Complaints about flaws in Alhambra made me think about why I liked it so much anyway. Part of the answer is that it didn’t do many things I am tired of in other kdramas. So what if it didn’t explain game mechanics? That’s a fun new issue, not a same-old that we’ve all seen so many times that we just accept and take it for granted.

So here’s a partial list of same-old that bother me:

– Magic Water of Healing: badly injured people who fall or jump into river or ocean are always healed, even if they spend hours face-down and unconscious.
– Magic Water of Doom: healthy people who fall or jump in always drown unless they have someone to rescue them.
– Magic Water at the Foot of Every Cliff: how come nobody ever falls or jumps off a cliff and goes splat on some rocks?
– Why is the water always infinitely deep, whether the person is injured or not?
– Insane asylums that hold only sane people who know too much.
– The impressive accuracy of police shooting those lame 2-inch revolvers.
– The Dramatic Entrance: people are discussing some problem and the lead suddenly walks in and immediately announces the solution, answering a question that they could not have heard because they weren’t there.
– People who are conveniently in the right place at the right time to overhear vital clues and who never get noticed.
– People talking to themselves to explain stuff to the audience. (How is writer-nim explaining things in interviews worse? Either way the writer couldn’t find a natural way to explain).
– Baddies who keep the evidence in their homes.
– USB of Doom (only applies to baddies).
– People who don’t take backups (I’ll never get tired of making fun of that).
– Truck of Doom and people who (A) don’t hear the engine revving as it bears down on them, and (B) just freeze in the headlights instead of trying to dodge.
– Digestion of Doom: people urgently needing bathroom breaks, or pretending to.
– Clumsiness of Doom: people bumping into each other and dropping important things.
– Poop of Doom: people sitting in toilet stalls.
– Long Lost Twins: how come twins are never raised together??
– Amnesia.
– Amnesia (I haven’t already mentioned that yet, have I?).
– Revenge Dramas.
– Terminal Illness Dramas.
– No Body Not Dead (and even if there is a body, better triple-check the identity).
– Magic Blanket/Jacket of Not Too Warm: kdrama people who see someone asleep always show how much they care by putting something warm over them, without thinking that the person was probably at a comfy temperature already. Nobody ever wakes up sweaty because of that considerate “help”.
– Chaebols and their Chaebolsh*t — might be the only accurate thing on my list, but I’m still tired of them.