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TvN Drama ‘Hwayugi' Lee Seung Gi, Oh Yeon-Seo, Cha Seung-Won etc. *The END*


Bella D'Amour

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  • Hwayugi: Episode 15hwayugi15-00116.jpg

     

 

 

Today it’s one sort of love pitted against another sort of love, which makes for a pretty strong clash since motivations go deep and emotions run high. In fact, love is the driving force in more than one side storyline as well, giving us all sorts of conflicted characters and colliding goals, some of them pure at heart and others more twisted. ‘Cause when a monster falls in love, you can be sure there’s lots of twisted involved.

 

 

 

EPISODE 15 RECAP

 

Sun-mi hears the truth of the death bell from the manipulative priestess, who has lured her into a connected dreamspace containing her stone coffin. She convinces Sun-mi to sacrifice herself so as not to be the cause of Oh-gong’s death, and with a tear running down her face, Sun-mi lies down to eternal sleep.

 

A short while later, it’s the priestess who awakens in Sun-mi’s body and in her bed. Priestess smiles to see her plan was successful, and pretends to be Sun-mi when she finds Oh-gong waiting outside. He acts as though all is normal and treats her like she’s Sun-mi… but does he know?

 

 

 

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Priestess/Sun-mi explains that she had a good dream about getting something she really wanted, then hugs Oh-gong. From his measured reaction I’m thinking he suspects this is Priestess. You know, right? Right??

 

Oh-gong smiles to her face, but his voice is grim as he tells her to keep dreaming her good dream.

 

The rest of the team discuss the situation chez Mawang: They know the priestess is now in Sun-mi’s body, but not exactly what happened to Sun-mi’s soul. PK wonders if she died, but Mawang can feel that she’s still alive, based on the droplet of her blood in his system. For the time being, however, they can’t do anything to the priestess and risk harming Sun-mi’s body.

 

 

 

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That’s why Oh-gong told them that he’d keep up the act (aha!) with her, to prevent her from running away with the host body. The team worries that Oh-gong won’t be able to pull off the deception, and PK adds that the priestess had access to Buja’s memories when she was in her body. So she’ll also have Sun-mi’s memories.

 

Secretary Ma points out that the priestess was very keen on marrying Oh-gong. That means she’ll be pulling out all the stops to “go all the way†with him tonight. “You absolutely cannot cave, Sohn Oh-gong,†Mawang says.

 

 

 

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That night, as predicted, Priestess makes the first advance, though Oh-gong quickly takes the lead. He looms over her as though to kiss her, but each time she reaches up to him, he moves her hand away. She asks if she’s still the most beautiful person in his eyes, and he replies, “So that has been bothering you.â€

 

Oh-gong moves away and sits up, looking upset. He calls himself the bad guy for knowing of her fears that he won’t love her without the bracelet, yet wanting to hold her anyway. Priestess says it’s okay, but he says he’ll stop because he loves her, acting like it’s a wrench for him (which makes me chuckle because it’s a great defense).

 

But Priestess readily agrees, saying they have time, and that they’ll marry soon. Oh-gong forces himself to agree and Priestess embraces him tightly, until finally Oh-gong can’t take it and pulls her hands away.

 

 

 

===Read more: http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/02/hwayugi-episode-15/

 

 

 

 

 

COMMENTS

 

Okay, I half expect Oh-gong to wake up at the last second and prevent Sun-mi from doing anything with the bracelet, but at this stage of the story I’d rather he didn’t, because I’m more interested in seeing what happens when this artificial motivator is removed from the equation. Even Oh-gong himself has noted that the love feels so real that the bracelet might not change it, so I see the next challenge as overcoming Sun-mi’s doubts. Since she’s been wracked with them the entire series long, I’m eager to see her move past them so that we can get to whatever’s next for them.

 

 

 

And then, of course, there’s the tiny part of me that supposes that the writers may throw us a wrench by countering this expectation that True Love Conquers All, and may in fact reset the game (at least somewhat) by having the bracelet’s removal actually remove (or negatively affect) Oh-gong’s feelings. I’ve always loved his twist on the original story by making love the vehicle of pain enacted by the magical circlet, rather than merely tightening on Monkey’s head to bring him physical pain. But the love-bracelet is less clear-cut a punishment than the original circlet o’ headaches, because it’s become hard to distinguish when it’s working and when it isn’t. In any case, I’m eager to understand exactly how the bracelet affects love—or doesn’t—and am hoping that the explanation is satisfactory (and a little nervous in case it isn’t).

 

I did appreciate that this Priestess story arc has incorporated a lot of different forms of love, expressed by all sorts of different personalities. Most obviously is our lead couple’s, of course, with Sun-mi sacrificing her life to spare Oh-gong, and Oh-gong doing everything he can to save her right back. But it was a nice touch to motivate Frosty with his love of his sister, whom he’d saved once and was determined to save again, no matter that they were both living half-existences this way and that Summer Fairy was ready to let go and move on. Plus, this kind of inner-team conflict played out a lot more compellingly than if we’d just had a random third party or antagonistic character driving the wagon; one Priestess is enough!

