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@orvdiscrepancies
Intro Post
[Please refrain from spoilers]
Tag key:
#orv discrepancies - discrepancies only
#story discussions - posts or reblogs about the story
#op things - posts related to op
Hello Constellations!
You May: - Point out anything I miss or get wrong - Build on discussions or add your own! - Submit posts - Ask questions
Please Don't: - Spoil anything. This goes at my reading pace, and I'd like to avoid more spoilers than I already have. - Be mean :(
Discrepancy #60
A lot of the actual fight between Dokja and Cheolsoo's gang was skipped in the webtoon, which does make sense because that would be a lot to adapt and would expand how long the webtoon is, but still it's a discrepancy.
And I'll be honest, my brain doesn't really visualize the way everyone else does so I typically skip over written fight scenes. They just aren't appealing if I don't know what's going on. It was also a bit harder to compare the webtoon and novel here because of how they don't match up, but I did my best.
We'll be starting when the Bounty Scenario is given. One difference I would like to point out is how Cheolsoo is very arrogant and kind of prideful in the webtoon. He calls Dokja a prick and says that he can leave within the count of three. He does have his knuckle busters in the novel though, just not shown this early into the scene. Additionally, he does the whole "are you ignoring me" bit, but at the end of the fight. In the webtoon, it's portrayed as him ragebaiting Dokja to get a fight going.
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 16]
In the novel, Cheolsoo still offers Dokja the chance to leave, but without the ragebait. He offers Dokja a trade that if he leaves the food he gathered, then he can leave without Heewon.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 16]
From there, the webtoon jump cuts to the end of the fight, but what is it missing from the novel?
Well first, the gang members are more vocal in the novel as they fight. The webtoon does include the idea of Dokja just going for the knees, but again there wasn't really a reason to adapt like an extra page of words when you can just skip to the end of the fight. It makes sense.
More interestingly is what Dokja says about killing the characters.
Now here's the thing. When I first read ORV like a year ago or so, I didn't catch on to the fact that he wasn't killing anyone until he got [King of No Killing]. It went completely over my head, mainly because I know a bit too much about different ways people can die as an effect of high anxiety and easy access to medical books at a young age. Specifically the scene where Dokja stabs Cheolsoo's wrist.
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 16]
Without being treated, you could technically bleed out from anywhere given enough time. But the wrists hold the radial and ulnar arteries which are major arteries in the arm that supplies blood from the heart. Arteries are arguably more important than veins, so if that thorn hit one of those arteries, Cheolsoo has a specific amount of time to get a tourniquet on it before he bleeds out. Most serious lesions on your limbs can be treated with a tourniquet and stitches (when overly simplified). Treatment that he does not get on screen before he gets knocked out by Dokja. And honestly, I thought he died when I first read it, not gonna lie. Dokja also says that he was gonna finish Cheolsoo off quickly. Do I expect everything I read to be medically accurate? No. But I'm just saying I thought the guy was gonna die which begs the question of what counts towards a kill count? Dealing the final blow? Or causing the blow that would lead to a death? If Dokja left a man to die by stabbing him and letting him bleed out, then is that a kill for Dokja or blood loss?
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 16]
Meanwhile, in the novel, Dokja very plainly says that he just wants to neutralize the gang because it works better for the long game.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 17]
I like this a lot better because I very plainly had no clue that he wasn't killing the people he fought. It wasn't until he told his party members that he couldn't kill that it finally clicked so I feel like there's some miscommunication there. Or I'm just be being stupid.
Okay I want to save the rest of this scene for the next discrepancy because it's interesting to see what is going through Dokja's mind during the same scene. But I'm not doing that today. Because my tummy hurts.
[Story Discussion? Kinda?]
Hello! This is technically a story discussion, but think of it like a meta one. A meta post about the account that discusses the metanarrative of a meta story.
So, like ages ago (i've been gone a while okay-), I posted Discrepancy #30 discussing Dokja's morals as a main character. I also touched on this again in a recent story discussion. But to sum it up, I said that the way Dokja's morals are portrayed in the novel and webtoon are very different.
