It may be lucky for my enemies, but I’m not a very vengeful person. Don’t get me wrong, I can be petty, spiteful even, but I’ve never gone out of my way to get my revenge on anyone. That being said I love revenge stories, especially if the main character really screws over everyone that wronged them. There is something that’s so cathartic about it and it just keeps me wanting more. Now you may have your own personal genres that you enjoy when it comes to revenge stories. I find that I enjoy revenge stories with a female lead, and her scumbag partner cheats on her for his really b*tchy ex, her step-sister, or even her backstabbing best friend. It’s all good because the female lead will almost always end up with someone significantly richer and better looking than her scumbag ex. Now, that’s the base for most of the stories I enjoy, but there are a several split ups so I’m not completely reading or watching the same thing over and over again.
The Classic
When I refer to the classic, it’s the basic betrayal story as I described above. Typically the female lead is quite friendly overall, maybe she has a little bit of spunk to her personality. For the most part she is very trusting which lead her to unfortunately be the perfect victim to be cheated on. It’s all good, because the male lead, who is either her secretly rich CEO friend, Prince/Duke, or just extremely powerful person, is there to pick up all the pieces. No matter how kind the female lead is, her new man will secretly plant the seeds of destruction on her ex and whoever he cheated on the female lead with. The best stories will have the male lead treating the female lead like a princess and spoil her with the best things in life that she rightfully deserves. The story more commonly shows that kindness goes a long way, at least for the female lead. That if people see your good heart that others may help you fight your battles with you. Very basic and satisfying, there might be some twists and turns to add more drama to the story, but with solid writing this basic formula is used over and over for a reason.
God mode
Playing off of the classic formula, what changes is that our female lead is actually extremely cool and competent. Instead of needing to rely on a man to get her revenge she is able to do it all on her own. Either thanks to secretly coming from the richest family in town, or she was hiding that she was extremely talented/skilled. It’s almost scary how talented the female lead is, but I love the element of independence the she has. And while she will still typically have her equally powerful male lead to stand by her side, while helpful, he is often one step behind as our powerhouse of a heroine takes matters into her own hands to show her ex just what he is missing out on. There is an element of satisfaction when they beg for forgiveness when they find out how much the female lead actually supported them or could have supported him had he not cheated. I’m not sure about you, but if you ever had a relationship where someone doesn’t truly value the effort you put into the relationship, don’t you just secretly wish that your ex would come to regret the break up, regardless on who initiated it? Or maybe I’m just the egotistic weirdo that likes validation for my efforts. Regardless theses types of stories scratches that itch at the back of my mind for times when I want to live vicariously through someone else.
Time rewind
What exactly is time rewinding? It’s when the female lead unfortunately meets her demise at the beginning of the story, usually at the hand of her ex and his partner. Regardless if it was a accident or intentional, the female lead warps back in time with her memories intact of what lead to her death the first time. Now that she know exactly what her ex and his partner are up to she can more narrowly escape all the nasty tricks that they used against her. Often she will recruit the male lead, regardless if they had a any type of relationship prior or not, to help her with her schemes. I love seeing the frustrations on the ex and his partner as they are puzzled why the female lead is so easily escaping from their plans. In some instances the female lead is also able to help innocent characters that were also betrayed or killed due to various circumstances. The point is she is making the best of her prior knowledge and has the determination to change her fate!
Tropes I absolutely despise
Even though I love these stories, there are elements to these stories that I also hate to the core of my being. Unless the writing is amazing, I will drop these stories as soon as it gets slightly boring or a pain to read/watch. One of the tropes is the “Whoops I slept with wrong person” where the female lead will “accidently” sleep with the male lead unknowingly as a trap set by the ex and his partner. Usually the scheme is so that the ex and his real partner can blame the female lead on the break up, by making her sleep with someone they hire or an ugly old man for “business reasons“. That start to the story never sat right with me because it romanticizes sexual assault because at least the male lead is attractive. It also downplays the fact that the female lead was r*ped! That is a deeply traumatizing event to happen to someone! It’s even worse because it sometimes sets up the single mother trope, where the female lead typically raises the child on her own until she reunites with the man that assaulted her. But again, it’s ok because he is hot and rich, so all is forgiven.
Another trope that I hate is when the male lead is pretty forceful and at times straight up emotionally abusive towards the female lead. The weird over possessiveness of the male lead can get so toxic, especially when the it wasn’t even the female lead’s fault in the first place. She can’t control what other characters do or how they interact with her, so why are you getting mad at her? It’s often hidden as that he is just really passionate about the relationship, but for me it just gives me uncomfortable red flags that I can’t personally get behind.
Recommendation
With all my yapping, clearly I must have SOME recommendations for people to check out, and the answer is of course. One of my favorites in particular is 간을 빼앗긴 아내 / A Wife’s Sweet Revenge. This story tells of a woman that is betrayed by her husband and his family after she donates her liver to his mother. There is a lot of drama, some sexual manipulation (but not explicit), and tragedy. I couldn’t stop reading once I started, however I would recommend stopping at the end of the main story. Even though the continuation does add some depth and background to the characters, establishing their motivations, it’s just really frustrating to read. Granted this story is not for everyone, especially for people feeling uncomfortable with how the heroine chooses to manipulate others with her body. However if you can see past that element of the story it’s a great read if you have a chance to check it out!