Kdrama Analysis Kiss Goblin

Kdrama Kiss Goblin Episode 8 Recap & Analysis

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Showing kindness, Goblin saves a balloon for a little boy and chats with him.

The heroine’s unrequited love approaches and asks if she would like to have a drink. The goblins sees this gets jealous and goes over to intervene. [These are my favorite scenes where are the two boys are arguing over the girl and saying silly things to show who is better.] Information is revealed through the dialogue, the unrequited love has been her friend for two years. And the Goblin almost lets it slip that they are living together. Our heroine covers the Goblin’s mouth (touch). Goblin is mad that she wants to deny their relationship and walks away. 

She follows him home and confronts him. He gets snippy “Why are you home? I thought you were going to go have a drink with that guy.“ (a touch of jealousy)

And then he reveals that it bothers him that she doesn’t want to say that they live together and asks if she’s embarrassed by him. (Talking about feelings) She asks him if he’s jealous and he adamantly denies it and walks away. (He doesn’t want to reveal his feelings yet)

Later at work they are cleaning in silence but exchange glances. The Goblin Queen comes in. Asks heroine if she’s dating anyone or interested in anyone. (The side character is acting as a plot driver!) Heroine glances at Goblin but says no. Goblin Queen shares the next target, and tells the heroine to take care of Goblin and leaves. 

There is internal dialogue about how it’s obvious to others about who you like because you always look at the person that you like. (Yes you do! It’s one of the stages of intimacy) The heroine’s male friend talks to the female best friend about how it’s obvious when someone doesn’t like you because they don’t look at you as much as you look at them. (It’s obvious the best friend likes the friend.) She still helps him and encourages his feelings with her friend, our heroine. 

Our heroine comes into the restaurant and sees the Goblin kissing another woman. She goes upstairs so that she doesn’t have to watch.

At home she’s drinking and sighing and thinking about him kissing the girl. (Getting hard to deny those romantic feelings, isn’t it? We’re firmly in the denial of feelings in the romance arc.) Goblin comes running out of the bathroom and grabs onto her looking scared. She asked him was wrong and he says that the shower curtain moved by itself and he didn’t touch it. His new emotion is fear. She tries to explain to him that it was only the wind but he insists that he is still scared. He ends up laying his head on her lap and falls asleep (common Kdrama trope). While he is sleeping she puts her hand on his face. He wakes up and she pulls her hand back quickly. He thanks her for the comfort. 

(Talking about feelings)

She tells him not to look at her the way that he looks at other girls when he tries to get them to kiss him. 

He says he doesn’t like kissing the other girls but he has to. 

She leans into him and asked if he feels anything with her. 

Visually we see that he does and he turns his face away from her and says that he doesn’t know about those things. (Looking away is lying)

She grabs his face by the cheeks and turns them towards her (hands to face) and gets closer and asks him one more time if he feels anything and he says no nothing at all all.

She loses her temper and tells him that she doesn’t understand why he even came into her life at all because all he’s doing is confusing her. (semi-confession)

She gets a phone call and it’s the friend who asks her to have another drink and while staring at the Goblin she accepts the invitation and heads out.

Goblin is obviously distressed.

Analysis:
The romance arc is building, we’re getting to the point where these two are going to have to confess their feelings because the jealousy is getting to be too much. The writer is slowly working their way through the stages of intimacy with touching and direct eye contact. These two are also having intimate discussions that skirt around their true feelings. We also saw how the Goblin Queen was being used as a plot driver and perhaps as a foreshadowing agent.

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Kdrama Analysis Kiss Goblin

Kdrama Kiss Goblin Episode 7 Anaylsis and Recap

We are more than halfway through the drama now on episode 7. If you missed the other breakdowns you can find them here.

Goblin finished kissing the girl and our heroine asks him what emotion he got. He said he’s not sure because he doesn’t feel anything yet. Our heroine asked Goblin what he wants to do first when he becomes a human. Our heroine spots the Exorcist and tugs Goblin close in a hug to protect him. 

The 7th emotion is infatuation. 

The exorcist leaves.  Our heroine asks if Exorcist is gone and the Goblin says no he’s not and hugs her closer and she locks her arms around him a little bit tighter too.  He answers her while they’re embraced that the first thing that he wants to do when he’s a human is to be friends with her. Formally. 

