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Alchemy of Souls Part 2: Theories & Analysis (Ep 27-28)

Hello Readers,

Quite frankly I'm beyond thrilled this show is finally coming to a close. Part 2 was an utter mess and the script was horrendous. I felt like I was watching a hormonal teenage drama or something. The Hong Sisters had 30 episodes to tell the story of the three main characters (Seo Yul, Jin Bu Yeon, and Jang Uk), but they ended up mainly focusing on just one character (Jang Uk). They could've easily given the three mains 10 episodes each, but chose not to.

The Hong Sisters tried to connect the stories of what happen 203 yrs ago to 23 years ago to the present, but ended up failing miserably. When it came to Jang Uk, his clan didn't become important until his dad decided to swap with the King 23 years ago. Otherwise his story wasn't as interesting in comparison to the Jin's or Seo's. The only link Jang Uk has to what happened 203 years ago is that he's a King Star. And that's about it! I can totally see the Hong Sisters trying to make Jang Uk's connection to the past stronger by having him be the reincarnation of Seo Gyeong. However, if they choose to do this I'll know the Hong Sisters were scrambling to find a quick fix. Bear in mind, the notion of reincarnation has never been introduced within this show.

In this week's episodes, the past came back to haunt us. The problem with all of this is that the Hong Sisters didn't give us enough of a backstory as to what happened 203 years ago. In particular, the stories of the Choi's, Jin's, and Seo's....you know the three families involved in the first Great Chaos. It's like the Hong Sisters saw a wild fire was happening and they tried to cover it up with romance. No matter how many smut scenes they threw at me, I just wasn't having it. Romance in this show was secondary to the plot, not the other way around.

I'll be making my T&A posts (Eps 21-28) available to the general pubic after the last episodes of Part 2 ends. For Eps 29-30, I'll probably not make a T&A post available to the pubic. Why? Because AOS fandom is toxic af. Never in my life have I ever seen so many people plagiarize my work up until now. It has truly disgusted me. I know they'll be here lurking around hoping that I'll release my T&A post for Ep 29-30, but sorry I won't be!

Thinking caps on! Time to analyze and theorize.

Disclaimer: There’s probably many grammatical mistakes in this post! Also, I won’t be answering questions regarding Eps 29-30 just because I know there will be people who will use my answers and portray it as their own wherever.

Phoenix Shenanigans

This is one of the most annoying things about the Hong Sisters especially in Part 2, they keep introducing new things without really expanding upon them. How the hell are we suppose to figure out anything if they don't give us more information????! While I love the whole firebird concept, I don't think we'll have time to see it all play out. Meaning, I don't think we'll get to see the phoenix hatch. If by some miracle we do, I think it'll probably take 10 minutes at best. However, I'll still discuss about the firebird just in case! Below are just some things we know about the firebird:

1) Born from a volcano 2) Carries spirit of the dead 3) Able to be healed with a flower 4) When hatched it causes a severe drought 5) Causes Ice Stones to fall from the sky 6) Jin Seol Ran and Seo Gyeong built Jinyowon to contain the bird egg 7) Barrier that surrounds the egg is made with energy weighing 30,000 nyangs 8) Conflict causes the egg to hatch or "awaken"

Some interesting things about the firebird is the energy needed to keep it contained. Hong Sisters really love the number three lol. Cumulatively, Jang Uk has killed a 30 soul shifters. For each kill, he receives 1000 nyangs. Therefore, he has conveniently earned 30,000 nyangs, the same amount needed for the bird egg barrier. Another way to look at it is that the firebird barrier is equivalent to 30 souls! I smell Master Lee's hand in all of this haha. I bet you Master Lee had planted all these soul shifters for Jang Uk to kill so he would have enough to save Seo Yul's life.

Now Mama Jin said something interesting about the firebird, arguing or conflict will cause the firebird to wake up. I do wonder if the firebird will wake up if there's a large war or clash in Daeho. In the preview, it looks like Songrim will fight Cheonbugwan...could this be the event that inadvertently wakes up big bird? I'd also theorized that maybe Jin Seol Ran had developed some sort of psychic connection to the bird and her descendant (Jin Bu Yeon) is connected to it too. We know an internal conflict is about to arise in Jin Bu Yeon and this could also cause the bird to wake up if it is indeed linked to Jin Bu Yeon.

The Seo Family

This storyline had so much potential, but it was squandered away in favor of romance in Part 2. Back in Part 1, I'd wanted to know more about the Seo clan just because they were one of the original mage families involved in the Great Chaos. Other than the room where the Seo Lanterns were kept, we barely saw any of Seoho Fortress. I was also very curious to know if Seo Gyeong's lantern had been as kept there or somewhere else in an undisclosed location in Seoho Fortress. Such a piece of information would've been helpful to solve the mystery of what happened to Seo Gyeong following the events 203 years ago.

Members of this family seem to hold great power even if they don't have the King Star. For example, General Seo Il. Everyone in Daeho seems to fear this man yet we didn't even get to see him. Do people in Daeho fear General Seo Il because he has a large army or is it because he is a powerful mage like his ancestor, Seo Gyeong? I don't know. I'd thought with the appearances of Uncle Seo Yoon Oh and Queen Seo Ha Sun in Part 2, we would've at least gotten a chance to know more about this powerful yet mysterious family.

Seo Gyeong

In this week's episodes, we learned something new about Seo Gyeong. According to Jin Mu, Seo Gyeong chose to move his clan far west to Seoho Fortress for the sake of unity. To the Royals, Seo Gyeong appeared threatening because he had the god like power of Hwansu which could be used to usurp them. Maybe Seo Gyeong actively chose to move his family to Seoho Fortress so they could thrive and grow. If Seo Gyeong hadn't moved his family to Seoho Fortress, the Royals probably at some point would've found some sort of justification to kill them all. And then there would be no more Seo clan. Additionally, maybe Seo Gyeong decided to move far away to Seoho Fortress because he was planning on eventually bringing Jin Seol Ran there to protect her by hiding her (maybe everyone was hunting her).

What I don't get though is why the creation of Songrim didn't appear threatening to the Royals? After all, Seo Gyeong was leader of Songrim and therefore would've been in close proximity to the Royals. In addition, I didn't get why the Seo clan weren't allowed back into the capital following the death of Seo Gyeong. From my understanding at least, the Royals only feared Seo Gyeong and not so much his family. Therefore, the only reason I could think of is that the Royals know Seo Gyeong is still alive. Overall, there are still so many unanswered questions when it comes to this man and his family.

