Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow

Nothing good came out of this season

It’s already pretty obvious as the rating and popularity of both seasons are much different. And rightfully so, i am here to explain why..

The story has changed quite a bit, although it is a continuation of the same story but quite a poorly written one. Everything revolves around the Jin family and their firebird . Songrim is empty and all the mages are gone!! You wonder what happened to the alchemy of souls as it only exists in the background. The plot is boring and slow.

Uk becomes a hunter! He behaves like a heart broken bad boy whose actions doesn’t make much sense. He says one thing than does completely other( opposite).
The female lead has amnesia even so she feels nothing like her old character. She is clingy, frail and a pushover. Nothing like the witty, blunt and strong minded girl we were introduced to in the first season. The writers forced us to believe that new FL is naksu but failed to make her believable in any way. She was nothing more than a pretty face. We see no action from her considering she is a powerful priestess. They made a whole sentimental scene out of death of maid servant Kim and lady Jin only for them to be alive in the same episode. Like wtf !! Is this a comedy drama!, is this serious writing!!! Like what was that !

Assistant gwanjo freely moves the entire season as if he didn’t make soul shifters run wild. Uk should’ve been chasing him but instead he is killing soul shifters. Like caught the real person behind them bruhh. It did happen eventually but in a very subtle way.
Yul’s moments with the FL had me screaming soo bad like why writer giving steamy scenes to them and wasting time. Like we know nothing will happen between them !! Soi had more spine than any of the other characters. She earned massive respect from me in this season. The 4 seasons were more like flop seasons in this part because we see Uk and little bit Yul in action. Other two are MIA. and have no role in the story.
Anyhow, I skipped many scenes to get to the end. It was hard as the memories of season 1keot haunting me, I just wanted this season to be over.

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The Shadow made the Light disappear

LIKED:

The Naksu who fought Park Jin as the original Mage leader S1, in very beginning who we saw soul shift into Mu-deok, is same face as FL in S2.
The animal trainers did well: Loved the turtle moments, especially with Prince Go Won and the dog that could see soul shifters also was perfect.
FX good but not as awesome as in S1.
Costumes for the most part were good.
Acting by actors and actresses well done for most of them. Lee Jae Wook was great in both S1 & 2. Season 2 Jin mu mage (Jo Jae Yoon) wasn’t as compelling, but he always gives a good performance, especially when playing the bad/evil guy.
Music was for the most part appropriate, scene building and well executed.


DISLIKED:
A lot of the issues/dislikes from S1 were continued in S2, for example: Shaking camera moments and Fx green screen noticeable.
Using same actor (Im Chul Soo) to play different, non related characters; Mage Master Lee and one of the guys delivering alcohol, that Jang Uk saves by killing soul shifter [that went into son’s body].
Pacing issues, a lot of boring parts due to bogged down by too much politics and showcasing human greed

Directing: too much staring and inactive moments, extended scenes that didn't help in any way.

Writing:
Plot issues throughout, dragging on moments that were unnecessary, forcing chemistry that had nothing solid to back up the instant connection. Confusing choices for changing the character of FL that was so well developed in first season, to a character that was lacking in all aspects and then claiming she was this all along. The mess they created for the main storyline for the supporting characters of the Royalty, Unanimous Assembly and Jin mu w/ his mages, was very lame. The body swap and soul change explanation for Naksu/Bu-yeon was badly executed. Yes they used the same body for FL S2, as the opening scenes of Naksu in S1, but that didn’t help. Too many anti-climatic or low impact moments of important characters in S2, that were so evolved and developed in season 1. The character development and especially growth even for the FL, ML and other dominant characters was non-existent.

Wardrobe: the crowns of the King & Queen, all looked like those paper things you get from a fast food burger place. Also the jewelry mostly became heavy and clunky looking (like the hair pins). I understood why the colour palette changed to be more somber for literal execution of the SHADOW concept of S2, but the effort seemed lacking.


OVERALL: Most of the reviews cover all the crappy parts of the plot and their actor/actress character preferences. With a decent budget and good FX and getting a S2 to explain the concept of the plot, why did the Hong sisters give up on their plot and create a cliche and trope driven mass of garbage? Also I am sure they could’ve afforded the best camera production crew, so no excuse for zooming in way too close (I hate seeing up actor noses, cut off faces) and no film stabilizer! To give a proper review I did watch everything again, after watching it the first time. But I did use fast forward often in S2. As seems to be the trend lately with Korean Dramas, S1 is exceptional and S2 disappoints. I hope in 2023 that changes and we get consistency. I would recommend this show overall, and I will rewatch certain moments, but not the whole thing.

