Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Alchemy of Souls
(환혼 / Hwanhon)
MyDramaList rating: 8.0/10

Happy 2024 everyone! We’re kicking off the new year strongly with a two-season show that my newly employed Wheel of Fortune picked out (as I mentioned previously, I have decided to use an app to determine which dramas I watch this year). When the first spin landed on this one, it actually made me go, ‘Oh God’. 😆 To be honest, I learned about Alchemy of Souls in the period when it just came out and it was super hyped, so I knew it would be an extensive watch which would consequently make for a very challenging review. Boy, was I right to think so. You know you’re in trouble when the first episode immediately makes you go, ‘How the fudge am I going to write a review about this 🙉’. While I’m not going to complain too much – I decided to write reviews of my own accord, after all – and I definitely tried my best to make this a worthwhile read, this was without a doubt the most difficult review I’ve written so far. There are so many characters and storylines that are so intricately connected to one another, and the world-building is so vast and elaborate that I struggled a lot with how to structure this. This is the first review that actually took me almost a week to write. Even so, I like to think that it was worth the effort, because this show – and I’m not even exaggerating – literally blew me off my chair. Despite the fact that fantasy or historical (magical) fiction isn’t my go-to genre, this show got me in a chokehold from beginning to end. It made me go through ALL the feelings and it had me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole thing. From the acting to the casting to the soundtrack to the story-building and character- and plot development, I barely found anything in it that I didn’t like. I was actually sad when it was over and that alone puts it into my top ten watches.

I watched the two seasons in one go, but I already started writing this review after finishing the first season so I could establish the foundation of the main story beforehand – otherwise it probably would’ve taken me even longer to write the whole thing. It helped a lot that the second season followed the first one very consistently and referenced back to it a lot. Because of this consistency it really felt like an ongoing story rather than two separate ones, even though they focus on different plots. In order to keep it as concise as possible, I won’t go into too much detail about every single thing that happens – the people who read this will have probably watched the show themselves, after all. While every event that happens is equally important and I’m definitely going to pick out a few to build on in my analysis, I just feel like this review will never end if I elaborate on every single thing, because there’s just too much going on. I will first provide a summary and a historical timeline to list the things that are most important to understand the story’s premise, and then I will try to link the main characters to each other as much as possible in order to express my thoughts on all the character dynamics. Wish me luck!🥹🙏🏻

Let’s begin with a general summary: Alchemy of Souls is a Netflix K-Drama consisting of two parts, one of twenty episodes and one of ten. Each episode has a duration of about one hour and twenty minutes, making the whole thing quite lengthy. While the series is designed as a historical drama, it is set in a fictitious time and place that isn’t based on any true historical events. The main story takes place in the fictitious capital Daeho, a city that was built around a giant lake with magical properties, Lake Gyeongcheondaeho. The power of the lake has enabled the use of magic to become a common energy source in the capital. The people who were taught to use this energy and pass it on to the next generations of their families are called mages, and there’s even a special mage education center within the capital, called Songrim. I’m not entirely sure how to describe the energy source in itself, but when they showed how it was used to reinforce training and swordfighting I couldn’t help but think of the chakra energy from Naruto, as people’s ability to use it also depend on opening certain ‘gates’ in their body. In any case, this energy has been a normal phenomenon in Daeho ever since the main founding members of the most powerful mage families established it. It even forms the foundation of Daeho’s monarchy. The royal family, consisting of the King, Queen and Crown Prince, own numerous institutions and buildings that enable this energy to be monitored, studied and recorded in different ways, and they are supported by four representative mage families that all have different specializations and tasks in protecting the kingdom. This support and protection is needed more than anything because, naturally, there aren’t only good people in the world, and there isn’t only just one type of benevolent magical energy. There is also sorcery, dark magic, which is predominantly used by people acting on greed and evil intentions.
The most desired object targeted by every sorcerer is the ice stone. In the early ages, the leaders from the four families discovered this stone which basically bundled energy from all the elements including the sky. Apart from being the most powerful tool ever discovered, the ice stone also contained plenty of dark properties – it could be used to resurrect people from the dead and allowed for a specific dark spell called the alchemy of souls (title check, ayy). This spell enables a mage or sorcerer to shift their soul into another body, in most cases without consent of the other person. You could say it’s a very fantastical form of identity theft with the additional disadvantage that there’s no way back once it’s been executed. To protect the stone from ill-intended hands, the ice stone was hidden somewhere inside the capital by the founding members so no one could find it.

I’ll leave the premise of the story there for now to introduce a couple of important characters first, starting with the royal family and the four leading mage families. Just so you know, I’m going to credit a lot of actors, main and supporting, because I want to give everyone an equal shoutout.
To start with the royal family, it currently consists of King Go Soon (played by Choi Kwang Il), his wife Queen Seo Ha Seon (played by Kang Kyung Heon) and their son the Crown Prince Go Won (played by Shin Seung Ho). King Go Soon took the crown after the previous king, his older brother Go Sung (Park Byung Eun) passed away from a severe illness.
Serving the crown and kingdom, the four main mage families go by the names of Jin, Park, Seo and Jang. At the time of the story, each family has a twentysomething heir, and these four youngsters together are respectfully referred to as The Four Seasons.
As we can see from the Queen’s surname, the Seo family is directly linked to the royal family and therefore a very renowned and powerful mage family. Their official domain is called Seoho Fortress and is located outside of Daeho – we aren’t ever shown the place itself but it takes at least a ferry ride over Lake Gyeongcheondaeho to get there. The current heir of the Seo family who resides within Songrim is Seo Yool (played by Hwang Min Hyun), and he is the Queen’s nephew (his father is her brother). We never meet any of his direct family as they are back in Seoho Fortress, but his father, General Seo Il, is mentioned by name a couple of times. Yool also returns to Seoho Fortress at the end of season one.
Then there’s the Park family, and they are in direct charge of running Songrim – traditionally, the head of the Park family is also the leader of Songrim. Only those with access to Songrim can enter the various buildings dedicated to studying magical energy. The head of the Park family/head of Songrim at the beginning of the story is Park Jin (played by Yoo Joon Sang) and the Park family heir is his nephew, Park Dang Goo (played by Yoo In Soo).
I just want to elaborate a little bit on the various buildings within Songrim that frequently appear throughout the story. They are Cheonbugwan, Jeongjingak and Sejukwon. Cheonbugwan is an institution under the direct supervision of the royal family where constellations are monitored and recorded, where public order and ancestral rites are overseen and fortunes concerning the country are read (quoted from Wikipedia because I had to look it up🥲). Jeongjingak is the main educational center for the Songrim mages, and Sejukwon is the best medical institution in Daeho. The main acting physician at Sejukwon is Heo Yeom (played by Lee Do Kyung), who used to be a student of a respected master who was himself a student of Master Seo Gyung, the founding member of Daeho who initially found the ice stone. At some point during the series, Heo Yeom’s granddaughter Heo Yoon Ok (played by Hong Seo Hee) also comes to Daeho and starts helping out at Sejukwon.
Then there’s the Jin family, the only of the four families primarily led by women. The house has the tradition of a female leader and therefore the eldest daughter always becomes the family heiress. The Jin family holds exclusive access to the domain of Jinyowon, where all sorts of magical relics are stored, of both good and evil nature. Only a member of the Jin family can open the gates to Jinyowon. The current leader of the Jin family is Jin Ho Gyung (played by Park Eun Hye). Misfortune has it that her eldest daughter, Jin Boo Yeon, went missing when she was a child. Despite the fact that she was born blind, Boo Yeon had incredible divine and sensory powers, which would’ve made her an immensely powerful priestess and successful heiress to the Jin family. Convinced that her daughter must still be alive somewhere, Jin Ho Gyung has been looking for her for at least ten years at the start of the story, aided by her husband Jin Woo Tak (Joo Seok Tae). In the meantime, her second daughter Jin Cho Yeon (played by Choi Ye Won/Oh My Girl’s Arin) tries to do whatever she can to support her mother in her duties.
And then there’s the Jang family, which, despite its impressive status as a representative mage family, has the worst reputation out of all the four houses. At the beginning of the story, the head of the Jang family is also the leader of Cheonbugwan, and this gives him the title of Gwanju. However, Gwanju Jang Gang (Joo Sang Wook) disappeared not long after his beautiful wife Do Hwa (Bae Kang Hee) passed away after giving birth to their only son and heir. The last thing Jang Gang did before leaving was seal his son’s energy gate, ensuring that he would never be able to use his magic, and forbid everyone from ever opening this gate for him. Without telling anyone why, he abandoned his son, disappeared and hasn’t been seen for ten years. His son, Jang Wook (played by Lee Jae Wook) has grown up frustrated and feeling ostracized from his peers as he’s never been allowed to use magic. He’s gone through twelve different masters in the hope of finding someone who could help him open his energy gate, but to no avail so far.
Seo Yool, Park Dang Goo, Jin Cho Yeon and Jang Wook grew up together as childhood friends, and they are still quite close with each other. Yool, Dang Goo and Wook are still best friends to this day, Wook and Cho Yeon were even betrothed at some point before it fell through, and Dang Goo has always had a secret crush on Cho Yeon himself.

I hope everyone is still following it after this first introduction, because I can’t deny that my head was discombombulated by all the names of people and places. Not only are the names of the locations quite complicated to memorize, a lot of character names also resemble each other, so it took me a while before I had a clear picture of who was who and which person belonged to which family. I have to admit it also took me a while to distinguish Jin Ho Gyung from the Queen – my brain just kept insisting they were the same person, lol. Anyways, there’s still loads of other important characters to introduce – be prepared – but I thought it would be good to first establish the premise of the setting we’re introduced to when the story starts.

