I think this is my call to rewatch JBL with a new eye. Beautiful writing @dramaddictally, as always.

A few days ago I wrote in a comment that Jealousy Incarnate is one of my most favorite shows despite disliking so many things about it. I love it nearly only for the ml's journey. I didn't know the term back them. Now thanks to this post, I know that Lee Hwashin is a comfort character for me.

I absolutely love this topic as I have never thought of a comfort character just how a drama in itself has left me feeling. I will need to think long and hard but in the meantime I look forward to reading the beanies choices.

Wonderful wonderful topic!! 🥰 👏
Thank you so much for such an awesome prompt.
It is undoubtedly Lee Gang-doo for me.

The girls of Belle Epoque in "AGE OF YOUTH." Everyone has something that I relate to except maybe Ji-won. I enjoyed her character the most because of her unique personality.

I haven't thought about this before. Mainly, I have comfort dramas but as for the characters, this needs some deep contemplation to figure it out.

From your lips. Universe, please bring back Junho in more Gangdoo-esque roles rather than in the shiny pretty boy nonsensical ones. Curly/wavy hair do and all.

Despite the fact that Song Hye Kyo is not my favorite actress, her character Cha Soo Hyun in Encounter is definitely my comfort character. I loved her journey to independence and finding her voice. She goes from feeling trapped by the expectations and responsibilities of her family and position to fighting in her own way for a life of her own choices.

Definitely and forever Park Dong hoon of My Mister

I never thought of her as my comfort character, but if I have to say the character who is more "me", that would be Dok-mi (Park Shin Hye) from Flower Boy Next Door.
I'm not as extremely thrifty as her, but we have many things in common: introverted, huge inner world, dreamy, observant, few friends, homebody, I also worked as copy writer sometimes... I'm more easygoing, but I think we have several things in common.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why this show is a comfort drama to me, because I can relate so much to the FL.

Kim Baek Du (Like Flowers In Sand)

So the first character I actually thought of wasn't a kdrama character actually- it was Sam Vimes in the Terry Pratchett night watch novels. I can't say I relate to him personally particularly well, but I love all his stories.

As a deeply empathetic person I experience this quite often - there are a lot of things I can relate to thus many characters hit the mark, even if not always super intensely. Problem is that I tend to gravitate towards characters and stories that don't provide much comfort objectively, yet often give me an abundance of trauma instead lol. I'll deny it furiously if you call me a tragedy fan, but when I'm REALLY into someone fictional, you can bet that: a) they're a huge mess; b) they're largely doomed; c) often both. It's just the way it is - I know perfectly well that I am a huge mess myself, so I guess liking such characters makes me feel a little less lonely in my struggles. And crying over something that's not real is much easier and quite therapeutic...

Given my last year's mad obsession with TTEOTM's ML you can make your guesses about just how badly effed up my state of mind must be if I found literal xianxia Satan THAT comforting and relatable)))

After binging Like Flowers in Sand, I couldn't choose what to watch Next. Just Between Lovers it is. Thanks.

My comfort character, hmmmm.

Male: I always like to hear the "I will protect you" line. Therefore, Captain Ri from "Crash Landing On You' is a comfort character because as long as he can see his love, her will protect her.

Female: Jang-Guem in "A Jewel in the Palace" calmly tackled all that life put her though.

Jung Ki Ho (Castaway Diva)

I have mostly thought of comfort dramas that I like watching on repeat. Now this post got me thinking if there is any fictional character that I relate to the most. It got me thinking of Yeon Soo in Our Beloved Summer. She has been unsatisfied with her life thinking that it is not the life she wanted. Only to find out in the end that she is successful in her own right. It is the life that she worked hard for and the one she actually wanted when she was younger. I had gone through something similar and I just needed to change my mindset. Be grateful for the little things and celebrate the achievements along the way.

Hwang Yong-sik of When the Camellia Blooms. A true friend. He'll have anyone's back. A hero on how he protects Dong-baek and Pil-gu, no matter the societal expectations.

Hwang Si-mok of Forest of Secrets. Lack of emotion -- impregnable calm. It's somehow reassuring in contrast to the contrived emotion that goes on in so much of K-drama.

Hmmm... first one that comes to mind is EUN-SEOB from WHEN THE WEATHER IS FINE. His calm and level-headed disposition is so comforting, it would be so nice to just hang out and read at his bookshop.

Everybody in 30 BUT 17. If I could choose a found family to be adopted by, it would be them. JENNIFER the awesome ajumma, especially.

I never thought of how I'd relate to characters if I met them in real life. I love how fresh this topic is to me, and I'll probably be looking through this lens moving forward.

