YMMV / True Beauty (2020)

• Adorkable: There are a few.
  • Suho. His awkward, comically serious personality and his reaction to the first hug between him and Jugyeong is quite endearing.
  • There is Clas 2-5 Homeroom Teacher, Han Joonwoo, as well. He gets flustered and embarrassed easily, especially around Heegyeong, his Love Interest which is... very cute, to say the least.
  • Juyeong, too. He acts like a petty child most of the time and embarrasses himself in front of his crush, Goeun, and fans often find his puppy-like dorkiness cute.
• Ass Pull: Sujin's Face–Heel Turn starting at the end of episode 9 can feel like this. While the earlier episodes foreshadowed in subtle yet still obvious ways that she would become jealous of any relationship between Suho and Jugyeong, her turn from being Jugyeong's best friend to trying to undermine her relationship with Suho and later destroying Jugyeong's reputation still happens extremely suddenly, with essentially no indication that Sujin could be this kind of person. While she does explain her motivations in the series finale, said motivations were still barely even hinted at before and during her turn, making the explanation feel like Retcon.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Suho is either seen as a lonely and emotionally distant but otherwise well-meaning guy with guilt and Daddy Issues who struggles with expressing himself and opening up to others ever since his dear friend's suicide or as a bland, possessive and controlling boyfriend who stalks Jugyeong all the time and cannot make up his own mind regarding her.
  • Jugyeong. One portion of the fanbase believes that she is just an everyday insecure but still cheerful teenager who dealt with enough bullying to make her lose all self-esteem, while the other portion sees her as a spineless idiot who trips on air and runs away at the drop of a hat with no real character development that makes her face her fears and bullies instead of avoiding them. Plus, Jugyeong being painfully oblivious to Seojun's feelings towards her and even straight-up leaving in the middle of him singing for the first time since he quit after Seyeon's death when she was the one who asked him to sing in the first place made people find her annoying and inconsiderate. However, some of these were knee-jerk reactions people initially had prior to her Character Development as of episodes 13-14 where she finally stands up for herself and chooses "fight" over "flight" when dealing with her bullies which changed some people's opinion of her.
    • There's a third portion who goes further and accuses her of stringing Seojun along with how she insists on sticking to him in episode 9 especially since she just entered a relationship with Suho, and with how Seojun was trying to avoid her and make her leave. Even more than before now that she chose to go back to Suho who ghosted her for two years after leaving to the U.S and breaking up with her there instead of choosing Seojun who always took care of her silently and unconditionally, which caused many audiences to react very negatively to her decision as they claimed that it made her seem like she lacks self-respect.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: For a drama that solely relies on Toilet Humour and Cringe Comedy, it doesn't have many, but these two take the cake:
  • The talent contest that was randomly held toward the end of episode 3. It was too brief to be considered a School Festival episode and it served absolutely no purpose to the plot. Basically, Jugyeong is "forced" to participate in the school's talent show where she chooses to dance to the song Maria (by Hwasa from Mamamoo). Everyone's reaction to her performance is very random and unrelated to what she just did that the audience can't tell if she did well or badly. The whole thing felt like an excuse from the director just to make Moon Gayoung (Jugyeong's actress) dance on TV.
  • The bizarre and narmy scene where Suho flies into the sky after he was hit by a car. He managed to get suspended in the air long enough to have a Happy Flashback without falling to the ground defying gravity. It doesn't help that Seojun who was hit as well just laid on the street immediately like how it normally happens in real life. The absurdity of the moment made it quickly become a Memetic Mutation.
• Broken Base:
  • Cha Eunwoo's acting. Is he a bland actor with no variety in facial expressions or is it his role (and other similar roles that "backs up" this opinion) that requires him to be stoic and emotionless all the time and that he is actually doing a great job? Plus the fact that he is the only actor who plays a poker-faced stodgy character in the show does not help his case as it gives the illusion that his acting is underwhelming compared to his co-stars who have more expressive and dynamic characters thus making it seem like they are better at acting than him. Negative responses to Eunwoo's acting could also be exaggerated due to him gaining a Hatedom during the airing of the drama. However, his emotional acting in episode 11 has garnered some really positive reactions.
  • The webtoon vs. the drama debate. Audiences are mainly divided into three groups; a group who thinks that the webtoon is way better than the drama and that the adaptation ruined the story and characters, and a second group who thinks that the webtoon is dragging on without reaching a final meaningful Aesop while the drama version handled some issues regarding Jugyeong's character growth and the overall story's message better, and another group who think both works are anti-climatic and focus on the love triangle way too much rather than showing what "true" beauty actually is.