Upon a conversation with @cryptid-of-chaos and seeing their point of view of my argument about Dokja's morals, I wanted to expand more on my point.
(this won't make sense if you don't at least go skim Discrepancy #30. and if you see that some of this is copy and pasted from my respose to cryptid, no you dont)
To summarize a conversation that had a lot of words, Cryptid argued that instead of a complete divergence between N!Dokja and W!Dokja morals, it could possibly be a reframing of Dokja's mental state. Which could absolutely be the case. Reframing your state of mind is an important skill to learn and if Dokja has that skill (which he most likely does knowing him), then props to him. This was a fascinating point to read since I hadn't even thought about it.
However, I think that it’s less about him reframing his thoughts and more about how he’s formulating his plan. The main difference between the two is that N!Dokja is showing no initiative to save anyone that he deems unnecessary. Bro is on a path to the bare minimum, which makes sense. He is a reader, not a writer. He wants to rewrite an ending while taking as many shortcuts as he can and not understanding that it would lead to a bad story. There’s a reason there are side characters and side plots. It’s much more interesting than a straight forward "point a to point b" storyline, which, if you boil down what Dokja wants to do at the beginning, is what he’s going for. Yes this changes as the story goes on, but taking this moment in a void, Dokja wants the path of least resistance. Meanwhile, W!Dokja has a completely different frame of mind. He wants to save these people. He wants to stop what’s going on in front of him even though he knows it’s a fruitless battle.
I do, however, like the idea of him reframing his mindset to not dwell on his morals after the story is over. Bear with me here.
The novel is written in past tense which, while it is fun and tends to be easier to write, comes with its own stipulations. There is an understanding that tends to go over everyone’s head that because something is written in past tense, that implies that the narrator is explaining it all to us after everything has already happened. That's why there is a general understanding that the main character will almost always live (very subject to exception, but a general rule of thumb). A character can't be telling the story if he dies halfway through the book. Same way how you know the main character of a horror movie will survive whatever is happening because it's more satisfying that way.
There is no such this as a reliable narrator—every narrator is unreliable in some way. And because the novel is written in past tense, just how much of the story is Dokja retconning as he tells it to us? How much is being changed? The webtoon is also written in past tense, though it’s not as obvious due to the visual storytelling. There could also be a level of retconning there. There is no way to know how much time has passed between when the event happens and when Dokja is sitting down to explain it to us. Additionally, no one's memory is perfect. Our guy Dokja dies a few times and that has to impact his memory to a point.
In terms of unreliable narrators, I'm an unreliable narrator too. I will pretty much always analyze something through my own worldview which tends to lean more towards literary analysis in story and character crafting rather than an analysis of how a regular human being would react to these situations (though there are a few posts like that too). I mention this in the last story discussion I made where I take a more detached reader perspective rather than taking the moral high ground.
Morals are always going to be a hard conversation to have with people because on one hand, ethics are pretty universally understandable. They are externally imposed rules typically established by a general society. This does mean that ethics can be altered depending on the society, but generally in modern day, we can all agree on things that are unethical. Ethics are generally believed to be black and white among a society and even that is subject to exceptions. As a (future) medical professional, I will have an ethical code that I have to follow.
Morals, however, are a different matter. Morals are built purely on personal experience and opinion. My morals are going to be different than your morals. My morals are definitely going to be different than someone who grew up religious. The differences between Utilitarianism and Kantianism is just different moral codes, not different ethics codes.
All in all, hearing other people's perspectives is fascinating and I wanted to be very clear that I know my view on these things are very skewed. I don't have the knowledge of what comes next in the story because I haven't finished it all (but mainly because I forgot what I have read). Most of my analysis will be taken in a void of what happens in the moment.
And if you have read all of this, speak out. Tell me when I have a take different than yours. I want to know how everyone else feels about my takes and analysis. If you can't tell, I don't talk to people often. I crave the semi-social interaction. And more importantly, I crave people I can have these discussions with without fear of being thrown off the internet for not agreeing with the general public lol.
