Steel Crown
Overly Ambitious and Unnecessarily Long
Love and Destiny has too many characters, too many plot lines, and too little of the story. If many of the unnecessary scenes were dropped and the script tightened in general, this could have been a great 40 episode drama. Alas, that is not the case.
Romance: This drama is filled to the brim with couples. There’s a total of five of them and many more characters with unrequited love, but most of what we see is either comedic or tragic. The comedy helps to lighten the overall gloomy nature of the drama, but it also makes it so that romantic and heart-warming moments are far and few in-between. The main leads are also no different. Their romance often takes backstage before the story, and there’s a huge power imbalance between them on top of that, which the male lead abuses. He withholds information, lies, and even knocks out the female lead when he does not wish to answer her questions.
Villains: For the most part, instead of villains, this drama has antagonists. They’re not evil, but have different worldviews compared to the main characters, which results in clashes. This makes them much more interesting and keeps the viewer on their toes. Which ones will become evil? Which ones will become friends? Or will they all remain enemies till the end? Of course, there’s also a main villain in the story, but he’s a common mad guy, so he’s not that interesting.
Story: Slow and overcrowded. Since there are three main couples, two minor ones, four well-developed antagonists, and a few other important characters, the story moves at a snail’s pace. You can watch two-three episodes and then describe them in a single sentence because for every event, you get a number of scenes with how different characters react to it. This is fine at first, but after the thirtieth episode or such, it gets tiresome and boring. Not every single storyline is great, and the drama has a tendency to indulge in slice-of-life scenes. They would be fine in any other drama, but in this one, where the plot already barely moves, it just makes you want to tear your hair out.
Overall, the drama’s start was strong and there were some scenes that hit hard, but they were in the minority. Most of the second half of the drama was draggy and I skipped through whole episodes without missing anything major. I would not recommend it to anyone unless they have too much time on their hands.
Romance: This drama is filled to the brim with couples. There’s a total of five of them and many more characters with unrequited love, but most of what we see is either comedic or tragic. The comedy helps to lighten the overall gloomy nature of the drama, but it also makes it so that romantic and heart-warming moments are far and few in-between. The main leads are also no different. Their romance often takes backstage before the story, and there’s a huge power imbalance between them on top of that, which the male lead abuses. He withholds information, lies, and even knocks out the female lead when he does not wish to answer her questions.
Villains: For the most part, instead of villains, this drama has antagonists. They’re not evil, but have different worldviews compared to the main characters, which results in clashes. This makes them much more interesting and keeps the viewer on their toes. Which ones will become evil? Which ones will become friends? Or will they all remain enemies till the end? Of course, there’s also a main villain in the story, but he’s a common mad guy, so he’s not that interesting.
Story: Slow and overcrowded. Since there are three main couples, two minor ones, four well-developed antagonists, and a few other important characters, the story moves at a snail’s pace. You can watch two-three episodes and then describe them in a single sentence because for every event, you get a number of scenes with how different characters react to it. This is fine at first, but after the thirtieth episode or such, it gets tiresome and boring. Not every single storyline is great, and the drama has a tendency to indulge in slice-of-life scenes. They would be fine in any other drama, but in this one, where the plot already barely moves, it just makes you want to tear your hair out.
Overall, the drama’s start was strong and there were some scenes that hit hard, but they were in the minority. Most of the second half of the drama was draggy and I skipped through whole episodes without missing anything major. I would not recommend it to anyone unless they have too much time on their hands.
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