Writing a kdrama

Kdrama Kiss Goblin Episode 12 Recap and Analysis

This is the very last episode of Kiss Goblin. If you missed any of the recaps you can find them here.

Let’s get to it!

The Goblin appears and apparently, he had the magical power hidden within him the whole time. Exorcist drops our heroine, the goblin’s power surrounds the Exorcist with this green blob of can’t move and then he punches The Exorcist and knocks him out. 

In the restaurant where they were working part-time together, Goblin asked her if she believed in fate and she tells him she does but she doesn’t want to rely on fate. She wants to rely on them. So she grabs him and pulls him in for a kiss and says “I want the future you and the future me to worry about finding each other again. We’re not going to leave it up to something else outside of us like fate.” He says he knows why he fell for her because she’s so cool and she says “it better be because I’m pretty” and he says “the future me will fall for you again for sure because you’re so cool.” 

They kiss. A lot. 

Time Hops One Year

He’s at university and she passes right by him. She takes a seat in class. And then he comes in and sits down. The teacher assigns a group project with two team members. The Goblin Queen comes by and swaps names so that they are paired together for the project. 

Their relationship begins, they meet in front of the library and she pulls him out of the way of a bicyclist, saving him. She says she knows immediately that she’s going to date him. He says she’s cool and thanks her for saving him. She asks if they’ve met before and he says he’s not sure. Maybe…

Analysis

So super cute ending where both fate AND Goblin magic come into play. If this were a full length drama perhaps we would have gotten a more solidified ending where we could watch their romance unfold for a second time.

Below is the outline for the whole series where we can see the progression of the romance, the breakdown of our characters.


Kdrama Cure Outline – Kiss Goblin


HEROINE

• Quirks – She speaks her mind, hits people on the face a lot

• Hobbies – None. She works and goes to school. 

• Problems – needs to earn money, get good grades at school, recovering from a break-up

• Work – Works in a restaurant part time

• Contrasts – Human/Goblin, Clueless emotionally/very emotional, Student/Adult

• Motivations – School, Work, Helping Goblin complete his mission

• Wound – Cheating ex

• Need – Real love and honesty

SECRETS

• From Each Other: She was cheated on, (Midway) she is falling for him

• From Her Friends: She is helping a Goblin become a human, She is dating a Goblin

• From Her Family: N/A


HERO

• Quirks – Stoic 

• Hobbies -N/A

• Problems –  Needs to earn money, Exorcist is trying to kill him, Needs to kiss 10 humans to become human

• Career/Job – Works in a restaurant part-time

• Contrasts – Human/Goblin, Clueless emotionally/very emotional, Student/Adult

• Motivations –  Work , To not be lonely – become human

• Wound – None

• Need – Real love

SECRETS

From each other – He’s a goblin

From their friends – He’s fallen in love with a human

From their family – None.


SIDE CHARACTERS

• Sounding boards (Her Best Friend, Goblin Queen) 

• Put the main character into action (change of motivation catalysts/moves plot) – Goblin Queen, Exorcist

• Matchmakers (Her best friend to the second male lead)

• Defenders (her best friend defends against the ex)

• Love triangles (second male lead)


PLOT

TROPES USED

• Wrist grab

• Against a wall

• Heroine hurt – band-aid scene

• Ass kicking heroine

• Stoic male lead

• Crude man talk (not from leads)

• Love triangle

• Unrequited love (second male lead)

• heroine grabbing hero for kiss

• Knight in shining armor

• Princess in shining armor

• Kimchi slap (w twist – fried chicken)

• Head on the shoulder

• Falling asleep, head in lap

• Playground setting – vulnerability? Innocence? 

• Heroine in danger


SETTINGS

• University

• Restaurant

• Her apartment

• His apartment

• Place they go to eat 

• Goblin Queen’s Lair

• Flashback setting: Hanbok Korea in the woods

• Playground – swing set

• Second Male Lead’s work

• Tunnel (danger scene)

• Underpass (danger scene)


ROMANCE PROGRESSION

1. Eye to body.  

(Ep 1)

2. Eye to eye.  

(Ep 1) 

glancing at each other at work after confrontation (Ep 8)

gazing while holding hands in bed (Ep 9) 

shy gazes (Ep 10)

3. Hand to wrist. (Kdrama special) The male grabs the female by the wrist, to keep her from fleeing usually.

(Ep 2, 5) 

4. Accidental Bumps and Brushes 

(Ep 4)

5. Back to Wall. (Kdrama Special) The male boxes the female in against a wall. Sometimes to intimidate her and get his point across, sometimes to protect her from danger. 

