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There really was no need for part 2
Okay so I know I’m super late to the party but I’ve only just finished AOS today and I have so much to say.I can’t even describe to you how much I loved the first part, I literally gave it a 10/10 rating. It was everything I’d want in a romance drama (a story that has more to it than just romance). The chemistry between Mu-deok and Uk was the best thing ever OMG. I really didn’t expect how the first part would end tbh and I was so sad but I ASSUMED that everything could only get better right….. WRONG. Bro I felt like I was forcing myself to watch part 2. I hated seeing Uk pursue a relationship with a different FL it just looked and felt so wrong to me. Like even though I knew she was still Naksu it didn’t feel right at all. Also I just felt like the plot fell off so much. Part 2 only got good for me in the last 3 eps, everything else felt so slow and uninteresting. In my opinion, at most maybe there should’ve only been 20-25 eps in total and the plot of part two could’ve easily been shortened down and rewritten with less ‘flatness’. I mean don’t get me wrong I still love this drama and I’m so glad they ended up with eachother at the end but I was so hyped for the second part and I was very disappointed by the way it was written and how it felt like it was dragging at times :((
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Not so entertaining to watch, except the last two episodes
Go Youn-jung's "replacement" as the main female lead was actually done very well. Initially, I was ready to be disappointed with this shift, but her mannerisms and innocent-looking amnesiac aura made me realize that she was fit for the role. Even I was able to recognize her as Naksu immediately. She was able to retain the charm of Jung So-min while portraying the character of Mu-deok/Naksu (of course, as the role of Naksu was written for Youn-jung). But then again, I was frustrated that she was again relegated to be fragile and more of an eye-candy when in fact, Naksu was a vicious, merciless, yet skillful person in the first place. The amnesia shouldn't have been an excuse. Besides that, She (the actress) definitely was the surprise for this season.Other than that, I was generally disappointed with how this season turned out. Yes, it was able to answer the fundamental questions from the first season which is the reason why my score for the story is not that low. But, it was full of plot conveniences that initially confused me (Seo Yul's blood parasite problem being solved right away), followed by prolonged dragging of cliches (amnesia, passive aggresive romance, and noble sacrifice being the top culprits) that could've been compressed by at least 2 episodes, and ended with noticeable plot holes that buffered my brain (Park Jin being able to close the door of Jinyowon despite him not being part of the Jin family, among others). The story shifted for the majority of this season, and it only decided to return to the main story during the last 2 episodes.
I was also upset for that it only had few, but still memorable action scenes in this season, partly because of the prolonged building up of tension rather than the action itself. Although, it was vindicated by the last 2 episodes, as the action scenes were breath taking, still I wanted more. The CGI were also top-notch, but it felt that it was only reserved for said last 2 episodes, and budget was only an afterthought for the rest of the season. The wardrobe here were not as sophisticated as the 1st season, but the accessories and the props (relics) were definitely an upgrade.
Speaking of the prolonged tension build up, it was baffling in that everything could've been solved right away, and even the "ultimate" battle was just finished easily. Jang Uk (Lee Jae-wook) was not even sweating during that "battle". Again, deux ex machina overload all over, which definitely killed the ending's potential to be a future classic. It was as if there was more talk than action. Personally, it might be due to the overexposure of the romance plot and its cliches which felt like filler rather than building blocks of the main story. Still, the last 2 episodes are the saving grace for this series all things considered.
Another gripe is Jin Mu (Jo Jae-yoon). How is he still not captured or even dead already? I wasn't really convinced with the reason behind that, and he just was a plot armor. Not a memorable villain as a character, but great delivery of lines and emotions as an actor.
There were still positive comments here, most notably the improved acting of the Hwang Min-hyeok as Seo Yul. He was now able to expand his acting range here compared to the one-dimensional emotionless acting on the first season. Still, there is room for improvement. Also, it was hilarious to think that the Crown Prince Go Won (Shin Seung-ho) had an unexpected character development. Not only that it was lowkey funny, but it was refreshing for me thinking about it due to its being unforeseen.
All in all, still a disappoinment with how this season turned out. Despite my lackluster reception for the first season, I was still optimistic here because of that cliffhanger. However after watching this, I was able to conclude that this season felt that it had a separate story from its predecessor, and as a series, it looked like it has two stories in one.
My review title for the first season was that it was entertaining to watch...at 2x speed. Here, it would be: not so entertaining to watch, except the last two episodes.
