Alchemy of Souls: Part 2 (2022)

I couldn't get myself to adjust to this storyline

I had such a love/hate relationship with this show... Season 1 was a dream come true in the sense that it had fantasy, magic, action, romance and comedy - pretty much everything that I like in a story. All the characters were well-developed, the plot was engaging and the overall vibe was so surreal. I loved it. Felt like I was there going through the journey Jang Uk had.

And then season 2 aired. Although I loved JSM as Mudeoki in season 1, I wasn't too distraught over the change of actress. But then I started season 2 and I felt my excitement and interest wane episode by episode. Almost every other scene made me wonder about its relevance to the story - the plot was murky and didn't hold up to the standard season 1 had set. I was expecting l would only have to adjust to a new actress but imagine my surprise at finding out that they had changed the character, the love story and the very thing I liked about the romance.

I will just highlight the issues I found in the romance in s2:

Amnesia: Adding this overused trope in a fantasy show that had previously established itself as a unique show, was such a disappointment. There are so many ways they could've shown the soul connection without having either of the characters go through memory loss. Ugh. This felt very fanfic level writing to me.

Jang Uk: I love this guy. He was such a fun character in s1 and to see him turn into a serious/darker version of himself was sad but also very much needed for the show. But why make him fall for Bu-Yeon so quickly? It just felt like insta-love to me. One of the best things about Jang Uk/Mudeoki in s1 was how they ended up having feelings for eachother because of going through trials and problems together. That's how their bond formed. To see all that erased in the new season, and them falling in love over proximity, marriage and shared kisses and a disservice to their own story. It was a little unbelieving for me how Jang Uk was heartbroken for three years and it only took him a few days to fall in love again with another person. Kissing her etc also felt like a an infidelity, I don't know, it felt a little weird, because he thought she was someone else and didn't care if it was Naksu or not and to think that he had already forgotten about Naksu and I didn't like that feeling so I felt uncomfortable about watching.

Soul connection: Again, this felt like a cop-out from the writers. You can show soulmates in a story without it being so surface level. I would have loved it if they had actually gotten to know eachother better, and then fallen in love. Anything that would be more believable because gosh I SO wanted to ship these two.

Their visuals were so good but because of the reasons above, I just couldn't adjust to this storyline and hence.

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ALCHEMY OF SOULS S2 HAS A LOT OF LOOPHOLES

Alchemy of Souls season2 has a lot of loopholes and inconsistencies. Doesn't create remarkable impact unlike the first season. Focuses more on Jang Uk and Naksu lovey dovey moments/kissing scenes and a lot of parallel thingy due to her amnesia plot. They did not give justice to the most powerful priestess (real JBY) and eventually turned her role into somewhat villain. It also has a lot of confusing twist from how they revive Naksu soul and used JBY body. When regards to acting, GJY and LJW is just okay, compare to better acting of SoMin, MinHyun and other side cast.
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For the last 2 episodes (edit)
It does have a happy ending but still lacking something. Making Jang Uk possessed the ice tone and being the most powerful mage make it boring as no one can win/ fight against Jang Uk like how easy he killed Jin Mu and the rest of the Unanimous pips.
No thrilled and challenge for the main lead. As for Naksu regaining her memory, still lack in acting unlike the first FL. The only memorable scenes for me for S2 : So-I Seo Yul moment, Park Jin Maid servant Kim DoJu and Jin Hogyeong when we thought they died on the last episode and the relationship between Go won and his turtle.
And the fast phasing of the last 2 episodes..

Lire davantage

Internalised misogyny 101 and a masterclass in reducing strong women to pure drivel

Alchemy of souls season 1’s downhill trajectory in the second half and that clusterfuck of an ending should have been enough of a hint for us to not continue with season 2.

Oh but most of us did. We so did. And do you know what? S2 actually had a promising start. For what it’s worth, I thought Go Young Jung did a good job with bringing forward a new Naksu who had retained her innocence and wasn’t tainted by all the misery. Jung so Min was a tough act to follow and GYJ did it seamlessly, quickly making us like this cute, sweet, resilient and silently strong woman in love, atleast for a short while.

