Alchemy of Souls Season 2: Light and Shadow

Excellent Cast; Lackluster Story/plot

Im a lover of great stories and faithful characters. To be honest I actually quite liked the first 8 episodes of AOS part 2. It has more of a rom com vibe and i don’t really understand why the writers kept trying to input conflict into the show when that clearly isn’t their strong suit. Every major conflict the show presented was solved so easily— there was no journey, no trepidation or wondering whether things would work out, and nothing significant lost or taken from the characters. The writers literally took no risks. Even if I didn’t watch the ending I could have told you that all the bad guys die and all the good guys live… and that’s exactly what happened.

I’m completely underwhelmed with the ending of AOS part 2. There was so much bulld-up concerning so many different plot lines:
- the fire bird that’s going to destroy the whole world “oh no!”
- the evil unanimous assembly who were greedy for the ice stone even from part 1.
- Jin mu pursuing his only character trait “im evil muahahaha”
- The protection of jinyowon and powerlessness of the jin family
- naksu/cho yeon/ jin bu yeon is definitely going to die— she definitely is..the story promises it! (spoiler…she lives)

The resolutions to the plot’s “major conflicts” were all solved SO QUICKLY it made me wonder what was the point of having them as conflicts in the first place? Especially the fire bird scene, the build up of that was across the ENTIRE part 2 show yet was resolved in less than 5 minutes… its just SO underwhelming.

Even that funeral they held for the “death” of the 3 main characters was also resolved almost immediately and then never addressed again. It was just so frustrating. Because I enjoyed the first 8 episodes enough, that made watching the final 2 episodes so shockingly disappointing. Sure its a happy ending, but how can you have a “world is going to end” scenario where all the main/ “good” characters survived no problem and fight scenes were over with a overwhelmingly crushing defeat to the opposing side? I think the writers really should have just stuck to the rom com concept. Also i gave up on the plotline of naksu as a fierce strong assassin from part 1. I felt like the writers themselves just didn’t want to write a fierce female character so i’m not going to put down the show for that plot line.

Ultimately the best part of the show was the actors and what they did with the characters they were given. Basically i liked the friendship chemistry with the characters and felt annoyed that the writers kept trying to push ‘love’ unto Cho Yeon where friendship suited the relationships better. Ultimately I did mostly enjoy the show before the last 2 episodes, so i cant rate it too harshly.

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I really did not like the plot of season 1, but did not really have anything better lined up, so against my better judgement decided to pick this up. The previous season's final 3 episodes were basically trash & I have to give it to the Hong sisters, at least they managed to recover from that quite gracefully in the early episodes, it must have taken quite a bit of creative effort to somewhat -obviously not perfectly- untangle the mess they've made.
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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A little weak compared to part 1

This was a big budget drama that borrowed a lot from Wuxia dramas and it's super obvious when you start watching. Personally I loved the effect and was immediately pulled into the story. The costumes, sets, effects and music were all on point and amazing. The amount of care and effort is so visible in every frame. This drama has a very typical underdog story that is also propped up by an underlying mystery which takes 30 episodes to fully unravel. I feel that the first season was fine for the most part and had a lot of satisfying “anime-like” moments that pulled you deeper and deeper into the world. The problems start becoming more apparent when you consider the romantic aspects of this show and it falls a little flat. The acting in this show is phenomenal from everyone involved when you set aside the romantic parts. In the first season I couldn’t help feel a distinct lack of chemistry from the leads… The secondary couples are not not even worth mentioning at all. The chemistry between the main couple does manage to improve in the second part due a major change in the depiction of the characters. Despite the fact that the romance manages to improve in the second part, the characters all get REALLY dumb. They also start saying and doing the dumbest stuff to move the plot along and some of the retcons (pertaining to reincarnation) were too much to be acceptable. All in all its a pretty good show but it wasn’t tied up well enough to be truly great, memorable or rewatchable.

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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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A little bit disappointing compared to season 1

On one hand, I felt like the final episode was a little bit rushed. On the other hand, I felt that it was good enough. The series was already long enough to end it. To be honest, I think this season was created to attract the audience. The ending was also not as great as I had expected, after how they ended the season 1.

Also, the second female lead Heo Yun-ok turned into someone completely different from how she had been in season 1. They did her dirty, turned her from a kindhearted girl into someone mean and selfish, just because she fell for the male lead. But I understand they did that to let Naksu remembered who she really was before. But still, I hoped they would be more creative.

The other thing I didn’t like about this season 2 is that my favorite actress Jung So-min never appeared for at least one single scene in the whole series!! They could just let her play the soul of Jin Bu-yeon like how they did in season 1 but no, they used the young actress instead, and that made me so disappointed. I like Go Youn Jung, and I think she did okay in her role, but Jung So-min was the true star of the show in season 1, and she was the reason why I decided to watch the series in the first place, and I believe that was the case for many others too. It was so unfair to me that the production crew kept her out of season 2.

