This drama is basically very conventional but presented in a very unconventional way and topped with an icing of beautiful looking cast and equally talented actors and voila! we've got a hit.This drama was highly overrated by many but i believe it lives up to its hype.Atleast for me it did.Im not much of a melodrama loving person but i wanted to watch this purely for the acting as i knew a drama which had Moon Chae Won,Park Si yeon and Song joong ki could not dssapoint me. Song is pretty much an eye candy but when we look beyond we see he's really talented as well.Seeing him in Sungkyunkwan Scandel was a delight but Ma Roo is something totally different. Ma Roo is porobably one of the best characters ive come across in dramaland.He is not the typical khero who saves the day with his knight in shining armour act.He's something better.We never know what he is thinking.Till the last few episodes i was left wondering whom did he actually love-the heroine or the villain.Like a glass which only reflects what it sees not letting us look beyond Ma Roo does the same.Its easy to understand his twisted psychology and motives but nevertheless he is one of the most fascinating chracters around.He's a noble idiot who would sacrifice all for the one he loves even if that means he has to die in the process.At the same time if you get into his bad books.Boy! you better watch out then.He will literally tear you apart.He feels strongly but rarely lets emotion comes to surface.He is calm and calculated but at the same times those little flicker of moments when he lets his real self show,whoa! that's what Song Joong Ki does.He makes Ma Roo into someone where we don't know if we hate the guy or love him.He's that twisted and crazy. Moon Chae Won steals the show for me.Though Maroo with his self sacrifice act seems more noble but she isnt far behind.She as Eun Gi carries most of the brillaince that innocent man is for me.She sparkles sand shines in this drama.Acting like a total witch one moment and the next acting like a high school girl going on her first date,she does both perfectly.She's brilliant and grips us in her character where we feel the utmost for what she is and why she is like that.She is not the usual kdrama heroine but curses and swears when things don't go according to her.She knows how to play mind games and taesan means the world to her.She's stubborn,Smart and with lots of sass.Eun Gi definately comes on my best characters list.:) Park Si Yeon as Han Jae Hee is damn awesome.i loved how she is the one woman who has the power to lure any guy away from their woman.She's the typical woman we love to hate but there are moments when we understand her circumstances and actually feel pity for her but at the end of it she did what she had to do to reach a position she was loath to leave making our drama more interesting.It is because of PSY that Jae Hee seems almost human and we can find a person like her anywere.One who's so smitten with ambition that she would destroy herself in the process and wouldn't care a damn about it.She comes full circle and i love how the writers created her so that we could see utter selfishness and cruelty mixed with a bit of humanity in between to give us a complex character. Kim Tae Hoon as Ahn Min Young is one who is so similar to Ma Roo but where MaRoo earns our respect and sympathy for the life that is tragedy for him,AMY just makes us remind how creepy a character can be.He's someone who's lost in love with Jae Hee and its this love mingled with his own ambition that he destroys himself. The plot is fast paced and involves much for the fight for the throne of Taesan group.We are constantly made to wonder what the hell does everyone actually feel.Everybody needs a therapy according to me because all the characters are more or less broken and so flawed that it gives so much scope for so many things.It is a romance drama but though everyone does what they do because of their twisted idea of love its never the focus.We are more invested in the emotions that they go through for the inevitable decisions they make and have to bear the consequences later.it isnt the once in a lifetime type of ove story where petals will be scattered aroud.Its a more mature romance where love is mingled with selfishness and ambition and the utter greed that resides in most minds Won't be rewatching this anytime soon as all the good things are lost second time around Watch it for its pure take on twisted psychology and the flawed and damaged character ,and the fact that such characters are so real and true to life that you can find them anywere..:D