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Quotable

Best Lines from Descendants of the Sun

The lines fans of Descendants of the Sun screenshot — a soldier's creed, a doctor's resolve, and a romance that keeps detouring into a warzone.

A special forces captain meets an ER surgeon, and Descendants of the Sun spends sixteen episodes pulling them between Uruk's earthquakes, hostage standoffs, and an epidemic ward while they try to schedule a date. The dialogue swings the same way the show does: a sniper's creed in one scene, a complaint about ruined movie nights in the next. Yoo Si-jin and Kang Mo-yeon argue about duty in the language of jokes; Seo Dae-yeong and Yoon Myeong-ju love each other across a general's veto. The best lines hold both registers at once.

These are lines of dialogue from the series, attributed to the character who speaks them, and shared here for commentary and discussion.

On duty and the uniform

If it's to protect the peace, we will shoot precisely, whenever, wherever.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E01

Yoo Si-jin states his unit's operating principle during the opening DMZ sequence, before he has met Kang Mo-yeon. It is the closest the show comes to a mission statement for the Alpha Team.

Faith that children, beautiful women and the elderly should be protected.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E05

Asked over a meal in Uruk why anyone risks their life for their country, Yoo Si-jin answers Kang Mo-yeon by listing what a soldier's faith comes down to.

War is easy and peace is hard.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E04

Spoken by the recovering Arab League VIP whom Kang Mo-yeon's team operated on against orders, reflecting on the diplomatic mess his survival set off.

On being a doctor in a warzone

Whether it's the South or the North, whichever side you're on, only a doctor can save you.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E14

Kang Mo-yeon insists on treating a wounded North Korean soldier while armed pursuers crowd her ER, refusing to let his allegiance decide whether he gets care.

I protected the peace of the Korean peninsula, but tonight, my friend may die.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E14

Yoo Si-jin says this as Seo Dae-yeong lies critically wounded after the asylum operation, weighing his duty against the man on the table.

On loving someone who keeps leaving

I want us to be in a romantic movie, but we always end up in an action movie.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E09

Kang Mo-yeon complains to Yoo Si-jin while the two of them are picking their way through a live minefield, their latest date interrupted by danger.

Despite all that, Yoo Si-jin is the one I like so damn much.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E12

Kang Mo-yeon admits her feelings out loud after a stretch of pushing Yoo Si-jin away over the dangers of his job.

This is not just a lover's quarrel, it's a war.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E15

Kang Mo-yeon reframes the couple's recurring fights about his deployments, the joke about romance versus action movies now turned literal.

On coming back

I will definitely find you, and I will definitely save you.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E11

Yoo Si-jin's promise during the hostage crisis, after the medicine that could cure Myeong-ju ends up in the hands of black-market dealers.

Will you let go of her hand, or will you become worthy of holding it.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E13

General Yoon lays out the terms to Seo Dae-yeong, the enlisted man dating his daughter Myeong-ju over his objection.

I wrote it over a hundred times because I I wanted to come back to you over a hundred times.
Descendants of the Sun · S1E16

Yoo Si-jin explains the stack of letters he left behind after being presumed dead, having returned to Myeong-ju and Mo-yeon's world. (The repeated 'I I' is verbatim from the subtitle source.)

Why is the national anthem the theme song of my love life?
Descendants of the Sun · S1E15

Kang Mo-yeon's aside as another goodbye to Yoo Si-jin gets staged against military ceremony and yet another deployment.