Webtoon VS K-drama: The First Night with the Duke

Webtoon to K-dramas always give me this jittery feeling. On one hand, I'm very excited to see who's going to play the characters, and everything comes to life. On the other hand, there have been many adaptations that I hated.

The First Night with the Duke was no different in that aspect, but the first few episodes looked promising. I decided to watch the drama and reread the webtoon to see how much the stories differ and which one is better.

If I'm talking about K-drama, the names would be: Seon Chaek, Gyeong Seong, Eun Ae, etc. When I'm talking about webtoon, I'll use the names there: Ripley, Zeronis, Etoile. At this point, they are separate characters.

Comment on how you feel about this adaptation! Have you read the webtoon?

The secret society meeting

The drama is very keen on trying to make the actual leads fall in love.

The scene itself was funny. We got to see Seon Chaek making her famous cocktails again while trying to make Gyeong Seong and Eun Ae fall in love. Plus, it was a good way to show that the second lead, Su Gyeom, has fallen for Eun Ae. I had no issues with it, but it was never in the webtoon.

The webtoon focused more on the closeness, and only three of them (Ripley, Etoile and Wright) were participants in the afternoon tea.

Both scenes serve the same purpose and are entertaining.

Characters

There are a few characters that were added to the drama: the three brothers and the emperor have a bigger role here, and a random white guy.

They do have some purpose in the drama; the brothers are comedic relief, even if their scenes are not funny. The white guy served his purpose of making Seon Chaek sick, and the emperor gets us to feel that some kind of danger is awaiting the prince.

However, if the drama were without them, nothing would change. Also, the queen had a lot of screen time, which she didn't in the webtoon.

Another good sequence was lost because of unnecessary drama.

In the show, Seon Chaek's father doesn't let her marry Gyeong Seong. It becomes a whole spectacle of them trying to meet each other and get approval.

The webtoon had a funnier plot. Etoile had a stalker, so to get rid of him, Zeronis pretended to be with her. At first, Ripley thought that everything was fine because she knew that it was fake, but seeing them together hurt her.

Both webtoon and drama female leads go to the witch. After, we get the scene where Seon Chaek tries to get into the bedroom to leave a talisman, but Gyeong Seong says he can't let her because he made a promise to her father.

Ripley, instead of a talisman, gets a dreamcatcher. Zeronis is pleased with the gift and teases her in the same way we see in the drama. However, this time they can't go into the bedroom because he's 'dating' Etoile and should not bring another woman there.

There are a lot of these kinds of scenes, where they do a completely different setting from the webtoon, but they both end up in the same place. Personally, the webtoon versions are more amusing to read and giggle, while the drama seems to prolong them too much.

Another example of this would be where Seon Chaek get pushed into a pond while waiting for Gyeong Seong. In the webtoon, Rose openly pushed Ripley off a ship into the sea.

Real life

I liked drama's inclusion of the real world. The novel had changed in real life, together with Seon Chaek, so real Seon Chaek could read about what is happening in that world.

The webtoon includes a talk about the novel; however, it is in its original form. The one that the female lead has read, the real Ripley doesn't know about what is happening. Later, you'll read what I hated about the part of the real world, but this one was cool. Also, when some episodes finished with the novel changing in real life, it was a nice touch.

The plague

Seon Chaek gets sick with the plague, and the prince Gyeong Seong takes care of her. The scene helps her to decide that it's time to take matters into her own hands and stop caring about the book. That means she will pursue the male lead and goes on to show that by participating in the competition.

What I didn't like about the scene is that I felt no sincerity in it, or why Seon Chaek falls in love with the male lead. It was more obvious in the webtoon than in the drama.

Ripley acts like she's injured to get away from marrying the duke. With the help of her maid, Sylvia, she constructs a not-so-elaborate plan which goes very wrong.

She sees another side of Zeronis, who is worried about her. They also have a chat about how she was shoved by her society and friends because another man liked her.

What solidified this scene was her backstory in which she also talks about how she wanted to be loved, like in the novels or how good her friend's relationship seemed, how happy they were.

But because she destroyed everything, she doesn't want to do that again. Ripley also feels like she doesn't deserve love like that.

I also liked how she made sure that Etoile was alright with everything. It made a good time for them to bond and for Ripley to match her with the second lead, Wright.

I feel like the scenes are similar in some aspects, and the drama even had the same dialogue as the webtoon. It also comes to the same conclusion. However, it was missing the unhingeness she was willing to go through, as well as the depth of these characters. I wish they hadn't changed this scene.

There is a change in all the characters that I don't like. Seon Chaek doesn't strive for something more and only cares about Gyeong Seong. In the first half of the series, she has a backbone and still stands alone, but after that, she is completely infatuated with the prince and forgets about everything else.

While reading the webtoon, I noted to myself that Zeronis feels like he's asking: "How can you love me?? Is it possible that you actually love me?". While Gyeong Seong seems a bit more cocky, he knows that Seon Chaek loves him; there is no doubt.

