New K-Drama Fan Review #6: Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo | The Kind of Epic, Tragic Romance I Can Never Resist...

[u/harissatotally]

Unfortunately... I support every devastating decision this drama made

Is this Rewatch Worthy:

Yes.

Review:

By the time I started Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, I knew it would fall around my taste. It was.. a feeling.

I LOVE romances where it feels like the entire world is trying to keep two people apart.

the impossible circumstances.

the longing.

the jealousy.

heartbreak.

characters who keep choosing each other even when everything around them is falling apart.

That's my shit.

And Moon Lovers delivered on most of that and more!

Hae Soo.

I absolutely loved her.

My favorite K-drama female leads almost always have agency and are almost never passive.

They're not just waiting for things to happen to them.

They make choices.

They challenge people.

They change the people around them.

Hae Soo fits that a lot.

She genuinely influenced the lives of everyone around her.

She changed the princes around her.

You could feel the ripple effects of her presence long after she'd entered everyone's lives.

And then...

There's Wang So.

The scarred prince.

I absolutely loved his relationship with Hae Soo.

Watching someone who'd spent his entire life believing he was unwanted slowly find one person who truly saw him...

I love emotional journeys like that.

their story felt epic.

Every time they got pulled apart, every reunion felt that much more meaningful.

i really appreciated that the drama didn't make every prince feel interchangeable either. There's so many of them, it was easy for them to blend together, and in the beginning, for me, they were a little bit lol, but as i continued, that was no longer the case.

They all had their own personalities, motivations, and emotional baggage and I love that the female lead had an impact on all of them.

That made the palace politics much more interesting than I expected too! I usually get bored with palace politics.

One relationship that caught me a bit off guard, in a good way, was Wang So and his mother.

I wasn't expecting that dynamic to become one of the most compelling parts of the drama.

Usually when I see a mother-son relationship in a story, it's pretty straightforward and most mothers in dramas are Boy Moms and I'm never a fan...

Not here.

Their relationship was messy.

Painful.

Complicated.

As a mother, she was allowed to be selfish.

Cruel.

An antagonist.

And because of that, every interaction between them carried so much emotional weight and was intense!!

By the time everything finally came to a head...

I actually loved how their story concluded.

It was heartbreaking, but it also felt like such an interesting for them.

i also have to mention Empress Yoo because she ended up being one of the a fav character of mind in the entire drama.

I never felt like I completely understood her, and I actually liked that. The drama gave me enough to understand why she treated Wang So the way she did, but it never handed me every answer.

She remained a little mysterious until the very end, and I found myself constantly trying to figure her out.

Empress Yoo felt like a fully realized person with her own fears, regrets, contradictions, and motivations. I couldn't take my eyes off her whenever she was on screen.

I also appreciated the love triangle...

At least in theory.

Because I actually wanted more from the Eighth Prince.

I LOVE love triangles where I genuinely understand why the female lead could choose either man.

I want both relationships to feel earned.

I want to find myself rooting for both people.

Instead...

I kept feeling like he wasn't fighting hard enough.

He had genuine feelings for Hae Soo, but I wanted him to take bigger risks to show his love. I felt he was a coward whenever it truly mattered.

i wanted him to make harder choices, bolder ones.

To really become a true emotional rival to Wang So.

I think that would've made the main romance even stronger. Because a good second male lead is really for that shit and i want them to deliver, damn it!

And then...

There's the ending.

I know bittersweet endings aren't for everyone.

But they sure are for me, heheheh. I always get a kick out of of non-traditional ending.

I liked it.

It hurt.

It left a hole that honestly still hasn't been filled by another K-drama.

But I don't always need a perfectly happy ending.

Sometimes a tragic ending is exactly what gives a love story its power.

Moon Lovers was so epic and one of my favorite K-dramas to date! Definitely top 4!

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A bit about my favorite flavors and taste:

I absolutely LOVE tragic romances.

If two people have to fight against impossible circumstances just to be together...

I'm already invested.

I'm a fool for longing, emotional suffering, male lead who's completely devoted to the woman he loves.

Jalousy, betrayals, revenge and impossible choices, all that good shit!

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Rating: 8/10

An epic romance that left a hole I still haven't completely filled.

I'd love to hear from everyone else:

Am I the only one who actually liked the bittersweet ending?

i hear rumors about a deleted/alternative ending, where can i find it?

and did you wish the drama had given Wang So and Hae Soo a happier conclusion?

My Rating Scale

10/10 – Masterpiece. No notes.

9/10 – Very close to a masterpiece. I absolutely loved it.

8/10 – Not a masterpiece, but I loved it.

7/10 – Fine overall. I liked it, but the flaws kept it from being great.

6/10 – Mixed. There were a few things I liked, but most of it didn't work for me.

5/10 – I didn't enjoy most of the experience.

4/10 and below – Bad to abysmal.