The usual amnesia, cold man/warm woman angst worked well enough as a guilty pleasure watch in the first, say, three episodes but then… it got real old real fast and you quickly realise:

YOU DON’T WANT A CUTE, SWEET, RESILIENT AND SILENTLY STRONG WOMAN IN LOVE ANY MORE.

No. You want Naksu back. It’s absolutely ridiculous how Hong sisters created this idea of a damaged female assassin with baggage who can be selfish, tough, vulnerable, ruthless and is actually a multi layered character and then spent a season and a half forcing her into the role of a ditzy damsel in distress, constantly in need of saving by oh so strong men.

While her male leads are getting these magnificent and badass grand entrances where they fight a hundred enemies in one go, what does the supposedly powerful female assassin get? A good amount of screen time where she faints, gets hot flashes or enjoys her favourite past time: crying helplessly.

The plot in season 2 is nothing to sing home about. It’s just Jang Uk running circles around the elephant in the room: the identity of Naksu who is traipsing right under his nose.

They just drag and drag and drag that one plot line that by the last episode you really just don’t care at all. The grand reveal is also extremely lacklustre and anti-climatic. It’s like the Hong sisters are making shit up as they go and wing-ing it like their lives depend on it.

The cheap attempts at contrived emotion with the fake deaths, sentimental music and dumb cliffhangers is the height of poor writing.

While the Crown Prince does bring in the comedy and there are a few adorable bromance moments; they are nearly not enough to carry the show on for ten episodes.

I am honestly so offended with the way they dangled the possibility of Naksu owning her skills and showing every one who’s boss in front of me like a carrot and forced me to watch till the end but all I really got was unnecessary pining, a grade school romance, a heroine whose entire purpose is solely to build the hero up and then make herself scarce and Hong sisters displaying how deeply they are entrenched in their own internalised misogyny.

There’s no other way to say it because God forbid, the female lead actually saves the day in even one episode. Blasphemy!

Don’t even get me started on the other potentially powerful female character in the drama “Jin Bu Yeon” who was reduced to little more than an after thought only getting five minutes of mentionable screen time.

So really, going in this show, please don’t expect an actual plot, story line or any sort of meaningful character development because you’ll end up having your intelligence insulted.

Instead, check it out only if you want a mindless watch that serves as a guilty pleasure and is more or less fan fiction in TV form.

Oh and there are some steamy kisses.
Hong sisters really thought they’ll throw in some skin ship as a band aid over the bleeding, torched, infected and full of pus wound that was season 2’s plot.

Make of that what you will.

Enjoy.

Lire davantage

A shorter oddly more draggy sequel, that traded epicness for romance

A deeply flawed yet highly entertaining ride this drama has been.
☆DISCLAIMER☆
This review is only to those who have watched season 1 and season 2.
I will be discussing each aspect of my rating separately.

Story and writing:
The story, in terms of the fantasy and lore, unfortunately suffered a lot this season.
Season 2 hits off with a flash forward 3 years after the end of S1, we are shown quite a lot of clumsily put-together flashbacks to explain to, or rather mystify, the viewer as to what exactly took place after the death of the FL in S1's finale, and even after we manage to satisfy ourselves with the explanation given to us, we are still dealt some comically mystifying and convenienty mashed up rules to the magic involved in order to satisfy the needs of the plot and make it move forward.
To elaborate further;
Much of the rules, if they were ever properly explained didn't make much sense and left one *rolling eyes* mumbling okeeeeey!. We also come accross a couple of contradicting aspects and sudden power shifts like healing powers etc, that in hindsight leaves one wondering why they were never utilized prior. Also seeminly highly wise and powerful characters would constantly be changing their explanation of how the magic behind soul shifting works, and even worse things just ultimately transpire in a totally different manner. other times powerful side characters (park jin, seo yul, master lee) would mysteriously vanish at the most critical moments only to suddenly reappear after sh*t had already hit the fan to stand around and discuss it. A lot of these minor frustrations add up to make one feel like the writers were giving themselves enough viable cards and options to wriggle their way out of any tight spots that come up, all thanks to the highly sophisticated and complicated world that they themselves created in the first place.