The introverts club in Liberation Notes

I've never really thought about having a comfort character but I sure do have a lot of comfort dramas. Going down memory lane, it is kinda hard to recall a character who fits the adjectives alluded to comfort characters despite having met many of them.

I decided to use the drama that has suffered from rewatchs to narrow down my comfort character: Ju Young-do. As an individual, I most times view things via an introspective lens. I'm always in search of subtleties, looking for the unsaid in the spoken, actions and body languages that say the exact opposite of spoken words. Sometimes it gets too overwhelming (the latest culprit causing this being Tell Me That You Loved Me) but it doesn't stop me from ruminating.
Such was the journey I had with Young-do. So many decisions Young-do made(save for the noble idiocy break-up) that I found myself noting I've made and/or would make something similar was a way of saying my thought process wasn't off.

Watching You Are My Spring was one of the best things to happen to me in my kdrama watching experience. And meeting Ju Young-do was one very calming moment.

For me, it's Han Yeo-jin in Stranger and Kim Yeong-goon in Watcher, two embodiments of kind-heartedness and silent braveness.

Both Kang Doyoung (Liar Game) and Lee Changjoon (Secret Forest) for me! Though folks can attest that I can never shut up about Shin Sungrok's chest hair off the Beanies site :3

I love capricous and traumatised antivillains, because in some ways sometimes being harsh and unrelenting is what makes people grow, and keeping your cards close to yourself so you won't hurt yourself or others is how it is. Maybe it says a lot about me that I've always been far more drawn to villains :P

Thank you @dramaddictally for the amazing writing ( bookmarking it so that I can come back for some comfort).

Not exactly a comfort character but a character whom I can deeply relate to & somehow see myself in is Bae Ta mi's character from Search WWW. She was far from perfect, but some of her thoughts & feelings oddly felt like my own.

Kook Yun Soo from Our Beloved Summer. Her character might not be likeable to many, but somehow I could understand her deeply. From the reason of her breakup to her insecurities, I could feel her emotions.

Jung Jae Chan from While You Were Sleeping. He was quite sloppy & not all heroic ( some of his antics actually hit close , to my embarrassment) but when needed, he could stand up for himself & those he cared for. A moral character, but doesn't wear his heart on his sleeves.

I was coming here to mention Kim Baek-du but @snowflower beat me to it.

I've spotted My Mister mentioned a few times, and I could not find a drama that was more infuriating to me. I barely survived one episode and had to give up. Nah, don't argue with me about how much I am missing out and everything I didn't understand in it. I'm not missing out. I'm not and will never be the right audience for this drama. But it did give me vibes of The Girl on the Bridge (I believe in French, the original version, it'll be something along the line of La Fille Sur Le Pont) which is a black and white (don't be fooled it came out in the late 90s). It wouldn't be a comfort character here, but a comfort relationship between the 2 main leads. Not a Kdrama, but if you've watched both, perhaps you can see why My Mister reminded me of it.

Another comfort relationship —but not character— would be Piggy and Buja in Korean Odyssey (Hwayugi)

Back to the comfort characters: To be fair, any of the leads in Hospital Playlist because they go above and beyond for each other to the point where you can't truly name one character only. They are forever entwined in this beautiful friendship, each being a comfort for someone else (and for the viewers) at different moments in time.

Jang Ju-won in Moving has a beautiful story arc (admittedly does it count as a Kdrama when the original material is a webtoon?) We get to see this isolated character that people betray who gradually learns to trust again and who is able to recognise the same angst and loneliness he went through in not just one, but two other characters (aka super dad power Jae-man and the North-Korean agent who matches his powers — is that Kwon Yong-deuk?) He is first introduced as a thoroughly dumb and naive character who has to learn the hard way that some people can't be trusted. And I love particularly that the bitter experience did not destroy his desire to trust others, but on the contrary fine tuned it. He shows on multiple occasions that he is ready to trust those nobody else can trust, specifically because he knows how it feels to be there and because he also knows the importance of empathy when there is nothing else to give. So, he does hold a special place on my list of comfort characters.

I know it's a little wired but my comfort character is actually a "guest appearance" and not even a fixed character, that's Kim Sang soo in "Be melodramatic".
Maybe you don't even remember him but Son Seok koo did a great job in that role, and it impressed me deeply.

For me it will always be Moon Gang-tae from It's ok to not be ok because I see my son through him. I still cry when I see the scene when he realizes that his mother loved him so much after learning that she took them to that restaurant everytime because he liked that spicy food.

