it was so sudden, the replacement, that it was a bit of a shock to the senses in ep 7... but they only included a few scenes, so maybe we'll be able to adjust/adapt slowly.

EPISODE 7 AND 8

The good:
Mo Young is a Silla Spy and we spent almost an entire half episode on her and her backstory and I, who is completely not at all Silla Bias, nope, couldn’t be happier. Especially since she is my favourite character. I love her. Her motivations are entirely selfish and she will gladly use anyone in any way to get what she wants, and she’s on nobody’s side except her own and her country’s, and the reveal, although some of us guessed it, just makes me ship my crack ship THAT MUCH MORE because now, now it’s a forbidden romance with the enemy.

The bad:
Sometimes I wish I could live video react to stuff because I swear if you all could see my face at the end of episode 8…
Can I … can I rant? That’s not really a question; I’m gonna rant.

1. Why am I still watching this show? Oh right, for my sinking crack ship…
2. Red Herring but, whenever I see a drone or helicopter shot of people riding horses my mind immediately goes to Flight to the Ford from LOTR and how many film techniques in that changed the face of film forever.
3. This show has a … kind of shit… soundtrack… or else I just don’t know what it’s trying to achieve. Why would you have distorted guitar and synth over plain talking set up to an action piece? That feels so wrong. It doesn’t fit. The music doesn’t even set the scene or the tone, it’s just there and it’s super rock and hype… and jarring. (the scene in question is the cut after the horses to the girls in Sqwirrel Pass)
4. You know I was actually into the fact that the Silla Lord got his bluff called that he wouldn’t slit the girl’s throat cos she was too valuable, and then just frakking did it anyway… and then I proceeded to not at all understand why they gave up and ran away… the girls outnumbered them I guess? But like if you’re gonna loose them why not just… kill them. Weird ass confrontation that didn’t really make any kind of statement, or make much sense, yet again -___-
5. We’re really spending that much screen time on a TERTIARY ROMANTIC PAIRING nobody, and I repeat, nobody cares about huh… we’re really doing that.
Great… I wasn’t grimacing. At all. During either scene.
6. The assassins in this show are so incompetent, as a fellow assassin, it’s honestly embarrassing.
7. It’s hard to judge anything re. Dal right now because it’s clear they had to cut a bunch of crap and filmed the bare minimum to make their edits work but there was so much information missing because of it… why is he helping the Incompetent Goturk Twins find … what exactly? An unknown location? Where the other “assassins” are? Why is that important? Why are the assassins setting up fortune telling shop? To lure our the king to kill him?? Seriously these assassins suck so much at their job, I do not know why they’re still here in the show, and/or relevant. Why was Dal in the Herb Store when Go Geon arrive to hold a sword to his lover’s Mo Young’s neck?

Disclaimer: Sic is definitely not at all a Silla Spy and is completely and totally trustworthy in anything and everything she has to say.
Totally. Completely. Yeahp. ;)

Seeing Na In Woo shoehorned in was such an akward viewing experience. They clearly got him dressed up, stuck him in front of a green screen and had him do all his lines at one single angle with the direction: "Now make a confused face. Now smile.". Everytime they actually showed On Dal in the scene with another character, it was clearly still Ji Soo. Like, good on them for working so hard, but I wouldn't have minded if they had just used Ji Soo's footage for two (or even four) more episodes, while catching up. The way they did it, it took me out of the drama. I constantly went: "Oh look, there is Ji Soo's back, and there is the back of his head, and there he there he is standing barely out of frame." Hope it gets better.

Also, now that On Dal is in the story so little with a lesser known actor portraying him, I started shipping Pyonggang with Go Geon hard. Really hoping he will redeem himself from his slip in episode 6 and grow into a proper love interest. Lee Ji Hoon is certainly up to th task and he is know the more well known and (maybe also) capable of the two male leads. Come on show, make it happen!

Since those (few???) of us who stick around are apparently going to be treated to a few weeks of scenes with footage just filmed with the new guy hastily spliced into footage filmed weeks before...

... If your lifelong ambition has been to play "Spot the Continuity Error", now's your chance to rack up a huge score.

I won't be playing because I'll be too busy trying to figure out what term we should use in the digital era instead of "footage".

I find Na In Woo's scenes very distracting at the moment. You can tell that the scenes still contain Jisoo but then they plug in his face/frontal whenever they view his face and he just got this frown/confused look in the few scenes he did appear. It's weird right now. I hope the editing will be better later. I mean, they are doing an awesome job at such short notice.

These sets of episodes were just awful, terrible, no good, and very bad. I’m just nodding agreeing with everyone here. I thought Sisyphus would be my ride or die show, but it may be this one. (I’m actually enjoying the former right now.) Here’s hoping things get
better quickly.

i watched episode 7 and I am done. I really wanted to give the drama another chance but i just can't get my head around the new ML. I didn't like him in Mr queen at all, and he doesn't carry the presence or goofiness that is needed for the character. He just looks sullen all the time which is what put me off in his character in his other drama. Kim So-Hyun is doing great like always, but she is not enough to carry the full drama.

