I decided to watch it for HK whom I loved since Ultimate Note and YIL who never quite got the romantic role he deserved; thankfully he did here. Though both did what they could here; this show started nicely and then spiraled out of control making it the 3rd dumpster fire I've watched in 2024.

Pros: Other than the beautiful colors, stunning costumes especially for the leads, OSTs, and the chemistry between the leads, this drama had no other redeeming qualities. I'm glad FL returned to her smart self and started to protect ML too not just be hellbent on revenge. Had an HE.

Cons: I don't know what drugs the screenwriter was smoking but this convoluted mess of a script was only slightly better than what readers described as essentially brutality in a book. SML was essentially the Chinese Khal Drogo who murdered anyone and everyone and brutalized all women along with his gang of bandits. The SFL, who seemed like a free spirit followed him and was just as callous. And the absolutely ridiculous thing is that they thought the audience would just forget that part when towards the end he started to regain memories of the past and act good. He never offered any apologies. Like "sure, me and my gang pillaged, raped, and slaughtered our way through the desert but we're the good guys now; no harm, no foul." I gave up on them very soon after meeting them and ffw. I stopped watching at 16 (though through massive fast forwarding resumed on 20 and lord knows how I made it through to 26) because even though all of the characters were connected, there was such a disconnect in the story plus crappy editing that made you feel like other then a small tether you were watching three different shows in a desert like setting. I didn't have any expectations of this show because other than costumes and some scenery, this was obviously very low budget.

The antagonist (I'd seen the actor in MJTY previously) can play a good villain but boy did they make him ridiculous. Ruthless yes, but he spoke so slowly and stared so much, you think he had a mental challenge of some sort. Nothing about him seemed intelligent or right. This is one of those times when you have good actors but crappy scripts that they have to lower their abilities to get whatever the director is getting at. If they had cast a bunch of unknowns or newbies, it wouldn't have made a difference. I feel bad because I know those 3 actors (am unfamiliar with SFL and SML), can act pretty well and to be given this mess, is just unfair to them. Yes, it adds to their resume, but is it worth it?

They dumbed down FL for a good chunk in the middle which just made you want to punch her. The ML went above and beyond and she still believed the villain over him. I skipped a good chunk of the episodes. I think the only consistent character from beginning to end was the ML. The ending of the antagonist was eye roll worthy at best; he killed SML [while cackling on his horse; y'all know how much I love a good Halloween witch cackle (add extreme sarcasm here)] and SFL (though smokescreen; she's alive!) and FL stabbed him and still he rambled on for like 5 minutes not dying; like why? Just end it! But no; need more over dramatic BS before he spat his magenta blood and dropped. Oh and the main guard that pretended to be ML because ML supposedly sacrificed himself to quicksand was really ML surviving quicksand through underground tunnels, and FL not even realizing it until he kissed her after everybody left and big bed wolf was dead. It literally took seven rewatches to understand any of this. What was that ending though? ML and FL just walking hand in hand in the desert becoming legends? Huh? Why even? After SFL gave birth? What an absolute mess. Even Frankenstein would run away if he saw this.

Would I recommend this? No way! As much as I like HK and YIL, they deserved a much better script and overall production. I'm sure the others do too. Please watch her in UN and decent in Jade's Fateful Love (only love line) while he's great in TLB and AJTL (hope he does a modern); not happy except the one but you can see coherent and decent or good storylines there. Stay away from this please!