Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters
There are my favorite types of characters as a list.
A villain with a fatal weakness
Drama: The Scholar Who Walks the Night /밤을 걷는 선비
Character: Gwi
Screentime: Secondary
Gwi is an ancient vampire and a master of puppets (and Joseon's king is the main of them). He is merciless, invincible and scheming all the drama long, until he accidentally kills a girl, who was his hostage and recalcitrant puppet from her childhood on and was the only one who could scold him and deny him. Nothing about it is said directly in the drama, but after her death he goes insane, kills all of his puppets and this way causes his own death. So, I suppose, she was his only weakness, and I like this type of a personal drama for a villain.
Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星
Character: Mo Li
Screentime: Minor
The shell of Devil lord Mo Li (which has got his own consciousness) falls in love with the demon girl (and has a very complex enemies-to-lovers relationship with her). Later, Devil lord occupies his shell, cornering shell's consciousness into the darkest corner of his mind, and treats his shell's girlfriend with no particular interest (but better than he could). However, he ends up unintentionally killing her off, and it becomes his doom, because her death releases the ancient weapon, the only thing that can kill him, and the main heroes use it to destroy him. So, she was his only weakness, literally. His story is here and here.
Punch-Clock Villain / the Dragon
Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님
Character: Moo-yeon
Screentime: Secondary
Moo-yeon works as an assassin for the killer of his father, who is constantly threatening him with the life of his sister. Moo-yeon is a man of a very ill fate: his family was accused of a treason and executed, his sister became a fugitive, he was forced to sell his conscience for his and sister's lives and, as a cherry on the top of this cake, fell in love with the daughter of his captor. And died trying to save her... His story is sooooo sad, but it makes me feel for this character fully. Also, he is the king of whump because the half of the drama he is injured and suffers from his wounds.
The whole sad story of this guy is analyzed by me here, here and here.
Drama: The King Loves /왕은 사랑한다
Character: Moo-suk
Screentime: Minor
Koreans, obviously, like this type of characters, too, so there is another Dragon of the main villain, Moo-suk. In his free from dirty deeds time he h̶e̶l̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶a̶d̶ literally saves cute children and restores self-confidence of young ladies. And then he falls in love, rethinks his life and dies from the hand of his master. Predictable and sad. Still a memorable guy, though.
Drama: The Legend of Shen Li /与凤行
Character: Mo Fang
Screentime: Minor
A son of the main villain has been groomed from his infancy to plot against the main heroes to avenge his father. Later, he falls in love with the main heroine and rethinks things he was taught about. His resistance, however, doesn't help him much - his body ends up being possessed by the evil spirit without even an opportunity to kill himself in order to break free... No HE, as you understand. The whole story of this guy is here.
50 shades of a Byronic Hero
Drama: The Wolf / 狼殿下
Character: Chu Youwen
Screentime: Main
A Mowgli boy was adopted by a wicked emperor, brought up like a cruel beast and was forced to do some dirty stuff for the emperor. He is mysterious, severe and you never know what's on his mind. As a true Byronic hero. He is some kind of Dragon, too, but it's a Chinese drama and he is a main hero in it, that's why he doesn't really do anything bad during the series. His soul is kind and his heart is pure, but he hides it from his love and deals with all of his problems on his own. It's the reason why all of this drama is a masochistic tango between him and his love. Whump lovers will be happy, too, because he is constantly in chains, pierced by arrows like a hedgehog or works as a slave in mines. As any other Dragon, he has a BE.
Drama: Lost You Forever /长相思 第一季
Character: Xiang Liu
Screentime: Secondary
A mysterious demon general, whose name makes everyone shake in fear. A former demon slave, who is true to his word enough to fight for his benefactor even if he knows crystal clearly that it's hopeless and he and his army will die in the end. A man who has huge problems with expression of his emotions in a socially approved way. Edward Cullen of Chinese dramaland. He is enigmatic, with thick vibes of a bad guy, yet very loyal to his benefactor as well as his love and very selfless. Because of this loyalty he will die and the love of his life will never-ever find out about anything he has done for her during the story.
Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽
Character: Gong Shangjue
Screentime: Secondary
A guy was through trauma in his childhood and it made him look intimidating and unfeeling. A tsundere is born! He coped with his trauma by taking extra responsibilities for everything and everyone and turned to be a walking killing machine instead of a man. But an enemy assassin comes to his life and teaches him how to be a human once more. It's a painful experience, but it`s necessary in order to grow up as a character and is beautifully fulfilled. It was a great joy to know that he survives at the end of the story, it's a rare thing for this type of characters, so even if there is season 2 someday, I will not watch it in order not to spoil my impression of the first one.
I wrote about him detailed here, here, here and here.
Drama: Princess Agents / 特工皇妃楚乔传
Character: Yan Xun
Screentime: Secondary
It's the transformation story, too, like a previous one, but this time it's transformation from an ordinary man to a villain. Prince Yan Xun is a hostage colony prince in a metropolis empire, but he enjoys a noble life along with other nobility youth. The society around him is awful, each of these noble youths is a psycho who appreciate human hunt and so on, but cheerful and easy-going Yan Xun doesn't think their bloodthirstiness could turn against him. When relationship between the metropolis and the colony become tense, though, Yan Xun's friends of yesterday are happy to drink his blood. He loses his whole family and, insanely longing for revenge, slowly turns to one of those monsters himself.
