Can't believe someone actually wrote a defense of Truck of Doom! I thought you guys were just joking in that thread!

Great defense though @cloggie! :)

omg, I knew someone would do it!

I know I'll love this just by the title but after I read it, I really love it xD
Didn't think it'll talk about how to make a believable death for a character not suited (age wise) for the role xD
Reminded me of King od Dramas. Oh the PPL, we must make this person do this and that! we must make it somehow believable as well! xD
good piece @cloggie 😊

This was awesome and makes so much sense 😄

This was SO fun to read! 😂 Great post!

I saw the title and the picture—great pick by the way—pop up on my Twitter feed and I actually laughed out loud. I applaud you. 👏👏👏

hahahaha....this one is funny and unique LOL.

What a fun write up! I just resort to getting a good laugh or rolling my eyes at the TOD lol. Although most of the recent TOD scenes I've seen lately are just close calls...the ones where the guy swoops in at the last moment to save the girl! 😂 But sidewalks do make me nervous, especially when otp crosses them to meet up. Those get me all nervous thinking "it's coming!! TOD!!"

Funny sidenote: JBL viewers recently coined the Truck of Doom's Redemption in the show. Re: how it made it's cameo without the intention to write off a character!

This was a very well written defense, and I enjoyed reading it! I have always had a soft spot for Truck of Doom as a well-worn element to be added to any drama. It was almost like the common thread through all genres, and that made me appreciate it more. But others rarely understand that argument, so I suspect I may borrow the logic of the poor writers who cannot justify death at a young age.

Wow, this is great and the type over thinking I can get behind.

padam padam's truck of doom was horrible and gave me many a nightmare.

I was laughing until I got to the screenshot of Byung-hee. I'M STILL NOT OVER IT, OKAY.

Haha, this started as a joke but it is actually good! Congrats @cloggie Lots of people do die in traffic accidents, which is nothing to laugh about. But it had never occurred to me that dramas usually make young healthy characters exit the stage that way because it is efficient and, compared to other options, 'clean'.

However, there is one Truck of Doom I will never forgive and that is in Shut Up Flower Boy Band *sob* SPOILER ALERT: Or perhaps, to be the devil's advocate, it was actually done right because we didn't see ToD coming either (it was not a case of that slo-mo of impending doom). Nevertheless, in my personal heart of hearts any way of killing off my favourite character was unforgivable. 💔

Great defense! If I were the judge I'd probably say 'Not guilty' BUT SUFBB's ToD is something I cannot forget. Byung-Heeeee T_T

A fun read ! I can accept your argument. :D

Great defence @cloggie. From one ajumma to another, let's just say I first watched the Truck of Doom when it starred alongside Song Seung-heon and Song Hye Kyo (ooh and Won Bin). Emotional and psychological scarring, never could bring myself to watch those scenes again. Still get freaked out when some truck or bus screeches to a halt at the traffic junction.

But I think it's been so overused that I'm starting to blank out those Truck of Doom scenes -- did that for Romantic Doctor Teacher Kim (hi-five ajumma style) and Neighborhood Lawyer Jo Deul-ho. Until Eun Tak's death scene in Goblin, that just brought back all the eww..

Still, I believe your defence will help my psyche heal. Thanks!

Oh I was waiting for this one! But did you really have to remind me of SUFBB's Truck of Doom? Not Okay.

Truck of doom thanks you for appreciating his efforts in ensuring plot movement.

You just made my day @cloggie. This is such a fun read and the kind of reasoning I can get behind. Maybe we really should just enjoy ToD and be grateful the writers didn't make it even more outlandish than it is.

I almost spewed my tea on the computer screen when I read the title of this post, so knew I had to read it.

I didn't really realize the TOD was used so much until Dramabeans did the trope post series. After that, I started to get nervous whenever there was a pedestrian scene in anticipation of a TOD incident. After the first TOD in Black, I decided to read the recaps first. That show seemed to have a running tally going.

Good post! Thank you for sharing @cloggie.

actually sudden cardiac arrest and stroke cases are increasing. Because people just don´t sleep. average sleep hours in my region are around 5 and a half. they start their own company and work nonstop. it is more dangerous than it seems, because it causes iron deficiency and low oxygen levels in the brain. the body cannot renew the blood cells if you dont sleep especially with young people, high metabolism, 3 sleepless nights in row while working can be lethal. I bet it is similar for SK. but not exactly heart attack, more like shock /arrest. but also, of course, low oxygen levels, fatigue from anemia can cause carelessness, low concentration and unclear vision, so truck of doom is possible, too. Rather, a bus of doom though, because on normal city streets there are no trucks, they have spearate roads around the city.
if only characters (and people!) slept more, we could avoid so many accidents. (why are they even outside at night? go to bed!) not to mention driving accidents with sleepy drivers (it has raised to 20% of accidents for us! crazy! Like, what the hell are you doing, Truck Driver? You can kill a person if you´re up and working 24/7!!!!

