Link to Part 1 is here: Doom at Your Service: Eps 7 & 8 Open Thread, Part 1
Gifs from surii’s tumblr
I like gifs; they always capture the main points of the drama. Thank you, gif-creators!
Thank you, too, to all the posters here for making the discussions deep, respectful, and buzzing.
Thank you @Packmule3!
I loved that back hug!
Is Myul Mang going to be considered as a best boyfriend material?
Or is it too soon to ask about that?
Thanks @pkml3. We certainly are buzy-busy bees on these threads. It’s lovely to have more new points to read each time I pop in again.
False Love
I also love this GIF back hug. I can see MM giving his all and treasuring DK in his arms. DK, though, is still a bit detached, even though she’s the one who says they should live together and ‘sleep’ together. When she says she likes MM, that’s true. However it has not quite deepened into love yet.
So because of this, I’d interpret it to be ‘false’ love (rather than vain love). It’s not yet love, but it may not be in vain. Liking can become something more, it’s just not there yet.
Here’s another version of the subs.
Boredom
(This is something GD has said before. We noted from the beginning, that she and MM were listless, seemingly bored and unenthusiastic. I also thought it was because she was sick and weak. However, since she mentions the word, I’m thinking that boredom is something GD wants to allay and part of what motivates her.)
Threats and Blackmail
(GD’s point of view is that she didn’t actually do anything to DK. She ‘kidnapped’ her to ‘threaten’ and possibly blackmail MM. With DK’s disappearance, immediately it was as if she had never existed. That was a shocking wake-up call to MM. He never considered before what GD could do in terms of vanishing a human person. It was his province to make people disappear, but GD had done this instead.
Although GD didn’t kill, she could remove a person and every trace of that person. It would have been hell for MM to be the only one who remembered DK, and to go through his forever remembering her by himself.
Another point: although GD did not kill, she had the power and the right to pull out her plant. She could ‘terminate’ MM if she didn’t like what he was growing into.
We note that poor MM is at a disadvantage with these 2 females. DK used herself as leverage and threatened MM into coming back to her. And GD admits that she stole DK to blackmail MM.)
What GD Wants
(We recall that when GD spoke to DK in her garden, she made the following points:
1) She warned DK that she’d be heartbroken no matter what she chose.
2) GD cared for/loved MM and was taking steps for his good.
3) GD wants her creation ie MM in particular to be happy. (However I have to say that the way GD said this was unconvincing LOL.)
4) Challenges in life are necessary for life to have meaning.
5) DK is to be responsible for the fate of all that the marble represents.
6) DK is not to be miserable because of MM.
When DK asked GD what she wanted, the question was thrown back at DK. When MM asks her the same question, she does not answer. GD wants DK and MM to come up with the answer themselves, so that they can own it. My conjecture is that DG wants DK and MM to understand and accept that in the heartbreak/difficulties they face, there is meaning and even joy. However they are not like puppets (Pinocchio) who are merely manipulated, they have the capacity to love, and to respond in a loving way regardless of the challenges, and so, to affect the fate of others.
If the pot plant represented just 1 creature, (MM), then the marble represented all creatures, ie the universe. GD deliberately put the marble into DK’s hands, not once, but twice, and asked her if determining the fate of all by her love was scary. She wanted DK to feel a responsibility that extended beyond her immediate circle.
For each of us, we too have our own universe of persons/work, etc that we are responsible for. It’s up to us to initiate relationship with and to respond to those within our reach, with love.
Succession?
(She admits that she was wrong to think DK was miserable because of the misfortunes of her life, and that she blamed MM for them. DG hopes that MM and DK are right to love each other and to continue as they have done.)
(MM is incorrect, since even GD admits that she was wrong. She is not always right and she does not know everything, since she did not know that DK didn’t blame MM for her misfortunes.
However MM is like a child who sees the parent as the always correct authority figure. He is the Pinocchio puppet who’s become a boy, but he needs to grow up more.
When GD revives the tulips, we recall that DK also revived dead plants in MM’s world. @Cleo spoke of succession. With DK having the ability to revive life and to hold the universe in her hands, might GD be placing DK in position, upon death, to take on the role of being life giving?
When it was MM who disappeared, he found himself dressed like a normal person, in shirt and jeans and bare feet, standing on the edge of a roof. We were then given the perspective of a person who jumped off it, with the ground coming close fast. We assume the jumper would have died instantly. Might it be that MM had been a human who killed himself, and upon his death, was given the role of doom (like the Grim Reaper in Goblin)? Then DK is the Spring to his Winter, the Light to his Darkness?)
Love Lesson?
I gave my reason up-thread on why I interpret the subs to say ‘false’ love. It is because at this stage, DK likes MM but does not love him quite well yet. I agree with what @nrllee mentioned that love that is self-seeking, inward looking or limited, is not love as good as it could be. It’s still love of a kind, but it falls short because true love has no limits. It could be that the lesson GD uses much tough love to teach, is to love more completely, starting from loving one person, to embracing the universe.
Dear @GB and et,
I am posting here the pictures I mentioned on my Episode 8’s analysis.
The flowerpot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zb0SpCZCYco8j-7a4v9BwdkkB-vIFaqo/view
Pinocchio:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QmmtYuTG_HoGdCUwg4mAHI3lD-xz9_J4/view?usp=drivesdk
This tiny leaf…
@GB,
I read what you wrote in Part 1.
I agree with you. DK broke the bracelet because she was furious, that MM came for her while she was asleep.
The thing is that she broke the contract, but the contract is still on. While DK was in the deity’s Garden, it was validated for us that the contract was still on. Long before MM put her again the red string of fate.
Considering the day DK learned she is going to die and what happened in between she is in a good place. As I have commented before, she is living everything in real time, while we are discussing it as spectators.
Still, I think that her Aunt will complicate things. I cannot say how she will do that.
It was the only thing that make sense. The Deity Girl is flawed and the feeling she got to be wrong might be a first.
If the series have intextuality with Pinocchio, your thought that MM was a human being like Hanza in Goblin, might not add up.
If the reference is valid that MM is Pinocchio the puppet, that means that it is his first and only life. That’s why he wants to become a boy or human in our story.
In matter of names, Myul Mang is already given a name: Kim Sa Ram.
So technically, the name he was given makes him humane.
There are a lot to discuss and we haven’t said anything about the comic relief! For example, how duplicated was DK little brother’s reaction with DK’s reaction when they found out about Doom.
How Na Ji Na and DK little brother’s were in tune, that even MM commented on this! And so on…
My predictions regarding the plot?
I am pretty sure that we will need a box of handkerchieves, until our heart goes back to its place.
Someone from the main OTP is going to die.
Since MM is Doom and cannot die, that means that DK will die, before she is rebirthed in another state?
The more I think about succession, the more it make sense.