I’ve mentioned it already, but a very predominant aspect of the story stems from the use of dark magic, sorcery. Even in the capital of Daeho itself, there are countless greedy mages who’d just love to get their hands on the ice stone and use its powers to ensure the continuous success of their own families, even at the cost of their own family members – which is quite ironic, if you think about it.
The main villain in the story, who enables these greedy mages to achieve their dark desires, is a man called Jin Moo (played by Jo Jae Yoon). Jin Moo is the half brother of Jin Ho Gyung and therefore officially a member of the Jin family. However, as he was born out of wedlock as a result of Ho Gyung’s father’s affair, he was never fully acknowledged as a full-blood part of the Jin family. Still, he worked his way up to be the Gwanju’s right-hand man, Assistant Gwanju. He even became the acting Gwanju after Jang Gang’s disappearance.
Now, you have to admit that Jin Moo has maneuvered himself into a very clever position. He has an incredibly secure status and reputation as acting Gwanju, a whole team of followers and guards, and his ties to both the royal family and the Jin family enable him to pull lots of strings from all sides. Even though it could be said that he has been involved in every single calamity and tragedy that has happened in Daeho in at least the past ten years, he’s consistently gotten away with everything.
When he was acting under Gwanju Jang Gang and learned about the powers of the ice stone, Jin Moo became obsessed with it. After the stone was hidden away and the Gwanju disappeared, it took him several years to find out where it was hidden, and he even used his own half-niece Boo Yeon to track it down for him – only to discard her into the lake when she hesitated to give it to him. He then went on to help a mighty shaman called Shaman Choi (Shim So Young) who specialized in sorcery soul-shift with the Queen herself, creating a mole within the royal family. No one has ever managed to blow his cover because he established such a secure position between influential families. Even though Songrim, and mainly leader Park Jin, has been repeatedly suspicious of him, they’ve never had any concrete proof to show that he was up to no good.
Honestly, I had to hand it to him, because he was good. It was frustrating as heck how he kept wriggling his way out of situations and managed to redirect evidence that clearly pointed to him, but that only contributed to the fact that he really was that impressive of an opponent. Somehow he always managed to turn a situation to his will and redirect people’s suspicions of him to someone else. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a persistent villain and the fact that he got to stick around until the very end is pretty impressive in itself.
In any case, Jin Moo retrieved the ice stone from the lake and started using it for all the wrong reasons. He made Soul Ejectors through which he could perform the alchemy of souls and has been creating a sort of ever-rejuvenating army of respected mage family members who were all so blinded by greed that they didn’t hesitate to sacrifice their own younger family members for the cause. In other words, elderly representatives of mage families would agree to switch souls with their own children or other younger heirs from their family so that they could live on as young and powerful mages forever. This typically happened without the consent of the younger relatives, whose souls were cruelly trapped in elderly and in some cases even sickly or dying bodies, never able to live out their lives. In order to get rid of these ‘loose ends’, Jin Moo also controlled several assassins to clean up after the alchemy of souls had been performed.

I just want to establish a bit more information on soul shifters in particular. Whenever a mage shifts souls, they become a so-called soul shifter, but it doesn’t come without any after effects. After they’ve switched bodies using dark magic, this dark magic inevitably takes a toll on them. As Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time would say, “All magic comes at a price”. The thing is, at some point soul shifters will start ‘running wild’, which means that they lose control over their actions and start going around killing people in search of human energy to feed on. Once a soul shifter starts running wild, patches of stone start to form on their skin, and they can only retain their human appearance when they suck energy from other people, preferably common folk. If they don’t manage to replenish their energy in time, soul shifters will ultimately petrify into stone completely and die. I’m not entirely sure what the most natural cause is that would make a soul shifter run wild, because I believe it doesn’t just happen automatically, but in any case Jin Moo also provided soul shifters that worked for him with new ‘energy sources’ to replenish their energy. On the other hand, he was also able to control soul shifters himself with a specific divination spell. He could manipulate soul shifters with a type of bell after he’s made them drink a special potion. As soon as they hear the sound of bells, they are basically hypnotized and lose control over their bodies.

As a master of manipulation, one of the main people Jin Moo has been tricking for years is his own half-sister, Jin Ho Gyung. While she believes that Jin Moo has been aiding her and her husband all this time in finding Boo Yeon, she has no idea that he was the one responsible for her disappearance in the first place. She’s also not aware that neither he nor her own husband actually plan on retrieving Boo Yeon’s real body. Jin Woo Tak might seem like a loving father looking for his eldest daughter, but he’s actually in cohorts with Jin Moo. He’s also not Boo Yeon’s biological father, only Cho Yeon’s, so I guess that made it easier for him. In truth, Jin Moo and Jin Woo Tak have been going around looking for a blind girl that they could pose off as Boo Yeon, going so far as to even put a bloodworm in her that contains the Jin family blood so she’d be able to open Jinyowon to prove it. The only reason they are looking for someone to take Boo Yeon’s place, even if it’s not the real girl herself, is because the Queen (aka the evil shaman lady in the Queen’s body) needs to soul-shift soon, and an heiress/high priestess of Jinyowon would do very nicely as a vessel. What ties Jin Woo Tak to this case is that he is actually Shaman Choi’s brother. Like I said, alles ist miteinander verbunden.

Apart from manipulating people within his own circle, Jin Moo has been responsible for a lot of other misfortune and tragedy, and even actively contributed to the demise of several families.
One of the families that fell victim to his evil plans was the Cho family. Cho Choong (Yoon Seo Hyun) was a respected constellation recording mage who worked at Cheonbugwan, and he was also a close friend of Gwanju Jang Gang. However, because he witnessed a certain constellation on the night Jang Gang’s son was born, Jin Moo made him run wild (probably with the potion) and caused him to murder his entire family. The only survivor of this familicide was Cho Choong’s young daughter Cho Yeong (Goo Yoo Jung). Jin Moo took the child under his wing and promised her he’d help her avenge her family. In the next ten years, he trained her into becoming an assassin who would kill all loose-end soul shifters for him, cutting off everyone who would be able to spread the word that they were forced out of their own bodies and that Jin Moo was the mastermind behind it all. The saddest thing is that Cho Yeong never knew the true intentions of the man she served – she grew up thinking she was doing this with the ultimate goal of avenging her family. She was unknowingly manipulated by Jin Moo her entire life.
After growing up and gaining an infamous reputation as an assassin, Cho Yeong (now played by Go Yoon Jung) started going by the name Nak Soo, which apparently is some kind of reference to her ability to slice people’s heads off very smoothly. Nak Soo became one of the most infamous enemies to Songrim, and her name instilled fear in everyone who knew about her.

We are first introduced to the incredibly skilled assassin Nak Soo in the first episode, where she gets hurt in a fight with Songrim’s leader Park Jin. In an attempt to escape, she manages to perform the alchemy of souls on a blind girl (👀) she encounters at an inn. When a soul shifting succeeds, it typically leaves a blue mark near the heart. However, when Nak Soo opens her eyes in the new body she now occupies, not only does she realize she can see, but she also doesn’t find the blue mark on her new skin. For some reason, the blue mark has chosen to settle within her eyes, which is uncommon. My first guess was that it recognized the girl’s blindness and enabled her vision by settling there. I read another interesting theory on Tumblr that explored a more metaphorical reason, namely that the heart and the eyes are both gateways to the soul, and since the blind girl didn’t have the eye gateway, Nak Soo’s soul shifting mark chose to settle there. The true reason for this unusual transfer of the blue mark is never explained in the series.
In any case, the soul shifting allows Nak Soo to escape from the Songrim soldiers and she takes on the new identity of the not-blind-anymore girl, Moo Deok (from this point on played by Jung So Min). After she makes her way into the capital and decides to hide at the brothel Chwiseonru, she runs into Jang Wook.
As we know, Jang Wook has been looking for a master who can help him open his energy gate. The rumors about Nak Soo escaping, soul shifting and probably heading for the capital have reached Daeho by then, and it takes Jang Wook a surprisingly short time to figure out that Moo Deok must be Nak Soo. He deducts this after seeing the blue mark in her eyes. Shortly after meeting and confirming who they each are, Jang Wook and Moo Deok strike a deal: Nak Soo will become Wook’s new training master and help him open his energy gate, and Moo Deok will become his personal maid who follows him everywhere and does everything he tells her to. This immediately creates a very interesting dynamic between the two, as they constantly have to switch between the position of master/servant/pupil. It becomes even more complicated when they start developing romantic feelings for each other.

Honestly, while I was writing this review it reminded me of how I felt when reviewing Arthdal Chronicles – I had no idea where to begin because each newly introduced story or piece of information stemmed from another and it just kept on branching out. Just when I thought I’d covered a part, a new episode would uncover another mountain of new information and it just made me go 🤯🤯🤯. The world-building and historical background establishment of all the characters and the places was so elaborate that finding a starting point was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I thought that if I’d just establish a historical timeline of the important events that preceded the events depicted in the story, it would be easy to follow, but I still found it very difficult. I’ll probably make repeated mentions of how difficult it was to write this throughout the review, lol.

Besides the relationship between Wook and Moo Deok/Nak Soo, there are countless other storylines playing out simultaneously. We learn a lot about all the different families, their respective histories and secrets, relationships and rivalries form, secrets are uncovered and people’s true natures (or should I say souls 👀) come to light. All of these storylines are balanced equally, yet none of them distract from the main narrative. The way this series manages to balance all the storylines at the same time without ever losing sight of the main plot is incredible. The writing is genius and I don’t remember a single scene or dialogue that wasn’t significant to the story or development of a certain character.
Another rare thing is that I genuinely liked every single character. Even the bad guys were so well constructed; I actually understood where Jin Moo came from with his actions – even though I rejected them completely, of course. I also really loved the dynamics between all of the characters. Every story and character is intricately connected to each other, but the series’ build-up establishes all ties very clearly throughout. With every episode we learn more about the bigger picture through bite-sized and accessible chunks of audiovisual information, and this made it very easy to follow.

