[Drama 2016-2017] Guardian: The Lonely and Great Goblin 도깨비

[shynaz]

Yes agree Kim Shin suppose to died for long ago..this time he accept he is goblin and will wait bride for many years..He get reward and punishment again  and this time he thanks to God given this opportunity..

He will to alive together to Et for four times alive..So I think the best ending given to them.We dont need to show everything in last scene because writer already show married life to us..

This is best drama ever I watched so far ...Still four hours before episode 15 in my country...

 

[nearsea]

Okay I have a question in mind. I am the only one may be who thought the man sitting next to Shin in the bench was god? He said you look frustrated but don't worry....later in life you will see great changes or something close to that? That conversation was quite interesting. Just after the conversation the man's face changed and Kim realizes something, and directs the man towards the road where the CEO was standing.  It seemed as if god came up to give some first hand support to Shin? I don't know I may be wrong too.

[am420]

Subtitles make a world of difference. It answered my questions about what ET was doing in Canada and how she got there. This is probably my favorite drama that I've watched in quite sometime, the story was interesting, the cinematography was absolutely amazing and the acting was impeccable. 

I  like that the show stayed true to notion that it's all about choices. Sunny made the choice to keep her memories, ET made the choice to leave herself a reminder of KS and Sunny's memories and ET's lack of memories caused both great pain. KS made the choice to not to pass into the afterlife and so he had to suffer waiting for ET to come back to him. Thinking about it ET's life really came full circle, she was never meant to be born as her mother was supposed to die in a car accident so ET's life as a missing soul finally ending in a car accident does indeed seem fated.

Just like her life her relationship with Shin has come full circle they're at the beginning once again. I quite like that what we got at the end wasn't an ending it was a beginning. It may not be new as they each have memories of ET's first life and their relationship but they finally chance to be in a relationship without the sword needing to be pulled out, without the threat of death every 10 years but a new story where they get to love each other and do all the things that they were not able to do in ET's first life. I do think that she's going to get that long life that she wished for based on the conversation between the two ladies in the bus station(?) while footage of the accident was shown on the news, the fact that the woman in red called her an angel made me sit up and take notice because in episode 15 when they were leaving the airport ET was sassing KS about him walking with an angel and since just about every word spoken on this drama has some hidden meaning I'm taking that to mean that at some point ET will also become immortal (an angel) and these two can be together forever.

Now to the cute stuff, ET being jealous of KS's first love once again, the proposal and the wedding with just the two of them. I've never wanted fictional characters to get married more than these two. I would watch episodes of domestic fluff with these two if I could, just them being married and happy and doing really ordinary things. The wedding party with DH, WY and Secretary Kim was all kinds of cute especially the singing and both KS and ET were glowing. Finally WY and Sunny get to have some cute scenes again. I'm so glad that Sunny gets to live her 4th life cycle loving and being loved by WY and I'm so glad that WY who spent over 900 years paying for his sins can live at least one happy lifetime with Kim Sun (Sunny). Them checking into the motel was pure comedy and  WY having lot of the personality quirks that Reaper had made me happy. I'm glad that they finally got their happy ending after all the misery that they endured. 

I understand why some people are disappointed with the ending, I feel as though that happens at the end of every k-drama because we always feel as though there is so much more of the story that could be told. In the case of this drama there are so many more stories that could be told. Do WY and Sunny remember their previous life, because they didn't drink the tea either? What happened to DH? How many more lives will ET live before she becomes immortal? What kind of life is she living this time around? Will a relationship between Shin and ET even work in this lifetime because their relationship began because both needed something from the other, Shin wanted the sword out and to die and ET wanted a family, does she have a family this time? What kind of family? Will the 4 of them ever be reunited? There are so many questions that they could do a second season of the show and have more than 16 episodes of material. Plus I still want that series on the reaper academy. I have to congratulate KES, she introduced a whole a new world into dramaland a world with infinite possibilities that she can add to if she wanted. Also kudos to her for keeping this script for GY I couldn't imagine anyone else in that role.

I don't want to let go of this show, I don't even know if I can let go of this show. I think that this is finally the show that will make me take a break from currently airing dramas, I've been meaning to take this break since Uncontrollably Fond and Moon Lovers ended but this one really got to me, I don't want to let go of these characters. I love all the characters except PJH. I'm probably going to rewatch this show often because even with all the heartbreak this drama has the ability to make me smile, I smiled through the WY/Sunny reincarnation scenes and I was in tears with KS and ET reunited in the graveyard with her echoing the words that she used the first time she found him there "I've found you". This drama was my introduction to KGE I'd seen the other 3 main actors in dramas and movies before and I started watching this because I'm a GY fan but damn KGE blew me away. I've watched a couple of her movies since this drama's been airing and she is incredible, the coherence with which she played ET at 19 and ET at 29 was so amazing, plus I don't think that I will ever be able to watch the scenes of her crying without crying myself. 

