Wynwyn555

They are going overboard with the female fantasy of "a guy who only ever has eyes for you". There used to be "realistic" potrayals of such stories, now there are none.
And realistically, male are absolutely more afraid of remaining single, from any point of view, men desire a partner way more than women do.

Let me also add that I personally am a sucker for "problematic" female leads (Yo JI Seon from Itaewon Class, "My Dearest" FL, Scarlett Ohara from Gone with the Wind to name a few) and romances with such characters are so fun IF the male lead isn't a pushover and confronts them and the story treats them both as adults but kdramas rarely ever dare to do this cause for some reason the FL has to remain so perfect and lovable by the ML who will always love and forgive her no matter what without ever holding her accountable or confronting her.

I don't know if it's a difference in age that makes me so disconnected to these POV's but have you ever met anyone in your life who was stuck on some old love or some high school events? I have and they are pathetic people who haven't advanced in any way in their life. So yes even if it's "realistic" that people stay stuck on old things, it's not an admirable, romantic thing. And the example you gave literally proved that, because who wants to see girls going for bad guys again and again? Literally no one. And you can get closure by yourself, by moving on with your life, not waiting for a resolution with someone else. This is the type of reasoning girls give when they want to justify writing essay long paragraphs to some guy who abandoned them, "cause they need closure." when the abandoment is all the closure you need. See I can tell from so many comments here how tolerable you all are to such plots because it seems you find them normal in real life when they're not, or don't know how to handle such situations.
But kdramas go an extra mile longer and add such unrealistic male leads who are so attractive and could have anyone but for some reason remain stuck talking about their first girl crush (who seems to be the only girl in the world) to their work colleagues. That is absolutely unrealistic. 99% of men, especially attractive men, will move on with their life. As normal adults should! They will not be remaining celibate in the hope some girl might return to them. THAT never ever happens. So while I understand male leads aren't 100% realistic and they have some element of female fantasy to them in fiction (I am a girl and I do love romance), it has become so ridiculous at this point that the male leads do not act like normal people, or men, at all! And again, I wanna reiterate: there is rarely ever such profound, deeply touching, emotional background story as to why they are stuck on this girl. They do not know how to portray or write relationships where characters actually meet eachother on some unique, emotional front and have connections.

I find it completely uninteresting if the characters are stuck on whatifs, what is interesting about that? If you were to exchange the genders, I'm sure you could tell it's pathetic behaviour to be a grown adult and be still stuck in such things. And the thing is that such stories never resort to the characters having ambitions and overcoming some emotional obstacles, these stories want to sell the idea of all of it being romantic and it will be "resolved" by the "power of love" or some nonsense. See, they never actually handle such things seriously. Even if, there is rarely ever any rational, deeply profound or emotionally impactful background story to why the guy is stuck on some old love. And I did dislike stories like Playful Kiss as well, so I have no exception on this.
If you say "Owning your vulnerability can be very attractive" I want to say, is there anything else the male lead is gonna do other than that? No. It becomes their entire identity, arc. And yes it's only attractive if it is done in proportion, coming out in crucial moments, not when it's an hours long theme. Is anyone truly wondering how his character is gonna play out? Is there any nuance or mystery to it or have we seen it already 100 x before.

The last time I can remember characters being real was One Spring Night or The Interest of Love (as much as a mess it was, I loved the messy characters, they felt real!)

I know when consuming fiction/entertainment you are supposed to suspend disbelief to some portion but OMG I can't sit through kdramas these days: why are the characters, especially male ones, so unbearably unrealistic from a human point of view? Why is every male lead stuck on some "true love" for over decade, like plssss male leads used to have some sort of realism about them, who roots for characters like that? Do other women really watch and think "yes omg I too want a guy be stuck on me for a decade plus, true love!"? How does a character like that not scream "LOSER!"?? And you'll find grown adults in their 20s, 30s in serious sittings talking about "first loves" with work colleagues or sth like PLS BE FOR REAL it's so embarassing. None of the characters ever try to be real serious people.

PS: save me comments of the nature of "If you don't like it, don't watch it!" I don't, but I can only know I don't like it once I watched it. And whether I watch all 16h of sth or not I still have a right to yap about whatever I want and I will.

I get you, kdramas tend to introduce interesting ideas and then treat 90% of the dramas as the same cliche comic relief kid show, it infuriates me. It’s like a person who can never be serious and always resorts to antics.

Correct. They’re probably gonna do some comedic relief scene and brush off the cliffhanger. But at this point I doubt they will handle the reveal in a mature way. I‘d want the ML to be rightfully mad at her since he went into self loathing, seeing his dad in himself and all the internal conflicts he went through but I‘m sure they’re gonna brush it off or be childish about the resolution as they usually do. Kdramas are good at creating ideas and conflicts but then resolve them like cartoons for kids, I hate it. I wish there were more serious dramas out there with romantic tones and characters with troubling stories.

yes it comes from consuming so much content that you need more and bigger fixes to feel sth, which is an insane and unhealthy level to reach. there is no way a sane person watching this did not feel her pain and misery, the show did a great job at conveying it through the impact it has. also I tried dear x and thought it was a snooze fest, it casually shows gruesome acts and the characters are barely affected and the perpretrators are ever smug about it, there is no way you can claim that show potrayed heavy themes better. it's just a show with characters doing heavy things. you can tell how people who rely on such visuals do not have the capacity to comprehend the subtle or not so subtle real life impacts of such acts if they're not constantly shoved in their faces but even then they lack the nuance to be affected by it as they should.

If you want explicit violence then watch explicit violence, this show didn't promise you explicit violence and it doesn't need to do so to please you either. It worked for whom it was intended. It delivered in showing the impact the DV had.
"How am I supposed to feel her terror if the show won't even let me see what she's going through?" You sound deranged. Thinking it over, I think you should actually take a break from watching violence.

agree

he's more like a plot device

this can't be answered without mild spoiler so you ok with that?

yes initially I really thought he approached her with specific intent like he wanted her to k1ll the husband lol

yes the beating scenes were so intense with so much detail; how she repeatedly stood up knowing that this was their procedure and him giving her the flowers and her playing a long, this was psychological torture on top as well

can you recommend me other kdramas that have similar characters like him? I actually loved him and am starved for such characters

Taking notes

yes between SML and FML: there aren't any intimate scenes, no k1issing or hugging but everything else he does for her is pure romance

all I want to know from those that watched it is: how did
Hong Su Zu do lol

I also personally find the second half of the show more boring than the first; after showing how the system failed victims of DV, there was nothing impressive about the system being able to prosecute the girls; but again, there was some justice in that the other villains faced consequences too. I just found the idea of them fighting for so long to get away with it only for them to just confess in the end kinda a tiring journey for nothing. The SML lead letting both FL's go confess also felt like a plot device, it just needed to happen but him letting it happen didn't feel like it went through a proper process