IRIS VS Athena: Which Came Out On Top?
Posted by Eunice
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Action dramas IRIS and its spin-off Athena have
been compared by many, so I’ve decided to also
write up a post that compares the two to each
other. I’ll be using the criteria that I wrote about in
the “ Important Factors of a Good Drama” post
that I published a while ago. In the end of this
comparison post, you can decide which drama
trumps the other one. [SPOILERS INCLUDED!!]

1. Genre
Both IRIS and Athena are action-packed dramas
that also include love stories so I can’t compare
the two dramas in the ‘genre’ aspect.

2. Plot
Plot is a little bit different than genre. The plots of
IRIS and Athena are both quite different but also
similar due to their genres. In my opinion, both of
the plots are very strong in their own unique
ways. You can read my explanation of the plots
below.

IRIS starts off with two men (Kim Hyunjoon and
Jung Joonho) who as close as brothers. They enter
the security agency NIS together. Both fall in love
with the same woman, but only one gets her. The
sweet pair of lovers (consisting of Kim Hyunjoon
and Choi Seunghee) go off to Japan and blissful
scenes of their blooming love are shown. Later in
the drama, various events happen, causing Kim
Hyunjoon to believe that Choi Seunghee is dead;
Choi Seunghee thinks the same of Kim HyunJoon.
So then the lovers are separated. During the
separation, we have the addition of another
character – Kim Sunhwa, who is an agent from
North Korea. Kim Hyunjoon captures her when she
was sent on a mission to catch him and he spares
her life. She falls in love with him but he’s still
thinking about Choi Seunghee. Later in the drama,
much to their disbelief, Kim Hyunjoon and Choi
Seunghee see each other again. Sadly, Kim
Hyunjoon is believed to be on the ‘evil’ side when
in reality, he’s still on the good side. Jung Joonho
instead turns and becomes evil while everyone
else thinks that he’s good. The brothers become
enemies. I found this drama sad because it’s not
just about love between a man and a woman, but
between to guys who were best friends. They
trusted each other, talked to each other, played
with each other. But in the end, their relationship
ended up being broken – the trust was broken, the
friendship broken..I found it truly sad.
Athena opens up with an action scene of Son Hyuk
and Yoon Hyein beating some guys up, each in
separate locations, but working together. It leads
you to initially think that these two are the good
guys beating up the bad guys, but we later find
out that it’s actually the opposite. Which is quite
interesting since the good guys were the
protagonists in IRIS and here in Athena, the
protagonists consist of good and bad. Fast forward
a few years from the first scene, and Son Hyuk
returns to Korea from another country. Yoon Hyein
lived a quiet life for the past few years, working as
a museum guide. Lee Jungwoo meets Yoon Hyein
at an amusement park and falls for her right
away. However, she does not share these feelings.
After this encounter, Lee Jungwoo tries to get
close to Yoon Hyein, but she keeps distancing
herself from him. In Italy, on a mission for NTS
(the anti-terrorist organization, like the NIS of
IRIS), Lee Jungwoo sees Yoon Hyein and sees that
she’s actually not the soft museum guide he
thought. He thinks that she’s a black agent that
came to help out in the mission. Back in Korea,
Yoon Hyein joins NTS when in reality, she’s in
Athena. She becomes a spy for Son Hyuk, who
saved her from a fire when she was young.
Throughout the course of the drama, however,
Yoon Hyein falls in love with Lee Jungwoo and she
turns from bad to good. Oh yes, and also, can’t
forget about Jaehee, who also works at NTS. She
was Lee Jungwoo’s old girlfriend and she still
harbors some feelings for him. But don’t worry,
she’s not the evil girl that you’ll hate.

3. Length of drama
IRIS was 20 episodes long, and the same goes for
Athena, so I can’t compare the two in this
category.

4. Ratings
IRIS started off with a 25% rating and maintained
a strong lead at a pretty consistent 30% rating
throughout the entire drama.
Athena also started off well with a 25% rating and
high expectations brought upon from the success
of IRIS. However, unlike IRIS, Athena was unable
to maintain its lead and started falling behind as
its ratings became lower and lower every week.
However, it kept its two digit ratings, which is
actually pretty good, but just a bit disappointing
since it didn’t get all the love that IRIS got. Quite
sad indeed. I guess that we could credit this to the
high expectations that everyone had for this spin-
off.