Every moment I spent with you watching and analyzing this drama shined because the drama was happy, because the drama was sad and because the drama was just ok. Looking forward to pictures of the cast BBQ and the two special episode, hopefully they include some fun bts footage and some good deleted scenes. 

[Guest]

Thanks @siddy09. Love your wrap-up there.

I learnt a lot from the drama too. Though sometimes KES likes to play with my heart. I have read many beautiful reviews / analysis here and it has been fun fangirling with all of you. Thanks everyone for your updates, recaps, links etc. May all our leads find happiness & success in other projects and in their real lives.

 

[SaiSai1988]

Goblin's Back to Back episodes rated 18.743 and 20.509% according to AGB Nielsen, making it the highest rating cable drama of all time.

[MariaP]

What is it with korean dramas and bittersweet endings lately? 

 

First Scarlet Heart Ryeo, then Goblin... why not give us closure and leave us with a fuzzy, happy feeling inside from the ending? For me a clear, happy ending is a definite criteria for a favorite drama! Why couldn't the writer of Goblin make me happy till the end? She shouldn't have tricked us with so many fuzzy moments! If she really wanted eternal love, she could have made Eun tak immortal as well! Now what do I do with this ending? I feel empty...

 

[miles99]

Even if the ratings don't pass reply 1988 I don't think we can feel too bad because in comparison goblin had 16 episodes while reply had 20 which means they had more time to gain that rating but if we did pass r88 that is so great !

[soultree]

00: 30 slept two hours and then woke up suddenly and came here asap

i know now what bothers me in this end , it's ks waiting more than 30 years alone, i cant stand this, being without his dead bride all this time, i cant imagine living it

[turtle0217]

5 hours ago, AddictedToDramas said:

Something to put all y'all's minds at rest 

ET and KS are fated 

ET will remember all her past lives every time

KS won't be sad and lonely all the time

ET is will always be ET, regardless of her names

What happens after the 4 lives?

Why not make them both human/immortal?

 

 

^ who needs designer scarf when you have your wife's scarf amirite 

 

 

 

OMGEE!! Thank you @AddictedToDramas for explaining everything! I just understand the ending much better now!  Now I am really liking the drama more! I'm soo happy they get to be together now! This drama has filled in the holes in my heart that those other dramas didn't or those others made the hole. Lol!  Thank you all Chingyus!! I will see you all in another drama or on the other goblin couple forum! 

[Miky88]

33 minutes ago, turtle0217 said:

 

I just order mine and it's on it's way. I'm soo excited! Even when the drama ends, I'm still going to be reading and carrying that book around like I am to the other one. 

Could someone explain to me why she return? I mean I understand she got to keep her memories.. I'm just lost.. So she returns and finds him again, becomes the goblin bride and everything repeats?  

Is the book an international version aka in english?if so,were did u order it ?

 

Eun Tak reincarnated again,30 years passed since her death so along this long years she reincarnated again and with the grace of God letting her keep her memories she went more likely looking for him(being a minor yet again in her enw life her posibilities are not so many)so u can say fate reunited them once again...We won't know if she had those memories since the beginning or she got them while she grew up,or how it alternated with her new life but she knew who Shin was and that she was his one and only bride and will meet him someday and when she went with her school and that trip in Canada she looked for him hoping she will find him there...More likely he travels like his pattern 20 years from the country so maybe she made the wild bet he will be there...If u look again at ep 1 Shin saw in their first meeting her life and even her second reincarnation,in that small moment he saw all those blurry moments just he more likely had no idea what it was all about..

 

I also think Samshin Granny being the Mother of all souls knew Eun Tak will die at the young age of 29 and even told Shin in a cryptic way,that will be a day he won't be able to save her,or at least that's how i saw it...

[haqita02]

This might be masochistic of me but I hope in the special episodes, they will air the making of the actors crying. Especially Gong Yoo. That tea room farewell with Euntak, gosh, with that voice his crying sounds so mournful.

[NRGchick]

46 minutes ago, AddictedToDramas said:

ET and KS are fated 
they can finally enjoy life together with no restrictions. They can wholesomely love and spend time with one another without deities chasing after them and ET being a missing soul. They're bound together by fate. It was fate that they met again at Quebec. It was fate that ET/Park So Min went to that specific high school that had a school trip to Quebec. It was fate that KS decided to take a walk out in Quebec that day and sit at the cemetery. Everything they did led to that exact moment. And that'll happen in all of ET's future lives. Yes, she will have a different name each time, but with each new life, she will remember the memories of the previous. And that means that come her final life, she'll have quadruple the happy memories with KS ^-^ instead of them being both human and only loving each other once, the above has granted them the blessing of loving each other 4 times instead. Them meeting will always be fated, they'll always find one another. 

