Worst couples in dramas I've watched

The best and worst couples were supposed to be the same post since I wanted to balance the negative by the positive but thinking about what I wanted to write, I realised that they would be two very different posts.

This post will actually be me ranting to the world (or more correctly, to the few people who wandered here... hi few people !) about two dramas in particular.

This is because there are some couples I didn't buy (Kil Da Ran & Kang Kyun Joon from Big, Iwase Ken & Yoshida Rei from Proposal Daisakusen...), but they're not in the same league as the very worst which are the ones I want to highlight here: Lee Young Jae & Han Ji Eun from 2004 Korean drama Full House and Chen Xin Yi & Ji Cun Xi from 2008 Taiwanese drama Fated to love you.

These two dramas have been crazy popular. Full House starred Rain, one of the biggest idols ever and Fated to love you was remade in 2014 by MBC under the same title. [I just learnt that there is also a 2020 Japanese remake... What !! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!... I wished I had never known that. 😩] I haven't watched the Korean remake. I don't think I have it in me to check if it breaks me as much as its predecessor .

This is why I actively dislike those two dramas, and it all comes from how much I disliked the main couples. There are three elements, that taken separately, would not be as awful, but in conjunction? Oh boy.

1- An Arrogant jerk taken too far or better said, an abusive bully

I actually like the Arrogant jerk trope in romance (Braime, Zutara maybe?) but you have to dose it well, add some wittiness, redeeming qualities and you know, not just relentlessly have him treat his romantic prospect as dirt. There is a reason why in most dramas, this kind of character is quickly toned down.

2- A meek woman who's in love with him even though he treats her horribly

Again, it's okay for someone to be meek, but paired with someone who takes advantage of it, it's a catastrophe. The Arrogant jerk works in romance when their love interest challenges them. If they are just a doormat, it's not interesting, it's painful.

To be fair to Fated to love you, the fact that Chen Xin Yi is someone who never stands for herself is acknowledged and is the basis for her character development, from "Sticky Note Girl" to a confident woman. But, if I remember well, that whole character development happens offscreen. Oops.

I also thought about other male characters who treats their love interest terribly in dramas but which I don't hate. The closest example I could remember was from Hana Yori Dango/Boys over flowers. Tsukasa/Joon Pyo is a bully to Makino/Jan Di, he treats her horribly. But, at that time, she despises him. She only falls in love with him after he starts treating her well and stops bullying others. Imagine if Makino/Jan Di was in love with Tsukasa/Joon Pyo while he was insulting and tormenting her. Yeah... that was my experience watching Full House and Fated to love you.

3- Who are trapped with each other.

So you have these two characters who have no business being together, and what do you do? Well, you make it so they (and especially both women Han Ji Eun and Chen Xin Yi) can't leave the "relationship". Why, do you ask if you haven't seen these two dramas ? Because they have been forced to marry and are now forced to live and stay together. I actually forgot that they also had to get married in Full House, I only remembered that they had to live in the same house for some reason.

Again, I actually like the "arranged marriage" trope, done well. And this was not done well.

So now, if you still don't believe me that these two couples are the worst, let's read the synopsis for Fated to love you (and it's for real the premise of the drama) with some of my interjections since I can't hold them :

A really unfashionable working class girl Chen Xin Yi has the desire to tie down her handsome boyfriend to be with her [just ugh! No, no, no. I know it happens in real life, but she is our main character, not the villain]. Due to certain reasons, her boyfriend gets her to go on a love cruise and she started to ponder on how to lose her virginity and tie down her boyfriend. Xin Yi ended up taking cold medicine which made her drowsy and went into Ji Cun Xi's room. Cun Xi is the sole male heir to his family's company and has been in love with his girlfriend, Anna, for a long time. He planned to propose to Anna on the boat but she didn't turn up on the cruise. An island owner added drugs into Cun Xi's drink and Cun Xi became disorientated and returned to his own room. Xin Yi and Cun Xi end up having a one night stand. [So, the first time they have sex, they are both intoxicated and both in a relationship with someone else, and she thought he was her boyfriend. Mmm okay.] So, Xin Yi later finds out that she's pregnant and Cun Xi's grandmother forces them to get married. Will a couple forced to marry for the sake of their unborn child find love with each other? [Spoiler : they will at the end, but for a long time, Cun Xi actually resents her and as previously said, treats her horribly.]

The synopsis for Full House is slightly less terrifying but still you have the premise of Young Jae exploiting the situation of Ji Eun, and again, to get to the happy end, you have to endure Ji Eun being mistreated.

Han Ji Eun is an innocent woman who gets swindled by her best friends in need of money. After a few unfortunate encounters with top actor Lee Young Jae, Ji Eun finds out that her house was bought by said actor. Young Jae has been in love with his best friend, Kang Hye Won for more than a decade but she has her eyes on Yoo Min Hyuk, their senior. After growing tired of waiting for her to come around, Young Jae proposes a contract marriage to Ji Eun in order to spark some jealousy and get the media off his back. In an attempt to earn back her house, Ji Eun agrees to be his wife for a year. But as they live together, they start to learn what it means to live a married life, genuinely care for one another and have each other's back when they're up against the world.

So, this is why these two are the worst couples I've ever seen and also why I really really don't like these two dramas.

And why I don't understand how they could be so popular (or at least, they were at that time) so this is me taking this off my chest. I don't really feel better. Actually I feel worse, after being reminded that they got married in Full House and finding out about the Japanese remake *facepalm*).

Bye, few readers! I'm going back to the "Best couples" post.