#literally love triangles are built for messy drama

[loveinsomesacredplace]

[you-did-well-my-love]

Drama Review: Hwarang

The biggest disappointment of 2016 and probably 2017, screw you writers.

Rating: 2/5. If I’m being generous, 2.5.

OST: I wasn’t the biggest fan, but that might have just been my hatred for the drama boiling over onto everything else. When you listen to the album, there are some good songs. But they kept playing the same two bland songs over and over again. I personally recommend It’s Definitely You by V and Jin, and Memories of a Miracle by Jeon Woosung. Hyungsik’s song is really nice too.

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Historical

Synopsis: History is often made on the backs of truly passionate, talented young people. During the Kingdom of Silla, a group of elite youth known as Hwarang (literally "Flowering Knights") would wield great influence. These dashing, talented knights – Moo Myung, Sam Maek Jong, Soo Ho, Ban Ryu, Yeo Wool, Han Sung, and maiden Ah Ro – could outsmart and outfight anyone as they pushed for justice in Seorabeol, the capital city. One of them would become King Jin Heung of Silla and change the course of history.

Thoughts/Review: (spoilers)

This drama was a mess, and I’m going to rip into it. If you don’t want to hear what I believe are legitimate reasons this drama was bad, then don’t read further. 

I’ll get what I liked out of the way in the beginning because there’s not much. The actors were all great. I thought the actors who played the Hwarang embodied their characters to the T and you could really feel the bromance and how well they got along off set. When their was comedy, it was great. I loved how Ah Ro called Sam Maek Jong out after the forced kiss. “If kissing me against my will wasn’t a mistake, then was it a childish tantrum?” was the best line of the entire drama. Plot-wise: I loved the romance between Ban Ryu and Soo Yeon. 

That’s about it.

This drama was an overwhelming disappointment. I waited so damn long because they kept pushing the air date back, which only built up the hype more. Then they had all these promotions with the six boys, and I was SO excited.

That is my first complaint. The synopsis is bullshit. The drama is not about our lovely “dashing, talented knights” rather it is about a pathetic love triangle with a female lead who does nothing but get into trouble and cry.

This drama was about the Hwarang. It was called Hwarang. There was not enough Hwarang.

It started out very promising, and with a great cameo from Lee Kwang Soo, and the comedy was pretty great. But the more you watch, the more it goes to shit. The reason I kept watching is because I wanted to see how things turned out. I’ve been a fan of Hyungsik’s since High Society and enjoy watching his dramas. Minho and V are my babies. And I fell in love with Do Ji Han and Ban Ryu’s character.

The first mistake was making Ah Ro think Moo Myung was her brother. The two of them did not have chemistry, and I think that just sort of killed anything that could have bloomed between them. There was no development in their romance, there was a weak attempt at internal conflict with Ah Ro and her feelings, and then they were all of the sudden in love with each other.

Also, there was literally no point for them to lie to her. This wasn’t like That Winter the Wind Blows when he was trying to scam her. They should have just told her “Hey, your brother died, this is his friend and I want to take care of him out of respect for your brother.” and then given her her right to mourn her brother’s death. Looking back, that was the first sign to get out while I could.

Their romance wasn’t the only romance I had a problem with. It was Soo Ho’s crush on the queen. If they had cast someone else as the queen, it might have been tolerable. But I could not stand the queen. Could not stand her. The actress was expressionless and emotionless unless she was screaming over something stupid.

Second thing I disliked, the first being the romance lines, was the editing. It was really jumpy, and made the whole thing seem weird. For example that one scene in like episode 7 or 8 where Moo Myung fell off the horse. He hadn’t shown signs of any problem for the past like five episodes and all of the sudden he blacked out and fell off his horse with no pulse, and suddenly Ah Ro regrets all of the terrible things she yelled at him literally three seconds before in a different scene. SPEAKING OF WHICH did they ever explain why he passed out? I don’t think they did? Add that to the list of problems...

The third thing I disliked was Ah Ro. She was so boring. I don’t blame Go Ara (entirely... some things she did and certain lines she delivered annoyed me) but the character was really poorly written. She was really shallow with barely any background or personality. All the writers had her do was run around between the two boys and cry. Her most interesting scenes were when she was acting as a physician, and there were hardly any. When they did happen, they lasted for merely seconds. Then she went back to crying and moping about Moo Myung.

It was so damn repetitive. Moo Myung gets his dumb ass injured and Ah Ro cried about it. Or Ah Ro got her dumb ass in trouble, and cried about it.