There are a couple of general things that I found interesting about this series. First of all, they put a lot of emotional burden on the viewer by providing us with a lot of information that the characters themselves aren’t aware of. I literally felt like I was forced to sit on a side bench to watch everything unfold in front of me, knowing everything that was going on, and not being able to help or tell anyone what they needed to know. While it was amusing at times, especially if there was at least one person who knew the truth about something, most times it was extremely frustrating. Especially because a lot of important information habitually ended up with the wrong people, and others were purposely kept a secret from the person it was related to. For example, while it remains a mystery to the majority of characters throughout the story, we as viewers learn the truth about why Wook’s father sealed his gate of energy and disappeared from the get-go. We learn that the late King soul-shifted into Jang Gang’s body to go after his wife and that Wook was therefore conceived through the alchemy of souls. We learn that Boo Yeon’s birth was enabled with the power of the ice stone. We learn that Cho Choong and his family were brutally silenced after witnessing the King’s Star in the sky on the night Wook was born so they would never be able to tell anyone that Wook was actually the son of the late King. We learn that Moo Deok is actually the long-lost Boo Yeon. There were a lot of these revelations that just made me go ‘OMG’ ‘ARE YOU SERIOUS?!’ ‘NAHHH BRO’ 🙈🙉🙊 Admittedly, it definitely contributed to the building of suspense and thrill in the story, but it was just agonizing that these revelations weren’t conveyed to the right people straightaway. On the other hand, I cannot even begin to describe the relief that I would feel when a piece of information finally reached the right person, lol. When Yool finally found out about Nak Soo’s soul in season two, for example, it literally made me go, ‘🙏🏻FINALLY THANK YOU🙏🏻’.
There were two cases I remember where I thought someone shouldn’t have gotten involved after learning some pieces of information. The first one was So Yi. So Yi (played by Seo Hye Won) was originally a swindler girl from the same village Boo Yeon ended up in, and she knew her as Moo Deok when she was living there. It’s said that So Yi ran off with all her belongings after Moo Deok’s grandmother (the lady who raised her) passed away, thereby disabling Moo Deok/Boo Yeon from finding her real family. She even took her eye mask with the Jin family crest on it, although she didn’t know what it symbolized. At some point halfway through the first season, So Yi enters the capital and goes looking for Moo Deok while pretending to be blind herself. However, she gets herself into quite a predicament when Jin Moo’s people pluck her from the street as a potential fill-in for Boo Yeon. Quickly blowing her blindness cover, So Yi begs Jin Moo to let her live and tells him she’ll do anything she can to pose off as the Jin family’s eldest daughter. She is the first (and initially only person) who makes the connection between Moo Deok and the Jin family – the first person to realize that Moo Deok is actually Jin Boo Yeon.
Honestly, while I get that it added thrill to the story to have someone who knew Moo Deok from the village she grew up in as an additional exposing factor, I have to admit I initially found So Yi a bit of a disruptive element. She literally came out of nowhere and got involved in things she wasn’t meant to get involved in. I still don’t really understand what her intentions were, because it first seemed like she was just trying to survive but then she started getting greedy for that Jin family life, not knowing that she was only meant as a new vessel for Shaman Choi’s soul. The fact that she willingly went along with fooling so many people, including a desperate mother who just wanted her daughter back, still makes me wonder about her motivations. Of course, she’d had a rough upbringing, hadn’t known much warmth or genuine kindness, and she found herself in a very dire situation. On the other hand, it also becomes clear from her attitude towards Seo Yool that she tends to be extremely touched by people that do show her kindness. Seo Yool once saves her from some thugs and gives her his umbrella to use as a cane (she’s pretending to be blind at that time) and she never once forgets about that. She even ultimately sacrifices herself for him in the second season, where she’s also the first ‘outsider’ person to realize that the new Boo Yeon must be Nak Soo, because she knew that Moo Deok was the real Boo Yeon. In any case, my point is that while she had a lot of important information, So Yi wasn’t the right person to keep that knowledge. She could only use it to threaten or bribe someone here and there, but she kept it a secret from the people it actually related to and that was frustrating sometimes.
I was also a bit frustrated by Heo Yoon Ok in the second season. I had no issues with her in season one, because even though she liked Wook she never got petty towards Moo Deok when she found out they were together, but for some reason she got really petty with Boo Yeon in season two, and it didn’t suit her. When she went and read the letter Seo Yool had left in which he revealed that Nak Soo’s soul was inside Boo Yeon, she just figured she had the right to expose her with that revealing potion and I was like, girl, mêle-toi de tes affaires, tu veux! I don’t know if it really was just jealousy because Boo Yeon was married to Wook, but it was a pretty low move and that information was just not meant for her. It didn’t specifically do her any harm per se, but it just wasn’t any of her business, especially since she chose to use the information to pull such a move.

Another positive thing about the series was that people kept picking up on things so quickly. Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I watched a show where characters were so sharp in picking up bad vibes. I really appreciated that everybody constantly kept their eyes and ears open and it never took ages for someone to realize something was amiss. I also liked the occasional revelations that they were actually a step ahead of the bad guys, for example when it was confirmed that the Crown Prince had been on Wook’s side rather than Jin Moo’s all along or when they were able to save the important people after the Operation Fire Bird in season two. Sometimes I was genuinely surprised by how quickly they picked stuff up, for example when Wook realized the Queen had to be a soul shifter. There were cases where I thought it would probably take a while to figure it out, but I was very grateful that everything fell into place so quickly. It just sped up the progress and nothing was needlessly dragged out.

I really want to start on my character analysis since I think I’ve established enough of the story’s setting by now. What I’ll say from the bat is that it’s been a while since I genuinely loved the entire cast of characters in a show. Seriously, there was not a single storyline that was boring or less interesting than the other. Whether it switched from a training session between Wook and Nak Soo to the budding romance between Dang Goo and Cho Yeon, or from the squibbling between Park Jin and Maidservant Kim to Master Lee sharing wisdom with some kids or Jin Moo concocting new plans, I enjoyed every single storyline. It’s been a while since I watched something in which I genuinely enjoyed whatever scene came on.

First of all, my baby Jang Wook. This guy really got my heart aching like no other. He was a real tragic hero, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Naruto as he was cursed before he was even born and then basically ostracized as he had to grow up with all sorts of nasty rumors regarding his real parents. People told him he was the result of his mother’s love affair and that he didn’t belong in Songrim. Despite his parentless upbringing he was still fortunate enough to be raised by Maidservant Kim (played by Oh Na Ra) who had been loyal to the Gwanju’s family for years. She raised him with all the love she had and they developed a true mother-son-like bond. Even though he didn’t get the chance to develop his energy the same way his friends did, Wook always remained optimistic and determined. He refused to give up because he just knew he belonged in Songrim and was meant for more. I really loved his character development throughout the story and the two seasons.
When we are first introduced to him, we immediately see his playful side as he hangs out with his friends and how he bickers with Park Jin. Sure, there are grudges and things that aren’t fair, but he didn’t let those define his life and that was remarkable about him from the start. When he meets Moo Deok/Nak Soo for the first time I loved how he just started flirting with her blatantly, suppressing grins when he noticed she was flustered and acting bashful when she did something nice for him. His pure energy stood in such contrast with hers, but it worked so well. I think it was so interesting to have them constantly change status from pupil to master and master to servant. There was never a dull moment between them, not through their bickering or the serious training, and the emotional moments in-between only became more powerful because they reflected the true nature of their usual hot-and-cold dynamic. From the moment he met her he knew he couldn’t do without her, and it might have taken Nak Soo a bit longer to acknowledge it, but in the end she was actually prepared to give up her regained powers to remain by his side as Moo Deok and that said something. Especially if you look at how she initially kept threatening him that she would either kill him or abandon him as soon as she got her powers back.
I think that Wook’s transformation in the second season followed the tragic events of the first season’s finale very naturally. He became a different person after losing Moo Deok, and it was really sad to see how he kept pushing Boo Yeon away because he just wouldn’t let himself go through it again. To think that he was looking for a way to extract the powers of the ice stone that had resurrected him because he thought he could only find peace and quiet in death stood in such stark contrast with how he was introduced in season one, so full of life and vitality and determination to live up to his full potential. I have to say that there were definitely cases where he treated Boo Yeon harshly that made me go, ‘bro… that’s too much, man’, but on the other hand I could never fully blame him for being like that because he had been living in the dead cold for three years, he was plagued by wraiths every night and barely slept, constantly terrorized by the memories of cruelly losing the love of his life. He was living in a hell and I could very well imagine why he’d be hesitant to let some perky strange girl claiming she could save and protect him into his life. I think the transition he went through that resulted in him finally admitting his feelings for Boo Yeon was very credibly written, and very well acted out. I just couldn’t help but want to hug him, because he was put into cruel situation after cruel situation. He had never seen Nak Soo’s real face before so he didn’t recognize her, he didn’t acknowledge Boo Yeon’s returning memories as her own, and then when he finally found out it was her, he was told that her soul would disappear soon anyway. When Master Lee was like, ‘you know, what’s even worse is that he’d actually be able to preserve Nak Soo’s soul over Boo Yeon’s with the ice stone’s powers’, I was like ‘noooo don’t make him make that decision, that’s even worse 😭😭’ He went through so much shit only to find out that his birth wasn’t even supposed to happen and he lost his entire family and the love of his life because of that cursed alchemy of souls spell. He deserved so much better but he held himself so strongly throughout it all. He never became pathetic or weak, sometimes he inevitably crumbled but he stood through it and that was incredible. Jang Wook is definitely one of the most impressive male lead characters I’ve seen in a K-Drama so far.

Moving on to Nak Soo, as established she was also done real dirty by Jin Moo. Not only did he basically kill her entire family, he then manipulated and used her for his own gain only to abandon her when she ‘lost purpose’ and then in the end he came back to control her into attacking her own friends and even killing her fiancé. The fact that we as viewers (along with Wook) learn of Nak Soo’s twisted fate before she did just created a whole new layer of empathy for her character, all the more because she wasn’t aware of this fact herself.
What’s interesting is that, while Nak Soo goes through four different identities throughout the story (Cho Yeong, Nak Soo, Moo Deok and Jin Boo Yeon), we only ever really get to know Nak Soo. We never learn what Cho Yeong, Moo Deok and Boo Yeon were like. I found it funny that, when she and Wook finally got married by Master Lee in the final episode, Master Lee was like, ‘hold up girl, you got four names, under which one do you want to get married, exactly?’😆 I just thought it was very original to introduce a main character via an appearance and body that wasn’t their own, because that means the viewer basically gets to know them while they are also getting to know themselves, or their new selves, at least. I definitely feel like Nak Soo got to know herself because of Wook and everything she went through in Daeho. Without the events in the story she’d never have found out what truly happened to her family and that she’d been used as a pawn in Jin Moo’s plans all along.
When it comes to Nak Soo the assassin, it is clear from the start that she’s very confident in her own skills, she considers herself to be very high up in the mage ranks (with good reason). This elevated image that she has of herself stands in very stark contrast with the persona she creates for Moo Deok, who is expected to kiss the dust under everyone’s feet. After she soul-shifts, Nak Soo realizes quickly that she now only has access to her new body’s physical abilities, which means that she doesn’t have any of her own strength, power, stamina or speed. However, she still finds a way to train Wook and while she’s not personally able to show him how it’s done, she still manages to motivate him enough to work twice as hard and he makes very rapid progress. Which is impressive, because she certainly doesn’t go easy on him. She literally starts out by poisoning him so that Songrim is forced to open his energy gate in order to let him heal. He gets to keep his powers, and this only speeds up his training process even more.

