Trope Gone Wrong: Viewers Icked By “Perfect Crown” IU And Byeon Woo Seok Linking Arms

“It’s just funny.”

A trope that usually has K-Drama fans swooning is unexpectedly backfiring, and it’s happening to two of the industry’s biggest stars.

10+ K-Drama Couples Who Have The Cutest Height Differences

In Perfect Crown, starring IU and Byeon Woo Seok, viewers have been fixated on the pair’s noticeable height difference. While a tall male lead paired with a noticeably shorter female lead has almost always been a guaranteed win with audiences, such was not the case for IU and Byeon Woo Seok’s pairing, reportedly with a height gap of nearly a foot. Instead, a viral post on theqoo showed the opposite is happening.

“Perfect Crown” co-stars IU (left) and Byeon Woo Seok (right) | MBC

Rather than finding the height difference cute or endearing, many viewers admitted it felt awkward on screen, particularly during scenes where the two are physically close. One moment that drew significant attention involved the characters linking arms, but commenters said it came across as stiff and oddly mismatched.

그리고 둘이 팔짱은 끼지마라 ㅈㅉ아닌거같다 pic.twitter.com/4kOLfE4XkD

— 밤새 (@gcda_v) April 24, 2026

You two should never link arms. This looks seriously wrong.

— @gcda_v/X

Instead of enhancing the romantic tension, the height gap seemed to emphasize a lack of natural flow between the actors, with some describing the scene as uncomfortable to watch.

Throughout the discussion, reactions leaned toward secondhand embarrassment rather than toward excitement. Several viewers pointed out that the physical dynamic felt exaggerated, almost as if the staging was highlighting the difference too much rather than letting it blend naturally into the scene. Others tied their discomfort to a broader criticism that has followed the drama since its release—that the chemistry between the leads hasn’t fully landed. Without that underlying connection, even a familiar romantic trope struggled to resonate.

| theqoo

• Honestly, if the height difference between a man and a woman is too big, it doesn’t look great. If you’re going to cast a guy as tall as Byeon Woo Seok, it might look better visually to cast a woman over 165cm, too. For Lovely Runner, they cast a smaller female lead, too, but that was OK because the whole plot was about a “cute little girl” chasing after him. But here, I think a taller, more prominent female lead would have been much better.
• LOL. The height difference is so big it’s not even heart-fluttering, it’s just funny.
• The composition (framing) is kinda bad…
• They look like a dad and his kindergarten daughter LOL.
• I’m rewatching Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, and Park Bo Young and Park Hyung Sik also had a big height difference, but it didn’t feel this awkward or childlike…
• Sigh…
• In Lovely Runner, the female lead was constantly in heels, or they kept using stepping blocks to match their height.
• Isn’t Hye Yoon pretty short, also? But they still matched really well… This feels like a directing issue.
• It’s not just the height difference… Honestly, it also looks like there’s an age gap.
• This feels like something that could’ve been fixed with better directing… what a shame.
• This is how people with their height difference look IRL. With that big a height difference, the physique gap naturally becomes noticeable, too. The “ideal” height gap for that fluttery feeling is more like 15–20cm, IMO.
• It’s not even about height or build. They just don’t have chemistry…

Read more about the ongoing criticism that the once-highly anticipated show is facing now:

IU And Byeon Woo Seok’s K-Drama Hit With Scathing Reviews