I was just wondering if any one else did novel to webtoon comparisons and then you popped up! How far are you into the novel at this point? I may be caught up on the webtoon, but I have quite a bit of the novel to go until I catch up to that (let alone beyond)
Hello!! I'm actually not far in the novel at all haha- Where ever I leave off on a discrepancy just assume that is where I'm at in the novel. Meanwhile I stopped reading the webtoon at about episode 245.
I've said it before on this account but I'm a very busy person and making these posts take a lot of time lol. I also have that flavor of autism that can't hold too many hyper fixations at the same time and I get burnt out easily. I do my best, but it does mean I go slowly. When school starts back up at the end of August, I should be back on my semi-regular ORV literature rants :)
CW: SA and Suicide Mention and Discussion
[Story Discussion]
Damn, it's been a hot minute since we've done one of these lol. Anyways, this is a discussion of the scenes spoke about in Discrepancy #59, so please read that first in order to get the full context.
As I mentioned in that discrepancy, pretty much everything we're seeing in the novel and webtoon are from Dokja's point of view which means he has a level of disassociation from the characters. It does not stay this way because at some point in the story, he starts to actually care about them like people. But for now, in the beginning, he still sees a firm separation between himself and the characters of the novel. Heewon is one of those characters.
Dokja is viewing these characters as what they are. Characters.
If something bad happens to a character, yeah it sucks that it happened, but it was just a fictional character. A good example would be Dokja's suicidal thoughts/actions. That's great angst fodder. I eat that shit up. I love angst. But as a psychology student and a decent human being, I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. I know what it feels like to have those thoughts running through my head.
To me, Dokja is a fictional character so there is a certain disconnect between what is actually happening to him and how I feel about it.
Dokja is currently in a similar situation.
As much as the empathetic side of me wants to say that Dokja is being insensitive, the reader side of me understands that Dokja has literally qualified Heewon as less than human in his mind. Again, this changes later, but for right now in this moment, Heewon is just a character to him. She's less than human so when he realizes what these assholes are implying to have done, he's filing it away as a plot point for her character.
As such, he treats the situation as an outside reader.
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 16. He says pretty much the same thing in the novel, but this isn't a discrepancy post and the webtoon is just easier to pull up rn]
From a purely reader standpoint, from Dokja's standpoint, he is kind of right is saying that the SA theme is overused in stories as a way to say "hey look at this guy, he's evil." Especially in post-apocalyptic situations where there is no law. There are other ways to show that without resorting to such a horrible violation of a crime.
But I think that's why it's used so much. It’s a disgustingly common crime that many evil people would take advantage of if there were no punishment. Hell, depending on the sponsor they have in ORV, they might have received coins for it which is disgusting and horrible, but that’s a speculation. It’s not realistic that it would happen every time there is an apocalyptic event, but it’s also not realistic to say it wouldn’t happen at all. And Dokja also acknowledges this at the end of the scene where he says this:
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 16]
That’s why I like ORV so much. I like how this event doesn’t define Heewon. SA can very easily be misrepresented and, as someone with those experiences, I think ORV does a good job of making it known that it happened but not making that all of Heewon’s character.
I do still think he is separating himself from the situation like he always does this early into the story. I think the reason this specifically is different and seems to disprove my point is because Heewon is a new character to him.
Remember, Heewon should be dead. He's never met her character before so all of this is new to him. That means that somewhere in the original novel, there is a character he had never read about where this happened and then she just died. End of story.
I think at this point in the novel, despite how early it still is, I think he is subconsciously trying to keep his total separation but realizing that he can't do that. He's actively changing the story. He can't keep thinking of these people as characters. There a difference between reading about this stuff happening in a book and listening to gross men talking about it right in front of you.
I think that Dokja's brain is fascinating and I would give anything to pick at it. I wanna see how he files things away and how he processes things. Like obviously I get more of that as I read the novel which is in first person point of view, but there are some things that I'll just never know.
