Because of the so many positive reviews and my love of history drama in general, I watched this show, but after finishing it I find myself extremely disappointed, I thought I was going to watch a gem as the rest of reviewed mentioned, but the reality is just above average historical drama.

I think those who rate it 8 and above, is due to their lack of experience in Historical dramas, or they didn't watch enough of Historical drama to compare to, I watched 50 + History drama and movies, so I can say that compare to the rest its an above average drama.  

1. The polish : unfortunately a lot of unrealistic cut out scenes that doesn't make sense, a lot of loopholes and naive errors in direction that prevented then drama to be an epic one.  

2. The acting :The cast is a sprawling one, as befits the scale of the story, and from the principal characters to the secondary characters, to even the small, incidental characters, every single one is well-acted with his/her unique character, character development and plot twists adds a lot to the story and each character. which is one of few strong points of this drama that make u keep watching engaged laugh and cry in a lot of scenes.

3. The Romance : Average childish immature romance, Average chemistry between the two main leads, with some cute scenes.

4. Story : the weakest point in the drama , very childish not creative enough and lacks a lot of important factors of history drama, comparing it to other Gil Dong stories or rebel themed history drama, its the weakest of them.

5. The villains : with their acting forced to hate them more and more with every passing episode.. they did great job.

6. cinematography and direction : below average.

7.Music : strongest point in the drama, played at right times, memorable and keep playing in your mind

good history drama to pass time nothing more .