sideblog number 74838392737

sorry for the long wait getting back to this message! life has been rough lmao. anywho, i 10000 percent agree with you anon! and that's part of why i'm so attached to this show as it is??? i love to see behind the scenes stuff and when we get little tidbits of the actors laughing and having a good time with each other. one thing that i very much appreciate is during the seo yoon bit (the little girl who was a medium like hwa pyung), they actually told us onscreen that that little girl wasn't put through any actual trauma and that they are watching her carefully to make sure she's okay ; w; like i get why for legal reasons they had to do that but it was really sweet too

the fandom is very very quiet here, but not dead by any means! we are small but we all love this show very much, so please make yourself comfortable and show this show the love it deserves <3

this is a legitimate mood, though. laksdjfklajsd the guest is such a good show, but it's also such a niche type of drama that it only attracts a certain audience. which sucks because it totally deserves more attention. between the characters, the story, and the general message it conveys...ugh, i could go on and on

hwa pyung is my comfort character even outside of my obsession with the guest. he and a character from the devil judge are probably the closest things i have to blorbos lol. but legit his little scrappy ass just got cooler and cooler the more trouble he got into. and i absolutely love that gil young couldn't escape him because of said trouble he kept getting into. i also love that she was the one who convinced choi yoon to try and get him out of jail. and it all comes full circle when choi yoon becomes hyper protective of hwa pyung after that.

what i'm getting at with that paragraph is that the best part of the show is the bond between the three of them. like they are all really cold and rigid toward one another at the beginning and it honestly looks like they're never going to get along, but then they wind up getting attached to each other and seeing the person beneath the aggressive demon hunting psychic or the cop who doesn't believe in ghosts or the priest who would just rather work alone, they're inseparable.

honorable mention to the lovely yook gwang too. his and hwa pyung's friendship was top tier, and their scenes were some of my favorites in the entire show.

(also yes definitely romance those two are in love and i refuse to see it any other way)

you can always come to me with whatever feelings you might have about the guest. i'm still obsessed, even if this blog runs slower than it used to. with it being such a small fandom, it's difficult to keep it running at the pace of my other blogs. i do have a couple of fic requests that i'm working on so hopefully there will be updates here soon!

okay so like what if in addition to seeing human spirits, hwa-pyung also sees the ghosts of animals? like what if he's more comfortable with them than with human spirits bc they're less scary and also befriended some of them as a kid? and what if the suppression ritual didn't affect him seeing them? maybe he'll go around with a few of them always tailing him around, so he's like a disney princess but make it supernatural.

wouldn't it be funny that whenever he visits yuk-gwang, they all wait for him, all sullen, at least 3 meters aways from the house? and that one crow that always seems to adore hwa-pyung the most starts giving kil-young the shiny stones so she starts finding them everywhere and doesn't know how to feel about this, like should she be annoyed or flattered?? (hwa-pyung gets a little jealous now that he's not the favorite) and poor yoon always gets hissed/growled/barked at and while that doesn't affect him, he didn't seem too happy to hear that when hwa-pyung brought up his spirit animal friends to the other two; maybe one bold ran-overed cat who's missing a leg slowly gets closer to yoon and decides that he's her favourite as long as he doesn't start praying or wielding holy artefacts, preferably when he's not out of his clerical clothing.

okay so what if at some point the three were talking and some comment made by one of the other two triggered a galaxy-brain moment in hwa-pyung and so basically, what I'm saying is that what if hwa-pyung took down park il-do by setting a murder of spirit crows on him, along with the rest of the animal ghosts he's managed to train--wouldn't that be hysterical

(okay i did not expect this to be so long hahaha sorry for the spam)

so for starters, i had a thought the first time i read this ask, and the very same one when i revisited it to actually respond. in the drama, there are these moments, especially with hwa pyung, where there are humorous jabs. but because the nature of the show is so very serious, it tends to go unnoticed. the only times i literally laughed out loud where when hwa pyung was lying about what he and yoon were doing when investigating the possession through text message. he called yoon 'handsome priest' and yoon was so out of his element because they were straight up lying to the police. the second was when yook gwang was driving hwa pyung to his grandfather's house and joking about how they might as well just die here, and hwa pyung started loudly encouraging him to wreck the car to the point of screaming. i fell the fuck out laughing at the second one, ngl.

but what i'm getting at is, the insertion of the little scenes you were mentioning above is so on-par for the mood of the show that it's genuinely humorous and still doesn't like...ruin the character of it. gil young just finding stones in random places she frequents, confused, and hwa pyung just more grouchy to her for no reason (jealousy) which only makes her more confused. they bicker about it but hwa pyung initially doesn't tell her why because he doesn't think she'll believe him. later on down the line, after she has become fully invested, hwa pyung confesses being extremely jealous that the spirit of a crow he used to play with a lot had gone and gotten attached to her. bonus points if she can suddenly see that crow after the confession and it perpetually exists around her as a guardian of sorts.