And she knows friends means…. friends , platonic. 

Our heroine is eating lunch with her friend but can’t stop thinking about how sexy the goblin is.  She keeps this a secret from her friend. (Secrets, secrets)

The next morning the Goblin cooks breakfast for her before her class. (showing thoughtfulness) Homemade, no artificial seasonings because it’s healthier that way. And he grabs the ketchup and puts it over the eggs because that’s how she likes it. (showing thoughtfulness)

He is on the couch, folding laundry while she watches TV next to him. She laughs and leans into him, asking him if he saw that. They both pause, feeling tension between them. (romance arc building)

Later, he comes out of the shower and walks by and she sniffs him and asks him what shampoo he used. He said soap. And in her mind she called him handsome and then she slapped herself. (denying feelings that are trying to surface)

At work she’s watching him while he changes a light bulb. The light shines in her face and he covers her eyes with his hand. She gets flustered and walks away. (more romantic tension shown)

At home they’re together and she says they need rules. She says he’s still a man and he shouldn’t be walking around with his arms and legs exposed. And they should keep distance from each other unless he’s on a mission because if they accidentally touch it would be uncomfortable. He agrees but wants some rules too. He wants her to pick up her hair and clean a little bit sometimes. He then grabs her beer and swigs. He doesn’t drink so she questions him. He opens up and says he’s having a hard time lately. She asks why and he says it’s all the new emotions – he’s so confused. He says he tries to be cool but sometimes he’ll just laugh or cry at the things on TV randomly. And when he’s around her… he gets… “emotional.” He goes and sits next to her and says he keeps wanting to be nice to her and then… he passes out on her shoulder. (kdrama special – lean on me)

Then she’s back with her friend. She asks her how she knows if she likes a guy. Our heroine tries the method her friend suggests and is happy to learn that she doesn’t like him. But then she sees him helping a kid and realizes she does like him

Analysis:

Goblin is working up the courage to confess after his new emotion comes in. 

The once “always honest” Goblin lied to her to keep hugging her. 

She is waking up to his charms. 

The two of them are now clearly liking each other, what next? Will they let themselves fall?

This episode was packing in the romantic tension for these two. Clearly they like each other but they aren’t willing to admit it, not to themselves and definitely not to their friends. We saw another instance of food the couple shares together and two ways the hero showed thoughtfulness for the heroine.


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Kdrama Analysis Kiss Goblin

Kdrama Analysis Kiss Goblin Episode 6

Today we are going to dissect episode 6 of The Kdrama Kiss Goblin. if you missed the other breakdowns you can find them here.

Yet again the writers started the episode off with a teaser of the future where the Goblin is kissing a girl and the heroine is standing back, watching. 

Back to the scene at hand, the Exorcist tells the heroine to get out of the way and asks why she’s protecting the Goblin. She asks The Exorcist why he wants to kill the Goblin and the Exorcist explains that killing Goblins and protecting humans is his job. The heroine says “Well I don’t know about other Goblins, but this one helped me today so he’s not harmful. Leave him alone.” The Exorcist reveals that he cannot harm the human.

The heroine smiles, snuggles closer to the Goblin, looks the exorcist in the eyes and eggs him on to try to kill her. There is romantic music as the Goblin looks at the heroine. He must have just fallen for her. 

The exorcist relents and leaves. 

The heroine is happy and asks if he’s happy too and he just stares at her. Her smile fades as she realizes that look of love in his eyes and she tries to get up. He pulls her back down and asks her to protect him by living together. 

“What?”

#tropealert living together/cohabitation

The heroine agrees to protect him, support his mission of becoming a human, and live together as long as he pays 100% of the rent, and does all the chores, and has to do what she says. 

At her apartment, she sets up a whiteboard with the mission objectives and shares it with him. He listens attentively. She says as soon as the GQ identifies the person they’ll go together so she can protect him from the exorcist. 

Morning 1 of living together. He gets up off the couch, cooks a very nice breakfast. She gives him a thumbs up and a huge smile. She watches tv while he cleans. He does laundry (including her bra and panties. She snatches that from him, mortified). 

