For me, episode 4 wasn’t to my liking because it was kinda slow-paced and forced. It was talking about Damdeok good relations with practically everybody he comes into contact with in the city.

Young Damdeok and Kiha turning into adults as they ride off…gonna miss the kids who acted their roles pretty well

Farewell to the child actors/actresses which made watching a joy…

Suzini kept on trying to extort money from Damdeok, assuring that she will mutiply it for him. It was cute initially but got on my nerves when it kept repeating with Damdeok unmoved by her.

No offence to her, but even though she is Suzini’s elder sister, she looks kind of old in her role as the adult Kiha. She wasn’t too bad in her Kajin role earlier though. Maybe it’s her dress and hairstyle. Kind of hard to accept the transition of young Kiha into the adult Kiha. Still early in the series though.

Episode 5 was more action-packed mainly because most of it was centered around the horse hockey game involving Yeon Ho Gae who was captain of the yellow team. Damdeok and Suzini was in the stands watching. Kiha was also there as part of the oracle entourage.

However, there is criticism of this particular scene primarily because history is being distorted here even though this was a particularly thrilling episode. Ridiculous to the point of being comical because horse hockey wasn’t supposed to exist in King Gwanggaeto era. Rather it had to wait until 200 years later before it was imported into Goguryeo from the Tang Dynasty. A boo-boo for the production team historic wise but thankfully the scenes came out excellent.

After witnessing Yeon Ho Gae and his team resorting to despicable means to maim the black team members, Damdeok decides to participate and joins the black team against his team, even roping Suzini in. Damdeok in no time manages to trump Yeon Ho Gae and scores with ease, impressing the King who is watching on.

The injured black team members and supporters are elated at Damdeok’s superb play. Yeon Ho Gae is furious and resorts to violent play once again. Suzini gets bumped around and has her helmet knocked off even. Even then, she cried out in joy when Damdeok manages to score again though.

As Suzini celebrates, Yeon Ho Gae realises that the other person is Damdeok himself! He is in fury and motions his team to target Damdeok specifically next to maim him. Suzini warns Damdeok about it but he laughs it off.

Damdeok is being targetted by Yeon Ho Gae and his men as he takes several brutal beatings. Even he is human, as he finally gets knocked off his stead, his helmet also coming off. Everyone is shocked that it’s Damdeok. The King is shocked initially and then in fury as Damdeok is seen to be favoritising the black team even though he shouldn’t be since he is the crown prince. Damdeok is confined in the temple while the black team plus Suzini is locked up in jail.

Sujini keeps on asking Kiha if they’ve met before. Kiha ignores her questions. Damdeok passes by and smiled. Wonder if it would still be like this in future? Certainly not as peaceful as now most probably…

Damdeok’s warrior bodyguard, Gakudan appeared at the end of episode 5…

Despite only appearing for the first time at the end of this episode, she was well-received by viewers…

Nice to see that they showed at the end of episode 5 how they filmed the horse hockey scenes at the end. Must be really hard for them with all the sand swirling around which is out of their control…