#I have yet to invest in any sort of shitty tablet so this is a bit stiffer than i would like but its fine!

[bottlemandx]

award for most neurotic 13 year old goes to...!!!!

(LOW-EFFORT FUNNIES UNDER CUT)

[overthinkingkdrama]

Jona's Top 5 Second Male Leads Who Deserved to End Up Alone

[Disclaimer: This list is intended for entertainment purposes. It includes spoilers for the tagged shows. This is just my personal opinion, so I apologize in advance if I’m bashing your fave. I just woke up this morning and thought, “You know, I haven’t pissed anyone off in a while.”]

In the Kdrama fandom much is made of SLS, or Second Lead Syndrome, that is the condition of sympathizing with the secondary character, usually male and usually the hypotenuse of a love triangle, over and above the actual hero and wishing he would get with the female lead instead. Most of the time because the hero is an asshole and the second lead treats her like a human being. There are occasionally examples of SLS regarding the second female characters, but it is far more common with male, because unfortunately second female leads have a tendency to be stock characters or finger-steepling jealousy monsters, instead of fully fleshed out people. God knows I’ve had my share of SLS in every flavor…

But this isn’t a list about SLS, but rather the opposite of that. This is about the second leads I had no patience for. The ones who are a waste of air and screen time. The ones who annoyed me with their shitty “nice guy” attitudes or frustrated me with their passivity. The ones I immediately wanted to punch in the face. In short, the second leads who deserved to end up alone.

5. Kang Shin Woo/ You’re Beautiful

I’ve gone off several times in the past on the infuriating species infesting dramaland I’ve termed the “passive pining second lead”. I really dislike this character type, it drives me up a tree. So you knew going in one of these boys was going to end up on this list.

It didn’t have to be Kang Shin Woo. It could easily have been Ji Hoo from BoF or Kang Woo from Master’s Sun. Or any number of other second leads who fit this archetype. But it had to be one of them.

I can’t really explain to you why Shin Woo earned my particular ire. Maybe it was just teeth-grinding frustration I felt with each successive, convoluted attempt to woo Mi Nyeo. Maybe it was the weirdness of that let-me-stalk-you-via-telephone-while-you-go-on-a-solo-date thing. Or that fact that the male lead was such an unmitigated moron.

Shin Woo managed to miss his window while Mi Nyeo was still crushing on him hard. He had countless opportunities to confess his feelings and just waited and waited until she was almost obliged to fall for Tae Kyung out of sheer impatience. This is the kind of character that makes me want to tear my hair and yell at the screen “USE YOUR FRICKEN WORDS!”

Luckily, there’s an appealing “third lead” in You're Beautiful who saves it from mediocrity, and the drama is otherwise such dopey, fluffy fun that you can’t help but be endeared. Jeremy saves this from being higher on the list.

4. Lee Ji Hoon/ The Best Hit

Talk about a character who has one of the worst cases of “Nice Guy” syndrome I’ve ever seen. Lee Ji Hoon was one of those characters I was initially rooting for, since Best Hit’s ambiguous love lines appear to leave things open ended as far as the end game couple was concerned. For the first half of the drama it seemed like things could go either way, and the friends-to-lovers dynamic between Ji Hoon and Woo Seung was endearing and heartfelt.

Also Kim Min Jae is pretty. So, so pretty…

For a while I was worried he was going to fall into the “passive pining” category, remaining silent, and losing his chance. But finally he made up his mind to confess and I was ecstatic. Yes! Go for it! And that was just about when it all went wrong.

The way a male character handles rejection and disappointment is make or break in my book. It takes them farther than charisma, looks and even moral fiber. (Give me a pirate or a conman over an��entitled asshole.) And for me Ji Hoon totally failed this very important test. After Woo Seung told him she didn’t return his feelings Ji Hoon continually badgered and attempted to win her over even when she asked him to stop, intentionally made her uncomfortable, and thrust a surprise kiss on her. My frustration with his character grew until the point were he told Woo Seung that he regretted meeting her first as his friend, after which point he was dead to me.

Despite the potential ickiness of timetravel paternity shenanigans, I was so relieved when Hyun Jae ended up being our male lead. The Best Hit remains one of my very favorite dramas of the year and I still highly recommend it. But if you want to come at me about SLS for poor, poor Ji Hoon, kindly get out of my house.

