recently i was watching secrets of the shadow sect and judge from hell and i realized that i've never seen many productions that have a morally grey or dubious FL, so i wanted to ask for recommendations here.

ps: it can be from any country!

Get Karl! Oh Soo Jung she's a gold digger, no excuse for her. But she gets some character growth through the drama. Old drama though!

I Have a Lover she's a villain. She's greed and ambition personified. A lot of growth for her. 

So Wayree usually in dramas, the FL is misunderstood by the ML who starts treating her like shit before realizing he was mistaken, and then he starts being nice? That, but in reverse. She puts the guy through the ringer for a long time before she starts to come around. (Although this is an unpopular opinion, as some people feel like he deserved the treatment). 

 mahiba:

Get Karl! Oh Soo Jung she's a gold digger, no excuse for her. But she gets some character growth through the drama. Old drama though!

I Have a Lover she's a villain. She's greed and ambition personified. A lot of growth for her. 

So Wayree usually in dramas, the FL is misunderstood by the ML who starts treating her like shit before realizing he was mistaken, and then he starts being nice? That, but in reverse. She puts the guy through the ringer for a long time before she starts to come around. (Although this is an unpopular opinion, as some people feel like he deserved the treatment). 

thank you so much!!!! 

Some of these might work for you:

Blood Free (FL has no idea whether she's good or evil. Opinions vary.)
The Witch's Diner (FL does naughty thing, then not so smart things.)
Hyena (You don't get more morally grey than this.)
Hotel del Luna (FL is not too concerned about doing penance for her many, many sins. But, damn, the eye candy in this thing!)
Doctor X (Fights the power by projecting a massive god complex of her own.)
 I Hear Your Voice (FL is incompetent, selfish, and altogether not very nice. Got so fed up with her that I dropped it.)

  • The Blue Whisper: Part 1 - She does bad things and works for bad people and has questionable morals but is ultimately righteous Kidnapping, manipulation, torture, traitor
  • Dong Lan Xue - Questionable morals and a thirst for revenge the killing type
  • Lie After Lie - Questionable morals and actions but with honourable reasons stalking, lying, manipulation
  • Wake up to Fantasy - Ruthless and cruel kinda implied that she was pretending? but she still did p nasty shit
  • Monster Hunt - More comedic but yeah Cruel and heartless
  • Secret of Three Kingdoms - Questionable morals and actions but with honourable reasons Careless of people's lives, cruel and heartless
  • Kingdom: Ashin of the North Ruthless and cruel with reasons Vengeful, starting a zombie apocalypse, mass genocide
  • Vigilante  - Unhinged with questionable morals Very pro-vigilantism, unhinged
  • Evol - Unhinged with questionable morals along the lines of 'maybe being evil isn't bad'
  • My Name - Questionable morals and a thirst for revenge murder, manipulation, lying, betraying
  • Beyond the Dream - Questionable morals due to trauma abuse of power, romantically taking advantage of a disadvantaged person
  • Ye Cheng Fu - 'righteous' to the point it 360s back. Abusive towards her love interest and generally not a good person  
  • Rise from the Ashes - Revenge driven but ultimately righteous
  • + Hotel del Luna

Villain FLs: 

yall, thanks for the recs <3

 emeraldarrows:

thanks!!!

I think Anna and Miss Ripley fit your criteria

 kura2ninja:

I think Anna and Miss Ripley fit your criteria

thank yoou!

Ohhh this is exactly what I love!

Some of my favourites;
+ My Name
Misty
The K2 - her the step mother is the gem
Big Issue - the drama has many flaws sadly but the fl character is a gem.
Inspector Koo - slight more humours but its golden
The Good Wife
World of the Married 
Secret Boutique
Lie after Lie
Hotel del Luna - sadly the romance story is an absolute mess here. But Hong sister dramas are often like that. Still, Fl is golden.


Chinese/Taiwan;
Kidnapping Game - oh lord....this is one of the best dramas when it comes to realistic portrayal of romance scenes. Truly they are golden. And the twist is a gem.
Trinity of Shadows - so here she is not starting out grey but the longer this continues the more she becomes something else. It is one of the best character development dramas I have ever seen. Highly recommend it. Truly it is golden.


oh ho ho fun topic. If you haven't already, you might want to consider joining the AVAC club. They're all about talking about villains. 

  • A classic for a reason, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a good example. I can't give spoilers of who she is in the narrative though. MOVIE
  • Painted Skin and its sequel both are about a dubious fox spirit FL. There's a lot of remakes for this, but I like these ones. MOVIE
  • Girl From Nowhere... idk what the lore is on this character, but she's basically a trickster god in the form of a highschooler. DRAMA (2 season)

thanks guys!!!