The softness that Zeronis has disappeared in the drama adaptation.

Of course, I have to talk about what they did to my beautiful Eun Ae/Etoile. In the webtoon, she never cared about Zeronis or having some kind of status. Yes, she wants to be accepted, but she's a pure soul. She has a great relationship with Ripley, and her kindness is what makes the character. Etoile is also a quite good businesswoman, and is smart.

Let's say in unison: just because you're kind doesn't mean you can't be a strong female character!

So, I'm not sure if the drama wanted to make her badass or what, but her story completely changed. Here, she is cunning and would do ANYTHING to keep her position and is trying to climb the ladder to a better one.

I would applaud this kind of plot twist if it were a different drama. Now, because I know what we have lost (amazing friendship, great scenes between her and Seon Chaek, and second-lead romance), I can't see it in a good light.

The maid was also stripped of any personality in the drama.

The second prince, or whatever you want to call him. In the drama, he becomes cartoonish and way more evil than in the webtoon. Here, he tries to kill her whole family at one point!

In the webtoon, he is more scheming (we saw that in the drama at first, too). He is acting nice to the female lead until he becomes a creep. Forces Ripley to marry him, and there she decides to kill herself. For context, here everyone is saying that Zeronis is dead, and she thinks it's better to meet him there than be forced to marry this man.

What confused me in the drama is how Seon Chaek had a chance to REWRITE the story, and she still decided to do the bare minimum. She saved her skin for a few more hours.

Couldn't she write that they lived happily ever after and that the second lead was just a dream or something? Girl, be smarter. Anyway, the point is that I hate the differences because the drama doesn't show more of their characters' personalities. They're very one-dimensional.

Yes, Seon Chaek had a chance to fight the second prince, which might be seen as more badass while trying to kill herself, but it forgets to show the dedication that Ripley has.

The webtoon lets Zeronis be smart. When an assassin comes in, he already knows the person because he was looking into ways that the second prince would try to kill him. He was ready for the attack and planned things rather than being just a 'hunting dog'.

In the meantime, Ripley has worked so hard to keep her business, to show people that her only lover is Zeronis. She has made other people trust her.

Nothing in this drama feels earned; it just magically happens. (They even put a 'god' figure in the drama who's rooting for Seon Chaek, so you can already imagine how biased everything is)

Kidnapping

The culprits are different in the kidnapping, but that's not why I put it here. Seon Chaek's reaction to what happened is the reason.

In the webtoon, Ripley runs away, and as she gets caught again, Zeronis kills the kidnapper. That's it. That is the end of his story and the drama surrounding that. Ripley doesn't care much about her kidnapper, and they live happily ever after.

Also, Ripley knew that it was Rose's job, and she got her punishment.

The drama, however, thought it was too simple and opted for an alternative approach. Seon Chaek doesn't let the prince kill the kidnapper, and he is imprisoned. However, the next day, the body of the kidnapper is found, and everyone is blaming Gyeon Seong (including our female lead, who supposedly knows everything about the male lead).

Of course, Gyeong Seong gets upset about it, and there is more drama that comes out of it. The emperor is mad and sends him to war. In the webtoon, it is clear that the war was inevitable, so Zeronis just has to go. And in both versions, they get married alone.

Ripley tries to run away to save them from having the wedding and 'the end'. As always, her plan doesn't work well, and she gets caught by Zeronis. He's furious that once again, she tried to leave him. The scene is emotional as he remembers the feelings from his childhood, when everyone around him disappeared.

He cannot believe that he's just a character from a book. Ripley quotes the scene that only he knows from his childhood. And when even that doesn't seem to work, he decides to believe her no matter what.

Seon Chaek and Gyeong Seong's scene was a bit different in this case.

"I'm from another world, and this is a novel that I'm scared will end soon."

"I don't care who you are. I love you, let's get married."

Do you see where I'm coming from? I understand that the drama wants to waste time on useless things, but there is so much potential!

Other things that I didn't mention: Rose coming back to kill Ripley again, that's how she ends up back in her real world and meets the true Ripley. Again, the scene is way more emotional, especially when you know Zeronis is waiting for her to wake up by the bedside.

Cruel punishments compared to the drama, for both the second prince and Rose. In the drama, they are forgiven, while in the webtoon, the second prince has to suffer in prison, and Rose lost her memories and is now living somewhere kind of pathetic life.

There are probably a few other things, but they weren't that important to the story.

So if I have to choose which drama has to win this fight... It's the webtoon, of course. Even while reading it for the second time, I had so much fun! All those emotions and giggles that Ripley and Zeronis gave me. The webtoon had a good balance between the funny stuff and the darker sides, while the drama couldn't handle that.

If you have time and want to read something entertaining without much thought, I encourage you to pick up The First Night with the Duke.

Webtoon VS K-drama?

• 0%Webtoon
• 0%K-drama
• 0%I have not seen/read one of those