The thread is open.
As suggested by @GrowingBeautifully, we’ll split the show into four Open Threads.
Ep 1-4 on Saturday 4th Feb 2023
Ep 5-8 on Friday 10th Feb 2023
Ep 9-12 on Friday 24th Feb 2023
Ep 13-16 on Friday 10th Mar 2023
Episode 3 is already out on Viki today. If you haven’t watched Eps 1 and 2 and don’t want spoilers, please skip this thread.
gifs from bubblegeon’s tumblr
Let’s enjoy the show.
Thank you very much @pkml3!!
I admit that this is at times a farcical, silly show, but then in the past life there’s the more serious ill-fated lovers thing that’s supposed to inform the current wacky timeline. Yes, I know… the usual reincarnation trope thing. I see shades of Hotel Del Luna, more of Goblin and maybe a bit of Doom at Your Service popping up in bits and pieces.
I expect to be giving this a cynical eye versus viewing through an indulgent lens. How these opposing viewing styles pan out will determine if I end up with a split viewing personality or not. LOL.
One thing I do like about this series, though, is that there’a a nice doesaeng brother-noona ‘real’ sister relationship that warms my heart.
@Cleo, (and of course everyone who happens to watch this show) I hope to see you here soon!
A word about the title of this show… It’s a play on Gye Jeol’s name, since her name means ‘season’. Kokdu actually is a ‘thing’ rather than a name. Season of deity seems to imply that she belongs to the deity, Kokdu.
“Kkokdu, or kokdu (꼭두), a wooden figure that is usually hung on a bier, is believed to be the guardian spirit that ushers the dead into the next world and serves them there. It is a symbol of Korea’s traditional funeral. Kokdu comes in many different shapes including dragon and phoenix but mostly human.” From https://www.korea.net/NewsFocus/Culture/view?articleId=165452
However Kokdu is used as a name in this show, for a deity/god with powers, but also a god who’s constrained, and needing to obey the ‘rules’ or take the punishment of the Creator god.
The other meaning to ‘season of deity’… Kokdu’s season is 99 days on earth during which time he has to kill a bad person each day at 9:09pm, or suffer the endless cacophony of demands/prayers from humans for the death of an evildoer.
I believe each season, he’s supposed to have the chance to locate his lost beloved, fated one, and obtain her love in this life as Kokdu, in order to end his punishment. But the complication is that Kokdu no longer remembers his beloved’s face, and he only knows her name because it’s on the Azalea ring he had given to her, and which she had returned to him.
It seems he has the ill-conceived notion that he’d know her when he sees her, or that being fated to be together, she’d fall for him without any effort on his part. He’s wrong on both counts.
In the length of time they’d been separated in death, Kokdu had lost the human part of him that knew how to love, and Gye Jeol (GJ) had totally forgotten that she had a past life as Seol Hui, or a past love. However she is adamant that her real beloved would be a destined one.
GJ has the strange idea that just because it would be a destined love, if Kokdu could prove that he’s the destined guy, that’s all she’d need to agree to be with him. It seems so weird, so unromantic a notion for her, since she was the romantic who fell for the man who caught her before she fell down the stairs. (word repeat much? LOL)
I like how GJ’s straightforward reasoning and sincere intentions puts arrogant Kokdu in his place, when despite all his ‘charms’ and despite having to give up a dream job, and a free house, she refuses to date him.
This show is going to be the season in which the deity is going to have to work extra hard to win the heart of his fated love. It will hopefully be the season in which we will see him become more human and humane again, less an anti-hero, spoilt brat, and more mature.
Dear @GB, Thanks for the lovely review. I binge-watched the first 3 episodes last night after getting the email notification earlier and was just about to give up as the farcical (good word!) aspect has been getting to me. I just rewatched ‘Guardian, the Great and Lonely God’ to compare with this one and regularly rewatch ‘Doom at Your Service’ and for both of those the photography, the coherence of the story line and the underlining world, the music, and the acting all shine. Not the case here. Your latest post discussing the various possible meanings of the title as well as the underlying relationship between GJ and Kokdu reminded me that there might be more to this. Both the actors (ML/FL) are fine actors, and I had caught the rhythms in one of Kokdu’s soliloquies (Ep 2?) in spite of not knowing Korean so I will continue to watch for a bit. You would think that since I am writing poetry (but just beginning), I would catch more of these nuances. Too long in the sciences I guess. Again, thanks much.
Hi there, @salteddust! I find that this show improves. Although it is nowhere near Goblin in stature, I do like that the dialogues between the leads come on fast and furious, giving us viewers much information. They go on with repartee after repartee, plus enough flashbacks, making sense of the situation for us. By the end of Ep 4, we understand why Gye Jeol is able to command Kokdu, and why he has to obey her. So the script is not bad.
It was quite amusing to see how the script had the leads in an on again, off again romantic situation, alternating not only the push and pull but also who did the pursuing.
A bit of comparison with Guardian/Goblin:
Having been ‘primed’ by Goblin, I see several similarities.