ET will remember all her past lives every time

ET is truly special, and for those worrying that she won't be granted the opportunity to remember her life once she dies this time round, she will. Why? Because of her sacrifice of saving the kids. She's an angel (there's a reason why they included that clip of the lady saying she was an angel). She'll always be granted the ability to remember her past life (and the same face !) because that is her reward. There's a reason why she was made to die, not as a random occurrence, but as she wanted to save the kids. The above isn't all that cruel, if the 'above' was cruel, he wouldn't have allowed ET to remember KS after he 'died' in the first place. The 'above' wouldn't have allowed KS to be left in limbo and granted ET this blessing. The 'above' left the door ajar on purpose (the deities ship ET and KS, eh?). 

KS won't be sad and lonely all the time
As for KS having to wait for his bride each time round... well it's a sad eternal love for a reason. It's sad because he's going to have to wait each time round, but hey, the loves eternal right? Yes he would be lonely, but he wouldn't be completely alone like the last 900 years. He has his memories of ET. His thoughts have become his companion. ET has impacted his life so much and she's going to stay with him, even if she's not physically there. That is why he wears her scarf, a reminder for him that she is always with him. Before he met ET, he had nothing to look forward to. He lived each day wishing for death. But now, he'll live each day with something to look forward to: either waiting for ET to be reincarnated or ET to walk through the front door of their house (after theyre married in all their future lives aha). Also, the fact that KS has to wait for ET would make their time together even more precious. 

ET is will always be ET, regardless of her names
With the whole 'ET is not the same as the reincarnations', I've made a post about this already, but she is the same person, she has the memories of her past life. Having memories of your past life = being the same person because you remember all the decisions made previously, it won't be like 'oh my past self did this, so I must be like this too!' it's more like 'I did that, so I must blah blah blah', ET would have also had these memories from the beginning, unlike Sunny who remembered her past life late into her current life, so her personality was diff to her current one. When 'Park So Min'/ET was behind KS in the future in Quebec, she answered the 'Is it sorrow or love?' question as 'sad love', not because she remembers saying that, but because she still thinks that that is the answer to that question, meaning same personality as before. If she simply said it as a memory, she wouldn't have said it so affirmatively. She feels the same emotions answering that question because she is the same person.

It's as if she fell into a deep sleep and woke up with another name, and when she wakes up, she'll resume her life. The only thing different is her name. I'll betcha KS would still call her ET even after all her names lol and plus, can you imagine all the future ET's bringing KS to meet all her 3 sets of parents in future lives lmao 
'this is my mum and dad this time round'

The fact that she would have new friends and family would only be another cute thing for her and KS to chat about   her life would change each time, but the thing that'll remain constant is KS. So don't fret about over the assumption that KS is just romancing with some random gal each time round with the same face and memories as ET, he's going to be with ET every single lifetime. 

What happens after the 4 lives?

After the four lives are up (it doesn't sound like a long time but four lives is basically eternity, mind you) , KS and ET will pass on together. KS is goblin now not bc he has to, but because he asked to be. He chose to stay goblin to be with ET. He is not goblin as a punishment. Meaning, his punishment was over once the sword was pulled out, meaning, he can ask the 'above' for death whenever he wants because he became goblin with his own free will. Then, him and his bride will pass on together into happiness. It's sad but it actually isn't quite that sad They had four wholesome lives together, thousands of memories, perhaps even centuries of happiness, and now they'll have the chance to be together for actual eternity in heaven. I'd like to think that KS can't stay on earth forever, like Grim weepers reapers, KS will move on once he is at peace with himself (bc he's found ET). WY moved on bc of this imo. That's the beauty of sad love. I sound so delulu, but this drama is just so dsnkjnandkjvn

Why not make them both human/immortal?

Making them both human could work, but they'd only have one lifetime together. If KS became human at the time ET was 29, he would have missed 9 years of her life already. Their ending would only come earlier. This would have been a good ending too, but it wouldn't be a consistent one. Why not make her immortal? She's basically immortal now   KES has made ET immortal in the most logical way possible. Although, I would have liked it if she actually became a deity like KS but hey  

 

After sleeping on this and feeling slightly depressed, I feel much better now reading @AddictedToDramas post. 

Love the points you made which I highlighted with blue. 

It is still Ji Eun Tak who loves Shin, no matter what her name is in her current lifetime. 

I also believe he will choose to pass on with her after her fourth life. And in this case it would mean about 80x3 = 240 years with her as it looks like she will always find him when she is 19 years old. Granted, he might have to wait longer(I think more than 30 years passed for Park So Min to appear) but he will now always know that she will keep her promise and find him. 