Remember the dream in Episode 4 where DK asked Doom to show her his world?
He was walking and made everything to die painting from deadless and black colours. When DK walked towards him, everything returned to life.
Like the deity girl did, after MM’s angry outburst in her hospital room.
We got a glimpse about DK’s powers and it was not explained further to us. Maybe this is a foreshadow?
DK needs to die as a sick human being, in order to rebirth in deity form, like the deity girl does eternally?
Lot’s to ponder about…
@GB When I get flummoxed by the complexity and ambiguity of the First Lead pairing’s love story I utilize the Second Lead’s story to try to make sense of it. The return of DK’s aunt (who is the spitting image of her mom) ties in with the return of the first love in JiNa’s life. Both men (MM and Cha) were on the brink of telling their love interests’ everything before this intrusion. Both women were in “suspended” states (unable to move on) with past hurts (DK her parents’ death and JiNa her first love). The women needed to address these issues before they can fully love again. @Cleo’s pick up about the leaf on Pinocchio’s nose made me think of the Forest book that MM was reading as well. Good catch @Cleo. 🙂
@Fern same with you, my interpretation of the marble is that it is world we live in, universe we are a part of. If so, that could well be an idea the writer got from Men In Black 1, ending scene. If it is a gift from GD, perhaps it may have some magical qualities? Or is it simply a marble?
When I watch ep 7 I find GD’s cruel to be kind’s action a twist hard to be relatable. Ep 8 may save her character a bit. GD’s philosophy may intend to be wise and deep but I also find it confusing. False love? False hope? I will read up more on your posts in detailed after work to digest the rationale on false love and false hope.
@Cleo interesting thought about succession. A new order. I guess that’s a possibility for the ending. Thing is though, much as I am not entirely a fan of GD (and her methods), she stays pretty neutral? She doesn’t seem to get swayed by emotions as such? She absorbed MM’s tantrum in the hospital room with aplomb. She didn’t retaliate in kind. She just took it like a parent would a child. And then restored order once more. Will DK be a worthy successor? Thus far, she seems to exhibit similar traits to GD – she never retaliated with the pregnant wife/married man situation, nor with her wastrel of a brother. But she does have moments of anger/impudence when she reacts to MM. GD acts more like a mother. DK more like a lover. If GD steps out of the equation and let’s DK take her place, and DK is given the authority over MM (like GD has authority), I am not sure the balance would be right. I feel that for their relationship (DK/MM) to work, they have to be equals. So even if they argue or disagree about something, one can’t lord it over the other and destroy the other party when things get too heated. So I think GD as the Deity who oversees everything is still required.
I think the writer is attempting to give humans (and MM) agency in their decisions. Which is why GD will guide (and interfere) and it feels like she’s manipulating her creations emotionally, ultimately she leaves it up to them to make that choice. DK needed to acknowledge MM had a part to play in all her past hurts. When she refused to acknowledge that, she was doing herself and MM a disservice. So GD was actually “right” in trying to point it out to her. Yet GD allowed her to decide for herself how to perceive it which was a decision to remain stoic and disprove GD’s assumption that MM brought her misery. In so doing, DK is pretty much painting a rosy glow over MM? MM kept her from seeing what the man who was suicidal did in the entrance of the hospital. Cha did exactly the same thing by stopping JiNa from seeing her first love outside the cafe. Unrealistic expectations are never healthy in a relationship. Did you notice how clingy MM became after he potentially lost DK? He kept showing up. He was scared of losing her again. He overcompensated by being super nice to keep her happy? That’s not a healthy relationship because eventually his dark side will emerge.
@Viva It’s a tactic many parents use for raising their children. Being cruel to be kind. Because parents are looking to build resilience in their children. They are playing the long game. For the final win. Not just short term “happiness” or relief. An example I can think of is this guy I read about. He was a Thalidomide baby – born without any limbs (no arms or legs). He recounted how his mom used to let him work out a way to get up the stairs on his own with no help. She would stand aside and watch him struggle. She would even stop helpful Good Samaritans from giving her son a hand when they saw him struggle. Everyone thought she was a horrible mom. Even her son. But when he grew up, he realized what she was trying to accomplish. She was trying to teach him to fend for himself. If she kept helping him, he would never learn. He would always rely on someone else. Similarly here with GD, she’s playing the long game. She wants DK and MM’s love to be strong, resilient and true. Not just vague “happiness” (which was what DK asked – why can’t you just let us be happy). Because the end goal is not happiness. That’s fleeting. It comes and goes. She wants for them a love that will withstand storms of life, a solid one that will take last. So in GD’s mind, their love isn’t quite up to scratch yet. It is still “love” though? Just like infatuation is also a sort of “love”. Howbeit a “false love”. This false love is lacking because DK refuses to see the “bad” side of MM.
Okay, so I think it is more to “false love” than “vain love”, right..
I’m still having curiousity about what MM means to DK in the last scene. He said this to DK:
It’s okay to like me. I don’t care about anyone but you now. You don’t have to wish for it. That’s my answer. So..
[and her aunt came]
So choose. Choose yourself and the world.
And then we’ll see in the preview of next episode where DK finally said to MM that she fell in love with him so that they should broke up (does it mean to terminate their contract? Because she give the red thread bracelet back to MM).
I still wonder too about what is the right kind of love that DK and MM should have.
@moonstar512 I think when their love hits that “GeunYang” state. Just because. Not because DK has to save the world. Not out of anger or as a challenge (like DK was to MM initially). Not because MM pities her. Not because MM has had enough of his job and sees her loving him as an easy out. Not because the other person is your source of “happiness”. Not because they are trying to run away from a true picture of the other person (like DK was when confronted with MM’s part in inflicting misery in her life). Not out of fear of losing the other person (which then makes the fearful one clingy or act contrary to what they are normally like). Just because. That’s what I think 🤔. May be completely off of course. 😂
@Cleo Hi-5!!
As usual even as you posted I also already wrote similar thoughts, especially about DK having to die to become a deity to succeed or assist GD.
That red thread and the nebulous contract. Actually in real life, breaking 1 term of the contract means breaking the whole contract, but in kdrama supernatural universes, that may not be the case.
The red thread is one of the terms of the contract. It was given to DK so that she would not be incapacitated by the pain. It was MM’s promise to keep her pain-free for 24 hours at a time, until her 100 days were up. It however did not impinge on the other term of the contract where he still had to grant her a free wish.
He did not break his promise but she rejected it in defiance, to make him come to her. If she kept the thread on, he’d come only once in 24 hours, so she risked herself with the pain.
When he finally turned up, she said to him it was inevitable that he would come, and that he could not ‘run away’ before he granted her, her wish. She was still holding him to his part of the promise and to the wish.
