I feel like I went through all that for nothing.

I just want to make it clear from the outset that I am exclusively a romance watcher, the actual ROMANCE aspect of a story is what i'm interested in and focused on. I rate things based on the quality of the romance part of the story, and how it fits into the plot.

Viewed strictly as a romance, imo this was awful. The romance was a side-dish to the main story, which was basically palace intrigue and political power struggles. There is a love triangle and the dynamics of it are weird and uncomfortable. The ML/FL chemistry was quashed over and over again, leading up to a SINGLE kiss scene you wait 38 episodes for that is maybe the most sanitized kiss scene Ive ever seen, it was basically only visually alluded to.

If you watch for spicy chemistry and romance, then you just get strung along and strung along all the way to the end, for nothing. ML dies.

Production value, acting, ost were all mediocre, except the FL who did a really good job.

First quarter of drama is hard to get into, and you wonder where its going with this large and cumbersome story. Middle 50% was a solid watch. Last 25% just totally dragged and turned into a cringefest of sappy filler monologues and over the top moments.

It was just a cop out of a romance story, and I really find it a shame I wasted so much time on it.