i had high expectations for this drama considering that iu and lee joongi are the main actors. at first the storyline was easy to follow and simple until they introduced like 34 new characters and subplots.

i loved the acting from all the princes and side characters. however baekhyun and iu's acting wasn't that great to me. there were times where i felt the acting was definitely forced and awkward. sometimes even the character who played 8th prince wook. other than that. they did a good job for the most part.

my one thing with this show is the explanations especially lack thereof. it's never explicitly stated that princess yeonhwa essentially had a crush on her half brother (although now i know interfamilial marriages were common in that period). its never explicitly stated who mu, won, baek ha and eun's mothers were. in my mind i was trying to make sense of the family tree and how they were all related but i guess thats not important in the long run. maybe i missed it but who were those people that were tied to the posts? baek ha and woo hee run into some dead people in public and shes' like crying and then the next day she committed suicide....... why did she do that lol
also its never stated that jung's child at the end was actually so's (i had to search it to find out). if they were trying to fool the watchers then it worked because a little part of me hoped the child was jungs lol

there is one part where king so declares some servants or something to be killed. it was kinda random, he lost his temper and idek if those people ended up dying. and also theres that astronomer guy ji mong. how is he able to travel between time like that... ok i wont go on with the things that didn't make sense to me. i had seen the reviews before i started this show and i definitely thought this show would blow me away. needless to say, it didn't. i felt like it was badly written and none of the characters really developed. did appreciate iu and lee joongis chemistry tho lolz