Honestly, the change of actor is only a detail in this mess.

I don't really care about the characters. I'm frustrated by myself, I think I should love Ga Jin, she's a badass princess who sneaks out to make justice the night... But I can't help myself to find her unsympathetic... She always looks angry or sulking and doesn't seem to think a lot before acting. At the point, a story about her mum would have been more interesting.

For Ondal, it's kinda hard to judge. Every scene with him was close-ups on his face not to show that he doen't share the same space with the others characters. I pity the actor who had to try to act with almost no lines...

The music is so bad. I miss the old classical sageuk songs. I still listen Warrior Baek Dong So, even if I didn't like the lead character :p

The fights are disapointing too. They made of close-ups, so it hurts my eyes and it's the actors making cool moves without a real choreography.

The last sageuk I liked was My Country. The fight scenes were really cool.

I forgot to say something about the music—@eazal. One of the main reasons I got into sageuks was because of the music. First sageuk I ever saw was Jackpot/ Royal gambler. There was lots wrong with it—the female lead was so stiff, they killed her off early to the villain who never died, and the story was forced—but I loved the music (https://youtu.be/phunpHRVocg). I love the sweeping orchestral arrangements, the really poignant emotional moments made more so with a solo vocalist singing her heart out behind it. Not here though. I’m fine with my music being a bit predictable, it’s what drew me to this genre.

Well, I tried. I really did, but this is where I stop with this one. I share the same sentiments with many of the Beanies here. Initially it did seem to have all the elements for a successful sageuk. It's a shame how things turned out.

This week's episode showed how Ga-jin is completely out of her depth in the palace. I'm suprised that she hasn't tried to find people loyal to her in the palace or starting spying on the enemies. Wasn't she trained to stalk her victims and assess the situation.
Surely her next move should be to get rid of the current queen who plotted against her mother? Doesn't she remember that? Geon, I'm surprised he is a general because he has been outwitted every single time.
I feel bad for the king though, he is powerless to protect his children.

What's the matter with Kim S0-Hyun? She has TERRIBLE taste in men!

Quite random so bare with me but i just can't take seriously some scenes as soon as i hear the main evil guy's name "Gochuga" as i right away think of hot peppers for some reason LOL

Don't know about others but i really like In Woo as On Dal,of course it gives a different vibe that Jisoo's(that was more foolish and arrogant) but that it's unavoidable,each actor has it's own charisma...Even so i like him and find him really manly and yet endering...Also i think he is suited for when he will become a General...He looks like a big teddy bear when he is with Ga Jin,they are so awkward,i just can't!!!I also think In Woo has chemistry with So Hyun even more considering they work for like days,i think it will get even better with time as they become even more familiar and comfortable...

I take is that the King took the chance that Ga Jin gave him in that moment and did the best in his own way to protect his daugther even if the method was disowning her in front of the Council.Even if they didn't have a formal wedding in my eyes somehow they became married even more if it started with a lie we all know in the end they both like each other and saw it as real...I felt sad for Won as he was left all alone surronded by all this wolves...
Quite curious to see what Ga Jin plan will be and were will she be gathering her own army as the Suno Tribe sure isin't enough and don't even know if the few men there truly want war...

I was enjoying this show...but....*sigh* disappointed that I have to drop it. I was neutral about Na In Woo. And I hung on as I understand the difficulty of shoehorning his scenes in ep 7 & 8.

But after watching ep 9, sorry, nope...I just find his facial expressions super awkward like he is just trying way too hard? It’s rather painful to watch. Or perhaps he just doesn’t attract me LOL

And unfortunately the storyline is not enticing enough for me to overlook this and continue.

Episode 9
Absolutely WILD that somehow your recast and your reshoots of one of the dryest OTP scripts ever, at 1.5x speed, has more on screen presence and chemistry than your original cast did or 6 whole episodes...
To be fair, it's not like they had to jump very high to get over their own low bar. And it's not like the script suddenly got better.
And and... I also did watch it at 1.5x speed. Which makes some things so much more bearable it is truly shocking it has taken me this long to utilize said feature. (In my defense, I, being an Evil Queen of Silla, only watch illegally, and I believe this is not a feature such sites have always had previously.)
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.
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Today's biggest faux pas however, was that Mo Young treating Go Geon's wounds and Morning Flirting didn't take up the majority of the episode. As it should've.
Like, if you're going to feed into my fantasies at least, as a courtesy, give me more than 5 minutes tops.