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The sequel that shouldn’t be made

The first season established solid chemistry and relationships, especially between the lead, which is one of the most engaging element of the show. Although changing the female lead fits the narrative of the story, it also inevitably forced the audience to reacquaint with a new character. The personality of the new female lead is so vastly different from the first season that it no longer feels like a continuation but seems to be a completely different person. And because Jang Uk’s attraction to this new Naksu was not clearly explained, it doesn’t feel like he is drawn to elements of Mu Deok that he finds in her but appears more like he is simply attracted to the comfort she offers. Their rekindling feels more like a betrayal of Mu Deok than a reunion and is extremely unsatisfying to watch. The general writing is sloppy and the scenes are mostly unnecessary and does not add value to the narrative.

They should have extended 1 or 2 more episodes to season one and wrap up the show. Watching season 2 took away so much of my enjoyment of season 1 that I wish I could unwatch it.

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Boring plot, empty characters and barely any action

Alchemy of souls season 1 exceeded my expectations so my excitement was at peak for season 2. I couldn’t wait to see naksu back in her original body. Since the bar was set soo high i thought writers will take everything to the next level, more plot twists, more action, more magic and more alchemy of souls. But season 2 was nothing more than a story of marriage of convenience couple going back and forth with their feelings. Yes!! This season was made to bring naksu and Uk together thru the overused “Fate” and “amnesia”plot.

The main lead couple was going to end up together eventually but the story could’ve been soo much better than this . Writers incorporated rapunzel’s story in the show 😭 . I am not even joking as FL had amnesia and she was trapped in a room by her mother and awaited a prince. And then Jang uk walks in as expected. They tried to bring in the same chemistry that yul and crown prince had with mudok but failed. I won’t say that the main lead couple had zero chemistry, they definitely had chemistry but what he had with mudok was magical. The new FL could’ve had her own identity but she was forced to live under naksu’s shadow.

All characters lost their perspective roles, Park Jin become a comic character and had no role left in the story. Yul was left to suffer again with his one sided feelings and guilt. Dang gu,cho yeon and crown prince also had no part to play in the plot. There were all empty characters with no specific role.

I forced myself to finish season 2 just to find out if Yul will live or not. Otherwise I had lost all interest in episode 1.

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Let's try to save season 2 of AOS

As many have already said, season 1 of Alchemy of Souls was a 10/10. There was not a character that wasn't well characterised, there was not a moment of dullness despite the length of each episode, the chemistry between characters (all characters, friends just as much as lovers) was peak perfect.... but then season 2 came and ruined it all.

My personal opinion is that there are contingent mistakes to it, but that the main mistake is that JBY and JUK shouldn't have fallen in love. This could have easily been done and the plot would have carried itself just as well: instead of him saving her because he "missed her like crazy" when having literally no real connection to her (there was no proper build up to this, Maidservant Kim called this out herself), he could have saved her out of 1) the fact he needed her for the reasonable reason that is wanting to take the ice stone out 2) pity. Secondly, their relationship should have been built up as JUST a good friendship (at least from JUK's side), just like it did when Mu-deok and JUK first got to know each other. This would have been much more endearing to watch, especially because the audience knows who JBY actually is: instead of having the audience watch JUK basically move on from Mu-Deok, it would have been much better to have us glued to the screen seeing JUK rejecting his true love because of his ignorance. Then, the moment of truth would have felt MUCH more impactful (here it is dutiful to note that there was also a directional issue with the way the show handled this plot point: the scene in which JBY and JUK make out is much much longer than the scene in which the two characters make-out after the realisation, which makes it seem as if for JUK Mu-deok is not that special after all) - The realisation should have come as a shock for JUK, he should have fallen to his knees crying like a baby, instead we got some stoic looks and a mere hug from him.
That was the main mistake in my opinion, because it broke the most important plot point of the show: the two being an inseparable match.
About the contingent mistakes, I think there is a very evident one: when Jin Mu shifts bodies, it is immediately clear that it is him even if it's another person acting him out because his appearance but especially his facial expressions make it very clear. That is not the case with JBY and Mu-deok: I get that having lost her memory, JBY won't act as tough as Mu-deok did, but their facial expressions or at least their aesthetic should have been resembling for the whole thing to come out as it should have (the way they kept their hair for instance), instead JBY felt like a whole new person (hence, a whole new love interest).
This issue could have been resolved without having to cast a different actress? I think so, because in the very last ten minutes of the show we see a JBY that finally feels like Mu-deok.
I could probably keep going, because there are other issues with this second season (such as the way JBY's gaining her memory back was handled, or the fact that the final battle felt like slicing a piece of cake - literally), but I will end my review here and go mourn the potential this show had.

