PongoAbelli

You too. Well wishes

I actually feel like the overarching theme of the show might tend closer to identity, and belonging: remember that this show's primary genre is after all, romance.

Our lead characters both seek purpose. Uk is initially motivated by a desire to prove himself to the Jang birthright - to affirm his identity as Jang Gang's son. This motivation is pulled around and shaped through these first 10 episodes to instead coalesce around his feelings for Naksu. Likewise, Naksu is purely motivated at first, by a desire for revenge (coincidentally also driven by her father, and the perceived injustice inflicted upon him). In the same 10 episodes Naksu's primary imperative has also amalgamated into her feelings for Uk despite her denial of them - her desperation to return to Songrim and reunite with Uk is a subconscious manifestation of this. Hence why the show is titled Alchemy of Souls in the first place - the shifting identities not (only) of the soul shifters, but first and foremost, of Uk and Naksu/Mudeok. Their souls alchemising as the meanings of their being become one and the same.

The other theme, identity - this is most obvious in the more literal sense of the 'Alchemy of Souls' - what is personhood, and is it the soul at the helm of the body, the body itself, or are the two one and the same? Uk knows who Naksu is from the moment he sees her, yet he only refers to her as Mudeok, even in a drunken and somnolent stupor he calls upon Mudeok instinctively. What exactly is Naksu's identity? What about the recurring motif of eyes and blindness (now referred upon in the Words of the Heart poem and backstory) - to whom does the love letter deliver to? Many of the ancillary storylines seem to contribute to this plot also. Is Buyeon Mudeok, is Mudeok Buyeon, and will it really matter in the end? After all, the eldest Jin daughter went missing from such a young age her childhood personality is merely a distant and inaccessible memory. The show philosophises over the nature of real identity and sometimes it seems to affirm that identity is an unalienable thing from a physical concept. Only a Jin can open the vault and no arbitrary nameless blind girl can replicate the same. Yet sometimes it affirms the other, largely with the storyline of our protagonists. Like in this episode - the words of the letter itself are entirely meaningless - what matters is merely the contents that lie behind it.
This to me is the essence of Alchemy of Souls.

Exactly, I agree 100%. So that's just the thing, and that's the analogy I am trying to illustrate. If Carl Gauss (or anybody) postulated the theorem that 1 +1 = 3 and provided reasoning for it you can't just outright accept nor dismiss it as wrong or right. You have to go through rigorous deconstruction and discussion before reaching any conclusion.

So, just like it is fair to not outright deny this theorem as incorrect and instead critically examine what is presented first, it is also fair to provide criticism of the Hong Sisters' writing despite their precedents of solid works and not outright accept all of it as well written.

There's no reason why anyone shouldn't be able to think some aspects of AoS couldn't be better off (especially in their subjective court of opinion) written in some other way, especially if ample reasoning is given

I never said it was poor or ineffective overall. Like you and I said this is merely my personal preference on how the episode could have been improved. Being a successful writer doesn't mean you're suddenly exempt from critique - rather, the most successful writers should be subject to even more criticism because a legacy of success breeds complacency and routine, its why alot of 'great' writers often get criticised down the road for formulaic and 'tropey' works because they fall back on techniques that have
turned prior success instead of constantly building fresh ideas and trying to improve their craft.

Look I know you are a huge fan of Lee Jae Wook and this drama: so am I, it's why I have been here commenting from the start of the series. I analyse these episodes holistically because I am a fan of the show . Not everything on this comment section has to be blind praise for the series. I enjoy discussing what the drama does well and I also enjoy discussing where I personally think it made a misstep. And thats regardless of the Hong Sisters' success and entertainment they have previously provided. Furthermore no level of success shields anybody from the possibility of doing something imperfectly. If Carl Gauss said 1 + 1 was 3 he wouldn't be automatically in the right no matter how accomplished he is in the field of mathematics. Its just an honest critique.

I think facilitating this confession/reveal at the end of the episode only would have conferred its weightiness alot more still. It would have also juxtaposed Uk and Naksu's approach to love even more - episode 9 all but verified Uk's feelings for Naksu as more than just platonic admiration for his master, episode 10 could have been a little nicer if it mirrored the more subtle and unstated reciprocity of Naksu's feelings unto Uk. Just my preference for how I think the episode could have gone down more effectively.

