that yaoi juice

(ep.25 with dialogue from ch.63 - episodes or ep# refer to the webcomic. chapters or ch# refer to the webnovel.)

Cremo and the Mermaid Platform Construction

Ch.61 - The baroness makes Lloyd a “special talisman” to sleep with at night and ward off nightmares. It’s a big pink teddy bear, and Lloyd accepts it because Suho feels bad about not hugging his own mom enough when she was alive. Anyways—😭

Ep.25/Ch.62 - On their journey to Cremo, the webcomic has this whole exchange between Lloyd and Javier where it “translates” their doubletalk argument about teaching Lloyd horseback riding. Their novel counterparts have a much more normal conversation. I think they changed it so the messenger box could show more personality in the webcomic, for foreshadowing reasons, and now I wonder if the novel has the same twist about the messenger box…

Ch.63 - The Count calls Lloyd "magnanimous and generous" for allowing Javier to stand next to him, on account of Javier being so much hotter and more noble-looking than Lloyd. It’s lowkey criminal that we don’t get to know Novel Javier’s reaction to this statement but I have to imagine it’s similar to when Webtoon Count says Lloyd has a “servant’s face.” (ep.25)

Ch.64 - After the Count’s daughter, Christina, briefly locked eyes with Javier, she falls for him and gives Javier a love letter in front of Lloyd. Lloyd later orders Javier to keep his eyes on the damn ground and maybe cover up his face too.

Ch.64 - Javier has received exactly 537 love letters in his life. On the other end of the rizz spectrum, Suho once asked a girl on campus for directions, to which she screamed “I have a boyfriend!!” and fled from him.

Ch.65 - Lloyd’s childhood dog was named Gauel. It seems in the novel, Gauel died before Suho’s parents died, whereas the webcomic made it so his dog died after. (“He was the last member of my family” (ep.26)). Maybe that's why Webtoon Lloyd has a way more emotional breakdown remembering his old puppy. Novel Lloyd is still very regretful of the time he didn’t spend with his dog though, and decides to do better with his summons.

Ch.67 - Lloyd says the mermaid statue looks "just like the Statue of Liberty," which has me convinced he has never seen the Statue of Liberty.

(ch.68)

—

The Gigatitan Battle

Ch.68 - The Cremo gigatitan is an elderly creature who got chased out of better territories by younger gigatitans. That’s why he likes chilling in the low stakes sea port where he can live out his retirement in peace. (Damn book has me feeling bad for the lobster 😔)

Ch.68 - Though the Webtoon Count eventually comes around, Novel Count Cremo refuses to believe that the gigititan is coming, forcing Lloyd to discreetly cuts the ropes that are anchoring the party ships to the mermaid statue.

Ch.70 - When the gigatitan attacks the land, Lloyd tells the Count 'I’m gonna check it out!' but then once he reaches the shore, he’s like, 'alright, time to go into hiding until they can pay my construction fees byeeee.' Javier is not impressed lmao. In comparison, Webtoon Lloyd’s choice to flee reads less well-reasoned and much more panic-induced, like the dude is paddling into the sea on a broken table, where the fuck did he think he was going?

(ep.28)

Though to be fair to Lloyd, he was just following the Novel Baron's orders...

“If you are in danger, make sure you run away before anything else.” “Then, what about the soldiers?” “Uhm, then run away with them together.” “……..” (ch.61)

Ch.69 - When Novel Javier decides to go fight, he asks the summons to help him AND THEY AGREE. Like they just leave Lloyd! The guy who summoned them!! Just so we all know who would get the children in a divorce.

Ch.69 - Novel Lloyd decides to stay and fight because he doesn’t want Javier to die—his knight is too valuable at being construction equipment! Webtoon Lloyd stays because he doesn’t want people to get hurt—they can’t pay his construction fees if the city is destroyed! Another subtle change, but combined with the previous changes, does suggest the adaptation wanted Lloyd to look like more of a ‘people's hero’ in this moment, however reluctant.

