Sorry, but this is my drama catNOPE.

Does The Best Hit count? Cuz this is the first time I'm seeing a love triangle that involves father and son with the same girl. And clearly I'm on the wrong ship. Yoon Shi Yoon!! <3

Pinocchio had shades of this.

There is only one drama (which I won't name to avoid spoilers) that actually made me feel the pain of the leads being siblings and the only reason I actually watched it all is because I learned about the sibling love in the last episode.
That aside, I am all for tragic, painful, impossible, sad-ending love stories but sibling love and fauxcest will make me run away faster than it takes to say drama.
Not sure if it is because I have a sibling myself or what but I can never sympathize with sibling love or fauxcest. This idea that a family member can be considered a romantic suitor just screams unhealthy to me. Not even the pain of the impossible relationship is good enough to make me stay.
While the main couple usually end up not being blood related or whatsoever I still cannot watch them fall in love knowing they are/could be family.

Generally this isn't a catnip for me, with one very notable exception. The only time this trope worked for me was Love Rain, which I have a weird affection for nonetheless. The reason it worked for me there was because the leads (in the contemporary timeline) didn't realize the fauxcest that was about to happen until after they'd started a relationship and it was too late. Then the story focused on push between the female lead's love for her mother versus her love for the male lead, which is what provided a compelling story for me. I also like that the issue of potential fauxcest highlighted the selfishness of the male lead's father and how the father chose to sacrifice his own happiness for his son in the end.

The Nine hero and heroine were never "blood related" even after the reset. His brother was her stepfather.

Welll. This is controversial. Uhm. If *I* as the audience am AWARE the they are NOT RELATED in ANY sibling-y way then I guess I could watch it.

I wonder how The Best Hit is gonna pull off the father/son thing tho. ?

Good post, but I've finally found a catnope. However, the fact that this is catnip for some helps explain to me why dramas keep doing it. Even in dramas like Hwarang, where it doesn't last all that horribly long, I still find myself watching the clock and waiting for it to end so the "real" (to me) story can begin. One of the best moments of relief for me in any drama ever was the extremely early reveal in Reply 1994 that Oppa was not a biological brother.

Yay for the fact that there are so many dramas out there that we can all enjoy what we like and avoid what we don't enjoy.

I normally hate fauxcest but Mi-young/Joong-hee in Father Is Strange is everything to me nowadays.

Oh please. Don't make me remember Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru. I didn't know what's the story about and I watched it back when I'm just 13yrs old if I remember it right and guess what? I got a little traumatized because of how the story goes. :(

I find this drama trope really annoying and disturbing. I watched both That Winter(...) and Autumn Tale. The first one I didn't care too much because they were not sibblings nor had any kind of relation in the past and even though he knew it he felt wrong about it, she felt wrong about how their interaction were and she questioned every time if it was ok for a brother and sister to do this o that thing... BUT in Autumn tale, that was different, and I didn't find this drama as cute and romantic as many of other people does, why? Well, Because they ARE sibblings. They grew up and lived together for 13 years or so. You just can't and won't look at somebody different and as a romantic interest when you spend your entire life thinking and loving and treating that person as a sibbling.

To me, in my eyes, Autumn tale was incest. Ok they're not blood related but they were raised as brother and sister, and they way they treat each other is wrong and that's on negligent parents. Sorry I got carried away. But it's not a love story, I was shipping for second lead to get the girl.

The only time this drew me in was in That Winter the Wind Blows. I loved the con man taking on the oppa role because it added an extra layer to their every interaction and created this delicious tension between the leads especially since I was so sure the sister suspected he was not her real oppa all along. This was of course totally ruined when the show revealed that the sister didn't in fact no crap and so all the romantic angst up until that point was all one sided. -_- Never have I been more disappointed after giving someone's intelligence more credit than was due. Still, that drama fostered in me a love for Jo-in sung so strong that I still obsessively watch all of his dramas regardless of plot or genre.

My Girl was a really good fauxcest show! Although the leads know they're not really related and are in on this one big scam together, the fact that they have to keep up appearances as fake-cousins definitely brought about the angst, so I think it counts!

Not a catnip for me, but this isn't a catnope either. When done right, sibling love and fauxcest can be quite a compelling watch - like 'Nine: Nine Times Time Travel' where the hero's pain throughout the 'uncle - niece' episodes made their reunion so, so satisfying. I have two requirements though - no actual blood relations, and/or they haven't grown up together.

Maybe I can get behind this one because, like Beanfan, I'm an only child and can't imagine how gross it would be to like your sibling romantically. In real life, I'm okay with marriages between cousins - it's too common in many parts of the world for me to judge.

This is a really interesting one. Incest is SUCH a taboo, on such a gut-level of reaction, and I think that therein lies its sometimes compelling nature on this platform.