But, to summarize, yes what is happening to Heewon is horrible and I still don't like how it's implied in the webtoon. I don't like that it happened at all, but that's a human reaction to that. But I don't think Dokja is being entirely insensitive. I think it has to do with how he is processing the things going on around him. He at least has enough sense to keep it to himself, but if he starts saying this shit out loud, I'm gonna post up-
Will you be doing an LA discrepancy
That is actually a really good question with a long winded answer (there's a TLDR at the bottom). What did you expect? I yap a lot.
If I DID to a Live Action Movie discrepancy (LAMD) list, it wouldn't be as in depth as my usual ones would be for a few reasons.
1. Time Consumption
Doing these discrepancies are actually very taxing. The way I do it is I read one page of my ORV novel document (depending on what device I'm on, that could mean a full document page or however my phone divides the document into pages) and then read the webtoon until I catch up if that makes sense. It's very time consuming, but I'm basically going word-for-word and panel-by-panel and then skimming where I can.
For example, I pretty much know what happens in the story up until Dokja breaks the throne, even if I don't know every single little detail. That means I can pretty much skim over the webtoon as I read the novel and vice versa to check for discrepancies.
If I did do an LAMD, and I did it at my usual level of analysis, it would mean going through the movie frame by frame which is not sustainable. I usually do these posts as breaks from my usual schoolwork. The reason there haven't been pretty much any posts these past few months is because I've had an internship instead of regular scheduled classes, therefore no need to take breaks and ram myself into the Fourth Wall.
2. Comparison to the Webtoon
If I did to an LAMD, it would a comparison between the Live Action Movie and the Webtoon. Mainly because they are both visual based story telling devices, and also because it would make my life easier. I spoke about it in my English project, but there is a level of displacement with every iteration of the series.
To summarize, the webnovel was the original intended way to consume the story. The webtoon is one step away from that. The physical publications are two steps away. The physical publications of the webtoon are three steps away. The movie would be four steps away.
It makes little sense to compare a media that is solely based on words to a media that is solely based on visuals. If I did do an LAMD, I might use the novel for more evidence, but not in the way I do for my usual discrepancies.
3. Lack of Knowledge
Look, I'm a literature nerd, not a film nerd. I use these discrepancies as a way to critically analyze how people write and what works and what doesn't. Hell, I'm an English major which means I pretty much only study Literature and how to write it (ignoring my psychology major). Any feedback I have about the actual movie wouldn't be very informative.
I don't know why anyone follows this account or even reads my long ass posts, but I know that a lot of the substance of this account is my literary analysis of what impact the changes have. I would certainly try my best, but if I did to an LAMD, I might have to recruit a friend of mine who studies film making to do a separate analysis solely from a film perspective (because he knows nothing about ORV).
4. Lack of Accessibility
I don't know much about the movie. I don't religiously follow ORV updates like I do comic book updates so I have no clue when it's coming out, where to watch it, or if there would be any way to stream it. Is it even coming out in English dub? Or just subtitles? Is it even coming out in America? How do I watch this thing??
There would have to be a way for me to stream it if I wanted to do an LAMD so that I can rewatch scenes as needed. But if it's only coming out in subtitles, then the aforementioned film friend would take forever to watch it. I would be fine with it, though. I'm just curious lol.
TLDR
The discrepancy analysis would not be as in depth as usual because it takes a long time to do these things and I'm a literature nerd, not a film nerd. If I did do an analysis of it, it would be a comparison between the webtoon and the movie and I would probably bring in an actual film nerd to analyze the movie with me. However, all of that would require knowing where to watch it and when it comes out, and preferably if there is a way to stream the movie.
(i apologize for my long response, but props to you if you actually read it all)
CW: SA mention
Discrepancy #59
When Dokja and Heewon make it back to the station exit, their first interation is with the men guarding the exit. The way these men talk about Heewon is subtly different but it sets two different tones.
