The drama has received a lot of interest from netizens because of its casting. It stars Park EunBin (who plays Lee Hwi), SF9’s RoWoon (who plays Jung JiUn), Nam YoonSoo (who plays Lee Hyun), VICTON’s ByungChan (who plays Kim GaOn), Bae YoonKyung (who plays Shin SoEun), and DIA’s Jung ChaeYeon (who plays No HaKyung). The K-Drama is originally based on a manhwa converted into a webtoon called “Yeonmo (연모)” written by Lee SoYoung. You can read the introduction to the webtoon to learn more about the characters. You can also read the webtoon in Korean here. Although the webtoon and K-Drama are not exactly the same, none of the differences drastically change the story. However, you might find some of the differences interesting. So, here is a randomly ordered list of 6 differences between the “The King’s Affection” K-Drama and the webtoon. WARNING: This article contains [BIG SPOILERS] for episodes 1-9 of the webtoon and episodes 1-10 of the K-Drama. It might also potentially spoil the remainder of the drama as the webtoon is faster-paced. Read at your own risk!!!
1. The storytelling style
In the K-Drama, the first couple of episodes explained the most important backstory that we needed to know. In the webtoon, the story goes back and forth between the present and the past. We learn about major past events as related events happen in the current story.
2. Different character names and roles
In the K-Drama, Jung JiUn is the main romantic lead. He is the royal tutor and his father is the inspector Jung SeokJo. Whereas, the equivalent of his character in the webtoon has a different name and job altogether. His name is Jeong MiSoo and he is a guard warrior, who is the son of a princess. Jeong MiSoo becomes Lee Hwi’s bodyguard. In the webtoon, there is no Kim GaOn character because half of the things he does in the K-Drama are carried out by Jeong MiSoo’s character in the webtoon. In other words, Jung JiUn and Kim GaOn’s characters merge into one in the webtoon. More on this later. K-Drama character Lee Hyun also has a different name, too. In the webtoon, he is still Lee Hwi’s cousin and they are still close but he is called Ja EulSan.
3. Reversed gender roles
In an interesting twist, unlike in the K-Drama, Lee Hwi is not the only character who has to pretend to be a different gender. In the webtoon, Jeong MiSoo also had to live a part of their life in hiding and under the guise of being a woman. The first time that Lee Hwi and Jeong MiSoo meet, they meet disguised as their opposite genders. When they meet again years later Jeong MiSoo appears in front of Lee Hwi as his true identity, a man. In the K-Drama, Jung JiUn meets Lee Hwi for the first time as a girl. Note: Lee Hwi will sometimes be referred to as they/them to prevent any confusion whilst reading. Additionally, in the K-Drama Lee Hwi knows since they were young that they are actually a girl. In the webtoon, it seems like Lee Hwi’s character (at a young age) had to figure out that they were a girl. In the webtoon, there is a scene when Lee Hwi asks why the eunuchs go to the bathroom standing up and Lee Hwi’s grandmother has to tell Lee Hwi that they are a girl just like her. Lee Hwi has been raised as a boy and must not have known the difference whilst growing up.
4. Who the king is throughout the story
In the K-drama, at least from episodes 1 -10, the king remains King HyeJong (Lee Hwi’s father). We learn the fact that the king is ill with a foot disease, but he remains on top of the throne. In the webtoon, however, King HyeJong becomes ill and passes away. He proclaims Lee Hwi as the king as he dies.
5. The relationship between Lee Hwi and King HyeJong
In the webtoon, Lee Hwi and King HyeJong (Lee Hwi’s father) seemed to have a better relationship. It is not an affectionate relationship but it seems like Lee Hwi’s father tries to look out for Lee Hwi by preventing him from being involved in complicated royal affairs. As mentioned before, he also proclaims Lee Hwi king before he dies. However, in the K-Drama, they make it seem like the king favors Prince JeHyeon (his other son) and we have yet to learn if he fully trusts Lee Hwi. On top of that, in episodes 1-10 of the K-Drama, the king seems unaware that Lee Hwi is a girl. In the webtoon, before he dies it is revealed that he knew Lee Hwi was a girl all along which is why he protected them from a lot of things.
6. Certain scenes and their storylines
Although the webtoon and K-Drama mostly match each other, some scenes and storylines have been changed a lot. For example, in the K-Drama Kim GaOn gets stabbed by the Chief Eunuch of the Ming Dynasty’s guard whilst defending Lee Hwi. In the webtoon, Jeong MiSoo gets stabbed whilst defending Lee Hwi but it happens during a hunt. There are a couple of other scenes that happen differently, too. These are only a few of the differences that we’ve spotted. Have you spotted any other differences between the drama and the webtoon for “The King’s Affection”? What do you think of the differences? Let us know in the comments below! If you would like to read about more K-Dramas that are different from their webtoons, check out this article. Here are some other webtoons that are different to their K-Drama: 15 K-Dramas That Are Different To Their Webtoons KDRAMA STORIES|Sep 15, 2021
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