I just want to establish the different kinds of stages that Wook has to go through, the levels of energy control that need to be reached before one is able to become an accepted member of Songrim. Once a mage’s gate of energy has been opened, the first step in learning to control it is reaching Jipsu, the ability to gather the energy of water. Following this step, there’s Ryusu, which includes learning how to gain energy from the flow of water through skill and breathing techniques. Then, there’s Chisu, the ability to control the energy in the atmosphere, and this typically takes years to master. Finally, the last and highest level of power is reached when mastering Hwansu, and this level is barely reachable as only the most powerful mages conquer it. It’s the level a mage needs to be at to perform sorcery such as the alchemy of souls.

Their training takes place in Danhyanggook, and this is where Nak Soo herself trained for years to become an assassin when she still served Danju (Jin Moo), the man who had ‘saved’ her from her familicide. They find a quiet cabin to stay at for the time being, and it turns out that the cabin belongs to Master Lee Cheol (played by Im Cheol Soo), Heo Yeom’s former master and former pupil of Master Seo Gyung, the founding member who first discovered the ice stone. He looks way younger than Heo Yeom, and this is later funnily explained as that Heo Yeom burned his master’s body after believing he had died while meditating, while in truth he had just reached Hwansu and his soul had temporarily driven outside of his body. As his body was being burned, Master Lee’s soul had no choice but to settle in the tiny body of a child that had died on the street, and that’s why he’s now a lot younger than his own student. Seriously, the flashback scene in which the little kid went at Heo Yeom for burning his body was hilarious.
Accompanied by a dog that holds one of Jinyowon’s relics that’s able to identify soul shifters (Gwigu), Master Lee Cheol is immediately able to see that Moo Deok is occupied by a very powerful soul shifter, but he chooses to let her go when he sees the special bond between her and Wook. He becomes an asset in Wook’s training and starts making more frequent appearances in the capital as the story unfolds.
To be fair, Wook struggles a lot throughout his training. While his overall progress is very quick for someone who only recently had his gate of energy opened, his lack of earlier training and control of skill poses many challenges. Still, Nak Soo doesn’t easily give up on her pupil and helps him reach Ryusu by additionally teaching him Tansu, which is a type of advanced swordsmanship that Nak Soo herself is infamous for.
As Moo Deok, Nak Soo takes on a quirky and cheeky persona who’s not shy to snap back at people and speak her mind. She manages to sneak into Wook’s life so smoothly that no one stops to think about how she suddenly turned up, or even make the link that he started developing his skills from the moment she appeared by his side. Because everyone believes Nak Soo is dead at this point – her body has been burned on a pyre by then – Moo Deok is pretty free to do as she pleases as long as no one finds out she’s the one teaching Wook. Luckily they also have Master Lee to point to when someone asks about Wook’s training, but most of his progress is made when Master Lee is away, so they can’t be too obvious about it.
Despite her attempts to lay low, it doesn’t take long for Moo Deok to also catch the attention of Crown Prince Go Won. Wook has to defeat the Crown Prince in a duel to complete his training, and as a result Moo Deok also has multiple run-ins with him. Despite his aloof nature the Crown Prince develops a certain fondness of her. You could even say he starts liking her and becomes a bit envious of the relationship between her and Wook when he realizes how deeply they are connected.

As much as I loved the slowburn between Wook and Moo Deok/Nak Soo, and how they didn’t just develop feelings but also genuine respect, trust and loyalty for each other, I couldn’t help but feel that their love was ultimately cursed. It’s really sad if you think about it: both their lives were ruined from the get-go because of the alchemy of souls. Both Wook’s birth and Nak Soo’s familicide wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Jin Moo’s involvement with the alchemy of souls. Wook’s birth even led to Nak Soo’s familicide. The fact that they met under these circumstances is both miraculous and tragic, because it’d always stand between them no matter what. Furthermore, you could say their relationship is quite messy because Wook basically falls in love with someone who is trapped inside someone else’s body. So who is he really in love with then? Moo Deok, Boo Yeon or Nak Soo? The same thing happens in the second season, when Boo Yeon’s body is restored with Nak Soo’s original appearance, and their souls are basically cohabiting within one body. It’s all very complicated and it just made me feel very sorry for Wook, because he just didn’t seem to get a chance to fall in love with Nak Soo while she was completely herself. There was always something standing in the way of them sharing a carefree future together, and that constantly clouded over them. Fortunately, this was finally enabled at the end of the second season, as Boo Yeon allows Nak Soo to return to Wook’s side after they finally defeat the Fire Bird, but it definitely had me anxious for the majority of the story.
Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed the build-up in the relationship between Wook and Nak Soo. While Nak Soo is kind of hot-and-cold in contrast to Wook, who makes his affection towards her clear from the start, she simply isn’t able to suppress her feelings for him. I loved how naturally they both eventually accepted this, how at some point they both just went, ‘huh, I guess I’m really in love with this person’. It happened so naturally and I really enjoyed watching it unfold. It all came together so nicely and I was rooting for them the entire way.

There are so many beautiful and significant moments in the development of their relationship, and I loved how they kept referring back to those in the second season. Wook remembered everything Nak Soo had ever said to him and was immediately able to recognize it when people said similar things. Also the yin-and-yang jade bird egg straps, the story about the bird on top of the tall tree and how she always bought the honey biscuits he liked so much… There were a lot of little things that had such an important meaning between the two of them and that was really nice. It really shapes a couple when they get to have inside jokes and objects that link them together. Not to mention the KISSING SCENES 😳🫣🔥Take note directors, this is what I mean by a properly executed explosion of passion as the result of a slowburn romance.

Let’s talk a bit more about Crown Prince Go Won. I think it’s safe to say that in terms of character development, this guy is one of the highest on the list. He is initially introduced as a bit of a jerk, but as he gradually gets attached to Moo Deok and starts noticing weird behavior within his own family, he ultimately becomes one of Wook’s biggest allies. I was really happy that he was open-minded enough to actually see for himself that his mother was acting weird and that his father started succumbing to greed more and more. In his situation, it must’ve been incredibly risky to openly go against his own parents, the King and Queen, but he did it anyway. He may have held some personal grudges against Wook, but at least he came clean about it in the end, he was honest about his feelings and he ended up on Wook’s side because everything about the way his parents behaved just felt instinctively wrong to him. Despite the fact that he wasn’t aware of a whole lot of things, the fact that his antenna picked up on this was very helpful.
Ultimately, I have to say the Crown Prince became one of my favorite characters, maybe even my favorite character. I just loved how his personality would switch from self-important and dominant to flustered and flabbergasted. He really cracked me up at times and I LIVED for the love-hate bromance that formed between him and Wook. The scene where the yin-and-yang jade eggs brought them together and they were embarrassed by how excited they had felt 😂. And his relationship with that turtle in season two 😭🙏🏻 I just KNEW that when Jin Moo told him he’d gotten rid of it because it was ‘a sign of weakness’, he wouldn’t let it go, and then when Wook asked him later why he chose to cut ties with Jin Moo he was like, ‘because he got rid of my turtle’ I was like I KNEW IT! I KNEW HE WASN’T GOING TO LET THE TURTLE THING GO 😂. That was iconic and probably my favorite part of the second season, lol. I’m just going to screenshot it here so it won’t ever be forgotten. The Crown Prince and his turtle, a better love story than Twilight.

I really liked his role, and how he, as the only one in his family apparently, was able to reflect on his own feelings of greed and pettiness in order to become a better person and stand on the right side of history. He was a really nice supporting character to have around, someone the leads could always rely on for help. I have to admit I was really scared that Jin Moo would suddenly decide to kill him or switch souls with him or something. Luckily he remained safe and finally became King in the final episode, so all was well.

Moving on to the Crown Prince’s cousin, Seo Yool can be seen as the gentle and good-looking second male lead of the series. While there isn’t really a typical love triangle in the story, there does seem to be some lingering tension between him and Nak Soo in the beginning. As it happens, they met before in Danhyanggook when they were both still teens, and befriended each other in secret. Yool never found out who she was, and as soon as she found out he was linked to the four families she cut ties with him and disappeared. However, it’s clear that they both still remember their friendship from that time and never completely let go of their fond feelings for each other. Yool initially realizes his friend must be Nak Soo when they examine her body in Cheonbugwan and find a bird-shaped bird whistle she’s wearing. Yool gave this whistle to his friend before she disappeared, so it doesn’t take him long to realize they must be the same person. The whistle passes between Yool and Moo Deok a couple of times and it continues to play a symbolic part in their relationship throughout the story.
The loyalty and friendship between Yool and Wook never wavers and I really loved that Wook, despite the fact that he became so gloomy in season two, continued to show a genuine happy expression whenever he saw Yool. I just generally loved the friendship between Yool, Dang Goo and Wook, the scenes where they were playing around together and joked about Park Jin’s awful cooking skills were so funny.
Throughout the story, Yool is also the person who figures out the most pieces of information by himself. He tended to also keep things to himself until he had fully investigated the bigger picture, and although I think it was smart of him to first check what was going on before sharing loose pieces of information with everyone else, there were also things he deliberately kept to himself, such as the knowledge that Moo Deok was Nak Soo, or in season two that he was slowly dying inside from that bloodworm So Yi gave him. While his character’s personality remained quite consistent during the two seasons, I do like to think he got a different twinkle in his eyes in part two. He seemed to have become a bit more determined and zesty while trying to keep his mysterious illness hidden and I honestly liked seeing that side of him (although the reason was awful, of course).
His relationship (if that’s the right term for it) with So Yi was quite peculiar. I think it proved Yool’s good nature that, despite the fact that he didn’t reciprocate the feelings she had for him, he still cared about her enough that he didn’t want her to die for him. He still considered her putting that bloodworm into his bloodstream to save his life as a good deed, regardless of what it ultimately did to him. The scene where she died afer refusing to tell who she’d given the bloodworm to and he came to fight Jin Moo’s men to the point of completely collapsing himself was really intense. I was convinced they wouldn’t let Yool die because he was Yool (no further reason needed), but it was still a very thrilling part of the second season.