Ch.71 - Meanwhile, Novel Lloyd curses Javier's "damned hero syndrome" as "the reason why I never want to be the main character in a novel." #HilariousInHindsight

Ch.71 - Novel Javier figures out he needs to cut off the gigatitan’s horn independent of Lloyd’s reasoning. I found this surprising, but that is a nice reminder of how Javier in Knight of Blood and Iron had survived hellish situations alone as a capable and resourceful protagonist. In contrast, Webtoon Javier incorrectly thought the weakness was the eyes and needed Lloyd's help for the horn. As a result, Webtoon Javier begins viewing himself more as "the sword that Master Lloyd [wields]" (ep.34)—which kind of helps strengthen their webcomic relationship against the loss of more subtle developments in the novel.

Ep.31 - Webtoon Javier almost gets crushed by the gigatitan, only to be saved by Ppdong who gives him a scolding for being so self-sacrificing. Webtoon Javier then realizes he shouldn’t be so reckless. Novel Javier has no such moment and I’m sure that will have no repercussions to his hero mentality at all. 🙂

Ch.72 - To lure the gigatitan away, Novel Lloyd singlehandedly reassembles the mermaid statue himself, but Webtoon Lloyd asks Count Cremo and his army to reassemble it. This change was probably brought about because the visual format renders the novel version completely implausible.

(ep.31)

Ch.72 - Lloyd is able to ride Ppdong properly because Javier taught him how to ride a horse awww 😂

Ch.73 - So after the gigatitan knocks Javier out, Lloyd scoops up his knight and decides to flee the scene again, which is hilarious enough, except Ppdong is too tired to keep running, so Lloyd briefly considers dumping Javier to the gigatitan and fleeing into the forest alone, which frankly, is the funniest thing ever. But! a quick cost-benefit analysis tells him that his own safety is not worth losing his construction servant. So to keep the gigatitan from continuing to chase Javier, Lloyd realizes he has to finish attacking the creature's weak spot—which he does, all while cursing out Javier for getting them into this stupid life-threatening mess. LOL

Ch.74 - To earn the RP for his Asrahan Core triple circle upgrade, Lloyd slaps Javier awake and says a bunch of super heartwarming stuff to him, like, "If I lose you, I'll be like an eagle with broken wings," and, "I hate to see you overwork yourself like this and try to sacrifice yourself…So from now on, fight only for me." Then he spends like a page asserting to the reader that he only said that cheesy stuff for the RP. Sure, buddy.

Ch.75 - Lloyd’s triple circle upgrade comes with a skill that gives him control over the spinning speed of each mana circle. The author gets real technical explaining the usage of this skill, and ngl I did not understand it. 'Circles go boom' as far as I can parse out.

Ch.76 - Lloyd performs the first triple mana blast in history.

…and that’s it???

Apparently, author BK Moon did not deign the status of Lloyd’s life important enough to reference in the battle cliffhanger! Even knowing what happens in the webcomic, I was speeding through the next chapter to get answers. I think I would’ve lost my shit if I had read this web novel with real time updates.

(ep.32 - I'm so glad the webtoon added this scene of Javier finding Lloyd at the end of the battle. It hits hard.)

—

After the Gigatitan

Ch.76 - We don’t find out that the mana blast put Lloyd into a coma until literally the end of the next chapter. WTF Author-nim?

Ch.78 - When Lloyd wakes up from the coma, the first thing Javier says is “Are you alive by any chance,” like the guy didn’t just spend four days sleeplessly sitting by his side and inspecting his health every moment when the physicians weren’t around. He and Lloyd banter and Lloyd laughs with the relief that things are normal now.

Ch.78 - While still hospitalized, Lloyd receives a stream of powerful visitors who try to get him to marry into their families. He turns down all 12 proposals, including a giant bouquet from Count Cremo, but he does bask in the attention for all of two seconds until Javier brings out his own stack of 39 love letters (and those were just the letters he received while Lloyd was in the coma!)

Ch.79 - When the baron and baroness arrive and fuss over their son, Lloyd recalls how when he was seven, he bumped his head from a scooter accident, and Suho's usually work-laden dad dropped everything to take him to the hospital and then cheer him up with tonkatsu.