I feel that her using the red thread and ‘manipulation’ of MM likened her in some way to GD. MM was generally free but as and when it suited them, DK or GD would pull his string and MM would be ‘controlled’ like a puppet. He was pulled back to toe the line and he could not run away. When it came to DK, he of course, no longer wants to run away, but if it is for her own good, he might try again. Conversely, he may let her go.
Pinocchio and growing up – We have a few man-children around.
I’m toying with the idea that MM is practically human now (other than being yanked now and then by the women in his life), in how he loves DK, but he is still a juvenile, not yet a full grown man. Like a fool in love he’ll shower DK with attention and may omit his other responsibilities. His mum will be upset. LOL.
Parallels of the 3 ‘kids’ Lee Hyun Kyu, Sun Kyung and MM. I like that SK the youngest of the lot had the gall to mock Lee for not being a man. He was, however, right.
Lee wants to continue to cling on to Cha even as a grown man.
MM continues to seek out GD whenever he’s frustrated. Granted he has no one else to speak with.
Sun Kyung lived irresponsibly while expecting his sister to support him.
Lee continues immature, procrastinating, not taking risks in his relationship with NJN.
MM thought he could contract a relationship to get what he wanted out of DK.
SK cries like a kid, grieving for his own loss, and out of guilt, and not just for his sister’s pain.
Lee has to be nagged by SK into taking action to avoid never ending regret.
MM has to be goaded by GD to return to his responsibilities.
Sun Kyung had to be shaken into getting a job to support himself.
Many plants need to be nurtured to grow up!
Thanks @nrllee, yes the 2nd leads story will parallel and illuminate the complexities of the 1st leads story. You have drawn nice parallels.
Even as I read you in Pt 1, I did incorporate in my thinking the aspect of one-sided-ness with MM doing more of the giving and clinging.
I was not sure if DK’s saying that she had not been miserable because of MM is a sign of refusing to see his bad side, or that she truly accepts that there has to be both darkness and light, and so does not blame him for existing and causing darkness to pass over from time to time. She accepted that aspect of him and acknowledged his loneliness before, when they entered his world in a dream, and it seems to me, that it’s logical that she does not blame him. Before she saw him on the other train platform, she noted that he had looked sad, as he saw things disappear, with a look of ‘helplessness’ as my subs say.
I do however believe that their love is one-sided in that he is the one now more desperate for her, giving her all of his attention, etc, while she continues as before to want him nearby for convenience. I note in the preview that he says his attention is solely on DK, and I feel this augers ill, because he is Doom and has a job to do. It sounds like he may get into trouble (ripped out of the pot?) for neglecting the other plants in Deity’s Garden.
DK who is dying, is strangely the stronger of the 2 in that she will not allow her walls to be broken. She still refuses to be vulnerable, even in the face of her pain and her need for MM’s help.
GD says that she was not messing with DK but aiming at MM, however by making herself known to DK and insisting that DK possesses the marble, I believe that GD is giving DK a lesson to figure out as well. I hope it works to bring down DK’s walls of self-protection / protection of her loved ones and enables her to move on from her past hurts, as you’ve rightly put it.
@Moonstar512 @nrllee
Guenyang Again – I agree that the kind of love that should be grown, is the guenyang love. Loving without ulterior motive, just because. It’s the closest that we come to agape love.
I was posting above to @Cleo about how the red thread enabled DK to pull on MM to make him come back to her, like a puppet. It’s not pure love when one party has the power to yank the thread, and the other party cannot run away. Breaking the red thread again was, I feel, the right thing to do.
Saving DK – One more point that has not been expanded upon is what MM means when he repeats that he will save DK. What he means by save and what we understand by it could be different. And again there’s GD to contend with, who is still out to do everything she can to keep the balance and the world from destruction.
Without the red thread, it’s still possible for DK to be ‘saved’ by GD. GD can restore to life what is dead or dying. Whether it’s in her interests to save DK probably depends on what MM will do.
I am enjoying reading everyone’s comments, thoughts, theories and angles so much – thank you everyone so much for enhancing my watch of this show.
@Cleo I really like your succession theory. I have been reading up the original Pinocchio story – the original Blue Fairy was called La Fata dai Capelli Turchini (The Fairy with the Turquoise Hair) or La Fata Turchina for short (The Blue Fairy).
I find this interesting because MM has blue / turquoise streaks in his hair too plus he is capable of granting wishes – just like the Blue Fairy in the original story.
I had initially assumed GD represented the Blue Fairy but now I wonder if both GD and MM will come to represent the character in different ways.
My understanding of the original story is that both Geppetto (Guiseppe in the Disney version) and The Blue Fairy end up sick in a hospital and Pinocchio takes care of both of them. The Blue Fairy uses her remaining powers to turn him into a human, effectively giving her life for him. Geppetto’s health is also restored according to what I have read but I am unclear about as to how this happens.
I think both GD and DK represent Geppetto / Guiseppe. GD is the one who originally created MM as Doom – but DK (her love) is responsible for the human MM is slowly turning into (plus she gave him a human name). I think the book on the shelf at Life Story, Woodcarving Basics, is a nice Easter egg that hints at this. GD also created DK for a purpose not entirely clear to us yet – but both DK and MM have hinted at this (MM when he met DK on the roof at the end of episode 3).
I personally don’t think anymore MM becoming an actual human is the goal here – when GD and MM had the storytelling exchange in MM’s head, they talked about him becoming ‘an adult’ not a human. I think there is a difference?
I think maybe the goal is for him to grow up, love himself and accept his fate – and embrace it. DK’s love is going to help him do that, is already helping him do that. In most dramas, a person’s willingness to sacrifice their life for the other is the ultimate act of selfless love – but in Doom at Your Service it’s the opposite. MM’s willingness to give up his life for DK is self-serving. MM’s desire to save DK’s life would mean someone else has to die. I am not sure this is an option. If he can’t let DK go now, he’ll never be able to let her go and I am not sure if human immortality for her is a desirable option let alone possible.
I wonder therefore if the goal is for him to embrace his love for DK and enjoy every day he has left with her? I think the latter is also the goal for DK’s character – love MM despite knowing there is an end to it, because the fleetingness of life is what gives it meaning. If MM and TD show themselves capable of loving each other in this way – will GD perhaps reward them by having TD replace her in the garden? I think the succession theory could work.
At the end of episode 8, did MM say the wish clause in the contract was no longer needed because he’ll do anything for her? It wasn’t entirely clear to me.
@rh love what you wrote.
“ At the end of episode 8, did MM say the wish clause in the contract was no longer needed because he’ll do anything for her? It wasn’t entirely clear to me.”