  • Then there is the love triangle -or dodecahedron- itself. Some people believe that the love triangle was not necessary and that the characters should get therapy and focus on themselves instead of relying on love to find happiness. Especially with Sujin, whom many of the viewers became disappointed in for becoming awful and ruining her friendship with Jugyeong "for a man."
• Catharsis Factor: Seojun taking on the role of a Bully Hunter all throughout the 13th episode and throwing the phone of one of Jugyeong's bullies at a wall and threatening them to leave her alone was so satisfying to watch for many.
• Cliché Storm: A rich, aloof and studious main male lead with daddy issues and a contrasting warmhearted second male lead who's much less wealthy and has an unrequited crush on the female lead? Check. A female lead who is cheerful but is dim-witted and clumsy at the same time and gets bullied at school? Check. The female lead is tangled in a love triangle where both guys fight over her all the time but she ends up choosing the cold guy instead of the kind one? Check. The first lead has a female Childhood Friend who's smart and well-off and has a crush on him which makes her become extremely jealous of the first girl? Double check! And this isn't even all of them.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Jugyeong's younger brother, Juyeong, became this due to his eccentric behavior and pretty looks.
  • Seojun's friends, and in particular Choi Manshik, are this as well because of their entertaining moments. Even though Manshik plays a very background role he still got noticed by fans for his good looks on various social media sites.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Jugyeong/Suho is the main couple that end up together but Seojun/Jugyeong is quite popular among viewers AND non-viewers alike, especially due to their initial Pitbull Dates Puppy dynamic that quickly grew into a "dumb and dumber" one as the show progressed. The number of views on their ship clips speaks for itself.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Sujin and Seojun have a bit of a following on Youtube despite not having many interactions. From Seojun's side, he dislikes her for trying to pursue Suho even after she learned that he is dating her best friend and has a rather aggressive interaction with her because of what she did to Jugyeong. From Sujin's side, she tells him off for pretending to be an intimidating thug along with his friends at school in the first half of the show and even calls him childish for his pursuit of Jugyeong. She also usually looks at him with disgust or disapproval whenever he says or does something dumb.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While not exactly unknown in its home country, the series is far more popular with international audiences than with Korean ones.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Suho losing Seyeon to suicide became this when Suho's actor Cha Eunwoo lost his friend and ASTRO bandmate Moonbin in April 2023.^note Though as of April 22, 2023; it's unclear if Moonbin's death was a result of suicide.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Jugyeong is constantly called ugly by almost everyone in the show (even her own family) just for having thick eyebrows, acne, and wearing thick-framed glasses, but the moment she puts on makeup she is suddenly treated like a goddess to the point where one of her old school bullies doesn't recognize her at first because of her makeover.
  • This trope applies to Han Goeun and Hyemin too, who have the same appearance issues as Jugyeong.
• Ho Yay: ALL of Seojun and Suho's interactions after their reconciliation -and even some moments before especially with the amount of intense staring between them- can count as this. Episodes 11 and 12 are packed with this that it even gets lampshaded by one of Seojun's friends when they are caught in a Suggestive Collision.
• Hype Backlash: After trending on Twitter almost every Wednesday and Thursday and the countless heated discussions it sparked, many people felt that the series is overrated and does not live up to its hype, especially since it comes off as a Cliché Storm to them, not knowing that part of the show's hype was because of how popular the original webtoon it got adapted from.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Whenever someone states a negative opinion on the drama expect to see a lot of people chime in to point out that they only watch it for Seojun's character or the pretty cast in general.
• Narm: Suho randomly flying and hanging in the sky after being hit by a car (especially since Seojun just collapses on the street as is expected) was supposed to be a dramatic scene but has become a meme with viewers and non-views alike for how ridiculous it is. It's even more hilarious with how Suho is stuck in the air and is having a flashback all while Seojun is just lying there on the ground. Kpop fans immediately edited their favorite songs into the scene and made hilarious comparisons to it with clips from kpop mvs This thread compiled some of those edits.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Suho, being all Stalker with a Crush and Crazy Jealous Guy, always interrupting all of Jugyeong and Seojun's moments and generally just being there in the background of every scene they have together is sometimes pointed and memed.
  • Jugyeong's (and Seojun's) "Rawwr!". Jugyeong making roaring noises and gestures at Seojun and him imitating hers and asking her to roar for him became popular with fans.
  • Suho suddenly flying in the air in the aftermath of a car accident is very much this as even people who didn't watch the show have seen it and cracked jokes about how unrealistic it was.