In the novel, the men are openly disgusting and objectifying her as if she's not right in front of them. It's gross and horrible, but it shows that these men don't really care. They are taking advantage of a woman and they are playing it off for a laugh while the tone stays serious. They are laughing at a moment where the reader knows the crime they have committed. It creates an awkward moment where you just have to sit with that because it won't be addressed in the moment.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 16]
However, in the Webtoon, it's like they dance around the topic and I hate how they do it.
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 16]
It could be the way that I read it, but the whole thing is played off as a cliched joke. First, the faces of the men almost look like they are meant to mimic a comical scene where one panel is without dialogue and the next panel does have dialogue. Then there is the "louder" laughter, which makes it seem more comical than it is, even cutting Heewon out of the frame to put focus on Dokja when we are talking about her.
The tone is way off when it really shouldn't be. This is all from Dokja's point of view which creates a certain disconnect between how Dokja perceives it verses what is actually happening, which I want to go into in a Story Discussion post, but turning the scene from what feels more threatening and awkward to laughing it off just doesn't sit right with me.
And I will acknowledge that I might be projecting there a little bit. I know my experiences and I know my biases. So maybe that isn't what is happening here, but this is my blog and that is a discrepancy I see.
Discrepancy #58.5
This fact is not in the webtoon and I think for good reason.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 16]
I did NOT need to know that this is where the poison fog in this scenario is from-
Discrepancy #58
This scene isn't in the webtoon.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 16. Still don't have my phone]
I looked for this scene for a bit and I can't find anything that matches it. The closest I can find is this scene from Episode 13 in the Webtoon, but this doesn't line up with the actual timing, composition, or topic of the scene-
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 13]
On one hand, I like this perspective into what Joonghyuk is thinking. It is an interesting perspective shift considering how we've been pretty much following Dokja this entire time and all our information about Joonghyuk's past runs has been from Dokja. I like how it shapes his mental perspective for the third run. I don't think we get much of how his brain is working before we get to that movie theatre side quest, so I actually like this a lot. For some reason, my brain wouldn't process the fact that after only 2 rounds, Joonghyuk develops his Regression Depression so it felt like it came out of left field. But with this perspective shift, it just frames it better and provides that build up.
On the other hand, I'm trying to figure out where this is happening. I need like a timeline written out to show me when things are happening. It might be because I haven't touched ORV in a hot second, but I think I would benefit from an overly obsessive timeline that maps out every single chapter. I'm not doing it, but you know-
Also it’s my 19th birthday :)
Okay addendum, I'm a little stupid. Literally the next few lines is Dokja waking up because the scene of Joonghyuk is a dream he is seeing.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 16]
So, yes I was right, this scene is not in the webtoon. But I also didn't include the entire scene.
ANYWAYS- This provides even more interesting context into the story. Yes, everything about Joonghyuk is still relevant. It's still the same idea. This just provides more context for how Dokja's powers work. This is the first instance we get of Dokja's Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Level 3 (I think) skill.
Dokja is unconsious (asleep), Joonghyuk is thinking about him, and so Dokja is seeing Joonghyuk. What's fascinating is that it's happening before Dokja has even unlocked that ability. As far as he's concerned, there is no out of body experience and what's happening with Joonghyuk isn't even real.
Additionally, this scene continues with Dokja acknowledging that this is all real and stuff.
But yes I acknowledge my stupidity. Always feel free to point out my stupid mistakes.
Discrepancy #58
This scene isn't in the webtoon.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 16. Still don't have my phone]
I looked for this scene for a bit and I can't find anything that matches it. The closest I can find is this scene from Episode 13 in the Webtoon, but this doesn't line up with the actual timing, composition, or topic of the scene-
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 13]
On one hand, I like this perspective into what Joonghyuk is thinking. It is an interesting perspective shift considering how we've been pretty much following Dokja this entire time and all our information about Joonghyuk's past runs has been from Dokja. I like how it shapes his mental perspective for the third run. I don't think we get much of how his brain is working before we get to that movie theatre side quest, so I actually like this a lot. For some reason, my brain wouldn't process the fact that after only 2 rounds, Joonghyuk develops his Regression Depression so it felt like it came out of left field. But with this perspective shift, it just frames it better and provides that build up.
