Ask: First, what do you think of Yeon’s scenes with Ji Ah before he knew she was Ah Eum? Was he interested in her? I mean, what reason would he have had to keep an eye on her always?
Second, have you ever considered whether Yeon loves Ji Ah differently than Ah Eum? After all, she’s still another person? And Ji Ah made a point in saying that after their first kiss.
And finally, were all the women who looked like Ah Eum/Ji Ah throughout the centuries completely other people, or was she reborn then as well, but it came never to a moment when Yeon got to see the fox bead? It’s a lot. But you have to answer, I might go crazy otherwise. Thank you!
Hello, and thanks for your ask! I can only offer my educated opinion as a fan, but to my sense:
1) When you say ‘keep an eye on her always’ did you mean once they reunite when she’s an adult? I’m fairly sure that, while he did come back to check on her when she was little, he hasn’t been watching over her for the past 21 years. TvN released a deleted scene in which he looks her up on the internet to see what her deal is after Shin Joo tells him she’s trying to track him down. If he’d been watching over her, he wouldn’t have needed to do that. Also, his line to her at the end of episode 6, ‘So that’s how you’ve lived until now,’ implies that he didn’t know how she’d lived in the years since he saved her as a child.
As to whether Yeon was interested in her, I think the answer is yes, but not romantically. As Yeon says, foxes mate for life, so he had no interest or intention of falling in love with anyone other than Ah Eum (or rather, her reincarnation). He also tells Taluipa that it doesn’t matter to him what she looks like. I believe him on both fronts. At the same time, I think not being moved by the sight of Ji Ah when she looks exactly like Ah Eum would be pretty much impossible. She’s the living, breathing image of someone he loved and misses desperately.
But more than her looks, I think it’s who she is as a person that he’s drawn to. Ji Ah is smart, driven, and fearless. In the scene in episode 2 where she tells him, ‘I’m not threatening, I’m gambling,’ you can see from his expression that, despite his irritation at her having literally broken into his house and tranqed him, he’s also quite impressed with her for it. It’s worth noting, too, that it’s only after this encounter that he goes to find Taluipa guessing that Ah Eum has been reborn (with the same face, no less). Similarly, the reason he checks for the fox bead again when they’re on the island is that – despite having already tried and failed – he can’t help but see Ah Eum in who Ji Ah is, not just how she looks. And that’s, I think, why he can’t help but look out for her. Because he admires her as a person, and because he recognizes her. He only doubts himself because she doesn’t appear to have his fox bead.
2) This is a hard one. Ji Ah and Ah Eum are different people in the sense that they’ve lived different lives and possess different memories, and obviously our experiences and memories are an integral part of who we are. At the same time, they are the same person in the sense that they possess the same soul. Ji Ah is Ah Eum reborn. It’s not as if Ah Eum exists somewhere separate from Ji Ah. Ah Eum was reborn as Ji Ah, and Yeon, I believe, loves who that person is regardless of what path she’s walked in life or what memories she does and doesn’t possess. He tells her more or less as much in the letter he leaves her: ‘I liked the attitude with which you faced the world. I liked that, despite bearing a terrible fate on your shoulders, you didn’t thoughtlessly despair.’ I think this line really gets at the heart of what drew Yeon to Ji Ah in addition to being what he loves about her, and it’s a statement that was equally true of Ah Eum. Ji Ah and Yeon are kindred spirits in this way: the way in which they bear up under adversity, and the strength of character they each possess which allows them to do so.
When Ji Ah tells Yeon, “I’m not the shadow of your past,” I think she absolutely had the right end of things, and I think Yeon is wise enough to recognize that as well. Ji Ah can’t be ‘Ah Eum’ for Yeon one, because she doesn’t share those memories of their past with him, and two, because she has an entire lifetime’s worth of memories that Ah Eum never had. Moreover, 600 years have passed. Even if she did somehow remember her past life, in this life, she’s no longer an abandoned princess, and he’s no longer a mountain god. For them to live trying to recreate the days they spent together 600 years in the past would be an exercise in futility, if for no other reason than the fact that the world itself has undergone tremendous change since then. Ji Ah is asking Yeon to be in a relationship with her as she is here and now, and I think that Yeon should be commended for the grace with which he did exactly that.
3) I had this thought as well early on, and all I can say is, if that had been the case, then what a terrible tragedy that would have been. But I believe the answer is no, for a couple of reasons.
First off, Yeon was under contract to work for the Ten Kings of the Afterlife as a sort of enforcer in exchange for them allowing Ah Eum to be reborn. Because Ah Eum’s death was considered a suicide of sorts, she should have been ineligible for reincarnation. But Yeon cut a deal exchanging his service to the Ten Kings for her rebirth. Rang describes this as a sort of karmic ‘mileage points’ plan whereby Yeon builds up mileage points through his service, and once he has enough, Ah Eum gets to be reborn. If you flip that around, it means that he’s only under contract until she’s reborn. So since Yeon was still under contract at the start of the drama, I think we can safely assume that those other women were not, in fact, reincarnated versions of Ah Eum. tvN also stated that Yeon’s contract ended when he recognized Ji Ah as Ah Eum’s reincarnation. That still begs the question of why he wasn’t let off the hook 30 years previously when Ji Ah was born, and I honestly don’t have a good answer for that.
Second, even barring the previous point, multiple supernatural characters – including Imoogi, who was reincarnated part and parcel with her – have stated that it took 600 years for her to be reborn. If those other women had been Ah Eum, they would also have been Imoogi as well, and I can’t imagine Imoogi would have just not tried to get revenge on Yeon if he’d had the chance before now. Moreover, the fortune-teller (whose true identity is Tenth King of the Afterlife who presides over reincarnation) also says that Ji Ah was a princess in her previous life (i.e. the last time she was alive), and I would consider that to be fairly conclusive evidence.
So why bother with the look-alikes at all, right? On a narrative level, I mean. Very simply, I think we as viewers needed probable cause to believe that Yeon could meet someone who is Ah Eum’s spitting image and yet somehow not immediately realize it was her. If Yeon hadn’t seen women with her face over the centuries, then her appearance alone would have clinched it. So I view those other women as a way of introducing probable doubt. I don’t believe they were incarnations that Yeon failed to recognize.
Believe it or not, that is my short answer haha It’s ultimately only my own opinion, but hopefully, it was helpful.
Answered on tumblr here.