Ch.79 - The baroness promises to make Lloyd an EVEN BIGGER teddy bear for next time! Lloyd says okay, but only if she makes one for Javier too! (He's doing this because neither of them like the teddy bears, but as a teddy lover, I'm going to pretend this is really sweet.)

Ep.34 - The beating of the town pot-stirrer is exclusive to the webcomic version. I like to imagine this was because some reader actually commented, ‘Why are they all celebrating Lloyd? The gigatitan was Lloyd’s fault!' during the novel's original run, and this was the author’s response :)

(ep.34)

Ch.80 - Webtoon Lloyd is kinda grumpier(?) about the people of Cremo celebrating him lol. Novel Lloyd is rather satisfied to accept their accolades, because frankly, he earned that right. Also, Suho Kim’s South Korea has VTS instead of BTS 😂

Ch.80 - Novel Lloyd fleeces Count Cremo for 1.7x his original construction fees for the platform. However, Webtoon Lloyd pressures the Count into paying 3x the fees. Novel Lloyd would be proud. 

Ch.80 - In the webcomic, Sir Bayern, the Baron, and the Baroness receive a lot more credit for running the ondol business while Lloyd is away. In the novel, Lloyd comes back to run everything himself. I like that the adaptation distributes responsibility more in this area, so Lloyd can actually take a break. 

Ch.80 - The loan sharks return but this time they bring Lloyd flowers and wine because they don’t want the orcs to kill them hah. We see Lloyd successfully pay off half the barony's loan principal, which is very satisfying. 

Ch.81 - Suho learned his specialist craftsman skills like welding and plumbing during his time in the military (somewhat involuntarily as his superiors exploited him for free labor). Though he was offered a staff sergeant position after his mandatory service was up, Suho was burnt out and turned it down. He ended up regretting this as his civilian life descends into hardships, which, not to get on a soapbox about it, is a clear illustration of how poverty makes the military look appealing to those with no better options. 

Ch.81 - After being summoned to the royal capital, Lloyd spends a couple days coming up with a plan to score a contract with the Queen. In the Webtoon, however, Lloyd mopes until almost they arrive, and it’s Javier who has to casually remind him to look for a contract opportunity. Between this and their different reactions to the summons, it seems like Novel Lloyd is just much better at taking things in stride. Webtoon Lloyd gets there eventually, but he always has to be a bitchy muppet about it first. (I say this lovingly, of course.)

—

End of Comparison Part 2 - Adventures in Cremo (Ch.61-81 & Ep.25-36)

Best part of the novel that I wish was in the webcomic: Javier getting 39 love letters while Lloyd is in a coma.

Best addition to the webcomic that wasn’t in the novel: Javier finding Lloyd's not-dead body.

Favorite novel scene to see illustrated: The Baron and Baroness squishing the heck out of their not-dead son ❤️

(ch.79 and ep.34 - The dialogue isn't there but the smashed cheeks are ❤️)

Last thoughts: There were so many more changes in this one story arc compared to the last four story arcs, and yet still nothing super narrative redefining. I actually don't know if there's anything super different between the novel and adaptation, but I'm used to adaptations being less than faithful, so I'm reading every page on edge of that possibility... Of course, the webcomic does start leaning more into Lloyd’s ugly faces during this arc, if that counts as a major deviation 😀

(ep.1 - episodes or ep# refer to the webcomic. chapters or ch# refer to the webnovel.)

Ondol Business Arc

Ch.1 - There's no mention of "the wish" that brought Suho into this world. This had significance way later in the webcomic, so based on what other novel readers have said, I bet that plotline is different, if it even exists in the novel. Oh also Novel Lloyd first wakes up in bed instead of passed out on the road.

Ch.2 - Suho used to work a lot of odd jobs, including food service. The webtoon focused just on his construction work, but the customer service life feeds his empathy for people like the bar owner.

There is no Frontera branding for the Ondol. Kinda funny that they added it in the webtoon (ep.2) and then had to cut the relevant storyline anyways (ep.211).

