The #406 phone from When The Phone Rings. If it is not a trope 😅 make it one pali. 😱 The drama was sizzling till the time the phone was in the front and center leading the show.🔥

I think 2024 spoiled me. I want the tsundere lead back. *but NOT jerks, not even pretend ones that were married 3 years and tortured her emotionally but actually loved her*
Is a Nice Tsundere possible beanies?

I want to see more mature love stories with a second chance.

If I can only pick one, it might honestly be Contract Relationships. It doesn't get much tropier, but it sets the stage (or results from) so many other tropes I love, and there are few things that kdrama as hard for me.

I was also thinking back to @hopefulromantic 's micro-trope post a few months ago, and there are plenty of micro-tropes I'd love to see more of: brushing hands, focusing on wedding rings, having an honest conversation because one person thinks it's a dream, taking care of each other while sick, and all the little self-referential meta moments! Also (and I mentioned in this week's WWW), I realized I really love when two characters are in a fake relationship, they get asked something personal (like how they met), and one gives the real answer, totally taking the other by surprise! I just saw it in No Gain No Love, but I think the greatest example is in Search WWW. Get's me every time!

Female centered stories with healthy sismance ❤️❤️❤️
Cohabitation
Sweet mobsters ❤️❤️❤️❤️

More cats and dogs randomly walking past in the background.

In last few years, Child actors have been exceptional. I would like to see a show that focused on children (and not used as a flashback to explain how their adult versions are messed up.)

Tropes I started thinking of recently: rain kisses & "there's only one room/ bed". Oldest tropes in the book and Korea doesn't use them nearly enough (if they ever use them to begin with).

Also: trope reversals! A lot of the big tropes (especially in romances) are starting to tire me because of how one-sided they are. It's always the same thing. Switch it up already!

I know that asking for leads that act like adults is a lot, but could we have grown up in stead of frightened maidens?

More tragic swordsmen with manes of glory, please!

Dramas with meta- like Business Proposal or CLOY or LOTBS where theres a drama within the drama or they're poking fun at drama tropes.

I want fantasy dramas that have fun with their rules or world building. With the characters feeling a little lost/confused/out of place and the leads trying to figure out what to do together... Or just something like W, Faith, Mr. Queen, Oh My Ghost (and if we can get the chaotic couples back, like those four, then thank you very kamsa).

A trope I love and it's not often used: the ML or the FL starts the story liking/in love with a third person, but for different circumstances, he/she ends up falling in love with someone else: the other main lead (and the viewers know from the start they will be the OTP).

Slow burn. Give me slow burn.
I don’t need the leads to start shooting hearts in 4 episodes. I want to see the progression, slowly and steadily. Take your time with building it up shows. Take your time.

Contract marriage. I don’t care if it’s overdone or old-fashioned or silly, I need more.

Slightly related addendum - lead/supporting pairs with actual chemistry. While we did have some memorable ones for the books in 2024, lord knows there were a lot more duds. No more of that! What happened to chemistry tests?

I also want more dramas about married/divorced couples or just the dating era of our OTP.
I want the problem to be them. Their relationship, and not random external factors.

clever maids moonlighting as assistant ninjas
women who do heavy jobs, maybe a builder or a truck driver
supernatural cohabitation ALWAYS works for me
people having queer friends bc it is normal
a character identifying nonbinary
a female character who doesnt own a lot of make up (I dunno if thats possible in Korea? It seems even the poorest girl has a whole salon at home)

one thing I have long been disturbed by is that big dogs, german chepards, belgians - in dramas, almost always mean and try to attack. small dogs, lapdogs - cute puppies WHEN THEY ARE LITERALLY THE MEANEST. just admit that a spitz can gnarl off your toe. So I want a big mean looking dog being the true lovebabo that they are. and a small dog being the petty little shit

a couple where neither really knows how to cook just one is sligtly less terrible (realistic)

All of these tropes mentioned so far sound good to me!

I also love when either the ML or the FL secretly does things to support the other one that only the viewer is privy to. We're seeing this now in Love Scout. Maybe that's why I'm enjoying it so much 🥰

Can we have the plot setting in the countryside? Anything besides Seoul?

Like Flowers in Sand was lovely, knowing about ssireum was extra! Our Blues in Jeju showed the many sides of what makes a community. Racket Boys' coming of age in the country was simple but highly enjoyable.

I like it when tough, masculine, even tsundere characters are shown behind closed doors freaking out with social anxiety.

OTP surviving the finale safe, sound and together - what? Have you seen my 2024 watchlist? There's more corpses in there than at our local cemetery!

Maybe not a trope? But I'd enjoy seeing more great opening credits, especially those that integrate graphic art. Although the show seems to be coming up short, the opening credits of GUARDIANS OF DEFANG are muscular, inventive, visually arresting and fit well with the opening theme. To me, these opening credits are works of art and especially creative.

More historical dramas with less politics and tragedy. I’m sure there were plenty of people back then who loved perfectly good lives without ever involving the king and his court

I want more Cinnamon Roll MLs (TM).

Please and thank you, K-Drama Gods.

A guy yelling "CHEONHAAAAA PLEASE KILL ME" actually getting killed on the spot.

fantasy stories! gumihos and goblins!
sageuks with lots of fan fighting (wait, do koreans also fight with fans?) and lots of twirling saves!
contracts marriage/cohabitation/chaos!
soul swaps and mistaken identities!
and maybe a holo or an android ♥️

I want people tumbling over and being caught by each other ALLLL the time. Like, they are actually accident-prone. Some of them can't even stand up. And staircases with too short or too slippery steps is an important part of how the birthrate turns out to be.

I really really want to see more of a “forbidden/impossible” love story. But not like incest-forbidden-type of story. More like:

- large age differences
- alien/human
- different cultures/races
- Romeo-and-Juliet
- extreme economic/class difference
- maybe even some mythical or supernatural barriers

I love seeing how the main leads grapple with these differences and endure all for the sake of being with each other. Because what’s more love than the courage to let go of the bit of yourself to understand better your loved one?

Birth Secrets? Yes, please! Can never get enough lost chaebol heirs brought up in poverty. 😊

Also, Count of Monte Cristo-style Return from the Dead & Revenge is always a favourite.

And if you could throw in a few dramas with the Despised & Neglected Child finding love and happiness, that would be nice.

Any trope will do, just less of the random serial killers (way less please).

Not sure how it will turn out in the long run but zero gravity hijinks are fun when just a nudge from Oh Jung-se has uri Minoz cartwheeling endlessly. 🤸‍♂️

After watching Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born

Please bring musicals back as a genre . Singing could be a trope. 😉Korea has such much talent , put it to good use. OSTs are one thing , the actors singing their scene is better. 😍

More theatre too please .

I’ll mention J drama (for the nth time), Futekisetsu ni mo Hodo ga Aru! /Extremely Inappropriate!(2024) a time travel comedy family show that is also a musical. Highly recommend it if you like any of those tropes.

I want to see more successful romances for the assistants, male and female , that always there for our leads, through thick and thin, through lean hard times in a palace drama or handling the hectic schedules of the pickiest chaebol.

The Assistants are there in historical dramas often as servants or slaves (can be a royalty bff ) and in the skyscraper towers of the chaebols as the Secretary .

Not only in Rom/Coms, but across all genres , Drama writers, please consider 🙏