Speaking of Dang Goo, I really loved him as well. He may not have gotten as involved in the whole Nak Soo business as his friends, but I honestly think it was for the better, because he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret for very long. Dang Goo was an absolute cinnamon roll and I loved his romance with Cho Yeon, they were so incredibly adorable together. I was terrified that Moo Deok would actually kill them when she was hypnotized. Honestly, that whole scene where they confronted her after she killed Cho Yeon’s father I was just yelling at my screen that they needed to run away because they didn’t have enough clarity of the situation to understand that Moo Deok wasn’t herself and she would actually kill them without hesitation.
I thought it was funny that Dang Goo’s hair was dyed blond in season one, it was such a ‘modern’ element that you normally don’t see in historical dramas. The fact that he changed his hair color back to black in the second season seemed to signal his maturity most of all. He had become the new leader of Songrim after Park Jin had stepped down, which meant that he got new responsibilities and couldn’t afford to play around anymore. It was so typical of him that he showed such growth and maturity in how he carried himself around Songrim but still teared up as soon as he saw Cho Yeon again after three years. He loved her so much 😭😭.

To be honest, I had mixed feelings about Cho Yeon for a while. Maybe it was because her mother liked isolating the Jin family from Songrim, but as one of The Four Seasons she didn’t seem as close with the others as the three guys were. I was kind of curious to know more about what exactly the history between her and Wook was, because it did seem like she fancied him and still wanted to go through with marrying him before she realized she was falling for Dang Goo.
She also pulled some immature stuff, such as putting the blame for breaking the yin-and-yang jade on Moo Deok and refusing to provide Moo Deok with an alibi when the latter was literally being framed for murder, only because she didn’t want to admit that they’d seen each other at a shabby place where she went to get tickets to a magic show for her and Dang Goo. On the one hand I guess it was admirable of her to stand by her family no matter what and always obey her mother, but she had to admit at some point that bad things were happening and her mother was being unreasonable. She kept letting go of Dang Goo’s hand in favor of her own family, and I just wished she’d been a bit more defiant for what she herself believed to be right. When she actually blamed Dang Goo for not protecting her father from being killed by Moo Deok when they finally saw each other again after three years, I was like ‘nahh girl… don’t even go there’. I just hope that was her trying to act cold in front of her guards, because she did come back to him pretty soon afterwards.

One thing I found peculiar was that, while there was no hesitation in creating some incredibly passionate kissing scenes between Wook and Nak Soo, the relationship between Dang Goo and Cho Yeon remained quite innocent and pure. Even after they confirmed they’d actually slept with each other, they pretty much remained 😳🫢 and they didn’t even get a proper kissing scene even though their relationship progressed much faster and steadily than the main leads’. I wonder why they only gave the real ‘hot’ intimacy scenes to the leads and brushed the other romantic relationships off as something more innocent or comical.

I’ll say a bit about Jin Ho Gyung as well because she’s a pretty important character in the story. I can’t really say that I liked her character per se, but just as with all characters, I still understood where she was coming from. She was just an over-protective mother who lost her eldest (and admittedly, probably favorite) daughter after barely being able to give birth to her, and then she finds out her own brother and husband have been betraying her for ten years while taking advantage of her desperation to find her child. It’s an unforgivable thing to take advantage of someone’s desperation like that, but it just goes to show that Jin Moo really didn’t care about anything but his own gain. After being betrayed by so many close people, I could understand how isolated she must’ve felt. Her main priority was to protect Jinyowon, her birthright and the legacy of her family. At some point she didn’t even let people in whom she must’ve known where trustworthy, purely because she didn’t want to allow herself to trust anyone outside her own closed circle of family anymore. In the end she was even prepared to give her life while trying to stop Jinyowon from collapsing, because that was the most important thing to her, not to get herself to safety. You can’t deny that the dedication of this woman to protect what she was born to was remarkable, even though it made her quite cold to people who were really on her side. Then again, as I said, I could also understood it from her side.

Next up are two other favorite characters, Park Jin and Maidservant Kim. Just in general, I loved that they gave all the solemn-looking male characters like the Crown Prince, Park Jin and Master Lee such lovely and unexpected quirky sides. They really made the show for me.
After being introduced to Park Jin for the first time and seeing how strict he was to Wook and how he kept refusing him entrance to Songrim, it came as such a relief to see him express how he really felt about the whole situation. Whenever he spoke with Wook privately, suddenly this concerned father figure came out who only wanted to keep him safe. I truly believed he wanted to open Wook’s energy gate and let him into Songrim more than anything, but Gwanju Jang Gang had personally made him swear to never do so and he just couldn’t afford to break that promise because he assumed it was for Wook’s own safety.
I loved how he continued to be such a loyal figure in Wook’s life, no matter his strictness and policy to stick to Songrim’s rules, Wook could always come to him with his suspicions and he always took them seriously. He was probably the first person who started suspecting Jin Moo and kept looking for ways to bust him in his actions. I really loved the dynamic between Park Jin and Wook, how they really were a team. After that whole ordeal where one of the Queen’s soul-shifter eunuchs suddenly turned up after Wook and Moo Deok witnessed him turn into stone and Park Jin scolded him for causing such a fuss about nothing, they went outside and Park Jin was like, ‘I know you weren’t lying’. Like, just having a person like that around who would always believe him and have his back was so important, and Park Jin was that person to him.
The moments through which I grew to love him the most were when he was with Maidservant Kim, because they were the best couple ever. All his quirks and silly sides came out when he was with her, and I loved how they kept going back and forth in trying to confirm their feelings for each other. How he would get sulky when thinking she was seeing Master Lee or that she hadn’t meant certain things he had interpreted as signals added so much to the likability of his character. He was the best guy. In season two he became a bit more of a comic relief character since he picked up energy-induced cooking and produced one bad-tasting dish after the other. But he remained so loyal and strong until the end, and it almost physically killed me when he was ‘killed’ during the Fire Bird incident.

🌟ALL HAIL MAIDSERVANT KIM🌟 Seriously, this woman was the GOAT. Not only in how she was literally the best mother figure Wook could ever have wished for, but also because she held such genuine empathy and loyalty towards the people around her in general. I loved her to bits. She was such a bright presence in any situation, she loved and cared so much for Wook and she wished him all the best in the world. Her personality was so refreshing and it just put a smile on my face whenever she appeared on screen. I loved her real-talk sessions with Park Jin and how she constantly reprimanded him for being so slow-witted. It felt like they had known each other for a very long time and the fact that she was part of the Jang family’s household staff didn’t stand in the way of how she was allowed to speak to the family leaders. She was such a great addition to the cast of characters, always there to provide support even though she was kept out of the darker plots of the story (which I’m actually thankful for).
Her relationship with Park Jin was so incredibly precious. When they finally confirmed their feelings for each other (which she had to spell out for him because he still thought she was pining for Master Lee, lol) they were such a cute couple. I really loved how their relationship developed in the second season.

What I mentioned about Dang Goo’s and Cho Yeon’s relationship earlier, about how they were such a solid couple yet didn’t get a kissing scene like the main leads’, the same went for this couple, and I found this a real pity because again, I LIVED for their relationship. I really had hoped they would at least share one beautiful on-screen kiss, but they only did like the funny ‘sweep-you-of-your-feet’ kiss with their faces hidden from view and that was a bit of a bummer, haha. It just made me wonder why none of the other couples were allowed a proper on-screen kiss. I get that they saved the passionate make-out sessions for the main leads, but I just found it a pity that none of the other established couples who were just as precious and adorable and meant to be together got to properly touch lips on screen.

One thing I still don’t condone is that they actually made us witness the deaths of these two people. Not only that, they actually manifested a situation that they jokingly talked about ever since the beginning of the series. They constantly talked about who Maidservant Kim would save first if Wook and Park Jin would be drowning at the same time, for example, but also about whether Park Jin would be able to seal a door forever if Maidservant Kim was still inside, if it meant saving the world or some other very important cause. THE FACT THAT THEY ACTUALLY PUT THEM IN THAT SITUATION. The fact that they actually made Park Jin seal Maidservant Kim inside Jinyowon to stop all the relics from escaping was just CRUEL. To actually make us viewers go through that, watching him die after putting her engagement ring on his pinky finger (I’m still not okay) only to then just pull a uno reverse and be like, ‘JOKE, they’re actually okay’…. that was BRUTAL. That was pure shock value and I don’t condone it. TO THIS DAY. 🤌🏻🤌🏻 Of course I was ecstatic that they were all still alive, but I just didn’t see the meaning in putting us through the entire depiction of them dying like that and then just undoing it. That didn’t sit right with me, they really shouldn’t play with our feelings like that 😭.

As I said, Master Lee was another one of those characters who seemed so self-important and impressive as a formidable mage and master, and then he was given such an adorable side when he fell in love with Maidservant Kim. It was the sweetest thing ever. Of course he didn’t stand a chance against Park Jin, but I loved how he just walked around wearing the scarf she gave him. The way he actually went gross-sobbing in the mountains after finding out Park Jin and Maidservant Kim had confirmed their feelings for each other 🥹🥹 I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy.
Besides that, he was the kind of character that just made me go ‘YES MASTER LEE IS HERE’ whenever the city was in trouble. He was the person to have around in times of turmoil because he just saw through everyone and everything. Seriously, thank the heavens for Master Lee, he was such a great character.
I also loved how he rooted for the relationship between Wook and Nak Soo so much. I think he really made their story come full circle when he established that they may have seemed cursed but actually were meant to be together, as their names literally meant ‘light’ and ‘shadow’, and Nak Soo would be the shadow driving the darkness away from Wook’s light. It was so fitting that he was the one to marry them. He was also one of my favorite characters, I really liked what he brought to the story.

