The Devil is in the details: What was Iblis’s real punishment in the past in Genie, Make a Wish?

Genie, Make a Wish begins with a mysterious genie who seems bitter, wounded and impossibly old. His cynicism toward humans shapes every wish he grants. Yet the series slowly reveals that this darkness is not random. It's the weight of a punishment that started centuries ago when Iblis loved a mortal woman and lost her in a way that shattered his faith in people forever.

The Goryeo girl who changed everything

Long before the modern plot of Genie, Make a Wish begins, Iblis was not yet the cold, wish-granting immortal we meet in Ka-young’s world. He was a wandering supernatural being who fell in love with a young woman during the Goryeo dynasty. She was not selfish or power hungry. She used her wishes to protect and help others, a rare human who seemed to prove that goodness could exist.

This love was not a brief distraction. Genie, Make a Wish paints it as a deep, almost cosmic connection. For Iblis, who had seen countless greedy humans, she was proof that compassion might be real.

A wish that turned to ruin

That fragile hope collapsed. Another man, hungry for gain, made his own wishes through Iblis. In a cruel twist, Iblis was forced to watch as those selfish choices cost the woman her life. She did not simply die by chance. She was lost because of a chain of desires he himself had granted, tying his power directly to her tragedy.

He stood powerless as she faced danger alone. Nobody stepped in to help. The scene scarred him, leaving the belief that humans are heartless and will always choose self-interest over love.

Blood tears and the golden storm

In one of Genie, Make a Wish’s most haunting images, Iblis cries blood over her body. His grief boils into rage so intense it reshapes the sky. Gold begins to rain down, a supernatural storm of shimmering wealth. The townspeople, instead of mourning the dead woman, scramble and cheer, delirious over the falling treasure. While they celebrate, she lies lifeless and forgotten.

That moment locks in his despair. If even a selfless girl dies alone while others rejoice over riches, humanity must be hopeless. His power, meant to grant wishes, becomes a weapon against his own heart.

The plea that rewrote his fate

Grief pushes him toward a desperate plea. Iblis turns to a higher power and asks to be reunited with the woman he lost. The wish is granted, but with a cruel twist: his memories of their love are stripped away, and his fate becomes bound to her future self. He will cross her path again, yet he will not recognize the bond until destiny forces the truth back into his heart.

This so-called mercy twists into punishment. Iblis is condemned to wander, granting wishes to prove the corruption of humankind while unknowingly searching for the soul he lost.

The loss is not a single event. It becomes his entire existence. He is bound to a cycle of granting wishes while waiting for one truly selfless heart to break the curse. Each failure strengthens his belief that people are greedy. Each century alone deepens the wound.

His powers no longer feel like gifts. They are chains. Every wish reminds him that humanity failed him once and will fail again.

Ejllael’s envy and secret sabotage

Genie, Make a Wish adds another layer of cruelty through Ejllael, Iblis’s celestial brother. Ejllael carries deep jealousy, watching the bond Iblis formed with the mortal woman and the unusual favor he once held. Instead of helping, he quietly works against him. His interference feeds the punishment, ensuring Iblis remains trapped, bitter and far from redemption.

This envy is not random sibling rivalry. It adds a knife twist to the narrative of Genie, Make a Wish. Iblis’s suffering is not only the result of divine judgment. It's also the product of someone close exploiting his pain. The betrayal personalizes his punishment, turning cosmic justice into family treachery.

How the past shapes the present

By the time Ka-young frees Iblis, he's centuries deep in disillusionment. The man she meets is not simply old. He's broken by love lost, memory stolen and betrayal at the hands of his own brother. Every wish he grants is colored by the moment he stood helpless while the woman he loved died and strangers danced under a golden storm.

This backstory makes the present-day romance far more intense. It turns every choice Ka-young makes into a chance to heal or repeat an ancient wound. It explains why Iblis mistrusts humans and why his search for a selfless heart feels almost impossible. His love is built on centuries of ashes and betrayal. Every glance carries the weight of lives lost and memories stolen. When he reaches for hope, it feels like defying the curse itself.

Why this punishment matters in the context of Genie, Make a Wish

Many fantasy stories give their immortal leads a tragic past, but Genie, Make a Wish leans fully into pain as narrative engine. The punishment explains Iblis’s bitterness more than any abstract curse could. It shapes his rules about wishes and his guarded heart when Ka-young appears. It turns what could have been a simple love story into something heavier, where every small act of kindness feels earned against centuries of betrayal and loss.

The choice to tie the curse to memory loss also gives the romance tension. Watching him move toward someone he has already lost once creates both dread and hope. It turns every glance into a fragile step toward recognition that could shatter or heal him.

Each moment he spends beside her feels like walking blindfolded through his own forgotten heartbreak. Every touch risks awakening a love powerful enough to save him or destroy him all over again.

Closing reflections

The past of Iblis in Genie, Make a Wish is not a throwaway prologue. It's the spine of the story. A love destroyed by selfish desire, a storm of gold that exposed human greed, a desperate plea that erased memory and chained him to endless wishing, and an envious brother making sure his suffering never ends. Together they build a myth that is dark, aching and unforgettable.

This history turns the present-day romance into something raw and high stakes. It gives Ka-young’s every decision power to heal or reopen a wound centuries deep. It explains why Iblis’s hope feels fragile and why every small kindness matters.

Fantasy is at its strongest when the magic carries history. Here, the history is heartbreak sharp enough to last lifetimes and betrayal close enough to feel personal. It's a punishment built to break him, yet it's also the path that might let love remake him if he dares to believe again.