6. Voice to voice. You talk, call, text or email. This should be a pretty long stage. You start emotionally bonding. 

(Ep 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) 

7. Head to shoulder (Kdrama special) One or the other falls asleep and their head falls onto the shoulder. This is usually before feelings are confessed. 

(Ep 7)

8. Hand to hand. You hold hands. It may be an accidental touch that is kept in contact or deliberate. You are special.

full body protection – he is definitely special (Ep 5) 

he takes her hand and holds it while they stare at each other. (Ep 9) 

9. Hand to shoulder. You put your arm around their shoulder. This publicizes your relationship.

10. Hand to waist. Your arms around each other’s waist. You know this person about as well as you know your best friend, and you like what you know.

11. Face to face. 

she leans in close when asking about his feelings (Ep 8) 

the kiss! (Ep 12)

12. Hand to head. 

he touches her face (Ep 6)

she touches his face while he’s sleeping (Ep 8) 

touches his face when questioning his feelings (Ep 9)

she touches his cheek.  she pokes his dimple (Ep 10)

13. Hand to body. 

14. Mouth to body.

15. Touching below the waist. 

16. Intercourse.


Romance Required Scenes: 

Awkward First Meeting: Yes, in the alley he was kissing another girl. (Ep1) 

First Kiss: False First kiss (Ep 4) – She kisses him, but not out of desire. 

Real First Kiss: (Ep 12)

Locking Eyes:  (Ep 1, Ep 8)

Touching:

Wrist Grab (Ep 2)

Embracing (Ep 4, 5, 6) 

Face Touch (Ep 6, Ep 8)

Confession: 

kind of from him (Ep 7)

kind of, from her (Ep 8) 

Full Confessions (Ep 9)

Break-up #1: 

he denies feelings and she goes to drink w another man (Ep 9)

Make-up #1:

in bed after his near-death they confess their feelings (Ep 9)

Selfless Giving: 

she saves him from the exorcist (Ep 9)

Final Test of Relationship:

he has to go back to the goblin world bc he doesn’t want to kiss her to pass his final test and risk them both never remembering or finding each other again in their lifetimes (Ep 10)

Happy Ending: 

Happy For Now – They meet again (Ep 12)


Couple Characteristics

Inside jokes – N/A

Talismans – N/A

Places they go – grocery shopping, work

Activities they enjoy  – Watching TV at home

Food/drinks they share – Breakfast. She likes to drink beer. 

Dating

Use character’s background, career, hobbies to dictate what these look like 

N/A

Showing thoughtfulness

• Goblin brings her chocolate milk after a bad customer experience

• Heroine grabs onto the exorcist to save Goblin

• Goblin touches her and removes her from danger w exorcist

• Goblin protects her and hides her (exorcist)

• Goblin gives her first aid on her hand

• Goblin confronts guys who made her cry

• Heroine protects Goblin from the exorcist 

• Goblin picks Heroine up and walks her home after work

• Goblin puts ketchup on her eggs

• Goblin hides her eyes from the bright new lightbulb he installed

• She allows him to sleep on her lap when he’s scared

• She makes him breakfast

• He offers to do the dishes

• She saves him from the bicyclist 


Want to learn more? Check out the Freebies page for lots of free goodies!

If you are ready to unlock the power of Kdramas and apply it to your next romance novel you grab a copy of my book, The Kdrama Cure.

Thanks so much for reading along with the Kiss Goblin series! I would love to hear from you! Please leave a comment below or you can reach out to me via email: mariecolebook@gmail.com

2 thoughts on “Kdrama Kiss Goblin Episode 12 Recap and Analysis

  1. I really love your analysis.
    I am just discovering kdrama with your Kindle book (I have start with Crash Landing on You as you proposed in Kdrama cure and it blows my mind — I am at Episode 10 and start to feel that I will have a series mourning” in the à couple of days when it will end) .
    I love your approach so much that I just ordered your book again as paperback and took the kdrama journal too to start my journey in this fiction world and sort of narratives.
    I hope you will continue this kind of analysis with the writer’s point of vue on other shows. I learn so much (and be a bit obsessed with now…). Thank you for this ! 🙂

    1. Val!
      You are my very first ever blog post commenter!
      Thank you for leaving this comment (I teared up a little). I’ll be emailing you shortly so please look for an email from mariecolebooks@gmail.com in your email inbox.
      It makes me really happy to hear that you took my advice to heart and began your K-drama journey!

      I was wondering if this kind of blog post was helpful so your comment came just in time! I will keep going with the K-drama break downs and you keep watching those K-dramas too so that when I analyze one you’ve seen you can point out what I missed!

      Wishing you much love and creativity!
      *Finger hearts!*

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