Another genuinely good character that I liked was physician Heo Yeom. He may not have been the most perceptive person or someone who picked up on things very quickly by himself, but he always remained true to Park Jin and Songrim, and he had a really nice energy. The way he just went 🤷🏻‍♂️ when he had to open Wook’s energy gate made me feel like he didn’t mind doing it at all after all this time. I also really loved his dynamic with Master Lee, how he was such an affectionate student and always went ‘Master~🥰’ when he turned up, haha. It was also funny how he would just go 😏😏 when it was suggested that someone liked someone, or when Park Jin was slow to pick up Maidservant Kim’s signals, for example. With the way things were, I was just grateful that Wook had so many allies in Songrim, and Heo Yeom was definitely one of them. I’m really glad he didn’t get caught in the crossfire during any of the events and he always kept a safe distance from Jin Moo, but he was always there to support Wook and Park Jin.

I’ve talked about her a little bit before, but I’ll just mention her again here. At some point, Heo Yeom’s granddaughter Heo Yoon Ok came down to Daeho from a place called Wol Fortress – I’m not entirely sure what this place is but Maidservant Kim allegedly also grew up there – to help out at Sejukwon. She arrived with her loyal maid Soon Yi (Jung Ji Ahn) and upon her arrival she immediately had an encounter with Wook, in which he saved her from a soul shifter that was running wild. It didn’t take long for her to fall for him, especially after she got to treat him at Sejukwon shortly afterwards.
The thing is, I liked her initially because even when she found out Wook wasn’t into her, she never became bitter towards Moo Deok for being the recipient of his affection instead of her. Honestly, I found it a bit peculiar that she did go at Boo Yeon in the second season. I thought it would’ve been much more natural for someone of her status to express disdain towards a servant girl like Moo Deok than someone of similar status like Boo Yeon. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Wook/Moo Deok was already happening when she came round and she wasn’t able to do anything about it, whereas Boo Yeon pretty much appeared out of nowhere and they were suddenly married within a day. Maybe that triggered a sense of unfairness, like ‘I didn’t even get a chance while I’ve known him for longer and where the heck did she even come from?’ Still, I didn’t really like how Yoon Ok acted around Boo Yeon, because it just seemed like she was being petty out of jealousy. That was a bit of a bummer since she’d seemed really cool before in season one.

As we’re on it, I’ll also say some more about So Yi, because I did find her an interesting character. She may have been one of my lesser favorite characters, but I still like to believe that she had a good heart deep down. I think she would’ve been a really good ally to the ‘good side’ had she not been ensnared by Jin Moo’s manipulation. Actually, when she was pretending to still have the bloodworm she already had the chance to play both sides, but she chose to just be a gangster that went around extorting people for money, which was kind of a shame. I totally expected her to sacrifice herself for Yool at some point, that was going to happen beyond any question. She still managed to stick it out for a while, though.
I kept feeling sorry for her in the beginning because she simply shouldn’t have gotten involved in the whole ‘fake Boo Yeon’ scheme. I don’t know what she would’ve done otherwise though, maybe she would’ve outed Moo Deok in a different way, so at least that was avoided. Still, it’s just sad that she got herself into this mess, and she was very much out of her depth once she got stuck in it. Even the thing with the bloodworm, it’s kind of ironic that she actually ended up killing Yool by trying to save his life. Of course she’d been sending him the medicine, but that deed in itself, no matter how well-intended, was also an ill-considered plan that eventually just led to more misery. I would’ve liked to see a more caring and empathic side of her that wasn’t limited to Seo Yool. I still believe she could’ve been a pretty useful asset to Wook’s side.

I’ve already talked about Jin Moo, but he’s such a major character that I have to devote a bit of character analysis to him. What I found interesting about him is that throughout the story, you can see his greed get stronger and stronger. When we’re first introduced to him he wasn’t nearly as far gone as he was at the end of the second season, during Operation Fire Bird. He completely lost it after he finally shifted souls himself for the first time. Before that, he was also greedy but he was way more patient and willing to let his plans gradually play out until he could finally get what he wanted. That’s how it felt to me, anyway. So in a way, despite the fact that his character remained quite stagnant in how slowly he took things, he did develop as well. It was frustrating, but the fact that he continued to wriggle his way out of things and managed to avoid getting caught really made him the ultimate villain. I still can’t believe he let Moo Deok run wild only to use it to redirect the attention from his own responsibility in it, but he did pull it off and that was impressive. I’d rather not use too many positive or complimenting words for him, but I can’t help that I was impressed by how well his plans worked out.
The only thing, and this also has to do with my mixed feelings about the ending of season two, is that the way he spiralled during the Fire Bird thing kind of accelerated without warning. Like, it was way too easy to lure him into Gwido, so I kind of predicted that he would be saved last minute and then all hell would break loose. If they weren’t rushing the ending, I honestly think they wouldn’t have written his ending like that. I just thought the way he ultimately went down wasn’t very like him, he would’ve thought things through way better than that. Anyways, he eventually perished when the Fire Bird was released, according to his own plan. The image of his snakey face manically laughing through the flames will haunt me for a while longer. 🥲

I won’t talk about too many other bad guys, but I just wanted to mention the Queen/Shaman Choi since I also plan to make some cast comments about these two. I’m not entirely sure how or when they managed to get Shaman Choi to shift souls with the Queen, but it must’ve happened a while ago because if I remember correctly, Jin Moo is already shown having secret meetings with the Queen from the beginning of the story. When it was revealed that the Queen was also a soul shifter, I remember that I really felt how dangerous the whole situation was. It was like, with that revelation, it suddenly dawned on me that basically anyone could be a soul shifter, even people who seemed trustworthy. Luckily it didn’t reach as far as Songrim or the inner circle of the main leads, but it still became quite a plot twist when the Queen was revealed to be on the dark side.
I was actually quite surprised when Dang Goo and Cho Yeon busted Cho Yeon’s dad from visiting Shaman Choi’s body that held the Queen’s soul and he didn’t attack them. I’d imagined he would do something, even though Cho Yeon was his daughter, but I guess he did at least love her enough to let it go and he brought the shaman’s body to the castle. That whole scene where they confronted the Queen and Jin Woo Tak ended up stabbing himself and all that, was pretty intense. It was really sad that the Queen wasn’t able to return to her own body. To be honest I don’t even remember what exactly happened with the Queen’s body but in any case she couldn’t return to it.
What I didn’t expect was that the Queen would basically turn into Shaman Choi in terms of bitterness and jealousy in season two. In the second season, the Queen is still stuck in the shaman’s body and she actually starts pining for a younger and more beautiful woman’s body. She becomes pretty much like Shaman Choi herself, desiring the power of the ice stone to shift souls so she can regain youthfulness and vitality. It’s kind of cruel that she never knew that she held the solution to that wish within herself all this time, and Jin Moo ended up taking it out of her to save himself in the end. While I pitied the Queen, she too became mad with greed and bitterness in the end, just like her husband the King, so I didn’t actually feel that bad for what ultimately happened to her. Admittedly, she was another victim of the alchemy of souls who just couldn’t live with what was done to her but she kept trusting Jin Moo, even though he was the one responsible. I didn’t really understand that.

One side character that I haven’t talked about in my analysis but still want to give a shoutout to is Joo Wol (played by Park So Jin), the owner of Chwiseonru. She may have just been a supporting figure who occasionally helped Moo Deok out with conveying information, but I think that she definitely contributed more than that. She took Moo Deok into the brothel despite her blindness and she kept in touch with her even after she started serving Wook at Songrim. While she later told Boo Yeon she wouldn’t say she and Moo Deok had been friends, I definitely think she cared for her. She was a really nice side character to have as a kind of ‘outsider’ source, and she was always on the right side of things. I liked her character.

Something else I haven’t really discussed earlier is the return of Jang Gang. He actually comes back to Daeho at some point at the end of the first season, and he even has a run-in with Wook, although the latter doesn’t recognize him. It was good of him to come back at that moment, even if it was just to reveal the truth and his own involvement in the whole thing surrounding Wook’s birth. He owed him at least that. It was a shame they didn’t get a proper moment in which he could personally explain it to Wook, but this was the least he could do. In a way, he also became a victim of the alchemy of souls and I don’t think he actually rejected Wook as his son in the sense that he blamed him for everything, I just think he was mostly ashamed of himself that he allowed this to happen. He closed Wook’s energy gate purely to make sure something like that would never happen to his family again and I couldn’t fully blame him for that.

Can I just say that both seasons’ finales gave me major Scarlet Heart Ryeo vibes? At some point there was this moment of peacefulness that just felt like a fake sense of security, for example when Wook and Moo Deok got engaged. I just got the feeling everything would suddenly fall apart overnight, and I mean… you could say I was right 🥲. It was just so cruel because they simply just let their guard down where Jin Moo was concerned. Moo Deok wasn’t aware of the bell divination at that point, so she didn’t immediately associate the bell sound with any real danger. I was holding my heart when she was hypnotized because I kept on hoping that she’d snap out of it. Seeing our main character, our heroine who we’d come to love and feel for throughout the whole series, who’d finally broken free of the chains that bound her to the life of a manipulated assassin just lose control like that was really scary.
If there’s one scene that’ll probably keep haunting me, it’s the one where she briefly regained consciousness after stabbing Wook through the heart. The way she slowly realized what was happening and what she’d done was absolutely heartbreaking. The way she just went, ‘Did I do this? Oh my God, I did this’ and just broke down crying while he intertwined his fingers with hers that were already starting to petrify 💔💔 The only good thing about that was that at least she could let Wook know that she hadn’t done it out of her own volition, and he never came to believe that she actually turned on him overnight. For the rest it was incredibly cruel and painful, and what made it even worse was that right after that, she was snapped back into the bell divination and just left him there to escape the Songrim guards. The way Park Jin softly patted Wook to see if he was still responding while calling his name so desperately only continued to kill me inside.
In the second season, the Scarlet Heart Ryeo vibes returned with Operation Fire Bird, when Jin Moo managed to soul-shift into Yool’s uncle just before he withered away and went on a rampage. Honestly, how did the King and the entire Unanimous Assembly suddenly think it was a good idea to burn the whole world down just so they could get to the ice stone? It didn’t make any sense. It was kind of funny how every other person just went, ‘do you seriously even expect anything to be left after you release the Fire Bird, you idiots?!’ 🙃 And then of course there was the whole thing in which they just ‘offed’ Jin Ho Gyung, Maidservant Kim and Park Jin – before pranking us all. The shock value of even suggesting to kill off several important characters at the very end of the last episode just made me relive Scarlet Heart Ryeo and I didn’t care for it one bit, lol. I’m glad that Boo Yeon came into her full powers at just the right moment to save them and Master Lee turned up to heal Park Jin just in time, but it really made me go through some feels I rather wouldn’t have had.

