You know when the Korean entertainment industry releases a historical drama that your favorite characters are likely to die at some point. Whether it’s the main character or just an old king who has to be replaced, it’s not historically accurate if there’s no death, right? I mean, people die. But jokes aside, we’re all slightly traumatized by some historical K-drama or the other because it killed off our precious favorites or simply annihilated the entire cast (you know which one I’m talking about). Dear Hongrang is entirely fictional, and because it’s all dropped at once, there’s a chance that you might not feel as connected to the characters as if you had watched it weekly, because the wait makes the heart yearn, but there’s still a chance you want good stuff to happen to them. Specifically, the main lead, i.e., imposter Hongrang. The show begins 12 years after the disappearance of a young boy; a now 20-year-old Hongrang returns to his family. Twisted lies, complicated family trees, and a psychopathic prince are added to the mix to give us a great show, but one that has tremendously high stakes. So, here I am listing down everyone who died on the show.
Spoiler Alert
Snow Man
The first important character to die on the show is the Snow Man, or the supernatural character we’ve all thought was the big villain of the show. But by the end of the series, it becomes apparent that the Snow Man is just a human being who has some sort of skin allergy and is kind of blind? Anyway, his death comes much quicker than we’d imagine, and though he puts up a decent fight with imposter Hongrang, the latter kills him rather easily by slitting his throat with his sword. The Snow Man doesn’t come back to life, nor does he magically fly into the air and regain his power. He simply falls to his death, proving that he’s a mere mortal, but also that Hongrang is not afraid anymore.
Sim Yeol-Guk
Sim Yeol-Guk’s death is a little bit of a surprise because it almost feels like he’s going to escape his fate scot-free, but it’s his ex-lover who decides to avenge the death of their child. Yeol-Guk is a bad person through association. He didn’t kill anybody himself, but he sent a lot of kids to their deaths by aiding the prince. Mu-Jin also says that he was the one who gave the prince the toxic materials that led to the tattooed kids’ deaths anyway, even if they escaped the prince. I say Kkot-Nim wants to avenge their kid because Yeol-Guk chose the path of power over choosing her, which led to her losing their child. She shoots him in the head, looking straight into his eyes as he tells her that she was the only woman he loved…sigh.
Du-Ryeong
The show tries to confuse us with another artist named Du-Ryeong, making him seem like the “painter” that Hongrang has been looking for all this time. But Du-Ryeong is just a rd herring who is here to distract us from the real problem, the prince. Du-Ryeong seems to have been killed by In-Hoe, but Hongrang tells him that he’s not the painter. Still, the man liked to paint with corpses, so I guess this kind of death was coming for him, eh?
In-Hoe
In-Hoe’s death is the end of a beautiful bromance. The boy is unable to escape the prince’s torture and ends up dying just before Hongrang can come save him. In-Hoe and Hongrang’s friendship is especially meaningful because they met thanks to the terrifying nature of their perpetrator. The one good thing the prince did was bring them together. Kkot-Nim adopted both boys together and gave them life. In-Hoe may have been mute, but he gave Hongrang strength.
Mu-Jin
Mu-Jin’s death comes soon after In-Hoe’s. He is trying to protect Jae-Yi, whom he’s supposed to kill as ordered by the prince. Jae-Yi is Mu-Jin’s “one true love,” and she’s the reason he’s still kicking about. Mu-Jin doesn’t die while fighting the prince’s men, but he does end up fatally injured. He escapes into the forest so Jae-Yi doesn’t have to see him die and leaves his bodyguard, i.e., his right-hand man, behind to keep her safe.
The Prince
The prince’s death is the one that feels the most satisfying on the show. While it might seem like it came too fast and the prince doesn’t really do anything to defend himself, we must remember that he thinks of himself as an artist, so really he doesn’t have the skill to defend himself. The pen is not mightier than the sword in this particular instance. Hongrang makes sure the prince suffers by cutting off his hands first. This is his real death, and even if his life had been spared, he’d have been dead on the inside. But Hongrang lets him go by ultimately killing him. It’s quite artistic the way he kills him with a slit in his face.
Real Hongrang
It is revealed in Dear Hongrang episode 10 that the real Hongrang died the night everybody thought he disappeared. Jae-Yi’s maid found the boy after he had tried to remove a black magic talisman Gwigokja had placed on Jae-Yi’s door. This talisman was meant to kill the girl, as ordered by Hongrang’s mother, making her the real reason Hongrang ended up hitting his head on a rock. Gwigokja was the one who got rid of the body, never revealing to anyone that he was gone forever.
Imposter Hongrang
In the final scenes of Dear Hongrang, imposter Hongrang, i.e., Jae-Yi’s lover, is already dying because of the toxic nature of the “paint” that the prince used on his back. He probably managed to stay alive a bit longer only to protect Jae-Yi and end the prince for good. After his mission is complete, he is free to rest for good, and he does, in Jae-Yi’s lap, before the darkness clouds his mind forever. A shame, really, but we can’t imagine he could’ve survived the poison in his body, so I guess it’s fair enough.
