2023 Drama Roundup
18 – Favorite villain

I suspect this will be a popular choice, but it’s definitely Lady Park a.k.a Soon-deok’s MIL a.k.a. The REAL Left State Minister. Don’t get me wrong, I love cartoon villains – the ones that are practically rubbing their little villain hands together with glee trying to make life difficult for others for no reason, or for super petty reasons. They make me laugh, I love to hate them, and they will always have a place in my heart and in my dramas. BUT Lady Park is something special. Rarely does dramaland give us a villain with as much depth of character and as many sympathetic interactions, let alone a female one. But that’s exactly what we have in this character – she is not an evil MIL to the FL, she is devastated by her son’s deaths, she is fiercely protective of her remaining family members, and even when she finds out that Soon-deok has been sneaking out she doesn’t lay down the law right away but waits to find out what she’s up to. The thing is, even as she’s having sweet conversations with Soon-deok about how much they both miss her son, she’s also plotting against the life of the crown prince, a very sweet and competent 14 year old boy. And her solution for protecting her family when her own plot is found out is to murder her husband and brother in cold blood, and rope others into helping her. Did you just feel a shiver down your spine? Yeah, me too.