Yes, I believe the series is angling for something like this. Otherwise its an unlikely choice for a tv series to spend an entire episode on the relevance of a poem like 'Words from the Heart'. Something so apparently trite won't end up just being a plot device to stop Jang Uk from leaving Songrim early. It will have meaningful repercussions down the road

Ep. 10 I'm still not sure what meaningful thematic purpose Heo Yeon Ok's character will serve in this series (perhaps she is to be a parallel to Seo Yul?) but as a plot element she could very likely be a catalyst for more than a few things (perhaps Naksu becoming forthright with her love and accepting her love for Uk). But her character is really likeable in isolation even if some people may find her a frustrating addition to the already abundant love triangles.

I hope the Queen is not the final villain of the series, or at least not the one and only. Hopefully if she is there will be some interesting dimensions to color her character in the coming episodes. With the amount of suggested but yet untapped history of the AoS universe she could really easily have a great and compelling backstory. I predict and pray that she will have some deep connection to the characters pertinent in the 'Words from the Heart' poem.

Sure, I agree - hence why I said I think the writer should have excluded the inner dialogue excluding these lines:
"What I gave him should have been read or delivered in the first place.
It was my foolish and pathetic... love letter."

Think about the purpose/theme of this episode - the entire episode was building toward a confirmation/admission of Naksu's love for Jang Uk. The reason any people felt as though the Uk Naksu loveline was by intentional design - there was still a level of ambiguity and denial around Naksu's nascent attraction toward Jang Uk.

I think that final line would have hit much harder had we not been able to peer directly into Naksu's mind from the getgo - 3 minutes in and she confirms that 'love may have seeped in between [her and Jang Uk]'. Imagine if instead, we were not privy to these personal and revealing soliloquys and we were to deduce off of these shots of Naksu wistfully looking at her and Uk's living quarters, her struggling through the servant exams, her longing looks and uncharacteristic outbursts of emotion when she hears of Jang Uk this episode. The rawness of the final line would have been far more poignant if the audience could have been actively swept up in the process of this confirmation instead of passively waiting on it.

A marked improvement from 9 for me personally. Felt alot more focused in scope and execution

I will say this - I think the writer still goes overboard with narrating the character's inner thoughts to us. Enough of what these characters are thinking can be deduced from their strong and consistent previous characterisation combined with good acting. For example in the final scene I think most of Naksu's thoughts can be erased outside of the line about the servant application being her 'love letter' - it would've conveyed the same impact but with more mystique and rawness to her emotional state around Jang Uk.

I also think sometimes the transition from pushing the overarching narrative to the 'filler' - the romancing and slice-of-life aspects of the show can be jarring because of the contrastive tones and more importantly the shifts in brevity that don't always feel like they coexist in the same verse. As others have mentioned, these hooded villains murmuring clandestinely in the background, draped in surreptitious shadows, they feel almost cartoonish relative to the lightheartedness of the Songrim setting. If the Songrim scenes are presented first the cut aways to the villainous schemers feel a little artificial. If they were portrayed in reverse order Songrim could feel too cheesy and light hearted - after all, this is a slightly amoral verse where our protagonist is a mass murderer who has coopted the use of another human's body entirely, and where brothel workers can be executed over plaques with little response and outcries over such injustice.I think it would come off more effectively if the tone of these scenes was not far off from the meat of these episodes - surely Jin Mu and the Queen don't spend their entire existence uttering their diabolical complots in hushed tones, but rather confer at times only a little less joviality than ordinary people. If they weren't always caught with a nasty scowl and moreso with the same lens of realism as any other character might be in the series I think they would land with a more believable thud.

With this episode however, I start to appreciate the overall more relaxed shift of pace of this week's duology. The 'calm before the storm' as others have mentioned - angst is forecast on the horizon and the preview indicates the ramp up is closer than it appears. My only criticism in this area is that the writer could have hinted at this escalation throughout these more - scatter some more urgency and really clarify the impetus for the narrative at this halfway juncture of the story. We know now that Naksu's revenge plot will no longer be her lasting motivator, and we know that Jang Uk's interest in ascending as a mage of Songrim is centering more and more around his feelings for Naksu rather than a personal mission. Thus the obvious driving plot point right now is that Naksu will be petrified in short order (at least, the protagonists believe this to be the case) and that these characters must hurry to subvert this fate. But this point was not addressed neither explicitly nor implicitly through emotional urgency and overall tone. I feel like these concerns could have easily foisted a subtle but necessary sense of foreboding and momentum within these last 2 episodes that could have allayed the light criticisms of these episodes feeling more directionless than the (wrapped up story of the) first 8.

