This historical drama take place in the Joseon Dynasty, in the 1600s, during the Qing invasion. The invasion aspect is the one that intrigued me the most with some pretty interesting political aspects. The war is quite gutwrenching to follow as it impacts a lot characters you appreciate more and more.

This story is quite melodramatic with a romance that I think is quite nice and with a lot of emotional stakes...The romance is not my favorite part of the drama as it is truly a series of misfortunes and heartbrakes. It for sure take a lot of resilience for the heart of the viewer if you are rooting for some of the couples...

Production and acting-wise, it is very good...The soundtrack is nice with very melancholic balads perfectly fitting for the story but are not necessarily songs that I will keep on listening very often contrarily to some other shows. There are a lot of action sequences that are well executed and the crying/sentimental scenes are very well done as well.

The actors and actresses are very well casted and you found yourself very invested in their characters survivals. Ahn Eun Jin is brilliant as the brave and strong female lead with a super attaching cunning side. Namkoong Min is excellent as the flawed but super intelligent and tactical hero. I love them as individuals but I am less invested in their relationship as it is sometimes difficult for me to understand why they should/need to be together. They have a nice chemistry together but it is not the most sizlling one and I hope to be more invested in the romance in Part 2 of the series. I'm also truly wondering if I'm not protecting my heart by trying to not be too invested in the romance...

I would recommend this to people looking for a very good historical drama with good acting and set during an interesting period of time. If you do not enjoy melodramatic moments and just want a cute / fluffy romance, this is not the drama to watch as it is pretty rough for the heart.