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✒⭐Soul Survivors - AoS Concludes⭐
AoS-2 is a seamless continuation of S1. It picks up about 3 years after the dramatic events of S1's close.As the show opens it appears that they've spent a lot of money on the special effects. It's quite beautiful. The music is top tier also. Blue Flower by LIA is Shazamable. Aching, by Kassy, is too, as is I′m Sorry. by Ailee, and Raindrops, by Gummy.
They switch up the FL and she's got a very different personality than our S1 FL. She's also suffering from memory loss which explains part of the change. She has no memories and he doesn't recognize her, so they need to fall in love all over again. It should have been awesome, but their delivery is barely above average. Is it big-buget disease? Too often, a bigger budget bankrupts the humanity.
AoS doesn't take itself seriously. In S2 I was hoping they would go loftier, but they opted to go lower - they get more nonsensical than I would prefer. It's still a fantastic watch.
If I wasn't already familiar with Chinese fantasy, I may not have had those thoughts. Chinese fantasy, despite its often clunky special effects, is arguably the best in the world, and AoS has Chinese influence written all over it. If you like it, alchemize your watch list to include these amazing Cdramas:
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!,
Eternal Love-8.3,
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8,
Love Between Fairy and Devil 8.9,
Love and Redemption-10
AoS-2 drops off slightly from S1, but it is a solid conclusion to the popular show. I wrote more about it in my S1 review.
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A disappointing sequel of Great Story
Season 1Story was great, The author builded very appealing, likable , interesting , and engaging story,
The story had ' soul '
The world was explorable.
Characters were alive, there interactions look rights from their perspective. They had their belief, even antagonist had their own rationale and personalities.
MC chemistry was great , it felt personal
SEASON 2
I just want to say " you tried your best " on the grave 🪦 of second season , The crew collectively murdered the story.( I like to press murder charges against production crew for successfully murdering a beautiful story, if that is possible)
* I May be little biased towards season 2 because they replaced the female lead
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A 'Shadow' of season 1
In Part 1 I was captivated and glued on to the episodes. They didn't feel like they dragged on even though they were long. However, Part 2's pacing was so slow. It felt like it dragged on and on. Then at the end it felt super rushed. Just 2 episodes to conclude every thing.It didn't feel like they thought it through enough. It should have been reversed. They should have rushed it in the beginning and moved at a slower pace towards the end.
But don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it overall, I just felt that it missed the charm of Part 1. It wasn't because the FL wasn't in there. It was just the overall direction and writing messed up this season.
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The drama in general is good but main leads totally carried this part 2
Alchemy of Souls is definitely one of the best dramas this year but I have to point out that this part 2 couldn't live the expectations to me. It's not bad but the main leads totally carried with their good acting and chemistry. Of course, the cinematography continued to be amazing and the effects as well. We can't say bad things about the acting too, at least for me it was good. The chemistry between all actors (especially the main leads) continued to be good too. So what exactly didn't go that well?Ok, first, main leads were the big event to me and they completely stole the show. I was afraid of Jaewook not having a good chemistry with the new actress but gosh he had. Second, I felt like most of the negative points is in the way that the writers decided to develop the story. I felt that 10 episodes were too short for the things the writer wanted to do and everything felt a little too fast. The writer wanted to build up again the relationship between the characters and Naksu (now being in her own body) and I understand that but I felt that doing that all over again made the drama repetitive and also made me feel like everything between main leads were happening way too fast. On the one hand I liked it because I'm not a big fan of slowburns, and thanks to that I felt that this season had more romantic moments between the main leads. But on the other hand, thinking about the story itself, I felt that it was a little rushed. Also I felt that the secondary characters lost a bit of charisma they had in the first season and a lot of scenes felt draggy. And the biggest disappointment to me: not being able to see that badass Naksu from season 1. I understand that things are different now and she was practically a "villain" in the first episodes because she was being controlled. But I felt that we all liked Naksu because besides liking her personality as Mudeok, she was a badass before. I think I can say for everybody that we were all expecting to see the badass Naksu again and unfortunately we didn't. And what disappointed me the most is that I felt that this part 2 were totally focused on Jang Uk being the badass character (don't get me wrong I loved it, especially because we can see his grow), and seemed that Naksu were summed up only as Jang Uk's love interest.
So yeah to me it seems that the Hong sisters did not know how to develop the 2nd part as well as the first one, which caused a feeling of disappointment in many people, including me. Luckily, the cast, the plot in general and other things still made the drama overall memorable for me, despite the flaws in this part 2.
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time waste..
