Summary

• Netflix's K-drama Sweet Home made changes to the webtoon, cutting down on backstories and humor, with season 2 being mainly an original story.
• The addition of a main character, Seo Yi-kyung, helped push new plots in the Netflix adaptation.
• The fates of main characters, including Sang-wook and Yu-ri, were changed in the K-drama compared to the webtoon.

Netflix's K-drama Sweet Home made a lot of changes to the webtoon across both seasons. Written by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan, the Sweet Home webtoon ran for three years starting in 2017. The Netflix adaptation has three seasons, and it's been confirmed the show won't be returning for season 4. The first season follows the plot of the webtoon, but the second season is an original story that continues into season 3 when the narrative concludes.

Webtoons, like books, can contain a lot of backstory and lore due to their length. Some of the best K-dramas based on webtoons balance necessary changes with the original story. Although Carnby and Hwang don't have many complaints about the Netflix adaptation (via Korea JoongAng Daily), those familiar with the Sweet Home webtoon won't have problems spotting some major differences. However, while some fans weren't happy with all the changes, many helped turn a long-running webtoon into a concise, coherent three-season show.

10 Netflix Cut Down On The Backstories In Sweet Home

Backstories In The Webtoon Explained Certain Monsters

A key difference between the Sweet Home show and webtoon is that, understandably, Netflix didn't include anywhere near all the content in Kim Carnby's narrative. This was especially true when it came to the backstories of many of the monsters. Due to the webtoon's long runtime, it was able to explain the backstories of certain monsters to show what caused them to turn.

One of the most prominent monsters whose story was cut was that of the Starving Monster. In the Sweet Home webtoon, it was shown that the woman's intense diet and desire to be a celebrity is what led her to turn into a monster. In Netflix's Sweet Home, the woman wasn't given enough screen time to properly introduce her character before she turned. Although the Starving Monster wasn't a big part of Sweet Home's plot, her backstory gave hints about what caused the monsters to appear.

9 Sweet Home Has Some Humor In The Webtoon

The Show Didn't Have As Many Lighthearted Moments

It's not only the narrative that was changed by Netflix when adapting the Sweet Home webtoon into a show. The general tone was also altered significantly to better fit the new medium. Despite the graphic nature of Sweet Home's plot, the webtoon contains a few lighthearted moments. Cha Hyun-su and Lee Eun-hyuk provide a lot of humor, as their conversations are often enjoyable and funny. The Netflix K-drama didn't incorporate much of the webtoon's humor.

The characters, especially Lee Eun-hyuk, were all incredibly serious, which added suspense but took away some of the humanity from the story.

Including the lighthearted instances in the webtoon would have served to offset the gruesomeness and bring some light to the show, as it worked well in the webtoon. The characters, especially Lee Eun-hyuk, were all incredibly serious, which added suspense but took away some of the humanity from the story. Whether this change was good or bad is ultimately subjective, but given that Sweet Home on Netflix has been incredibly popular even among those who have no knowledge of the webtoon, the show's versions of the characters clearly work, even without the lightheartedness of their webtoon counterparts.

8 Netflix's Sweet Home Added A Main Character

Seo Yi-kyung Was Not In The Webtoon

While most of the changes Netflix made to the Sweet Home webtoon involved removing or changing aspects of the story it also added some too. Most notably, one of the key characters in the Netflix show was created specifically for their version of the narrative. Although she is one of the main Sweet Home characters in the Korean drama, Seo Yi-kyung is not in Carnby and Hwang's webtoon.

An original creation for the show, Yi-kyung is a former firefighter who uses her martial arts expertise to help fight the monsters. Yi-kyung plays a pivotal role in the Netflix adaptation. She is the first one to discover the government's involvement with the monster epidemic. As Netflix also added new plots to Sweet Home, like the government having a hand in the epidemic, it makes sense that they would have an original character to help push these plots along.

7 Lee Eun-yu's Characterization

She Doesn't Have Feelings For Hyun-su In The Sweet Home Webtoon

Many of the characters in the Sweet Home webtoon were changed for the Netflix adaptation, but one who was considerably overhauled with Lee Eun-yu. The younger sister of Lee Eun-hyuk, Lee Eun-yu lives with him in Green Home. In the Sweet Home show, she is a former ballerina whose career ended after a foot injury. Eun-yu is portrayed as being fairly closed off, which leads to her being standoffish and cold to people. In the webtoon, she isn't as unfriendly.

It's not only Lee Eun-yu's personality that was radically altered either. Netflix created an additional narrative arc for the character too, one that her on-page counterpart doesn't share. Despite it being an integral part of her narrative in Netflix's Sweet Home, there is no romance between Eun-yu and Cha Hyun-su in the webtoon. The two are merely friends, as Hyun-su's romance lies elsewhere in the Sweet Home webtoon.

6 Cha Hyun-su & Lee Eun-hyuk's Friendship Is Downplayed

In the Sweet Home Webtoon, The Two Share Similar Interests

Two of the Sweet Home webtoon main characters were downplayed somewhat in the Netflix adaptation. Not only that, but their relationship with one-another, something that underpins their characters in Kim Carnby's version of the story, was more-or-less absent. The characters in question are Cha Hyun-su and Lee Eun-hyuk.