We have active gods who interfere/intervene in human affairs, and one main Creator god who punishes a once-human-now-deity to be stuck in a painful situation. The only recourse for freedom is to locate a woman who will love him/(be his bride, in Goblin).
The search for the elusive woman and proving her identity is one aspect of the plot. However I like more here, the aspect of the human female who has the ability to save people generally, and that she has a brother who is also capable and helpful, and her confidante.
In this show more than in Goblin, the deity has to grow up and improve overall. I like to see a growth arc, and it starts to happen in Episode 4.
In this series, the other thing that I like is that it discusses the modern day blight of how dating has become a calculating ‘business’ with break even transactions being expected. It has become a means to use a person, for selfish ends, treating persons as objects, thus discarding them when they are considered ‘useless’.
GJ flies in the face of this and insists on loving and being loved without being calculating. That’s something to look forward to, in the changing dynamics of the relationship.
I recall that in Goblin, poor Eun Tak also bemoaned the fact that she was only wanted and given a home if she could be of use to pull out the sword. I believe Goblin was pettier than Kokdu.
In both shows, the heroine’s mother, in death, asked the deity to protect her child. An added interesting feature here is that GJ’s mother is more significant to Kokdu. What surprised me, though, is that the mother did not mention her younger child, Han Cheol, when she asked for a favour from the deity.
I like that in both shows, both the FL and the ML can save each other. We still will have the damsel in distress from time to time, but at least she’s not needy.
Other superficial similarities that got me smiling were the scenes of falling petals or snow, levitating bottles or people, teleportation and the means to command the deity’s presence.
A few differences:
As far as I can tell, Kokdu has also always told GJ the truth, whereas Goblin hid information. GJ, however does not understand that Kokdu is speaking the literal truth when he says that he’s not Do Jin Woo and that he’ll only be on earth for a short while. He is able to recognise lingering affection and even lust in her eyes (ears? LOL something strange about the subs?) and is more emotionally aware than Goblin.
Kokdu kills fewer people than Goblin overall, since he was not a warrior, and he has a distaste for killing. Goblin helps individual humans. He also remembers those who were good or not so good in their past lives. Kokdu helps only by ridding the world of evil humans. Unfortunately he suffers from forgetfulness and has no other ties to his past than Seol Hui, whom he has forgotten.
The most important difference might be that while Eun Tak was a very mature minor when she met Goblin, GJ is a 30-year old adult, who thinks she makes childish/foolish decisions. However the suitable age factor means that here, the romance can get underway without reservations.
Kalispera! @Packmule3 thank you for this thread!
I will write more propably tomorrow…
aNNyeong 🐇
I am watching this… and i’m caught up 🙂
Wow @GB thank you for your insight and the comparison with Goblin. *thumbs up since i’ve watched and loved that show.
i have noticed that the sibling are so sweet – easy to mistake they’re not siblings. i was iffy and misled that their sweetness could be more. so glad they’re real siblings haha. and yes, good point in that why did the mother only think of GY and not the brother. maybe coz she’s a female. and isn’t it why she sings to her to comfort her. so now that she’s gone, who will comfort her?
i can’t believe kokdu also just promised that he will obey the daughter’s every wants – seriously? are you sure? and that’s what we get. he can’t say NO to her. sooooo funny.
the ending of Ep 4, kokdu gets confirmation and his pursuit to make her love him is ON. altho they’re already dating. but now, she is the real One. wow. and she recognized him too??? that was confusing. like a moment of epiphany? before fainting? hmmm
i am enjoying this show. nice and light 🙂 except that bad hospital executive… could he be the father of Dr Do?
i liked some beautiful scenes in the show. i also like how he heard her call out to him to save her when she fell into the water. which was interesting. why kokdu? her soulmate? coz it’s her inner voice. she wasn’t speaking under the water y’ know 🙂
Hi there @HK_Lady, I’m glad you’re also enjoying this light and easy-to-watch show. It takes less effort and is a relief from other heavy-going shows!
I’m surprised that I’m sticking with this show, at least for now. I was afraid it would end up full of buffoonery in the current time, but it’s mostly with the 2 hapless sidekicks that that happens, and not so much between the OTP, so it wasn’t off-putting.
You’ve raised an interesting question… why did she call out to Kokdu when she was falling into the water? Previously she’d called out to her dead mother, as she fell down the stairs. It’s significant that now it’s Kokdu who has replaced her mother as the one uppermost in her thoughts, when she’s in danger.
One main reason, I felt was because she’d been waiting for him and expected him to be near. The other reason was that she found that he was ‘obedient’ and also that he was more caring towards her than he wanted to let on… so her thoughts centred on him first. There might have been a vestige of memory, where Ah Hyun had vowed to protect Seol Hui, that came to her consciousness in that moment of stress, which led her to call out to Kokdu. In any case, by this time, he’d become an important part of her life.
I was putting down several thoughts here, but decided to move them to the Episode 5-8 thread to avoid leaving spoilers here.
I’ve continued my reply to you on that other thread. (https://bitchesoverdramas.com/2023/02/10/kokdu-season-of-deity-eps-5-to-8-open-thread/)
See you!