It was a completely unnecessary season; they made us watch 10 episodes for nothing. There's no trace of the enjoyment of the first season. I wish the first season had ended when both of them died. If the first season got 10 points, the second season gets 5. I watched it hoping it would end at 1.5x speed. The lead female character had no energy like Jang Uk. I didn't like her acting either. There's no sexual attraction at all. I kept looking for Mudoek. Naksu has been wandering around oblivious to herself all season long. Jang Uk, if you loved Mudoek so much, why did you immediately fall for a foreign girl? Despite all the signs, you couldn't recognize her! It wasn't believable at all. The attraction between the leads wasn't convincing at all. The bloodworm incident was the only interesting thing in the entire season. I was so angry. After a great first season, this was really unnecessary.Was this review helpful to you?
I enjoyed watching the first 7 episodes, more so than the first 17 episodes of season 1. The pacing was much better & the new actress did a reasonable job as well.
While I don't regret watching this, it's quite a shame that the final 3 episodes of season 2 are also a jumbled mess with incredible asspulls left and right & that's out of 10 episodes now, as such obviously I'm unable to give this a very good rating.
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FATAL flaw in the story about the two main protagonists
S2 was an absolute disaster. It has MANY flaws.They should have ended up in S1, because S2 has a fatal flaw in the story about the two main protagonists, and I'm not talking about the actors, but the script created a few episodes after it started.
The script was changed about halfway through the story.
The story died very prematurely.
S2 It had a lot of potential but the sisters ruined it. I hope the actors have better scripts in the future.
It's sad, because the S2 could have had the epic romance.
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Great Start, Missed Opportunity: Naksu's Revenge Arc Left Unexplored
I was really looking forward to Season 2 after loving Season 1, but then I heard the news that Jung Somin, who played Naksu/Mudeok, wouldn't be back as the main female lead. Honestly, I was pretty upset about it—change is tough, especially after getting attached to a character over 20 episodes. I almost forgot that Go Yoon Jung was the original Naksu. Still, I decided to give it a shot, especially with that crazy cliffhanger at the end of Season 1 that had us all wondering what would happen next.But Season 2 felt really slow compared to the first one. The story was there, but it just felt all over the place, and it wasn’t just because of the cast changes. I think it mostly came down to the writing. Go Yoon Jung did a great job as Naksu in Season 1, and we were all hoping to see that same strong assassin in Season 2. Instead, the Naksu we got felt completely different after losing her memories, and even when she got them back, she never fully returned to who she used to be. I think this was because of the way the story was written.
They really missed a chance to dive into Naksu's backstory, especially since she's the main character. We were all waiting for her to get her revenge and uncover the truth about her family’s massacre and Jinmu’s manipulation, but it felt rushed and not really explored. The real Naksu would have had a huge reaction after getting her memories back, but the way the plot went just seemed too quick and didn’t fit someone who’s been messed with all her life. Where’s the justice for her? It feels like we got cheated. Season 1 focused a lot on JangUk, and I really wish they’d spent more time on Naksu's origins.
That said, the series still looks great, and the cast does a solid job, especially Go Yoon Jung, who played three characters even though she’s still new to this. But there’s this lingering disappointment because we really wanted the badass assassin we loved from Season 1 back, especially since Yoon Jung is the original Naksu.
Overall, Season 2 is still good, but it falls short in some ways, leaving us feeling both satisfied and disappointed at the same time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Alchemy of jokes
I am still processing how the drama with such critical theme like alchemy of souls turned into a silly childish romance!! This season was pure mockery of the shadow assassin girl that we fell in love with in season 1.It was better if naksu had died than coming back in such a miserable way. The new FL should’ve been buyeon herself not naksu with amnesia. Trying to turn her into naksu where she easily could’ve had her own identity and be a completely different character is what went wrong in this season. Two souls in one body was total nonsense.
Another big fallback is the plot, ML just let jin mu be that easily !!! Very well knowing that he used naksu as a puppet. He should’ve avenged naksu but instead his actions made no sense and had no purpose. How killing soul shifters served any purpose to him or naksu !!!
And he fell for the new FL without knowing that she was naksu, he got over her and moved on just like that. 😭 Meanwhile, yul was living in soo much pain and guilt because he couldn’t help her and do anything. Yul emerged as a true lover here. He was planning to die along with her meanwhile our ML was busy getting lovey dovey with new FL.
This season is not just average it’s bad in every way possible compared to season 1. I wish I can go back choose to not watch it and had made peace with naksu’s death in season 1.
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