I don’t know how much crappy endings that I can take before I finally gave up Kdramas for good. I watched the drama knowing everything that’s going to happen just by watching the first few episodes. I know the destiny that awaits both Dong Soo and Yeo Un -- I can predict everything that’s going to happen to the very last scene that Yeo Un will (and need to) die in Dong Soo’s hand in the drama climax in the end. I was hoping that the scriptwriter will be creative and for once and give us a satisfactory and good ending but I know it’s only a wishful thinking for my part. I never imagine any drama can topped ‘The Legend’ disappointing ending but somehow this drama managed to do that.

Overall, the drama has many potential to be an excellent drama. Eye-candy good looking actors, excellent fighting scenes, interesting & mysterious characters, good plot (my goodness, King Yi San & Crown Prince Sado story is in here too), great chemistry between the two male leads and beautiful sceneries and settings and outstanding soundtrack to accompany the drama. But unfortunately, bad script writing and predictable storyline totally ruined the drama great potential. The script somehow seemed to be written by a first-timer here -- the plots are uneven, many undeveloped storyline and ridicules at times. At one point, it being too ridicules and weak without any basis that it’s hard for me to even swallow the plots anymore. I feel the urge to quickly finish the series to take it out from my system once and for all. The many underdeveloped plots make me frustrated to no end -- I was hoping for Crown Prince Sado’s dream to be carrying out but it startled me when the writer just cut the story off when Dong Soo destroyed the map on Ji Sun’s back. What’s the point of Sado’s saying his dying wish if it will be left untouchable right until the end? I can list one by one of the disappointing plot developments for the drama but I guess it will leave a long rambling on how the story failed so much at being coherent.

But despite that, the drama is gifted with such many talented actors. Ji Chang Wook is super adorable as Baek Dong Soo. His love and hate relationship to his bestfriend; Yeo Un is a joy to watch. He is an idiot who is full of himself right until fate forced him to be out of his happy small world to protect the ones that he loves by becoming stronger. While Yoo Seung Ho as Yeo Un is the true gem in this drama -- yes, the boy is so pretty and it’s a privilege for us to see such a beautiful being graced our screen with his glorious gorgeous hair. His conflict of trying to embrace his destiny as an assassin and his desire to protect the one that he cared for is so heartbroken to watch. He is a silent hero is this drama – thus his cruel ending in the drama is so hard for me to take. Yoon So Yi as Jin Joo did an excellent job too. Her crying scenes are amazing and her miseries when her parents die is to look out for. Unfortunately, her love for Dong Soo is left undeveloped that it makes you left wondering what happened to the marriage proposal that happened during their childhood. And Shin Hyun Bin as Yoo Ji Sun is pretty disappointing to watch. Her screen time has reduced so much that she doesn’t seemed to be one of the leads here. Her existence is solely used as a tool of weakness to both of the main leads which I found utterly unacceptable. While the rest of the sub-actors did a good job for their roles. I particularly attracted to the amazing aura of the Sky Lord and Jun Kwang Ryul did a good job as the Sword Saint. And I on the other side very happy with Oh Man Suk’s brief appearance as the Crown Prince Sado. Although his time in the drama is brief, he made his character unforgettable and memorable.

What left me even furious with this drama other than bad scriptwriting is its poor & disappointing ending -- the unjustified death of Yeo Un. I know this is historical drama and somebody ought to die in the end and we can’t actually expect a happy ending but why it has to be as messed up as it is? We all know how much Yeo Un has to suffers and how lonely and miserable his life is. The guilt and longingness that he has towards the people that he hurts and his attempts to make everything right is just left unappreciated and unacknowledged. While everyone brags how wonderful and awesome is Dong Soo (which he truly is), Yeo Un is left in the dark – although in fact he is a better swordsman, martial artist, strategist, leader, mastermind and a friend. Without his clever strategy, Dong Soo will never be able to bring the Defense Minister down. The bad guys have always one step ahead in everything and trampled the good guys but with Yeo Un, he makes sure he is two steps ahead. And yet, all the secret good deeds that he done from the beginning either to keep his friends safe nor saving the day are left unknown to everybody right until the end. In reality, the good deeds that he done far exceeded the evil ones. But why he deserved such an unfair and unjustified death? There’s nothing heroic in Yeo Un’s death, it is just a sad and lonely death that he surely doesn’t deserved. And what makes it even sadder is that he died believing that he doesn’t deserve to live -- that his death will makes the world a better place even to his friends. And what’s more disappointing is how everyone seemed to carry on living happily after his death like nothing happen -- like he doesn’t matter at all. I just don’t understand how the ending can turn out like this. Defying fate supposed to be the main theme of the drama but why the production team decided to throw it out of the windows in the end without acceptable explanations? Are they really desperate to kill one of the characters to give an impact for the ending to make the drama more memorable?

And I hate the double standard and contradictions that seemed to always plague Korean historical dramas. Why good guys always die while the bad guys seemed to have many lives? Why Ji Sun managed to defy her destiny while Yeo Un who tried the hardest to defy them left with a lonely and sad death? Why Hwang Jin Gi, who lives most of his life as an assassins and bandit can be forgiven easily while Yeo Un who has spent more time saving people secretly than killing them doesn’t being given the same chance? Why Dong Soo successfully protects everyone while Yeo Un who is dear to him died by his hand? Why bad guys being given the chance to redemp for their sins and died meaningful deaths while the good guys always died broken hearted with unfulfilled dreams? I swear the storyline for all k-dramas are so predictable that it seemed all the scriptwriters graduated from the same school with the same underlying themes and concepts. The pattern for all the stories is too familiar with each other -- with the same formula with no creativity. It’s just utterly disappointing.

In the end, the drama left me irritated and annoyed. Ridicules and unreasonable ending the drama has to offer makes me wonder what’s the point in everything that happened when the character who deserve happy ending the most die feeling sad and unwanted while everyone move on with their lives like his existence and contributions (NOBODY even know all the contributions that he did in saving their lives or the day) seemed doesn’t matter at all. The ending could be grand and unforgettable but it settled with a questionable ending that everybody in the end left wondering why the writer bothers to tell a story when he/she wanted to end it like it did. What’s the point of pointing out how martial arts is too save people when it is so contradict with the end when Cho Rip betrayed his friend and Dong Soo used martial art to end Yeo Un’s life…