I’m posting @growing_beautifully’s comments here.
Reason for Dying
Besides the grief and letting go theme, another theme for this episode is choosing to die. Malevolent Seol Jin Woo chose to die out of spite, to curse CS and bring a host of curses upon him in the process.
The doctor’s son chose death when he learnt that his parents had unnaturally lengthened his life and were harming themselves. It was a choice to do what was right ie what should have been from the beginning. He was afraid to die but he agreed.
True, @GB.
At first, I found this episode a bit morbid because of its focus on dying but the theme of lifeline evened it out.
I consider the serial killer Jinwoo’s death a suicide attack, not any different from a terrorist’s campaign. He didn’t value his life so he used his own death as a way to target, terrorize, and eliminate Chansung. He wanted Chansung to suffer and, like real world terrorists, he showed that he’d stop at nothing to redress his grievances.
In his warped and depraved reasoning, he thought he was doing a service to the vent-er (or the original poster who vented on that HELLo site) by killing the vent-ee (or the focus of the original poster’s rants). But not only did Chansung put an end to his “mission”, Chansung also rubbed it in that there’s no love lost between Jinwoo and his father. Jinwoo’s father is a judge, and if I were to psychoanalyze Jinwoo, I’d say that he perceived him to be like his father: a judge and an executioner.
I must also point out that, as much as we sympathize with Manwol as the heroine in this story, she was also on a suicide attack when she killed the Princess, Captain, and the soldiers. She thought her killings were justified to avenge her men and Yeonwoo. Also, like JinWoo, she was ready to face death, too, in the course of her achieving her mission of vengeance. She certainly didn’t value her own life.
However, the big difference between JinWoo and Manwol’s vengeance was that Jinwoo was avenging for himself while Manwol was avenging for others. Jinwoo wanted to hurt Chansung because of what Chansung did to him personally.
As for the doctor’s son, one brief comment here.
Although Manwol’s action made a “good” plot device to get the message across about lifelines, in the real world, her actions would have legal and ethical issues.
Manwol may not approach a young child to discuss death without the consent and the presence of the parents. Parents have the right to make decisions including, but not limited to, medical care, life-sustaining treatments, and end of life, of their own child. Although the child’s wishes should be taken into consideration when deciding long-term care, palliative care, and so on, children do not have legal autonomy to make life-and-death decisions. Manwol overstepped her bounds here.
I’m merely pointing this out so we can see that what’s good for the story, isn’t necessarily what’s good in real life.
Also, I find it ironic that Manwol did NOT realize what she was doing here. Remember when we talked about Manwol’s lack of self-awareness? Here’s another example.
She made a deal with the Grim Reaper to “bring the child to Hotel del Luna” (euphemism for kill) and, in return, the Grim Reaper would take care of the serial killer Jinwoo. Then, outside the doctor’s clinic, Chansung studied his hand. Manwol noticed it and commented.
MW: Are you nervous? That your lifespan may decrease? It seems you really want to live long. Don’t worry. You’ll live a really long life.
CS: I was just thinking about it. (looks at his palm) The parents’ hearts that want to take someone else’s life to extend their child’s life.
MW: (looks at him, then covers his palm with hers) I’m protecting yours so that they can’t take what’s yours. I’m just protecting your palm.
CS: It must be the feeling of NOT wanting to let go. The despair of not wanting to send off.
When you reflect on this scene, you’ll soon realize that Manwol is no different from the parents of the boy. She too was like the parents who were protecting their son’s lifeline so it doesn’t end.
She was “killing” the child or taking the child away from his parents in order to extend Chansung’s life. If she didn’t “kill” the child, then she wouldn’t be able to protect Chansung from attacks from Jinwoo. Her bargain with the Grim Reaper was made to protect Chansung.
It’s in this context that we have to look at Yeonwoo’s actions. As I explained in my hairpin post, he had asked the Captain to be a traitor, so Manwol could live. He wasn’t any different from Manwol making a bargain with the Grim Reaper, and the doctor offering up his life span for his son. In fact, he and the doctor were sacrificing their lives so a loved one could go on living.
That’s why it made sense that, in this Episode, Manwol would start talking about her early life with Yeonwoo. When Yeonwoo’s mother died, he became like a surrogate father and brother to him. He sewed her clothes. lol. Did he make that scarf as well? The scarf that became bloodied?
Do you see it? He was Manwol’s guardian.
His heart is also like a “parent’s heart that want to take someone else’s life to extend” his child Manwol’s life. He had asked the Captain to give up his life as the Princess’ man and become a traitor.
I’ll continue tonight when I get home.
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Before I go for my morning meetings, here’s a trivia. The doctor’s son was reading the book “Demian.” I’m not sure if this is the Hong sisters’ meta-reference to IU’s character in “The Producer” reading that same book. But if you want to know why that book is popular among kdrama scriptwriters, here’s one very well-written essay about it.
