I'll get straight to the point and say that this was a depressing lakorn to watch. I hadn't planned on watching at all, but again the YouTube fan vids got to me and against my better judgement I watched the entire thing. This lakorn mainly centers around war and the dissolution of a kingdom due to internal disunity. Romance is not the main focus, but it doesn't mean that it's weak; on the contrary it has depth and it's beautifully developed. Although the ML dies in the end, there's a lot of OTP moments that make up for it and it only happens in the last third of the final episode (generally I don't mind if the OTP don't get together in the end as long as it's within reason, + there's a lot of OTP moments -  which in this case there was). 

Although my main reason for watching was for the romance, it doesn't mean I didn't pay attention to the rest of the lakorn - and honestly it was hard to watch at times. You watch how good people (those who do the right thing and are willing to die for their country) like Daoreung's dad, her bro, etc die fast and early whereas selfish and cowardly people like Thip live long and prosper. Karma does get to those people at some point, but the damage they cause ensues the destruction of their home country. It really made me sad, especially the scene where the king is in the palace, tearfully gazing at Buddha and knowing that despite doing everything he could to save his country, it was all in vain. It made me think how awful it must be to go through war and although I hated the 'bad' characters, I could understand their motivations for wanting to save themselves over their country.

I liked the ML; I LOL'ed so hard when he immediately wanted to wife the FL after seeing her all grown up. His heart is strong and true, and he's the true embodiment of a soldier loyal to his country. His unwavering love for Daoreung (DR) touched me, and his intense love stares at her made me swoon. Krai might've been too hot-headed for his own good at times, but with the bs politics he had to deal with in the army, I can't blame him.

Now about the DR, I have mixed feelings; I am annoyed but also sympathize with her. Her character is that of a damsel in distress, which most viewers won't like (given most dramas have strong FLs), but I think viewers should give her more credit. I feel like if I were a young girl who grew up with peace and love, only to have that all taken away by war then I probably would've reacted like her too. It's in the older times too, which means she unfortunately has to rely on men to protect her (and was raised to think so). Some may point out that her grandma (awesome character btw) is not weak like her, but I feel like the grandma and Krai kinda coddled DR and didn't do much to teach her to fend for herself. With that being said, I still wish DR added more to the plot than just crying constantly, and I'm low-key surprised Krai was patient enough to deal with all that.

One thing I will take from this lakorn is the music; it's easily my favorite part of the show. I love the sound of boran music, and I felt it perfectly embodied the themes of the lakorn. I also thought it was appropriately played and guided the mood of the scenes very well. 

Overall I don't regret watching this but for sure I won't rewatch except maybe for the Krai + DR scenes. If you're ok with watching an intense lakorn where there are realistic portrayals of what goes on in war, then I'd say to give it a watch. I did want to add that I felt the ending was incomplete, although I learned later that it's supposed to lead to the sequel. While I understand that, I wished they put more focus on DR and how she learned to move on after Krai's death.