Water Wick

Does anyone else think the Seo Water Wick looks like a soul ejector? Or maybe it's just me. In terms of functionality, the Water Wick is the opposite of the soul ejector. Instead of ejecting souls, the Water Wick is able to house the energy of souls. I know many will say, the Water Wick does not contain souls. Yes it does! Recall from one of my previous posts, the word "ki" means soul/energy. On Netflix, they translated "ki" to "torrent of energy" which was funny. They could've simply translated it to Seo Yul's soul or Seo Yul's energy...oh well. In regards to the appearance of these Water Wicks, maybe Seo Gyeong decided to copy Choi Cheol's soul ejector design. I also find it interesting that these Water Wicks connected to lanterns…weren’t lanterns a Jin thing? Hmmm Seo x Jin connection?

Seo Gyeong may have created these Water Wicks as a preventative measure to safeguard future generations of his family from becoming soul shifters. For example, Queen Seo Ha Sun. Her ass got caught for being a soul shifter because of these Water Wicks which were connected to her Seo Lantern of Life. Guess Seo Gyeong did not want his family to dabble in "sorcery".

Other things I wonder is if you were to place placed someone's soul/energy inside these water wicks and then placed them into a dead body, what would happen? Would the dead body be revived? If so then these Water Wicks are like alternatives for soul ejectors. Maybe one wouldn't experience the nasty side effects of soul shifting if one were to use one of this water wicks in a dead body. Had the Hong Sisters done a better job at pacing, we could've known more about these interesting marbles!

Turtle

Turtles...what more do I need to say about these creatures? Well, in asian culture, turtles are symbolistic of longevity and power. They're considered one of the four celestial animals (phoenix, white tiger, and azure dragon) in Chinese mythology. Additionally, shamans back in the day used to use their shells for divinations.

In the context of AOS, turtles can also refer to people who are at risk of dying (i.e. Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon). FYI, when the Crown Prince said, "we saved a turtle together", he meant Seo Yul.

Going back to turtles in Chinese mythology, they're associated with the winter season, north cardinal direction, and water element. Jang Uk is basically the black tortoise. Just Google "Black Tortoise" if you're curious to know more. You know what star typically guides people when they're lost? The "North" Star otherwise known as "Polaris". This star is actually part of the "Little Dipper" constellation. What I think will end up happening is that Jang Uk will eventually sacrifice himself to save Jin Bu Yeon and everyone else. In return for his sacrifice/life, the skies will make him into an actual star in the night sky to forever guide people.

In the wrap up cake, there are two turtles seen on the ground while 1 turtle is in the sky which indicates 1 turtle is no longer on physically living on earth. If you look at the placement of the turtles, you can see they're in the direction of south, west, and north. The south turtle is Jin Bu Yeon (south/phoenix/summer season) while the west turtle is Seo Yul (west/white tiger/autumn season).

The Truth Hurts

I've seen so many people hating either Seo Yul or Heo Yun Ok and I'm like y'all they're doing or saying the crap that no one else wants to. When it comes to Jin Bu Yeon, she wants to live in ignorant bliss. One really shouldn't live this way. Fact of the matter is that Jin Bu Yeon has many responsibilities and she can't keep ignoring them forever. For example, she will eventually have to take Mama Jin's place as leader of Jinyowon and protect the world from the relics. She will also have to deal with the firebird situation and ongoing drought among other things. And all these things require her to have full usage of her divine powers. Jin Bu Yeon can't come into her divine powers if she remains an ignorant pathetic love struck puppy who stays by Jang Uk's side all the damn time.

I seriously don't know why so many viewers are hating on Heo Yun Ok. Maybe she shouldn't have splash that stuff in Jin Bu Yeon's face, but at the same time I'm glad she did. Why? Because otherwise Jin Bu Yeon would've kept ignoring the truth and continue to live in a bubble of ignorant bliss, never striving to become something more of herself. Heo Yun Ok and Seo Yul have different approaches when it comes to telling someone the truth. Heo Yun Ok is more brutally honest while Seo Yul sugarcoats things. For me personally, I would be more like Heo Yun Ok. I prefer to give it straight to people instead of beating around the brush. No one have got time for that! Overall, I think Heo Yun Ok genuinely cares for Jang Uk and truly doesn't want to see him get hurt again. As mean as Heo Yun Ok was to Jin Bu Yeon in this scene, it ultimately forced Jin Bu Yeon to face reality and go to Danhyanggot by herself to find out the truth.

Jin Bu Yeon and Naksu Crap 2.0

I'm pretty much done with this whole mystery. Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon and vice versa. They're the same soul. Essentially, the scene below is just Jin Bu Yeon talking to herself. At the end of the day, "Naksu" is just a period that Jin Bu Yeon had gone through. Up until Jin Bu Yeon was 10 years old, she was herself then she got amnesia as a child and swapped bodies and became "Naksu" as an adult. Following this, she went back to OG body, but she didn't recognize it as being her own because she had been away from it for so long, making it seem foreign to her. Imagine if you lived in AOS and experienced what Jin Bu Yeon had and then went back to your OG body 10 years later. How would you even know this body was yours to begin with? You wouldn't. Bodies change especially from childhood to adulthood. Adding to this, Jin Bu Yeon was blind so how could she even know what she looked like as a child let alone an adult?

I still can't believe the Hong Sisters had stretched out this crap until the last two episodes of this entire series. If there's one question I want to ask the Hong Sisters it's this: "What was your reasoning for why you couldn't have Naksu remember her real childhood memories (Jin Bu Yeon childhood memories) back in Part 1?".

