All Saeguks start well and then they suffer with Idiotic Oraboni , A Villian that manages to not die a million times with cunning tricks and the Main leads that never learn from previous mistakes .

Nothing has been different for this show. It starts well with an interesting use of Black Magic ( copied from Disney courtesy Tangle , Frozen, Sleeping Princess and Once upon a Time) and badass FL & ML but slowly the position called writes block sets in where they have over committed to 20 episodes for a 12 episode series and we repetitive captures of ML/FL or the Villians and betrayals.

It was a marathon to complete the second half of the show courtesy to a stagnant story.

While there were faults in the plot ; the cast has been almost perfect . Shi-yoon in the first on his first Saeguk as he brings both lightness and also emotions. Kim Sae-ron was 16 yrs [spoiler] don't expect intimacy or passionate kiss as the FL is a minor but you could still feel their love [/spoiler] when she was cast to this show and she performed the best after the dreadful shamaness Hong-Joo. Special mention for Moon Ga-Young [spoiler] as the red robes assasin[/spoiler]. Poong-yeon is the most dreadful character after his father and the king.

Overall this show is strictly for Saeguk lovers although the first half might be entertaining for everyoneelse.

This drama was like a rollercoaster ride without the thrills or the rails. That first episode was unbelievably bad and a huge turn off to kick start the drama but I kept going regardless. The whole mystical shaman vibe in a historical setting turned out to be quite an unsuccessful combo in this case, it felt like they slapped on those elements without any real thought. The entire story felt so limited and restricted, even the cast, when taking into consideration its length. All of that was accompanied by poor pacing, you can imagine how they were trying to push it to reach the 20 episodes mark.