My belated two cents on CTG, well, resident Newbie to be exact….Yoo Ryung was a controversial character because she was the personification of the dilemma, ‘does the end justify the means.’ I think she was more impulsive than reckless. It’s not that she didn’t realize what the consequences of her actions would be, it’s that she believed the end justified the means. She literally threw everyone and everything under the bus in order to help others, including herself. Was it the smartest course of action? Probably not and I sometimes wished she would be more levelheaded or trust more in others. Like Jiseok getting suspended hurt me. 😭 I cried with him. But then we wouldn’t have the character the writer envisioned. And at least the writer gave us reasons as to why she acted the way she did, be it through flashbacks or monologues. Some of us thought it still wasn’t justified, some of us did. Personally, that was one of the things that really got me with YR but I forgave her eventually. I was just irked with her briefly because JISEOK! *more tears*

She was flawed but she had her motives in the right place. She didn’t do it for recognition. She just wanted to help others. And at least from my standpoint I feel like the writer gave us clearance to either like Yoo Ryung or not. I for one liked her tremendously and I wouldn’t change her. Also, it seems like most of the plot holes just so happened to be either relegated or connected to her character, which I think made her stick out more as the character in the wrong. Oh and one last thing, our drama happened in the span of 3 months. Certainly not enough time for a 180 degree personality shift. Not that I forsee her morphing into Jiseok or Mari, nor would I want that. But maybe in the future CTG world she at least picked up a few more tips from Jiseok on how to act more wisely while keeping her strong sense of justice.

Maybe I have a high tolerance to characters like this lol. While watching CTG I couldn’t stop thinking about Jinsung from Beautiful Mind. I remember when the drama aired she got so much criticism that, unfortunately, some of the viewers frustration seemed to carry over to Park So Dam, the actress (honestly, I think she was scared away from kdramas because of BM 😅). But there I was. That loner in the crowd smiling at her like an idiot thinking, “that’s my girl.” Jinsung was actually quite reckless and she messed up big time. She jumped to conclusions way too fast and acted on that impulse without weighing the facts. But I forgave her too because she picked herself up, admitted she was wrong, and took her superiors’ advice/reprimands to heart.

At the end of the day, I seem to have a soft spot for these FL characters(thank you CTG for my second kdrama epiphany of the year). I like seeing them mess up and be..well human? Kdrama geniuses and prodigies don’t appeal to me as much. On rare occasions they do but flawed characters tug at my kdrama feels so much more. ❤

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    I am feeling two things right now. Optimistic, and emotional 😢. Thank you so much for this ❤️

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    I really loved the female lead in My Strange Hero for similar reasons even though the character is very different from Yoo-ryung (who I also love, and who I think was developed incredibly well and played spectacularly by Moon Geun-young). In MSH people were really mad at the female character for making a mistake that hurt the male lead from when they were seventeen and acted like because of her sin and her misunderstanding she was forever marked as a blight on the male lead. And the thing was, she was such a badass. She was a teacher who loved her job – but who also had integrity. She genuinely believed what she had seen all those years ago and it was only her integrity that caused her to report it. And it was that same integrity that caused her to learn of her mistakes and ask for forgiveness and to grow. Not many characters do that. Yoo-ryung was the same. She was reckless in her ideals, but she was never intentionally reckless nor was her intention ever to do anything other than help people.

    I think we’re so used to the idea of helping people being tied to good actions that we forget that misguided actions often come from the best of intentions. And after years of having female leads who work hard and are “good” we forget that female characters can be “good” when they make mistakes too. The best part of a good drama is seeing a character grow to keep that idealism but to learn how to wield it properly. Yoo-ryung was a great character to show that.

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      Interesting. I may need to watch that drama then. That sounds straight up my alley. And this…!

      “And after years of having female leads who work hard and are “good” we forget that female characters can be “good” when they make mistakes too.”

      I couldn’t have said it better!!

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        It was one of my personal favorite dramas of this year, definitely recommend. I think I did a write up on the female lead somewhere back on my wall while it was airing too. I just remember really liking her, because she was just so well developed and her story arc was great to watch.

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      Yes exactly, that’s exactly how I felt from the start. Exactly what I couldn’t put into words the way you did. That’s was straight to the point. Such characters are complex too. Thank you😊. I haven’t watched My strange hero, but now it’s in my list of dramas to check out.

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