The last few episodes were quite painful to watch as the pacing slowed down to a crawl especially during the climax when the Emperor was being forced to abdicate. Thankfully, it ended very happily for the main couple.

The overall look and feel of the drama was great with nice sets and beautiful costumes with layers of rich fabric. But it suffered mostly due to the draggy pacing. The chemistry between the leads was ok for me but I much preferred the cute romance between the FL’s servant and the ML’s assistant. Not a fan of the slow way that the ML spoke and conducted himself even in private - a bit too reserved for my liking. The FL was pleasant enough but some of her emotional scenes did not tug at my heartstrings.

Luckily I didn’t know much about the story so the twist with the princess was a nice surprise for me. But as the story progressed, I still could not understand the motivations behind her evil actions. Was she really so 2-faced from young or is there a person who can actually be so kind and evil at the same time? I could see how her early suffering could lead her to wanting revenge (which she did get) but I failed to see how it led to her ambitions to take the throne. It all felt very forced since it wasn’t properly fleshed out.

The best part of this drama for me was the first few episodes and the happy ending in the last episode.