Among the other smaller gripes that I had with the story writing, was how everything was built in a way that ensured our main leads were brought together, and despite that being a common trope of many a rom-com plot in K-dramaland, it still felt forced and too convenient, I guess one just has to accept the "they are destined to be together" card and simply roll with it.
But what I hated above all was creating emotional dying scenes and even holding a funeral, just for it all to turn out to be fake, only for the sake of creating a cheap cliffhanger. It made me just wish they were actually dead. I don't mind the suspense with a grievously wounded lead like Seo Yul, but to fake deaths, that was such a sick move by the writers. Also in my humble opinion, you can create an epic saga about good fighting evil with the good prevailing, while still showing sacrifices and deaths on the good side, not every single character has to survive physically to be considered a happy ending. Just saying.

The pacing was not one of the best apsects about S1, but still overall it was highly enjoyable. But season2 easily outdid its predecessor in bumpy pacing, with 2/3 of the drama wasted running in circles of ( missed hints>confusions>angst>break up>making up>and back to more missed hints ). Although watching the two re-fall in love from scratch honestly felt fun to watch, the romance plot line just took comparatively too much run time for its own good, it reached a point where it felt clichéd and dragging I just wanted the big reveal to happen already (and when it finally did oh boy was it lackluster), and it also took away much needed time from the core issues at hand that needed to be addressed to insure a proper closure, those issues were only given less than a third of the running time, leaving us with 2 last episodes that are too rushed, one almost feels like gasping for air watching them, and with sudden shifts between scenes feeling like whiplashes. We are promised a grand and epic battle, only for it to end in mere minutes with every one watching at the sides in a safe environment and Jang Uk doing all the work. Honestly, nothing made much sense with that fire bird plot, evil plotting wise or how it was handled (if it is destined to hatch then let us hatch it earlier duh!)

the characters:
Our all so mighty ML who is supposedly feared by even the greatest of mages thanks to the power of the ice stone, was somehow rendered into a middle schooler both in emotions and inconsistency. Still his journey climbing up from the dark pit he had thrown himself into at the beginning, and how the FL helped warm and light up his world was endearing and heartfelt.
The bigger problem though was our FL, who was, even by her own words, foolish and weak especially during the first half of the drama. She had the face of Naksu (for reasons that made not much sense to begin with) so I would assume that most viewers were like me in hoping that she would regain her powers and we would finally be graced with more scenes of our bad-ass FL for a change , a prospect that was dangled in front of our eyes since the character was introduced S1ep01, but alas, we only ever witness a shrivel of Naksu in character, and even Jin Bu Yeon's powers are only ever displayed briefly. There were a couple of instances where I thought there had been an ample opportunity for the writers to choose to show her stand up and defend herself, to be deserving of the powerful souls that lies within her, like when after regaining her memories she decided to face Jin Mu, the man behind her madness and death in S1, and chose to dive into a treacherous place for the sake of beating him. I thought surely then she will somehow survive and come out on her own (after all we know that among the remaining powers left within her is the ability to cast away evil writhes and spirits), but God forbid no! they still chose to create an unbelievable sequence (involving coming up with the idea that she is the reincarnation of an old powerful mage) just in order to make the ML be the hero of the day and save the damsel in distress. Even in the final scenes of the finale, they totally had the chance to show that Naksu, whose soul had been spared the owner of the body, was working on regaining her long lost prowess. But no! The exact opposite, She adamantly expresses her absolute wish NOT to train, and to stay completely dependent on the ML. That was just disappointing tbh.

As for much of the side characters, they were mostly just that, side kicks stored on a shelf only picked up and utilized for conveniency's sake or to provide some elements of humor and immediately shelved back thereafter.
while I really liked how the crown prince was portrayed here and was somewhat satisfied that his character was thankfully one of the ones that witnessed a redemption, I can not still get over the fact that he left Jin Mu to become gwanju after all his evil deeds in S1.
Seo yul, felt bland as ever for the most part, but on a positive note his brooding sad expression here perfectly matched his lone wolf life in this season more than the previous one. The only instance were I felt emotionally connected to him was in the plot concering So I , which I honestly was moved and brought to tears by.
Jin Mu this season was too comical of a villain, he was powerless and totally dependent on his minions and other higher ups to realize his evil master plan (which was utterly stupid to begin with)

The acting
Superb on the most part.
A lot of people were turned off and disappointed by the FL casting. story-wise aside, I have to say I found her acting to be very good, especially in the second half when she had started to regain parts of her memory as Naksu. I also strangely felt more romantic chemistry in this season than season 1 (which made me feel kind of torn up), maybe owing to more physical intimacy and kiss scenes, dunno.
Seo yul was a nice cool dude but I have to admit I found the actor's portrayal to be a bit lacking, and how the character was written this season didn't help either.

