The new Netflix K-drama “Genie Make a Wish“ tells a love story that spans a thousand years, centered on a genie named Iblis and a woman named Ki Ka-young. While the present-day plot is a fantasy rom-com, the story’s foundation is a tragic past where Iblis, played by Kim Woo-bin, received a severe divine punishment for his arrogance and defiance. His real punishment was not simply being trapped in a lamp, but a far more cruel fate designed to break his spirit through love and loss.
The Original Deal With God
Long before the main story begins, Iblis was a powerful being who refused to bow to humanity. He believed all humans were inherently selfish and corrupt. This led him to make a deal with God. Iblis would be turned into a genie and grant three wishes to countless people. His goal was to prove that every single human would eventually make a selfish wish.
God agreed to the challenge but set one crucial condition. If Iblis ever found one truly selfless human, he would face a punishment worse than hell itself: he would vanish forever. For centuries, Iblis believed he was right, as person after person used their wishes for greed and power.
The Selfless Girl Who Changed Everything
Iblis’s theory was shattered when he met an enslaved girl from the Goryeo dynasty. This girl, who is the past-life incarnation of the present-day Ka-young (Bae Suzy), was given three wishes. Unlike everyone before her, she did not use a single wish for herself. She used her first wish to save her friend, and her second to help other suffering children.
Her final act was a plea for shared suffering, wishing that she and the genie would bear each other’s pain. This selfless act broke Iblis’s deal with God. As a direct result, he was locked inside his magical lamp for 983 years. However, this imprisonment was only the beginning of his true punishment.
A Love Story and a Cruel Twist
The story reveals that the Goryeo girl did not die as a child. She survived, and years later, Iblis met her again in a different city. With his memory partially erased, he didn’t recognize her at first, but he slowly fell in love with her. Their happiness was short-lived.
A greedy man named Muttalib, who had become Iblis’s new master, made a final wish. He desired the woman who had rejected him, who was none other than the grown Goryeo girl. Iblis, not knowing he was granting a wish against the woman he loved, was forced to fulfill it. This led to a sequence of events where the girl was killed, and Iblis was forced to watch, powerless to save her.
The true cruelty of his punishment was revealed. The girl’s childhood wish for shared suffering was granted by God in the most painful way possible. Iblis’s punishment was not just imprisonment; it was the agony of falling in love and then being forced to witness the death of his beloved, an event that cemented his belief in human heartlessness.
The Aftermath of Loss
The scene of her death is a pivotal moment. Iblis cried tears of blood over her body. His grief and rage were so powerful that they triggered a supernatural storm, causing gold to rain from the sky. The people around them, instead of mourning, scrambled to gather the treasure, celebrating their newfound wealth while the woman Iblis loved lay dead and forgotten. This confirmed his darkest beliefs about human greed.
In his despair, Iblis begged God for one more chance to see her again. This wish was also granted, but with another tormenting twist. His memories of their love were erased, and his fate became bound to her future reincarnation. He was condemned to wander through time, granting wishes to prove human corruption, all while unknowingly searching for the soul he had already lost and loved.
This cycle was further complicated by the jealousy of his brother, the angel Ejllael, who secretly worked to ensure Iblis remained trapped in his suffering. The punishment was therefore multi-layered: eternal service, the pain of a love he could not remember, and the manipulation of a family rival.
Why the Past Punishment Defines the Present
This ancient backstory is the key to understanding the Iblis that Ka-young meets in the present day. He is not just a cynical genie; he is a being profoundly broken by a love that was used as a weapon against him. His bitterness and his constant testing of human nature are direct results of a divine punishment that used his own heart to torture him.
When Ka-young challenges him to prove that humans are good, she is directly confronting a worldview forged by this specific, tragic history. Their modern relationship is a chance to break the cycle of a curse that began with a selfless wish and a love story that ended in gold and blood.
Bae Suzy, who plays Ka-young, explained the depth of the story, hoping viewers would “appreciate the warmth and story of the series” beyond its fantastical surface.
The drama shows that Iblis’s real punishment was never a simple physical confinement. It was a complex fate designed to make love itself the source of his eternal suffering, a punishment that was personal, cruel, and deeply tied to the moment he lost faith in everything.
Also Read: Did You Spot The Goblin Easter Egg In Genie Make A Wish?
