Is the Palace as pretty as in fairytales, or just a dazzling prison?

The second time i am ever writing a review on mdl, it's about 4 am and i just finished watching the last two episodes. But i just need to share here all my emotions in order to move on.

I have honestly rated the drama a 10 way before it ended. It's because I just had that feeling when you watch a quality drama and you don't really care if the ending will be happy or sad, cause the path until there was just worth it. I'm also not the type to judge a drama based on their happy/sad ending.

I have been reading other people's reactions to the developing story, what they felt as lacking, what they liked a lot, how they would like it to end. It really all depends what is the reason you watch the drama in the first place. For me it was an interesting journey, it started so nicely, seemingly going in the usual direction historical dramas go. It felt familiar, as i enjoy watching historical dramas a lot. But then, there is our FL, so so different to the usual female leads in palace dramas. As i already had a preconceived notion on how i wanted the story to go like, it felt frustrating at times. Sometimes i felt just like a helicopter parent, wanting to get myself involved in the story and change it into a fairytale. However now i realized that what i thought was a mistake. Because this is not what this story is about. This is not about watching the leads have the most perfect love story ever. This is not about only seeing the nice things in a relationship. This story is about breaking those rose coloured glasses and seeing the reality as it is. Maybe the story here is exaggerated, as any fictional story is like. But it offered me a perspective that honestly i did not have before.

I mean, this drama is not the only one where a court lady wishes to stay outside the palace and live a peaceful life. There have been dramas before, but they were just glamorized a bit too much to fit our fairytale ideas. Where everything goes well and they manage to juggle both the king, their prince and the life outside the palace. We all wish they were able to do that, but were they?

Another character besides the FL that impressed me a lot was The Queen Dowager. In the older drama "Yi San" she left a negative impression on me, i don't even remember why to be honest. But here? Here she described best what is in Deok Im's heart and what was basically in all court ladies hearts. Her dialogue with Yi San's mother in the last episode, which also inspired the title of my review, left an impression on me. It will probably make me watch historical dramas just a bit differently moving forward.

As for the king, he is the hopeless romantic who only loved and only had eyes for Deok Im. Now you'll probably wonder after watching the drama, was he really a hopeless romantic or can he really be called romantic? I'll borrow Deok Im's words from the last episode and say "Perhaps". To me he is just the definition of loving someone so much that it hurts. That it hurts you and the person you love, a bit too selfish but understandably so in my opinion. Maybe that love was too intense, maybe if he had time to love a bit less for a longer period of time, it would have been better. But time was rushing... I wish that in his next life, Yi San gets to be born in a harmonious and loving family outside the palace, so that he can receive all the love that he should receive as a child.

Now i realized i did not say anything memorable about Deok Im, her strong character was what pushed this story further. You want to root for her ideals, you want to tell her to just go with the flow and accept the confessions and live the fairytale life. But life is not a fairytale at the palace. I want her to be able to live a peaceful life outside the palace, hope she'll be able to...

You can't really look at the story and say, oh, this is the type of romance that i want. If you'll ask me which one of the women in the drama i would want to live as, i'll probably say Princess Chung Yeon. Her story with her husband was so cute, even if not shown a lot in the drama. Living outside the palace with her pretty family, having the support of her brother, that must have been nice and not as suffocating as the palace.

Edit: I did not mention the acting!!! The thing that made this whole drama so memorable to me! Honestly, just give me good acting with good story, doesn't matter if it's sad or happy and i'll be pleased. this is what the drama is about. amazing actors all around!

That should be enough from me, as for my rating, that 9.5 in the story and rewatch value is just me being a bit bitter that they played too much with my feelings. The writer and director know themselves where! I'll keep you in mind

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