This just scream unhealthy love? 😂. It’s obsessive crazy kind of love. The kind that DK was talking about a few eps back? It’s the type of love that would do unspeakable immoral things (to others) all in the name of “love”? I am not a fan of this kind of love either. It’s not grounded in reason or morality. Sounds totally romantic but is it right? I think that’s why I felt uncomfortable with MM in Ep8 after DK returned. He felt stalkerish 😂.
@rh
Thanks for looking up the Pinocchio story. What you say of that story:
I checked good old Wikipedia for a quick read, but did not find an allusion to the Blue fairy giving her powers to Pinocchio, and thus dying herself, however if it was possible for MM to do this, I guess he’d do the same.
I agree on your other points on the need for MM’s love to be purified.
I added my take on the succession possibility in my posts too.
You said
My subs were:
It sounds like she does not need to waste a wish, wishing for him to love her, because he already does.
Cheers!
@GrowingBeautifully – it doesn’t say it on Wikipedia, but there’s a PDF I found of the original story and the ending alludes to her dying in the hospital. She then appears in Pinocchio’s dream to say he’s now deserving of becoming a human and when he wakes up he’s a real boy . She dies three times in the story but comes back the first two times so it’s possible she comes back after the third time as well of course – but the end of the original story hints at her dying.
And thanks for the subs – now it makes more sense to me, I also understood at the fair that he implied that she didn’t need to wish for it because he already loves her. “I don’t care about anyone but you now” to me doesn’t sound like a love declaration though – I personally feel he’s still miles away from confessing his love as he doesn’t understand what love is. It’s a bit like what LH said to Cha in the supermarket, ‘your head must be slower than your heart’
I agree with @nrllee that their current attachment to each other is bordering on unhealthy – and I agree with what you wrote about the string and DK using him as her puppet. When he showed up to show her the cherry blossoms he said he came to see her to make sure she hadn’t run away. Eek. Obviously this unhealthy attachment stems from the both of them having severe emotional abandonment issues – I am sure they’ll overcome it.
Here’s the turn of the 3 second leads to be showcased. It’s fun to hear what they think of each other’s characters, and they move in and out of character as they play the games. Lee Hyun Kyu really is quite the kiddo.
@nrllee and @GB,
Thanks for your thoughts on what kind of love that should be growing. Yes it is the guenyang love!! Then, we will still see many more challenges for them to turn their love into the final form of love. I think it would be interesting to take note on the love transformation that the couple experienced through this story. I believe that to have an eternal love, one doesn’t need a reason. Because the reasons could be backfire towards the love itself (ie when the reasons are eliminated, it could be the love will also no longer there).
I think I have more thoughts like@rh now. Previously I think that the only Geppetto here is GD but yes DK would probably be Geppetto too. If we take the read thread as in the string of puppet. I also tend to think that MM becoming an actual human is no longer the goal, rather for him transformed into the grownup MM. Embrace his fate no matter how cruel is that for him.
And considering all theories and discussion that have been written. I wonder now, if the contract is still on for both of them (I’m sorry if it has been discussed earlier but I missed it). Is it possible for DK to fulfill her obligation according to the contract (wish for doomsday). But her another wish that have to be granted is to create an even better world after it is fallen apart. After all MM said to DK to choose herself and the world.
I remembered on the early eps when GD told MM, “you will be punished if you do something bad.” which replied by MM that he is already been punished anyway. In this scene I think that it is possible if in the future that MM will do something bad according to GD’s judgement. But what is it that considered “bad” here.. and what kind of another punishment that MM will have to take if he does something bad..
The longer I think about the lines here, the more I get confused hahaha 😅
Kalimera!
I will leave this treat here for now. I will return later for more!
Brand New DAYS FMV by Felicity Queen.
https://youtu.be/TkcsdIZhSRc
Hey everyone!
I wanted to start answering to your comments, but I saw what @Welmaris posted on the Episodes 3-4 thread Part 2 and I had to answer to her.
She mentioned there and I will quote her here, because if that is a foreshadow about the succession theory I shared yesterday, then we missed it (!) – because of a translation mistake!
Do you remember the scene at the Hospital, after DK remembered that Myul Mang was crying at the Funeral Hall, that the Deity Girl had a heated exchange with MM?
Their conversation started with the word: *Compassion* to make you remember.
…
The Deity Girl said: “I pity the person who will die in her place when you break the contract.”
which was CORRECTED TO:
“I’ll find the person who will die in her place after you break the contract pitifully.”
Who is that person the deity girl will find to die in DK’s place?
Is it herself?
That’s why the next day the deity girl muttered, after she heard the doctor’s diagnosis : “Lies” and we were all wondering what she was referring to?
Note to self: I think I need to rewatch the first 8 episodes back to back in order to see if I have missed something…
Dear @Moonstar512,
We talked yesterday about:
“A vain love is still love” Vs. “A false love is still love.”
I did what I told you about, while I had DAYS on TV, I recorded the phrase with Naver Dictionary and it showed me two words.
One of them was love, and the other was vain.
So, I will continue to believe that Viki subbers got the phrase correct.
It is a vain love and not a false love.
LOL @Cleo, what a lot of hard work you have to put in!!
It’s frustrating that we’re seeing different ways of translating and then changes in the translation. I was listening to GD speaking but I really could not make out if one translation was better than the other, or whether the change was a correction or just made it worse!!!
On to brighter things, I liked the BTS of the hugs and kisses. I think it’s cute the SIG can maintain such a serious demeanour, long enough to film the scenes, because he naturally looks a bit uncomfortable and goofy with those intimate scenes. It was quite funny that PBY had to stand on something to make her taller or she’d be suffocated in the hug LOL.
Hey my lovely @GB,
I am annoyed, because I don’t know the language myself and I cannot answer to my / our questions. I have decided to learn Korean, so hopefully I will be able to ease my mind later on.
Still, I think the subbers are suffering like the rest of us! LOL!
I wanted to answer to what @rh, @nrllee have shared with us, but I cannot so far.
I will check the BTS videos you posted too! A kiss is wonderful way to start our days, right? I really like SIG being playful.
I think he stays into character, because he doesn’t want any gossip regarding his relatioship with PBY? Do you remember MinMin on “Strong Woman Do Bong Soo?”
@Cleo, … bongbong / minmin … you meant like this? LOL. Was there any ‘scandal’?
Dear @nrllee,
Thank you. I pay attention to details. Since everything in these series seem to be placed for a reason, like the Pinocchio dolls in the cafe, I was just on guard.
About the succession theory.
The Writer-nim might have taken tidbits from here and there to create something new. I don’t think either that GD will have to be out of the equation for once and for all.
The deity girl and DK have similarities, but are different too.
As you pointed out the deity girl is the mother figure, while DK is a lover.
I am taking DK to be the yin to MM’s yan. They are equal in authority and power – I agree with you here. They just have to find their balance.
I don’t agree that DK is painting a rosy glow to MM.
