dramallama
Interesting genre-bending premise but ultimately gives way to tropes... and romance
First of all, I love k dramas that blend genres, and most of the time they succeed. Unfortunately, this is not one of them.
The production value is high, and the cast is high caliber, the premise is intriguing, I also love this time period for dramas, and there's decent action between the long stretches of dialogue.
So herein lies the issue. The tags are Action, Thriller, Historical, and Sci-Fi. I love all those genres. The main genre is actually a Romance. It should be its main tag. It should be at the front of the line. Everything eventually is just about the Romance between the 2 protagonists. Despite having so many other interesting avenues of plot and storylines, it ultimately devolves into a love story. Which doesn't sound terrible but when it takes place in a gritty historical setting with war, atrocities, and monsters, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
It's especially jarring when the ML is a white knight that constantly sweeps in to save the FL despite the FL establishing she is a very competent and capable badass. But then he sweeps in like a male Rey Skywalker in every scene, being good and perfect at everything. Our ML is a Gary Stu (male Mary Sue). He is the best businessman, he's also the handsomest, he's also the best fighter, the best shooter, he knows everyone and everything, he out rebels the rebels and out sleuths the sleuths. At one point he even teleports. I kid you not. He is physically on one level and magically teleports to where the story needs him to be. And all the characters (and I mean ALL the characters) seem to be trying to help the ML get with the FL, all while on the run from soldiers and monsters. It's insane.
And at one point someone seemingly dies. Then they totally do not. What is this!? A MAKJANG???!!! And things like this happen quite a few times.
But in the end, I did enjoy it overall. It's a good production, the action scenes are on point, I'm still a sucker for this time period, and the Sci-Fi and horror aspects I found intriguing. I just didn't expect romance to be the driving plot of the whole story. And the plot logic is all over the place. Just be prepared to suspend your disbelief for a LOT of it and enjoy the ride.
The production value is high, and the cast is high caliber, the premise is intriguing, I also love this time period for dramas, and there's decent action between the long stretches of dialogue.
So herein lies the issue. The tags are Action, Thriller, Historical, and Sci-Fi. I love all those genres. The main genre is actually a Romance. It should be its main tag. It should be at the front of the line. Everything eventually is just about the Romance between the 2 protagonists. Despite having so many other interesting avenues of plot and storylines, it ultimately devolves into a love story. Which doesn't sound terrible but when it takes place in a gritty historical setting with war, atrocities, and monsters, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
It's especially jarring when the ML is a white knight that constantly sweeps in to save the FL despite the FL establishing she is a very competent and capable badass. But then he sweeps in like a male Rey Skywalker in every scene, being good and perfect at everything. Our ML is a Gary Stu (male Mary Sue). He is the best businessman, he's also the handsomest, he's also the best fighter, the best shooter, he knows everyone and everything, he out rebels the rebels and out sleuths the sleuths. At one point he even teleports. I kid you not. He is physically on one level and magically teleports to where the story needs him to be. And all the characters (and I mean ALL the characters) seem to be trying to help the ML get with the FL, all while on the run from soldiers and monsters. It's insane.
And at one point someone seemingly dies. Then they totally do not. What is this!? A MAKJANG???!!! And things like this happen quite a few times.
But in the end, I did enjoy it overall. It's a good production, the action scenes are on point, I'm still a sucker for this time period, and the Sci-Fi and horror aspects I found intriguing. I just didn't expect romance to be the driving plot of the whole story. And the plot logic is all over the place. Just be prepared to suspend your disbelief for a LOT of it and enjoy the ride.
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