Gilgamesh420beans

It took me around 5 months to complete this show. That isnt to say that its bad. its just to say that i was busy and that i may have some alzheimers, so this review maybe inaccurate.

Goblin is a show where ghosts check in for therapy, and we check in for trauma. Ridiculous tsundere romance, a thousand-year-old angsty main lead, and random side plots that exist for no apparent reason other than to pad out the runtime and a swaggy grim reaper with a jawline like the jaw titan from aot.

Honestly, I came in expecting peak. Instead, there was alot of kdrama padding as usual. However it did make me think about alot of things like why are these dead people paying ghost money for five-star ghost room service? Does this hotel serve other nationalities or is it south korea only? can north koreans make it? How did Sanchez's girlfriend get tp summoner spell? The tiger made it, how come none of the other north koreans make it? Who’s managing the ghost economy? Is this going to impact inflation in south korea?

Our female lead is John Man Wol, not to be confused with The moon embracing the sun's sha-man wol. For a good ten episodes, she treats everyone around her like dirt. Whether they’re alive, dead or in transit. She eventually pivots to being a bit nicer, but she’ll still scam your ghost grandma for a lambo. Her character is abit over the top but ig thats kdrama. like yea. thousand year old angst tends to do that to someone. probably. idk ive never seen anyone live that long.

The male lead, Gucchi Sung, is pretty chill. He’s a polite, smart, hard working but did get trapped by the crusty old scam queen despite her literally treating him like a hotel bellboy with no union benefits and threatening to kill him on multiple occasions. He does have a strong character and actually stands up to the fl and sees past her facade of being a bitch. he is also sassy and funny. good fellow. The romance was ok. honestly good that they died. they def need a soft reset on the relationship

Side characters were goated. well cooked. Sanchez deserved better. Man comes in with pizza for everyone. Nice as hell. went through heaps of shit and landed a very nice girlfriend. Only to have that nice life snatched away from him. It just aint fair. Bro was the biggest tragedy in this show. Shits just fucked up with ghosts and angst, and all he wanted was a nice girl and a peaceful life. and he actually processes everything pretty nicely. like damn. he chill as fuck. The ghosts themselves were pretty nice. Dead people with regrets? Classic. Dead people who need to accept change to move on? omg. Some of them def had some over the top obsessoins, like, bitch, you died in the Joseon Dynasty. why are you still out here beefing with your ex's descendants? Surprised the hotel wasnt just full of people like that.

the way they deal with characters regrets and wants was actually really interesting. often times they wanted things their way, like how things were before they died or before something terrible happened before they died (their regrets)/ but to move on properly they needed to forget about that and accept something new. something related to their regret to like replace or help them cope with that feeling. And then they accept it and can finally accept their death. which i find is a pretty nice and relatable message that many shows dont really tackle that well.

Ending was fucking pretty peak. It’s the ending Violet Evergarden deserved. Sad, emotional, and satisfying. K-dramas never do that shit. Sure, it took a couple episodes of padding to get there, but it was just making space for it to hit different. especially how they used the ost. . "Can You See My Heart?" Yes, I can, and it’s weeping in moderation. enough to feel the peak. but not enough to get destroyed like more than blue or how to make millions before grandma dies. IU also epic (i dont actually know her too well and i forgot the song name).
Visual effects def looked goofy at times, but props for trying to experiment like with the borders of the screen. The briar scenes were pretty nice. also a shame what happened to that character, and the other like 4 that got brutalised by that one random dude that exited the server when he got chat banned (self inflicted mute/stabbed in the neck).

This show was pretty entertaining. Could have been alot shorter but it is what it is. The good parts were great. It’s not the most peak K-drama I’ve seen but its pretty nice. especially how they actually tied up loose ends in the ending.