DK is the only human being that has understood MM and accepted him for who he realy is / was.
I haven’t transcribed their long conversation in the Hospital and afterward to her place, but from what I have witnessed, they are just learning each other and how they react in specific situations.
I don’t think that DK doesn’t have unrealistic expectations from MM.
She know pretty well who he is and what he is capable of.
As for how clingy MM became.
I am going to repeat myself again. We are spectators that watch everything from a far and they are the protagonists in the story that live everything in real time.
The reason I am repeating this, is that I am trying to be in their shoes.
I am trying to understand why they react like that.
I am taking a psychological approach to their actions and reactions.
You are right, MM is clingy. Why is he clingy?
He is around the cosmos for a very long time.
Always alone for several centuries all together.
His only company was the deity girl in different forms that was dying and coming back to life endlessly.
So, DK happened to him.
In the beginning they fought, she said that she will love him, then he tried to persuade her to love him.
Simultaneously, his mother enters the game and he feels she is a threat to DK.
He has already fallen for DK, yet doesn’t acknowledge it, because he doesn’t know what love is. They saved each other at the Hospital scene – the altering point in their relationship. Just because!
They kiss. Then, reset happens.
He comes back reformed and decides is for the best not to see her.
DK as a result breaks the red bracelet and goes to the Hospital.
The deity’s manipulation makes him go to her and he is thinking that he cannot stop himself.
After that DK disappears. He is the only person on the planet who really remembers her. As @GB wrote somewhere, imagine his torment. It was his worst nightmare coming to life for quite some time.
We have an emotionally numb person coming alive for the first time, after his decision not to feel and of course he will react in a rushed way.
MM wants to savor every minute he has with DK.
I think he feels uncertainty after the reset and DK’s kidnapping.
Lastly, I wanted to comment about when DK is going to cry.
In Episode 8 we have witnessed DK being extremely happy.
If you see her eyes in the cherry blossoms scenes you will see that after her Hospital Release, after her conversations with Writer Dalgona, her happiness brought her almost tears.
Her walls are lowering down. When she met her mother, I thought a tear will be shed. So, in the crying department, we are extremely near this to happen in the next episodes.
@GB,
I read that Park Hyung-Sik had a crush on our girl, but she didn’t feel the same.
Ahh @Cleo, your mention of MM meeting his mother brought to mind how the parallel goes with DK’s aunt popping up now. In the way that GD interferes, we may see parallels to how aunt interferes (or not). She came back because SK informed her of DK’s illness. But she may also have some things to say about her relationship with MM.
Out of desperation, I was wondering if we might catch the interpretation of scenes/translations through the eyes of Korean viewers. I’ve found these 2 girls quite entertaining. Here’s their reaction to Ep 3 and 4. I hope they also post videos of their reactions to all the other episodes. I noticed that even they did not quite understand the flow of some of the scenes. I’d love for them to speak out the lines of script that puzzle us and give us their translation!! Maybe we can ask them to comment?
@Cleo when I mentioned DK is painting a rosy glow on MM, I meant she was refusing to acknowledge that he had any part to play in those past miserable events in her life. So maybe I should have described it as denial rather than painting him in a rosy glow (sorry, poor choice of words on my part). I think the appearance of her aunt (who is played by the same actress who plays her mom – this is for a reason) will be the catalyst to dig up past hurts and for DK to face up with the reality that MM was the cause of those events. Because that is the “real” him. He destroys things. That is not something that can be denied. Just because DK feels that he’s not exactly enjoying the process does not make it any less real? When that reality dawns on her, it will be an awakening. I have a feeling it could be why we are seeing a “break up” in the preview.
Ciao @Rh! Come sta? (Did I get it right? Are you Italian?)
I am glad that you liked that recession theory. It was an epiphany after thinking on what @nrllee said about the deity girl as the old order / old loner e.t.c.
I have tried to find information on the Pinocchio you are reading. So far I have found these links for all the commentators in order to be on the same page about the book:
1. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/03/31/disneys-pinocchio/
2. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Adventures-of-Pinocchio
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/03/31/disneys-pinocchio/
I was wondering why Myul Mang had blue / turquoise streaks, that is definitely an explanation.
I agree with what you said that MM needs to become an adult and not human.
As for the sacrifice vs self-serving theme you are analyzing.
I think that MM, after the reset and DK being deleted by his mother, wants really to die in her place. Not for self-serving reasons, but he will self-sacrificed himself for her, in order to live. That’s why, at the end of Episode 8, he asked to choose herself and the world.
This transformation was hinted when MM told DK to choose a wish that it will be about herself and not other people.
MM / Kim Sa Ram is one of the other people too, along with her brother, her aunt and Unnie.
So, in the end of the episode 8, this transformation is completed.
MM loves DK enough to die for her, instead of her.
Ahhh I see. Thanks @nrllee! That’s like parents trying to align the kids to have realistic expectations in a relationship or marriage counselling. My initial impression I got from ep 7 was GD was telling MM it is a vain love. I thought because there is no after life in this dramaverse, DK and MM couldn’t both exist when they were in love. As MM (being the person? she loved) could die if DK breaks her contract to live.
It makes sense when you explained to me, so GD seems to just want the couple to walk out of their form of love at that stage. Though, somehow GD couldn’t give me the same convincing assurance. May be her delivery via a smile/smirk that wipes off the care/warmth/love she intended to show.
Would that guy you refer to is Nick Vujicic by any chance?
@GB if MM once were human, did he give up his soul (by killing himself) for the Doom role, I do wonder if the marble has anything to do with it. Does DK have to release like MM’s soul/heart/empathy from it? Or crush it to end the world? As @Fern pointed out “The fate of everything inside depends on your love”. Although it could be just a marble..
I like what you wrote in Good Advice that “We need to accept that there’s good and bad in everything/everyone and embrace them knowing this”. I think the existence of MM, even though is depressing, has its meaning. Without the bitterness in life, we won’t know how to appreciate good things in life. If MM can’t turn into human like Pinocchio, I hope he knows of his value through his 100 days encounter with DK. So I agree with @rh’s description of love. To die or have a doom side in everything has its meaning. It makes living and happiness in contrast that much more meaningful and to be treasured. That may be the love @GD is looking for. So MM may try to die for DK and DK may try to die for MM in the next couple of episodes, but that nobility is not what GD is looking for. To think they can be happy without embracing the death of their love ones and not having Doom in the world is a false hope.
@Cleo I read that about Ming Ming too. May be he is a method actor. I read that PBY thought it was not as romantic as the viewers feel because in reality there were lots of staff, bystanders and cameras around. PHS is filming a new drama and that one is on my radar!