Now that we've seen two full episodes with NIW not just shoe-horned in, I have to say that I've taken to him as On Dal and haven't had an adjustment problem to the new actor. @miky88 made a great comment about his "fool" energy vs Jisoo's, and I really see that: Jisoo came across a bit more like a jester at times, whereas NIW feels more like a amiable, slow-to-anger small-town guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. And actually, I think it's easier to believe that there's a champion general under all that slow-fuse congeniality.

I'm also very impressed by the chemistry between him and KSH - I can't imagine what a stressful, uncertain and trying time this has been for the whole cast, but particularly for an OTP. It's a very impressive thing NIW has done, stepping in like this to save the show from cancellation, and equally impressive what the cast has done rallying together. Honestly, this will probably be one of the more forgettable dramas of the year for me, but I'm happy for the cast and crew that they were able to salvage something decent from it.

I'm totally aware the drama is about General OnDal and the Princess and that they are the OTP, but... can we change it an focus on what's important here: Go Geon and Mo Yong? Can we? Please? Because we all know it's going to be a tragedy at the end so I need to have more of them before my heart breaks into a million pieces.

She saved hi, he saved her. They know they can't trust the other, but... Gosh! I need more!!!!!

Episode 11 - The Good Stuff

Pyeonggang seems to follow a concrete plan. That's always reassuring when it comes to a drama's direction.
Also, Na In Woo is surpassing my expectations. He not only fills the Ji Soo shaped hole in the production, but seems to have his own take on the role. I have completely warmed up to him, more than that, I find myself rooting for him. You go, Na In Dal!

Episode 11 - The Bad

I didn't care one bit about the fallout (and for the matter the entire relationship) between new and improved On Dal and the deranged lady, who blinded herself to emotionally blackmail him into living the good country-bumpkin life. Also, when Pyeonggang called her mother, my mouth fell open. That woman has done nothing but wail and nag and push Dal to send Pyeonggang away and now Im supposed to buy some familial bond between the two?

Also, I've read it before in the comments somewhere and I agree that the little village girl is extremely annoying. She's just a) written like a caricature of an actual child and b) exckusively given setup dialogue for another character to react to or jump in with their own line. There's nothing human to her, she is just a lazy, talking writer's crutch.

Episode 11 - The ???

The king telling Pyeonggang that her mother had "bad luck with her husband"
Like "Get it, Pyeonggang, because it was me and I ordered her killed, lol. Good luck with your man, though."

So. Awkward.

EP 12 - Mo Yong's tears.... She showed that brief moment of vulnerability.

I must be a masochist for enjoying the slow burn torture between her and Geon. They had a good amount of scenes.

I think the Princess is the weakest character. The writer couldn't choose between the badass assassin who manipules people around her to gain what she wants and the nice Princess who fell in love with Ondal. So now, we got a blank character instead. The directing is not so good as well. I don't like her fights, it looks fake, it's filmed either
very close or too fast. I don't think Kim So Hyun was ready for this role. She did great with the change of actor, they have a good chemistry. But she lacks some gravitas or presence for me.

Episode 12 - Give me all those Go Geon and Mo Yong scenes together.

LJH is that kind of actor that takes the best from any character. He proved that when he made his JaeHyeok human in Dinner Mate considering how awful the character was, and he’s doing it with General Go. Geon is not a well written character (well, as if there was any good written character in this drama...) and his motivations are totally unclear, but LJH plays it a way you can feel his concern, his love, his doubts, his suffering (this man knows how to suffer), there’s no single emotion on him that is not real.

So, Drama Gods, do as I’ve been asking ever since Dinner Mate ended: give him a damn leading role!

That bloody ep 13 preview is gonna make me keep going for ANOTHER WEEK. The audacity.

If anyone is still watching this, there is a discord watch today (and the last 2 weeks-😆) of the last 2 episodes. We pretty much just snark and I play my BGM over the parts of the soundtrack that are especially hideous. Trying to support the show; it is getting better. 1830 GMT https://app.kosmi.io/room/909bwr

Yeah... good riddance. I held on for way too long and never liked you in the first place, so... bye!!!!!

Well, the drama is over.
My overall opinion is that it's not worth it and I only survived the last six episodes by fast forwarding. Of course, this is only my opinion... this drama could have been much better, but the main problem was how lazy and poorly characters were written.
Actors were all fantastic (except for annoying little girl and some villagers who overacted so much, blame it on the directing), and they did a great job with the little they were given. I will specially praise Kim Pub Lae as the King, Wang Bit Na as the Queen and Lee Hae Young as Won Pyo. And of course the four leads. They were great trying to keep up to the multiple personality disorder all their characters developed after episode 15 thanks to writer-nim.
I earned a beanie with blood, sweat and tears.

So, if anyone still cares (and apparently I do), VIKI has replaced all the old episodes 1-6 with the new On-dal, Na In Woo, now.