Gwido

Before I start this section, I just want to say I seriously hate how the Hong Sisters are introducing new things and/or new pieces of information at the very last minute. What it feels like to me is the Hong Sisters completely forgot about things they introduced either in Part 1 or in the beginning of Part 2 and are now trying to hurriedly wrap them up by introducing new stuff. How does that make any sense? If you already know you are pressed for time to wrap things up, do not introduce new concepts. It's that easy! If you decide to do so, you're going to run into some problems such as making simple mistakes. For example, the whole 200 years comment made by the Crown Prince. Specifically, the Crown Prince said, "A Choi mage also died 200 years ago in there". Anyone see the error? I also made this same mistake in an earlier post, but recognized the mistake and fixed it when I tweeted on my Twitter account. Anyways, I'm allowed to make these mistakes just because I'm only a viewer and not the writers themselves. The Hong Sisters seemed to have completely forgotten 3 years had passed. Therefore, it should've been 203 years ago not 200 years ago. Little mistakes like this makes me believe the whole Gwido stuff was something made up at the very last minute. As you read further down, you'll begin to see how the introduction of the Gwido door/prison ultimately leads to more questions than answers. How can we solve current mysteries if we were not fully given information about the past?

I'm just going to briefly summarize what was said about Gwido. Within Cheonbugwan, there is a prison called Gwido. Jin Seol Ran was the one who created the door that led to the prison. The prison held those who performed sorcery. A Choi mage died in this prison 203 years ago. Once you enter this prison, you can never escape even as a ghost. What this means is that even if you die in this prison, your soul cannot travel to the sky or afterlife, you're trapped there and become a "wraith". In the context of AOS, wraiths are souls of those who performed sorcery and are trapped/unable to move on.

Though they’ll probably not mention it, I do wonder who created the prison itself. We only know Jin Seol Ran created the door, but we don’t know who created the actual prison. Other questions I have is why build this prison in Cheonbugwan of all places? Why didn’t they choose to build this prison in Jinyowon or Songrim? I understand they probably didn't want to build this inside of Seoho Fortress for logistic reasons, but with Jinyowon and Songrim, they seemed closer to everything.

Other things to point out is there were three magical schools, Jinyowon, Songrim, and Cheonbugwan and three great mages/priestesses (Seo Gyeong, Choi Cheol, and Jin Seol Ran). If we know Jin Seol Ran was leader of Jinyowon and Seo Gyeong was leader of Songrim then it must mean Choi Cheol was the leader of Cheonbugwan right? Therefore, maybe it was Choi Cheol who built the prison. Putting everything together, maybe at one point Choi Cheol and Jin Seol Ran were friends given how she did build the door of the prison. So many questions remain though. Were these three people all friends and one of them (Choi Cheol) turned evil?

I also do wonder what the order of when all three schools were built. I am guessing Cheonbugwan was built first. Why? Because there had to be a place to read the stars to know a King Star would be born to end the chaos. After this, Songrim was built followed by Jinyowon. Below is just a brief summary of the purposes of the four places:

Cheonbugwan: Protect Daeho from chaos/destruction by seeing the future and preparing ahead of time Songrim: Place where people could gather together to learn regardless of their background Jinyowon: Protect the world from dangerous relics Seoho Fortress: Protect Daeho from enemies to the west and to provide unity by not being threatening to the royals

Ultimately, all these places were suppose to protect Daeho from any possible treats (both current and future) and maintain peace. What ended up happening though is one of these people decided to turn against the others for power.

Ice Stone, Seo Water Wick, Tracker, or Something Else?

When I'd initially saw the orb thing in the skeleton, I thought it was an Ice Stone. However, when comparing the orb to the Ice Stone, you'll realize they're not the same thing. The Ice Stone has uneven edges giving it a stone like appearance while the orb has completely smooth edges. The Ice Stone also has a white tint to it while the orb has almost a blue/turquoise tint. Now, the only spheres we have seen in AOS are soul ejectors, Seo water wicks, and stone in the Jinyowon bracelet.

What we haven't seen is what an Ice Stone looks like once it's in someone's chest for a long duration of time. Could it be that once an Ice Stone stays in someone for a long time, it changes colors and becomes smoother? It could also be that if you have an Ice Stone within you and swap bodies, the Ice Stone will follow you to your next body and this is what causes Ice Stone to physically change its appearance. I feel like the color associated with the Seo family is blue and the color associated with the Choi family is green. When you combine those colors you get a turquoise color like the Ice Stone we see in the skeleton. In all honesty, the Ice Stone looks like one big uncut diamond which hasn't been processed while the blue orb seen below looks like a processed diamond. The blue orb may just be a variation of an Ice Stone.

Another idea I have is that this is a water wick containing Seo Gyeong's soul/energy. Maybe when Jin Bu Yeon touches it, she'll be able to see what happened 203 years ago. Anyways, who knows what this orb really this! For all we know, this orb could be a completely new concept the Hong Sisters decided to introduce at the very last minute to plug up some plot holes. For the remainder of this post, I am just going to assume this is an Ice Stone!

Identity of Skeleton

This section will be messy y'all just because the Hong Sisters didn't really provide us any background story of what happened 203 years ago. Anyways, let's get some things straight first. Up until this point of the series, the only person we knew who died is Jin Seol Ran. We didn't know what happened to Seo Gyeong or Choi Cheol. In Ep 28, we were told a Choi mage had died in Gwido. Since we live in the world of AOS where soul switching is possible, we should always ask ourselves whose soul is in any particular body.

Some say the skeleton is probably Choi Cheol, while others say it is Seo Gyeong, Jang Uk, Cho Yeong, or Jin Bu Yeon's skeleton. In regards to the last 3 possibilities, how would any of these bodies get transported inside Gwido in the first place? For this reason, I don't think this is Jang Uk, Cho Yeong, or Jin Bu Yeon's body. This leaves us with two body identities left....Choi Cheol or Seo Gyeong. Going back to what the Crown Prince said about how a Choi mage died in there, I think it's safe to assume the body at least is that of Choi Cheol. So whose soul was in this body? Choi Cheol or Seo Gyeong? I really don't know just because the Hong Sisters didn't give us the full backstory. Also the Hong Sisters didn't really elaborate whether the whole Ice Stone being inside someone is something exclusive to King Stars or can anyone have the Ice Stone within themselves as long as they're willing to sacrifice everything. In addition, they never told us what would happen if you decided to switch bodies while you initially had the Ice Stone within you. I'm just going to assume that because the Ice Stone is a soul stone and not body stone, once you switch bodies, the Ice Stone will follow you to your next body of choice.

In order to connect what characters said to what we saw, we have to consider the possibility there was some soul switching between Seo Gyeong (SG) and Choi Cheol (CC). Below are the two possibilities which could fit the two statements (Choi body died and Ice Stone inside of body).