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Disappointing

I liked the first fighting scenes with Naksu in Part 1, she looked impressive so when she got burned and Mudeok became FL, it was jarring but I soon fell in love with Mudeok as Naksu. Then found out Mudeok won’t be Naksu in Part 2 -again that was jarring.

Really wanted to give new FL a chance because of the fighting scenes in Part 1. Happy with new Naksu with no memory acting more like Buyeon. But when Naksu’s memory came back, waited for Naksu to appear but she didn’t, just felt like she was always Buyeon still. Was it bad acting? Don’t think so because Naksu in those fight scenes was bad ass. Bad directing? Did directors sleep through those scenes? Even a scene where she dresses herself like assassin Naksu, trying to regain her physical strength (like when she was Mudeok) to get revenge for her death and soon-to-be death and Yul sees her and warns her to not do this in case people recognises her as Naksu, and she’d be hunted, then she decides to continue to dress as Buyeon. But even dressed as Buyeon, Naksu can’t hide her personality.

So Naksu didn’t act like Naksu so the interactions with ML didn’t feel right. The whole romance with ML didn’t feel right. It was unclear who he actually snogged, that long kiss between them was when he thought she was Buyeon - the confusion to the audience or maybe just me,made him not very likeable as a ML, like he was cheating on Mudeok/Naksu so made the kissing scenes very uncomfortable to watch. And if Naksu was Naksu, she would have been furious that he made out with Buyeon. That would have been a good scene to show Naksu was back, her throwing a few knives at his face!

It would have been better to end AOS at Part 1 and Part 2 was a totally different story altogether, that way I could have enjoyed the romance in Part 2 without the characters acting out of character bothering me so much.

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Did I enjoy it more or am I frustated more?

So we finally had the last chapter and gosh it was a journey. Tbh I neither liked it very much nor hated it. I had no expectation to begin with and just wanted to watch it for entertainment so it didn't hit me as much.

It was evident that the script was solid, unfortunately the way it was executed on screen was illogical and rushed. I believe on paper the story would have been more enjoyed and since the drama had to be fitted in a certain amount of time it became a parody of random scenes. The editing in the second half was very bad. I wanted to root for the USP of the show. The fantasy elements of soul shifting, different energy levels, Jang Uk arc as the protector of the stone, Naksu as an assassin, tragic love story b/w soul shifter and killer of soul shifters was supposed to be the USP in my opinion.
Had they stick to their strengths, the show could have been very different. But no they had to use cheap methods to gain attention.

The storyline became JUST SO DUMB. I ff a lot of Jin Mu's scenes, he was so bad that I skipped most of his dialogues and saved my time and energy.
Also I feel few scenes were "referenced" from other famous movies/drama which didn't fit to this story and failed to be executed properly. Some of which which I noticed-
1. Jang Uk wraiths shown in his room> quite similar to Harry Potter dementors.
2. In EP 1 or 2, there was an underwater soul shifter> I was half expecting it to be similar as Black Panther's Talocan but they dropped it pretty fast without much explanation. I was up for an army of underwater soul shifters hehe.
3. When Jang Uk locked Jin Mu in the secret room> similar to the power of mirror dimension of Dr Strange.
4. Jang Uk super sonic speed when he entered Jinwoyon in Ep 1> similar to Quicksilver in Avengers Age of Ultron.
5. Army of the dead aka soul shifters> Obviously GOT. Infact the intro song was very similar to the one of GOT.

I enjoyed Crown Prince scenes- The "Why did Jang Uk cared for my turtle" was silly yet funny. Sadly he was cut off from the VFX budget and didn't get any fight scenes. Further the transition from serious to funny scenes was well done.
I liked the OST "Scars leave beautiful trace" .

The most frustrating arc was Bu Yeon/Naksu/Mudoek/ Jeol Seo Ran/ Chu Yeon ufffff. The great assassin and priestess was merely said on paper. Infact the entire story was told on paper with nothing actually done. I can list all of them but its pointless and quite obvious for those who have already seen.

The acting was mostly good except for the villain. The main casts were an eye candy, just one complaint- why did they shot romantic scenes with so much anger. Dude that was the most serious wedding I have ever seen! Also CP confessing that he liked Naksu and was angry at Uk for having what he wanted was so understated. Uk reaction to finding out Naksu was all the more understated.