3. Han Tae Jin/ Another Oh Hae Young

Han Tae Jin had all the makings of a really interesting, sympathetic anti-hero. After all, he comes across like the obvious wronged party in this love triangle. Due to a case of mistaken identity, Tae Jin becomes the target of the jealous spite of our male lead, Park Do Kyung, ultimately causing the ruin of his business, the breaking of his engagement with the titular Hae Young, and getting him sent to prison! Ouch. That’s a lot of angst wrapped in an attractive Lee “Chiseled Jaw For Days” Jae Yoon.

And yet, instead of cutting a fetchingly tragic figure, Tae Jin turned out to be a vengeful, bitter, violent man incapable of letting go of a grudge even for the woman he supposedly loved. He was such an emotionally unstable, loose canon that I was frequently uncomfortable when he was onscreen. If I’m not very much mistaken he assaults Do Kyung not once, but several times, to such a degree that Hae Young ends meeting him to beg him not to hurt Do Kyung anymore. It struck me as incredibly messed up.

I really didn’t want Lee Jae Yoon on this list twice– I have nothing against the actor–which is the only reason his Cruel City character Detective Ji Hyung Min wasn’t on this list instead. I actually like Lee Jae Yoon! Just not the characters he tends to play…Luckily, Cruel City wasn’t extremely focused on the love triangle, it was focused on the pain. I chose his character in OHYA instead because, being a romance focused drama the way they handled the love polygon was more important to me. By the end of the drama they attempted to redeem him and it just didn’t work for me at all. Keep this dude the hell away from me.

2. Lee Joon Hee/ Falling for Innocence

There are a variety of strategies drama writers use to make us root for the jerk chaebol hero over and against the started-from-the-bottom second lead with treats the female lead with tenderness and respect. They give their heroes tragic backstories, slowly grow them into human beings, build UST, and give them melodramatic redemption arcs. The options are basically endless.

But why go through all of that when you can just make your second lead a secret scumbag murderer! There…all sorted.

This was honestly the most confounding bait and switch love line I’ve probably ever seen. When the reveal of who was ultimately responsible for the death of Sung Joon’s fiancé finally happened I very nearly threw my tablet across the room. They go to a lot of trouble to give Joon Hee a sympathetic long time unrequited love backstory as well as motivation for his sometimes morally dubious corporate ladder climbing. They also give him frequent shippy scenes with Sung Joon where he takes care of her and worries about her or vice versa. While in contrast Min Ho is absolutely horrible to her for a good portion of the show, the only thing that redeems him being a literal personality transplant.

They go out of their way to present this like it’s a legitimate love triangle, when given all of the facts it’s nothing of the kind. It makes me wonder why they even bothered trying to get me invested in the character since it turns out he’s actually evil.

Upon rewatch (started this one again rather recently) I had a lot more fun with this drama. Since I already knew what I was getting into I had the resounding pleasure of yelling at the screen every time Joon Hee and Sung Joon get a cutsy or romantic scene, which is very satisfying. The real reason to watch this show, Min Ho’s horrid behavior in the first episodes notwithstanding, is because Jung Kyung Ho is absolutely hysterical. For me it’s still kind of a garbage show with a garbage plot, but, hey, I love garbage.

1. Goo Jung Hee/ Ms. Perfect

There are very few characters in drama land that inspire in me the kind of hatred I felt for Jung Hee throughout this series. There are villians that don’t fill me with such seething rage. There’s a lot of adjectives I could use to describe Jung Hee. Loathsome comes to mind. An incomplete list of others would include: spineless, selfish, sniveling, and “the slimiest weakling ever to crawl the earth.”

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I hate this so called man. And yet, to my eternal confusion he is loved by and romantically involved with not one, not two, but three different women throughout the course of the show.

Actually, this entry poses a little bit of a problem regarding what we actually consider to be a “second male lead”. For the majority of the list so far I’ve been using the definition of the “second romantic lead” or, in brief, “the member of the obligatory love triangle who doesn’t get the girl” rather than “a male character with lesser narrative importance and/or subordinate billing to the male lead.”

In Kdrama the two things are usually one in the same. Usually, but not always. The reason is a) most dramas place a heavy emphasis on romance b) romantic fulfillment is usually the overt goal or the overt reward of the hero’s character arc and c) if a show ends without romantic closure (dating, marriage, babies ever after) it’s not generally seen as “satisfying”. But there are cases where the character with top billing or greater narrative importance is not meant to be our romantic lead, or even necessarily someone we root for. Jung Hee falls into this category, which made me wonder if I should even include him on this list.

Because Yoon Sang Hyun received top billing and was considered, by all reports, the lead in Ms. Perfect there was a great deal of disagreement and turbulence surrounding the intended endgame of the drama. Sung Joon’s Kang Bong Goo readily fits the mold of the romantic lead but his screen time is about half of Jung Hee’s, so I can readily understand where these concerns came from.