Drama: Fangs of Fortune / 大梦归离
Characters: Li Lun
Screentime: Secondary
The Great Demon was dumped by his boyfriend because of his aggressive ways of protecting people of his own species and still can't get over their break-up. He goes through all five stages of acceptance of their break-up while being a villain of the story. In the end his obsession brings him to his doom, because he loves his ex-friend too much. He is morally grey yet a versatile and interesting character. I wrote about him here: 1 , 2, 3 and 4.
Drama: A Journey to Love / 一念关山
Character: Li Tongguang
Screentime: Minor
This guy has got a very realistic personality and background: he is a bastard who was deprived of mother's love since he was a child. The first circumstance made him power-hungry, scheming and outwardly emotionless, the second one made him longing for mother's love on insanely level. So he is invincible outwardly, but turns into a teary mess when it's about his female tutor, who is a mother figure for him. The contrast between these two personalities is enormous and makes this character very alive and interesting. During the drama he will not cope with his Oedipus complex but circumstances will solve this problem for him.
Drama: A Dream Within a Dream /书卷一梦
Character: Nan Heng
Screentime: Main
He's the main hero of a postmodern drama which laughs at typical c-drama tropes, but he is still a character to my liking. Nan Heng is handsome, strong, yet miserable God of Death Whump: he was mistreated by everyone around him for all his life, and that made him cunning and outwardly coldblooded. But the transmigrator girl comes in his life and turns it upside down. Slowly fighting injustified treatment of his environment and the stupid plot of the screenwriter, constantly hurting himself and suffering, he fights his way to his HE (and there is HE, even two!). About this drama in a nutshell I wrote here.
Drama: Justice in the Dark /光·渊
Character: Pei Su
Screentime: Main
Some people see Pei Su as a rich young rake, some - as an arrogant pedant and some - as a born psychopath, a monster by his genes. But the reality is, he is a lonely, traumatized by his sadistic father person who fights for all his life with his psychopathic nature and tries to reveal his father's crimes, as well as everyone's related to him. It's a BL adaptation, so he doesn't need to walk this self-destructive path alone and has HE in the end. I don't like the concept of Pei Su being a psychopath, because he doesn't behave like one during all the story, but the drama never says that he isn't, which is a plot flaw, imho. But the story is solid and the detective part is also good.
Drama: Creation of the Gods Ⅰ / 封神三部曲
Character: Ji Fa
Screentime: Main
It's maybe strange to find this type of characters in the list of my favorite types, but morality and selflessness of a character is very important for me, too. This story is some kind of King Arthur's legend, but in a Chinese way. The emperor is bewitched by a demon and is bringing the kingdom to it's downfall, the Gods are here to find the savior with the help of a magic scroll that can be opened only by a true king. Ji Fa, a hero of this story, doesn't care about scrolls, but his heart is loyal to his kingdom and to his family (in this very order). He genuinely wants to help his friend-prince to be a king his kingdom deserves and, despite awful things that were done to him and his family, doesn`t harden his soul and betray his ideals. And, I suppose, although he isn't aware of this, he IS the future King Arthur of China.
Drama: An Ancient Love Song / 古相思曲
Character: Lu Shi
Screentime: Minor
While the main story of this drama is pretty touching but not my cup of tea, the FL's brother left a mark on my heart. A brave and loyal general, a loving brother and partner, a selfless person, with an appearance of Quan Yilun - he has got all the traits I love in characters, but his fate is more realistic as the fate of the previous pure-hearted hero: because of his incompatible with life nobleness he dies.
Drama: Love in Pavilion / 淮水竹亭
Character: Mu Xiaowu
Screentime: Minor
Another good guy with an incompatible with life nobleness. In a slave-based society, he saves a slave and helps him escape, which leads to horrible for him and his relatives consequences and causes him dead. Still a nice guy to feel for. More about his tragedy is here.
Drama: Cheese in the Trap / 치즈인더트랩
Character: Baek Inho
Screentime: Secondary
This drama is about a FL falling in love with a psychopath ML, and Baek Inho is a "third wheel" in their love story. He is honest, simple-minded, easy-going and once fell victim of ML's psychopathy, so he knows FL (the object of his crush) is in danger being with the ML. I am too old to fall for psychopath MLs, so I was the Third Wheel team all story long. Obviously, he is a more worthy person to be a main (and to get the girl). But alas.
Interesting character decisions
Drama: The Legends/招摇
Characters: Jiang Wu
Screentime: Minor
This character is something like a rival of the male lead. He is a xinmo - an inner demon of some other character and represents the darkest features of a human's soul. He is a ruthless killer, a dark sorcerer without conscience, but what was very unique, being literary the worst part of a human personality, he values his assistants a lot and genuinely cares for them. A villain is usually a lone wolf. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't value anyone, his loneliness is usually his weakness and a key to his downfall. So I was pleasantly surprised that sometimes a villain is capable of building healthy relationships with his subordinates.
Drama: Sh**ting Stars / 별똥별
Characters: Do Soo-hyuk
Screentime: Minor
This guy truly surprised me. Firstly, he is supposed to be something like a third wheel in relationships of the main couple, but he just calmly got a refusal from the female lead, said "OK" and, absolutely relaxed, proceeded to live his life further. It's something unbelievable for me, because I used to see the insanity caused by an unrequited love to be the plot engine of a lot of dramas. Secondly, he is well-written as a character, straightforward, principled and has tsundere-ish or Byronic vibes - all the character features that I like =)
Also you can see:
Modern Asian dramas and well-fulfilled topics
Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1)
Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2)
Asian dramas and Love tropes
Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe
They didn't make it, but I remember them
They didn't make it (and didn't even try), but I remember them
