Aramintai

😉 Btw, continuing water dragon theory. I dunno if you play video games, but there was this rather old one called Jade Empire.
The plot there had some similarities. There was a big drought (a cyclical natural occurence involving water dragon's life span), which the villainous emperor solved by slaying the water dragon. Her blood/water started perpetually pouring from her giant body hidden in the Royal Palace, which ended the drought. But with a caveat, the water dragon not only supervised the distribution of water supplies and rainfall to the mortal world, but also shepherded the souls of the dead along the Great Wheel – the cycle of life, death and rebirth. And since she died, restless ghosts started roaming the land.

More about water dragon there, everything probably based on Chinese myths and folklore about water dragons:
https://jadeempire.fandom.com/wiki/Water_Dragon

Nah, she was totally preoccupied by the Ice Stone. And Jin Mu had her obviously fooled, probably pretended to be a good Jin uncle with a mission for her. And then he drowned her in the lake. Like a good uncle 🙄

Btw, it can also make tornado like wind 🌪️. Both Choi mage from the past and Bu-Yeon made it using the Ice Stone.
So it can make all elements 💧⛰️🔥🌪️ and can affect souls 👻. (It's The Fifth Element, guys! 🤣)
What's more interesting, when Choi mage summoned the tornado it showed him silouettes of two people - a man (Songrim founder?) and a blindfolded woman (Jin founder from the ritual?).
Maybe it can show the future? Maybe Bu-Yeon also saw something in it and that's why she was smiling? Like, that she will get soul shifted with Naksu?

-It can shift: ❄️->🔥->🌑->💧->❄️
-It can make black powder for soul shifting 💫
-It can raise dead people 👻(?)

P.S. I still think it's divine in origin. Like water dragon 🐉 divine. Maybe it has a whole water dragon inside, or part of it, or it is its egg. That water dragon in episode 1 wasn't shown just because.

-Murderer was a fish seller, he had an accomplice in girls kidnappings. That accomplice got killed in self-defense by FL’s mom when he almost killed a policeman who was searching the area for the girls. And that policeman instead of reporting it hid the body and told mom to stay quiet 🤦‍♂️
That policeman was also a childhood friend of the killer, they were from the same town. He didn’t suspect him until the killer also kidnapped him at the end and almost killed him. In the end that policeman got the location of the place the girl was buried from the killer who got imprisoned.
-The killer murdered not only the girl but also her father and buried them together. Why he kidnapped those girls was not revealed. But if he was a pedophile it is highly doubtful he could have stayed quiet for 18 years without repeated offense.
-ML and FL were going back and forth with their breaking up and making up. But in the end they got together and finally opened that damn restaurant with two other guys.
-SFL chef’s sister and other women murderer was not revealed. It was most likely the stalker dude who got killed by the fish seller killer and put in the same fridge again, but police probably got no conclusive evidence. Stalker got killed because he returned to that neighbourhood and knew the killer - when he was a kid he lured the girls to house the killer told him to for a gameboy.
-Police chief officer resigned because he haunted the wrong person (ex-piano teacher) all those years. That wronged person got together with his son policeman.
-Wronged person’s policeman son got back together with policewoman.
-FL’s mom and policeman who hid the body she killed all those years ago ambiguously stopped by the police station at the end maybe to give themselves in.

That’s about it.

I dropped it as well, read episodes recaps after and I don’t regret dropping it. It went downhill after eight episodes and never recovered by the looks of it. If you want an explanation of villains motives you’ll be disappointed, logic of some characters actions is also nonsensical. It’s not for analytical people, for sure. It’s more about food, emotions and romance. Link also is not explained, some mystical shit or smth. I would put Fridge in the title as the connecting link here instead, lol. Overall not as bad and meandering as Beyond Evil but episodes count could have easily been halved and nothing would be lost. I’ll have to keep in mind never to watch a drama where there is ML’s actor and someone’s sibling got murdered years ago.
Spoilers below:

Episode 8

Shaman Choi soul shifted into the Queen. So there is no picture of Shaman's real body yet. But the real Queen is still alive in Shaman's body somewhere, maybe we'll see it later.

My bet is next year. It takes a long time to make all those CGI, even with half the episode count.

He may have had some family related problems when he was younger, or simply decided to postpone serving until later, he's still young after all.

Or he'd served already but it wasn't anywhere as impressive as those other guys were bragging.

Mu-Deok/Bu-Yeon is still inside her body along with Naksu, something went wrong with that ritual. But Naksu is in control most of the time. But there were several scenes already where the real Mu-Deok/Bu-Yeon took over - sleepwalking scene, breaking the mirror scene, saving Uk from being soul shifted scene, saving herself from soul shifter scene.
The reason for that lies in Bu-Yeon's special birth involving the Ice Stone. She exhibits powers akin to it.

What is it with this ridiculous theory popping up time and again? Too many avid k-drama watchers who try to guess which cliche from past dramas can be applied to every character in this one?

1) Unless TSM married a man with a son of his own, her son should be younger than WYW. But it is known from other sources that JH is older than her.
2) TSM said her son is still finding himself, doesn't want to follow in her footsteps and spends most of his time at a computer. Doesn't fit any male character in Hanbada.
3) Her son would never be working in a rival law company, unless there is some altercation between them. Nothing points to that.

Yea, the body she inhabits protects her from soul shifters. Also, there were no side effects when Gil-Ju wounded her earlier.

Yea, maybe not locked up. But something's keeping him away from people, nobody has seen him. And if news don't reach him why would he be looking for the Ice Stone when he himself sealed it away (most likely in Jinyowon) before disappearing. He knows where it was supposed to be.

Anyway, he's trash. He was bad as a husband (blamed everything on his innocent wife), as a father (absentee father who left Uk all alone to live with shameful rumors and no future as a mage), as a leader (trusted Cheonbugwan into the hands of the villain).

Doubtful. And he himself sealed the ice stone 20 years ago. And then disappeared. He didn't care for it anymore since back then.
One of my guesses, since he's a dumbass who taught Jin Mu the alchemy of souls, he got soul shifted into some feeble old timer with no energy and is being kept somewhere under lock.

I doubt it. He said he knows EVERYTHING about her. And if she trains Uk to be a mage then it begs a big question who the heck is she. Clearly not some servant. And if it will be revealed she's a Cho then she's busted.

Cho had their own household with servants. Clearly one of the more prominent houses. And looks like positions in Daeho's most important institutions like Songrim, Sejukwon and Cheonbugwan are for nobles only.

Chilling, hiding like a coward after making a mess...😒

Judging by the preview I'm guessing that Master Lee will hint to maidservant Kim that there's a Cho in the house. Also, Uk's father was mouring dead Cho father in one scene in earlier episode, so they could have been known as friends to maidservant Kim. Uk will use this to confirm that Mu-Deok is Cho. Hence the scene where she's mourning the dead (her parents) at the ceremony table. As a mere servant she wouln't be allowed this, so probably her status in the house will change. Then Yul sees this and is going to tell Park Jin about it, exposing her as Naksu. Because Park Jin already knows that Naksu was from Cho clan. Hence those Yul/Park Jin and Mu-Deok scenes. Both Yul and Park Jin will want to protect Uk from a soul shifter who may drain his energy.

Also, gotta keep in mind that they show the preview for both next week's episodes, so those later scenes may be well into episode 14. Not too early to start revealing the most important secrets. Good guys gotta start banding together to counter the bad guys big plan.

She's not from Choi, her surname was Cho.