5 K-drama characters who deserved more love than the writing gave them: Squid Game 3 to Crash Landing on You

Few things sting quite like getting emotionally invested in a character, only for the story to quietly abandon them. You fall in love with the potential, follow the careful build-up, and wait for the payoff, just for it to fizzle out entirely. K-dramas, like every entertainment industry, aren't immune to this misstep. So consider this our slightly exasperated Saturday rant: a list of K-drama characters who were simply too good for the writing they were handed.

May we always continue to seethe in anger over Wi Ha-joon's Jun-ho in Squid Game 3. One of the most intriguing, broken and bruised characters from Season 1, he was a man who infiltrated the slaughterhouse where people played children's games for money. If they lost, they died.

At the end of Season 1, he realises that his own brother (Lee Byung-hun) runs the camp, and is shot after this revelation, falling into the sea. In Season 2, he is alive of course, but for the next two seasons he just aimlessly spends on the sea trying to find the actual location of the Squid Games. When he does find it, it's too late.

What a waste, truly of a fine actor like Wi Ha-joon and a character that had so much promise. We deserved to see more of his relationship with his brother, and if not bringing the place down, at least some amount of confrontation, or understood more about the brothers backstory.

Sigh.

Few K-drama endings have sparked as much debate as Reply 1988. Throughout the series, the narrative subtly builds anticipation around Sung Deok-sun’s (Hyeri) future, inviting viewers to take sides between Kim Jung-hwan (Ryu Jun-yeol) and Choi Taek (Park Bo-gum). Jung-hwan, in particular, emerged as the emotional favourite, the kind of quietly devoted character audiences root for instinctively, even as he repeatedly fails to voice his feelings. When the final choice is revealed and Deok-sun ultimately ends up with Taek, many viewers were left conflicted rather than fulfilled. After investing so deeply in Jung-hwan’s restrained sacrifices and emotional restraint, his conclusion feels less like resolution and more like a lingering ache, a reminder of the story that might have been.

I'm probably choosing a list to rage-bait myself, but truly, Jang Han Seo (Kwak Dong Yeon) deserved so much more than what he deserved. A lifelong victim of abuse at the hands of his older brother, Ok Taec-yeon’s brutal, murderous antagonist Jang Jun-woo, Han-seo quietly emerged as one of Vincenzo’s most tragic figures. Despite years of fear and manipulation, he repeatedly put himself at risk to help bring down Babel Group, saving Vincenzo (Song Joong-ki) and Hong Cha-young (Jeon Yeo-been) more than once along the way. And yet, his story ends in the cruelest way possible: killed by the very brother he spent his life trying to escape, reduced to yet another act of silent, self-sacrificing heroism.

Sometimes, second leads truly get the short end of the stick. In Crash Landing on You, while Hyun Bin’s Ri Jeong-hyeok and Son Ye-jin’s Yoon Se-ri are granted a bittersweet version of a happy ending, limited to two weeks a year together in Switzerland, the same grace isn’t extended to their former partners. Seo Ji-hye’s Seo Dan and Kim Jung-hyun’s Gu Seung-jun are left with far more devastating conclusions. Their storylines end not with resolution, but with loss, offering little sense of closure for the characters, or for the viewers who were deeply invested in them.

Viewers often root for the main leads to end up together, but Itaewon Class raises an uncomfortable question: at what cost? Oh Soo-ah was never just a supporting player in a love triangle. She had her own trajectory, her own moral compromises, and a deeply complicated history with Park Sae-ro-yi that ran parallel to his underdog journey. Her so-called “happy ending” never quite rings true. Over time, Soo-ah proves herself to be far more pivotal than the audience initially assumes, she is, after all, instrumental in bringing down Jangga Group as a form of long-delayed retribution for Mr Park. And yet, after everything they shared, her relationship with Sae-ro-yi is reduced to a single phone call. Given the emotional and romantic foundation laid in the first half of the series, that lack of follow-through feels especially disappointing, particularly for viewers who once believed the two were being set up as endgame.

By the finale, Sae-ro-yi himself feels diminished, weighed down by years of guilt, and the belief that his success could never exist without Yi-seol's (Kim Da-mi's ) sacrifices. That remorse reframes the story in an uncomfortable way: Soo-ah emerges as the stronger figure, someone who endured years of isolation and moral compromise while working inside Jangga, fully aware that the man she loved would resent her for it.