and yoon. oh my god yoon. being hissed at by the spirits of cats just fits him so well. i'm going along with my headcanon above that he can't initially see them, so when he's around hwa pyung and keeps getting hissed or snarled at by, well, nothing? he's very confused and also kind of irritated. he's just trying to track down a demon. why is it that every time he's around hwa pyung, it feels like something is trying to ward him off? but then one day, probably right around the time hwa pyung starts suspecting father yang as park il do, he and yoon get into a bit of a brawl and one of the spirit cats (probably the one that got run over like you mentioned) manages to claw at yoon's face and cuts his cheek a little. he's genuinely shocked until hwa pyung admits what's going on. immediately after, yoon can see the cat, its black fur tattered and patchy and missing a leg, and yoon warms right up to her because she looks as broken as he is. hwa pyung, while nursing a bloody nose from their squabble, tells yoon not to get too heavy on the exorcism rites with her around because she doesn't like it. eventually, she keeps a safe distance behind him when he's doing it.

yook gwang can see them from the beginning. in fact, their visits often follow the same pattern of: hwa pyung eating all the food yook gwang offers him, yook gwang commenting about how all his dead animal friends are giving them the staredown from across the street, hwa pyung bitching about gil young and/or yoon and how sucky things have been, yook gwang still commenting about his dead animal friends, hwa pyung changing the subject to park il do, and then yook gwang begging him to do something about his pouting dead animal friends. hwa pyung is so used to it that he doesn't think anything of it. yook gwang tells him he needs to control his pets better and that if he could call the police, he would. but the minute yook gwang is in a pinch, he's got dead animal companions keeping him alive. in other words, he most certainly does not die. i said what i said.

and at the end, hwa pyung doesn't have to bury himself in the sea to take down park il do, because he's got an army of spirits who have decided to commune with him instead of the demons. they come in all shapes and sizes from hwa pyung's journey during the course of the drama. dogs, cats, birds, even snakes and fish. bears. the list goes on and on. and once park il do has fled from hwa pyung's grandfather's body, yoon and his rites and the army of spirits manage to generate enough power to send park il do away to the ocean. and i'll do one better--the spirits of those animals sacrifice themselves to seal park il do in the east sea for good. the only remaining companions are yoon's cat friend and gil young's crow.

somewhere along the line, hwa pyung figured he already knew they were there for that, anyway. with park il do watching him constantly, they swarmed in on him early into his childhood and provided him safety and comfort. it was only natural that later on they would be the ones who kept him from becoming a vessel for such a powerful demon.

hwa pyung's ability never leaves him, though. he's bound to meet more of them on the way. and maybe, just maybe, they'll get attached to him instead of his friends this time.

other people who get ghostly companions:

- detective koh: a dried-up goldfish that he calls 'bungeoppang' for obvious reasons. it floats around his head and shoulder and occasionally fucks with his computer for funsies

- hwa pyung's grandpa: a leopard cat ironically missing its right eye. hwa pyung discovers it in the woods when checking up on his grandfather during a visit and introduces them. it guards the front door at all times from that point on

- seo yoon: a rat who died from starvation in the warehouse where she had led hwa pyung and the others during her possession. all skin and bones, it gravitated toward her both because of her small size and the fact that she was a medium. even after her suppression rite, it stays close. hwa pyung and yoon see it curled up next to her when they visit her and find her sleeping one day

oh wow, but you're not wrong alksdjfklasjdflkj

i immediately looked up some interpretations on the song, and this site nails it perfectly. i'm going to quote parts of it just to show you how right you are because i didn't expect my mind to be blown but it is.

The "soldier" represents the people who physically remove the victim from the abuser, and take away the tangible power they have over their victim. It's worth noting that "tear your city down" is first used with the soldier, and then repeated later, because even though the soldier "tore the city down", what it represents still stands in the victim's mind.

this could be used to describe all three of them, but the first one that stands out to me is hwa pyung. the one who understands on a molecular level that the possessed and the demons are not the same person. one who has been there and relates to it and physically seeks to tear that connection down. not to mention his end goal from the very beginning of the show is to do away with park il do and its minions.

that last little bit is hwa pyung as well because of the fact that he leaves an impression on everyone he saves. whether they recall their trauma or not, he's that hot-headed little pain in the ass with a heart of gold who just wants the chaos to stop and somehow managed to leave his mark on them for the better.

