Forget-Me-Not: Amnesia in Dramas
After watching Heroine Shikkaku, I realized that viewers are fed up of specific heroes and heroines, each with qualities necessary for every lead character. For example, the girl is neither dirt poor, nor sports a bad haircut, while the guy is always filthy rich or that misunderstood bad boy. As for second leads, they are either bitchy girlfriends, that super nice friend, or workaholic boyfriend.
Basically, the second leads have something negative that will be the main fallout on why the hero fell for the heroine. Their stories might seem insignificant to everyone vying for the hero and the heroine, but from my perspective, these second lead deserve a second chance at love because they were robbed of their own love story.
Warning: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Here are my Top 4 characters that deserve a second chance in love:
- Anna (You’re My Destiny, TW original)/ Se Ra (Fated to Love You, KR remake)
Story: A ballerina trying to fulfill her dreams, and happens to have a boyfriend in a rush for marriage and kids after being pressured by his own grandmother.
What went wrong: She chose her dream, ditched her boyfriend on the night he’s supposed to propose to her, so he had a one night stand with another woman, got her pregnant, and they had a marriage for convenience.
Why she deserves a second chance: There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, it’s not selfish, everyone has dreams they want to fulfill, and on Anna’s part, time is of the essence, and she has to choose. If you think about it, he cheated on her. Sure, he was drunk, but please, they’ve been in a relationship for so long, can’t he really tell that he’s sleeping with another woman?
- Mo Yuan (Eternal Love/ Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms)
Story: The God of War who adores his seventeenth disciple, a disciple that he knew all along, is a woman in disguise.
What went wrong: He decided to sacrifice himself to bring temporary peace into the land, his spirit got quashed, so it took him an awfully long time (I’m talking about hundreds of years) to get his immortal self back to his feet. When he got back, his seventeenth is now his twin brother’s fianceé.
Why he deserves a second chance: Mo Yuan has proven his love for Bai Qian/Seventeenth long before Ye Hua (his twin brother) has started taking lightning as punishment for her. It sucks that Mo Yuan decided to be heroic by sacrificing himself during that decisive battle, and it sucks more that after waiting for hundreds of years, he has to give her up to his twin brother. I always thought that Bai Qian also has romantic feelings for him, I mean, she stole his dead body to hide him in Fox den, so it was a surprise that those feelings were just for a student to his Master, that or Bai Qian have always been obtuse with her own feelings. The only saving grace is that Mo Yuan and Ye Hua are both played by the same actor, so not all is lost.
- Kicho (Nobunaga Concerto)
Story: She’s the legal wife of Oda Nobunaga, a marriage made for political reasons.
What went wrong: She was never loved by Oda Nobunaga until came Saburo, a Heisei era student who time-travel to Sengoku era. Saburo looked exactly like Nobunaga and was made as his replacement while he goes frolicking elsewhere. However, Saburo started being too nice and noble for his own good that the real Nobunaga decided to plot his demise.
Why she deserves a second chance: She put up with her marriage with the real Nobunaga where she’s often ignored, she helped Saburo even though she has doubts about his real identity simply because he treated her way better than her husband, and all I wish is that she’ll be allowed to time-travel to Heisei era back to Saburo.
- Jo Ha Yeon (Moonlight Drawn by Clouds)
Story: She’s a prim and proper noble lady who was selected to be the Crown Princess.
What went wrong: Although the Crown Prince finds her nice, he fell for the cross-dressing eunuch. To be fair, her love has always been one-sided.
Why she deserves a second chance: So far, she’s the nicest soon-to-be Crown Princess from all sageuks that I’ve seen. Most of the time, fiancés were spoiled brats who think that the world owes them a prince. She has her title revoked even though it means that she has to remain unmarried for life, but thankfully, the King has some sense and nullified the entire Crown Princess selection, which gave Ha Yeon the freedom to still marry.
That's it for now, who's your favourite second lead who got robbed of their own love story?
