The Bride of the Water God (Habaek)

At first I couldn’t get what’s the fuss’ all about. The Bride of the Water God is famous for its beautiful art, bishounens and most of all, it’s beautiful art. The storyline isn’t interesting, or so I thought; that’s probably why it took me a while before I gave it a go.

Everytime there’s a draught, a girl from the village is to be send off or “sacrificed” to the Water God (Habaek) as a bride and this time around, the girl’s Soah. She was dressed to the nines and then she’s off.

All the while I was thinking, man, the Water God has got to be an old looking guy but lo and behold, he’s a little boy! Then again, things aren’t always what they seem. You see, during the day the almighty Water God is a boy and by nightfall, he turns into this handsome man (bishounen alert!!). Soah has seen both forms but she has no idea that these two are the same and one and only Habaek. And it seems to me that she’s in love with the older version of Habaek…

Habeak’s not the only suitor for Soah. It is clear that one of Habeak’s people, Commander Hoo-Ye too is interested in her. Whenever she’s down, he’s there to comfort her but in the end, she turned him down as she’s in love with Habaek.

At one point, I thought that those two might have just overcome the hurdles and that Soah and her Habaek are gonna live happily every after but than like most shoujo manhwas out there, the road to happiness isn’t gonna come easily.

A storm comes in the form of Nakbin who is supposedly dead. Nakbin was Habaek’s bride before Soah came. I’m not quite sure how she died but the point is, she’s dead and the question would be, who is that Nakbin-look-a-like? Is she the real Nakbin or just some imposter? One thing certain is that she’s definitely up to no good. To think that she would go as far as giving Habaek some sort of potion that will make him fall madly in love with the first person he sees when he wakes up just irks me.

So here’s what I think. I think that The Bride of the Water God is overrated for its beautiful art but the story isn’t half bad either. But if this manhwa’s plot is capable of making me feel for the characters then perhaps, this manhwa’s a gem after all. Anyhow, I’m still gonna continue reading this regardless of my hatred for Nakbin’s imposter (probably).