Categories: K-dramas

Alchemy of Souls Ends Season 1 in a Complete Shitshow of No Answers, Last Minute Deus ex Machina, and a Waste of 20 Episodes of Character Building

tvN Sat-Sun drama Alchemy of Souls season 1 ended with 9.218% ratings in the final episode 20 and that’s 9.218% more ratings than it deserved. The drama ending on a flaming turd even worse that I could have imagined and I was prepared for total disappointment already once I heard the Hong Sisters had a 10-episode season 2 ready and it would switch female leads from Jung So Min to Go Yoon Jung. The only way to make a viewer stuck with Naksu (her soul) whether in the body of either actress is to cast the same actress and make it like those xianxia multiple lives stuff where it’s always the same actor or actress so we’re following the soul emotionally and the same person visually. Without that, then all the connection with Naksu INSIDE Mu Deok (or Jin Bu Yeon) is wasted without continuity.

Alas episode 20 was random filler with the OTP seemingly turned to ordinary people and getting ready to be married and move to the countryside and live simple lives. Then Jin Mu the asshole mastermind who won’t die and keeps getting kept around last minute realizes Mu Deok is Naksu’s soul and uses his Pavlovian bell to awaken her assassin side and order her to kill Cho Yeon’s dad and then she also kills Jang Wook when he tries to stop her. Then she flies off half turned to stone and drops herself into a lake to die but two chicks swim her out. Jang Wook is burned in a pyre but then walks out of it resurrected and alive. Cue preview for season 2 with everyone returning and Go Yoon Jung as Naksu and perhaps the Hong Sisters forgot her body was burned in the first episode. But then again, people just randomly resurrect in this drama anything goes. Not me, I’m out. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

ockoala

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  • More questions than answers. How could a simple bell controls her. She is in the body of a great divine power Priestess. Why Bu Yeon didnt come out to stop her killing his own father, perhaps, revenge for her since it was the father who feed her to Jinmu to retrieve the ice stone. I felt like Jinmu is the director and anything he said all happened. Indeed he has the story plot on his side. Hahahaha.

  • I think people may be seeing this show with their emotions a little too much, the ones attached to Jung So-min. She was a good Mu-deok, but she wasn’t actually Mu-deok. Naksu (“Go Yoon-Jung”) was.

    People gripe about “Big” and how the Hong Sisters did the story dirty by NOT switching the main lead character back to being the young actor and not Gong Yoo, but now they’re going to gripe here too when the Hong Sisters DO change the girls back? Sheeeeeesh.

    Besides the actress talks, the story HAS to do right by the character Bu-yeon. She has a right to return as a Jin sister, even if that means returning Naksu’s soul to her original body in the plot.

    Naksu’s body has been preserved all this time, and I hope it was Yul who preserved it HA, so Naksu can return, and then I hope it’s the Jin blood in Yul that will resurrect Bu-yeon! 😂😅

    I don’t count the continuation of this story as Season 2 smh. They clearly intended the story to return to Naksu, and I wish they would’ve filmed it and released it as such. It is a “Part 2” more than it is a Season 2. Optimistically, in the grand scheme of the complete story, we finally just reached the climax of the story.

    Hopefully Jang Wook and Naksu get to be badass in the second part—FINALLY—and Bu-yeon gets to be Bu-yeon.

    • I am looking forward to season 2 too. XDDD
      Call it guilty pleasure or whatever. I love the characters and want more of them. And need to see Jin Mu killed and a kiss between Jang Uk and real Naksu. She looks so beautiful in the preview, btw! :D

  • Sigh...the storyline is not well connected and incomplete. Main characters backgrounds are so vague. Not sure what Naksu did that make her a good soul. She killed and trained to kill. She shifted soul with a vengeance plan. She did not try to have a 2nd chance to live life fully or to change her destiny. She only wanted to gain her power back and leave. Not sure what is unique about her. Why would we be curious about her future? Just to see if Jang Uk find her and deem their relationship? there are more loss than gains at the end of season 1,

    Unlike Jin Buyeon, she has a pure soul and the power to control the ice stone, and she has a family seeking for her return. She was harmed by her own family. She trapped Naksu soul to keep Naksu from running wild. She allowed Naksu using her body. Not sure what Naksu did for Bu Yeon in return. Her story still has many questions unanswered, and without a family reunion yet. However, there won’t be Jung So Min in season 2 so there won’t be Bu Yeon story in season 2?

    Beautiful cast and film.

    • I am very disappointed with the last episode 20. Sad ending and a lot of unfinished issues for each characters such as UK, Mudeok, Naksu, and Buyeon, etc. The worse thing too is you have to wait till December Chapter 2. Really ridiculous. I really lost the plot of the story and by the time December comes you completely forgotten the story and in order to remember it, you have to watch it again from the beginning. It's insane.

  • Part 2 trailer is so cool, man. I'm loving the vibes. Although Go Yoon Jung looks so out of place from the rest, I don't really mind. Uk is the only reason I should stay on this crap.

  • If it's not for Lee Jae Wook, I already dropped this long time ago. I can't believe I'm now waiting for season 2🤧

  • I get the ending because they want that season 2 but the middle part is so weak that I think they could've make this 14 episode for season 1.

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