Hongya

The webtoon ended with them having kids... I don't think we'll get to see that here xD
And you're right here Ryok is prohibited Maha not.

Quiet interesting in the webtoon it was more the other way around...
Maha was strongly discouraged from dating also because it was stated that so early in her idol career it would be disastrous if she was caught dating, while for Ryok it wasn't encouraged but as an established group with other single members he would be okay.

Brace yourself Fins... we get a new song on Friday! #Ready_For_SHAX_AMEN

He was kicked out way before. Eun joo leaving was because of another bad guy. I don't remember if they cooperated at any point in a "villain-team-up"
I remember that he went to prison in the webtoon in the end. He also had something to do with drugs (-> only 6 episodes left don't know if they can fit a subplot about the dangers of drug abuse in there).

EP6 also just showed that they're keeping true to some parts of the webtoon once again. I didn't mention it before because I didn't want to spoil anything...:
In the webtoon it was revealed that he bullied the younger trainees especially the female ones also during his 'Shax'-time... I don't remember the details anymore but he was bad news (i think he made them go out with him but I'm not sure).
Therefore, I wasn't at all surprised when we saw the phone call with the girl he seemed to like before and he actually didn't care at all...

Definitely. He pursues her and it takes her a while to realise it.
In the webtoon their relationship is at the lowest point during the shooting of the movie when he is acting as trying to kill her and she gets really scared in that moment because he does some adlibs and it feels too real (also there isn't a kiss scene in that webtoon-movie).
Afterwards he regrets not being nicer and adlibing without prior notice so he tries to be nicer but she keeps misinterpreting his words as criticism and keeps being shy/scared, always apologizing.
That's kind of when he starts falling for her and is starting to try to change the image she has of him.

And actually you saw some of the webtoon Maha in Episode 6 when she was talking to Lima: The webtoon Maha is a huge fan of La-Lima, she is kind of her girl crush (that's why she knows all her styles and choreographys and sometimes copied her without thinking about it)...
Actually the girl crush thing is kind of a running gag: Ryok gets really annoyed because even when they are a couple in the webtoon the moment La-Lima walks in Maha kind of forgets about him just happy to be in the presence of her favorite idol... :D

Which reminds me of one thing I want them to change: La-Lima needs to become more of her cool webtoon self and stop liking Ryok. Because in the webtoon when she also liked him but when she realised he was in love with Maha she was like: 'I like you but I am gonna stop liking you now because I can't be after a guy who is into little cute girls instead of a cool girl like myself' xD

There are some changes but I don't mind because they are keeping to the overall intention or problems that also occur in the webtoon.
Also they only have 12 episodes so naturally they can't fit 3 seasons of the webtoon in there.
The change that I mind the most but am okay with after thinking about it is Ma-ha's personality. In the webtoon she is so much more naive and has more of a bubbly, naive, positive, optimistic personality. But I think the more mature drama Ma-ha is more realistic and more to my actual taste in female leads. (After thinking about it I think an always unreasonably optimistic Ma-ha would have gotton on my nerves, while on paper I don't mind as much xD)

Yes though haven't seen the latest 2 Episodes yet.
Yeah I saw him and was like "Oh hello Ji-hak"... :)

No amnesia at all in the webtoon and even though they changed some things I don't think they would ADD such a big story arch.

And I really liked about this Episode that they surprised me with the car crash. I thought the boys would see Maya and the fight scene would go wrong and they end up really fighting (or some such childish/kdrama behaviour).
I only realised my misprediction when we saw him in slow-motion driving and spotting Ma-ha and in my mind went: 'Oh No! Watch the road! shit Oh no....'

I know what you mean but I really liked how Ji-hak resolved the issue with the girls and that they didn't drag it out over multiple episodes. Also the epilogue scene makes me think that Jae-wo probably regrets outing Eun-joo in the past and hiding Ryoks relationship from the company will - in my opinion - now become a SHAX group effort...
And in defense of the manager: He is hiding it from the bad CEO and I think he hasn't realised the severity of Ryok's crush yet and how much he changed. His mind is simple "3 days in the wilderness will get him out of his bubble to think straight and he will agree with me (and if we weren't talking about Ryok thank me for keeping him from making a mistake)"

It is. But it's one of the minor faults of the show that I can ignore because I can just pretend that there is a reason and the explanation scene just got cut.

For any Sparkling fans out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Z5zJRIX_8
My youtube-algorithm just told me to watch this live version of 'Diamond'... :o

Thx for the info. I figured there must be a meaning that got lost in translation, but hadn't gotton around to googling it yet :)

Just startet EP 14 and got a new theory: Maybe the Queen and Lackey are actually good guys and just seem bad. How did I come to this crazy theory?
We (the audience) could just hear the lackeys inner thoughts when he was questioning the fraud sage. And up to now we only heard the thoughts of the good guys - our main leads... (if I remember correctly)
And I just realised that we actually haven't seen them do anything really bad like kill or torture people up to now (I was fully expecting him to torture the fraud sage but he just left). They just talk shady but they could also be good guys trying to save the world in secret...
But maybe I will already be proven wrong once I finish this Episode...

just finished EP 8... I will definitely heed your warning!
I think it's also needed for EP 7... The play she wrote xD

Oh nice theory I hadn't thought of that!!!
I've just finished Episode 8... My theory so far:
The Empress is sick/dying and wants to change bodys with Taner with the help of the soul flute etc. three months later. That's why she's checking her health and wants her to get a bit stronger. Because it's supposed to be her body in the future...

In EP7, a servant talking about the play: "In the play, the man is intelligent and brave, but the woman is a deadbeat." This screenwriter is just killing me xD !!!
I like it when Dramas don't take themselves too seriously...

I also hate the wait but I think I'm getting more invested in this drama because of it... (I have more time to rewatch and come up with theories and discuss with everyone here).
If they aired two episodes each week it would already be over and I would probably have moved on to the next drama... so I'm focusing on the postive here :)

In the webtoon there is "development" on that front later on. But I don't know if they will do that here. They changed a few things...