 

And then there’s this new twist in the Mawang story, which certainly shakes things up if it proves true. We haven’t been given enough details to know the full story, but it sounds like Mawang may have been manipulated into his thousand years of good deeds, and while it was one thing for him to think he was choosing this life out of sacrificial love, tricking a powerful monster into being heaven’s bitch is the kind of thing that could turn sour really quickly. I just wonder if Iron Fan was in on it, or whether she was coerced by heaven—although in either case, I can’t see Mawang reacting well to any version of the truth. Hold on to your hats, things might be taking a rocky turn.

 

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i wish tvN could just fix their time slot, so that their show aint clash with some of Olympic show imstupid.png

Tbh I don't think they care, tvN got everything they wanted out of Hwayugi, the show has a lot of sponsorship and some are from big brands plus that contract with netflix, they made enough money of the show so the rating at this point (in the end of the show) is secundary.

Edited by Starkssaah
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Tbh I don't think they care, tvN got everything they wanted out of Hwayugi, the show has a lot of sponsorship and some are from big brands plus that contract with netflix, they made enough money of the show so the rating at this point (in the end of the show) is secundary.

 

yeah i guess ur right then lollaugh.png

 

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stills

 

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  • Hwayugi: Episode 16

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Is it too much to ask for just one hour of romance without any mention of apocalypses, deadly fates, or eternal suffering to ruin the moment? I know the answer to that question, but I feel the need to ask it anyway, the same way that Show feels the need to fill me with dread every time we get too secure in our happiness. C’mon, give a monkey a break, will you?

 

 

EPISODE 16 RECAP

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As Sun-mi watches Oh-gong sleep, she thinks back to all of his declarations of love, sincere, sarcastic, or otherwise, and says in her thoughts that if their fate is death, he should run far away from her. She moves to remove the bracelet from his wrist…

Unaware of what’s going on, Oh-gong finds himself in a very vivid dream world, in which he walks down a long corridor of an old hospital. It’s lined with screaming triage patients and harried nurses, and at the end of the corridor, a doctor holds a crying baby.

She says to him, “The blood of this child will save the people. What you are seeing now is the birth of Sam-jang. You must be the guardian who protects her this time.â€

 

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The doctor tells Oh-gong that she wanted to show him the new Sam-jang’s beginnings, in the hopes that he protects her until the end. “Don’t ever let her go,†she pleads. And with that, he wakes up… to find Sun-mi trying to remove his bracelet.

He jerks away from her, reminding her that he chooses to wear it now, but she tells him tearfully that this is his chance to let go and run away from her. He fights her on it, so she ends up pinning him to the bed by his wrists.

CEO Sa brings breakfast on a tray, wondering to himself if it’s okay to drop in, and is surprised to see an egret in Oh-gong’s garden. Is it a monster? Or an omen?

 

===Read more: http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/02/hwayugi-episode-16/

 

 

 

COMMENTS

I liked the reversal of fates in this episode, even though it doesn’t change that much in the overall scheme of things—one of them still has to die to save the world, and the other will live in guilt and suffering for the rest of their lives. Perhaps it’s just more poignant if the suffering party is the one living millennia, not decades, which was portrayed nicely through the doctor’s story. I appreciated gaining some perspective on Oh-gong and Sun-mi’s plight through the lens of another couple who lived it before them, and more importantly, it gives Oh-gong the determination not to end up the same way.

 

That’s really the main reason to use this device, as a cautionary tale so that our couple can avoid repeating history. To that end, I wish we’d spent a little longer with the doc and learned more of her history with the last Sam-jang, partly because I think it would’ve made for a really nice, bittersweet side narrative to get invested in. I didn’t approve of Oh-gong lying to Sun-mi about it (remember what happened when you kept the truth about the death bell a secret?), but I did like how he empathized with the doc, and then ultimately decided that he was different because he wasn’t going to just accept heaven’s stupid fate. I mean, someone needs to put a stop to heaven using monks as sacrificial lambs, right? It feels extra exploitive that they require a human sacrifice in every generation (because then what makes Patriarch any different from Iron Fan?), and extra cruel that they made Oh-gong fall in love with her knowing he’d have to kill her.

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But it’s high time for the drama to show us some actionable steps toward rejecting that fate, because I feel like we keep getting declarations but no real change. Hiding the sword is a nice symbolic gesture, but Monkey ought to know that destroying it will require black magic and a low to medium hellfire, in the very least. Patriarch seems pretty confident that the sword can’t be destroyed, but if Oh-gong has the option not to use it and put himself in harm’s way to protect Sun-mi, why on earth wouldn’t he do that? That seems like a stupid and obvious loophole. Granted, in the moment that he chooses to sacrifice his life to protect her, I will be deeply moved. I just don’t like being told about it episodes in advance through the exposition fairy.

