The drama had so much potential, but never managed to break through. The pacing was inconsistent for its elongated cool-down periods and its redundant flimsy 24 episodes. One moment you're going at a steady pace and the next, you're like, "Come on, let's get moving!". These long breaks in between didn't even serve a meaningful purpose like to develop the characters or build up for what's next. It should've been cut down to 10-12 episodes while cutting off the nonsense and focusing on the politics. The story slowed down and became less interesting in the 2nd half when the prince went into the palace. On another note, Go Ah Ra, she didn't fit her role at all, too fragile and soft looking. Strangely, her character (Yeo Ji) got demoted to a guest character in the 2nd half, little to no contribution or screen time. If I have to take a guess, the character didn't really fit the narrative to begin with, so it was hard to keep her around in the 2nd half, which also explains the attempted romance, the writers were desperate.