Half the lure of kdrama romances is the delightful way that love conquers all, from the most forbidding of parents to the highest of social class walls to the worst first impressions and preconceptions. And then we have the concept of incest, which is the most impossible divide to cross...worse, it's a divide we shouldn't ever want them to cross. The ultimate forbidden love story.

Fortunately, this is only ever expressed in fauxcest on TV, in which the familial relationship is a misunderstanding, or only a legal technicality at worst. Thus we as viewers can be slightly more comfortable with the love story, even if the characters aren't. So the audience can watch the ultimate forbidden love story unfold without feeling completely horrified, and still experience the distress of not knowing if the couple that seems so right for each other should express their feelings.

It's the same toxic draw that keeps us tuning into melos like Nice Guy or Secret, and it works by tapping into extreme emotions that most ordinary shows bypass.

I wouldn't say this is a catnip of mine, but it's definitely a trope that I can't really look away from...like with trainwrecks, you know?

This is literally the one that makes me do 20 steps backward from a drama, and build a wall out of lead from it.

Not really my catnip, but I do enjoy some dramas with this sibling love and fauxcest! I do ship most of the couples especially TWTWB and My Girl. However, I don't like Autumn In My Heart couple because think it's kinda weird as they grew up as siblings until teenagers. And I don't like Ah Ro & oraboni couple from Hwarang as well! Gosh, I'd go for the King if I were Ah Ro.

My first thought was Garbage and Sung Na-jung in reply 1994. They weren't biologically siblings, but it was weird for their "parents" when their romance came out in the open.

It's not my bag, baby. However, I wanted to commend the poster on a really well-written articulate and thoughtful explanation of why this trope works for them by heightening the stakes.

Also to say, these shows are usually fauxcest... so imagine my actual shock when I got a few episodes into 90 Days- Time to Love. They were legit blood related first cousins.

The leads are gorgeous (young Kim Ha Neul) , but the despair is dialed up to 11, and I dropped it for being too melo for my taste.

Oh man, Lee Wan in Stairway to Heaven was so good as the indifferent-turned-loving stepbrother to Park Shin-hye. He was her only glimmer of light and hope in her dark and tragic life and I adored them together. I liked seeing the actors together more than their characters, but it just so happened that they played step-siblings. It was a definite no no, but it didn't stop me from watching the spinoff, Tree of Heaven (lol), because it was Lee Wan and Park Shin-hye again! I really liked them together. Can't you tell? It was essentially the same setup and just as tragic as the original. Lol. I had quite a crush on Lee Wan and even watched Insoon Is Pretty just to see glimpses of him. Anyways, this theme can get icky fast, so you always gotta be careful, but if we're talking about forbidden romances in general, there's just something about 'em that's just so damn appealing.

There seems to be a fixation in Asian (Korean, Japanese and Chinese) drama about sibling love, not just faux incest, but also strong opposite sex sibling bonds. In Western fiction there doesn't seem to be much interest in this particular taboo. I wonder why? Does it stem from the value placed on blood relationships, the Confucius teaching separation of the sexes limiting contact except for family members, the idealization of the protective role of brothers for their sisters or an obsession with painful love stories?
I find it very strange and having brothers both genetic and adopted, totally unimaginable.

This is something I find particularly frustrating to watch haha. Our local shows use this trope all the time and the twist is often executed so poorly I can't root for the main couple. This trope leaves a bad taste with me haha. Sad, because K Dramas might do it better but I still might not give it a chance. Maybe if I hear the show was done well?

Looks like most people run the other way from incest/fauxcest, so I'll be one of the few to say, I'm with you! It's a total catnip for me. I love heavy angst, heavy drama, and "taboo/forbidden loves" so I love it when the trope pops up. There's just something about the couple loving each other so much, and knowing that society will shame them for it, but they can't stop loving each other, that does it for me. I know a lot of people were turned off by the fauxcest recently in Father is Strange, but I'm just like, "yes give me more!"

Unfortunately this is a catnip that's pretty controversial, so there aren't that many incest/fauxcest dramas these days. Fauxcest pops up rarely, but incest is too daring for most dramas. I've have seen three older things with incest though. The japanese movie Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suro (twins), the kdrama 90 Days of Love (cousins), and the taiwanese drama The Rose (half-siblings). I wouldn't particularly recommend any of them though cause they just weren't that well written.

Well there is one Taiwanese drama 'Devil beside you' where the girl and boy are going-tp-be step sister-step brother... Yet they fall in love and get together in the end without breaking the relationship of their parents!!!

The first drama that came to mind with this catnip is "Winter Sonata" heh

Another trope that came from Jane Austen, I believe. Mansfield Park is the first time I encountered this. She was his 1st cousin that was sent to live with his family as a child. He's the only one nice to her growing up. Of course she'd fall in love with him. Still one of my favorites, if I don't think about the kids they'd have having the same grandparents on both sides, and autosomal recessive diseases they're at risk for! ??

