I have finally rested from complaining about or praising K-drama cliches, and I have a new topic to pick up. You already know what it is, things we need to normalize in K-dramas!

Of course, I am definitely keeping to my promise that this is not about the regular tropes, genres, or themes but about the normalized story progression or twists we are used to.

I am going to get right into it, but the main purpose of the rant write-up is that K-dramas need to start doing these things.

What are they? Come with me.

The Second lead getting the love interest in a love triangle

Love triangles are something we are used to in dramas. In fact, they have a way of retaining our attention, right? What K-dramas need to stop is the first lead getting the love interest almost all the time. I mean, there are instances where we even prefer the second lead over the first, and we wouldn’t mind if the first lead is left heartbroken, too. At least let the second leads breathe. They deserve to love and have their love reciprocated, not that they will be left alone or have to accept their heartbreak all the time.

Show us the post "Happily Ever After"

Can we drop Cinderella's inspiration already? I mean, we know they lived happily ever after the whole scenario, but if you could take the pain of showing us the pre-happily ever after, then why are you denying us the event that happened after? If it’s just one episode, dedicate it to feeding our curiosity. We sat through sixteen, twelve, and sometimes twenty episodes of a series, so we are not asking for too much with this request.

Villains without tragic backstories

Please, can we just hate these villains who are making life miserable for our favorites and stop giving them tragic backstories that will have us hating them in one episode and pitying them in another? Like, let these people just be bad people who decide to be one out of nowhere, making their hate easy and their punishment easier. Also, stop using the very handsome and beautiful people as villains. You can’t be playing with our fragile hearts like that!

Give us realistic workplace romances

I know you will probably come for me since I said I won’t be rooting for workplace romance in real life. However, one of the reasons I maintain that stance is because K-dramas also portray it unrealistically. I mean, except on very rare occasions, how do you expect someone who works at maybe the smallest unit of the company and the highest member (CEO, director, Chairman) to meet and fall in love? It’s more realistic if it’s people from the same department who go on field trips together. Before you tell me CEOs go on field trips in drama too, let me ask, how many times has your boss at work gone on one with you? (LOL. Come for me at your own risk.)

Characters communicating in clear words

The world (especially we the Gen Zs) has become bolder for drama characters to be having misunderstandings over no communication or miscommunications. How many misunderstandings could be avoided if characters just said what they meant instead of staring dramatically into the distance? Just tell me because I am more than confused and stupefied

I promise, that normalizing these fresh, relatable changes can make our favorite dramas even more exciting, hilarious, and heartwarming.

Shall we play a game? If you agree with me, give me one or two dramas that fall into each category in the comments.