It's great, but could have been perfect

Massive spoilers. Coming from someone who enjoys spoilers, don't read further. I regret spoiling the ending for myself.

Seriously.

I mean it.

Really really really good. The relationship between Hee Do and Yi Jin is probably the most natural one I've ever seen in a drama. Even the inevitable separation--as heartbreaking as it was. The last fight might actually be my favourite part of the drama despite the way it made me feel. The way they started calm and spiraled into being hurtful was so real, as was their regret afterwards. Overall one of the best dramas I've ever watched, but it would have been better had it not been told from the perspective of a daughter learning about her mother for three reasons.
Firstly, the present Hee Do is so different from the past Hee Do to an extent that I can't just classify her as simply being more mature, so the switch between past and present may feel a bit jarring.
Secondly, we know nothing about her husband. We know so much about Yi Jin but we don't know the husband's name, his age, his personality, anything. We go through so much to understand her relationship with Yi Jin, we see them grow closer and more in love, and we see them fall apart, but how did she move on to her husband? How did they meet and grow closer? What's special about him that allowed her to love him when she's already experienced the kind of love she had with Yi Jin? What's so different about him that he and Hee Do stayed together and had a child?
Lastly, her daughter is completely immaterial to the plot. The only thing she did was say she didn't want to do ballet and then say she wants to do ballet. This could have--and should have--just been a straight forward coming of age story about Hee Do, fencing, and her first love.

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Eun Seong when I catch you Eun Seong...

First half rekindled my love for kdrama, the second half reminded me why I quit.

It starts off so strong. Great characters, great acting, great OST, great plot (relatively--the terminally ill plot is nothing new but I loved the prospect of accidentally rekindling a dead romance when he just wanted her to put him in her will).

The second half was painful. There were good parts. I loved every scene where the relationships between characters stood centre stage. I also adored the way that the greedy, hyper-individualistic family grew closer throughout the drama (Hae In's mother can still kiss my ass though). These good parts were almost entirely overshadowed by the stupid thriller plot. I hate Yoon Eun Seong so much that words escape me when I try to describe my hatred. Not because he's a villain, but because he's annoying. He wants their money, sure. Whatever, people are greedy sometimes, I get it. What I don't get is why he's so obsessed with Hae In. I'd have understood jealousy, because he thought his mother abandoned him to live with the Hong family, but why does he want to own her? They spoke like once. That one time then somehow led to him scamming her entire family, framing Hyun Woo for murder, abducting her from the hospital by pretending they're close, trying to murder Hyun Woo, and finally trying to murder her when he realises she'll never want to be with him because he's garbage. Also, he's so utterly inept in everything he does when trying to break up Hae In and Hyun Woo that it makes me wonder how he managed to scam the family out of everything they own in the first place. It just doesn't make sense.

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