@Viva bingo that’s him. Nick Vujicic. 🙂. He has an amazing story. Yes I liken GD to a counselor of sorts. She’s infuriatingly vague and seems to play Devil’s Advocate half the time. But I think what she’s after is for her creations to learn for themselves and choose the right way with some guidance/nudging on her part. That’s sort of why MM says she’s always right (because she has an end goal in sight and she’s working towards it), even though he says it rather begrudgingly. 😂. I wouldn’t recommend her parenting style as an exemplar though. Far too exasperating for the “children”.
@Cleo,
Thank you for the clarification on vain love instead vs false love. You’ve done a lot of effort I really appreciate it 🙏🏻
By the way everyone..
I heard from my sister that many viewers from kdrama base are confused about this story and some of them decided to drop this drama just because it is too complicated and too vague for them.
😅
It’s good to have you all so I’m not wandering all alone in this dark tunnel..
Hey my lovely @GB! – Hi-5 to you too!
Yes, it seems we have similar thoughts about many things.
I really like your take on DK:
“that she accepted that aspect of MM and acknowledged his loneliness before, when they entered his world in a dream, and it seems to me, that it’s logical that she does not blame him. Before she saw him on the other train platform, she noted that he had looked sad, as he saw things disappear, with a look of ‘helplessness’
”
This answers completely to what I wanted to say to @nrllee about MM.
I don’t think DK is in denial. She knows exactly who MM is and what is capable of.
Let’s visit the hospital scene after the hug (by the way the subtitles were different two days ago), to understand how DK sees the matter:
MM: It’s all because of me.
The reason you lost your parents.
All those times you sat at the beach.
All the misfortunes. The reason you’re sick. All of those.
MM is expressing guilt.
DK is looking at him closely. She sighs and points her finger to him.
DK: You need to get re-educated for language.
The way you talk is like a crossword puzzle.
Give me some legit hints.
Is it horizontal or vertical?
MM sighs. MM: Because I exist, you’re miserable.
DK: What? Because you’re winter, darkness, and the end?
MM: Right.
DK: Hey! I like winter. I like night. I also like the end.
MM is looking at her, grasping what she really means.
DK: In other words, spring, morning, and the start is all because of you, too. Which means my misfortune and happiness is all you, too.
So you’re giving me the disease and then the medicine.
When you give me disease, I’m mad. When you give me medicine, I’m thankful.
I don’t want to get rained on. But rain is needed.
You’re something like that. Go tell.
MM: Who?
DK: To that kid (the one it was translated before) who drove you out of my life into my life.
It’s not because of you. Tell her that’s what I said.
DK says “OOhhhh”. DK: I got the right answer, right?
I got all the horizontal and vertical, right?
She is definitely flirting with MM!
MM smiles and laughs and tries to tease her hair. DK stops him.
DK: Don’t do that. That’s what guys do to trick girls. I know that.”
They are both smiling, before DK understands that something is wrong and vanished into thin air on Doom.
@moonstar512,
You are welcome! After all that academic research I have done for my papers, as it seems I have missed it, and I feel the thrill again! LOL!
Trying to decipher the complexity of Doom at your Service! One episode at a time! LMAO!
@Viva, I have this idea that you wrote me something on the other thread but I missed it? If that is the case, I apologize!
As for MinMin, they were so cute together. I really liked Park Hyung-Sik. You could feel that he was in love at that time.
I have heard about the news too. There are so many things to watch this year! We shall see!
Hi my dear @Cleo, thanks for the new translation. I append the one I had from Dramanice which has a nice metaphor that I tease out below. I like how when I read both translations I get to see a bit more clearly, the way we need the horizontal and vertical clues to do a crossword puzzle.
The same dialogue from Ep 8:
‘MM : “It’s all my fault. You losing your parents. All the time you had to spend at the beach. All the misfortunes. And your illness. Everything.”
DK shakes a finger at him : “You know what? You need to learn how to communicate first. Why does everything you tell me sound like a riddle? Or give me better hints a least. Make it more understandable for me.”
MM : “I’m saying you’re miserable because I exist.”
DK : “So are you saying you’re winter, darkness, and the end of everything?”
MM : “Yes.”
DK : “Hey, I like Winter. I like the darkness of the night, and I like it when things end. If you think about it, Spring, morning, and new beginnings also come because of you. It means you’re responsible for both my misery and happiness. (It’s a new perspective for him.) “I guess it’s kind of like you’re teasing me. I get mad when you bring me misery, but I become grateful when you bring me happiness. I don’t like it when it rains, but rain is needed sometimes. That’s what you are. You should say that.”
MM : “To whom?”
DK : “To the person who kicked you out of my life into my life.” (This was his complicated way of explaining it to her in the car and she’s using his words.) “It’s not your fault. Tell that person I said that.”
He stares at her wonderingly and so she takes credit : “I got the answer right, didn’t I? I solved your crossword puzzle.”
(The metaphor of the crossword puzzle: this could be the reason so much that is said is so hard to understand. DK finds it hard and so do we. I’m feeling this Writer is doing this on purpose. Could it be that we need to interpret this show’s dialogue, the way a crossword puzzle needs to be solved? Until we can get the horizontal or the vertical words, we are lacking clues to fill the other blanks. Crossword hints that are supposed to help us fill in everything are seldom as helpful as we’d like them to be, because they are written to be deliberately cryptic or enigmatic, just like the Deity. Without much guidance, we have to try more than one word, at times, in the same spaces to see which fits the meaning and the spelling better. It’s like that for this show.)
He continues to look at her wonderingly, and finally smiles at her unconditional acceptance. He attempts to stroke her hair but she stops him.
DK : “Hey, don’t even think about it. I know it’s what guys do when they flirt.” (Who’s flirting with whom?)
She’s about to say something else but then she feels strange and this time it’s her turn to be kicked out or pulled away.’
Hi @Cleo I am not Italian, I am Dutch! I got the names from Wikipedia because the original story was written in Italian 🙂
I agree the show could still take the story to the point where him offering to die for her is not self-serving anymore but I don’t feel we are there yet with him – despite of what he says. If it’s just him who dies – what would happen to the world? It needs Doom, like @Viva also says.
@GB I LOVE your crossword puzzle analogy / interpretation. This show definitely requires mental gymnastics for sure and it’s been fun trying to figure it out with you all.
With 8 episodes still remaining I think we still have a lot of analysing ahead of us. I think the most confusing aspect for me so far has been the contract. The terms of it are not entirely clear to me and I have doubts about its validity given how MM made her enter it under duress – but I am also aware I shouldn’t analyse it like a lawyer 🙂 I feel though that MM breached the second clause in episode 3 when he withheld his hand yet there were no consequences. I was glad to see he was still coming over to ‘recharge’ after he disappeared. Could both parties simply agree to nullify the whole contract though? I am curious to find out – obviously some renegotiation was taking place at the end of episode 8.