Mission 5 comes in. They go together. She watches him kiss the girl… for a long time.

The new emotion is happiness and he’s giggling at everything they see Including the exorcist when he appears. As soon as he does the heroine presses her body against the goblin and smiles in victory. Exorcist frowns and walks away in distress. 

Later, it is nighttime and heroine is being followed. She hurries and so does the perp. She stops to huddle in fear and the guy, who is exercising, goes right past her. She pulls out her phone and hesitates to call The Goblin. but that doesn’t matter because when she looks up he’s there. He smiles at her and says he’s there to pick her up. She smiles back and comments on his smile. 

Cut to the next kiss. She’s uncomfortable. He gets the emotion desire and tells her he wants something – a friend. Goblin asks her to be his friend. Exorcist shows up and they hug. Exorcist gets mad and goes away.

They’re grocery shopping. Couple activity. They fight over what to buy in a playful way, you know… a cute way. Not like how it happens in real life with your husband or your kids. 😀 She looks around and sees other couples shopping together too. 

At home, she’s drinking and he’s cooking. He presents her with dinner and comments that her face has changed. She used to look sad and now she smiles a lot. He stares at her with adoration and says it looks better that way. She tells him to stop flirting with her. She tells him why she hates people (because they are selfish). He tells her he won’t be the kind of human she hates. He reaches out and touches her face and tells her that he likes her smiling face. 

Cut to the next kiss… the heroine thinks: she likes being with him and that’s why they can’t be friends because she likes him too much. 

Analysis: 

Lots of plot moving forward quickly, he only has four more kisses to go. We are halfway through the drama. 

They are now sharing moments together as a couple, like grocery shopping, walking home at night together, eating meals together, etc. 

He tells her that he likes her smiling face, which is strengthening the intimacy between them. She is feeling it too and we can tell because she can’t watch him kiss other girls anymore. 

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Kdrama Writing Analysis Kiss Goblin

Korean Drama Writing: Analyzing Kiss Goblin Episode 5

Welcome back! Just in case you have not been following along, we are analyzing the episodes of Kiss Goblin, the K-drama exclusively on Viki (if you are in the US).

If you missed previous analyses, you can find them here:

Kiss Goblin Episodes

Let’s get started!

We open with another swift flash into the future where the Goblin is kissing someone dressed in a lab coat.

We then come back to the present where the best friend is about to confess his feelings. He chickens out, however, and asks her to lend him some money for a taxi instead. She gets angry and tells him never to try to take her home again, gives him money, and shoos him away. 

He walks away, and she receives a text from the awful blind date. The next morning he is still pestering her for another date and general annoying questions. She tries to let him off nicely and then just ignores his texts.

The Goblin receives a text message from his Goblin Queen, and he has his fourth kiss, a professor at the University. (coincidental meetups – the heroine will be at the university too) 

The heroine arrives at school, and the Annoying blind date is waiting for her at the entrance. She tries to dodge him, but he sees her when her phone alerts her to an incoming text message that he sent.  he asked her again not to contact her, and he humbles himself and apologizes and looks pitiful telling her that he’s really shy and that might be why he seems so overbearing.  He asks her for one more opportunity. Empathy gets the better of her and she agrees. (In her mind: you have to suck it up and deal with it.)

A little later the heroine happens upon the annoying blind date guy and her ex. They are boasting about how she fell for his act and they’re talking about how to take advantage of her by getting her drunk. They also talk about how nice her figure is. She is so shocked that she doesn’t have a reaction so she walks away. She can’t confront her ex, never has been able to, and today is no different.

The Goblin kisses the professor and gets a new emotion. The 4th emotion is anger. (Perfect timing, right?) He busts out and sees the heroine on the stairs crying. He asks her what’s wrong. She said nothing and then he bursts out yelling at her and demands she tells him what’s wrong. She tells him, says she doesn’t know what to do and he stands up and tells her let’s go. He grabs her and tells her to take him to the jerks.  

The Best Friend sees the Goblin pulling the heroine through the university hallway and he follows.  The Goblin goes into the classroom and demands that the two guys go outside with him.  They are shocked and don’t go until the Goblin goes and grabs them and pulls them up by their shirt collars. Then they accuse the heroine of two-timing her boyfriend (the Goblin). They call her trash and the ex has the balls to question whether the heroine was doing that while they were dating too. 

