This drama charts the life of Kim Soo Ro, legendary founder of Geumgwan Gaya, the ruling city-state of the Gaya confederacy, which dominated sea trade and iron working during the Three Kingdoms Period. Kim Soo Ro's fiery temperament, charisma and intelligence are his only defense in the extended political struggle, with competition for the throne from his half-brother and lifelong rival, Ijinashi, his former friend Suk Tal Hae, and the dangerous ambitions of Shin Kwi Gan.
It was a seriously bad decision to show a battle as an introduction to the drama. Slow movement, bad choreography, extreme camera shaking to cover the extras' performance in the background and post production ugly blood splatter. It was clear the drama wasn't going in that direction, there was barely any fights after that. Aside from that, the drama had its issues with the writing. That can range from unnatural flow, disjointed pace, inconsistencies, and a poor transition/development of the characters. Soo Ro going into politics and a position of power was the worst direction to the character. It's outside the scope of his character and always came off as a child playing politics. The drama handled death poorly, whenever someone died you don't feel the impact and weight of their death. It's almost irrelevant after the next episode. The same can be said about the entire situation with the love interests the drama had. Which also featured questionable chemistry between anyone and everyone. With all that being said, at least the cast was decent (and you had a couple of shirtless Ji Sung scenes) to keep you distract for a hot minute.