A) SG Soul + CC Body and CC Soul + SG Body Escaped B) CC Soul + CC Body

Let's talk about choice "A". If this is true then the skeleton we are seeing here is Seo Gyeong's soul in Choi Cheol's body. Some might ask why would Seo Gyeong choose to do such a thing? Because he wanted to die. His lover was dead and the Ice Stone within himself became too much to bear. When Jin Seol Ran died, Seo Gyeong's option to die also went down with her. Meaning Seo Gyeong could not die because Jin Seol Ran was the only person who could remove the Ice Stone from him. However, maybe Seo Gyeong did figure out a way to die without Jin Seol Ran and this is where Choi Cheol comes into play.

Maybe these men were able to come together to save their future descendants. Given the Choi's were associated with divination, Choi Cheol could've be able to see the distant future and informed Seo Gyeong of this. These men then devised a plan to swap bodies with Seo Gyeong making the ultimate sacrifice by staying in Choi Cheol's body and dying inside of Gwido. Some will ask well if Seo Gyeong's Ice Stone followed him to Choi Cheol's body, why did Seo Gyeong still die? It could be because the Ice Stone needed to become activated (you can read further down to see how Ice Stones can become activated once in someone's body). The swap probably reset the Ice Stone that was attached to Seo Gyeong's soul so it became dormant. What was the whole point to all of this? To leave an extra Ice Stone for Jin Bu Yeon to find. Following this, Choi Cheol in Seo Gyeong's body could've escaped through some sort of backdoor only Seo Gyeong knew about. Maybe Jin Seol Ran had told Seo Gyeong about an escape route and then Seo Gyeong told Choi Cheol. Therefore, this would mean Choi Cheol is Master Lee Cheol and Seo Gyeong died a long time ago.

Moving onto option "B". If this is Choi Cheol's soul in his own body, how did he ended up with the Ice Stone within him? Again, I am not sure if the whole Ice Stone in your body is something that is exclusive to King Stars or anyone can have the Ice Stone within them as long as they're willing to give up everything. Remember that Jang Uk only had the Ice Stone within him because he had been willing to sacrifice all of his energy to break the Ice Stone barrier to save everyone. Subsequently, the skies rewarded him for his bravery by placing the Ice Stone within him. If we are going with this is Choi Cheol's soul in his own body then maybe the story was that in the end Choi Cheol saw the errors of his way and tried to destroy the Ice Stone and for this honorable act, the skies placed an Ice Stone within him. Recall how in Ep 7, it did look like Choi Cheol was trying to destroy the Ice Stone since it was becoming vapor.

So if Choi Cheol had the Ice Stone within him, why did he still end up in the prison and dead? Probably because he still had to be punished for performing sorcery in the first place. As for the second part of the question, maybe Choi Cheol died because his Ice Stone did not become activated. Recall there are two ways to use the Ice Stone's powers once it's inside of you. The first being that you can train again to be able to use the Ice Stone's power. The second is to be killed and then burned. In this case, fire was the catalyst that activated the Ice Stone within Jang Uk. Going back to Choi Cheol, he may have been killed by the wraiths inside Gwido and without anyone to burn his body, the Ice Stone never became activated. With this option, there was no soul switching and Master Lee Cheol is Seo Gyeong.

Do y'all see how complicated it is to try and figure this crap out with the limited amount of information we are given?! Even after analyzing everything, I'm still not completely 100% confident the identity of the skeleton or who Master Lee Cheol really is (Seo Gyeong or Choi Cheol). The only thing I'm certain about is that between these two men, only one lived.

I also think it was Master Lee who told Jang Uk and the Crown Prince about the secret back door of Gwido which allowed them to enter to rescue Jin Bu Yeon. Another thing that's throwing me off about Master Lee is his clairvoyant ability. He obviously can see the future which is why he's always 30 steps ahead of everyone else. Just from this trait alone, I would say Master Lee is Cheol Choi. However, this doesn't really explain why Seo Yul also has this ability. Either Seo Yul has this ability because his ancestor Seo Gyeong did too or Seo Yul has this ability because he is also a Choi. By this I mean after Choi Cheol swapped into Seo Gyeong's body, the descendants of "Seo Gyeong" inherited abilities of both Seo Gyeong and Choi Cheol.

Master Lee

Here's some other random things I want to talk about when it comes to Master Lee. When he told Seo Yul to "feign ignorance", I found it absolutely hilarious just because this is what Master Lee has been doing this entire time. This man has been parading around pretending he doesn't know anything when he literally KNOWS EVERYTHING. Also in this scene, Master Lee uses more reverse psychology on people. He told Seo Yul not to tell, but Seo Yul ended up blabbing anyways. Master Lee wanted Seo Yul to do this haha. Everything is going accordingly to Master Lee's plan. As I said previously, Master Lee wanted his two chess pieces to realize their destines and he can't accomplish his goal if people are constantly trying to kill them. Therefore, this is why Master Lee has been telling certain people different stories (i.e Mama Jin, Park Jin, Seo Yul, and Jin Bu Yeon).

At the beginning of Part 2, I thought it was Jin Mu who had made the soul shifter run towards Jinyowon so Jang Uk could find Jin Bu Yeon, but now I'm pretty sure it was Master Lee all along. Master Lee was pushing these two together not for romantic purposes, but more for work related purposes. Jang Uk was instrumental to Jin Bu Yeon realizing her destiny. And before y'all say Master Lee is a Jang Uk/Jin Bu Yeon shipper, I don't really think he is. I think he's molding these two to separately become protectors of peace in Daeho. Keyword...separately. He wants these two to be at the top of their game and sure, they can help each other to grow as work partners, but not as romantic partners. These two have already proven to Master Lee they cannot balance love with work if they're romantically together. To help them both realize this, Master Lee chose to not intervene and allowed Jin Bu Yeon to stab Jang Uk in Part 1. Haha...."it is better to die than do nothing".....they did nothing so they died. Harsh Master Lee...so freaking harsh. These two are imbued with great powers to help save the world, not to sit around lazily doing nothing.

Summary of Final Predictions/Thoughts/Other Random Things

War will break out between Songrim and Cheonbugwan. General Seo Il will finally show up to help with the war.

