Beatrice

Eastern dragon lore is really underutilized as far as supernatural entities in fantasy stories go, so it's cool to see when it happens. I really like how Yeo Ri has multiple skills, shaman, optician, glasses maker to make ends meet. Her relationship with Gang Cheol is interesting. From both the way he and his brother Bibi behaves, they are forces of nature who just so happen to have enough moral overlap to be targeting elder humans with evil in their hearts to consume, but otherwise don't have or need to be exactly understanding of humans and their needs. Yeo Ri is one of the rare people who can see Gang Cheol in his deity spirit form and both he and his brother are quite childish in their interactions. Gang Cheol grows and matures once he's in Yoon Gap's body and actually learns to care about others through growing relationships with them, only then and also learning the truth about his intentions does Yeo Ri finally see him in new light. I like how the Eight Feet Spirit confronted him about how he's a deity but he focused on ascension rather than intervening in the slaughter of the village below that night. It's technically true and he made the sacrifice to heal the trapped spirits and he himself is freed from Yoon Gap's body that he was trapped in, but of course gets to make the choice to live out the days of being Yeo Ri's guardian spirit and husband.

I feel sorry for Yoon Gap, he was tempted by evil, but still overcame it, having to leave the short life he had with everyone who loved him, his mom, the King, and Yeo Ri who really did initially like him back to be continued by Gang Cheol instead. It was so tragic that he became a foreign spirit in his own revitalized corpse. It was cool to see the distinct differences in the relationships with the same people that Gang Cheol has. The King found an equal that he can be a bit silly around in Gang Cheol who does not have to be held to the same etiquette as regular humans. It's so funny when the King cannot hold back his annoyance when he sees Gang Cheol doing the full etiquette while undercover that he actually knows how. It was nice to see the King legitimately love his queen and told the doctor to prioritize saving her over the fetus. Sadly she passes away. Her character is one thing the show could have done better to give more characterization to so that her death would have more emotional impact on the audience. All she got to do was cry or stare lovingly at her husband and son. The head eunuch is a wonderful scene stealer. He's always annoyed at Gang Cheol's lack of decorum, but he so thoughtfully gives the best sweets in the palace for him and tells Gang Cheol the story of his own loss of his sibling to comfort Gang Cheol who grieves for Bibi. Gang Cheol's relationship with Yoon Gap's mom is also sweet, adopting him as another son after Yoon Gap moves on as a spirit, becoming grandmother to his and Yeo Ri's daughter.

There's a scene where Gang Cheol buys Yeo Ri a fur head cover and it's the most distracting, fake looking polyester product ever, totally looking bad over the otherwise very solid costuming and props that surrounds it. The weakest storyline of the show is the Queen Dowager. She's totally complicit in enabling the evil shaman for the explicit reason of coveting the throne for her rapist son. The show spent way too long on her grief and sorrow when he gets sacrificed by the shaman for his spirit to be consumed by the Eight Feet Spirit. I don't care about the rapist and his scheming mother, I rather the screen time to be given for the Queen consort to get some more personality or the murdered palace maiden in the well who really enjoys a friendship with Yeo Ri to the point she doesn't want to move yet at the end of the story. There seems to be a rise of shamanism dramas and films. The core of the use of it is compassion in finding the source of the "evil" spirit's pain and to alleviate it so they can be at peace and leave the humans that they deemed to have wronged them alone. The dramas often take a more optimistic justice served against the living perpetrators than the films do. I hope to see more dragon stories too, there is a well of possibilities and interesting narratives there to be explored.