The heroine tells the Goblin to let them go. Then her female best friend stands up and goes to the front of the class and plugs her phone into the class speakers and blasts what the two jerks had said about the heroine outside while smoking. 

Finally, the heroine has the courage to face her ex with her friends around her supporting her. She goes up to him and slaps him, and tells him he’s a dirty bastard and to never show his face in front of her again. Then she leaves the classroom. 

Goblin and heroine are leaving the university, and then… the exorcist shows up. Goblin says he forgot to leave quickly after his kiss assignment, and the exorcist wastes no time trying to kill the Goblin, pushing the heroine aside. The heroine comes in and wraps her body around the Goblin to protect him. The Exorcist is poised with a knife, ready to strike. (Hook: Imminent Danger)

Further Analysis

We are on episode 5 of 12, so we should be approaching the halfway point at the end of the next episode. The sexual tension is still ramping up. These two are beginning to care for each other but there haven’t been any feelings admitted to just yet. 

We saw the characters now taking action for each other. Each protecting the other from external threats. 

And the heroine has addressed the person in her past, taking a big step towards healing her wound.  

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Kdrama Analysis Kiss Goblin

K-drama Analysis – Kiss Goblin | Ep 4

K-drama Analysis – First Kiss!

If you missed any of the Kiss Goblin episodes before this one you can find them here. I am going through each episode of Kiss Goblin and breaking it down so we can see how the screenwriter crafted this delightfully fun mini K-drama.


The screenwriter again teases at a future scene – a kiss between goblin and heroine. (This gives the viewer a taste of what’s to come!)

Then we go back to the present with the exorcist. The exorcist has the goblin pinned against the wall by the neck and the heroine comes over and grabs onto the exorcist. The goblin touches her and magics them out of the situation and then they run. Fleeing together and then there is some sexual tension when they have to hover together and he makes them disappear. 

Then they are in the bar together and she is recalling what he said earlier. He is cleaning a wound on her hand (another trope – fixing w a band-aid). She’s realizing what he said was true and is trying to rationalize it. She then leans forward and kisses him, hoping that by kissing him she’ll wake up from the dream. 

She grabs him and kisses him. (First kiss

She pulls away and when he doesn’t disappear she starts freaking out because that means it’s all true. And then she asks him to forget that she kissed him. She asks him details about his kiss mission and discovers that it can’t be any random 10 humans, it has to be the ones that the goblin queen picks for him to kiss and then explains that when he does that the emotions are passed to him. 

She asks more questions about his world. (intimacy buildinggetting to know him better) Goblin answers and then asks her if he’s handsome. 

The scene cuts to the morning. She was dreaming about the kiss. She wakes up hoping it was a dream but then sees her bandaid and grumbles. 

Goblin is w the queen and asks about the exorcist. Goblin queen explains the origin of goblins. He learns that no goblin has ever been successful in their quest to become a human. (foreshadowing) She warns him again to make sure he leaves right after the kiss. (more foreshadowing) He asks her if she wanted to be a human and we flashback to her a long time ago. She did, at one time, want to be a human.

At work he is sweeping and she arrives. They look at each other for a moment and he seems unaffected by their kiss. As they go about their shift they bump into each other. ++Sexual tension. 

Second Male Lead (SML) friend is asking advice from the best friend about the heroine. The best friend urges him to go to the heroine and confess his feelings for her before it’s too late. 

The restaurant is closed and the SML comes in, brief glance exchanged between the two studs, and then the heroine comes to greet the SML. He tells her that he’s taking her home because it’s not safe. She calls him out on his weird behavior but he ignores her and they leave together. 

Goblin stares after them curiously. 

SML on the way home talks about how good-looking Goblin is. The heroine calls the SML out on his weird behavior again and he gears up to say his confession: “I….” (Hook- Scene Cut)

Further Analysis

This episode was mostly background and facts gathering. There was a little sexual tension mixed in. Overall, not much revealed in the way of character traits. The couple do connect in this episode, revealing their personal secrets, raising the trust and intimacy levels between them. 

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