Thecla

Well then you could try s2 anyway, since the main actress changes (though that's not just a casting change, it's part of the story)

No it's direct continuation of Season 1. There's only one story.

No it's direct continuation of Season 1. There's only one story.

Everytime I see Jin Mu, I wonder how the hell he hasn't been arrested, jailed, and executed already

I don't mind So-I, but there was way too much focus on her in Season 1. A bunch of it could've been cut without compromising the plot.

Actually, I thought it was much less of a cliffhanger than expected. Not that it helps much with the wait :)

Ah yes you're right. Guess I'd forgotten that bit. Thx :)

The apparent fact (?) that there isn't a large trail of shriveled bodies is what suggests that the Part 2 soul shifters (or at least most of them) are new, otherwise they'd petrify (absent Hwansu/Ice-Stone/Mysterious-Jin-Priestess-Powers).

I may have missed something, but Jin Mu didn't give up his powers. He used the divination bells to activate the curse placed by Shaman Choi and cause MD to run wild. He could still be working with conspiritor(s), or the (hypothesized) new soul shifters could be the work of a third party not affiliated with Jin Mu.

Yes, the obvious explanation is that Jin Mu has a bunch of soul ejectors left over from Shaman Choi and he's continuing to use them for some purpose. But if he is, he doesn't seem to have a way to stop any of the soul shifters from rapidly running wild. (Not to say the Hong sisters can't invent one.)

As far as Uk seeing memories of the soul-shifted victim or host (?) that makes perfect sense. I just couldn't identify the woman he sees in the vision, and her identity might be significant.

Without the ice stone or shaman choi, wouldn't most of the soul shifters from before already have run wild? And if they're from after shaman choi's death, where did they come from?

(Though, Uk does say of the soul shifter he kills in Jinyowon that "You must have shifted a long time ago" because of what he sees in her eyes. Who is the woman he sees there?)

Why are so many soul shifters still around after Jang Uk -- who's killed twenty something of them -- absorbed the ice stone and Shaman Choi was killed? I suppose some soul shifters or soul ejectors could be left over from before, but that (and the drought) make me wonder if something bigger is going on behind the scenes in Daeho.

Edit. I realized my wording was pretty unclear. To clarify: by "why are so many soul shifters still around after Jang Uk" I don't mean "why are they after Jang Uk". Everything, including tiger-eyed water wraiths, are after Jang Uk. I'm asking why are there so many soul shifters around in the first place after the events of three years ago. My impression is it's only in times of chaos with someone creating them by AoS (Jang Kang, Queen/Shaman Choi) that the soul shifters show up. So why are they around now?

Well I'm (mostly) kidding. But there's a reason this show stimulated so many different opinions, ideas and theories to explain what was going on and what would happen next

Even if you do watch Season 1, you might not understand anything. At least that was my experience ;)

But definitely watch it first anyway.

The King and Jang Kang talk at the beginning of Ep 4 after they've switched back

Yup. We have further confirmation of Rule 1 of How AoS Works: The rules are whatever the **** the writers make up.

So do I have this right?? Season 1 was Jang Uk's romance with Naksu's soul in Bu-Yeon's body, and Season 2 will be about Jang Uk's romance with Bu-Yeon's soul in Naksu's body? With poor old Seo Yul left aside in both cases, and Naksu's soul /Bu-Yeon's body both destroyed at the end of Season 1?

Didn't know about Chef Hua before, so I'm glad to learn about it. As an off topic comment, the much lower budget J-Drama Isekai Izakaya Nobu (25min eps) is sort of similar: lots of great cooking and anytime it seems like things are going to go wrong they work out well instead.

Ashes of Love :)

If this is to do with the (notoriously deceptive) preview for Ep 20, I'd be a bit cautious about taking literally the cuts bewteen Jin Mu ringing a bell and Mu Deok rising from her bed.

Not to claim Jin Mu hasn't figured out that Mu Deok is Naksu (the mystery is more about how there's anyone who hasn't figured that out).

It's hard to know how exact Park Jin is being about the "20 years ago."

In terms of causality, I think it has to go: (1) Jang Kang acquires AoS spells from Shaman Choi fire; (2) Jang Kang gets ice stone from Mamma Jin to revive Bu Yeon; (3) Jang Kang soul-shifts with the King and Jang Uk is born.

Why/how/when Mamma Jin and the Choi brother get together is still very unclear to me (and doesn't make much sense atm). I also think that Mamma Jin wasn't married, or in any relationship, with the utterly unsuitable Brother Choi when Jang Kang caught Shaman Choi. Which is why Mamma Jin couldn't have been pregnant at the time (we know Papa Jin is the real father of Bu Yeon).

Anyway, as you say, we'll find out the answers in a few hours (or, perhaps, four+ months).