hwillow

Now, for some spoiler opinions. I found the emperor's character a very interesting one, both very well written and portrayed. He is, effectively, the villain of the story but this doesn't become obvious until quite late in the show. Before that, he's never framed as outright evil but more like pragmatic and calculating. And it's not until the last few episodes that his actions actually take on a malicious tone. Yes, he banishes the Hua family men, but this is not necessarily portrayed as an unjustified injustice. The characters don't agree or understand but it's framed as something that the emperor had to do (kinda like a better safe than sorry type of situation). And because Yanxi cares so much for him - even if he does notice how the emperor just uses everyone as a pawn - the audience is also not incentivized to actively distrust or dislike the emperor until it becomes very clear that he cares for no one besides himself. However, he's not portrayed as a good character either and there's plenty of signs throughout the story to indicate his true personality. It's more like we are supposed to kinda see the emperor as his subjects are supposed to see him: as someone whose decisions we have to simply accept because we don't actually understand their reason.
There are so many moments in the story were he could have had a realisation that the way he treats the people arround him is actually the reason why he can't trust anybody. His mother does not talk to him; his brother avoids him; his sons try to kill him; the sixth prince is so terrified of him and the palace that he prefers to work as a waiter than returning; Yanxi, probably the only person that truly cares for him, eventually has to be coerced into obeying his orders. And none of these things make the emperor change his ways. And so, it's particularly satisfying to see how shocked he is in the last episode when Zhi tells him that she didn't stop the explosions to save him, but to save all the people that were attending the banquet. To her, his life is as important as anybody's elses.

Really enjoyed this show. There were plenty of the usual clichés but also some really fresh ideas. The cast is rather large but you can tell the writers made an efford to give every character at least one plotline, even if it only lasted an episode. Unfortunately, the last arc is the weakest, but the ending is satisfatory

It's not misleading at all as the two leads relationship is a big part of the story. The first few episodes of the show do focus on setting the plot, motivations and characters' dynamics. There's lots of romantic moments later on. But if you do not have the interest or patience to watch anything that doesn't involve the main couple swooning over each other, I guess you should find another show to watch.

I'm a little over half way through the show and I would say there's a good balance of romance, politics and family drama. The female lead is not whiny at all

Yes, I understand that the writers were trying to write a complex character. I'm not saying Xie Wei's actions didn't make sense according with his backstory. What I'm saying is the way he was written was very inconsistent. This is specially noticeable towards the later episodes.
In the first part of the show, this was not as much of a problem, as we spend more time following the FL and we see him from her perspective (still scared from the events of her previous life). But as she starts to know him better, the way he acts towards her just gets really weird. Kinda felt like they just threw a bunch of forced conflict between ML and FL in the last few episodes so the audience wouldn't forget he was supposed to be dangerous twisted guy. While at the same time telling us FL should trust him because he was just and loyal and a good guy actually.
Also the moments where he went "crazy" because of his trauma just looked goofy (with Zhang Ling He acting over the top).

A good show overall and a very enjoyable entry for this genre. Really liked the female lead. Probably one of the only times I preferred the second male lead tho. I think the actors had much better chemistry.
I must say that Xie Wei's character was very inconsistently written and Zhang Ling He didn't fully convinced me as the dangerous guy with a dark aura vibe. Which is a shame because I know he's not a bad actor (really enjoyed his work in My Journey to You). Kinda felt like the writers didn't want to completely commit to the dark romance bit, so Xie Wei just ended up not feeling very believable.

I also wish they had had the guts to actually kill some of the characters. Park Jin's death had been heavily implied throughout the whole season so I wasn't surprised when he apparently died. But I was very surprised when I realized it had been a misdirect. It really felt to me that the writers were trying to have their cake and eat it. It truly took away from the seriousness of the plot. That, together with Jin Mu being a disappointing villain, and how easily Uk solved the problem, just made the end of the show feel underwhelming.

Alchemy of Souls is good overall but I think the reason people seem to like the first season more, is because the second season made the show's flaws more noticeable.
For example, since the second season is shorter and has to cut most of the B plots, it becomes obvious that a lot of characters have absolutely nothing to do and no impact in the story.
Other example: now that Uk is op, it becomes clear that Jin Mu is a very weak villain , with not much power or intelligence.
And then this season has its own problems that didn't come form the first season: like just dumping a bunch of exposition on us, instead of showing us what happened. Or foreshadowing an event that will happen later in the season and then, when the event actually happens, showing us the foreshadowing scene again. It really made it seem like they thought the audience was dumb and would not understand what was happening unless they were told us.

I really wanted to like this show but ended up dropping it because it has absolutely no plot. Supposedly there's a whole mystery and political games but that occupies maybe 5 minutes of each episode. The rest of the time is just the two main leads being dumb and acting irrational and creating problems out of nothing. And yes, booth of them are dumb and have serious communication problems, not only the FL.

I love this drama too. I think it is a very carefully crafted story and Ming Lan is an amazing protagonist. I just feel like the last arc was weaker compared with others. But I still enjoyed the ending!

Fair enough but that doesn't really invalidate my point. Just because she becomes an important person, doesn't mean that the story suddenly has to change from a family drama to a political one. And if that was the goal all along, why focus so much on the other family members early in the show? It just feels like build up with very little pay off.

Ok, sorry but I got to say it: Huai En always looks like he's about to sneeze.
You will not be able to unsee it now. You're welcome!