*spoilers for SUFFBB ahead*
To be honest, this is why I have no problem with Byung Hee dying in Shut Up: Flower Boy Band.
First of all, he was a cameo. So he has to get out somehow.
And what better way to do that, when he's a eccentric bad boy rocker, than to have him die and use his death as a catalyst for the rest of the drama? Usually I would get annoyed at a death for plot driving purposes and no other reason, but when you're a cameo, you don't really have much other choice. Also I felt like the death catalyst was handle very well and realistically considering the story and the characters involved.
Of course, I knew Min Ki was a cameo and that he died before finished episode 2, so I did have a heads up which certainly helped said Obligatory Truck of Doom, and my subsequent flinch.

Apparently, I am the odd one out when it comes to the SUFBB TOD...
Well then...

I did a double take at the title before I clicked on the post. Thanks for the fun read!

Was laughing so much, oh the poor, poor writer... Thanks for a great read!

I woke up this morning to Red Notification Bell showing ridicilously high numbers and... my ToD defense up here! Thanks so much Dramabeans for posting it. That's made my day. What am I saying? It's made my month.

awesome @cloggie, what an interesting way to look at our favorite way to get rid of someone in KDramas and how we take it as normal already.

It is so engrained in me that I will not step into the road when I see a white truck approaching whenever I visit Korea. :)

Thanks for the post @cloggie but the TOD is getting sort of should I say mordenized, e.g in my golden life, the TOD was the key factor in changing Do kyung's life hence moving the plot forward.....

Thanks for your impassioned defense of Truck of Doom, @cloggie!

As someone who viewed only sageuks at the start of her Kdrama-watching career, I was mystified by references to TOD. Like PPL, it is a character without a role in the hack-and-slash sagas I love to watch. But we do occasionally see TOD's real-life antecedent. In MOON LOVERS, Prince So aboard his Horse of Doom nearly ran down Hae-su in the street. When I recently watched DAMO, a little kid nearly got run down by a Horse of Doom. Did a little kid actually get run down in SIX FLYING DRAGONS? Those are the only instances that come to mind.

Forget about Oxcart of Doom. It moves too slowly to kill anyone. Its main function seems to be transporting criminals to the execution ground. Ox of Doom has also been the favored purveyor of death by dismemberment, although I once saw a couple of horses in that role (in PORTRAIT OF A BEAUTY, I think).

Because Beanies still bring up Beans Of Wisdom, here's a blast from the past. Scroll down to the comment by nchoe on REBEL: THIEF WHO STOLE THE PEOPLE, episode 6:

http://www.dramabeans.com/2017/02/beans-of-wisdom-from-the-future/

As for automotive mayhem, Cloggie's analysis is right on the money. What better way to ensure that a cameo stays a cameo? When the real-life mortality and morbidity statistics for young, healthy males involve unseemly causes such as drug overdoses and violent crime that no idol would want to be associated with, death by motor vehicle mishap is much more appetizing, and also has that nice aroma of random-yet-fated destiny. Staggering around drunk is a good way to get yourself killed, it's just a matter of when and where -- and who the poor sucker behind the wheel is. Toss in a birth secret, and you get a long-lost relative sending the deceased to the Happy Hunting Ground.

But even then, as MAN TO MAN taught us, getting hit by a TOD is not a sure-fire way to terminate a character.

You know, it just hit me that there may be a class of surreptitious PPL that I'd never considered before. I've recently seen so many funerals and visits to ashes that I can't help but wonder if some of the scenes at crematoria, cemeteries, and columbaria might not be very low-key spots for said institutions. Yikes. The mind boggles.

This is great!! @cloggie
I especially like your reasoning and use of statistics for the demographic of 18-40 year olds. It is true, having someone suddenly have a fatal illness is much less likely than a traffic accident, and if most of your characters are idols you have both their company’s image and the realm of possibility to maintain as a writer.

Lol this is genius!
Now I’m waiting for someone to defend the Subway PPL. You know maybe without it, the sword on the Goblin’s chest would have looked less flashy.

