I started watching this drama because it was recommended to me on Netflix so much and.... i wasnt the biggest fan of it. There are a few issues i have with this drama but the biggest one is the storyline.

The story is about Jeon Nok Du, who was raised by an adoptive family far away from the "main" city. Once people who were close to him (his family) was attacked he decided to find the person responsible. ML was not properly educated but somehow he understood/learnt things quickly. In order to find the responsible person, he pretends to be someone else " hiding right in front of the king". He learns that the king/prince is to blame. Later we find out that actually he is the prince and can be crowned the next king but.... instead he choses to live a calm life with the FL. Reminds anyone of something?

In the series, as soon as they said sth among the lines of "hiding from the king right under his nose", i realised that this series was ridiculously similar to Hwarang. The only difference was that the ML was pretending to be a woman in the widow village rather than pretending to be a part of a king's army. Even at the end, he doesn't chose to be the king and decided to have a calm life with the FL. Similarities were so obvious and made me question why producers of Hwarang didn't sue them for plagiarism...

I understand that kdramas tend to have some similarities. Many romcoms follow the same development: both ML and FL dont know each other/ hate each other, then sth happens and they either work/live together, they slowly develop feelings for each other, on ep 8 or 9 they kiss for the first time, then they find out they have a childhood connection ( usually trauma) etc. However, different dramas, even when using the same development, have different feel to it. Actors play their roles in a certain way, some plots are different, etc. But here, even phrases that characters used were the same. Felt as if they took Hwarang scripts and made a few modifications (ML hides in the widow house) and thats it.

Another issue i had with this drama were the 2 different story lines where ML and FL were both after the king. The lack of synergy between those made some moments unenjoyable to say the least. When the ML was trying to execute his plan to kill the king, FL looked absolutely stupid with her strategies and aims. Thus i couldn't bare to watch her scenes where shes working so hard on her "amazing" plan while it looks absolutely pathetic in comparison to the plan of the ML.

Also the ending of the drama felt forced. Like producers were out of ideas and they made this up to end it. Why didn't Nok Du become a king? Why did the other guy (the prince) did? Why did ML&FML just HAVE TO move god knows where? Whats the point? whats up with his mom coming all the way to their island to seem them?

I guess the strongest part of the series was the romance/chemistry between the ML and FL. At least that was enjoyable to watch until she found out that he was the kings son and was just cold to him. This moment felt very 2010 romance kdrama to me. Nowadays, characters communicate more with each other so this " i found out sth bad about u so i must break up with u and i will never tell u why" trope is less common (thank god!). Also the cross dressing thing was funny.

Overall, this drama was ok ish and mainly because it felt like a rip off of Hwarang. They didn't add any value to the story line, didnt really make it "theirs". I finished it for the sake of finishing it and i wouldn't be rewatching it. Actors did a good job acting but sadly even that didn't help.

btw, Its been a few weeks since i watch the drama so i could be misremembering some small things.