Watch this drama if your ideal ML is arrogant, sadistic, obsessive, jealous, controlling, manipulative, threatening, and wildly inappropriate. Bonus: he sexually assaults the FL and attempts to rape her.
Let’s remember who he’s pursuing: a literal schoolgirl from a poor family, struggling to pay for her mother’s medication. She’s trying to survive; he’s exploiting his position to stalk, threaten, and sexually assault her. The power imbalance couldn’t be more glaring.
The show points to his strained relationship with his father as an explanation. It’s not an excuse. Being unloved by one parent doesn’t entitle you to abuse a woman, especially when you apparently have a loving mother and sisters who dote on you.
I came for the main actors who I heart, and dropped it the moment the ML crossed multiple red lines. Stalking, coercion, threats, and sexual assault are not romance. Being hot or occasionally showing a softer side (oh, look, he’s nice to children!) doesn’t erase how he treats the woman he supposedly loves.
This trope needs to die. Pursuit of Jade pulled a similar stunt with the grey-haired prince, and Early Spring serves up many of the same red flags. It’s 2026. Can we please have complex male leads whose flaws are actually addressed, rather than toxic behavior repackaged as passion?
I’m all for a strong, complicated ML with genuine flaws to overcome. But no character arc could convince me that the FL falling for the ML in Lament of Autumn makes sense. Nothing about his behavior toward her resembles love.
K-Drama 
Let’s remember who he’s pursuing: a literal schoolgirl from a poor family, struggling to pay for her mother’s medication. She’s trying to survive; he’s exploiting his position to stalk, threaten, and sexually assault her. The power imbalance couldn’t be more glaring.
The show points to his strained relationship with his father as an explanation. It’s not an excuse. Being unloved by one parent doesn’t entitle you to abuse a woman, especially when you apparently have a loving mother and sisters who dote on you.
I came for the main actors who I heart, and dropped it the moment the ML crossed multiple red lines. Stalking, coercion, threats, and sexual assault are not romance. Being hot or occasionally showing a softer side (oh, look, he’s nice to children!) doesn’t erase how he treats the woman he supposedly loves.
This trope needs to die. Pursuit of Jade pulled a similar stunt with the grey-haired prince, and Early Spring serves up many of the same red flags. It’s 2026. Can we please have complex male leads whose flaws are actually addressed, rather than toxic behavior repackaged as passion?
I’m all for a strong, complicated ML with genuine flaws to overcome. But no character arc could convince me that the FL falling for the ML in Lament of Autumn makes sense. Nothing about his behavior toward her resembles love.
Writers, do better.