And maybe because Naksu was performed by a different actress in season 2, her aura and charisma seemed to disappear in this season. It turned into a rom-com instead, but I also preferred the chemistry between Lee Jae Wook and Jung So-min in season 1.

It was still an okay watch to me, though. I enjoyed watching the scenes of two lovebirds Park Jin and Kim Yeon, the Crowned Prince and his turtle. I also liked the character development of Seo Yul, and a few cool moments of Jang Uk.

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Dragged out sequel to a dragged out prequel

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all, I gotta say that I liked romantic chemistry between og Naksu (played by GYJ) and Uk way more than when she was played by JSM. And I liked that the overall story ended on a happy ending, which it desperately needed after part 1's devastating ending. For these two factors I'm willing to forgive a lot of things that were done quite sloppily in part 2, for example:

1. Dragged out FL's amnesia plot and repetitive misunderstandings.
The villains took a bit of a back seat this time around, the main course of part 2 was rekindling the relationship between the leads who, due to FL's amnesia and different looking body, couldn't recognize each other. Very cliche, but not a bad thing in itself. However, for 8 episodes straight the plot was basically going around in circles like this:
-ML says something cold and nasty to FL,
-she gets upset and leaves,
-ML regrets his harsh words and runs after her,
-they reunite until ML has another bout of unjustified cruelty towards FL.
Only in the last 2 episodes the plot finally kicked into high gear and the good guys swiftly, if a bit hamfistedly, dealt with all their problems.

2. Most characters' intelligence got dumbed down compared to part 1.
For the sake of dragging out the drama and misunderstandings they were frequently shown unable to add 2 and 2 together and unable to finish their line of thought when suspecting someone.
-For example, ML, who was very bright and quick to catch on in part 1, in part 2 couldn't figure out that FL is Naksu even with heavy hints given to him since part 1. He couldn't even catch on immediately after she basically spelled it out for him and showed her blue eye marks.
-Another example is Jin Mu immediately recognizing Naksu's face, but not investigating this very suspicious occurence further after simply examining her aura and learning she's a priestess, not a mage.
And the list goes on...

3. Contrived new rules and plot devices that contradict already established lore.
Master Lee, the blatant writers insert, almost every episode kept sparingly throwing newly invented sh*t into the fan to keep the audience in suspence and characters scrambling. Some plot holes remain open because of it:
-Naksu for whatever reason disappearing from JBY's body (that even looks like her now) when she regains her memories, of all things. Why didn't she disappear earlier when she was Mu-Deok? Unclear. But in the end, even her disappearance turned out to be a lie and she simply took a back seat temporarily for Jin Seol Ran to fulfill her duty.
-The fire bird being the original reason Jinyowon was built - no mention of it whatsover in part 1. Was this bird the cause of drought 200 years ago? How was it even captured? Nobody knows...
- The previously established lore stated that only priestesses with divine magic can perform the rain ritual and that it is being kept in Jinyowon. But no, apparently Jin Mu, a mage, had it ready all along and could perform it himself.
-200 years old Jin Seol Ran, who apparently didn't die as was mentioned in part 1, had planned this whole thing all along, so that Naksu and Uk could get together, protect the ice stone and defeat the fire bird, because she could forsee the future. I get Uk being the King's Star with superpowers, but why the heck JSR needed Naksu's soul stuck together with hers in JBY's body still remains unclear.
And the list goes on...

4. The villains overstayed their welcome.
Jin Mu, a very cautios and clever villain in part 1, in part 2 turned into a tired cliche of a tropey mustache twirling, maniacally laughing villain. But his schemes somehow kept working because the good guys, as was mentioned above, were intellectually dumbed down and kept being unmotivated to finish him off until the very end. No smart shaman this time around to boss him around, so he had to contend with dumb sidekicks, creepy crazy queen and greedy grandpas who wanted to live forever. And they all died like total dumbasses, because they grossly underestimated ML's power.

5. Naksu never regained her mage powers.
No badass Naksu expertly wielding sword and magic from S01E01. In the end she was lucky enough to stay in JBY's body through JBY/JSR's grace and kept that body's divine powers, which turned out to be pretty lame, compared. But at least she survived, I guess that's a win.

6. Promised indepth exploration of side characters' stories was a lie.
Most of the time was wasted on retired Park Jin cooking "black matter" to everyone's dismay, while much needed screen time for characters such as Park Dang Gu and Jin Cho Yeon was cut to a minimum. Even Crown Prince got overshadowed by a turtle, of all things.