Good entry into the series overall. My anticipation for the second stretch of the series remains firm.

The synopsis bears some heavy similitude to Doom at your Service. A drama which was rather lacking in a meaningful, meaty and sustained narrative throughout its entire run. I hope this drama can execute this kind of dynamic better but I don't have alot of faith carrying from the lead actress' more recent works. I think I'll tune in regardless just for my intrigue in the potential of the storyline.

One thing I have noticed about this show is that its clearly designed to be watched live, for television, rather than to be binged on streaming services.

The two ways this most apparently manifests

A) constant, CONSTANT flashbacks. Like flashbacks to scenes literally half an hour earlier in the same episode. Montages of them too. Obviously streaming the show this is a little redundant but for live television, watched a few times weekly, it's not just to remind audiences with short term memories but to couch some context for new viewership just tuning in. I guess the recurring use of it is a consequence of this show being 20/30 episodes rather than the typical 12-16.

B) The non diegetic verbalisation of the characters' inner dialogues. E.g. when Mudeok/Naksu confers with Maidservant Kim we hear her thoughts and anxieties surrounding her perceived abandonment by Uk, instead of the usual lingering shot in a silent but deep in thought Mudeok you would normally expect. In that regard there is more tell than show in order to account for audiences who aren't as intimately familiar with the characterisations and thus erases guesswork on aforementioned inner dialogue.

I agree. I wish this episode contained everything we saw in the preview - the separation, Mudeok/Naksu getting into Songrim as a servant and reuniting by the end. The party festivities didn't need to last more than half the episode, think the revelries could've been done in within the first 10-15 minutes

I hope the pace picks up in the next episode. Ideally the pacing is like episode 7 where this Uk/Naksu separation ordeal is resolved within the first half of the episode so the other half can be spent building and pushing through the plotlines. By tomorrow Part 1 will have officially concluded the halfway mark - hopefully Naksu will be a little closer to reacquiring her original powers by then and the endgame of the villains starts to materialise.

Indeed. Based on the setup I believe this next 4 episode stretch will be centred around revelations - revelations of who Mudeok really is, revelations of who Naksu is, revelations to Uk and Naksu of their feelings for one another, revelations to all the characters.

I don't think she's irritating as a character its more the irritation of a (rather late) introduction of yet another competing love interest where the conclusion is foregone. As a character she's fine, as a narrative element its not yet clear how she is needed in the storyline. My guess is the writers are setting her up to pair with either Seo Yul or the Crown Prince but for many watchers the only relevant love line is Uk Naksu so you can see why her character would be irritating - she's not her own character atm, she's merely a potential impediment/diversion from whats important

Seems like a very hit and miss episode because of the shift in tone, pace and focus this episode. For some it delivered content they were seeking in spades, others it was an overstayed pit stop that embellishes with some unnecessary tropes. Unfortunately for me, this was a miss, the first real miss of this series so far.

My issues with the episode:
A) too little/unevenly distributed plot advancement. Over the course of 75 minutes not much that advances the audience's knowledge of this universe happens. Yes alot of love interest development occurs but here lies the conundrum of love triangles - because we know that many of these love lines are eventually going to fizzle out into dead ends, they aren't true 'plot developments'. Because a plot development involves a change of motion into an untelegraphed direction and we are cognizant already how these fluffy moments are heading.

B) Too stark a shift from the previous episodes. AoS operates in stanzas of 4 episodes. 1-4 is its own story, 5-8 is another arc and 9 is the beginning of yet another. However, the momentum shift from 8 to 9 is too noticeable and the resulting effect is that 9 feels like it stalls quite a bit. EVERYTHING about this episode is entirely different from the previous.