On the other hand, I'm trying to figure out where this is happening. I need like a timeline written out to show me when things are happening. It might be because I haven't touched ORV in a hot second, but I think I would benefit from an overly obsessive timeline that maps out every single chapter. I'm not doing it, but you know-
Also it’s my 19th birthday :)
Discrepancy #57
Interestingly, Dokja would have settled for taking 90% of the profit from the contract.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 15. I don't have my phone on me right now so this is a screenshot from my laptop]
For the record, instead of using percentages, the novel uses a ratio, but it's the same thing. 9:1 would be 90%.
This isn't mentioned in the webtoon because it just moves on with finishing the contract without any more commentary from Dokja, which makes sense. I just think it's interesting that Dokja would have given up at 90% rather than pushing for the full 100%. I mean, he still would have been getting a huge profit and be overly rich, but I think it's more interesting to see what compromises he would be willing to make. He didn't expect to get 100% and he was fine with 90%.
Y'all miss me? I feel like i have the ao3 author curse but for this tumblr
Discrepancy #56
There are more clauses to the contract in the novel than there are in the webtoon.
In the novel, there are at least 10 clauses to the contract:
[ORV Novel, Chapter 15]
Whereas in the webtoon, there are only four:
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 15]
To be fair, clauses 5-9 aren’t mentioned, so I can assume they don’t matter. And Dokja seems to agree with pretty much everything except clause 4. And having all 10 on there is a pain for readers.
But I kinda wanna know what the other 5 clauses are. Just out of curiosity, yk?
Discrepancy #55.5
Bihyung and Dokja’s relationship is so antagonistic, but it doesn’t have to be.
I know I’ve said it before, but it’s true. When you think of Bihyung and Dokja’s relationship in ORV, it’s usually boiled down to Dokja scamming Bihyung. Which, yeah, in terms of the number of coins and stuff, but this is a give and take relationship.
If you remember, in return for Dokja to be a partner of Bihyung’s channel, Bihyung will be the Dokkaebi King. So there’s no reason for either party to openly antagonize each other.
Which leads me to the point:
When Dokja buys the mucus and thorns he needs, Bihyung immediately reminds Dokja that there are no refunds.
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 14]
Now, either I’m just a sad bitch, or Bihyung is actually saying this in a derogatory way. The fun thing about reading is that no one can tell you otherwise. Because to me, this feels like when someone is passive aggressively judging you.
Let’s move on to the novel:
[ORV Novel, Chapter 14]
Now, again, to Bihyung these items are really random and useless. He doesn’t think Dokja will win.
But if Dokja dies here, then Bihyung won’t be Dokkaebi king. It is in his best interests that Dokja survives this altercation. So he tries to offer Dokja a different weapon that he can use to actually win and survive.
And then, when Dokja declines, he back off. Because he is TRUSTING Dokja. Dokja was smart enough to know the ins and outs of the system. If Dokja thinks he can win with these weird objects, then sure. Bihyung does mention in the novel that there are no refunds, but he seems more apprehensive than judgy.
I like how the novel writes their relationship. It’s more “Dokja is smart” and not “Dokja is a scammy bastard.”
Discrepancy #55
Dokja did not, in fact, threaten Bihyung to open the Dokkaebi bag.
On the webtoon, he says he did:
[ORV Webtoon, episode 14]
But he just… didn’t-
The scenes are moved around a bit, but when Dokja asks Bihyung to open the Dokkaebi bag, Bihyung kinda just does it.
[ORV Novel, Chapter 14]
What I’m seeing is that the webtoon makes the relationship between Dokja and Bihyung feel more like brothers that always argue rather than Bihyung being a business partner scammed by Dokja.
I could be reading it wrong but their relationship seems more civil in the novel than the webtoon. I can’t decide which I like better, honestly.
