Now finished this and enjoyed it very much watching an episode every day. I wondered if 50 episodes would make me give up but it had me hooked. I feel the production values were quite poor -〜you had to imagine 20 people ＝ a riot of 20,000 or an army of 50 people ＝ an army of 50,000 and the sets were all the same. However I found the twists and turns of the tale consistently gripping, they managed the development of the story over a long period from childhood friends to adults involved in the dangers and reversals of politics very well. Also the clashes of romance between a love triangle. The good characters were not boring or lacking in character. The villains were suave and convincing and it was always intriguing to see just how they would manage politics and conflict and come out on top. The show broke down into two main political periods and the characters of the kings and their political ministers, wives, mistresses did get me emotionally involved - loving or admiring some, loathing others - to see how they would develop and what would happen to them. It was interesting how my views of them changed as they changed. The idea of showing where Joseon stood in relation to the great power China and how their kings tried to challenge China was interesting and convincing. The story around developing gunpowder as part of the power game and the involvement of the main characters in this was also a compelling storyline. I especially liked the part of the story with the heroine cross-dressing and the brief parts in Japan. In conclusion , well recommended, do not be put off by the large number of episodes like I initially was. I liked the theme tune, though the other music became repetitive, this was not a major annoyance and no worse than most drama. I am not likely to re-watch it [or not soon anyway] but I am not letting this bring my score down. I cannot understand the low rating or some of the comments about this but as we say 十人十色 10 men 10 colors. If you like this kind of historical Korean drama, it is well worth staying the course…….I found almost no parts that were really boring enough to make me miss my daily viewing of this saga and that is highly unusual for this mentally hyperactive guy. 11/10