Would it be better to love in one lifetime or have the opportunity to love over and over, your one true love? Shin had already live 900 + years before meeting Eun Tak - which I feel is like limbo itself - and he only started to feel once he met her. At least with future reincarnations, they both already know of their love for each other and can start the relationship instantly, with time to find out what changes may have occurred in their current lifetime (Eun Tak's new family, what Goblin has been up to, etc.) 

PS. I am sure Shin would wait for Eun Tak (sorry, I can't call her by her other name) to become an adult (20 years old) before anything happens between them. Somehow, some part of me wishes she had also become immortal so they can live into eternity forever together with that one lifetime. 

 

[hushhh]

18 minutes ago, nearsea said:

Okay I have a question in mind. I am the only one may be who thought the man sitting next to Shin in the bench was god? He said you look frustrated but don't worry....later in life you will see great changes or something close to that? That conversation was quite interesting. Just after the conversation the man's face changed and Kim realizes something, and directs the man towards the road where the CEO was standing.  It seemed as if god came up to give some first hand support to Shin? I don't know I may be wrong too.

I thought so.

And then as Shin offered the man help it was clear that the man's disposition had earned him a semi-divine reward.

But your interpretations make sense. 

Shim on the bench might have been a set-up. And subway had their final ppl opportunity.  

What I take away from this drama is that is a strange man offer you a subway sandwich because subway sandwiches are a form of god's reward.

[miles99]

I'm so debating on if i should buy that destin necklace  man these product placements are so good I even bought perfume ! 

[jigah]

@AddictedToDramas - thank you for the analysis. I'm going to see it your way in order to have a nice memory of this drama

thank you everyone for the analysis! I'm going to watch the drama with sub now!

[NRGchick]

And now I fully appreciated the ending because of what Eun Tak said.

She votes that there is an eternal love. 

What amazes me is that the ending was already scripted (as they filmed in Canada) and the love Shin feels for Eun Tak can be seen on his face. I am amazed because that would have been when Gong Yoo and Kim Go Eun had first met and went to Canada and they already had this emotional connection. 

[aoife11]

its so funny to think that they taught us about the complexities and the beauty of life with a bubbly high schooler, a sexy yet cheesy goblin, an emotional grim reaper, a sassy chicken shop owner and a kid at heart chaebol 

just one more time, pls be together again i don't care if its a magazine cover or a variety show i just want the ultimate GOBLIN SQUAD be with each other one more time.

GOBLIN WILL BE A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW this has been incredible.

[hanakimi14]

To assure us that Goblin won't be lonely forever, I would have loved to have seen this scene added to the end:

(caption)At the end of the 4th life... 

Eun Tak and Kim Shin walking hand in hand up the stairway to heaven, towards eternal happiness. 

Diety's voiceover: You've done enough. It's time to end it all. (From ep. 16: KS wished Diety would say this.)

 

[nearsea]

30 minutes ago, am420 said:

Just like her life her relationship with Shin has come full circle they're at the beginning once again. I quite like that what we got at the end wasn't an ending it was a beginning. It may not be new as they each have memories of ET's first life and their relationship but they finally chance to be in a relationship without the sword needing to be pulled out, without the threat of death every 10 years but a new story where they get to love each other and do all the things that they were not able to do in ET's first life. I do think that she's going to get that long life that she wished for based on the conversation between the two ladies in the bus station(?) while footage of the accident was shown on the news, the fact that the woman in red called her an angel made me sit up and take notice because in episode 15 when they were leaving the airport ET was sassing KS about him walking with an angel and since just about every word spoken on this drama has some hidden meaning I'm taking that to mean that at some point ET will also become immortal (an angel) and these two can be together forever.

This actually makes sense. Come to think of it, angels have been mentioned quite a few times,even goblin's password for his mansion is 'angel'...so I mean literally  the key to goblin's permanent residence,i.e, his heart is the Angel~~ET.

and btw I gather she is not a missing soul anymore. 

[carolinedl]

Ah I hate it when people start saying their good byes here

@naritul see you soon on another thread!

I have not seen the episodes yet. I went ot the Women's March today.

But I am warming up to the ending... It's bittersweet and that's okay. Like @jeijei said in the chat, KS chose it this time. I still wish they had spent more time filming and working on those last episodes (and give  @selenettefuturistic scenes with awesome gadgets) but that is bound to happen with live shooting. How I hate thee live shooting!!!

I'll watch the episodes tomorrow and post my thoughts here for whoever is still interested/around.

First I need to backread a bit...

ETA:

@am420 Ah I like the whole beginning thing. It started again so yes, we end with a new beginning.

@nearsea No more GY goodness for us... Snifff... How will we survive?! Sonmul:

Spoiler