7. Cheap fake deaths for drama's sake.
In the end none of the good guys died, the audience got duped again just for cheap nail biting thrills. This lessened ending impact by a lot, as the stakes turned out to be pretty minimal. But at least master Lee did something useful for once.

8. ML's reactions to learning that FL is Naksu and that she'll soon disappear were underwhelming.
I dunno what happened to LJW there, but I wasn't feeling any impact from those scenes and he didn't look emotional enough. He looked more like blank faced Yul, but even Yul was more emotional when he learned FL is Naksu.

9. Last episode was a bit rushed, erratic and weirdly edited.
Technically, on paper everything was done right, but somehow still left a feeling of being rushed.
I dunno what it was, but I think it's was an amalgamation of these factors:
-Weird, out of order editing;
-Erratic characters behavior, especially the villains;
-Lackluster CGI, baffling lack of extras in fighting scenes;
-Lack of impact in general - endgame buildup was ruined by ML who, after finally accepting his destiny of a total Mary Sue (aka. King's Star), practically singlehandedly smashed all the villains and that overhyped fire bird as easy as pie without breaking a sweat;
-Too much focus on side characters' endings instead of the main leads and even those were of barely satisfactory length.

Also, I think that leads wedding should have happened at the end of the story when all the issues were resolved, not when FL was about to disappear. It looked out of place considering their current circumstances and reminded too much of part 1 ending, when they were in denial and carelessly making future plans and marriage.

CONCLUSION:
So, did Alchemy of Souls require 2 parts for a complete story? Personally, I don't think so, part 1 already suffered from pacing issues, but in part 2 they've dragged the plot out even more and added lots of new plot holes, to boot. If the writers kept the plot tight, I think they could have ended the story in one season.
But then again, I really liked GYJ's Naksu character and I liked that she too got plenty of time to shine, like JSM did in part 1.
All the rest of the cast, LJW especially, did a really excellent job as well and part 2's overall production value was still through the roof.
Flaws and all, Alchemy of Souls is still a very memorable and gripping kdrama, with a beautiful love story, that I'm sure will be remembered for years to come as a great classic. There's nothing quite like it in kdramaworld right now and I hope it will be an inspiration for more quality dramas like this. Overall, I'm giving part 2 a generous 8 out of 10.

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I'm angry that they made a second season!

I loved AOS #1 up through episode 19. Then they had to go the historic tragedy cliffhanger route to justify another season. So, I'll admit my review is based upon my feelings. PLUS, I felt the script really diminished Uk's love to "love the one you're with" and that irritated me no end.

As with #1, AOS#2 was well-filmed, though granted, a lot darker than the first one. Great CGI, beautiful music.

STORY: Repetitive, with more of the same from #1. How the evil guy, that everyone KNEW was evil, continued to get away with his evilness was just frustrating. My biggest beef was the way the romance was written. Uk fell in love with Cho Yeong before knowing that she was Naksu. That might have been fine if we had some sense that he was struggling with his feelings, considering that he was supposedly so in love with Naksu. I didn't get that impression at all, though. Also, I didn't particularly care for the way that Cho Yeong/Naksu was written. Her personality was just so completely different than Naksu, I didn't get a feeling for Naksu's strength at all. She just seemed clingy to me, coming up with excuses to be with and touch Uk.

ACTING: So good.
Lee Jae Wook as Uk. I was believing his mourning until he met Cho Yeong and then that went out the window. I don't know if he lost weight since the first season or if it was makeup, but his jawline was so sharp it could have cut glass. It was a good look for him. I also liked him wearing black throughout the drama. It was like he had "graduated" from colors to being serious in black.
Go Youn Jung as Naksu/Cho Yeong. She did a good job with the writing that she was given. She is absolutely gorgeous. I've not seen her in anything else I don't think, I'm going to need to check her filmography and watch her in something else.
Hwang Min as Seol Yul. He, again, was my favorite character in this show. He figured out she was Naksu pretty early on, and you really got the sense that he could just FEEL that it was her. He did such a wonderful job with his longing for her.
Shin Seung Ho as Go Won. We got to see a little more understated comedy from him this time around.

CHEMISTRY: The kisses were so good, but I didn't feel the chemistry between them. How is that possible?

I have to say, I'm not particularly caring for the current trend of making multiple seasons of a show, unless it's an exceptional show like Hospital Playlist. Otherwise, it feels like they are just milking the drama, causing a lot of draggy parts to extend the drama length.

Bottom line: If you like darkly filmed dramas with multiple good fight scenes, good CGI, and you really don't care about the romance anyway, give it a try.