I can't say I didn't enjoy this drama both seasons, but to be honest, I am of the belief that if there had been less filler plots in both seasons, both could have then been made to fit nicely into a 20 episodes format drama. Then I think with such high-end CGI and great casting, this could have easily been one of a kind classic.

Lire davantage

Huge letdown compared to season 1

With S1 of Alchemy of Souls, you had a legit really good drama. The story was so interesting and intense right from the first episode. Like it had everything Suspense, action, amazing music, amazing romance, and phenomenal cinematography. Even the ending was so incredible and satisfying.

S2 of Alchemy of Souls though, was nothing but disappointment. The feelings which we left from S1 were simply not there anymore, no excitement, no attachment nothing. The Female lead for S2 couldn't captivate. I mean she was all looks no acting. Jung So-min was sooo much better and she kept the show going. I couldn't find an ounce of Naksu in Go Yoon-Jung.

Now I don't think a season 2 was needed, because the screenwriter for Alchemy of Souls just extended the show with no intentions of giving it a superb ending. Nothing significant happened, and it felt like it was a good show with a bad ending, keeping it precise would've been better. I'm being super generous with my ratings because of how much I loved the first season, which I highly recommend. The second season not so much.

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Tiring...disappointing...unsatisfying...frustrating

After finishing this I honestly regret ever starting Season 1 because that made me obligated to finish this and oh what a glorious disappointment it was.
Let me start first off by ticking off the few things I liked:
1. Go yoon jung seamlessly filling in for Jung so min. She impressed me a lot in the first episode and she has continued to do so. She just did not have much to go forth because of Hong sister's misogynistic handling of her character as well as the female characters in this show but I will come back to it later.
2 Acting of the cast was top-notch.
3. Crown prince's character development was done well He left the most impact on me in this show overall.

Now, to the things I did not like and why it was a disappointment:
1. Naksu....ahh...the level of regret and pity I have for the absolute character assassination she had to go through to elevate the male characters, it's borderline disgusting. I just could not believe that in the year 2022-2023 two female writers would be this level of misogynistic. Unbelievable. The 2nd half of AOS showed us that they are never gonna raise her to the equal status any of the male characters possess but we still foolishly pressed on just to be dealt with utter disrespect of a character who could have been so much MORE. In part 2, both she and jin bu yeon, another badass character was reduced to nothing but 5 mins of mentionable screen time. Jin mu might be the cause of their deaths in the show but they were killed without kindness at the hands of Hong sisters.
Hong sisters' misogyny was not only confined to those two characters but also reduced ALL of the female characters as conniving, mean, dumb, and spoiled one-dimensional idiots whose only job was to put up with orders and requests from the male characters. Maidservant kim who was the only exception is nothing more than a glorified mother figure whose identity starts and ends with her young master. It is downright criminal and blasphemous what these writers did to such talented actresses.
2. Other than the middle school romance disguised as a fated lovers' angle and the last-minute mythical creature/let's-show-how-cool-the-male-lead-is plot device, I guess they could not come up with anything that is actually creative. But at this point, that's to be expected. Jin mu's divination bell strategy stays largely forgotten to the point he also forgets about it and meets a demise that is so anti-climactic it's laughable.

I honestly can go on and on but at this point, I am so tired. I just finished it for the sake of finishing it but I like I said wish I never even started it because what a FUCKING DISAPPOINTMENT. Toward the finale I just wanted it to end. I did not feel anything for the supposed "deaths" that eventually meant nothing. The nonexistence of a plot, the utter 180 of an assassin whose only goal was to serve the man, and even after pulling off an astounding rebirth was more interested in finding a man than remembering who she is, the shoved-down romance that would make you literally CHOKE, the absurdity of lengthy draggy episodes filled with nothing but nonsense. I wish I never started it. I am never watching anything ever from the Hong sisters. The only reason I think anyone was interested was the CGI and action but even that was missing in part 2 so anyone who does not have a lot of time on your hands I URGE you to watch ANYTHING ELSE.