In terms of comparing the two seasons, I’d have to say I liked the first one better than the second. While the second still had me in a chokehold because I just wanted Boo Yeon to remember everything and Wook to realize it was his true love in front of him, there were a couple of things, mostly nearing the end, that I found a bit less than in season one. This isn’t a major criticism, just my opinion, but it did feel to me as if they rushed the ending a bit. While they had been building up to the lake ritual with the Fire Bird throughout the second season, it felt like they suddenly really rushed through it in the final episode, even adding in all those shock value fake deaths before they went ‘One Year Later: everyone was happy and all is right with the world! 😄’ and it just made me go, ‘uhh, okay but my heart is not keeping up with this sudden transition 🥲’. It just felt a little bit forced to me, like they suddenly realized they only had one episode left and were like, ‘oh darn, we still gotta turn it into a happy ending’. So yeah, the ending felt a bit unnatural compared to the rest of the show.
On the other hand, no matter how painful it was, I thought the first season’s finale was phenomenal. It was a properly thrilling and cruel finale which still ended on a hopeful note when Wook was resurrected with the powers of the ice stone and Moo Deok’s body was recovered from the river by Jinyowon last-minute. It was very impactful and despite being mortified with what just happened I remember finding it a really awesome way to end the first season.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this series from beginning to end. It grabbed me from the get-go and didn’t let me go until Wook and Nak Soo were finally officially together. I think it was a very good decision to make this a two-part story that was divided by some years in-between, because it made the transition of the characters from season one to two very realistic. I loved the characters and the world-building actually made me feel like I was there and I didn’t want to leave. I really got attached to Daeho and it’s been a while since I felt so immersed in a story. The cast, the acting, the writing, the soundtrack, everything was spot on. I really, really loved it.

To say a bit more about the soundtrack, I’m definitely going to look up a bunch of songs because the OST gave me goosebumps. When they brought Scars Leave Beautiful Traces by Car, the garden back in the second season I was like YESSSS 🙏🏻 It’s such a banger and it made me yell along every single time.
Seriously, “I will stand here strong ijaeneun I’m never falling down” forever. 🤟🏻
Also, in terms of the title, while Alchemy of Souls is a very clear reference to a significant subject of the story, I can’t help but find it interesting that they chose to name the show after something that ruined most characters’ lives, lol. It feels kind of sadistic, almost 😂. On the other hand, you could also give it a positive twist and say that while the alchemy of souls founded the premise of everyone’s misery, it also enabled the main leads to meet and develop a new destiny, just like how Master Lee changed their cursed love into fate at the end. The fact that it can be perceived as a double-edged sword is very fitting for this series in itself, so I don’t have any particular issue with it.

I can’t believe I made it to this point after several days of rewriting stuff, but we’re finally at the cast comment section! I already said it, but let me just emphasize again how much I loved the entire cast of this series. There were both familiar and unfamiliar faces that showed greatly varying sides to their acting, and I can’t wait to share my notes on a couple of them!

I recently saw Lee Jae Wook as the second male lead in Extraordinary You, but I already knew he was in Alchemy of Souls at the time. It was very interesting to see him in this main lead role, and I think he performed Jang Wook very well. Despite his quite stoic face, I thought he did an amazing job expressing himself through his expressions, and he had great chemistry with his co-stars. It was really refreshing to see him as Wook after his grumpy jerk role in Extraordinary You, lol. It was nice to see him let loose and have fun in this show. He also had great chemistry with both of the female leads in each season. The romance scenes were so incredibly endearing and touching, and the kissing scenes were absolute fire. He just made me want to hug him because people had done him so wrong from the moment he was born. He deserved to be happy and loved, and it was all the more fitting that he found someone who would literally become the shadow to his light. I really liked him in this series and I hope to see more of him in future dramas!

While I’ve seen a couple of shows with Jung So Min, I believe this is the first time I’ve seen her in a historical drama. I first got to know her from Mischievous Kiss, and after that I’ve seen her in The Sound of Your Heart, Because This is My First Life, and from some cameos in What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim? and Abyss. I really love Jung So Min, so I was happy to see a full drama with her as the main lead again. I was even kind of hoping that she’d make another appearance in season two – I kind of expected that Boo Yeon’s body, which came to look like Nak Soo because of Nak Soo’s soul, might turn back into Boo Yeon’s original body after Nak Soo’s soul would disappear. I guess I just missed seeing her and Lee Jae Wook together because they had such great chemistry, haha. Anyways, I really liked seeing her in a role that I hadn’t seen her in before, and it was funny to see how she managed to switch between Nak Soo and Moo Deok so effortlessly. I really miss seeing her in dramas, so I hope I get to see her in something else again!

I’ve only seen Go Yoon Jung in one minor role before in He is Psychometric and she appeared in one episode of The School Nurse Files. This was the first time I’ve seen her in a main lead role. I really liked how consistent this show was in its casting, because it sometimes happens that they suddenly change an actor who played someone in the first season to another one in the second season. But at least they remained consistent with Nak Soo, even though she only appeared briefly in the beginning of season one and some flashbacks. Boo Yeon was such a cinnamon roll 🥹 She was just drawn to Wook instinctively (I wonder why 🙃) and I could almost feel in my body how she was constantly being pushed and pulled by him. The way she kept going from 😀 to 😟 as he kept giving her signals and then disappointed her again broke my heart. I just wanted her to regain her memories so badly… 😩🙏🏻 I thought it was really cool how, as soon as she remembered who she was, she went back to Nak Soo’s persona from the first season so smoothly. Like, I could actually recognize the way Nak Soo acted towards Wook when she was Moo Deok in the way Go Yoon Jung portrayed it and that was really nice. She also had great chemistry with Lee Jae Wook, seriously, I can’t stop thinking about those kissing scenes, lol. 🙈🙈 They made a really nice match together. I hope I’ll be able to see more drama appearances of her in the future!

Now that I check MDL I see that I’ve seen Shin Seung Ho before in Love Alarm, where he was the FL’s ex-boyfriend. I would’ve never recognized him from there. But I’ll definitely recognize him now, because now he’ll forever be the Crown Prince. Honestly, I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like to see him in a modern-day drama after seeing him in this show, haha. I think I can definitely say that the Crown Prince was my favorite character of this series. He just caught me off guard with his unexpected silliness! I think it was a great casting decision to choose him, he embodied a really distinct princely air, and that’s probably what made it impossible for me to recognize him from Love Alarm. I actually remember the character he played there, but I just can’t picture his face on him because I can only see him as the Crown Prince now. 😆 Anyways, I really liked his character and the way he took himself so seriously in the funny scenes only made him even more funny to me. He really worked his way into my heart, I can’t explain it any other way. He and his turtle, forever.

I knew that Hwang Min Hyun was a former idol turned actor and that he belonged to the group NU’EST. I saw him in Produce 101 through which he won a place in the temporary group Wanna One, but I hadn’t seen him act in a drama before. I’m definitely going to watch his newest drama My Lovely Liar where he stars alongside my girl Kim So Hyun, but for now this is the only thing I’ve seen him in so far. I think he was probably the best casting choice for Yool, just in terms of his vibe. It was nice that even though he seemed quite frail and mild, Seo Yool really had a lot of power in him and his character never became boring. I also loved that they gave him the quirk of losing his way when he got flustered, lol. He’s very good at keeping a poker face but it was also clear when he was making a joke. I liked his performance and I hope he gets to do more acting projects in the future.

Not me discovering that I actually saw Yoo In Soo in a couple of other series before – I honestly don’t remember him from anything else. He was in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, School 2017, While You Were Sleeping, My ID is Gangnam Beauty, Gyeryong Fairytale and Love Alarm. I’m definitely going to remember him now that I’ve seen his performance as Dang Goo. As I said in my analysis, I loved his character. He was the sweetest guy and I’m so grateful he never got fatally caught in any crossfire. I just wanted him to be happy with Cho Yeon. 🙏🏻 Dang Goo was the best friend to Wook and Yool and I loved that he was never too proud to show his emotions. You need at least one guy like that in the friend group. I really hope I get to see him in more dramas in the future, because I already miss his energy. 🥹

I knew there had to be a link with Oh My Girl! in the show when they started playing a traditional version of ‘Non-stop’ at Chwiseonru at some point. 😆 I think Arin did a really nice job as Cho Yeon. It was nice that she wasn’t 100% a ‘good girl’ either. When she was introduced as the ‘spring’ of The Four Seasons we’re led to expect that she’s the embodiment of purity and innocence, so it was kind of a nice twist that she also had a sly streak in her, even if that only stemmed from immaturity. Nobody is perfect, right? I really liked how quickly her feelings for Wook switched to Dang Goo though, because I kind of feared that they would make him out to be the guy who kept getting rejected over his more handsome friends or something. Luckily his feelings reached her immediately and I’ll keep saying it but they were so freaking adorable together. They had really cute chemistry. Maybe the fact that they didn’t get a full-on kissing scene like the main leads had something to do with the fact that she’s an idol and it would be kind of controversial to her image or something? I don’t know, but I still find it a pity. Their romance basically only happened off-screen and then they’d just come in with hints that suggested they’d already slept together and stuff. In any case, I liked her performance and I think she fitted the role of Cho Yeon very well.

I haven’t seen Park Eun Hye in anything else before which is kind of surprising because she seemed like such a familiar face, I was convinced I must have seen her in a mother-role or something before. Anyways, I have to credit Jin Ho Gyung because her role seemed to keep growing throughout the story. I found it kind of ironic that the Jin family ended up having a hand in most of the secrets that were being kept hidden within Daeho. The person who wanted the least to do with Songrim and their magical energy ended up being the person who had personally been involved with the ice stone’s powers in the past. Ho Gyung had a lot of skeletons in her closet, but she was also a mother stricken with grief by the disappearance of her daughter. I just couldn’t forget that whenever I found myself judging her for something. She was just desperate for her family name to survive in order to retain control over Jinyowon, and little else mattered to her. She may not have made all the right decisions, but she was dealing with things the way she was taught and sometimes people get stuck in their ways due to their upbringing. I did have to give it to her that she deserved better than a half brother and husband who literally fooled with her a fake daughter just so she would keep Songrim at bay. In hindsight I just find her a very sad and wronged woman. I think the actress portrayed the balance in Jin Ho Gyung’s torment very realistically, she made her into a truly conflicted human being and that was impressive.