DK’s auntie will no doubt get angry with her for not opting for surgery and make every effort to prolong her life. MM putting the red wristband back on is stopping DK from pursuing this option I feel. At the same time, practically, I don’t feel the show can go the surgery route because the FL would be out of action (and without hair)?
@rh Thank you. To tell you the truth, with just my subs, the sudden analogy of the crossword puzzle …. errr… puzzled me. *Heh* But with @Cleo’s subs, which again on their own sound so weird (what’s with the ‘horizontal’ and the ‘vertical’!!) it became more evident that DK was in the same boat as we, the viewers are. (That’s why it’s always great when more comments are offered!)
She was trying to understand MM and GD. She was receiving clues from what they said and did, but was not sure how to put them together to complete the puzzle. MM gave her the horizontal clues with regards to the fate of the world, GD gave the vertical clues with regards to the fate of the ‘universe’, and DK had to figure out what the solution/word was in the crossword.
The limitation for her was that MM himself was not in the know about everything. He is the one caught by surprise at what GD does. He is not all knowing. As for GD, she gives clues without spoilers (LOL), to get MM and DK to discover the solution for themselves. Even if DK wanted to pick GD’s brains, she did not know how to reach GD on her own. We can add to that, that DK might tend to rely on the logic of classic fairy tales/fantasy literature or shows for her understanding of the other worldly. DK had once suggested to MM that he should pity her like supernatural beings did in those fantasy tales, LOL.
While the title of this show is Doom at Your Service, at this stage we wonder who is serving whom. There is a mutual exchange going on in their interactions that helps/hinders all parties.
Yes, this tiresome agreement that lacks specificity. It’s deliberate, of course, so that anything goes and anything can be prohibited depending on how one interprets it! In human terms, we are quite sure that the contract was broken at least once, and likely more than once. It does not specify what can or cannot be wished for, or whom DK can love.
I feel that it actually could be nullified, by common agreement, and we may go this route in the end.
With the clause that a most loved one would die in DK’s place, we understand the ramifications of DK loving others.
Working around the Contract Options:
1) She’s got to love someone else more than she already loves her aunt, brother, and friend, in order to save them when she breaks her contract. – then DK and her most loved one should be the only ones to die.
*It gets sticky when MM is the one she loves most, who also happens to be unable to die. So then, by loving him most, she’s the only one to die, which is exactly the way it should have been, before MM came along to confuse the whole situation. I’d say this should be the solution, but DK is only halfway to loving him and of course we’d prefer that MM does not end up lonely and miserable again, after DK dies. We imagine that GD also does not want MM to be more self-pitying than he’s been already.
*However MM had also made the situation more complicated by letting DK have a free wish. It’s strange that she has not tried more options for her wish. She’s been working on getting out of killing everyone, especially her loved ones, or sparing all of them misery at her death.
I guess she needs to figure out that being fully alive means enjoying the nostalgia of memories as well as suffering grief. To end up as if one never existed is what is truly meaningless. It nullifies all that a life has contributed to the world. It denies that life itself is valuable. Although GD is totally capable of extinguishing a life’s traces, it’s not something that she has chosen to do to her garden. It is also a power that she has not given to MM. This means that it’s not the route that GD will go.
Back to the point about the free wish … Untried Wish Options:
Can she wish that although she breaks her contract, the world and her loved ones don’t die?
How about a wish that she is cured of her illness?
Or a very kdrama-ish wish to go back in time and live her life again so that she’s able to cry and not grow that brain tumour? Or go back in time and never have called doom upon the world?
Or a wish that she gets an extension of life and another free wish?
There are so many possibilities she hasn’t tried.
2) Another option – She keeps the terms of the contract, expects the world and herself to die, but GD nullifies it. (LOL…that will be annoying after all the angst we would have gone through, but it’s possible!) – then no one dies!
Aunt is the parallel mother figure to GD’s mother figure. Aunt may want to manipulate matters so that DK gets treatment (I’m sure SK must have complained that DK was doing nothing about her illness), just as GD also manipulates people.
And the amazing thing about kdrama head surgery patients is that they always seem keep all their hair! LOL.
From the first time I saw the marble, not only did I think it looked like it contained the swirl of a galaxy, or that its blue roundness suggested planet Earth, but it also made me think of the cup from which MM was drinking on his birthday when he heard DK call for doom to come.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ySgWQr4FLFgtXbl6mxIrhj9iXumsLopX/view?usp=sharing
The stars reflect from the surface of the drink in MM’s cup. The cup is stoneware, holds liquid, and reflects stars: earth, water, and the heavens. The shape of the cup is a half-sphere on a stand. The marble also looks like a half-sphere because half of it is clear glass.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i9FQAVffnywk9SVVqDDEZc_8khyMER56/view?usp=sharing
I have wondered the significance of the collection of jugs and cups prominently displayed in MM’s home. All are the same in shape and size, but differ in color, being either dark or light. On his birthday we see MM drinking from one of the cups, pouring into it from one of the jugs. Do the others in the collection represent his past birthdays? In Episode 1, after GD tells him he’s to tend the flowers in her garden forever, and that since it’s his birthday he’s to go and become someone’s wish, he angrily grabs a jug from the shelf, knocking its accompanying cup to the ground and breaking it. In this image, taken after one cup was broken, all the other jugs have their matching cups.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CVmnnNUmdV-9-o1POGTwwoVmh34vzTsN/view?usp=sharing
One shelf is empty, presumably because it held the jug and cup MM was using to serve himself this birthday. But that cup was smashed to bits earlier. Does he have a supply of replacements not on display, or did he return the cup to its unbroken form because its demise was accidental, not time for its doom?
So many great comments and thoughts! I love reading them all. This kdrama is really like a crossword puzzle as @GB said! Who else but BoD can decipher and peel the many onion layers and solve this puzzle. And the subbers are in quandary on how the phrase the dialogue rightly. I don’t envy their jobs. Thanks to @Cleo etal for sharing the different translations.
My interpretation when MM said No to DK’s wish then grunted and kissed her anyway – meant that he Is already in love with DK hence no need for this wish. This was confirmed in Ep8 at the theme park.
The cherry blossoms were meta from goblin although Gong Yoo only did one tree while MM went back in time. Different methods, same results! Noting on @Welmaris’ comment on MM’s wall decor of earthenware cups and liquor containers – same vibes with the tea cups that Death in Goblin used and collected. Not sure if it means the same thing since there are less with in MM’s house.
One thing that DK has to get over is the loss of her parents. This affected her extremely that she does not cry, she only see the loss and not the life around her, her myopic existence. I was happy with ep7 that she now recognized that there are people who love her unconditionally but her words in the Ferris wheel was disheartening- she does not want to be remembered when she dies in order to lessen the pain of those she will leave behind. It seemed altruistic but not really. She is not there yet… similar to her “like” for MM is not yet the real unconditional love. As the saying goes, “it’s better to have loved and got hurt than to never have loved at all”.