Ch. 7 - Suho was an avid gamer (which, hilariously enough, is why he's such a great ragebaiter). When he was in middle school, he used all his allowance at gaming cafes instead of going to cram school, and of course that seriously pissed off his mom. Similar to how Suho apologized to his mom then by giving up gaming, Lloyd gives up drinking to prove to the Baron he’s serious about the Ondol business. Lloyd is explicitly an alcoholic in the novel so this is a Big Deal. We don’t get a Webtoon flashback about Suho’s mom until way late in mermaid arc so I really appreciate the book having more insight into his past life before it was miserable.

Ch.6 - Lloyd is actually quite level-headed about receiving hamster-sized Ppdong for his first summon and does not call our baby “a dud.” Actually, compared to Novel Lloyd's niceness, giant Ppdong should have sat on Webtoon Lloyd.

(ep.4)

—

Neumann Duel Arc

Ch.7-17 - There are five Frontera knights instead of three. Rather than go after the head knight directly, Lloyd first beats the shit out of one of the disloyal mid-rank knights to incite the duel with Sir Neumann. That duel ends up exiling all three lousy knights of the estate, leaving just Bayern and Javier.

Ch.18 - We learn that Neumann didn’t die by hamster, but he will live the rest of his life as a skin bag of crushed bones. Lmao.

Ch.18 - Javier formally introduces himself to Ppdong!! And it's so freaking cute!!! THERE'S EVEN AN ILLUSTRATION!!!! (see below) And what's wild is that it's a really important scene 'cuz post-duel, Lloyd is all worried that Javier is going to confront him about his identity (like he does directly in the webcomic) but Novel Javier acts totally chill with this magic summon. This is because Novel Javier is also hiding his true skill level as a near-sword master, as to not draw undue attention to the barony, and even though Javier knows something is up with Lloyd, he keeps quiet as they have a shared understanding for keeping secrets. I've noticed webcomic adaptations tend to go for the more confrontation-heavy option in narratives, possibly due to lack of space, but also because drama looks better visually. I think the webtoon handled the confrontation amusingly, but this is the first moment where I really feel the divergence between the novel and adaptation regarding Lloyd/Javier's relationship.

(Ch.18)

—

There’s no Tordes subplot?? He’s name dropped as the scammer, but a fruitless Ctrl+F of the novel suggests they don’t hunt him down and enslave him like in the comic… So I wonder if they made Tordes more significant in the webcomic just because they wanted to make use of a loose plot thread or because they wanted the King of Hell foreshadowing to crop up sooner 🤔

(ep.18)

—

The Mine and The Giant Ants Arc

Ch.18-20 - The building of the Frontera road is a whole 3-chapter arc but it got reduced to three webtoon panels lol

Ch.23 - Ppdong has a whole sidestory during the mine-building arc that involves helping the Baroness get rid of the mice eating up her garden. That storyline leads into him being there to save Lloyd and Javier during the ant fight mine collapse. I like that better than Webtoon Ppdong being worked to exhaustion.

Ch.25 - Lloyd and Javier exchange banter while fighting in the ant tunnels. Like a lot of banter. Like Javier, who has maintained a fake politeness with Lloyd until this point, disses Lloyd for having no bitches. That kind of banter. But it's also strangely cathartic as this is the first moment both characters genuinely think they will end up dead, so they got to be honest to each other for the first time. The loss of that moment and also the hilarious lines are kind of a tragedy, but at least Webtoon Javier still got to slap his Lloyd (Novel Javier does too but that was only to help with the lack of oxygen! (mostly)).

(ep.10 with dialogue from ch.25)

—

Orc Tribe and Seokbinggo Construction Arc

(ch.30 and ep.13 - according to the adaptation lead, Lee Hyunmin, that panel there is where the webtoon really starts to diverge from the original)

Ch.30 - Orcs got totally yassified in the webcomic!! They have pig-like heads in the book which explains why they "oink" in their dialogue.

Ch.31 - The orc tribe initially wants Lloyd to do squats with them using their 1-ton teasures, and they start getting iffy on him when he asks for a less bone-crushing weight. To appease them, Lloyd proposes building them the seokbinggo ice house. Kind of a roundabout way of getting to the meat-spoiling problem that the webcomic streamlines.

