Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo is a VERY complex drama. And therefore, it left me with very confused emotions in the end.

For start, the entire plot of the drama had incredible potential. But somehow it got weary in the middle, ultimately losing its charm. I love a good tragedy and this could've been a good one. But the drama's failures and flaws outweighed the good ones and ended up with a quite mediocre output.

Lee Joon-gi as the male lead was on-point. He fit the character so well you couldn't imagine any other actor to play Wang So. He was mainly the reason why I stuck up until the end of the drama. The way he delivered all sorts of emotions in a still, close-up, continuous shot is just pure brilliance.

IU as the female lead was likeable. She was adorable in the beginning. However, as the plot thickens and the drama unfolds, her repetitive sad, longing puppy-dog eyes became too exhausting to watch.

The premise of the drama had a bit of a fantasy, which I personally liked. The concept of time-travelling was loose but easily grasped. However, there were no further explanations on why IU travelled back in time. And as the historical part of the drama rolls, soon the concept of time-travelling faded away into the background and the drama completely forgot about it.

The drama was obviously a reverse harem intended for viewers, mainly women, who can swoon over the gorgeous princes through the entire drama. But the charming faces of the princes weren't enough to compensate the plot's shortcomings. The subplots became repetitive, with all of it being an "ordinary woman falling for the high prince but ended up tragically because of that unrequited love" story. Although, there were two of these subplots that definitely moved me, namely Lady Hae & Wang Wook's complicated subplot and Wang Eun & Park Soon-deok's growing yet bittersweet love. Other than that, everything else was a lackluster.

Also, one flaw that I wasn't able to fully ignore was that countless time jumps in the middle of the drama. A few would've been okay. But with it continuously leaping through time, it felt like that drama was playing in fast forward that we couldn't catch up to the story and the emotions it was trying to convey.

With such a dynamic story, it was very hard to pinpoint the direction of the plot. It was so inconsistent all throughout that I couldn't decide if it was a story of Hae Soo's journey from the modern time to the past, her star-crossed love story with Wang So, The Wang Princes' complicated brotherhood and the harsh reality of the monarchy that tore it apart, or the all the romantic links Hae Soo forged in every prince (which I personally think was a bit unrealistic).

Overall, Moon Lovers was quite a ride to watch. It wasn't perfect, to be clear, and had some obvious flaws. A promising plot of a cheesy, forced reverse harem, with a bucket full of flaws and a bunch of bitter, over-repeating endings. But it was a drama you wouldn't want to miss just because of all the emotions you can get by watching it.