Bird egg will start to crack because of the chaos

Jin Bu Yeon will need the Ice Stone from Jang Uk's chest to bring back the rain or prevent the bird egg from hatching

Naksu=Jin Bu Yeon and Jin Bu Yeon= Naksu; Istg the Hong Sisters better not have Jin Bu Yeon become a weak human being that never does anything with her life. I'll be so disappointed if the Hong Sisters does this to her character. Anyways I’ve already explained it so many times now why Naksu and Jin Bu Yeon are the same soul. There was no two souls in one body. It was just one very confused soul in that body. You can refer to my previous posts where I’d explained how Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong had swapped as kids and then swapped back as adults.

The Naksu/GYJ face disappears and the JBY/JSM face appears. Once JBY fully returns, she will have mastered Hwansu (the method of returning). JBY will testify against Jin Mu and he will be put into Gwido.

Jang Uk will die and become the North Star in the sky that guides people forever. Another theory is that Jang Uk and Seo Yul will swap. Meaning Seo Yul would die while Jang Uk's soul resides in Seo Yul's body. ISTG HONG SISTERS YOU BETTER NOT DO THIS!!!! Or they could make things even crazier and say Seo Gyeong's soul had split into two souls (Jang Uk and Seo Yul) and are brought together in Seo Yul's body.....um no...HONG SISTERS DO NOT GO DOWN THIS ROUTE EITHER!!!

Master Lee Cheol is Choi Cheol (Tbh I'm still on the fence about this..Master Lee Cheol could also be Seo Gyeong); I’m like 65% confident Master Lee Cheol is Choi Cheol. It’ll also be crazy if Seo Gyeong wasn’t the real King Star, but Choi Cheol was (parallels to how CP isn’t the real King Star and JU was).

Seo Yul x JBY endgame (YuBu couple); They’ll have twins and name the boy, Seo Uk and the girl, Jin Sol (My Korean friend came up with this! It goes with Seol and Seoyul pattern and “soul” sound). Maybe JBY will finally teach Seo Yul how to make pine pollen tea cakes (ref to Ep 18).

Other endgames: CP x Heo Yun Ok, Jin Cho Yeon x Park Danggu, and Kim Yeon x Park Jin

Houses and leaders: Jinyowon/Jin Bu Yeon, Songrim/Park Danggu, Seoho/Another Seo and Cheonbugwan/Seo Yul; If by some off chance Jinyowon gets destroyed (I really hope it doesn’t) then Jin Bu Yeon should be leader of Cheonbugwan.

One last super crazy and absolutely far fetch theory I have is this: Master Cheol Choi has been trying to resurrect SG and JSR. SG’s soul split into two (JU and Seo Yul) and JSR’s soul did the same (CY and JBY). Ultimately JU’s and Seo Yul’s souls merge and become “SG” and CY and JBY’s soul merge to become “JSR”. Then we get SG soul in Seo Yul body (MH body) and JSR soul in JBY body (JSM body). Everything would then come full circle…connecting events from 203 yrs ago, 23 yrs ago, and present time. This would be freaking crazy bc the Hong Sisters had never introduced the notion of reincarnation nor soul splitting in AOS. However, this theory would fit in line with the unity and unpredictable theme present in Part 2 while wrapping up all the loose ends. Probably won’t happen, but it would be a cool idea for someone to use to write a fan fiction haha. I’ll seriously laugh if the Hong Sisters decide to take this route.

The water wick kiss scene between Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon is probably a reference to gumiho’s fox kiss. Hong Sisters’ first big hit was “My Girlfriend Is A Gumiho”. In MGIAG, the FL gives her fox bead to the ML to save his life which is similar to what JBY did. Jin Bu Yeon’s character is almost like a mix between Phoenix and Gumiho. Also in MGIAG, the FL has blue eyes similar to JBY. Hong Sisters also borrowed some things from TOTNT.

Ok I'm pretty much done and dead haha! There are probably things I forgot to discuss....oh well!

[mindmeltonabunaosblog]

Alchemy of Souls Part 2: Theories and Analysis (Eps 25-26)

Hello Readers, 

By the time you read this, Part 2 would have already ended. After much debate, I decided to not allow anyone to see my theories after a leaker and plagiarist was caught in the AOS 2 password protected blog. I will continue to post my theories and analysis posts for the remaining episodes, but I will not allow others to see them until the conclusion of Part 2. This blog has always been a place where I could express my thoughts and challenge myself to see if I could correctly predict what will happen in the show. However, many decided to take my brain and portray it as their own after seeing how my theories kept consistently coming true. Anyways, here’s to leaving plagiarists in the dark for the remaining episodes!

Time to analyze and theorize! Thinking caps on!

Disclaimer: There are probably many grammatical mistakes in this post!

It's a Birdy, Birdy World

Doves, peacocks, phoenixes, crows, etc. The world of AOS is filled with birds! What do all of them symbolize? They can symbolize many things! For example, the crow/death/wise/clever, white dove/peace/love, etc.

Birds in Alchemy

In alchemy, birds such as crows, swans, peacocks, pelicans, and phoenixes represented the different stages (nigredo (blackening), albedo (whitening), citrinitas (yellowing), and rubdeo (reddening/purpling)) of the alchemical process called the “Great Work” or transforming one’s soul into a figurative Philosopher's Stone or a golden soul. Below is just a brief summary of what each bird represents.

Black Crow: Beginning stage of the Great Work of the soul; stepping out of our consciousness and physical bodies which restrict us White Swan: Discarding impurities of one's soul; Discovering one's inner true light; Peacock: Turning point in soul development; working on one's inner self Pelican: Sacrificial stage of soul development; discarding one's perception of one's former self by changing, transforming, and sacrificing it; this stage can be considered the most painful Phoenix: Completion of spiritual or soul development; rising anew

Alchemists tended to use birds in their work because birds were creatures who could travel between the earth and heavens. They saw a bird's flight to the heavens as symbolic of a soul striving to become liberated of its earthly corporal body to reach the skies and returning back to its body after meditation.

The point to all of these bird symbolisms in AOS is that its suppose to represent how each one of the characters are changing either internally, externally, or both. Sometimes though, birds are indicative of the Jin family. Much like how birds are mediators between the heavens and Earth, water is also the bridge which connects the heavens and Earth. Side note, I think the Crown Prince will eventually become the peacock figuratively speaking. Meaning he will become a great and benevolent King.