Ch.35 - Suho had a special interest in traditional architecture and even spent his vacations visiting old structures with his historical student society.

Ch.35 - Lloyd has to trick the orcs to help him build the ice house for free by pretending he doesn’t know how to lift the granite properly. This part was funny in writing, but the lead-up is that all the Frontera soldiers actually do get injured trying to lift the granite rocks, which tbh seemed misaligned with a safety-conscious Lloyd. Glad the webtoon made it so the orcs forcibly took over before that happened (ep.14).

Ch.33 - Novel Javier’s first attempt at the mana blast does not result in an explosion that rips his shirt off 😔 It’s actually a quick and clean laser-like cut through the rock such that Lloyd doesn’t even register it happened.

The next few days are going to be an uphill battle for him...At best, he’d need a week. Or two weeks, even.... Thwack! “It was a success.” “…”

It's a beautiful example of how the best punchline differs between a text and visual medium.

(ep.14)

—

Dark Sorcerer Luppellan Battle

(ch.36 and ep.15)

Ch.37 - Lloyd actually prepares an antidote for himself to counter the sleeping gas in the sorcerer’s trap. I can’t believe Webtoon Lloyd just held his breath and called it good 😭

Ch.37 - Javier thinks Lloyd looks like a mole cricket and commits that insult to memory to use later. I know he does this in the webcomic too, and it's just very important to me that they didn't remove it.

Ch.38 - The leadup of Javier killing Luppellan is totally different between the two media. In the novel, Lloyd orders Javier to do it as an execution that's legally justified by Luppellan being a serial killer. In the webcomic, Lloyd pretends to let Luppellan go, resulting in Javier cutting off the sorcerer's head when the dickhead tries to stab Lloyd in the back. They basically convey the same conclusion in terms of some people needing to be stopped cold with violence, but there's something much more somber about the novel's execution (pun intended).

"And a serial killer must pay for his sin. It's only right," Lloyd announced. "H-hold on!" "Javier, do as the law says," Lloyd spoke and turned around. Lupellan frantically pleaded, asking for mercy. Javier stepped forward as he drew his sword. "I, Knight Javier Asrahan, am here to execute the holy law of the kingdom under the order of Lloyd Frontera, the son of Baron Frontera." Swish. Javier mercilessly flourished his sword.

—

Maritz Farmlands Arc

Ch.43 - This chapter is so cute!! Lloyd goes to survey the wetlands and the Baron follows him all dressed up for a hike and even brings a little lunch and Lloyd is like 'wtf man we're not going on a picnic??' but then it turns out the lunch the Baron carried was OG Lloyd's favorite meal as a child (boiled eggs and tomatoes with honey)! It was the Baron's way of wordlessly expressing regret and apology and pride in his son's changes, which is really sweet but also a bit somber as Lloyd isn't, you know, Lloyd anymore. But still. It's got a bit more oomph than Webtoon Baron telling Javier he used to hate his son 😭

Ch.43 - A consistent thing in the book is that villagers crowd around and loudly comment on Lloyd's antics like Shakespearean NPCs. They don't do anything important, but I think they're funny.

Ch.43-44 - Novel Lloyd earns the simulation design skills after solving the wetlands drainage model in 21 hours, as opposed to Webtoon Lloyd being forced to work analog for 21 days LMAO. Novel Lloyd outgeniuses Webtoon Lloyd, confirmed.

(ep.19)

Ch.45 - Ok so Novel Lloyd is a bit bummed about Hamang not growing from sunflower seeds this time, but again, he handles that disappointment a lot better than Webtoon Lloyd. His mentality is that "he had brought this creature into this world" thus "[the] responsibility to take good care of Hamang was on Lloyd." What a good pet summon owner he is 😇

Ch.48 - Javier is still super cute about growing the onions. Just so we're all aware.

