Crime Pays

There is a general belief that has held for generations now: “crime doesn't pay”. Well, it would seem to me that dramaland hasn’t gotten the memo because here “crime actually does pay”. Here villains rarely get their due, and when they do it is never as satisfying as we may have wished it. We are left with a want for a deeper revenge (usually on the writers-nim) that we know full well will never be granted to us.

So if, like me, you have been watching dramas for a while, you may have realized that the bad guy rarely goes to prison. Most of the time, they suddenly meet their planned or untimely demise or suddenly find “God” and are redeemed. Here for you are my top 5 most WTF villains' endings.

*****************Spoilers Ahead******************

#5 Crazy Love

Han Na Young (Kim Yun Joo) / Coma

For 100 episodes, Na Young's pure evilness is characterized by a total lack of conscience. This cost her friend's happiness, her friend's daughter's life, and so much more. She is one of the only characters for whom the writers seriously displayed a lack of imagination (maybe writers-nim suffered brain farts) by opting for the not-so-subtle failed suicide attempt that leaves her in a coma. “Hello imagination! Have you left us for good?”  But sadly, Na Young-ssi is the most inoffensive case on this list.

#4 I Hear Your Voice

Min Joon Kook (Jun Woong In) / Character assassination (or how to wish you could get your hands on the writers and @#@#)

Here is a villain that had it all going for him well on his way to “the hall of great psychos that we love to hate”. He was also well on his way to deservedly pay for his crimes without us having to shed a tear over it because *well duh* he is “Evil” *◔_◔*. This gave us hope that writers–nim were on an epiphanic rediscovery that maybe would pave the way for other baddies telling them to watch out for the great revival of common sense and justice in dramaland court. Then *BAM!* the writers got possessed and decided to murder this character's great run as a psycho-vengeful spirit not up for taking any prisoners. Instead, they turn him into a psycho with a soul (*Angel what are you doing in Korea >:O *). Well, for those screaming at me behind your screen that he does pay for his crimes, I ask, was his judgment as satisfying as it would have been if he had remained a remorseless monster?

#3 Faith

Gi Cheol (Yoo Oh Sung) / Self-inflicted iceization (I know people, it's not a word, but "sort-of-induced" suicide did not seem right.)

So here's a villain who, like Lady Mi Shil, made me proud of calling him a villain. He was constant from beginning to end. There were no lucid moments or any semblance of acquisition of a soul at any moment. He stayed clear on his path of being the bad guy and that was enough for a while until I saw his end. Seriously writer-nim *where is my bat :@*; for a guy that murdered, tortured, abused and injured every character that we were supposed to love the only thing you could find to end him was get frozen to death in front of that door that you so wanted to cross. Don't get me wrong people; I get the poetry behind his ending. But still, I could not help but feel cheated out of some deserved vengeance that should have been placed upon him.

#2 Queen Seon Duk

Lady Mi Shil (Ko Hyun Jung) / Suicide (or the only time when taking your life looks cool)

Who in dramaland did not shed a little tear (or cried a rivers TT) at the demise of one of K-drama’s most beautiful and inspiring villains of all time: Lady Mi Shil. Yes, she is indeed one of the most beautiful and deadliest villains of dramaland. Lady Mi Shil perfectly played her role to the point of total disgust from the public. We all weep for the people she killed and manipulated and for the sons she mercilessly used then abandoned. But I doubt that any of us would have liked her to go any other way than her own hand. It just seems to fit her so perfectly (although that's a new stance on her death on my part). While watching QSK, I loved to hate Mi Shil and wished that she had died at the hand of the queen. But with a new perspective on her character, Mi Shil taking her own life was the only choice that made sense. It made her stay true to herself until the end.

#1 May Queen

Jang Do Hyun (Lee Duk Hwa) / Suicide (or how to completely screw people and get away with it)

Jang Do Hyun probably won the prize for “most hated villain” in the past two years that I can remember. After getting away with rape, murder, extortion and whatnot the writers, here again, chose one of the easiest ways for him to pay up. They let our number one scum simply take a dive after a cheap apology to Chun Hae Joo his own daughter that he had been trying to kill since day one. He’s one of the villains for whom his ending seriously was lacking. To me he was bad from beginning to end. Suicide for him was just too cheap a way out. They should have made him suffer a little more. He should have paid a higher price than taking the easy way out after all he had done.

Villains are the bread of dramaland. They make the leads shine or droop (when they are not so stellar), so it's quite normal that writers actually give a little more thought on how to deal with them rather than the half-a** end that we witness often. I hope that you guys had fun revisiting these guys and that part 2 will be more exciting. Do leave suggestions on villains you may want me to revisit or your own little ranking. It may help me for part 2.