name: zee
pronouns: she/her
birthday: november 14 (GO SCORPIOS!!!)
mbti: INFP-A --> INFJ-T
from: U.S.A.
languages: english, spanish (not fluent, still practicing), bengali (not fluent), korean (not fluent AT ALL, i'm still in the beginning stages of learning it)
interests/favs: lee dong wook, hyun bin, park hyung sik, lee jong suk, jo bo ah, cho seung woo, shin ha kyun, jeon yeo bin, son ye jin, wi ha joon, bts, txt, loona, fromis9, purple kiss
BY THE WAY: my username is ACTUALLY "WOOKLEWORLD". i used a capital i in place of a lowercase L because "wookieworld" was already taken .｡･ﾟﾟ･(＞_＜)･ﾟﾟ･｡

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BEFORE YOU FOLLOW...

-- i mostly tweet about one actor: lee dong wook
-- sometimes i talk about other dramas, not often
-- i curse! sorry! i can't help it :/
-- i suck at replying fast (tweets and dms) but i should get to you in a day
-- this is my side account; i'm either very active at one moment or inactive at another moment (main twt: @ryusooyeoi)

DON'T FOLLOW IF...

-- you don't like lee dong wook (duh)
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-- you're ableist
-- you're homophobic
-- you're transphobic
-- you're xenophobic
-- you're prejudiced in general
-- you're sensitive (i don't say many colorful things often but as an american i may have humor different from yours that can put you off)
-- you don't like kdramas

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THOUGHTS ON TALE OF THE NINE TAILED (SPOILERS!)

By Zee / Dec. 4, 2020 / 7 minute read

When I first heard the plot of the drama back in December 2019, I was mildly interested. Dongwook's character was named Lee Yeon, a mountain god ruling over Baekdudaegan, but now serves as a civil servant who cleanses the world of the souls disturbing it. He's self-righteous, clever, and brutal. Then there was Boah's character, Nam Jiah, a PD for a popular program about seeking out the existence of Korean urban myths in reality. She's bold, fierce, and determined. Lastly, there was Kim Bum’s character, Lee Rang. Yeon’s little half-brother and the “antagonist” who’d attempt to break the two apart. The writer fervently promoted the drama’s plot with how Jiah would chase after Yeon, and that's when I was hooked.

A TOM AND JERRY DYNAMIC? THAT'S EVERYTHING TO ME. I started to fantasize how these two characters would interact; Yeon is probably a very stoic character that conceals everything and Jiah is probably a curious puppy who asks him a billion questions and shows up at his doorstep or while he's fighting a bad guy just to ask more questions, but he'd never budge. Since they're both formidable characters, I sensed an angsty and alluring romance between the two. My fantasy was pretty DARN WRONG.

Jiah was persistent and did show up to his doorstep (more appropriately, his balcony), but Lee Yeon was actually pretty liberated, snarky, and comical. He was SO self-righteous, so sure that she had no leverage, that Jiah only needed to ask him what he was ONCE!

"What are you?"

"A gumiho."

BRUH. The Tom-and-Jerry dynamic I looked so forward to ceased at the second episode. That's when I knew, I got this all wrong.

Lee Yeon and Nam Jiah had a dynamic that I wasn't so used to seeing in other dramas. They poured their hearts out all the time to each other that there was little misunderstanding and fighting. So, the angst I expected from their relationship dissipated too. By episode 5, I discovered that these two had the softest romance. I couldn't get mad about it. They were just so sweet! And when their love story is already this cruel, it's better to just give them a breather and not make the relationship itself have any toxicity. Throughout the show, I loved them. I loved their moments and how much they loved each other. I know a LOT of people got bored of them, but their pure romance was so refreshing. The actors’ romance and chemistry wasn’t forced and felt so natural. I couldn't get enough of it :)

Okay now… enter Lee Rang. I must admit, I HATED how much he liked to play victim and how he was so attached to his past, but we cannot deny the fact that his childhood was unbelievably heartbreaking. His human mother left him in the Forest of the Starved to die there (note that Imoogi had a similar backstory too and became the way he is because of that) but then Yeon saved him. Yeon raised Rang with love. Yeon let Rang win in every game of Go, Yeon went out to find the sweetest azaleas for Rang, Yeon controlled the wind so Rang could fly his kite, Yeon gave Rang a puppy for him to protect. These two brothers were the sweetest together. And then Yeon disappeared. Baekdudaegan was unprotected without its mountain god and Rang was unprotected without his beloved brother. The azaleas Yeon would always bring Rang were burned into the soil, the wind was replaced with smoke from all the trees the humans burned, the puppy Rang cherished so much had to be put out of its misery with Rang’s own hands. Every good memory Rang had of Yeon was officially ruined when Yeon was ordered by the afterlife judges to take Rang’s life. It was such a twisted relationship but the gradual process of them making amends was very entertaining and the best part about TOTNT.

There’s one thing about the brothers’ relationship that still bothers me. I still think Rang loves Yeon much more than Yeon loves him, even if the show attempted to insinuate that they both love each other equally. In episode 2, Yeon said that he DID abandon Rang, probably just to let Rang think that his hatred was justified, but I still think it’s a dumb move for Yeon to just let Rang think that he doesn’t care about him and that he only cares about his first love. I guess Yeon thinks that sparing Rang’s life when he slashed him with his sword is his way of saying, “I’m not going to abandon you.” But really, I think Yeon really could’ve done better as the big brother Rang glorified so much.