Lire davantage

Disappointing story development. Pretty/handsome but underwhelming lead actress and actor.

Disappointing story development. Not too sure what's the point of having season 2 with only 10 episodes.
8 episodes are wasted to get Naksu to remember her past.
Felt like season 2 is just a major advertisement to promote Go Yoon Jung and how pretty she is.

Without a strong female lead like So min, Jae Wook's acting for season 2 is just boring and underwhelming compared to Min Hyun
 (Seo Yul) and Seung Ho (Go Won).

Let's not compare So min with Yoon Jung. So min is on another level. Yoon Jung's acting range has alot to catch up with Arin (Cho Yeon) and Hye Won (So Yi). Hye Won is just outstanding! For Yoon Jung, acting cute is not part of acting. But too bad, pretty faces are always pushed for leads irregardless of acting skills.

To sum up, the supporting casts were the ones who carried the show. Not forgetting the CG effects. Too bad, most viewers are carried away by the kissing scenes, Yoon Jung acting cute and boring story development. High ratings does not mean the story is good. I hope they will just give couple awards to Yoon Jung and Jae wook but please don't win any Best actress or Best actor please....it will not be convincing. Hope the supporting casts will win some awards.

Will forever remember how Alchemy of Soul's director capitalise on loyal fans from Season 1 to watch the underwhelming season 2.

Lire davantage

ALCHEMY OF SOULS 2 WORTH EVERY MILISECOND!!

First I'll express my disappointed after the announcement of Jung So Min ousting the FL role and being replaced by Go Yoon Jung. But all the perception changes after getting to episode 2 of season 2 (the highest so far). She's an excellent actor and deserves the role and I can already expect a lot from her. Season 1 was a hit of its own and probably the best Korean traditional drama I've watched followed by the likes of Ju Mong.

Into it, the story to begin with, is an excellent continuation and everything is explained since the end of season 1. It's three years into the future. I can't wait to see how everything unfolds between Jang UK(who still uses Naksu's sword) and Bu Yeon/Naksu.

The Casting is as perfect as season 1 and am more interested in Songrim's new leader Dang Gu to see how he leads and another change is the ever serious Park Jin in his new life after stepping down.( a joker but a serious one when seriuoness is needed). The acting is top notch thanks to dedicated actors and directors. The stunts are done so well, emotions expressed in way there could be no better way. You can't get a flaw in the acting. And I swear Jang UK is a different pleasure this season. A taste like no other. You love every scene he is in and you can't wait for when he next appears. But Yeon or Naksu's story is a wonder you need to see.

For the music from the OST, SFX and background music in AOS have never disappointed. The emotions and tense in scenes are well expressed. Top Notch.

Rewatch Value. I've been rewatching season 1 since it's last episode was released and I don't get tired of it. Into the second episode of season 2 and dearest you'll keep going back to start from episode 1 everytime you have a pinch of free time.

Overally I reated season 1 as a 9.5/10 and 10/10 for season 2 so far. It is well deserved though. If you want to watch something worth your time this is the right show to watch starting from season 1. I really can't wait a week for episode 3, WHAT A SHOW!!!

Lire davantage

Season 1 to 2 transmigration falls flat

Those of us watching season 2 (S2) probably enjoyed season 1 (S1). S2 wasn't a bad season so much as it was a let down on expectations for continued enjoyment. Even worse, S2 had the effect of snuffing out some of the joy from watching S1.

S1 wasn't perfect. The villains were flat and dumb. But the romantic and comedic charm was strong and alleviated duller elements of the show. Park Jin and Kim Do Ju's romance, for example, was anticlimactic in S2 and that was emblematic of many other characters and relationships that lost charm; they passed their peak and weren't contributing much to the story development. For example, bad cook Park Jin was overdone and not advancing the story or providing effective relief; it felt tiresome. Because S2 failed to keep up the charm, the less rosy parts of the show that were previously easier to ignore were now visible and frustrating.