Phoenix Mythology

Back in July, I had briefly discussed about phoenixes on my Twitter and how metaphorically speaking Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon is phoenix. In light of phoenixes/firebirds becoming a real thing in AOS, I will just briefly summarized some stuff about them from mythology.

In most western myths, phoenixes are immortal creatures who are reborn from their own ashes. They are typically associated with the Sun. In terms of appearances, phoenixes can be a purplish-red bird, red-yellowish bird, red-orange bird, or peacock like colored bird. They are said to either have vibrant yellow eyes or blue sapphire eyes. Sometimes phoenixes were friendly creatures, other times they were portrayed to be dangerous yet beautiful creatures. Phoenixes could also shed tears of pearls which peasants could collect and trade for goods and services. In western myths, there is only one phoenix at any given time. This contrasts to Chinese myths, where there can be two phoenixes at the same time. Anyways, the average lifespan for phoenixes 500 years or more.

In Chinese mythology, phoenixes are called "Fenghuang". Originally, "Feng" referred to a male phoenix while a female phoenix was called "Huang". However, the distinction between the two different sexes was eliminated to allow phoenixes to be paired with dragons which are typically males. During the Han Dynasty, phoenixes were often seen as pairs (Feng/male and Huang/female phoenixes) and later merged to become one single entity during the Yuan Dynasty. "Feng" and "Huang" were also representative of "yang" and "yin" respectively. Collectively, "Fenghuang" symbolized the union of yin and yang or union of a husband and wife. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that "Fenghuang" came to represent the yin and yang sides of females. With regards to AOS, Jin Bu Yeon is metaphorically the phoenix while Jang Uk is the dragon (or water dragon in this case).

In Chinese culture, there is a famous romance story involving phoenixes and flutes called "The Phoenix Terrance". Briefly, the story began in the state of Qin and followed a man named Xiao Shi who was a skilled flute/whistle player. When Xiao Shi played his flute, his melodies would attract all kinds of birds from cranes to peacocks. It is said that Xiao Shi's tunes could even summon great birds like phoenixes from the heavens. One day a girl named Nong Yu who was the daughter of Duke Mu of Qin, overheard Xiao Shi playing this flute and fell in love with him. Eventually, they got married. Xiao Shi taught Nong Yu how to play the whistle to summon phoenixes. Impressed with his daughter's and son in law's musical skills, Duke Mu of Qin built them the "Phoenix Terrance" so they could continue to call for phoenixes. Later, two phoenixes (male and female) descended from the skies to the lovely couple. The story ended with a phoenix and a dragon coming down to visit the couple and the couple mounting the creatures and ascending to the heavens to become immortals.

The Hong Sisters probably took inspirations from this tale when it came to Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon’s relationship. Essentially, Seo Yul was Xiao Shi who ended up summoning a phoenix (Jin Bu Yeon) with his whistle. I am going to laugh so hard if Jin Bu Yeon goes berserk and Seo Yul has to calm her down by playing a whistle. He should start making a new biggerwhistle....a phoenix taming whistle lol.

Firebirds/Phoenixes in AOS

I really do not know why the Hong Sisters did not simply call the firebird in AOS a phoenix lol. Instead, they call it a "hwajo". Firebird...flower bird...phoenix....they are all basically the same thing hahaha! I am just going to keep calling it a phoenix. Anyways, the phoenix in AOS is born from a volcano. When it hatches, it will rise up into the sky and causes a drought. At the same time, it will also cause Jinyowon to crumble.

We do not really know much about the phoenix nor what is involved in its emergence from the egg. The pages about the phoenix egg were too blurry to translate. However, my Korean friend did manage to translate some of the page about the actual phoenix. Below is a brief summary provided by my friend (big thanks to my friend for translating):

"The firebird raises up from the mountain of fire (volcano). It is bright enough to light up the world. It is precious that no treasure in the world could compare. Humans believed birds carried the spirit of the dead, so they stopped hunting flying birds. When a bird is wounded, a flower can treat the wound."

I am guessing maybe the phoenix hatching is directly tied to Jin Bu Yeon. Maybe they have some sort of psychic connection. Anyone else getting phoenix force and Jean Grey vibes? I know I am.

Battle of The Mama Birds...Mama Jin Vs Jang Uk

At the very beginning of this scene, Mama Jin was seen wondering why Master Lee sent Jang Uk to check on the phoenix when he could have asked her to show it to him. Jang Uk's response to her question was that Master Lee did not trust Mama Jin. First of all, what does trusting someone have anything to do with showing them the egg? In reality, Jang Uk probably did not know why Master Lee had not asked Mama Jin, but he was too proud to admit it.

I believe the real reason Master Lee made these two meet is so they could point out the flaws of the other person. In doing so, maybe both would change for the better for Jin Bu Yeon's sake. Mama Jin needed to stop treating Jin Bu Yeon as a prisoner by locking her up and sewing thread into her. Essentially what Mama Jin needs to do is stop being such a helicopter parent. Now with Mama Bird #2 aka Jang Uk, he has to recognize Jin Bu Yeon has duties and responsibilties to attend to such as leading her own house, Jinyowon. She cannot be some sort of dutiful housewife to him. What both of these mama birds need to do is let the baby chick grow up and spread her freaking wings aka be allowed to freely live her life and make her own goddamn decisions. You know what happens when you have helicopter parents? Their children tend to develop separation anxiety.

Jin Bu Yeon/Naksu

I am sure at this point, many viewers are left confused about this whole Jin Bu Yeon and Naksu mess. I will try and explain things again for probably the hundredth time. First thing first, Naksu’s soul= Jin Bu Yeon’s soul and Jin Bu Yeon’s soul= Naksu’s soul! They are one and the very same soul! Now Jin Bu Yeon has been on one hell of a journey. As a child, she was swapped into a body that wasn’t hers, but she did not know it. She ended up believing the body she was in was her own. As an adult, Jin Bu Yeon became “Naksu” and when she switched back into her original body, she did not even recognize it as being her own. Instead, she thought the body belonged to a girl named “Mu Deok”. As time went on, Naksu assumed the identity of the body which was “Mu Deok”. In this sense, Jin Bu Yeon became “Naksu” and then “Mu Deok”.