Now once the gumibros FINALLY made up and once Rang FINALLY realized that he’s found a true family… AGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Screenwriter Han Woori, I will be at your doorstep in three to four business days. I wiped my tears, scratched at my swollen eyes, and said, “Well that was bittersweet.” But after I let the ending marinate in my head, that bittersweet feeling just turned into anger. Since the beginning of TOTNT, I could already sense that Rang would die, and I actually would’ve been surprised if he survived throughout the entire drama. But the screenwriter, who hoped to juice out some tears from the viewers, decided to prioritize sadness over originality and killed off our beloved character.

I had my bones to pick with Rang, like how immature he seemed at first and how he always got away with his schemes and killing people (but then again, this drama didn’t really show much care for humans other than Jiah, letting them drop like flies all the time). Though, I’m always a fan of redemption arcs, so I grew to love Rang a lot once he got his act together. I wanted him to pay for this wrongdoings, but.... NOT LIKE THIS :( The fact that Han used his heel-face turn as the REASON for him to be qualified to give up his life in return for Yeon's made me so aggravated. While giving his life up for his brother was rightful closure for himself, it didn't really feel like closure for the two brothers.

What made me even MORE aggravated is that his death seemed unavoidable once we saw the ending of episode 16. Like… I was pleasantly surprised but it just didn’t make sense to me.

Yeon has his powers. He had this whole monologue about being human and having astigmatism and having to get a root canal and blahblahblahblahblah but… HE STILL HAS HIS POWERS? HOW DOES THAT MAKE HIM ANYWHERE NEAR HUMAN? They kept saying that he couldn’t come back but I genuinely think that because he was such a powerful gumiho, he couldn’t die that easily and come back some other way. And even if he COULD die that easily, how would he come back? They kept emphasizing how falling into the Samdo River means you can never resurrect. But if Yeon is here, why didn’t Taluipa try to bring her son back? While that didn’t make sense to me, I’m just gonna manifest that Han Woori gives us answers soon.

But since Han won’t say anything, the fans have to do all the research. :/ After reading that gumihos can turn human as long as they act like one and remain undetected for 100 days (source: @DaisiesOh on Twitter), the ending made a little more sense to me in that it was still possible for Yeon to have his powers for some time, but it has DEFINITELY been more than 100 days considering that Rang had already been reincarnated and is already at the fresh age of 6-8 years old now.

The ending is certainly open-ended, but for the most part, I’m satisfied with it. I’m very happy Yeon and Jiah have found happiness (for now) and that history didn’t repeat itself again, thanks to good ol’ Lee Rang. It was refreshing to see how Shinju, Yuri, Taluipa, Hyeonuiong, and everyone else are living peacefully, but golly… the lengths we had to go and the sacrifices we had to make just to get this ending.

I’m just gonna think that the screenwriter plans to carry on this story through some other medium, whether it be in a book, a comic, a cartoon, or perhaps a season 2 (I’m not gonna entertain that thought though), so I’m hoping we’ll get our answers from her soon.

In terms of our leads’ acting, I thought it was splendid.

At first, people including myself felt like Yeon might be similar to Grim Reaper in Goblin, so I wasn’t sure why Dongwook picked this character considering how badly he wished to break free of the Grim Reaper role (BTW don’t think that wanting to break free of Grim Reaper makes him ungrateful for how Goblin revitalized his career, but please consider how no one wishes to be tied down to only one role especially when their entire career is dedicated to embodying different characters). But I’ve never seen Dongwook act anything like this before. He was perfectly petrifying and irresistibly charming. As usual, he killed the melodramatic aspects of the drama and looked so naturally in love with his female lead. I think his acting has evolved since Strangers From Hell and he’s begun to embrace his scary side, and THAT’S EVERYTHING TO ME. I’m just hoping the award shows FINALLY look at him after this since TOTNT is pretty popular in Korea right now.

Moving on to Boah, I LOVED her character. She's a very cute and charming person in real life, so I didn’t expect her to be this formidable and unsettling, especially when she transforms into Imoogi. Before TOTNT started airing, I watched her in the film Innocent Thing and I was speechless. In case you haven’t watched it, all I’m gonna say is that she is really at her best when she’s hysterical. Playing Nam Jiah is a mentally taxing task, as this character has a lot of childhood trauma, is always a target, and is (sort of) the main reason for all the chaos occurring in the drama. I really hope more K-drama viewers and award shows recognize her acting and that she continues to get roles where she can truly showcase all sides of herself like with Nam Jiah.

Last but not least, Kim Bum. Just reading his name gives me butterflies. It was so refreshing to see Mister Sweet Face play this kind of character. Everyone can agree that he always knows how to take over a scene and captivate the viewers with his smile, but he can surely steal a scene when he’s threatening to kill someone. He was the best suspense element in the beginning of the show. To be honest, he was a lot scarier to me than Lee Taeri as Imoogi. When people say that he carried the drama, I can’t say I agree but I also can’t say I disagree. Every character left a lasting impression on me, but everytime he showed up on screen, it always excited me. Now that he’s back and hopefully won’t be leaving us again, please screenwriters and directors, MAKE HIM THE FIRST LEAD IN SOMETHING ALREADY! IT’S ABOUT TIME!

I just realized that I wrote over 1800 words so I’m gonna stop writing. I wish I had this energy when doing my essays for school. I wanted to talk more about what I found great about this show than what I found wrong because if I did both, you’d be getting a book from me. I’m not upset with any of the actors, just kinda disappointed with how the production team gave up on the plot and made some nonsense just for the positive vibes, and how the CGI was only decent in the first episode and got pretty cringey in the next episodes. I’M NOT GONNA TALK ANYMORE THOUGH, I’M SORRY.

My rating for TOTNT on my first watch is an 8.5 / 10. When I rewatch it though (which I think I’ll do next year), the rating might just change… who knows… bye <3