In conclusion, did I regret watching it? No because it had potential. Will I recommend or add it as my best watch? Definitely No for obvious reasons everyone felt.

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Season 1 was way much BETTERR!!

Comparing to season 1 it was nothing like i was expecting something good but it didn't turn out what i was expecting and i think almost every viewer have the same opinion. Whatever let's review it.


ACTING/CASTING: The acting of every crew member was very good even though the storyline was not good but the acting was , can't deny the fact. The casting was also very good that bringing back Lee jae wook as Jang uk obviously because in the last ep of season 1 he was alive. Naksu is also back but...leave it i will tell you in the end(i think some readers understood).

OST: I don't much notice the OSTs but i bet that this season's OSTs was much better than the previous season.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

STORYLINE: Jang uk is alive again and this season is showing about their village after 2 yrs.


As lady jin was finding her oldest daughter jin byeon and jin mu promised her that he will find her. He did and for three years she is been in prison under her mother's control.

Do you remember Dangu? Yes so he was back from his practice and all so he didn't see jin cha yeon for three years. Now finally he was back in songrim and gone to see jin cha yeon while he was talking to jin cha yeon jang uk went in jineyeon(i don't know their palace name) there was a soul shifter he killed him plus he free jin byeon from the prison.

Then jin byeon was naksu so she wanted to recover her memories and there was only one person who can help her do that that is seo yul. So she was searching for Seo yul but god has other plan one day songrim people and jineyeon(don't the name)people fixes jin byeon marriage with Jang uk without asking them but then they got married. Jin byeon loves him but he doesn't but then how he fell for mu-deok earlier he fell for jin byeon this time. After this you just have to watch the drama.

FINAL REVIEW: I was expecting that mu-deok will be back and i want her back because i literally cried day and night. The chemistry Jang uk and mu-deok have jang uk and jin byeon doesn't from my POV. The biggest thing is jang uk is a biggest red flag (i know it seems like it is modern dating or something but i am just sharing my opinion in my style) yeah so i was saying that jang uk is the biggest red flag because how can you move on from someone that easily like broo are u serious?! But what can we do.

From my side it's up to you that you want to watch the s2 or not i am not saying anything.

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Nothing really worked out this season

(some spoilers, but you’re better off not watching anyway.)

I really liked the first season but it admittedly fell down a bit at the end, then this season was extremely convoluted from episode 1. I constantly felt that the things that happened in the plot happened not because it made sense but because the writers were trying to force the story in a certain direction. For example, Naksu's face returns to her original despite being in Jin buyeon's body because the face must match the soul? Something like that. And she loses all her memories? The real reason is that the writers just wanted this long, convoluted saga of Naksu and Jang-uk not recognizing each other. Another example, the King and the unanimous assembly have this really stupid plan to use the firebird to create another ice stone. The only reason they’re on board with Jin Mu is because they want the ice stone’s power, despite the immense destruction the plan will cause. Strangely, these people have not made any preparations on how they would survive that destruction themselves…and they completely trust Jin Mu to share the power of the ice stone for no reason at all, he’s so obviously untrustworthy.

I also felt that the made female lead was not nearly as compelling as in the first season. It’s partly because her role is bad. She comes across all lovey dovey and cute. Unlike Jung so-min's unreadable poker face and sense of confidence, she often has a brooding somber expression. This is excusable at first but when she regains her memories you’d expect some return to her other, way more engaging personality. She’s simply not as cool as a character too, going from secret manipulator in the first season to needy damsel in distress in S2. Even when she does something brave like go to the Gwido prison to retrieve the Jinyowan token, she needs to be rescued by jang Uk. Another reviewer called this misogynistic, which it is, but for me it’s just a massive disappointment that all the badassery I expected to come out later never did— Naksu wasn’t even involved in the final fight and firebird scene! It’s ok to frustrate viewers for some time if there’s a good payoff later, but that payoff never comes.

Most other characters didn’t have an important role either. The crown prince makes the king step down. There’s no reason I guess that he had to do this when he did, ostensibly he could have done it anytime, way before or way after the firebird stuff and completely unrelated. The other characters help to fight chunbugweon mages but it doesn’t really matter since Jang uk confronts Jin Mu alone anyway, who by the way, dies a pretty anticlimactic death that didn’t feel like he got full justice for what he did to Naksu in S1.