Now this is where I think the Hong Sisters made things way too complicated to just say Jin Bu Yeon is Naksu and vice versa. Going back to Part 1, I did not understand why exactly the Hong Sisters could not have Naksu remember her real childhood memories aka Jin Bu Yeon memories. Naksu was on the edge of remembering them, but her life was conveniently cut short before she could even complete it. Adding to this, the Hong Sisters made it so that Jang Uk’s story took precedence over Jin Bu Yeon's story. Ultimately, what this showed me is that Hong Sisters ran out of material and wanted to stretch everything out as much as possible.

Powers First Vs Memories First…What’s the Difference?

Divine Powers -> Memories or Memories -> Divine Powers....what is the difference? It is basically the same as Jin Bu Yeon->Naksu or Naksu -> Jin Bu Yeon. Since Jin Bu Yeon regained her divine powers first it proves the soul within that body is Jin Bu Yeon. Remember that powers are from souls, not bodies. For example, look at Master Lee…..when he went into that dead child’s body, he still had his powers. When Jin Bu Yeon regains her "Naksu" memories it means Jin Bu Yeon is Naksu. Hong Sisters are just saying things in a very roundabout manner. Jin Bu Yeon -> Naksu -> Jin Bu Yeon is like water -> fire -> water aka Hwansu or the method to return or come back!

If Jin Bu Yeon had regained her "Naksu" memories first, she may have thought her divine powers were not really hers. What Master Lee is trying to tell everyone in Daeho as well as the viewers is that Jin Bu Yeon is Naksu and Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon. I guess he is sugar coating things for everyone. It is easier for people to accept the light side of Jin Bu Yeon rather than the dark side of her which is "Naksu". In the end though, everyone including Jin Bu Yeon will have to accept both sides of her to be able to fully accept her...the light and dark. Once that happens here comes Jin Bu Yeon 2.0....highly skilled fighter, shaman, priestess, fierce yet kind lady!

What Did Master Lee Mean?

Mostly everyone has been tripped up by the last line of Master Lee's dialogue in the scene below. Simply put, Jin Bu Yeon's soul will be rejected by the GYJ body because her real body was the JSM body. Recall when Jin Bu Yeon's original body (JSM) transformed into the "Cho Yeong" (GYJ) body, Master Lee had called that the "new body". Because Jin Bu Yeon's soul= Naksu's soul, it will not fit the "Cho Yeong" (GYJ) face/body, causing a clash/conflict to occur. So how can Jin Bu Yeon's soul not clash with her body? Easy.....transform back into the JSM face/body. Do not ask me exactly how it happen. Maybe Jin Bu Yeon will be drawn to the egg and once she touches it, the flames surrounding it will engulf her. Then once she steps out, the JSM body/face will be back and the bird will be hatched and in the background. Or it could be that the GYJ face/body becomes petrified and then slowly starts cracking and blue eyes are seen first emerging follow by JSM's face.

Who Is Master Lee? Seo Gyeong or Choi Cheol?

Master Lee hurts my head. While working to translate the pages about the firebird, I had stumbled upon an interesting find….the first name of Master Choi…Master Choi CHEOL. What has been suspicious this entire time is that we never knew the first name of Master Choi until now. Coincidently, the name “Cheol” is also Master Lee’s first name. Could it be that Master Lee Cheol is really Master Choi Cheol? For so long, I thought Master Lee was Seo Gyeong, but after this piece of info, I do wonder if Master Lee is really Master Choi Cheol. I decided to look up the hanja meanings of “Choi” and found something truly mind blowing! Under the character which means “decline, weak, or frozen” is a picture representation of the character which is a “Dorongi”….aka draw grass raincoat…aka what Master Lee was wearing in Ep 5.

So many theories are running through my head right now. If Master Lee is Master Choi Cheol then what happened to Master Seo Gyeong? Furthermore, if Master Lee was Choi Cheol, wouldn’t he portray himself in a better light when he told the kids of the story about what happened 203 years ago in Ep 7? Because in most of the stories mentioned about Master Choi Cheol, he is always painted as the villain while Master Seo Gyeong is the hero. Additionally, if Master Lee was Master Choi Cheol, why would he get two of his family members killed (Shaman Choi and Daddy Jin)? 

More questions that come to my mind is who was the real King Star? Seo Gyeong or Choi Cheol? Who really wrote “Words of the Heart”? Choi Cheol soul in Seo Gyeong’s body or Seo Gyeong soul in Choi Cheol’s body? Given all of this, I am still left to think Master Lee is Seo Gyeong. Maybe 203 years, Seo Gyeong had swapped bodies with Master Choi Cheol and then made his alias using Master Choi’s first name… “Cheol”. Something else to mention is the last name “Lee”. This last name was typically associated with royalty (i.e Kings) during the Joseon dynasty. One thing is for damn sure…Jin Seol Ran would not have been easily deceived if Seo Gyeong and Choi Cheol had swapped bodies because she could see energy and therefore be able to differentiate between the two souls regardless of what body they were in. Anyways, I won’t dismiss the possibility that Master Lee is Master Choi Cheol. 

The Events 203 Years Ago

The Hong Sisters love tragic trios. Let’s not remind ourselves of the trio in Hotel Del Luna. After Ep 26, I began to suspect the lives of the current trio (Seo Yul, Jin Bu Yeon, and Jang Uk) had paralleled to the lives of the OG trio 203 years ago (Seo Gyeong, Jin Seol Ran, and Choi Cheol). 

According to Master Lee, what had happened 203 years ago is there was a severe drought (does not mentioned what caused it). To put an end to the drought mages performed a rain ritual which caused both rain and Ice Stones to fall (even though he says mages, Jin Seol Ran, a priestess was seen performing the rain ritual). Following this, Master Choi Cheol became the first mage to make soul ejectors from the Ice Stone which started the “Great Chaos” or a war between mages for control of the Ice Stones. Eventually, Seo Gyeong with the power of the King Star ended the Great Chaos. Afterwards, Seo Gyeong and Jin Seol Ran built Jinyowon to contain the Phoenix/Phoenix egg. Shortly after that, Jin Seol Ran died from injuries sustained during the Great Chaos. Sometime between the establishment of Jinyowon and Jin Seol Ran’s death, Seo Gyeong wrote “Words of the Heart” and left the last Ice Stone inside of Jinyowon for Jin Seol Ran to use to save herself. It is noted that the love letter was never sent to Jinyowon and remained in Songrim until centuries later. Subsequently, Seo Gyeong ran away to the mountains (in his poem, he mentioned cold white breath, so I am assuming he went somewhere cold like the mountains). 