Cha Hyun-su and Lee Eun-hyuk bond over their favorite anime series, Maria From the Sky, when they meet in the Sweet Home webtoon. They learn that they both had plans to see the anime's movie adaptation premiere, which never happened due to the apocalypse. Both Hyun-su and Eun-hyuk were fairly aloof in the Korean drama, as they didn't have Maria From the Sky to bond over and joke about in the first season. They couldn't bond in the second season either, as Song Kang's Hyun-su was barely in Sweet Home season 2 and Eun-hyuk was thought to be dead.

Maria From the Sky was made up by Carnby and Hwang for the Sweet Home webtoon. The characters of Maria and the knight correlate to Ji-su and Hyun-su, reflecting the two's relationship in the webtoon.

5 The Character Of Pyeon Sang-wook Was Very Different In Netflix's Sweet Home

Sang-Wook Was Not A Tough Guy In The Webtoon

Cha Hyun-su and Lee Eun-hyuk aren't the only characters in Sweet Home who are portrayed very differently in both versions of the story. Another is Peyon Sang-wook, who was changed somewhat drastically by the streamer when bringing Kim Carnby's story to the screen. In Netflix's K-drama Sweet Home, Pyeon Sang-wook is a mysterious man whose intimidating persona makes everyone believe he's a gangster.

In the webtoon, Sang-wook is still intimidating at first, but it's soon revealed that he's softhearted. In Carnby and Hwang's Sweet Home, Sang-wook is a former detective who still wants to do good for the people around him. Although the Korean drama maintained hints of romance between Sang-wook and Park Yu-ri from the webtoon, Sang-wook's backstory and personality were very different.

4 Netflix Changed The Fates Of Several Sweet Home Main Characters

Sang-wook And Yu-ri Don't Die In The Webtoon

Since the Sweet Home show is only three seasons, it omitted much that happened in the webtoon. While sometimes, such as with the backstories of monsters, this simply meant skipping certains parts of the narrative, it also meant changing the fates of several characters to shorten their stories. This is perhaps most notably with Sang-wook and Yu-ri. In Netflix's Sweet Home, Sang-wook and Yu-ri are killed by Jung Ui-myeong when they try to go outside to find inhalers to stop Yu-ri's asthma attack.

Ui-myeong shoots them because he thinks they are going to alert the military. Ui-myeong later possesses Sang-wook's body after Hyun-su destroys the body he was previously inhabiting. Sang-wook and Yu-ri actually survive the events of the Sweet Home webtoon. They are able to act on their mutual feelings and establish a romantic relationship during the webtoon.

3 Cha Hyun-su and Yoon Ji-su's Relationship Is Almost Non-existent

In The Sweet Home Webtoon, The Two Have Mutual Feelings For Each Other

The romantic aspects of the Sweet Home webtoon are perhaps the aspect that was trimmed down the most by Netflix for their adaptation. Just as Sang-wook and Yu-ri died too early for their romance arc to take shape in the Sweet Home show, the romantic subplot for Cha Hyun-su and Yoon Ji-su from the webtoon was also more-or-less absent.

The relationship between Cha Hyun-su and Yoon Ji-su is downplayed in the K-drama adaptation of Sweet Home. The two don't interact as much as they do in the webtoon, and they never establish feelings for each other. Instead, Hyun-su's romance is with Lee Eun-yu and Yoon Ji-su's is with Jung Jae-heon. In the Sweet Home webtoon, however, Hyun-su and Ji-su are romantically interested in each other. This becomes pivotal when Hyun-su's inner monster starts to take over, and he's unable to fight against it.

2 Cha Hyun-su Doesn't Have A Motive For Staying Human

Ji-su Is His Reason In The Sweet Home webtoon

Sang-wook and Yu-ri weren't the only characters in the Sweet Home show whose deaths also meant a key aspect of the webtoon didn't make it to screens. In both versions of Sweet Home, Cha Hyun-su falls victim to transformation into a monster. However, in the webtoon, he has an anchor that allows him to remain human — Yoon Ji-su.

When Cha Hyun-su's inner monster grows stronger in the Sweet Home webtoon, Yoon Ji-su's song is what pulls him out of it and brings his emotions back. The strength of their feelings is what tethers Hyun-su to his humanity. As the K-drama didn't include Hyun-su and Ji-su's relationship, that motive for staying human isn't there for Hyun-su. The song is such a pivotal moment in the webtoon and Ji-su's tragic death in season 2 crushed hopes for a happy ending that matches that of the webtoon.

1 The Military Had No Part of Sweet Home's Plot In The Webtoon

The Cause Of The Monster Epidemic Is A Mystery

One of the biggest changes Netflix made when adapting Sweet Home was adding the military as a plot device. This is perhaps the biggest change from Netflix for the wider narrative, as it eschewed Kim Carnby's decision to keep the epidemic mysterious and opted instead for an explainable foundation for all of the weirdness in Sweet Home.

In the Sweet Home webtoon, the cause of the monster epidemic is a mystery for most of the story. Hyun-su's inner monster is the one who reveals that monsters are manifestations of desires that trap humans in a "paradise of desires" to take over their bodies. In the Korean drama, the military is responsible for this revelation and actively tries to hide the cause. By revealing the cause of the monsterization, the Sweet Home K-drama removes the suspense that the webtoon hinged on.

Sources: Korea JoongAng Daily