I’m happy to report that Jung Hee remained a subject of sometimes pity, but more often disgust, and the only thing that really disappointment me with his plot trajectory was that he didn’t end up dying in a fire at the end of the show. Missed opportunity IMO. While certainly a weird and flawed drama, Ms. Perfect remained entertaining throughout its run and I honestly would recommend it if for no other reason that Shim Jae Bok is a goodamn queen. There is the notable downside that this character has forever ruined Yoon Sang Hyun for me as an actor, as I can’t even see his face without feeling slightly ill.

I hope you enjoyed my top fave LEAST favorite male leads. This list was requested anonymously and I would be interested in producing other, similar lists in the future. If you have a subject you’d like me to cover please send me an ask or reply to this post and I’ll take it under consideration.

Jona

[dabbledrabbleprose]

Friday Game Night

Read on AO3. 

Inspired by this piece, or at least a panel of it, by HereAreCollembolas.

*****

“Oh, come on! How could he miss that? How could anyone miss a free throw? It’s literally called a free throw, that means it should be an easy free point! God, Warrens is the worst.”

“I’m gonna take this opportunity to remind you that you are not, nor have you ever, been a professional basketball player. You’d miss some free throws, too.”

It was their Friday night ritual. Jack would set up the TV with the most recent Lakers game and Gabe would bring whatever snacks and drinks they were in the mood for. Gabe would yell at the screen and Jack usually brought something else to work on, only half paying attention to the game, and being Strike Commander didn’t give him enough free time for even a few hours every Friday night.

“Nope. I’d make every one. I’d have the best goddamn free throw stats of all time.”

Jack didn’t look up from his tablet, sitting sideways on the couch, back against the armrest and feet resting in Gabe’s lap. “Again, I remind you that you do not play professional basketball.”

Gabe shot him a grin and grabbed the chip bowl, balancing it on Jack’s ankles. “Not yet. That’ll be my next job, after this whole ‘maintaining world peace’ thing blows over. Goddammit, and now we’ve lost the ball. I wasn’t watching, who fucked that up?”

“If I say Warrens, will you feel better?”

“Yes.”

“It was Warrens.”

“Fuck that guy.”

Jack kept his eyes on his tablet, but smiled. He loved game night. It had started back in their SEP days, when Gabe would try and watch games on his crappy old phone in the barracks. Gabe had been a dedicated LA Lakers fan ever since he was a kid, and a little thing like being pumped full of unknown drugs wasn’t going to stop him from following his team. It had been a godsend for Jack, truth be told. Some form of stability in that confusing and hectic part of their lives. One or both of them would be exhausted or sick or feel like they were dying, like this was finally the round of shots that would push their body too far, but without fail they’d both curl up on one of the cots, watching tiny yellow-clad figures dribble an even tinier ball around on Gabe’s shitty old phone.

They’d continued the habit into the Omnic Crisis, passing the time on a transport by watching a game or highlights on Gabe’s newly upgraded phone, spending time between missions in the common room and throwing on whatever game was available, Lakers or not. There had been more nights than Jack could count where they had ended up on a couch, injured and exhausted, and fell asleep together to the familiar sounds of basketball commentary. It had only been in the last few years that they’d both been so busy that the tradition had been in danger of disappearing. Jack’s promotion to Strike Commander left him with no free time whatsoever, and Gabe wasn’t fairing much better with Blackwatch sucking up all his time.

A whole season without watching a game had passed before Jack proposed the idea of a set time for a game night. A few hours, just the two of them, with the game, food, a few beers, and no discussing work. Gabe had jumped on the idea with an enthusiasm that Jack suspected was thinly veiled desperation and gratitude.

“Warrens is the worst thing to happen to this team,” Gabe snorted, reaching for his beer.

“You said that about Anderson.”

“That was before they recruited Warrens. Hey, hold still! You’re gonna spill my chips!”

“Just getting comfy,” Jack said, slouching further down into the couch, legs sprawling over Gabe’s lap.

“Yeah, well don’t get too comfortable. If we go into overtime I’m liable to dump these chips all over you,” Gabe grumbled.

“So long as it’s just the chips and not the salsa,” Jack reached for his own beer. Alcohol did wonders for sorting through UN reports.

