The Bride of Habaek is based on The Bride of the Water God, a manhwa that I am familiar with in passing, but which I have yet to read; I’m hoping that a few of the issues I have with the drama are linked to that and not because the writers think that being an asshole is sexy. The Bride of Habaek is about Yun So-a, a psychiatrist with a mountain of debt being saddled with the handsome and lazy water god, Habaek. Through him, she meets the icy water goddess Hye-ra and the easy-going sky god Ahn-bin.
Honestly, the show isn’t that bad, there’s just a lot of things about it that annoy me personally. The writing itself is fine, the love story is satisfying, and the characters are perfectly serviceable. I’m just really tired of the asshole-turned-adorable character *cough*Habaek*cough* getting the girl without realizing that his narcissistic and domineering personality is problematic. Ladies, you shouldn’t have to fix him.
Part of my dislike of Habaek might also be because I really liked the personality of his rival, Hoo-ye, a demi-god who is the CEO of a resort. Hoo-ye is a genuinely nice person who plants trees and feels soul-crushingly guilty when he hurts someone. He and So-a have quite a few conversations that hold more weight than anything I ever saw between So-a and Habaek.
(Hoo-ye also works to help So-a out of her debt issue, instead of sitting on his ass.)
(And he backs off when he realizes that there is no way he is going to convince So-a to love him, and he does it in a way that helps Habaek, because he’s a selfless bastard.)
I’m also not really sure how the logistics of the ending are going to work?!? So, major spoilers for this paragraph. So-a uses her super-wish to keep Habaek by her side until she dies, which I guess is the “Bride” part of The Bride of Habaek. However, I don’t think he’s going to age, because he’s a god, and I’m pretty sure that he’s not going to be working either (because he doesn’t have and ID or any marketable skills besides looking hot). I can totally imagine that she is going to spend the next five decades taking care of him, and he could be mistaken for her son or something or people would wonder why he doesn’t age. Oh! And there’s the problem of another potential demi-god. The true gods hate Hoo-ye because he’s a demi-god, but this is never discussed as a possibility between Habaek and So-a?!?! Just… Take So-a to the divine realm? It’s established that it’s possible.
In an effort to be positive, I really liked the costuming of Habaek when he is in the Divine Kingdom; he looks gorgeous! The romance between Hye-ra and Ahn-bin was cute and understated, and I was really glad that they got together in the end. So-a did not deserve Sang-yu, her assistant and childhood friend, but I’m glad she had him to keep her grounded. The opening credits are amazing and I wish more shows took that approach.
So yeah, there’s a lot to like about this show, which is why I kept going until I finished it, but there are a few things that I just didn’t like. I’m not sure if I would recommend it to any of my friends, but it’s a good show.
I just finished Bride of Habaek / Bride of the Water God and i have some capital t Thoughts but they are mad spoilers so below the cut
Okay so overall i really enjoyed that show and Nam Joo-hyuk is like the PEAK human specimen and i have such a soft spot for the character Shin Dong-man like he is one of the most dynamic and round characters i have experienced in recent media.
That aside, the one thing im still thinking about having just finished it is how much the ending is not what i expected. It wasn’t bad by any means -- I actually enjoyed it and I love a good happy ending -- but what felt out of place is that the show had seemed to set up a lot of incredible nuanced foreshadowing for a different ending and then didn’t utilize it.
The ending I expected was one in which they realized that Mr. Shin’s power of death was also a power of life and that he could save Yun So-ah’s father, effectively completing his beautiful character arc. As much as i love his character, he felt he needed a little more closure and they set up at the beginning that his power can be used for good or evil and he already has a power none of the other gods have (in that he can kill them).
The other major thing I expected was for Yun So-ah to become a goddess herself. This felt foreshadowed with a) the fact that her friend had that dream that she would lose her soul -- i thought it would be turned on its head and she would lose her soul in the human realm to have it live eternally in the godly realm, b) that she kept asking about who Habaek’s wife is / the mother of his daughter and he kept saying he has never been married -- I thought that was foreshadowing to a reveal that time is not linear of congruous between the human world and the godly world and so when she did research on these gods she found all this lineage that had yet to happen for them and that she would, in fact, be the mother of this daughter she keeps asking about, and finally c) THE GODDAMN NAME OF THE SHOW IMPLIES SHE WILL BE MARRIED TO HABAEK NOT JUST SITTING IN WEDDING DRESS FOR A PICTURE WHAT THE HELL??????
As I said, I really enjoyed the show and i dont think the ending was bad, I just think they set themselves up for a much stronger ending that they didnt utilize and I’m a little bummed about it
