The King’s Affection ~ K-Drama Series Webtoon Adaptation

Webtoons are South Korean webcomics that have gained mainstream popularity in various countries. They cover many genres: horror, romance, comedy, historical, etc. Netflix has decided to ride the “Korean wave” by streaming K-drama series based on webtoons. These adaptations are enjoying tremendous success.

One such series is “The King’s Affection”. Netflix made this series available worldwide on October 11, 2021, which is also the exact date it was aired on KBS2 (Korean Broadcasting System). The webtoon which has the same title was written and drawn by Lee SoYoung. “The King’s Affection” is a romance/historical fiction Korean drama with 20 episodes. As soon as you watch the first episode, it will be hard for you to say “Eh! I’m not interested.”

What happens in the first episode?

In Episode 1, twins are born to a crown princess. In Joseon (the last dynastic kingdom of Korea), there was a belief that twins were a bad omen. Especially, fraternal twins, i.e. a boy and a girl. The crown princess is told not to tell anyone about the birth of the twins, and to keep the baby boy and kill the baby girl. The crown princess faked her daughter’s death and sent her away from the palace. That should have taken care of the problem, but it didn’t!

Life carries on and babies don’t stay babies forever!

By the time the twins are somewhere between the ages of 9 to 11, they accidentally meet each other. The young crown prince is surprised to find a young girl working in the palace as a maid who looks just like him. He hatches a plan for them to trade places; not knowing that the girl is his sister. He gets her to agree to wear his clothes and pretend to be him. In turn, he dresses up like her and in that way, he can slip out of the palace and explore the world! After having fun, he returns to the palace, they change clothes, and everything goes back to normal.

Were it not for the fact that these sweet innocent children were surrounded by ruthless murderous adults, their playful plan could have worked. Instead “the switch” resulted in the violent death of the crown prince. The young girl, who did not know that the prince was her brother is caught at the palace wearing his royal attire. Her mother finds out what has happened and forces her daughter to continue to live her life in the palace as the crown prince. The crown princess has already lost her only son; and can not bear the thought of losing her only daughter too.

Poor Dam-Yi. She is no longer herself. She is now her brother, Lee Hwi, the crown prince, and she must keep her true identity a secret … OR DIE!! So she grows up into womanhood masquerading as a man, surrounded by the cruel adults who murdered her brother, her parents, a few loyal servants, and one very annoying uncle who keeps trying to convince everybody that she is not “the real prince”.

But Dam-Yi has more than one secret.

Another event occurred at about the same time Dam-Yi and her brother traded places. While working as a maid, she met a young boy, Jung Ji-Un (or Ji-woon). He was from a noble family and they instantly struck up a friendship. When she grows up, he is appointed as her teacher. She recognizes him but he does not know that she is his childhood friend. She has to keep the fact that she met him when they were children a secret. They both begin to develop feelings for each other. However, Jung Ji-Un is confused and troubled by his emotions, not understanding why he feels so strongly attracted to the crown prince. To put it in his words: “I’m a mess.”

The two (2) main characters are:

• Crown Prince Lee Hwi / Dam-yi / Yeon-seon played by Park Eun-bin; and
• Jung Ji-Un, Lee Hwi’s teacher played by Ro Woon).

Several entertainment websites published ratings for this series.

• IMDb ~ 7.9/10 stars
• My Drama List ~ 8.3/10 stars
• Rotten Tomatoes ~ 4.5/5
• Flixboss ~ 7.3/10

I agree with all of these ratings. If you have not watched this 2021 K-drama, you should add it to your watch list. If you want to know a little bit more about the webtoon, Kpopmap published an excellent article titled: “An Intro To The Webtoon Of “The King’s Affection” K-Drama Starring SF9’s RoWoon And Park EunBin”.

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The King’s Affection | Official Teaser | Netflix