I have watched many K-dramas over the years ranging in fantasy, comedy, business, and many more genres. After watching so many K-dramas some famous tropes are so overused and I will be giving my opinion on these different tropes.
- The main lead gets hospitalized
Whether it is the female lead or the male lead, one of them gets hospitalized for various things based on the plot. Usually, this happens after you get the false sense of happiness when the couple is finally together and it seems like the writers want to throw in one more obstacle before giving all of us a happy ending. This trope makes me upset because it just feels like filler to make the typical sixteen-episode mark.
- Rich CEO and servant “You’re not my type”
This is the most common trope in K-drama because it is so easily used, just because they can make the CEO of any type of company like a hotel or electronics. The servant usually is a secretary or an assistant. Now because of the overuse of this trope, you might think that I hate this but this is my guilty pleasure of a trope! I mean who doesn’t want a CEO man to fall in love with you and almost risk their position in the company? What I do not like is when the CEO says the cheesy line “You’re not my type” at the beginning of the series.
- Rich lead’s parents to disapprove of the love interest
I HATE. WORST OF THE WORST. I want to say that this trope needs to die out because the newer generation does not care about titles/status and so it just makes me laugh or very angry if the parents are shown disapproving too many times especially when both main characters are adults and should be able to make their own decisions.
- “How pretty!”… “Yeah, very pretty.”
Now I have witnessed this exact moment in two dramas and heard that many other dramas have done this too. This is when the female lead looks at pretty lights and says“How pretty!” Then the male lead looks at the female lead and says “Yeah, very pretty” and this is when the male lead realizes how beautiful and in love he is. I love this because sometimes it is hard to show when the lead is falling in love without telling us directly.
- Previous love interest showing up again (Ex, arranged lover)
This is super simple. The ex-lover comes back and sabotages the new couple before, during, and after the two main leads like each other. Sometimes the motives for the ex aren’t even that good and it’s just more filler.
- Somehow met before when they were kids
Oh, we used to play on the same playground as kids, oh we met in a candy shop once when we were kids. That is literally what this trope does, just randomly adds a memory of the main characters somehow for some reason meeting when they were younger. I believe it is meant to show that the main characters are meant to be together and to solidify that idea in our heads. I do not like it because it is not necessary at times, if it does not make sense to the plot then why add it?