Some thoughts that occurred to me by the end of the show:

1 - I don't get why so many people are saying that Awu is not a rebel. I get she's not a rebel in a flashy obvious way but for her time she definitely is one. Just think about the amount of danger she's put through! However, she never gives up, she never loses her pride and she never stops being who she is. She always remains kind and faithful and is never a damsel in distress type. Even when her free will is taken from her, she finds a way to fight against what others expect or want her to do. She establishes her own terms and never lowers herself to other people's level.

2 - I was kinda of upset that by the end of the story basically every (named) character Awu and Xiao Qi trusted and never actually betrayed them were dead! Aunt Zu, Hu Yao, Hu Guang Lie, Pang Gui (I'm assuming he is dead since the last scene we get of him he is fighting a bunch of Huai En's soldiers) and Yu Xiu all died!

3 - I noticed a trend of a lot of female characters sacrificing themselves or being killed because of their husbands/ men that they loved. The girl in Helan Zhen's group, Awu's sister in law, Gu Cai Wei's mother, Awu's mom, Wan Ru and Yu Xiu deaths are all like this. And most of them are suicides.
Yu Xiu's death is the one that bothered me the most because it was so meaningless and senseless. Girl literally decided to commit suicide for a man she had grown disappointed with instead of taking care of her infant child. What's worse is that her death was barely acknowledged and had zero impact on the story. It literally just happened so Huai En could be all "be my empress" to Awu (like, for real? are we really doing this again? that was like the third different man to say that to her)

I had a really good time watching this show! Some arcs are better than others but overall it's quite a good historical drama. Awu and Xiao Qi had a great relationship and most villains were entertaining to watch. Besides, the wardrobe and the cinematography were really beautiful.

(I share some of my spoiler opinions in the comment bellow)

I don't think it's that simple. She's never cool with any of those actions but you have the take into consideration her feelings for each character and the bigger picture as well. She does feel very betrayed by all of these characters.
I would say that the only one she actually forgives is the OG emperor, because he explains to her that the emperor and her uncle are different people.
As for everybody else, Awu does not forgive them and is not cool with their actions. She only willingly visits Empress Dowager when she gets sick and everybody else abandoned her (besides, Awu only knows about a small percentage of what Empress Dowager did). Awu feels sorry for her, which is not the same with being ok with her actions.
Second Prince was completely tyrannical and needed to be stopped. They didn't have that close of a connection and he threatened pretty much all of her family members.
Awu was completely disappointed with Zitan and she tells him so, but she knows she can't just denounce his actions without this having huge consequences for the country. She doesn't want Zing'er to become the emperor and fall into Empress Dowager's hands. And she and Xiao Qi want to figure out who really is behind Huai En. That means having to protect Zitan until that person reveals himself. (You should also note how the ministers know that Zitan is responsible for the previous emperors death and chose to ignore it because the country needs to have a ruler).
As for the prime minister, I think you are greatly misrepresenting is actions. He is responsible (directly or as a late consequence of his actions) for basically every problem in the show. He tried to kill pretty much every major character in the show. He tried to control everybody in his family using the false pretense that he was doing it for the Wang name. He ignored his sister, wife, son and daughter's expressed wishes and kept on going even when everybody begged him to stop. He wanted power, plain and simple and didn't care about anything else. So, yeah, Awu was completely justified in opposing him by the end.

Sorry for the big reply but I wanted to share my thoughts. I watched the show in just a few days so everything is still fresh in my mind. I hope my explanations help you understanding Awu a little bit better.

I really loved this drama but I was a little disappointed with the last arc. I really wished they had kept the focus on the family drama instead of the political struggle. It just seems a waste of time to dedicate so many episodes early in the season to establish theses characters and family dynamics, to really make the viewer understand the Sheng family, their qualities and flaws, their wants and needs, to then just ignore most of these characters and focus on a bunch of new characters we know very little about. I was very interested in seeing how Mo Lan's and Ru Lan's lives would change after their weddings and we barely had a glimpse of it. The characters in this show are so beautifully written! I don't understand why you would ignore them to focus on political games.

Can we talk about Bubs identifying as female and how happy she was when Kot Nim called her big sis? And at that moment Bubs realized Kot Nim was human? That was such a cute scene

There is but just a little bit. It's not the main focus of the show

Oh and can we talk about the whole US thing? Seok Hee's character had been really well written until this point but going back to the US makes zero sense. She had not once showed any interest on going back and always complained about her time there. And now that she finally had a home, love, family and friends, and freedom, she decides to go back to the place where she had been miserable? I don't buy it. I'll just pretend she show ended in the scene where they where all having dinner together.

But I must say I wasn't completely sold on the ending. I'm completely fine with Wan Soo being the killer (I already expected it and they made it more and more obvious in the last few episodes). I can also excuse most of the plot holes and forgotten threads. My main grip has to do with top.
So, I can buy that they were taken by surprise by all of the arrests, since they had been focused on making Wan Joon the ceo. There had been other instances in which they hadn't paid enough attention to something because they were too busy or confident about it. That's fine. But I don't think they would've gone down without a fight.
It would have been way more interesting (and satisfying) if they had lost because the moment people realized top might lose this fight, everybody started turning on them. Everybody they had wronged, blackmailed, bribed or coerced until that point. Same thing goes for Ms. Han's trial.
And let's talk about that. What do you mean 4 years in prison? Just 4 years? I get that a lot of her crimes were hard to prove but, with the amount of people she had shit on, it would have been everybody's best interest to lock her away for many many years.