• Ron the Death Eater: This is how some viewers see Suho as. While he's somewhat of a jerk to Jugyeong at the beginning (which she calls him out for) and is prone to stalking her (even post-character development) he still changed a lot than he was at the start; he's less brooding and kinder than before. And has also toned down much of his possessiveness toward her by the end of the story. But some fans, however, refuse to acknowledge this and claim that he's a straight-up asshole and creep toward Jugyeong.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: The pairing wars between Seojun/Jugyeong shippers and Suho/Jugyeong shippers. Although it is mostly just people arguing about which guy deserves Jugyeong more, Seojun; the cool biker and funny soft "bad boy," or Suho; the stoic and emotionally distant straight-A student plus rich boy, rather than which ship is better. The fights can get pretty nasty and reach Die for Our Ship heights where some audiences wish that any kind of harm would happen to Suho to make way for Seojun and Jugyeong moments.
• Signature Scene:
  • Seojun dancing to "Okey Dokey" in his leopard-print underwear. The clip of him dancing on tvN drama's channel trended on Youtube and has over 6 million views.
  • The scene where Suho is suspended in the air in episode 10 went viral for its ridiculousness.
  • Jugyeong and Suho's modeling scene in episode 9 also went somewhat viral that even the actor who played the role of the photographer in that scene said he got a lot of love calls after it aired.
• So Bad, It's Good: A lot of the viewers point out that True Beauty's charm is not in its plot or characters but it is in the ridiculousness and cheesiness of the overall show that makes it entertaining to watch. The drama's tendency to have a lot of random unpleasant Cringe Comedy and Toilet Humour moments is also often noted by the audience. Some even admit that they keep up with the show solely for Seojun.
• Stoic Woobie: Suho. He may appear cold and emotionless, but beneath that facade, he's really just a very very lonely guy filled with self-hatred and tremendous guilt over what happened to his friend. The drama makes it a tad worse by having Seojun blame him for Seoyeon's suicide, and telling him that he's a "murderer" that "doesn't deserve to be happy." What makes this even more heartbreaking is that Suho was not only dealing with the loss of a friend but was even shouldering the terrifying thought that he "could have been responsible for his death" and eventually came to believe it. And this isn't even considering his family life, or lack thereof, due to his shitty father. After all this, it's no wonder that he developed psychological issues like depression, and turned out the way he did. It is only during the series, and after meeting Jugyeong, that he finally learns to be happy again, and that his life starts changing for the better.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • At first, it's easy to sympathize with Jugyeong. She's been treated unfairly her whole life just for her looks and was subjected to plenty of humiliation. However, she continued to lie to her friends about her real appearance instead of letting them in on the secret, she's somehow constantly oblivious to Seojun's feelings, and her getting back together with Suho (who proceeded to stalk her after ghosting her for two years, even after she told him to leave her alone) doesn't make one feel like they should pity her.
  • Suho, he's meant to be a sad, broken boy with a troubled past, but his stalking and controlling behavior towards Jugyeong comes off as toxic to some viewers. He straight up tells Jugyeong to quit her job because he doesn't want her to be so close to Seojun.
  • Seojun has his dose of this too, sure he gets the short end of the stick frequently, but him constantly blaming Suho for Seyeon's suicide doesn't make things look good for him.
• The Woobie: Seojun. He reaches new levels of woobie-ness every episode starting from the 8th one where Jugyeong reveals to him that she loves Suho. Every True Beauty episode afterward can be considered a "how can the writers ruthlessly break Seojun's heart this time?" as he has to repeatedly see her be a couple with Suho from afar. The final episode takes the cake for making the viewers feel absolutely bad for him. Jugyeong ends up rejecting Seojun after she let him take her on an ice skating date, then he gives her a final hug and pushes her toward Suho, who just returned from the U.S, then quickly leaves to cry in private while reminiscing some of his (unseen) memories with her.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Fans' reaction to the drama adaptation's massive changes were met with immediate backlash, since the events, tone (from typical comedy to Cringe Comedy), and characters' personalities have changed A LOT from the original webtoon. Suho wasn't this emotionless and possessive in the webtoon, Jugyeong wasn't this clueless and miserable either and she reciprocates Seojun's feelings. The complete removal of her romantic relationship with Seojun is the most change viewers despised. However, this was before the character development they gave Jugyeong toward the end of the series, unlike her webtoon counterpart which does not have any (yet). Fans enjoyed those unexpected changes over the lack of them in the webtoon.