Thank you @cloggie for defending my name. I don’t’ frequent this site because most times it is heartbreaking to see that I am possibly the most hated if not most ridiculed plot device in Dramaland. The reactions of my appearance is usually met by grief as exhibited by @Lollypip over Byung-hee’s death or uncontrollable physical reaction as described by @liquidsoap. It is evident that I would never become any Beanie’s catnip. However recently I became hopeful that perhaps I would be a little less misunderstood when I came across the discussion about me between you, @WishfulToki, @greenfield, @redfox, and @kimbapnoona and other Beanies.

Early on in my career I knew that I had to reconcile with the fact that most likely I would be typecasted for the rest of my career. Mainly due to writers’ laziness and reasons as you have rightfully pointed out, I have had steady employment and the resulting continual stream enables me to move from a weather-exposed parking lot to a garage with an elevator with a panoramic view of the Han River. However my aging body is increasing feeling the wear and tear from this physically demanding work and I have never been completely comfortable with the continual forced skinship, I have been trying different roles like my recent appearance in Just Between Lovers delivered some cute interactions between the leads when Moon-soo helmed the wheel like a boss.

Cloggie, thank you once again for making me a little less misunderstood. You have allowed me, for a little while at least, the “Truck of Feeling Hopeful” for the future to come.

That, @cloggie, was BRILLIANTwriting !!!
All hail the Truck'o'Doom !

but seriously, though, I had never actually thought of why it would make "sense" to have a truck kill a character. I mean, you can see that truck from a MILE away! and the whole time, you wonder: "WHY ISN'T ANYONE ELSE SEEING IT?!?!"

another vehicle or trope that has me rolling my eyes:
delivery bikes almost hitting our main girl E V E R Y T I M E !
*deep seated irritation*

Let's call it The Bike of Terror

Do Kdrama women NOT know how to cross the road? Do they have zero awareness of other people/vehicles while walking on sidewalks? Was there a different learning process when their parents raised them??? GOSH, it KILLS me!

Then there's always this outlandish twirling dance that our main Guy does to get her to safety from the very-noisy-delivery-biker-that-every-other-pedestrian-saw-from-a-mile-away ...

I hate it.
in every drama.
there has been no exception to my irritation for this specific trope. however, dear @cloggie, with the way you defended the Truck of Doom, I just might give the Bike of Terror a pass after all !!

thanks for this awesome contribution !

LOL... 😂. I never thought of defending the truck, but hey! You did it soooooooo well!!!!
And yes, I go with it all the time, seeing these young people portraying a character too young for doing these jobs.
Someone now please raise up a defense for the "cult of youth" in korean mainstream television.

Philosophical "thought experiments" for the win! Who would have known that it could be used to defend a plot device? What a write up! Welcome to the ranks of DB-published authors, @cloggie!

I’d defend the truck of doom... if it hit Tilda by “accident”

Truck of Doom speaking through Peridot's account:

Thank you so much @cloggie for your eloquent and beautifully though-out defense on my behalf. What with Cliff of Doom and other convenient agents of death or injury blaming me for taking all the available work away from them, and viewers blaming me for my unsubtle performances, it's hard not to let myself become overcome by a cloud of despair and self-blame.

I know that my presence is not always needed and that it would be better for dramas to have more organic, narrative flows. But what can I do when creativity and artistic license are stifled by the Big Ups?
I know that I am their fall guy, but I am also a reliable plot device. What can I do? I got little trucklings (of Doom in the making) to feed.

this is gold! i love your thought pattern and i think you should start writing if you haven't already! scrips,books,screen plays etc.

@cloggie "It made me wonder what it was about K-dramas that made the Truck of Doom so ubiquitous, to the point where I now shout, “Truck-o’-doom!”" My sister and I have done the same :)

And I guess sometimes it happens in real life? This is so sad, but oh the irony of a drama pd going out via a taxi of doom. https://www.soompi.com/2018/01/12/boys-flowers-pd-passes-away-tragic-accident/

Wow @cloggie you did it!

ToD needs this for its image development package. I bet ToD's agency would now package this write up with some scenes from JBL,when Moon Soo (Won Jin-ah) drives a truck and makes us and Gang Doo (Lee JunHo) swoon.

so JBL don't use the truck for doom for the last 4 episodes,okay?

I wonder if anyone submitted a defense for Time Skip?

Great main image for this post! It really looks like Yook Sung-jae is delivering the defense for the Truck of Doom. Cloggie, you've made a convincing defense. There really isn't a good alternative to the Truck of Doom. It's here and ubiquitous because it works. I do wish that people would attempt to arrest these drivers who are truck-of-dooming people and then running off to goodness-knows-where. There are CCTVs and dashcams all over the place, but never in the spot where the ToD strikes...