I think, maybe, when Chanseong looks at his palm, he mostly talking about himself and Manwoel; parallelly..is there any way for him to sacrifice himself to let his beloved alive..ironically speaking, Yeonwoo to Manswoel..how Yeonwoo’s gladly die to give Manweol’s a long live..and the parents to their child..
Good points, papai.
Dear @packmule3 , Demian… one of the best book prologues ever. It stated that every person is the confluence of factors in a way that is only possible once, so every person is a miracle in itself. That is why poetry, history and every human achievement are valid, every human life sacred. Every person do its best to try to become a true human being, making mistakes along the road… but also those mistakes are what makes it unique.
Also, that for a new world to be created, the old one must be destroyed, like a bird who must struggle to escape its egg (the world he has ever known) and destroy it to be born into a bigger world.
Or a coma child deciding to abandon his beloved parents to go to the Great Beyond.
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Man-Wol had to help Grim Reaper to send off this child to save Chang-Sung, and the mournful moment at the Del Luna’s bar was because she realized that what the parents did was so similar to what Chang-Sung (and obviously her) have been doing all this time: to protect their loved ones even at the expense of themselves.
And she also destroyed this little family’s world to protect hers. It must have been a terrible discovery.
On another note, the blossoming of the flowers is – at least for me – her opening to the people (and ghosts) around her. The more human she gets the more vulnerable, but also the more real. That is why when they kissed the petals of the Moon Tree reached the soil: they were real feelings by a true person, not an isolated being in an Ivory Tower.
Chang-Sung brought humanity into her jaded life. By confronting her to the conundrums, paradoxes, heartbreaks and joys of being human he paved the road to her self, making her vulnerable.. and mortal. But also way more fulfilled, kind, understanding.
He brought her back from her Ivory Tower… which is a kind of grave.
Cheers and hope to read from all of you soon!!! =)
I’m working on it, FGB4877.
By the way, I knew you weren’t female before you disclosed it. One, you were nonplussed and uncomfortable at calling at calling us bitches. Two, you calculated something in your first post. (It’s a fact that math and applied math are still male-dominated fields). Three, you use emojis sparingly, like 1 for every 340 words. Four, you seldom talk about your emotional response to the show. And five…it’s a secret. 🙂
You’re in good company, though. I think we have three other non-females on board. One of them speaks French and he’s a bit shy so he PMs instead of post.
Anyway, back to the story.
I agree with what you said. Yes, the petals falling to the ground instead of disappearing in thin air is a good sign that she’s becoming human. She’s leaving her mark, a sign that she’s alive, and not just spirit.
Wasn’t it weird though that the serial killer Jinwoo couldn’t see her (I didn’t know she had an invisibility power). Also, I thought it weird how she suddenly vanished when the doctor and wife arrived at the clinic at night for the lifeline surgery of Chansung.
Let me finish what I’m writing.
On the topic of comparing killers here and on your other post, I was thinking of how MW and Jinwoo compared with Ghost 13 / the spycam victim. Like MW and unlike Jinwoo, Ghost 13 has understandable reasons for what she did as she was greatly wronged, but it appears a big difference is whereas Ghost 13 took sadistic pleasure in her murders (like Jinwoo did with his) and always had that creepy smile on her face up until her very last moments when MG4 turned her to ash, to me it appears MW did not seem to have this sort of sadistic glee in the flashbacks/dreams as her face was quite grim and angry, almost like a dutiful revenge. That said maybe MW did take sadistic glee and we haven’t seen those parts yet, but I thought it was interesting.
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True. I can understand Ghost 13’s thought process, but I can neither defend nor justify her actions. Same with Jinwoo. It’s not too hard to understand the motivations of a bad person in a kdrama because (for the most part, lol) the screenwriter is still a sane person creating an evil character. The writer will still abide with conventional morality, law and order and so on.
Not to mention their creepy smiles, both Ghost 13 and Jinwoo had deliberation, premeditation, malice. But Ghost 13 committed crime after death, Jinwoo did his while still alive.
MW could go for temporary insanity.
🙂
Dear @packmule3 , I have another confession to make: I am an Emoji illiterate u_uU . Is there a guide for that?.
Thanks for being so observant, to be honest I don’t follow up that well Dramas and usually see an episode just once. I also get the idea you must be a great person to talk to.
As far as Man-Wol’s power of dissapearance and invisibility, I guess she have the powers she needs to deal with the world of spirits – because you need tools to fulfill your role – (For the people commenting on him wrist grabbing her: she is SERIOUSLY overpowered. Chang-Sung by doing that is showing he has enough trust in her to put his head in the lioness’ mouth).
I did Demian when I was 17. It was one of those magic books that falls in your hands in the proverbial moment, since hours before that we got the news that a good school friend had died in a car accident half the world apart. It was the perfect duel book for me since it gave me perspective on the loss (without taking a gram of pain from it, I must say). So probably the boy was also bracing himself for a mourning of sorts. In some ways he had already taken the decision to die, his problem was to leave behind his parents… and also to confront his mortality.