When K-Drama protagonists are worse than villains

As a Korean learner, you can bet I'm into K-dramas! I first watched Dream High in 2014, but I only became a frequent watcher in 2024, after I discovered Marry My Husband.

After some years where I was progressively losing interest in learning Korean, K-dramas managed to reignite my motivation, so I could not be more grateful to them.

At that time, it was only a few weeks before graduating from my Master's, so they also provided the right amount of comfort in that trying time.

However, during my journey, I've also stumbled across some K-dramas that I could not bring myself to finish, because they were just too annoying.

Among these, the most noteworthy ones are Fashion King and Dream High 2, both for the same reason: their protagonists.

Shin Hae-Sung (Dream High 2) and Lee Ga-Young (Fashion King) share some differences from each other, but they have a unique common trait that makes them so annoying: they insist that they are the "good guys", but their actions are often as harmful as their antagonists, but they get away with it... by crying a lot.

Let's see more in-depth what I'm talking about.

Shin Hae-Sung (Dream High 2)

One of the worst protagonists I've ever seen in a TV series ever, not just in a K-drama. Shin Hae-Sung, portrayed by Kang So-ra, dreams of being an idol, but she is way too nervous to have a chance. Anytime she gets to sing in front of an audience, she just freezes.

Instead of accepting her defeats and work on herself, she gets oh-so-sensitive, but instead of gaining sympathy, she ends up being a complete bitch, even more than the main villain Rian.

When Hae-Sung and Rian have to sing a duet that will determine who will go into class A and who into class B, Hae-Sung's microphone has a malfunction. Although Rian performs perfectly, she also gets put into class B and accused of sabotaging Hae-Sung's microphone.

Eventually, it turns out that Hae-Sung had actually sabotaged her own microphone because she was too nervous about performing in front of everyone. She's such a good character that her own nervousness causes her course mate to get a negative evaluation and be hated by the whole class! Such an angel!

Later on in the series, class B forms a band, and initially Hae-Sung gets to be the lead vocalist. However, during their first street performance, guess what happens to her? She freezes and runs away, exactly. Luckily, Rian was in the crowd and replaced her for the performance.

Our heroine flees to her school and starts playing the piano and singing by herself, attracting the attention of her crush, the idol JB, who compliments her. Her bandmates get to see the scene and are understandably pissed off, assuming that she's doing so because she's jealous of Rian and wants to fish for compliments.

I honestly got the same impression, it felt like she was somewhat wronged by her bandmates accepting Rian's intervention, when in reality she was the one who failed them.

To add more to her good personality, she is also a huge pick-me. As I mentioned earlier, she has a crush on the idol JB, to the point that she tries to sneak into the backstage of his concerts - creepy!

JB is Rian's ex boyfriend and she is still suffering from the break-up. When she is assigned the same dorm as Hae-Sung, she gets to live her worst nightmare. I mean, would you like to sleep in a room full of posters of your ex?

When she mentions how weird it is, she is the mean girl. Meanwhile, our angel Hae-Sung goes as far as almost setting the dorm on fire to perform a love ritual. What a good person indeed.

In short, Hae-Sung is a coward who ends up harming everyone around her in fear of being perceived, as well as a huge pick-me. No matter how hard the screenwriters try to make her an innocent character, it is clear that she is not, and she does not seem to improve throughout the series, which makes her even a worse person than Go Hye-mi, the mean-girl-turned-good protagonist of the first season of Dream High.

On to the next dumb protagonist.

Lee Ga-young (Fashion King)

I started watching Fashion King because it starred Yuri from Girls'Generation, just like many other fans. Unfortunately, it was not enough for me to keep watching.

One of the reasons was the protagonist Lee Ga-young, portrayed by Shin Se-kyung. Similarly to Hae-sung from Dream High 2, Lee Ga-young also does more harm than good while posing as a good person.

Unlike Hae-sung, her main issue is that she does absolutely nothing and allows everyone to manipulate and guilt-trip her, which affects her relationship with the main leads.

She claims to be in love with Kang Young-gul, with whom she launches the brand Young Young Apparel, but every time his rival Jae-hyuk tries to bring the two apart, Ga-young gives in so easily because she puts in no resistance at all, effectively turning her into a two-faced bitch.

The funniest thing how she is described on the Wikipedia page of the drama.

Lee Ga-young (Shin Se-kyung), who lost both her parents in an accident at a young age, and grew up to be a smart, determined young woman with a natural talent for designing

Have we watched the same drama??? Being swayed between one man and another is a smart move now???

Now, characters are meant to grow and develop, so it would have been understandable if it had happened once or twice, but in Fashion King it happens way too often, it seems like it is the only strategy that the screenwriters know in order to make the plot move forward.

Even so, it would have made more sense for her to realize how messy both characters are, distance from them and start her own gig, but obviously she was such a poor victim of the events, how could she ever start thinking for herself?

When "good" equals "coward", all you get is misery

There is reason why these characters irritate me so much, which goes beyond simply being badly conceived.

They claim to have specific dreams, yet they constantly fail to understand what they have to improve, or they get so caught up in chasing their crushes (or being manipulated by them) that even us viewers forget what their goals were.

They are so afraid of being perceived that not only they end up settling for a disappointing life - dating a guy is only fulfilling to an extent - but they also make things worse for the people around them. So, instead of only being disliked by 1-2 people at most, they end up being disliked by everyone, viewers included.

Although they are annoying, there is a silver lining to stumbling across this type of character every once in a while. They remind us that trying is hard and scary, but hiding in fear and trying to please everyone over ourselves carries a much higher price.

I mean, would you like to be remembered as the coward, two-faced protagonist of your own life? I don't think so.

Now I would like to know your opinion: have you watched any of these K-dramas? Did you like the protagonists? Tell me in the comments below and feel free to subscribe to stay updated on the next posts!