Overrated , Underhated .
It feels a little pointless to write a review so many years after this drama’s release, and I doubt many people will stumble across it now, but here it is anyway.
To be blunt: the pacing is /atrocious/. I actually went and read a bunch of other reviews because I didn’t want to be so negative based solely on the first episode… but wow. I should /not/ be reaching for the fast-forward button during the initial episode of a series that’s supposed to hook me, yet the fast-forward button became my loyal companion. The first 50 minutes were spent spoon-feeding information that easily could’ve been delivered in under 20. And don’t even get me started on the curse explanation why did that need to drag on for 35 minutes?
On top of that, what exactly happened with the kid at the beginning? Why did the all-powerful god-of-war goblin just let him be thrown overboard? We’re shown that he suddenly has full control of his powers right after gaining them, but apparently not enough to save the child of the man who was basically a grandfather figure to him? It made absolutely no sense.
And then… the age gap. Oh my god, the age gap.
The moment the narrator said, “The Goblin’s bride has been born,” I already felt uneasy. He’s a 900-year-old man “saving” an unborn child who’s supposedly destined to be his wife? I tried to brush it off there are weirder fantasy tropes out there but then they meet again, and she’s in /high school/. I thought they’d wait until she was an adult, but nope! His fated wife is a teenager. Even if she’s 18 or 19, he was pushing 50 before he died, has been wandering the earth for nine centuries, and we’re supposed to swallow a romance between him and a high-schooler? Absolutely not.
And honestly, reading other reviews, people have pointed out something I wholeheartedly agree with: the director missed a huge opportunity for something more meaningful. Instead of defaulting to tired romance tropes, this could’ve been a heartwarming story about a lonely girl who lost her mother and never knew her father finally gaining a stable parental figure who cares for her in a genuine, non-romantic way. But nope. It just had to be romance.
Then there’s the length. Why are these episodes over an hour long? The first episode was a complete snooze fest . I barely clawed my way to the one-hour mark. My eyes physically hurt from trying to keep up with rapid subtitles, overly complicated lore, and the sudden introduction of not one but two dense, lore-heavy characters Reaper and Goblin at the exact same time.
And while we’re talking about plot choices, let me just say: they really wasted a brilliant setup. When I started watching, I genuinely thought the Goblin would be the antagonist and the Reaper the protagonist. The narration about Goblin’s curse sounded furious about the blood he’d spilled, so I assumed Reaper’s job was to stop him from killing needlessly. I imagined the Goblin on a revenge mission, hunting down the people responsible for the deaths of his family, comrades, and wife, while the Reaper tried to prevent further tragedy. I thought maybe the Goblin’s “bride” had been prevented from being born for centuries, adding a tragic twist. Eventually Goblin needing to come to understand that killing reincarnations of his wrongdoers was a wrongdoing in itself. And maybe the King or the advisor who corrupted the king would've also became immortal and he could've been the real antagonist Goblin was chasing after.
Honestly? That story would’ve been so much more interesting. Scrap the forced romance, remove the high-school-aged love interest entirely, and instead focus on the dynamic between Goblin and Reaper two lonely, morally gray characters navigating fate, guilt, revenge, and redemption. Goblin seeking justice; Reaper bound to stop him. They could’ve formed an unlikely companionship, slowly learning to understand each other. Maybe the final twist reveals that the mythical bride always dies before birth, making his quest both tragic and impossible.
But instead… we got another romance filled with clichés and uncomfortable implications.
Maybe someday someone will create the version of this story that actually lives up to the premise. Until then, this one just wasn’t for me and I'd only recommend it to someone that I hate simply to waste their time.
To be blunt: the pacing is /atrocious/. I actually went and read a bunch of other reviews because I didn’t want to be so negative based solely on the first episode… but wow. I should /not/ be reaching for the fast-forward button during the initial episode of a series that’s supposed to hook me, yet the fast-forward button became my loyal companion. The first 50 minutes were spent spoon-feeding information that easily could’ve been delivered in under 20. And don’t even get me started on the curse explanation why did that need to drag on for 35 minutes?
On top of that, what exactly happened with the kid at the beginning? Why did the all-powerful god-of-war goblin just let him be thrown overboard? We’re shown that he suddenly has full control of his powers right after gaining them, but apparently not enough to save the child of the man who was basically a grandfather figure to him? It made absolutely no sense.
And then… the age gap. Oh my god, the age gap.
The moment the narrator said, “The Goblin’s bride has been born,” I already felt uneasy. He’s a 900-year-old man “saving” an unborn child who’s supposedly destined to be his wife? I tried to brush it off there are weirder fantasy tropes out there but then they meet again, and she’s in /high school/. I thought they’d wait until she was an adult, but nope! His fated wife is a teenager. Even if she’s 18 or 19, he was pushing 50 before he died, has been wandering the earth for nine centuries, and we’re supposed to swallow a romance between him and a high-schooler? Absolutely not.
And honestly, reading other reviews, people have pointed out something I wholeheartedly agree with: the director missed a huge opportunity for something more meaningful. Instead of defaulting to tired romance tropes, this could’ve been a heartwarming story about a lonely girl who lost her mother and never knew her father finally gaining a stable parental figure who cares for her in a genuine, non-romantic way. But nope. It just had to be romance.
Then there’s the length. Why are these episodes over an hour long? The first episode was a complete snooze fest . I barely clawed my way to the one-hour mark. My eyes physically hurt from trying to keep up with rapid subtitles, overly complicated lore, and the sudden introduction of not one but two dense, lore-heavy characters Reaper and Goblin at the exact same time.
And while we’re talking about plot choices, let me just say: they really wasted a brilliant setup. When I started watching, I genuinely thought the Goblin would be the antagonist and the Reaper the protagonist. The narration about Goblin’s curse sounded furious about the blood he’d spilled, so I assumed Reaper’s job was to stop him from killing needlessly. I imagined the Goblin on a revenge mission, hunting down the people responsible for the deaths of his family, comrades, and wife, while the Reaper tried to prevent further tragedy. I thought maybe the Goblin’s “bride” had been prevented from being born for centuries, adding a tragic twist. Eventually Goblin needing to come to understand that killing reincarnations of his wrongdoers was a wrongdoing in itself. And maybe the King or the advisor who corrupted the king would've also became immortal and he could've been the real antagonist Goblin was chasing after.
Honestly? That story would’ve been so much more interesting. Scrap the forced romance, remove the high-school-aged love interest entirely, and instead focus on the dynamic between Goblin and Reaper two lonely, morally gray characters navigating fate, guilt, revenge, and redemption. Goblin seeking justice; Reaper bound to stop him. They could’ve formed an unlikely companionship, slowly learning to understand each other. Maybe the final twist reveals that the mythical bride always dies before birth, making his quest both tragic and impossible.
But instead… we got another romance filled with clichés and uncomfortable implications.
Maybe someday someone will create the version of this story that actually lives up to the premise. Until then, this one just wasn’t for me and I'd only recommend it to someone that I hate simply to waste their time.
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