Ch.49 - All of the people who sign contracts to resettle in the Maritz Farmlands are tenant farmers, meaning that by luring them to labor in his fields, Lloyd also gave them a chance to escape an economically abusive system and own their own land. True king of the win-win 🫡

Ch.50 - Suho-Lloyd wasn’t really bothered by everyone treating him like human garbage for being an asshole, because he was used to people treating Suho Kim like garbage for being poor. His literal thought Lloyd process is “they may all hate me but least my stomach is full!” Dude has so much poverty trauma…

—

Roman Aqueduct and Viscounty Water Contract

Ch.52 - Suho Kim spent a year breathing in asbestos without a mask so his South Korea body was definitely destined for cancer just fyi 😶

Ch.53 - The Baron writes an announcement explaining to his people how Lacona is polluting their drinking water, and his writing is so brilliant and inspiring and overall ingenious that Lloyd thinks that if the Baron were born in our modern world, he would totally be...a webnovel writer. lmao. I enjoy when authors do this.

Ch.53-55 - Like the Roman roads, the the Roman aqueduct is a whole multi-chapter construction arc that was reduced to a couple webtoon panels. Interesting choice since when the webtoon tells it through flashbacks, Lloyd's hamming it up all 'huhuhu I had no choice but to blast limestone into your water mwahaha~' but in the novel we see that that like yeah, he actually had no choice. Not that Novel Lloyd wasn't still pleased it worked out, but the reader impression is different.

Ch.54 - Javier asks Lloyd how he learned to build an aqueduct and Lloyd tells him straight up, “University of Korea” (which BTW is one of the SKY universities AKA the top three most prestigious and academically competitive universities in South Korea, in case there was any doubt that Suho Kim is smart smart). Anyways, Javier does not believe him and his approval points for Lloyd decrease lol. But it works out because RP doesn’t decrease with disapproval, so Lloyd figures he can just keep pissing people off and then re-earning their approval to farm the RP system. Like I said: smart smart.

Ch.55 - So there's this moment where Lloyd is completing the most dangerous part of the aqueduct construction, and he reflects on how low-ranking workers shouldn't have to do the most dangerous work because then they start weighing the value of their paychecks against the value of their own lives and being someone who had lived in that position back in Korea, he knew it was dehumanizing as hell. The webtoon does a good job of telling why Lloyd cares about worker rights, but when reading through Novel Lloyd's inner narration, you can really feel how his past suffering carved out his current way of thinking, and ngl it makes me want to donate to a worker's union.

Ch.59-60 - The events surrounding the water contract are in a really different order between the adaptations, yet they amazingly play out to the same effect. For instance, the Lacona Head Knight in the webtoon tries to kill Lloyd after getting fired due to budget cuts, but in the novel, the Knight attacks during the middle of contract negotiations to try stopping the viscount from signing the contract. Other scenes like where Lloyd tells Javier he relies on him for protection and Javier lets go of his old resentment toward new Lloyd, all happen minutes apart in the novel, but they are spaced days apart in the webtoon. AND IT WORKS. Seriously, this is the kind of shit I love analyzing between these media, because like, how did they do that so well? The original novel scene is quite well-structured, but at some point during the webtoon storyboarding, the adapter must have realized, 'hey, the fact that all this action happens in one room over one hour might effect the reader's perception of pacing since ya know, we're just drawing one room for two episodes' (which is perfect for a written scene but becomes a problem in a visual medium). So they broke up a fight here, moved a flashback there, added a timeskip in-between... and voila! All the story pieces are economically restructured to extend the feel of the content! Sorry to get rambling about the adaptation, but effective pacing was definitely one of the webtoon's most noticeable strengths within its field, so seeing how they altered the existing narrative so effectively between mediums is seriously brilliant.

—

End of Comparison Part 1 - Revival of Frontera (Ch.1-60 & Ep.1-24)

Best part of the novel that I wish was in the webcomic: Baron and Lloyd father-son picnic 🥺

(ch.43)

—

Best addition to the webcomic that wasn’t in the novel: The Door Slams You performed on Knight Whatshisface from Lacona - one of my Top 10 TV Tropes fr

(ep.22 - Thank you for your sacrifice to comedy, sir 🫡)

—

Last thoughts: No one told me the original webnovel is over 4,300 pages long!! I am going to be here for a while.