Heo Yeom, who was charming and well-acted in S1, suddenly felt irrelevant and flat in S2. The same happened for too many characters such as Master Lee, Park Dang Gu, Maidservant Kim, Heo Yoon Ok, and the list could keep going on. Am I to believe the actors collectively performed less than their capability? Could the directors have pulled more from the actors within what was sourced? Nah, it's definitely an issue of writing in S2. I recall being surprised how soon S2 was offered after S1 completion. Perhaps the writers did not have ample time to craft S2. Plot 'twists' felt forced, rushed, and not believable. Characters were not well developed. Sang Ho, for example, deserved development in S2 but received none. Lady Jin essentially stayed the same petty version of herself throughout. Some even regressed; Heo Yoon Ok had charm in S1 and is written to be hated in S2. Character potential was squandered in S2.

Go Youn Jung (GYJ) was very enjoyable as Naksu; she exceeded my expectations by a mile. The scene telling Jang Uk to "Drink Up" was perfect. But, I still found myself missing Jung So Min's Filthy Mu Deok, especially Mu Deok's varied interactions with multiple characters. GYJ's interaction was heavily restrained to Jang Uk in S2. With Naksu's amnesia, the character lost complexity and missed the drive that Mu Deok had (to regain powers and seek vengeance); GYJ Naksu's drive was to remember, which we the viewer know all about, turning mystery of outcome to unbearable waiting. Again, this is a problem of writing, not of the actors/directing. Both FL actresses did a tremendous job.

Let's remember that Master Lee was exterminating shifters despite being a shifter himself. Or that he could be hands on and in save-the-world mode or wander aimlessly and not care about anything. Master Lee's treatment captures the broader sense of inconsistent story material with characters flip flopping personality on short notice. When the story was focused on slice of life charm, such as the Crown Princes' pining for Filthy Mu Deok, bromance with Jang Uk, and cold/warm love of Black Turtle, etc., the show was at its best. When the story power creeped itself as an apocalyptic story, it didn't deliver well.

Oh well, Drink up!

Lire davantage

GOYOUNJUNG!

THE DRAMA IS SO GOOD, Y'ALL SHOULD WATCH THIS. the characters is all so loveable, i love how they portrayed yeong's cheerful and bubbly character. in season 1 yeong is the shadow and uk is the light but now uk is the shadow and Yeong is the light, there's so many parallel that hurts me. BUT OVERALL THIS IS GREAT! i love the main couple and the second couple, the way they are looking at each other got me laughing and giggling. she's so bold and confident she's pretty and she knows it! when he says that she's pretty, i remember the scene where he says she will always look pretty to him. it just shows that they are destined to be together, they are separated for three years, THREE YEARS. but in the end he still found her and will love her again. their love story will always break me but also made me believe that love do exist

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This is not a continuation

I personaly liked part 2 somehow, not as much as part 1, but for me it was more like a historical romcom, a side story more than a continuation of AOS (that is what we were promised it would be) The chemistry was good, the acting was good, but the writting took another path from part 1 and the pace was slower.


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The first eps, Ig, it´s ok as a "kind of continuation or whatever" of what happened with mudeok when she was on the lake and how she became the one she is now and so but from then on they just keep dragging the amnesia and lovely dovey trope until almost the very end. On ep 6 they instroduce formaly a new problem they need to solve but it becomes a sub sub sub sub plot of the sub plot until ep 10 and answer to whatever you have doubts came mostly on the last ep too. At least they solved from part one Yul´s illness and I´m glad at least they did, but they took like two ep just for that only.

For me the biggest problem of this part was the amnesia trope cause they totaly changed Naksu´s personality and even when she recovered her memory she still didn´t feel like the Naksu we know (and that´s not the actress problem but writters and direction).

The body wasn´t the problem cause she has the same body sinse part 1 and that never stopped her from achiving what she wanted.
If you want to tell me she wanted to live a normal live you at leasthave to show me how she took that decision, and let´s pretend it was the case, there is an scent of who you are.

I mean I love romance I fuc**ng love romance, but this is not just a romantic drama, it is a GREAT part of it but never was the main focus. At least until part 2 happened.

If you tell me part 2 was another story I would take that but don´t tell me this is a continuation of part 1, cause not, it is not it.