If there was anyone I expected to know from another series, it was Yoo Joon Sang, but I haven’t seen him in anything before! Why does he look so familiar? I really loved his portrayal of Park Jin, he really won my heart with his acting. I already miss his silly wide-eyed smile, haha. Seriously, Park Jin and Maidservant Kim were Wook’s real parents and you can’t make me think differently. He portrayed the conflictedness of Park Jin regarding the treatment of Wook’s energy so well and balanced it with a quirky side streak to show what a good-hearted man he really was. He was one of the best supporting characters in this series to me, I honestly can’t imagine what anyone’s life would’ve been like without Park Jin in it. That’s why it scared me so much when I thought they’d actually killed him off 🙃 (still not okay). But yeah, I really loved his performance and I really hope I’ll get to see him appear in more shows!

It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me if Oh Na Ra was an announcer. I don’t even understand fluent Korean but it just sounded to me as if she had such clean diction and articulation – I could easily picture her on the evening news, lol. For some reason my first impression of her was that she would do great in an announcer role, lol. But yeah, speaking of favorite supporting characters, Maidservant Kim is also without a doubt in my top five. I really loved the comical element she brought to her already vibrant personality. Watching her go about her day just makes you happy and she just made me want to give her a big hug. As we don’t get a specific historical background of her character, we can only speculate how much she’s seen throughout the years and how long she’s been serving the Jang family and supported them through so many things. I think a lot became clear from how she and Jang Gang greeted each other when he finally returned, and the warmth in his voice when he saw her after so long must have meant she’d always been an immense asset to the family. I just loved her as Wook’s interim mother. It made me tear up a bit when she told Wook he’d always been like a son to her and he was like, ‘I feel the same way’ 🥹. Their relationship was so precious. I really, really loved her performance in this show and I hope I get to see her shine again.

I’ve only seen Im Cheol Soo before in Crash Landing on You, where I remember he was the insurance guy who refused to give up on finding Se Ri. It was really cool to see him as Master Lee in this show, he became an unexpected gem of a favorite character to me. I just loved how they gave him such an endearing and flustered side underneath that almighty mage master exterior. I also liked that they actually explained why he looked so young, because that flashback was hilarious. His acting presence and energy was so different from his role in Crash Landing on You, and I can only thank the casting directors for giving him the chance to show this side of his acting to us. He really grew on me, and I kept hoping he’d turn up to fix everything. I even felt bad for him when he was indirectly rejected by Maidservant Kim, even though I knew he hadn’t stood a chance. It was nice to see an emotional side of him, even if it became kind of a comical thing. I guess he should’ve just kept drinking his chastity tea. 😆 I really liked his performance in this show and I’m definitely going to remember him from this role.

I was really glad to see Lee Do Kyung in this role because I’ve only ever seen him in grumpy guy roles before! It was very nice to see him move around and talk to people as such a bright and lively character. I’ve seen him in Arthdal Chronicles, Dali and the Cocky Prince and I also remember him from Extraordinary Attorney Woo. I honestly believe this is the first time I’ve seen him play a genuinely good-natured character, lol. I liked that Heo Yeom had a bit of a comical presence within Songrim, despite his renowned status as Daeho’s best physician. He brought a very refreshing energy to the story, even though he himself refrained from getting involved with Jin Moo and Cheonbugwan too much. He was a very loyal friend and ally to Songrim and the Park family, and he always provided help where he could. He may have been quite eccentric for an old man, but he was always there and I also love how much he cared about Wook, Yool and Dang Goo. I really liked to see him as this character in this series, he showed me a new side to his acting, which I always appreciate.

I only know Hong Seo Hee from her performance in The Sound of Magic, where she played the younger version of the magician’s friend. In hindsight I kind of wished she would’ve gotten a clearer purpose in the story, because I think it’s a waste to just mention her as a girl who happened to have a one-sided crush on Wook. What I did respect about her was that she retained her dignity as a physician. No matter how petty she got towards Boo Yeon in season two, there was no danger of her actually physically harming her out of jealousy. She really just worried about Wook a lot, and I can’t fully blame her for getting suspicious of every new strange person that suddenly made their way into his life, especially after what happened to Moo Deok. It was nice to hear that she was allegedly seeing someone in the one-year-later time jump, because at least that meant that she was moving on and setting out to find her own happiness. I really liked her in the first season, I just think she deserved a more stand-alone purpose as a character, because she could’ve definitely pulled that off.

It’s kind of wild to think that the actress who plays So Yi is the same person as the ‘YOU KNOW I HAVE NO CHINGU’ lady from A Business Proposal, lol. I’ve also seen Seo Hye Won before in True Beauty and Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and most recently in Nevertheless,. I found her an interesting choice for the role of So Yi. I’ve already established my mixed feelings about the character and her motivations, but I was actually quite impressed by her immersed acting in this role, especially when she had to endure all of Jin Moo’s tortures in order to become Jin Boo Yeon. She showed a very wide emotional range and gave me completely different vibes from what I was used to, so that was really cool. It was a surprise to see her appear in this drama – I also never saw her in a historical drama before – but I think she acted out the role very well. I’m sure I’m going to see her in lots of dramas to come!

When I think of Jo Jae Yoon, I’m mostly reminded of all the comical roles I’ve seen him in, so guess my surprise seeing him as Jin Moo, the most seriously evil villain ever. I was positively surprised by the genuine malice he managed to exude. Dramas I’ve seen him in before include The Master’s Sun, Descendants of the Sun, Fantastic and most recently Wok of Love. He really impressed me with his portrayal of Jin Moo, although I sometimes couldn’t help cringe a little at his typical smirks and the way he made his upper lip tremble when he was angry, lol. As far as I can remember I’ve only ever seen him in roles where he was a hard-headed, stubborn stingy guy that was only out for creating trouble, but his performance in this series – and I mean this in the most respectful way – finally made me take him seriously. I feel like he tends to be the kind of actor who tries to be funny, which often results in him getting a bit cringy, but here I was 100% intimidated by him. I’m really glad he got the opportunity to play a role like this and show that he is more than just a comical actor who often gets type-casted in the same kinds of roles. Despite the fact that Jin Moo frustrated the heck out of me to the extent I sometimes couldn’t even look at his smug face for too long, I thought he was very fitting for this role and he really outdid himself, from my perspective. Consider me impressed!

I just wanted to mention Kang Kyung Heon and Shim So Young as a pair here because I wanted to compliment the acting of the Queen and Shaman Choi. Seriously, they really let themselves go in expressing their madness. When the Queen started manically laughing as she was exposed, it sent literal shivers down my spine. I really wanted to compliment these two actresses for their explosive acting, lol. I recently saw Kang Kyung Heon in Birth of a Beauty where she was one of the sisters-in-law (the sheer difference in acting with her role in this show, lol). I hadn’t seen Shim So Young in anything before, but I was also very impressed with the intensity of her acting. She really brought out the desperation and greed of the Queen who was stuck in an elderly shaman’s body, and she became proper scary at some point. I thought they both acted out their roles really well.

Apparently I’ve only seen Park So Jin before in a minor role in The King: Eternal Monarch, but I don’t clearly remember her from that. She has such a familiar face, though. 🤔 Anyways, I really liked Joo Wol’s character. She might have stayed primarily in the background, but she still contributed a lot behind the scenes. I liked how she became Moo Deok’s go-to person whenever she needed to get away from Wook for a while. I think she gave herself way less credit in terms of how much she contributed to Nak Soo’s new life as Moo Deok, and I’m just happy she never got to see So Yi’s real face when she came to Chwiseonru that one time – the fact that she missed her actually saved her life. I thought she was a really nice familiar presence in the story, and I thought she needed to be properly credited, both as a character and an actress.

And then for the final shoutout, Joo Sang Wook as Jang Gang! I was really surprised to see him in this drama, also because I’d never seen him in a historical drama before but also because his vibe was so different from what I’ve seen of him so far. I’ve seen him in Birth of a Beauty, Fantastic and Fates and Furies. As my most recent association with him is his role in Birth of a Beauty, his role in Alchemy of Souls couldn’t have stood in starker contrast. It honestly felt like he was a different person, he even had a different sort of look in his eye. He seemed really focussed and immersed in the role, compared to the goofy style of acting I’ve seen him perform before. I thought it was really cool to see such an unexpected new side of him, and to still see him in contemporary dramas. It just feels like he doesn’t really appear in that many series these days, or I’m just missing out, lol. In any case, I really liked seeing him make an appearance in this series.

We’ve finally reached the end of this monster review! I’m not even kidding when I say that I spent almost a week on it. I’ve never spent that much time on a review before, but I kept struggling to find a way to include all the important information without getting too lengthy. There’s just so much to this drama, I haven’t been able to cover every single person and event that plays a significant role, but I’ll leave it at this since I’ve covered the majority of what I wanted to say about it.
I really, genuinely, thoroughly enjoyed watching this show. It exceeded my expectations (if I had any) and it proved that, despite it not being my go-to genre, magical themes in series can still work their way into my heart. Except for a few things with regards to some characters and the ending of the second season, I honestly don’t have much to criticize on. It really took me on a journey to this world and I feel like I was actually a part of it. Part of me didn’t even want it to end, because then I’d had to say goodbye to all these wonderful characters that I’d grown to love so much. Of course, all good things come to an end, and this show is no exception. I’m really grateful for this watching experience.

What a way to start the new year! I’m super excited about the next show that’ll come out of my Wheel of Fortune. Let’s hope it doesn’t start spitting out multi-season shows one after another now, because once my new semester starts I won’t have as much watching and writing time as I happened to have when I was finishing this, lol. In any case, I hope I was able to make this a worthwhile review, I had fun writing it – once I finally managed to decide on a structure 🙃.
While I hope I can start on a new show as soon as possible, it will probably take me some time to officially bid this one farewell. It has a special place in my heart now.

I’ll be back with a new review, who knows when!
Keep an eye out for it 😉

Bye-bee! x