I have a lot of favourite characters but never thought of them as “comfort characters” mostly because I like the outrageous ones. Like Cheon Song-yi, or Song Sam-dong Hwang Tae-kyung, Baek Sung-chan, Dae-gil, Lee Jae-ha types 😂

But if there’s one character I absolutely love despite not loving the drama at all - it’s Joon from Love Rain. I found his struggle with wanting to hate his father and not being able to really heartwarming. That last scene with his dad when he said “I hated you for a long time, and… I’ve missed and love you through it all”, that seriously hit home for me. His turbulent relationship with his mom, the realization of how different Ha-na’s mom is to his, how he wanted to sacrifice his love for a parent he tries so much to hate - it’s all just really relatable. I think JGS did such a fabulous job of rooting him to the ground and making him such a relatable, layered character. I genuinely don’t think I’ve rooted more for a character to be happy in the end. Which says a lot considering I did not actually even like Love Rain, let alone love it 😂

i've never thought of a "comfort character", for me it's mostly the whole show, but i would have to say it's *Yumi* (Kim Go Eun) in *Yumi's cells 1 + 2*. it's a comforting show and i think she was perfect for this role. i've seen this show twice and i know i'll watch it again.

as far as comfort (western) shows goes, it's *The office*, *Friends*, and even *Seinfeld* (bc it's so boring and studid lol).

Kim Sung-ryong (Nam Goong Min) in 'The Good Manager'.

Because no matter how bad a week I am having at work, at least I never have to deal with that terrifying, smiling woman from the HR department at TQ Group...

Great question! I'm going with @healer and say Kang Tae-oh from Attorney Woo. Great listener, moves at your rate, cares enough to be a hug chair.
From The Affectionate King I would go with Rowoon and Nam Yoon-Su- the sweet kindhearted cousin.

When I read the term "comfort character" I did not think of actual actor playing a role but actual comfort characters in shows. For example, the dog(s) in BEHIND YOUR TOUCH

1. Yu-hyeon from Hello Me. Dude is a ray of sunshine and watching him makes me happy.

2. Run On, all of the four main characters felt like my friends by the end of the drama. I could just watch them hanging out and doing absolutely nothing

Thanks @Dramaddictally for this thread on our comfort characters. So interesting to read about the varied favorites. May I second (or is it third, fourth, fifth …) your beautifully written comments on Lee Gang-doo.

I'm usually a Korean-drama-all-the-way person, but if I had to name characters that always make me feel like I'm spending time with old friends, it's actually Sheng Ming Lan, her steadfast general, and his faithful Shitou of The Story of Ming Lan. I'm always a little sad when I reach the end of the drama as I want to hang out with them just a little bit longer.

Mine's definitely Woo Boyoung (Lee Yoobi) in A Poem A Day. I loveeeeee poetry and to have a character who does too was already mind blowing. She's so over the top emotional. I'm a big feeler so I really saw myself in her. She's so positive despite what the world throws at her. I'm like that most of the time but I also overthink (which she does a lot too).

APAD had an awesome ensemble of a cast but having Boyoung there really spoke to me in more ways than one. I always watch APAD whenever life gets tough and Boyoung's always there to lift me up.

Hmm... So for some reason, I'm very biased towards female characters and I often leave a drama loving the male lead so much and caring little for the female characters. Imagine how awkward I feel now, realizing that my comfort characters are females and are probably the only female characters I fell in love with at first sight.

They are both for my favorite short drama and long drama of all time, Lee Yoo Young's character in You Drive Me Crazy and Lee Na Young's character in Romance is a Bonus Book.

Everything about them is beautiful to me. Their expressiveness, their love, their ignorance, their anger, their meanness, their indecisiveness, their childishness, their innocence, their smarts, their unique jobs and lifestyle, their experiences! They were and are soooo beautiful to me.

I'm female by the way.... And I'm sorry, I'll do more falling in love with female characters this year 🥹

Funnily enough, I don't have any definite comfort characters or comfort dramas from K-Drama-land. Not yet anyway.

But I have them from Studio Ghibli movies, especially MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO, FROM UP ON POPPY HILL, and HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE.

I don't think I have a comfort character. It's more about the whole drama.

But I really liked Jun-Woong in Tomorrow. He was a normal young adult trying to find his place in society but he found himself to have to help people in pain. I could feel his pain ; his frustration in the face of so much injustice, not to being able to do anything or how things work in Jumadeung ; his empathy for these people ; the difficulty to accept death, etc.

By the bye, does anyone know what cute fluffy-haired Junho is reading in the main pic here?

Great question!
Kim Hae-kyung (Song Seung-heon), ML psychiatrist from "Dinner Mate" (2020)
Chae Chi-soo (Park Sang-myun), FL adoptive father and lawyer from "Healer" (2014)

Hmm...a psychiatrist and a lawyer as my comfort characters. What does that say about me, I wonder?