I can´t say how much disappointed I am with the writters cause this is a story I cared so much for, and at the end I felt like they messed it up. I´m glad everyone had their happy ending but I will remember this as a cute side story and for me AOS end on ep 20.

For respect to the actors my rating is a 7/10.
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And just to say, I have the right to write a review bad or good about how I feel about a drama I spent hours watching, so if you think I should know your opinion or if you don´t agree, go and write a review too.

Don´t come at me saying I´m a hater for not liking the things the same way you do.

Lire davantage

Hope Dies Last

Even though, sometimes, the first season of a drama doesn’t give you what you want, when a second season is announced, there's always hope for things to get better. As one of the persons who was disappointed by the first season of Alchemy of Souls, but still full of hope & curiosity, I've given AoS's second season a chance, to see what more this story had to offer.


~~S1 vs S2 ~~

World & Rules

In my review of AoS S1 I have written "in AoS the rules/grounds of body sifting are very interesting yet the concept of it somehow lacked". Well, in AoS S2 the rules/grounds of the whole world's structure just lacked.

The world doesn't follow a predetermined setting,a natural flow. In S2 new rules/abilities are constantly added and the only reason behind their existence is because somehow the plot had to move forwards. It's not a bad thing to create rules that help the plot out, but you can't excuse everything that happens because "it's magic" or "it's a fantasy drama not based in reality". Even in fantasy stories there should be grounded and have limitations and everything that's done should have a reasoning behind it.

Winner: S1 The world setting was way better there.

Pace

AoS S2 consists of 10 episodes which is the half amount of the S1 episodes and this helped the drama's pace a lot. S2 has a lot fewer filler scenes than S1 so it's more focused on the story which is actually a good advantage. Generally though, I had to say that the S2's individual pace as a drama wasn't perfect, just not as problematic.

Winner:S2 ? Well...

Story & Development

Having the characters and their relationships already set, the 10 episode-length S2 of AoS is ready to set another thing: the story. But jokes on you! S2 spends most of its time resetting the relationship between the two main characters while it didn't develop the core of the story until the last 2 episodes. In all the other episodes, the things that move the plot forward didn't have as much screen time.

As in S1, the villains were on the background plotting once again and doing nothing. The other relationships between all the other characters are already known from S1 and they made, from time to time, guest appearances in episodes , just to remind that they also exist in the story but they don't evolve further (except some exceptions).


To sum up, S2 was static. The only hot topic was the recreation of the main character's relationship and not what was actually happening in the world of the drama. The reason why this was bad is because it somehow made AoS S2 look like an individual drama that was inspired by AoS S1... Maybe a FanFic??

Winner: Tie. Both seasons lacked in story development and only move forward the very last minute


~~Cancel Writing~~

AoS's story has a very big disadvantage, and will call this problem "cancel writing". It means, when something that is written in the story is canceled by future events, for example, a character is represented to be very strong, but never one in the story was. A character has a curse that can't be broken, but it actually did, with the most easy way possible etc... This is bothering because the events that made you happy or sad and gave an emotional value to the story, got canceled, just like they didn't even happen.

In addition to that, I felt like the writers didn't dare to move the story a little bit further, so that everyone in fandom could be satisfied. Story-unrelated example, when a beloved character stays good and flawless, so that none of the fans is hurt because of their beloved ones behavior.

The above can make the drama boring, because you know that the story is not gonna pass a certain point and pull out something unpredictable and even if an event disturbs the story's waters, it will get canceled. As a result to this, everything in AoS ended as a bit cliche and not out of the box drama.



~~Overall~~

To say something positive about AoS, in both seasons, there were some things that I really enjoyed. In S1, I enjoyed the characters' interactions, the lore of the world. In S2, I appreciated the action scenes and the production behind this drama a lot more. AoS is generally a very well-made drama and no one can say otherwise.

The story had many possibilities to be good, and some of its parts were actually really good. I thought many times that if some things would turn out otherwise, AoS would be excellent in my eyes, but it wasn't. AoS's story never reached its full potential.


In the end, hope dies last, but dies


And just like that, as far as the story is concerned, AoS ends up as something I wouldn't recommend watching.

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