The mechanism for Sam-jang’s sacrifice is interesting though, because if she’s meant to be a vessel for the Big Bad, I can see how easily they’d cross the point of no return. The moment she’s possessed, they have to kill her to save the world. I feel like they’re underestimating how selfish and reckless Oh-gong is though, because I half expect him to let the world go to hell if it means protecting his love. Even Mawang is like this, and he’s considered the good one. All I know is, I’m starting to get really testy with heaven’s minions, and wouldn’t be opposed to threatening them with an apocalypse of their very own. Sometimes you need to fight fire with bigger, more destructive fire.

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  • Hwayugi: Episode 17hwayugi17-00156.jpg

 

I can feel the story ramping up for the final showdown, which is something I’m very much looking forward to. In fact, I’m getting pretty impatient for people to stop sitting around opining about the imminent end of the world and actually face the thing already; there’s been a lot of talk and not a lot of ruination, which is making me somewhat bloodthirsty. Chop chop, plot monkeys! Let’s get this doomsday on the road!

 

 

EPISODE 17 RECAP

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After learning that he will have to kill Sun-mi to complete her so-called destiny as Sam-jang, Oh-gong drives the heavenly sword into a rock in his garden and hides it among the foliage.

Sun-mi drinks alone in a pojangmacha, and when another customer gets up to leave, she sees a malicious ghost hanging around. Muttering that she has enough power now to get rid of him, she flings a cup of water and vanquishes the ghost, then sighs that these little things probably don’t count as “saving the world.†Patriarch informs Mawang of how Oh-gong stole the sword, and Mawang supposes that means Oh-gong has accepted his duty to sacrifice Sun-mi. Patriarch remarks that the bracelet has a much stronger hold on Oh-gong than the General Store owner said it would.

Mawang comments that Patriarch, who had recommended that Mawang use the bracelet, had been manipulating him from that point on. Patriarch also lied about how Sun-mi had come to have Sam-jang’s fate, since we now know she was born as Sam-jang. Patriarch doesn’t deny it, merely pointing out that Mawang was rewarded with many points toward his immortality goal.

“I am no longer interested in that,†Mawang says. “I wasted my power all this while. I will search for a path to return to how things used to be.†He dismisses Patriarch icily.

 

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Arriving home, Mawang’s nose twitches, catching Sun-mi’s scent. She’s here to consult with him about her vision of the world’s end, and how it depicted a human kind of destruction (explosions, warfare) rather than a demonic one.

Mawang figures it makes sense that a human (Sun-mi) is destined to stop a ruination wrought by humans. But he declares that such things are not his business, intending to wash his hands of it. Sun-mi protests that he must continue to help because everything started with him.

Mawang makes the excuse that he doesn’t have the power to help, since his body has weakened. Sun-mi asks if there’s a way to help, and he gets a mean glint in his eye and asks if she means to help him. Oh no, he’s thinking of eating her, isn’t he?

 

==Read more: http://www.dramabeans.com/2018/02/hwayugi-episode-17/

 

 

COMMENTS

Aha, so Oh-gong teams up with the Big Bad to take it down from the inside, is that it? I can get onboard with that, because that’s a heck of a lot more exciting than sitting around waiting for the Big Bad to come to them. And while Kang Dae-sung seems like an evil mastermind when he’s in the human realm, when you put Oh-gong next to him he seems woefully naïve, doesn’t he? In a delicious way, because I’m looking forward to his downfall. (Come on, his kill list is just comical at this point.)

 

On paper, I do like where we are with the characters and their feelings, and the flashes of conflict I see in many of them, whether it’s Mawang fighting his rage, Oh-gong and Sun-mi fighting their fears, or even Priestess still seeming to have traces of Buja’s kindness in her, recognizing the people she cared about.

It’s just that, in action, it feels like we’ve had… well, not a lot of action. Haven’t we been talking about the same doomsday for ages now? It’s one thing for the stakes to change along the way (say, by growing) or for the story to escalate, but I don’t think our threat has changed all that much. Our characters’ feelings are what keeps the conflict alive, but by this point I feel like it’s a lot of rehash. There’s just so much I can take of the drama yelling, “Doom is coming!†and then following that up with “Doom… is still coming! Wait for it… Any day now!â€

It seems fairly obvious that Mawang’s son is alive and well, and I think there’s only one possibility for who it could be, so mostly the suspense for me is in seeing how Oh-gong and Sun-mi thwart heaven’s decreed fate. Or rather, how Oh-gong thwarts fate, because while I have no problems with Sun-mi as a character, lord knows she hasn’t been the most proactive about driving her own fate. Her rationale has been reasoned well within the confines of the plot so I do think her logic has made sense, but that doesn’t mean her logic is my favorite tactic. It would have been nice to see her plotting with Oh-gong—or, for pete’s sake, for them to share the truth with each other—but at least I have faith that Oh-gong will find something to stop doom from arriving. Because if ever anybody could find a loophole in heaven, it would be him and his sinisterly clever mind.

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  • love changed the title to TvN Drama ‘Hwayugi' Lee Seung Gi, Oh Yeon-Seo, Cha Seung-Won etc. *The END*

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