'Queen of the Ring' tries to be a drama about morals regarding beauty standards and how 'the inner beauty is what matter the most', but it fails terribly and ends up being a pretentious drama giving more relevance to looks beyond personalities. Of course, the world we live in regards beauty over intelligence or other qualities, but this drama tries to teach us a lesson yet it only focuses on the fact that a) only the socially-accepted pretty people can give you this value (see: Se Gun, a handsome man, gave value to Nan Hee and only when he told her she was pretty is that she started to believe it herself); b) the lesson they keep teaching is that it doesn't matter if you're ugly! There are other good things about you, no? Beauty isn't everything, of course! So why does this drama insist on saying things like "show them that an ugly apple is not be thrown away"? They focus on the same idea: Nan Hee is objectively ugly, but she can still thrive in the world because she's 'pretty on the inside'. I call bullshit.

This drama tries to teach this lesson about self-love but Nan Hee doesn't love herself even till the end, she only likes the fact that her dreamed boy now loves her. She doesn't even agree with him liking her physically, because she does not like herself either. Even her own mother tells her daughter that she's ugly but again, it doesn't matter because soybean paste is not beautiful either, yet it has other things to offer or whatever that metaphor was about.

Now I'm going to mention 3 of 4 reasons why I didn't drop this drama, each reason is one star.

1. Kim Seul Gi: I love this actress so much and I've always wanted to see her in a leading role. I didn't plan to watch this drama any time soon, but I did because of a Watch Challenge that I'm doing this year and I chose this one for the leads. I didn't read the plot or anything at all, so I didn't really know what I was signing up for, but besides all my complaints about this dumb mini drama, I can say that her acting (as always) is one of the main reasons that kept me watching. I would like to give her acting 2 stars, but the fact that her character didn't have any character development whatsoever ruins those stars. The fact that Mon Nan Hee accepted her ugliness and "decided to live with 'that' face" makes me mad in so many ways, but I will explain this later.

2. Ahn Hyo Seop: I must make it clear that I didn't drop it not because I liked his character, but because I like *him*. I had planned to watch this drama a few weeks ago when I was looking for his other works, so I took this chance to watch it and I'm not sure if I regret doing so. He was looking absolutely stunning all the time, which was obviously the intention of his character (his entire persona anyway), so one of the main reasons why I couldn't drop it is because he's just absolutely handsome, lol. No matter how shallow this sounds, I just really like this actor, despite how much I disliked Park Se Gun in 90% of the drama. One star for his looks.

3. Lee Tae Sun: His character was the ONLY good character in the entire drama. Nobody deserved to have him in his life, he was the purest, most cheerful, best of best friend that these two girls could've gotten. Both Nan Hee and Mi Joo were absolutely shallow in their own ways that I don't know how girls like them can stick around a guy like Tae Hyun for 15 years. His only flaw was not realizing his own feelings on time, because he could've totally made Nan Hee love herself the way she is (not just ACCEPT herself, but LOVE herself and consider herself pretty, something that she failed to do even to the end). Tae Hyun was the only good character and he deserved more. One star for him.

Before explaining the reason no. 4 about why I didn't drop his drama, let me continue by saying that the side characters are all horrible (besides Byun Tae Hyun, my pure baby). Of course we must take into account that they're all art students, most importantly fashion students so they're conceived as shallow and people who only focus on looks and beauty. Ok, let's grasp that concept. Still, the way everyone made sure that they all agreed on the fact that Nan Hee was ugly, that she could never date someone like Se Gun, that there MUST be something wrong with him... It's all so incredibly stupid. Kang Mi Joo is the worst friend I have ever seen in a k-drama, I can't believe Tae Hyun and Nan Hee didn't throw her as she deserves for being the most asshole friend in the world. The fact that she said she would kiss and sleep with the guy that her 'best friend' had a crush on is absolutely horrible, and then she confessed to Nan Hee she didn't sleep with him and Nan Hee thanks her for that and calls her ANGEL? Girl, show some self-respect once in your life, please!

The credits scene also annoyed me way too much! What makes me the angriest about this drama is that it pretends to leave a moral, to speak for 'the ugly', the less appreciated people in society, but it's simply the equivalent of 'white savior' in beauty standards: what a beautiful world this ring created, everyone started to look pretty in their own ways now! Then scenes of couples roll out in which one of them is necessarily fat or 'objectively' ugly (even children because we've got to teach our children that fat people are 'pretty in their own way'!). What is the moral they're giving? That 'ugly' and fat have their own charm, that we can't discriminate because they're beautiful in their own ways. It seems like I'm among the few who sees the problem with this mindset, considering how high the rating is.

Now, the fourth reason is a bit dumb as well and it's just because I liked how they wrapped up some things in this drama. The fact that neither Nan Hee nor Se Gun won the competition was refreshing, I wouldn't have liked seeing one of them winning over the other, so it was a nice little point to give the prize to Nan Hee's friend. Also, though a bit twisted, I liked Se Gun's confession and encouragement to Nan Hee to join the runway, the fact that he made the dress thinking about her was cute (the outfit was really nice too). When he came back to look for Nan Hee in her house, the confession he made there was also very cute, so it's nice to see that at the end of the day, he did have some improvement (and grew a brain, I guess), as well as the ending scene when she put the ring and his ideal type became Nan Hee just the way she is, physically and personally, and they had a nice ending kiss. For these few dumb reasons, I'll give another star to this dumb drama and make it 4.0. It really doesn't deserve anything higher than a 5 at most, but I see that many people bought this cheap moral they tried to sell.