Tell me this isn’t just Joonghyuk and Dokja’s kid.
I’m just saying- I know nothing about this series but it’s a little sus ◑.◑
Discrepancy #42
This isn’t adapted into the webtoon:
[ORV Novel, Chapter 8]
To me, this seems like the parallel (or at least a tangent) to the scene I talked about in Discrepancy #41. It’s our first real ‘interaction’ with the constellations and gives us a glimpse of what they’re like.
Something to point out: ABFD is having a tantrum, as expected.
But mainly I wanna point out Dokja’s internal dialogue. From the webtoon point of view, it seems like he is 100% confident in his plan to become a constellation. Which makes sense. We’re seeing it from a third person perspective so it does look like he’s absolutely confident.
I like that his dialogue in the novel has that hint of doubt. He’s questioning if it’s the right decision and trying to rationalize his choice. He’s still confident, but it just kinda humanizes him the way he’s a bit doubtful.
It’s fine to have a genius main character that is a step ahead of everyone else, but it’s also okay to make that character sometimes doubt themselves. This was Dokja’s first big step into his path for the next 10 scenarios. It’s reasonable to question if it’s really the right decision. I know I do that all the time lmao.
Piggybacking off of this, they added a scene in Episode 14 of the webtoon to explain what happened.
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 14]
What’s interesting is not only do Webtoon readers not have the reactions from the constellations, but they’re finding out so much later than novel readers do.
In the novel, it’s one full sequence, even if it’s split by a chapter break. Dokja lets the time run out and then we get the reactions and Dokja explains how it’s basically a trap, like in the screenshots from my og post.
But in the webtoon, we don’t know what happens at the end of the sponsor selection until a few episodes later. We miss the real context as to why Dokja didn’t choose a constellation.
The novel and webtoon touch a bit on it again in Chapter 13 and Episode 14 respectively, but I still preferred how the novel did it. There was no reason to put it off since it doesn’t even add suspense.
I think this might due to the different publishing cycles between a webnovel and a webtoon. The storyboarder for the My S-Class Hunters webtoon did a behind the scenes chapter on this to explain some of the decisions they made when adapting chapters and I think their explanation works for the ORV adaptation as well.
The ORV webnovel was publishing chapters daily (or at the very least multiple times a week) whereas the webtoon publishes a chapter once a week. From chapter 8 to chapter 13 is 5 chapters. This is content that could be released all in the span of 1 week, if it was released daily/on weekdays only. That's a short enough time for the reader to retain plot points brought up in chapter 8 and resolved in chapter 13.
But in the webtoon, the content of those chapters are covered in episodes 8 to 14. That's 6 chapters, which would be 6 weeks of reading in real time. This would require the reader to remember a plot thread from more than a month ago which isn't very likely. So they may have to move around some events/revelations to make the webtoon reader's experience a bit smoother. The only other options would be to either have constant flashbacks (which can get boring) or to just go on like the webnovel does (which might make some readers feel lost).
Additionally, with the weekly publishing vs daily publishing, I think the weekly publishing might have a higher barrier to reader retention than a daily schedule. It's a lot easier to forget something over the course of a week than from one day to the next. Thus the weekly chapters have to end all its chapters with enough intrigue/suspense/interest so that the reader still remembers to read the next chapter a week later instead of getting distracted by some other media. This can result in certain adaption decisions like moving plot threads around or splitting the ending of one of the webnovel chapters over multiple webtoon chapters (like ending episode 6 with the countdown running out and people dying (but not who died) and then showing Namwoon's death in the next episode).
(Sorry if the formatting is bad, first time replying like this)
I do agree with you there. I know it’s the same with a lot of anime too. You have those flashbacks that get boring to the point it becomes a meme (cough cough- BNHA-).
And I get that there is a level of reader attention, but I also think that while they are increasing reader attention, they are decreasing reader comprehension. Not in a mean way, but just because of the changes they are doing.
