I started watching this historical drama because someone recommended that it is another drama where the King and Queen loved each other so much and there's lots of TLC, similar to QUEEN: LOVE AND WAR. Then I realized the FL is the same person in HI BYE, MAMA - which I really loved. I hope I don't cry too much after watching this historical drama.

I really loved the main female lead, Jang Ok-Jung, because she is smart, talented, hard-working and strong - due to her surviving great loss, pain and abuses. I WILL NOT SAY SHE IS EVIL. She is the product of her terrible environment and abusive experiences. She worked hard to make a living and to save her mother from slavery. However, society and circumstances failed her so many times. Just because she was considered as low-class (even though her father was a scholar and considered as middle-class), she was always being mocked, beaten, abused, betrayed, manipulated, kidnapped, almost burned alive (2x), almost murdered, and - the last straw - lost her unborn baby due to evil trickeries in the palace.

FINALLY, in the end, she realised that she needed power to save herself and her mother. She learnt to be/and became manipulative because she believed that's the only way to fully protect herself and exact revenge on those who have terribly hurt her in the past. If people say she was evil, then they must also say that her uncle, mother-in-law (King's bitter mother), the Queen's father and his accomplices, the bad palace maids, her mother's slave contractor, and the overall Josean high-class society and caste system as SUPER EVIL and Sadistic - because they all abuse the weak and the poor, and they take joy in other's pain and suffering.

What I loved most about this drama is King Sukjong's love and affection for Jang Ok-Jung. The chemistry between the main ML (Yoo Ah-In = who is sexy as hell and ohh that pouty lips) and FL (Kim Tae-Hee = she's beautiful and graceful, and she's RAIN's wife) was great and natural, and their loves scenes were so sweet and cute; at times, hot and sizzling.
l can't stop smiling whenever they flirted with each other. When they kiss, the kisses were real and passionate, not like those typical cold-fish fake kisses you see in many K-dramas.

SPOILERS:
I loved the part where King Sukjong lined the walkway to their new courtyard and house with lots of candles; it's Josean-version of romantic proposal. The part where King Sukjong told Jang Ok-Jeong that he wanted to build a separate house for her so that they can spend lovey dovey private times together and raise cute babies together, that dialogue almost made me cry. And he was back-hugging her when he told her this.
The part where he rushed to her work area, pretending to praise the workers there; he walked all the way to where she stood (she was at the end of the line) and then he turned around to face the others, blocking their view of him secretly brushing his fingers against hers, quickly yet firmly grasping her fingers before letting them go. AAHHHHH.... this scene reminded of teenagers in love and I just loved it.
The flashback when they first met when they were young; the whole scene was so sweet and cute (forget the crown prince's palace scenes - it's sad to watch). Even their young characters' chemistry was natural and wonderful. It was so bitter-sweet.
SIGH... Whenever I see King Sukjong and Jang Ok-Jung happily together, I just wished with all my heart that all the haters would just leave them alone and let them live out their lives happily.

OVERALL, this is a great historical drama, even though it has a tragic ending. Just enjoy the love story of King Sukjong and Jang Ok Jung (who became Queen Consort) and understand why she was labelled by history as evil, power hungry and manipulative. Perhaps, in truth, she was not evil after all.