This had one of the best openings at the beginning of this year but i quite realized that 20 episodes is too long to retain the interest but i still judiciously followed this every-partly due to my curiosity on the curse and PHS & Pyo Ye-jin .

Seaguks are usually frustrating with all ministers being corrupt ; albeit some allegiance to the king ; but here the Left is corrupt but the Centre & Right ministers are loyal and not corrupt which makes their interactions & politics atleast a bit more pleasant

There is a romance in the show but it is very very slow burn and almost not the point of the show ; if you actually had a male pretend to be an eunuch it would still have had same effect but the fun part initially was the tomobish nature of the two female leads and their smarts but in the end they start acting as a third wheel to highlight the Prince and his entrouge !!

Neverthless this is one of the better Saeguks i have laid my eyes upon and would recommend it

Had the same problem all sageuks tend to have: a bad villain. And there was a HUGE plot hole that I don't understand why it wasn't addressed ([spoiler]the Byeokcheon survivors not taking revenge on the people *actually* responsible for the destruction of their homes and the murdering of their friends and family, aka Jo Won Bo and the rest of his cronies. Instead, they targeted and murdered innocent people, which didn't sit well with me.[/spoiler])

Other than that, there was a *sort* of love triangle that wasn't ever really a love triangle at all since there was quite little romance going on (except for some light flirting and a couple of hugs and catch-you-so-you-don't-fall situations). But I really liked both lead characters: Jae Yi was super badass and resourceful and the Prince was a slow-witted genius, who was equal parts arrogant and soft boi.

The second couple was also good and had a fun dynamic together.

I really enjoyed the first four or five episodes, but after that, it turned into kind of a "meh" show. Maybe it would have been better in a typical 16-episodes format.