lydia || kdramarot

The show had great visuals, witty dialogue, and high stakes. But so do most shows, so what sets apart TJFH from them?

Let's begin with the gore aspect. It was a very decisive move to pick a demon that's not a man. Compare My Demon to The Judge from Hell for example. The action sequences in MD were not nearly as emotionally and physically charged as the ones in TJFH, and that's very intentional. This sort of boils down to how violence of man-on-woman crimes looks on TV, and how many shows, rightfully so, avoid showing that. MD couldn't show excessive aggression from Song Kang's character because it wouldn't bode well to have a all-powerful man beat up all characters that he has deals with (and since that included women, you can't really show that). That's why his retribution style was simple and casual, and importantly, blood-less. It adds suave to his character, because we know he's capable to getting his hands dirty but he just chooses not to.

Alternatively, Justicia's job is to get her hands bloody. Her role couldn't have been done by man, and if the role had to be played by a woman, it couldn't be something like Song Kang's character in MD because that would easily fall prey to the trope of women retaining their delicate virtues and tempers. If it's going to be bloody, and if you want to take that character seriously while also root for them, you need to have a badass woman without no remorse.

On top of that, the questions on morality were so delicious. This show gave us the classic enemies to lovers arc—he had a crush on her until he finds out just how ugly she can get, and vows to catch her. His morals fail when injustice hits too close to home, and it was treat to see Daon finally relent on his morals for a bit. His dark side is precisely what also engaged Justicia—it made him normal in her eyes because upto that point, she'd seen him as an adorable inconvenience.

after episode 12, i coudn't stop thinking about this quote that fits so perfectly with seunghyo's dialogue: "i have always been with you."

in more ways than one, that meant that seokryu had never left his mind, and some part of him. she is so finely tied around the strings of fate that circle him that it wasn't shocking that he fell for her again--he was just shocked that he still liked her after keeping his heart so guarded for years. from spilling paint all over him, playing house, overcoming her fears of the water, overcoming depression, caring for him when he felt abandoned, helping him study, supporting him when no one else bothered to do so, building his first project for her, going to US for her, redecorating her house in a way that no one else could've possibly done, eating teobokki at her father's shop, sharing textbooks together, bringing her back when she ran away from home, reaching out to him when she was at her lowest, ignoring her when he felt like he was alone in feeling those feelings...they've been through so much together.

loving her was a necessary implication of knowing her. it was settled the moment she came back to Korea; the moment he shifted home; the moment he redecorated her place to transport her back in time; the moment she checked up on his swimming pool contract; the moment he asked her to cry without holding back; the moment she made food for him because love is thought. they thought of each other in all these moments, silently and earnestly. love is the act of thinking fondly. love is the act of hating to think of them so fondly.

in a lot of ways, I see that as their friendship and romance. the writers made sure to use many metaphors to depict their friendship and romance—from kilns, the rainbow food that Seung Hyo liked, banana milk, to now caramel popcorn—to show that there's a part of Sepk Ryu that her ex can never have. it's a lot like what Seung Hyo tells his ex: he doesn't like Seok Ryu because they're childhood friends of the opposite sex, but because it's her. Because it's Seok Ryu.

I keep finding myself returning to this quote by Lemony Snicket over and over again for Seung-kryu. Him saying that that ever since he's known her...there's never been a moment he's not liked her, and that no matter how much he denied it, falling for her was inevitable. And now imagine what he must be going through when he got that invitation. He hadn't realized his buried feelings for her, but he blow was evident. His behaviour from the start of the episode vs the end differed greatly, because somewhere deep down, he knew he'd lost his chance a long time ago but the anticipatory grief kicked in much later.