Aramintai

ML and FL really want to get together. ML even gave her his mother's wedding ring. But there's always something in the way, as usual - king's orders, FL's father, other people. But I'm sure they'll end up together at the of season 2. Unless of course there's season 3.
But SFL is a very annoying spoiled brat from the get go. Not sure she'll get better, but we'll see. One thing for sure, she missed the love train by a whole season and the leads are only interested in each other.

1. Naksu disappearing was a lie and a plot hole. In the end she just took a temporary back seat for JSR to perform her duty. She was then returned to the body by the grace of JSR and JSR disappeared herself.
2. Naksu perfomed the alchemy of souls ritual and shifted into Mu-Deok/Jin Bu-Yeon's body in the first episode of part 1. And Naksu's real body was burned at the pyre very soon after. In part 2, after Mu-Deok/Jin Bu-Yeon's body got petrified, master Lee used Naksu's energy to revive it and transform it to look like Naksu in appearance to prevent her from running wild again (body and soul must look identical so as to not leak energy). So in the end it's Naksu's soul in JBY's body that looks like Naksu.
3. Jin Seol Ran is a 200 years old soul of Jin clan founder. Her backstory was revealed in part 1. Songrim founder left her the ice stone all those years ago because she was dying. Officially she refused it and died. But in part 2 it was revealed that she was a seer and could foresee the future where the ice stone would be misused again. So she transmigrated her soul into the ice stone to protect it and it was kept in Jinyowon all these years until Jang Kang used it to revive mama Jin's dead baby in her womb. That baby was Jin Bu Yeon and being dead it had no soul. JSR transmigrated from the ice stone into that baby and Jin Bu Yeon was born. Later, as a child she tried and failed to save the ice stone from the bad guys and almost got drowned in the lake. She washed up in Sari village and was taken in by some grandma who named her Mu-Deok. Then she just bided her time there until Naksu'd appear and deliberately inserted herself into her alchemy of souls ritual.
In short, Jin Seol Ran is Jin clan founder from 200 years ago and is the real Jin Bu Yeon's body owner, and she was there inside of JBY's body along with Naksu ever since Naksu performed the alchemy of souls ritual.

No, it wasn't just Naksu as 7 stars. It's all the people who sent energy/ helped Uk at the end to fight the fire bird:
-Naksu, Seo Yul, Park Dang Gu, Jin Cho Yeon, Crown Prince, Park Jin's assisant, Jin Seol Ran/Jin Bu Yeon.
It was mentioned when JSR was about to summon the fire bird.

He was annoying from the beginning, but got better. If you mean that soldier guy in season 1. But he’s not present in season 2.
There's also a new character in season 2 - a physician from the Royal Medical Office. But I'm not sure he can count as SML yet.

I dunno about you guys, but after this silly show started taking itself too seriously the most entertaining characters to watch for me became those poor seolo guys 😂 The rest is a snoozefest.

Yea, I don't care about feminist complaints neither. Asian media is based on traditional cultural values, so it's something you gotta accept if you want to have fun watching it. But some people just don't get it, coming in influenced by Western culture and expecting it to be the same across the globe.
I did want to see Naksu as a powerful fighter mage again in the end, preferrably killing Jin Mu herself. But it's ok as it is, she survived and got a happy ending with ML, that's all that mattered to me in the end.

It's was part of the plot ever since two parts were decided early on.

Aw hell no! A third wheeling SFL who of course is an annoying biatch? Can't there be a single romance drama without love triangles?🤦‍♂️😣
To people who read the novel - how soon does this bish fall off?

It's actually episode 9 when ML finally puts 2 and 2 together after it was basically shown and spelled out for him.

Nope, nope, nope 😣. Dropping it hard.
I just can't watch these frustrating dramas with exaggerated plots about bullying and revenge, especially if it's about hormonal teenagers with s*it for brains. Gotta look after my blood pressure 😤.

It wasn't the only time, you know.

I didn't mean she liked him in romantic way. She liked him, cuz he was a good boy, she saw his potential. Though he was lazy af in the beginning, Naksu had to constantly kick him to do anything 🤣.

I think she just liked Uk. After all, she left the ice stone for him to protect in the future, instead of taking it away. It's unclear how much of the future she foresaw, but I think she knew he had a fate of King's star.

This drama needs a special compilation of extra fan service episodes like in Mr. Queen.
And instead of abrupt time skip and bare minimum of epilogue conversations that left the impression of the ending being rushed and unimpactful, I'd have liked to see:
-All the good guys getting together for the final time for some fun;
-How Naksu was officially accepted by mama Jin as JBY body's caretaker;
-Uk telling at least maidservant Kim that JBY is actully his lost hatched bird, Naksu. Maidservant Kim deserves to know, many unrelated people know already;
-CP (I mean new king now) finding himself a queen;
-Uk accepting Gwanju post, which CP waits for him to give;
-etc.

She didn't kiss him. Watch again.

It’s actually episode 9.

Yea, poor guy still has the ice stone inside him and it was shown that only a priestess with her innate divine powers can keep all those clingy, cold, dark spirits at bay so that he can sleep. Furthermore, without her love he was contemplating suicide, by returning she gave him reason to live with his burden.

I got an impression that master Lee did everything he could to butter up JSR to keep Naksu alive for Uk. He even performed that wedding ceremony just before Naksu had to disappear. Softened old granny’s heart.

She still is a soul shifter. But JBY's priestess body will indefinitely continue protecting her like it did in part 1. Furthermore, her body and soul look identical now, so no energy will leak out. And now there's no Jin Mu with his bells to threaten her life anymore.
The only downside is that she no longer has magic powers, but has divine powers.

I dunno, part 2 had plenty of night scenes as well. I'd say bigger part of outside scenes were filmed at night. And what's your point? That they had way smaller budget for part 2? It's looked obvious already. That doesn't excuse sloppy editing and weird incoherency of some of the scenes in the last episode.