Thanks for calling out Pinocchio details, the small sprout 🌱 in the pot and the leaf on Pinocchio’s nose… many metaphors in this drama.
Kalimera my lovely @GB,
Yes I agree with you DAYS is a crossword puzzle. Hence our inability to understand those cryptic messages, words and phrases that come and go.
A valid comparison would be: That we feel like Oedipus that has to solve the Sphnix’s riddle. The thing is that Oedipus found out the solution. 🙂
@Rh I don’t think that Doom will die. He will continue living and not existing any longer. After his meeting with DK, transmutation happened. I like the greek world better, μεταστοιχείωση (metastihiosis).
The unknown x in our equation is what will happen to DK.
We have suggestions, but not something solid, not yet.
@Cleopatra, I’m glad I’m not the only one who enjoys contributing to Bitches over Dramas because it is like being back in school. I attended a liberal arts college that required all students, regardless of major, to minor in Humanities. Being a Bitch here and delving into music, art, philosophy, Greek mythology, etc. feels like home to me, even though I graduated many decades ago.
@GrowingBeautifully, I think there’s something to the theory that MM was once human, and died by suicide. That quick scene at the beginning of his reset highly suggests it, doesn’t it? He finds himself standing on the ledge of the roof, and doesn’t know where he is. The giveaway that it is a suicide are the bare feet. On the internet there are some articles about barefoot suicide, mostly relating to Japanese culture. The idea behind removing shoes before entering the realm of death is to not bring impurities, like taking off shoes before crossing the threshold of a home. When seen standing on the roof, he does look vulnerable and human, rather than aloof and supernatural. His bangs hanging on his forehead suggest youth: that’s how other male characters are shown in their younger days. After the camera suggests a fall from the jumper’s perspective, we see MM in 2014 looking like the MM we’ve come to know, and he recognizes GD. The implication from that sequence is that the jump contributed to his becoming MM. The young man who jumped looks to have been in relatively contemporary times, so perhaps the spirit of MM inhabits various bodies, just as GD comes and goes in different incarnations. Doom may not have been born, or human, but could GD have utilized a just-deceased human to create this iteration of Doom? Hence MM’s birthday, which “crosses over the century and leaps over destiny.” Perhaps once having been human, at least partially, is the reason MM’s feeling constant tension between the job he must do and his emotions.
As for MM’s job, he’s said he’s at least partially responsible for the destruction/end of all things, that it is his job to watch over (passive, not active) the destruction/end of some things, that things come to an end/die just because he exists. He’s not Doom only for humans, but intangibles such as traditions (like selling haam), and even mundane things like lightbulbs and bus tires. It reminds me of the Matthew 10:29 verse from the Bible (I’m quoting the New International Version), “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.” Unending attention to even the smallest details: I’d think only a full deity would be able to withstand the constant requirements of the role. It must be wearying beyond our imagination, but DK senses MM’s depletion, helplessness, and loneliness.
Dear @Welmaris,
I finished my second degree almost a year ago. I have a major in Humanities Studies and another one in BA. I am really interested in Philosophy and especially Ethics, and Theatrical Studies. I enjoy Art in general.
I totally understand what you are saying. I can relate!
I have enjoyed your insights on TK:EM. From my quest to find more information on Azaleas, I found out B.O.D., @packmule3 and all of you.
It doesn’t matter if you have graduated years ago. What really matters is how what you have learned / experienced / loved, shaped you in the person you are today.
Good point @Welmaris. That thought did enter my mind about MM’s suicide from a past life. Interesting about the shoes as well. I didn’t know.
@nrllee Nick Vujicic is very inspirational. I know of him back in my youth group days and it’s amazing to see what he has achieved all along. It’s natural to feel depressed but he turns it around and has become very successful in life. Amazing testimony.
@Cleo thank you very much for all translating all these dialogues. When a drama that requires dissecting their conversations in such depth, I feel like I should start learning Korean to understand the drama better. Only talks though, no action.
@Cleo If MM turns out to be living rather than merely existing, even without DK being with him, that will be close to what GD wants. She deplored MM’s attitude of self-pity, apathy and cynicism, so MM being more lively will be good. However GD says she wants him to be happy as well. In Kdramas, that means that the character will have his beloved by his side. So we will see if show dares to go the way of MM being alone, yet happy, or MM and DK ending up together.
Yup, I looked up the Greek word: metastoicheíosi = transmutation. I discuss below that MM probably was once human and transmutated into Doom without memories of his past life. Now he owns his emotions and is more human again … he might end up full circle and become a ‘real boy’!! (ala Pinocchio) LOL.
@Welmaris Yes, I believe MM was once human and I believe that it was suicide that brought him into this role where he has to suffer as the cause of destruction. This might be a sort of ‘punishment’ for not valuing his own life, which is quite an appropriate punishment. Now whether he will or not, he is the source of death, but can no longer die and end his own misery.
If MM was once human, this means that there is an afterlife, and that those like MM who kill themselves are subject to ‘rehabilitation’ of some kind. So there may be many other ‘souls’ like him, although he is not aware of them. I like the idea that doom may have had many iterations through many different people. Yes it explains his birthday. In another version of the subs he says: “My birthday does not come easily. It travels worldwide and through the fates of many people.”
It would be interesting to see what MM’s supposed to become after his ‘forever’ stint in GD’s garden, and whether he meets any of his fellow ‘doom-bodies’.
@Viva,
You are welcome. I discovered shortly after watching the first two episodes, that what was being said had meaning. It is the first time I am trascribing dialogues, but the problem with DAYS is that every channel has different translations, so us – the commentantors / viewers may understand things quite differently.
The plan is to start, I have taken action about it.
Just do the same when you feel you can do it!
Some thoughts about deity from Italian artist Salvatore Garau, following the sale of his immaterial sculpture (read: invisible) “io sono” (Italian for “I am”) this past May for €15,000.
“When I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that space will concentrate a certain amount and density of thoughts at a precise point, creating a sculpture that, from my title, will only take the most varied forms. After all, don’t we shape a God we’ve never seen?”
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/italian-artist-auctioned-off-invisible-sculpture-18300-literally-made-nothing-1976181
This news made me think of Vincenzo and Cha Young using the excuse of viewing the artwork “Nothing” so they could get into the office of the art gallery in Episode 14 of Vincenzo.
What an eye opener @Welmaris. His immaterial sculpture did not even come with a stand or an ‘X’ marks the spot, and such a big space needs to be set aside for it.
It does bring to mind how we might each ‘perceive’ GD. We’ve certainly concentrated a tremendous amount and density of thought upon this kdrama universe, and it has taken on additional form through our discussions and imaginations.