5. Reviews
Most people say that they like IRIS more than
Athena, but then there are some that find Athena
better than IRIS. What can I say? Reviews are
written by people who are not always very
objective (including myself). I’ve read both sides
of the argument, and I can’t really comment about
both, but so far, I’ve seen more reviews rooting for
IRIS.

6. Main cast
The main cast of IRIS is very VERY good – Lee
Byunghun AND Kim Taehee in one drama?! Plus,
they’re the main leads. In addition, Kim SoYeon,
another pretty reputable actress, is in this drama
as one of the main four. Another actor (errr…not
really) in this drama that added to its popularity is
TOP from popular Kpop group Big Bang. No
wonder IRIS received so much publicity before it
even started airing! And yes, I started watching
because of the cast. It really does matter.
The main cast of Athena is not as popular – well,
at least for me. I didn’t know any of the actors or
actresses in Athena except for Siwon, and I
wouldn’t even consider him 100% actor material.
Jung Woosung makes his return to the small
screen for the first time in 14 years. I never heard
of Cha Seungwon until I started watching Athena.
He has actually been in many movies and dramas,
but I just didn’t watch the ones that he acted in.
As for the actresses, I saw SooAe in 9 End 2 Outs
but that drama didn’t leave a lasting impression
on me much. The other actress that makes up the
main cast of Athena is Lee JiAh, also a new face for
me. However, my sister saw her in Beethoven’s
Virus.

7. The first few episodes
Hooked me. Both dramas managed to hook me.
What hooked me? The blooming love story
between the leads did. In both IRIS and Athena,
the lead couples were too cute. The chemistry was
also very visible and kept me going (heheh).
As for the action, both dramas delivered well.
There was nonstop action, the evil guys were all
over the place – loved it. I don’t watch that many
action-packed dramas since there aren’t that
many in existence, but I enjoy watching American
movies that have lots of action in them. Also, IRIS
and Athena both came out when I needed a nice
change from the normal romantic comedy or
melodramatic drama.

Another highlight in both of these dramas was all
the places that the staff actually went to in order
to shoot. They went to Europe and Japan in IRIS
and Athena. I loved the scenery – it was so
beautiful to watch along with the action.
8. Beginning, Middle, and End
I felt that Athena was very much like IRIS (no
surprise there). I already commented on the
beginning of both of these dramas.

For me, IRIS wasn’t draggy at all. Probably
because it’s the first action drama I saw and so
much happened, keeping me on my toes at all
times. The relationships intertwined in IRIS as well
as all the action, the plot, everything – it broke my
heart but mended it again. After each episode, I
wanted more. And since it was so hard to find this
drama in subtitles, so it became really rewarding
when I finally found episode all subbed so that I
could watch it. If you find our past posts on this
site, I always made posts about a new episode of
IRIS being subbed.

As for the end of IRIS, it was pretty horrible – the
main guy DIES. We finally have our main leads
reunited and happy, but as Kim HyunJoon drives
to Choi Seunghee with a ring in his hand, he gets
shot. And then the drama ends. I was very
unhappy with this ending. I know that this is an
action drama and all, but still, it should end
happily.

Now for Athena – in the middle of the drama, I felt
that although there was lots of action and many
events happening, it was starting to get draggy
and repetitive. I wanted to see more development
in the relationships between characters and the
revelations of the truth in everything. Luckily, this
drama started to redeem itself. People started
changing and the plot started to improve.
I was dreading the end of Athena to come about
as I didn’t want it to be another disappointing,
horrible, sad ending like IRIS‘. Luckily, it wasn’t.
The bad guys are all gone and the end was
peaceful. Although I did hope for a bit more, I am
still satisfied with this drama’s ending. I mean
hey, at least it didn’t end like IRIS did.
Which drama do YOU think was better?
Maybe not just based off of my personal
evaluation, but yours. Especially for those of
you who saw both dramas, which one stuck
to YOU more? Comment below!


www.wannabefob./2011/03/02/iris-vs-athena-which-came-out-on-top/

I still prefer iris

I lik both but iris is d most watch amng d two.

Both are how many seasons and they completed? Plus are they adult film?