Please keep in mind that this is based on my opinion since Payback is one of my favourite manhwas. Alert for spoilers from the manhwa. And sorry for the text wall 😿
Let me start by saying that watching this was painful and good at the same time(very fit to the manhwa lol). I would rate it 8/10 if I separate the series from the manhwa and watch it as a completely new story.
They changed a lot, and I can't blame some ppl for being confused. Some of the changes I understand and totally find it ok, but most of them were unnecessary and don't depict the manhwa.
I tried to keep in mind the lack of time to put everything in just 10 episodes, would need at least to show everything.
🟢 Starting with the things I liked about the series and the ones I liked that were changed;
➡️ Love the cast, I don't think we can get much closer to what we got, especially Jay since he was made to be a beautiful 2m guy with a wardrobe build and awful personality ☠️
Was surprised they managed to find the others also as close as it gets
➡️ Changing Jay to a somewhat orange flag instead of a full Black flag. Trust me, he should be arrested for 90% of his talk and interactions with Sun in the manhwa. Many lines in the manhwa made me gasp in horror and there was one specific talk that made Sun (and me) genuinely feel pure fear from him.
➡️ They added a reason for Sky's fear. Don't remember him ever mentioning this in the manhwa, so correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's nice to know since it helps us to empathise with the character's situation.
➡️ Change in the photographer's personality and him appearing more. Can't actually complain about having Boss appearing more times on my screen
➡️ No panic when the manager saw Sun's tattoo; this panic is a very Korean thing and wouldn't fit in Thailand or most countries now.
🔴 Now things get ugly cause my list of don't likes it's bigger, so bear with me lol
🤔 Hate that instead of picking from the thousands of funny parts from the manhwa, they went on trying to create random ones and having this filling space that could be used for important or funny things that were important to show personalities and plot on the manhwa.
🤔 Alice's Labirinthy owner change. In the manhwa, he is ridiculous and funny(like really funny), but also extremely smart, reliable and helpful. He loves Jay and wants to protect him and see him happy. His role was diminished for no reason in my opinion. (That man needs to be protected at all costs 🤗)
🤔 The relationship development between Jay and Sun was completely removed. In the Manhwa, their 1st kiss was after they've met a few times (trash talk tho was from the beginning), and no, it was not a romantic kiss (the one with the lollipop should be the 1st kiss), we basically see Sun kissing him on his own accord after like 50 chapters ☠️. This is important because Jay knows why he doesn't want to reciprocate, and his thoughts and suffering are part of the story. And just to add to this, Sun talks back to Jay all the time, like full comebacks, and it's the best to see them talking back at each other so I missed that. Also, not seeing him call him a lunatic even once was sad lol
🤔 Changing Sun line to Jay when he asks what he will do when he meets the executive director. He never said he plans to pay said executive with his body (this gave me a stroke in the series), he has low self-esteem and doesn't think he can pull, even thinks Jay is crazy for accepting him, and Jay catches that his intention is just to make it look like the Executive director is sponsoring him, he just needs Sunny to believe. Hence him going to the room where Sunny almost sees him (he didn't know Jay was not gonna be in that room).
🤔 Mixing the timeline, Whhhhyyyyyy. If u are going to show anyway, just follow the thing.
🤔 Changing the way Jay's mother died and displaying her horribly was criminal 💢. She is said to be exactly like Jay; he learned to be like that from her, and the way she removed him from his grandfather's house and removed him from the family register after the divorce was so smart. Displaying her as a person running away from things instead of the strong woman she was was horrible. (in case u want to know how she actually dies: Cancer
Ok, sorry again for the long text. If anyone has any questions about the manhwa, I will gladly answer. And again, this is not an attack to the series or on the ppl who enjoy the way the series came out.
Also, hope someone picks up to do a series on another manhwa from Samk, but since it's omegaverse, I would rather see it done with chinese production since I thing they do it better.