Changing it so that the reader can remember, especially in these early chapters where you kinda gotta beat it over the reader’s head until they understand the power system, is important in a webtoon setting where the episodes are so spread out. However, because of these changes, we lose the impact of Namwoon’s death and we lose the context of how the constellations reacted to Dokja’s decision.
Neither decision is wrong, it’s just how adaptation works. I did a lot of research about this in my research project, so I get it. A lot of these discrepancies are based on reader impact rather than genuine criticism lmao.
I think someone did mention that s-class hunter does have that episode and I just completely forgot to check it out.
And another thing is that I am very early in the adaptation of the webtoon. That art style changes over time and so does the story direction. As a writer, I find it fascinating how this story evolves in both mediums. The novel authors get more sure of their story as chapters move forward and the webtoon artists get more sure in their adaption process.
I feel like if they wanted to get both the reader attention and the story in there, they’d have to trust their readers to be at least a little hooked. They average 3-4 episodes a month. By episode 4 of the webtoon, Dokja has figured out his speed reading skill, Namwoon is on his emo bullshit, and there’s been an explosion. That’s pretty good development. By episode 6, that’s almost 2 months. Most people, if they aren’t interested, probably aren’t going to follow a story for 2 months regardless of cliff hangers.
Using just the Namwoon example, I feel like there are ways to have that emotional impact with Namwoon without splitting it up. I think that Namwoon’s dramatic realization that he’s going to die, begging Dokja, and then dying with Dokja just staring blank faced would have been a great cliff hanger. Would they have to shift some things around, yeah. But it retains that emotional impact that doesn’t hit as hard in the webtoon.
As for the sponsor selection, I feel it was redundant. Just plainly- later on in that same episode I mentioned, episode 14, Bihyung mentions the fact that Dokja didn’t choose a sponsor.
By having the results of the sponsor selection be earlier, in chapter 8, it creates foreshadowing. We know that this is a huge moment in Dokja’s plan but we don’t fully understand why. It also clues us in more on how Dokja feels about this whole thing. It shows that he really isn’t as calm and collected as the webtoon kinda portrays him to be. He has doubts about his choices sometimes.
I think if could have been handled something like this:
Dokja lets the time run out on the sponsor selection, brief comments from the constellations, move on. Fast forward to episode 14 where, guess what, it comes back. Dokja is trying to sell his worth to Bihyung and Bihyung says “blah blah blah is this why you didn’t choose a sponsor??” This would be where you maybe add in the reminder. Maybe Dokja takes a second to be like “yeah I did do that but also was that really the right choice?” Get that mental dilemma in there, you know.
Discrepancy #54
This scene is different in the novel and webtoon.
To catch you up to speed, Dokja has proposed the idea that he could catch the attention of both groups of constellations and keep that attention.
Here’s how it goes in the novel:
[ORV Novel, Chapter 13]
Versus the webtoon:
[ORV Webtoon, Episode 14]
I think it’s interesting how differently Bihyung is portrayed. Bro has zero chill in the webtoon and it’s hilarious.
I also think that the conversation Bihyung has with Dokja in the novel is interesting. It puts Dokja’s situation into perspective. As a reader, we get into the habit of just trusting that things happen. “Oh no, Dokja got eaten by the serpent! It’s okay. He’ll figure it out because he’s the main character.”
ORV subverts this system. We won’t know it until Dokja dies for the first time, but he *can* die. He’ll come back. He’s hard to kill and stay dead. Like a damn cockroach.
But the writer is the one who dictates this world, and we come to expect certain truths. The main character can’t die and stay dead. The plot always works out. A romance story always has a kiss and an action story always has a big battle scene. These expectations can be subverted, but it’s the basic formula for the stories we are used to.
So when reading ORV, we are really only looking at the issues from Dokja’s perspective. He won’t die here. The novel is too long for him to die in the first 20 chapters.
By including how Bihyung sees Dokja’s situation, it puts everything into perspective. It shows us how the constellations and the dokkaebi really think about the incarnations—about Dokja.
We may have story line expectations, but the constellations don’t. It’s an interesting plot device.