I don't have much of an opinion about this catnip. I'm not too picky as long as it's well written. However, I did watch "Ireland" with Hyun Bin several months ago. That was a incest/fauxcest drama about a Korean adoptee from Ireland going back to Korea and falling in love with someone who may or may not be her long lost biological brother. A very polarizing drama that one was. I liked it since the writer tried to subvert some of the cliches of this trope, but it had its flaws and contained some really cringey Ireland sequences. Definitely not for everyone.

Sassy Go Go ending was rather strange too.

Song Hyegyo kept falling for her oppas ?

Forbidden romance/fauxcest is one of my all time favourite catnip. There is just something about all those fleeting moments shared between the secret lovers in which they have to hide their deeper feelings from all around them. I just love it when one of the two or both just can't hide their feelings anymore and they just let them run wild, so to speak.

I do remember having watched quite a few dramas featuring this kind of romance. Of the top of my head - and the most recently drama that I have watched with this trope - is Hotel King.

Oh Autumn Fairy Tale made me so mad cause they knew they weren't related, everyone knew they weren't related, yet the dad was being ridiculous. Like, I felt like it wasn't fauxcest cause they made that clear in the beginning when they brought her to her birth mother, but then the dad just kept screaming that is was ?

Oh the Second Lead Syndrome that that show was. Won Bin ❤️❤️❤️

Piano make you cry so much and Ha Neul cried so much and there is also Jo In Sung in the drama. Damo also was good. Damo also frustrated me the girl being in between 2 guys and loving them equally. Tree of Heaven. Autumn love story made me cry so much at their forbidden romance and also amazing second lead- Won Bin.
I didnt watch Nine: Nine times travel though.

Korean manhwa "Flowers of Evil" is truly tragic but it's my favorite. I guess Im also into reading/watching forbidden love stories

the 1st two dramas that came to mind aren't kdramas: Hundred Million Stars From the Sky, which i haven't watch but looking forward to the tvn remake, & my ultimate love, The Rose from Taiwan.

im still waiting for kdramas to venture into this risky theme.. *smirks, OOPS*

I would never consider this to be my catnip but--I don't know if any of y'all have read the book series The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare? The Main-tp of the series spends some time believing that they are siblings and there's a scene where Clary has to kiss the person she wants to kiss most with her boyfriend and her brother in the room--and she kisses her brother to the heartbreak/delight/ick/amusement of everyone in the room. The series has been made into a tv show--Shadowhunters--and they showed a preview for this scene in an upcoming ep and the pain of the kiss wasn't that Clary didn't choose her boyfriend. The pain was that she choose Jace even though he's her brother. In this past episode everyone learned that Clary and Jace aren't related and I found myself not really caring--the force behind the kiss was the incest not the cheating. So, maybe I have a bit of this catnip in my heart as well? I'll give one ago when I have some time (HA) for a marathon. Something that has a happy ending I refuse REFUSE to watch anything thats not going to end happy. *shrug*

This is something difficult for me to get behind, though I do understand the appeal of the will-they-or-won't-they and the ensuing tension. The reality that the leads might be related, even if they just grew up together as family and not really related in blood... it immediately becomes a catNOPE as the first comment said. ✌?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
Sorry but no!! please no!! I can't handle it. Even in KMHM I couldn't bear the second lead's love. Blood relation or not (if adopted) , siblings are siblings, anything else is just gross >.<

Definitely catnope for me too. fauxcest may be fine as it's just a case of impatiently waiting for the truth and courage to take action. But for real incest, it's like encouraging people to prey on their daughters and sons and little siblings. Sexual abuse propaganda *shudder*

Don't have a problem, because fauxest isn't incest. Can I imagine falling in love with my brother? Hell, no. But Fauxest in dramas is usually between people who didn't grow up as siblings. So not being blood related, it can work for me in dramas. I think I am one of the few people who loves "One fine day.

I remember watching Autumn tale and was so amazed by the writer that she knew what she was writing. The romance came so naturally and I think it's one of the best forbidden couples in a kdrama. The couple were truly soulmates. They were together as siblings and always got along so well. Then they found they weren't siblings at all. The separation only made feelings grew stronger and love was transform into something bigger than sibling love. It was my first otp that show unconditional love.

Another couple that I totally rooted was in Damo. The chemistry was all over.

Quite my catnip but not... I'm more of a real sibling/cousin incest fan! gaaahhh anydrama with this catnip? I haven't heard of one ever~

So I think I'm one of those rare people where this is a TOTAL catnip for me as well. Though to be honest, for me it's more the premise of two people who by circumstance or personal barriers feel like they cannot express how they feel for the other person. The reasons can range from class divide, familial conflict, personal guilt, whatever. As long as it means that the characters have to hide how they feel from the other person and suffer the angst (though ultimately overcoming it and getting their happily ever after), I am 100% on board.

Maybe it's because I grew up with so many fauxcest stories, but it doesn't bother me at all. For me, it's very strictly in the realm of fiction and fantasy, and doesn't cross over to how I feel about it in real life.