C) The scenarios unfold tangentially to the plot rather than with it. What do I mean? This episode had a clear theme - it was about the complicated love lines that were not meant to be, shining a lens on practically every single doomed (and not so doomed) web of attraction between every character major or otherwise. The issue for me is that those love lines were explored outside of plot advancements, the point and 'hook' of these sequences was the love itself. For example, in episode 4 the love line between Naksu and Uk is elucidated through Naksu aiding Uk (such as warming him up when he is freezing) and it eventuates from the sequences rather than being the sequences. I would have instead preferred that this episode resolve the issue of Naksu getting into Songrim within this same episode instead of the camera dwelling almost solely on moments of fluff.

D) Too many characters - split focus. I understand that again, this is the beginning of yet another 4 episode stanza and thus some world building and establishment of the key personnel of said stanza needs to be done early. However this is the first 'setup' episode which I found to be too broad in scope. The most compelling part of this show has been from the getgo, and still persists to be the Jang Uk Naksu relationship. One of the reasons is that up to this point other characters' personal narratives have been ancillary to said relationship - maid Kim and Jin's lives and their relationship is heavily founded upon their interactions with Uk, Yul is solely to this point a vehicle of sorrow and unspoken angst for Naksu, the Crown Prince exists as a challenge to both Uk and Naksu. This episode loiters on this supporting cast but few of these have any appreciable impact on the Uk Naksu dynamic which is to me why much of these relationships are compelling to begin with. The show could either develop these characters as their own when Naksu and Uk don't exist (i.e. what is Yul compelled by when he is NOT thinking about Naksu? Does Heo Yeon Ok have any other driving motivations aside from a burgeoning attraction to Uk?) or continue emphasise how these characters shape the Uk Naksu dynamic. On the other hand, it is increasingly clear why a Part 2 is in order for this series. The storyline is absolutely massive and this is a tall order to polish off in a mere 20 episodes.

Episode 9 was an absolute love triangle fest. But, the only dynamic I am invested in is between the leads, as well as Park Jin and Kim. I liked the episode overall but I wish they could have resolved the Naksu/Uk separation in a single episode. This show is at its best when the romance is driven by the plot instead of disconnected from it

I think the logic of the show tends to be reasonably well considered, but some things are overlooked.

In particular, the most questionable plot hole of the show thus far is - how has nobody questioned Mudeok at all? Past the brief inspections by the Cheonbugwan mages noone has dropped not even a passing remark on the everpresent and enigmatic maid beside Jang Uk, who's arrival has coincided with all the crazy revelations and developments surrounding Naksu's death, and Uk's surging power.

Especially after Uk rolled into the duel in the same blue garb spotted of the Naksu suspect involved in taking down the soul shifter AND lobbed a suspicious blast of Naksu's trademark Tansu during said duel. And why is Uk so interested in this maid anyway? He hasn't shown such overwhelmingly strong interpersonal attachments in the storyline up to said point. Especially not for a nameless and humble maid.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as My Mister or Lost. I think the issue for me in comparison is that in My Mister the philosophical musings and inner dialogue is paired with an equally compelling narrative, whereas its more self indulgent in MLN. You either love what is presented in MLN for what it is or you don't find it engrossing and then it feels a bit unearned.

This also affected the believability of the dialogue for me as, compared to those other 2 mentioned, the more mundane and passive scenarios meant that there wasn't as naturalistic an elicitation of the character's overwhelming pessimisms and instead of feeling sympathetic it often bordered on maudlin and wallowy instead.

Tonally, it was a bit too meandering and I don't normally have an issue with this kind of meandering tone in slice of life dramas, but the issue is that the dialogue feels unnatural enough that I felt as though I was listening to the deliberation's of a screenwriter's script rather than immersed in 'real' characters in the drama. Even though the woes were very realistic because this is so dialogue heavy it took me out constantly and thus I wasn't able enjoy it for what it was. I still finished all 16 episodes because in many other aspects its a very pleasant and well polished drama. The acting is fantastic from every single actor, the cinematography is beautiful and whilst its not always immersive, I did appreciate how the issues of existential malaise and meaninglessness were thoroughly examined and deconstructed.

7.5/10.

it's a love heptagon at this point. 3 guys pining for the FL, 3 gals for the ML, and another hapless ML fallen for one of those other 2