[4] Seventeen former politicians and key aides of Chun Doo-hwan's (including Chang Se-dong, his former chief-of-staff; Hur Hwa-pyong, lawmaker; Jeong Ho-yong, former Army Chief of Staff; and Lee Hak-bong, former vice director of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency) attempted to halt the drama in pre-production, and failing that, sent a statement to the producers with claims of historical distortion and threatened legal action unless the script was changed.

The production refused, with producer-director Im Tae-woo saying that they tried their best to maintain objectivity by basing their script on historical records and information that they collected for three years, such as Supreme Court rulings, and other hearing documents and news reports at that time.

[5] The Fifth Republic was a politically and socially turbulent era in the country's history, which generated controversy for the drama series.

[6] It was so popular in Japan that even Shinzō Abe watched it and people started cosplaying the characters and even fanzines were created.

[13] In particular, the theme song, Deus Non Vult, is taken from the Latin meaning that humans can forgive history, but "God will not."