Which leads me to my next problem.

My biggest issue with the drama: terrible writing.

Such poor writing. It took them forever to set up the story, the Hwarang weren’t formed until episode four. A drama that was supposed to center around them didn’t. We got to episode fifteen and the plot hadn’t progressed one bit. Episode 19 was literally a waste of time. And boy did they twist history.

First, I want to talk about Han Sung’s death and how it showcases the terrible writing. I remember before the episode aired, a ton of articles came out saying “BTS’s V’s character revealed to play a key part in setting the final conflict into motion.” 

It’s a common trope when you have a group of friends; killing off the youngest, the purest, the last person who deserved to die. It’s used to really rip into that raw emotion of the main characters, and as the Hwarang writers were trying to do, set the final conflict into motion.

But they fell so flat. They spent less than half an episode killing him off, spent half the episode talking about him. Yeah I cried, but it was because of the emotion delivered by the actors. Taehyung did so well and so did Yoon Woo with his tears, but the second they opened up their mouths and delivered the dialogue + the editing of the scenes absolutely killed the suspense.

And his death was supposedly so important, but then they don’t even mention him again save for that one line by Yeo Wool in episode 19. Nobody even told Ah Ro that her precious friend died.

Now, about how badly they twisted history:

Someone on twitter explained this better, and I’m sorry if I butcher the facts, but the main thing is that they twisted history too much. I know that it’s necessary to do in historical dramas, but this was too much. History should be used as a guideline. 

To explain: the Bone Rank system was a very real thing, and the writers twisted it to give Moo Myung a fictional character an illegitimate claim to the throne. As the person on twitter explained it, when the queen’s brother gave up the throne (i believe it was because of his illness) he gave up his entire family’s line to the throne. Meaning Moo Myung was not a sacred bone and had no right to the throne. 

The pathetic two-episode “battle” for the throne was the worst thing they could have done for the drama. It was weak in intensity, dialogue, and emotion. And it was just plain stupid. Especially when you look at how historically significant King Jinheung was/is.

History aside, it’s still stupid. The writers spent 85% of the drama pushing Sam Maek Jong’s struggle against the queen and pushing that he is the rightful king, and then all of the sudden Moo Myung, who is supposed to be his friend, comes along and tries to steal the throne from him? Moo Myung is the main character, and the viewers are supposed to support him, but after all of the build-up behind Sam Maek Jong’s struggle to claim the throne, all I felt was sympathy towards Sam Maek Jong and resentmore towards Moo Myung for betraying his friend. That is not what I want to be feeling as a viewer.

Seriously, that is not how you sell a product to a consumer. That’s what dramas are: a product. The viewers watch dramas and support them with their money because they are captivating and enjoyable, not because it makes them feel like shit. 

Did they not have editors? Did nobody really stop and think, “Hey this concept here doesn’t push the plot forward, rather it drives it backwards”???

You could tell through the OST the mood they were trying to set. They were trying to make Jinheung the enemy, but they absolutely failed.

And the ending.

I liked the swearing of the allegiance to Jinheung. It delivered the emotion it was supposed to and was exciting. That’s the only thing I liked.

The montage basically proved that Sam Maek Jong was the real main character.

And then, oh get this, they NEVER TOLD ANYBODY ELSE THEY WEREN’T RELATED. I get that everyone probably made the connection on their own but like the viewer has to assume since nobody ever actually put it into words and it’s like jesus you can’t just drop a plotline like that. SUCH. MESSY. WRITING.

And what pisses me off the most:

Ban Ryu and Soo Yeon’s had a half-assed resolution.

Soo Ho had no resolution

BAN RYU AND SOO HO HAD NO RESOLUTION

LITERALLY THE LAST THING SAID BETWEEN THE TWO WAS SOO HO TELLING BAN RYU TO STAY AWAY FROM SOO YEON OR SOMETHING STUPID

where the fuck was Yeo Wool

And then they had a riding into the sunset, THEY RODE INTO THE FUCKING SUNSET, without Soo Ho.

I mean I understand if Minho had SHINee activities and couldn’t make it, but like they could have done something different to include him. At least say that he left and went of to travel or something.

This drama was pathetic and I’m glad it’s over. I feel bad for the actors whose hard work was wasted in bad writing, editing, and directing. I look forward to seeing them in other projects, but I am never watching anything from this writer again.

---

Finished 02/21/17