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The world they built was too good for this

The best way I can describe how this drama felt to me is a shoujo reverse harem manga type of thing. I don’t know if that’s explanation enough but that’s the best I can do. I did have a lot of reservations about part 1, some of them carried out to this second part others didn’t but then new issues emerged in this one.
Let me explain, one of my biggest issue with this show (both parts). Whenever you’re watching this sort of stories there are always key scenes that are meant to draw you in and make you root for the Lead/s and make you go “WOW this character is super cool”.
This drama had -IN MY OPINION- too many. It was specially bizarre to me in the first part how Jang Uk was supposedly an underdog but then there was always -insert convenient plot hole here- and it allowed him to show off his out of the ordinary abilities. I get it he was supposed to have super abilities compared to the rest because of his horoscope but sometimes they stretched it too thin for my liking. With this second part I got it the first couple of times. it was needed to understand how powerful Jang Uk had become but then every other scene they are showing off his abilities and it got boring very fast.
Now one thing that I liked about the first part that didn’t carry into the second part was the ensemble cast. I know we only had 10 eps for this part but it amazes me how much talent and chemistry this ensamble cast HAD and they let it GO TO WASTE LIKE THAT. Part 1 & 2 feel WORLDS APART in that sense.
The focus was the main couple and I know this sounds ridiculous but the way it was presented to me in the first part was an ensemble cast rather than just the main leads and the rest acting as background which is what part 2 became (except maybe for Park Jin and his new wife). Why introduce so many characters in the first part that ended up amounting to nothing but a couple of sidelined sub level plot lines at most or not used at all.

One thing I liked about this second part though (even if the story felt a little rushed and nonsensical) was that I could finally root for Naksu and Jang Uk to be together. And that’s mostly because they greatly reduced Seo Yul’s presence here but mostly because Jang Uk had infinite amount of romantic chemistry with THIS actress. I was mostly team Seo Yul in the first part because I felt Minhyun had better romantic chemistry with Mudeok than Jang Uk (Besides Yul was given more of the date like romantic scenes than Uk)
Naksu was done WRONG in so many levels they turned her into nothing more than a damsel in distress for this 2nd part. Jang Uk literally had to rescue her up until the very end. Like yes she learned to rely and depend on someone else which is nice but let’s not pretend Naksu wouldn’t have relied on her strength and ability to fight even more so now that she had someone to protect. The shift was too sudden and in my opinion out of character that it felt like we had an entirely new and different female lead.

Because of the way the characters and this world was richly built and shown to us the ending was a little disappointing because it could’ve delivered something more. The OSTs and the cinematography was top notch and it does feel like I could watch another season of this with the newly appointed King and/or Seo Yul stories as the main focus because they are interesting characters by their own right.

There’s so much more Id like to add like how they made me cry so much for no reason because nobody ended up dying (it would’ve been better if they had it would’ve set how high the stakes were and the severity of the fight at hand) or the way they recycled Jin Mu one too many times BUT overall this was an enjoyable watch though nonsensical at times.

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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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I can't process how big of a disappointment it was

It's quite sad how they went from a nearly perfect season 1 to whatever S2 was.

It had so much potential in terms of world and characters building but all we got is story elements and informations dropped here and there without proper building and tangible consequences and characters development that either was uninteresting or a dull and boring repetition of s1 characters arcs at best.

I can get why people would enjoy the romance but to me it really gave nothing and felt totally devoid of sincerity and interest. Just like watching 2 sims characters rushing through a love story.

I also think that there are too many bland and boring moments for just 10 episodes (especially in the 5 first ones) and the whole amnesia plot doesn't make a good and strong enough main story line.

Others plot points ,such as the whole fire bird thing, felt like they're developed inconsistently (especially compared to how the ice stone was handled in the first season).

Another thing I deploy is how secondary characters' incorporation in the story was superficial and not necessary. Like whether it is during the Seo Yul rescue part or at the end of the story, it felt like they were all there cause they had to be. It wasn't substantial at all.

The direction that Jang Uk's character took could easily (very easily) had been way more relevant and well written than what we got there. Honestly I think I could go on and on about all the things that bother me about this season, and it pains me more than anything else.

I suppose I'll just pretend S2 doesn't exist.

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An otherwise perfect drama that has fallen from grace

I'll keep it short and simple: They should have ended the series in season 1 adding just 2-4 episodes totaling 22/24 episodes.

There were good things in season 2 but there were more things that made the drama bad than good. The direction of the story completely went south and one bad decision led to another. They did a great job with season 1 and should have just kept using the same formula instead of being ambiguous. The writers definitely had a hard time choosing between one or the other, so they decided to create a story of in-betweens. They should have just committed to one direction of a possible story instead of trying to please both sides.

Season 2 kinda felt like a mess and the final scenes were lackluster and unsatisfactory, but I wouldn't say that the drama was completely bad. Ultimately, season 1 was an absolute masterpiece, while season 2 needs to be watched just to achieve closure from the drama -- unfortunately.

Side note: I love the main cast of both seasons to death. I wish nothing more than their success in future dramas <3

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