The "poet" represents people who help the victim get over or move past their fear of their abuser. Ridicule and dissection are the most powerful tools to combat fear with, so to make sure the victim understands that the abuser no longer holds, and realistically didn't hold, as much power over them as they claimed, "slaying them with their tongue", has more impact than anything physically tangible.

the 'poet' part itself immediately makes me think of yoon, for obvious reasons. 'his weapon is his word', i'm just saying. but this paragraph itself pares that down and separates what differentiates choi yoon from other priests.

here's the thing with yoon: he knew from the beginning that the man who attacked him in his bedroom wasn't his brother. he knew from the getgo that his brother wasn't evil or the devil or anything like that. even around all the ridicule at the orphanage, he knew something was wrong. he himself had been terrified, but he had eventually come to the realization that the only way to handle it was to confront his fears head-on and find out what had happened to his brother.

and then, imagine finding out your brother is dead and deciding to continue on despite that. not unlike hwa pyung, yoon decides to seek out park il do and stop him from ruining the lives of anyone else.

that last part of the above paragraph makes me think of how gentle he is to those he helps. he's initially very cold and guarded to hwa pyung and gil young, but he's soft and sweet to everyone he tries to exorcise. he's not just your typical, emotionally-compromised trauma victim--he genuinely wants to see an end to all the torment park il do induces upon everyone. and eventually, he aches to protect hwa pyung, who is directly in park il do's sights--it's enough that he's willing to give up his own life for it.

in essence, he spent so much of his life afraid and he wants to eliminate that same struggle for anyone else--hwa pyung and gil young included. his reasons for becoming a priest are as clear as they are ambiguous--he entered the priesthood so he could eventually find his brother, but it's debatable if he has any strong belief in what he's doing until the very end, when he realizes how he can weaponize his connection with god as an exorcist. even when he's at risk of being ousted from the priesthood, he sticks to his guns and does what he believes is right.

and his weapon really is his word.

The "ruler" is the most important: it's the more kind-hearted people who fill the void the abuser used to hold. Friends who look after people who left abusive families, new lovers after abusive exes, overall people who demonstrate to the victim how they're SUPPOSED to be treated. The line "smeared with oil like David's boy" likens the importance of this person in breaking the cycle of abuse to a king chosen by a prophet (and thus by God himself) to ensure the kingdom's health.

i read this one a couple of times, because i was both 100 percent certain this was gil young and also not certain at all at the same time. the reason i say that is because she is just as much the 'ruler' as she is the victim. but in the end, it makes so much sense.

gil young starts out not believing a damn word of what hwa pyung and choi yoon are saying. she initially comes off as a jaded cop with an attitude problem who would inevitably become a thorn in hwa pyung's side, but that interpretation lasts a solid two episodes, before it's made glaringly obvious just how human she is. she's a victim of the same trauma the other two experienced, but she handles it differently because she comes from an entirely different angle.

which is what makes her the 'ruler'. even when she's uncertain of what she believes, she eventually realizes that the goal is more important than her belief in the reality of what's happening. she becomes like glue, her own determination and genuine humanity helping to pull the three of them together. it's thanks to her determination and reckless abandon that she strengthens the three of them as a whole and helps to protect the 'kingdom'.

once she finally understands everything, it's her compassion for the others (and how she handles them in different ways because she knows what works for them and what doesn't--because they're family) that helps them to come to terms with their differences and take down park il do together. see also: her clinging to hwa pyung and begging him to come to his senses while he's throttling choi yoon in the last episode.

she's 'ruler' because she sees the big picture even when she's blind to what's going on. she has an understanding of the whole situation even when she doesn't believe in the abuser. she knows what's important and what isn't. she's aware that people are suffering and wants to do away with it regardless of how crazy it may be.

Then, after the three finally come together, the city is finally torn down, the old ruler deposed, and thus, the victim free to move on with their lives, which is celebrated with the upbeat second half with joyous chants of "O lay, o lord", which could either be seen as celebrations of the new ruler, or as vicious mockery of the old one (maybe both?), as the cycle is finally broken.

this hits me kind of hard after all the above interpretation. it hits me in the same way the last episode did. from the water scene all the way to the very last scene, this just feels like it hits the nail right on the head.

this show does a fantastic job of putting together the importance of all three of them in taking down a demon that had been tormenting a seaside village for ages. it wasn't until all three of them realized their importance to one another and how strong they were as a unit that they were able to track down and destroy park il do. and they all had their hard truths to swallow--the possibility of father yang being park il do (and even when that changed, yoon realizing he was still very connected to it), gil young realizing that destroying park il do doesn't bring her mother back or lessen the pain of losing her, hwa pyung discovering that park il do was his grandfather all along, and the grandpa he had known growing up for so many years was actually park il do--and they had each other amidst it.

the final scene of the show and the above interpretation feel like one and the same. that sense of relief that all is well again, the smiles on all of their faces, because their days of chasing demons are very likely over, and they still have each other. hell, they still did even when hwa pyung was thought dead.

according to the site this interpretation came from for the song, the band has voiced that the entire album is about abuse. it contains its religious connotations too, and that entire page is worth a read because it has multiple interpretations. the one that reminded me the most of the guest was the very first one, but if you're into interpreting song meanings like i am, i definitely encourage you to give the others a read.