It's in Chinese but I used Google Translate.
https://cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/7879776328/1d5abd84806801ke10?froms=ggmp

The spoiler of spoilers. Open at your own risk. In this article, the ending of the drama is discussed.
https://www.tonboriday.com/2026/05/lady-liberty-2026-drama-ending.html

Excellent, I loved it.

It's a solid 9, if not 9 and a half.

I totally disagree with you. There is just enough shock, and we've seen her keenly observing and educating herself. I actually despise dramas where, like in The Great Doctor, the person who time-travelled keeps wearing her hair in the original fashion for 8 episodes, keeps saying English words forgetting that no one understands etc. them. It frustrates me no end.
This progression seemed natural.
What happened to the original owner of the body? In most of these soul-swapping dramas we are not told until much later. It's only been two episodes.
I think it's very well done.

At least that's what we're shown. Even old people continue calling each other with old names. Same for two men. If one calls the other hyeong or seonbae, even if the younger or junior person has become very important, a CEO etc., he still calls the other one, his subordinate, hyeong or seonbae.

When you have been calling someone "oppa" for years, in Korea, it stays that way.