The same issues that were in S1 were just as bad if not worse in S2–belaboring sidecharacter romantic subplots I don’t really care about and having many scenes that don’t really advance the plot but just reaffirm feelings or tell us things we already know. But in S2 there was no compelling plot to make up for it.

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Hope Dies Last

Even though, sometimes, the first season of a drama doesn’t give you what you want, when a second season is announced, there's always hope for things to get better. As one of the persons who was disappointed by the first season of Alchemy of Souls, but still full of hope & curiosity, I've given AoS's second season a chance, to see what more this story had to offer.


~~S1 vs S2 ~~

World & Rules

In my review of AoS S1 I have written "in AoS the rules/grounds of body sifting are very interesting yet the concept of it somehow lacked". Well, in AoS S2 the rules/grounds of the whole world's structure just lacked.

The world doesn't follow a predetermined setting,a natural flow. In S2 new rules/abilities are constantly added and the only reason behind their existence is because somehow the plot had to move forwards. It's not a bad thing to create rules that help the plot out, but you can't excuse everything that happens because "it's magic" or "it's a fantasy drama not based in reality". Even in fantasy stories there should be grounded and have limitations and everything that's done should have a reasoning behind it.

Winner: S1 The world setting was way better there.

Pace

AoS S2 consists of 10 episodes which is the half amount of the S1 episodes and this helped the drama's pace a lot. S2 has a lot fewer filler scenes than S1 so it's more focused on the story which is actually a good advantage. Generally though, I had to say that the S2's individual pace as a drama wasn't perfect, just not as problematic.

Winner:S2 ? Well...

Story & Development

Having the characters and their relationships already set, the 10 episode-length S2 of AoS is ready to set another thing: the story. But jokes on you! S2 spends most of its time resetting the relationship between the two main characters while it didn't develop the core of the story until the last 2 episodes. In all the other episodes, the things that move the plot forward didn't have as much screen time.

As in S1, the villains were on the background plotting once again and doing nothing. The other relationships between all the other characters are already known from S1 and they made, from time to time, guest appearances in episodes , just to remind that they also exist in the story but they don't evolve further (except some exceptions).


To sum up, S2 was static. The only hot topic was the recreation of the main character's relationship and not what was actually happening in the world of the drama. The reason why this was bad is because it somehow made AoS S2 look like an individual drama that was inspired by AoS S1... Maybe a FanFic??

Winner: Tie. Both seasons lacked in story development and only move forward the very last minute


~~Cancel Writing~~

AoS's story has a very big disadvantage, and will call this problem "cancel writing". It means, when something that is written in the story is canceled by future events, for example, a character is represented to be very strong, but never one in the story was. A character has a curse that can't be broken, but it actually did, with the most easy way possible etc... This is bothering because the events that made you happy or sad and gave an emotional value to the story, got canceled, just like they didn't even happen.

In addition to that, I felt like the writers didn't dare to move the story a little bit further, so that everyone in fandom could be satisfied. Story-unrelated example, when a beloved character stays good and flawless, so that none of the fans is hurt because of their beloved ones behavior.

The above can make the drama boring, because you know that the story is not gonna pass a certain point and pull out something unpredictable and even if an event disturbs the story's waters, it will get canceled. As a result to this, everything in AoS ended as a bit cliche and not out of the box drama.



~~Overall~~

To say something positive about AoS, in both seasons, there were some things that I really enjoyed. In S1, I enjoyed the characters' interactions, the lore of the world. In S2, I appreciated the action scenes and the production behind this drama a lot more. AoS is generally a very well-made drama and no one can say otherwise.

The story had many possibilities to be good, and some of its parts were actually really good. I thought many times that if some things would turn out otherwise, AoS would be excellent in my eyes, but it wasn't. AoS's story never reached its full potential.


In the end, hope dies last, but dies


And just like that, as far as the story is concerned, AoS ends up as something I wouldn't recommend watching.

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Shouldn't have existed

I initially dropped it b/c I thought the problem was the switch of actresses, but after death's game and moving I grew to love the actress. So I started it again,
turns out the problem wasn't the actress nor the chemistry, the writing was just unbearably soap-level bad:
- They dragged out the amnesia until the last 2 episodes, and they had no reaction to it, b/c he was already in love with the new Naksu and didn't care about the old one that much apparently.
- Naksu had a personnality transplant and lost all brain, they turned our smart lead into a damsel, she never got her powers back.
- The secondary characters were just there,
- there was no solid plot just milking a soapy story
- I couldn't follow the characters logic in anything...

Anyway a total waste of my time, fortunately the FL did other projects and won't be remembered for this flop

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