Funny how it's only a problem with female characters... lol
I get what you mean about how villain or grey FLs get judged more harshly. That bias definitely exists in the fandom. But I think this case isn’t really about gender, it’s about how the characters are written. Like see Vincenzo wasn’t written as a “pure villain.” You would know that the show goes out of its way to show his loyalty, his limits, and his protectiveness toward his people. He does horrible things, but only to specific enemies. That’s what makes him an anti-hero instead of a straight villain. While comparing it to Dear X, Ahjin isn’t shown to have any moral code at all. She doesn’t just attack people who hurt her. She uses and destroys people who are literally helping her. There’s no line she won’t cross, no loyalty, no rules. That’s villain behavior, not morally grey. Our reactions usually follow how the story frames a character. If a drama writes a villain as sympathetic, we sympathize. If it writes them as ruthless and selfish with zero limits, we don’t. That’s not automatically about gender; it’s about how the character is presented. So yeah, I agree female characters might get judged unfairly sometimes, but in this specific case, the reactions from us aren’t because Ahjin is a woman. They’re because the writing wants us to see her as a full-blown villain, not a grey anti-hero like Vincenzo so when at the end she gets her downfall we feel pretty satisfied about it. Also I haven't watched all those dramas that you commented other than Vincenzo so that's why I comment on how they showed their characters( whether a villain or not). I only replied because you mentioned Vincenzo being a grey but still being celebrated for it comparing it to Ahjin because I feel they are completely different genres and characters.
Funny how it's only a problem with female characters... lol
You can't compare Vincenzo to this one tbh. Vincenzo was at most an anti hero rather than a out and out bad/evil character while here Ahjin is pure evil. She doesn't differentiate between friends and foes and just uses them & later destroys them despite them not doing anything bad to her. They even help her but still she destroys them in a second while Vincenzo at least helped his friends which made us sympathise a bit with him.
I just need one thing properly from this drama. Ji Hyeok should be angry with Darim for at least 1 ep whenever he gets to know the truth about her fake marriage. I need Da Rim to know that her lie had consequences and she should make proper apologies like most MLs in other dramas do. The MLs have to constantly beg and suffer for their lies so much that I need the same from Da Rim too.
Even Lin Sa and Shen Wu are turning out to be pretty toxic tbh. They know that the painter is trying to harass Xiaoman but instead of doing about him, they are trying to force Yu Yu to accept the job. Lin Sa as a woman at least should know how traumatic a harassment can be but she is is too money minded to ignore a big client I guess. Hope the same happens to her later on or at least she gets her karma
Any one else felt that You Yu's sister was slightly toxic towards her husband? Like I get that you want to save money but that doesn't mean that she has to strictly give pocket allowance to her husband like he is some kid with bad money management. He is an adult and there shouldn't be this strictness about money when in sense he is the one who is earning it. If the genders were swapped then people might have found more issue with it.
Underweight is not her individual problem it is what the industry forces on the actors.
Yeah but compared to before, she looks way unhealthy. Before like in HL or LLTG, she used to look so so good but now you can visibly see that something is wrong with her health. I have only seen this with two actresses Park Min Young and Zhao Lusi so I hope she takes some time to become healthy whether it's 1-2 years and then make a comeback
She doesn’t just attack people who hurt her. She uses and destroys people who are literally helping her. There’s no line she won’t cross, no loyalty, no rules. That’s villain behavior, not morally grey. Our reactions usually follow how the story frames a character. If a drama writes a villain as sympathetic, we sympathize. If it writes them as ruthless and selfish with zero limits, we don’t. That’s not automatically about gender; it’s about how the character is presented.
So yeah, I agree female characters might get judged unfairly sometimes, but in this specific case, the reactions from us aren’t because Ahjin is a woman. They’re because the writing wants us to see her as a full-blown villain, not a grey anti-hero like Vincenzo so when at the end she gets her downfall we feel pretty satisfied about it. Also I haven't watched all those dramas that you commented other than Vincenzo so that's why I comment on how they showed their characters( whether a villain or not). I only replied because you mentioned Vincenzo being a grey but still being celebrated for it comparing it to Ahjin because I feel they are completely different genres and characters.