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Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. I agree, I would like not only to get more diverse FLs but also MLs as well. I think we are getting somewhere, as some recent dramas have shown FLs who are unafraid of being ambitious and whose morality is a shade of grey that's tilted towards a black (Hyena, Extracurricular, Itaewon Class). Then we have some who show competence, skill and value communication, questioning even the ML if they are keeping secrets from them rather than blindly trusting them (Flower of Evil, Into the Ring).

Hopefully, writers and producers will start to take more risks in deviating from tropes, formulas and cliches.

As to the tags, I agree a way to combine redundant tags would be awesome. It may be worth for the website's programmer to incorporate a "synonym" type of dictionary. So if you were to type say "Innocent Female Lead" it would ask you "did you mean "Naive Female Lead"?. Or even better, if it simply merged both tags automatically regardless of which you chose. That would definitely help with the current clutter.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! Indeed, tags are very subjective. I believe the reason why I find the FL in TKEM average rather than strong (keep in mind, I don't find her weak) is because I'm applying "Strong Female Lead" as in "Strongly-written" rather than "A character who has more strengths than flaws". In that respect, the FL loses all relevance to the main plot and becomes simply a romantic interest to the ML.

My disappointment was further fueled by the writers deciding to give us a "plot-twist" (if you can even call it that) of the ML being the one to save his younger self and, thereby, taking at least that moment of agency away from the FL. It's her lack of agency in the story that makes her forgettable to me, especially when I compared her to other better-written FLs.

Although, full disclosure, I'm not a fan of TKEM and found the story all over the place.

I agree. I hadn't thought of the edit "credits" until this morning and you've just confirmed that it very well may be an underlying issue. At the very least, it would explain the sudden increase of tags and tagging in general!

Thank you, and indeed that's why i added a sort of disclaimer with the introduction specifying to take everything with a grain of salt, as it's all subjective.

And hopefully people will start questioning whether the tag they are applying is even valuable or not! I really would appreciate less "tag-clutter".

Thank you very much, I'm happy you enjoyed them! <3

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed them! Let me know what you think once you've read it :)!

Aww, thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed my articles! I'm halfway done with the next one, so hopefully there will be less waiting time this time around!

Thank you for the support, Penel, glad you enjoyed this article as well! Indeed, since I had to re-do the numbers to continue this series, I was surprised when I found so many NEW tags which were really redundant!

Back when Lua and I started this series, I remember I tried to clean up some redundant tags. I had to cross-reference for example, "Cheerful Female Lead" vs "Cheerful Girl". Since the latter had more use, I tagged dramas that only had the "Cheerful FL" tag with "Cheerful Girl". Then I changed the definition of "Cheerful Female Lead" to something like, "Don't use this, use "Cheerful Girl" instead. That was incredibly time consuming... and now I find the issue all over again. But this time I just give up, lol.

Thank you for reading and commenting, glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you for reading and you make a good point.

Since this was an overwhelming amount of work, I was forced to simplify things at the cost of further categorization. So think of "negative" and "positive" as more related to plot than character. Meaning, how do writers treat Poor and Orphan FLs (mostly as victims) vs how they treat a Rich FL (more positively).

The problem especially with a Poor FL, for example, is that it becomes a go-to for writers so they can give us a "Cinderella" type-of-story. If you take the "poor" out of the FLs in many dramas, the story changes completely. Just as if you take the "rich" out of the MLs in many dramas, the story also changes. However, if one has to compare who has more power between a Rich vs a Poor Lead, the former would be the one with the advantage.

Thank you for joining the conversation! Indeed, precisely because the comment sections can sometimes be so unforgiving towards our Female Leads, I actually expected the number of negative tags to be higher than there were. So I was pleasantly surprised when that wasn't the case!

And yes, the problem with user tags is that it depends on each person and their interpretation of what each concept means. Some tags aren't even defined, so those may have a bigger margin of error. Others are defined, but not in a measurable way.

For example, it's not the same to say:
A Strong Female Lead is a "A well-written female character at the forefront of a TV show or movie." This, although true, leaves a ton to personal interpretation.

Now compare to something mesurable like:
A Strong Female Lead is "Someone who is actively engaged and important to the plot and who solves problems consistently by relying on her strenghts, for at least more than 75% of the drama."

Now we have something to measure by. The problem I see with this tag, is that generally writers introduce the FL with a "bang," either by hitting someone, showing attitude or being smart. However, as the drama unfolds, the FL weakens and sometimes even becomes a mere damsel in distress (*Looking at you, "Alice"). Therefore, if one tags the FL based on the first 1-4 episodes, the tag may be put in question towards the last 4 or so episodes.

As to the "Cold Female Lead," I'm with you in that one. While Cold is considered a flaw because they are usually emotionally withdrawn (which isn't healthy), because a Cold FL is rare, it usually gives us an interesting take on a female character. That said, while a Cold FL is unusual, a Cold Secondary Female is more often than not portrayed as an antagonist, lol.

Thank you for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Indeed, I've poured quite a lot of time into this. And while it certainly may be tiring, it's also rewarding and interesting.

As to why did I associated Orphan Female Lead as negative, it's simply because it is more often than not used as a flaw. Meaning, the orphan lead is showcased as having a hard not having parents to support them not only financially, but mostly emotionally.

Keep in mind, that this is true in real life. Not saying being an Orphan makes you a bad person. But rather, being an Orphan puts you in a disadvantage. In South Korea, that's even worst, as they value bloodlines above everything. But coming back to dramas, I have yet to see one drama wherein a male or female orphan protagonist (excluding those adopted) doesn't yearn for a family. That is why I've opted to categorized it as negative.

I hope that answers the question :).

PS: BTW, if you haven't, I highly recommend checking out about "The Dropbox" which shows some of the issues with child abandonment in SK. There are a few videos on it on youtube and there's also an hour long documentary.

Thank you so much for sharing that! Indeed, I'm of the same nature! I love analyzing data and then finding visually appealing ways of showcasing the findings. If I could get my hands on the actual database, I would be able to pick up more correlations. As it stands, I have to wonder if there were more widely used tags I missed relate to our Female Leads I missed!

I think this one is the best so far!

Both issues are really disappointing. The romantic-vibes are already super creepy. Even worst, they seem to be hinting at a love triangle between the FL (ML's alternate ver of his mom), the ML and his dad.

Then the reporter is just there to show Jelousy over the ML. She hasn't done anything interesting and therefore lacks purpose. It's clear she's just there to create another love triangle.

But on top of that, the writes have turned the FL into a damsel in distress. Just last episode she needed saving at least 3x... and now in episode 7 she was saved twice...

This is one of those few but memorable dramas where no episode was dragged or wasted. It has a great pacing throughout, an interesting story, strong characters and amazing performances by our leads!

And let's add to the list that she's consistent, patient, logical, humble and protective of those she holds dear! Love her character!

This one is the weakest for me so far.

Yes, in fact, there's an animated movie called "Flashpoint" which showcases the theory of the parallel universe. In that one, when Flash goes back in time and changes something, the future he returns to is not the same as his. Instead, he ends up in a feature where Bruce Wane died and his parents survive. So his father became a very "gritty and depressed Batman" to combat his wife, who became crazy at the death of her son, and thus... she became the joker.

I think, if they wanted to keep this series a bit dark, they might make it so that Jin Gyum loses someone else every time he tries to save his mother. Similar to how Stain's Gate (visual novel and anime) did it. That way they'll be able to lenghten the show if needed be.

Oh! Now I know which one you are talking about! Dont know why my mind didn't make the connection. Yes, it is like that. :)