Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth

December 19, 2016

Moo-myeong (Park Seo-joon), a lowborn young man with exceptional fighting ability, enters the Hwarang — Silla's elite warrior corps — concealing his true identity. He discovers the group includes the hidden true king, Sam Maekjong (Park Hyung-sik). The Gyeongju area establishes Silla's ancient world.

December 19, 2016

The Hwarang academy — its training, its hierarchy, its extraordinary young cast from across Silla's noble and common classes.

December 26, 2016

Sam Maekjong's dangerous position — the true king forced to hide while a regent holds power.

December 26, 2016

The young woman Ah-ro (Go Ara) who connects Moo-myeong and Sam Maekjong.

January 2, 2017

Extended sequences using Gyeongju's historic royal landscape — the tumuli, temples, and ancient streets that create Silla's visual world.

January 2, 2017

The brotherhood forming among the Hwarang — across class lines that Silla society rarely crosses.

January 9, 2017

Kim Taehyung (V of BTS) as Han-sung — the youngest and most gentle of the Hwarang, whose arc the drama's fans remember most painfully.

January 9, 2017

The Hwarang at their midpoint — trained, bonded, beginning to understand what they were created to do.

January 16, 2017

Choi Soo-ho (Minho), the most nobly privileged of the Hwarang, and his arc from arrogance to genuine brotherhood.

January 16, 2017

The regent's political power and her relationship to Sam Maekjong's hidden identity.

January 23, 2017

Extended palace interior sequences at MBC Dramia — the Silla court's political world.

January 23, 2017

Sam Maekjong's revelation as the true king — and the political consequences.

January 30, 2017

The Hwarang's collective choice about who they serve.

January 30, 2017

Moo-myeong's true identity and its connection to the political world he has been navigating.

February 6, 2017

The Hwarang's military purpose finally realised — the drama's most sustained action sequence.

February 6, 2017

Han-sung's fate — the drama's most emotionally devastating moment.

February 13, 2017

The political resolution of Silla's succession crisis.

February 13, 2017

The true king's ascent — what the Hwarang were created to enable.

February 20, 2017

The Hwarang dispersing — the brotherhood's moment complete.

February 20, 2017

The finale. Park Seo-joon, Park Hyung-sik, and Minho's performances. Kim Taehyung's Han-sung remains one of Korean drama's most mourned supporting characters.