If Jack was honest with himself he’d admit that he really didn’t even like basketball. He didn’t usually get invested in the games, though he was always sure to give Gabe some guff whenever the Lakers played the Indiana Pacers. It was Gabe’s company he was after. They were drifting apart, he could feel it, and game night was his last ditch effort to save this…whatever it was they had. Over the past few months, they’d both been busy enough that even their Friday nights hadn’t been safe, only managing one game night every few weeks. Last week Jack had a meeting with Director Petras that dragged on almost all night, and the week before Gabe left ten minutes into the game after an urgent message from McCree regarding a Blackwatch mission. Jack hadn’t even been aware there were any active Blackwatch missions.

Something was driving a wedge between them. They never talked anymore, and when they did, they were both frequently left angry and frustrated. They’d even devolved into actual fighting a few times. Not with fists, just words, but…Jack was worried that would come, too. Maybe he was just delaying the inevitable.

He sighed, rubbing at his eyes, and Gabe glanced over.

“…Hey, Jack. You’re supposed to be relaxing. Put the tablet up. Have a chip,” There was concern in Gabe’s dark eyes as he held out the chip bowl.

“Maybe you’re right,” Jack sighed again and turned the tablet off, setting it on the coffee table. He ignored the chip bowl, electing for another swig of beer instead.

“Of course I’m right. I’m always right.” Gabe turned back toward the screen, but Jack could see Gabe still watching him from the corner of his eye. “You work too hard, you know that?”

“I could say the same about you.” Jack replied. Damn, did he really look so strung out that Gabe was worrying about him?

“I work just the right amount, thank you. You’re the one who looks like he’s running on empty. You need a break. Take a week off. Get a massage.” To punctuate his words, Gabe began massaging one of Jack’s sock-clad feet.

“Hah. The week I take for vacation will be the week they try to push every agenda I’ve been fighting against. I can’t trust anyone else to cover for me.” He sighed, sinking further into the couch. Why’d he leave his socks on? This would be way better with his socks off. Jack tried to think of a way to get his socks off without being obvious.

“You’re doing it again,” Gabe said. “Thinking you have to save the world alone. You don’t have to be an army of one. You know that you’ve got a literal army of people ready to support you, right? You’re not that important that you can’t take a single personal day, you arrogant prick.”

Was that real bitterness in Gabe’s voice, or was it good natured teasing? Or was Jack just imagining it, seeing distrust and resentment that wasn’t there? Ana would know what to do. Ana would be able to handle the politicians better than he could, too. But Ana was gone, and everything was starting to fall apart without her.

“Hey,” Gabe said after a few minutes had passed in silence, apart from the game. “You still with me, Jackie?”

“Mm,” he said eloquently, shoving down the familiar ache of loss. “We’re breaking our rule.”

“Talking about work.”

“Talking about work,” Jack confirmed. They fell silent again for a while, watching the game while Gabe rubbed his feet. It should have been the other way around, Jack mused. Gabe was the one who was down on the ground, running missions in person with the rest of Blackwatch. Jack was stuck in a chair battling politicians with a pen and words. Sometimes he was cleaning up Gabe’s messes from said missions. It’d be easier to deal with his problems on the end of a gun. Things were simpler during the Crisis. Shoot the Omnics, stop the war, Gabe and Ana at his side. How did everything get so complicated? How did they get so complicated?

“Hey, looks like your man Warrens scored a three-pointer,” Jack said, trying to pull himself out of his melancholy thoughts.

“Goddammit. Lucky shot.”

The buzzer sounded, ending the fourth quarter.

“Lucky shot that won the game.”

“Lucky-ass son of a bitch.”

Jack laughed, but made no move to get up. “Playoffs are coming up. Season’s going to end soon. You know what that means.”

Gabe groaned and let go of Jack’s feet to put his face in his hands. “No. No, we need to find something else to watch in the off season. Anything else.”

Jack poked Gabe in the ribs with a foot. “NASCAR time!”

“I am not going to watch another summer of your dumbass left turn racing sport.”

“Yes, you are. And you like the crashes, don’t lie. Only place you can still see a good car crash. And actual tires on the actual ground. Real driving.”

“You sure like driving a lot for someone who gets driven everywhere. I could watch a ten minute video of a crash montage and be done for the year.” Gabe stood up, pushing Jack off him and started cleaning up as Jack laughed.

Jack got up to help him clean. “Maybe that’s why I like it. I’m getting out all my secret pent up driving desires by watching other people drive.”

“Jack, if that’s what you think real driving is like, then maybe we ought to be doing everything possible to keep you off the roads,” Gabe said. He followed it with a laugh, and the sound sent a thrill to Jack’s heart.

Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe they could still make this work. Once a week, or once a month, on a Friday night, maybe they could still save this thing between them.

Whatever it was.