There are a lot of things not adding up in this story. The first being the cause of the drought. According to Master Lee’s story, the drought occurred first and then a rain ritual was performed to combat it. Subsequently, rain and Ice Stones fell. In contrast to this, Jin Mu said one does not need for a rain ritual to be performed to get Ice Stones to fall. One simply needed to hatch a Phoenix to cause a drought which would automatically cause Ice Stones to fall from the skies. Either this is a major plot hole or one person was lying to cover up the truth. If someone was lying about things, who would it be? Master Lee or Jin Mu? As surprising as it may be, Jin Mu in this case does not have a reason to lie especially to the people he needs to help him with his goal of obtaining more Ice Stones. Now with Master Lee, he has many more reasons to lie. If we are to assume Master Lee is Seo Gyeong then one of his reasons for lying is because he was trying to protect his now deceased lover, Jin Seol Ran. We have seen righteous Seo men be willing to lie to protect the women they love (i.e Seo Yul lying to protect Naksu).

Going back to what happened 203 years ago. Maybe at one point, Seo Gyeong, Jin Seol Ran, and Choi Cheol were all friends much like Seo Yul, Jin Bu Yeon, and Jang Uk. Later, Jin Seol Ran came into her divine powers which caused the firebird to be born from the volcano. Maybe Jin Seol Ran had developed some sort of connection to the Phoenix. Meaning, if you kill her, you also “kill” the Phoenix (based on what Master Lee said though, it feels like you can’t really kill the Phoenix, more like you can make it go dormant). Anyways, when it was discovered that Jin Seol Ran was the root cause of the drought, people began to come after her including Choi Cheol. Seo Gyeong being the loyal lover, used his King Star powers to protect her.

Typically, firebirds or phoenixes were seen as auspicious creatures aka lucky creatures. They were not really seen to be monsters. However, from the perspective of those suffering from the drought, phoenixes may have been perceived as monsters who needed to be killed. Even if Jin Seol Ran had been the one caused the drought, she was also the one who brought rain and Ice Stones to heal those affected by it. What may have ended up happening though is some people decided to use the Ice Stones for more nefarious reasons. In the end though, Jin Seol Ran became someone who many wanted to hunt/killed or captured so they could use her to make more Ice Stones (parallels to Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon’s story).

Throughout all of this, I am left to wonder who fatally injured Jin Seol Ran? Seo Gyeong or Choi Cheol? Based off everything, I think it may have been Choi Cheol. Maybe what happened is that Choi Cheol tried to kill Jin Seol Ran to end the chaos, but Seo Gyeong had stopped him. Maybe just before Seo Gyeong was able to kill Choi Cheol, he managed to critically injure Jin Seol Ran. And knowing her days were limited, Jin Seol Ran decided to build Jinyowon to contain the Phoenix. Seo Gyeong left shortly after this because he could bear watching his lover die. He still left her the Ice Stone thought because he had hoped she would have used it. However, after witnessing all those who died because of her, Jin Seol Ran decided to not use the Ice Stone to heal herself for the greater good. Following her death, her soul traveled to the skies and came back down to the earth as rain which became integrated everywhere from the lake to the trees to the soil, etc. For the woman he loved, Seo Gyeong was willing to kill his best friend, make it so his best friend was the villain, and not destroy the last Ice Stone. So yea…Seo Gyeong, the King Star, was the only one in the original group of friends to survive. 

If we want the present to be different from the past, then the King Star has to die aka Jang Uk. Recall from the translation of the phoenix pages, a wounded bird can be healed with a flower. In Korean myths, the flower of resurrection is similar to the Ice Stone. Therefore, the Ice Stone needs to be taken out of Jang Uk in order to for Jin Bu Yeon to live. I know some will say well if Jin Bu Yeon is healed and becomes the phoenix, won’t she be able to produce more Ice Stones and bring back Jang Uk? I do not think so. To avoid future generations having to experience the same thing, all the Ice Stones need to be destroyed. On the positive side, Jang Uk will be everywhere lol. Similar to how Jin Seol Ran’s soul traveled to skies and fell back down to earth as rain and became one with nature, Jang Uk’s soul will do the same. And this is why Jang Uk was seen narrating the scenes with the water dragon who descended from the skies into the lake. 

Park Jin’s Cooking Show: Chestnut Rice

Here’s to another cooking lesson from Park Jin! During this scene, Kim Yeon mentioned that Jang Uk’s favorite dish is chestnut rice. The funny thing about this is one of Seo Yul’s hanja meanings is chestnut and Jin Bu Yeon’s is rice. When you marry chestnuts with rice, you get chestnut rice, Jang Uk’s favorite dish or his two favorite people (Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon). It should also be noted that back in Ep 6, the first time Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon made chestnut rice, it did not turn out so great. The second time however, the dish did turn out great. Maybe this was a foreshadow for how things will be for Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon in the end.

Now the whole who would you choose to save portion of this scene was a foreshadow for a decision Jang Uk will have to make later on. We know Park Jin would be willing to give him his life to save Kim Yeon and Jang Uk. And when it comes to Jang Uk, we know he would be willing to give him his life to save Jin Bu Yeon and Seo Yul. 

Seo Yul

Ok time to talk about sad boy #1.

When I saw the following scene below, I thought to myself yo there is so much going on! First, Seo Yul was able to emulate water energy and then converted it to fire.....that is like 1/2 the process of Hwansu (water-> fire)! If only he was able to bring that bird whistle back (fire -> water) then he would have mastered Hwansu! Secondly, did anyone see the firebird/phoenix imagery going on here? There is a bird on fire and then turnt into ashes. I guess this scene was signaling Seo Yul's metaphorical spiritual rebirth or it could be Naksu's spiritual rebirth into Jin Bu Yeon or both.

Why Did Yul Want to Kill Naksu?

Seo Yul has always been a very man conflicted man. He did not know whether to choose following his heart or his head. In Part 1, he ultimately chose to follow his heart and it resulted in the deaths of both his best friend and first love. Seo Yul felt he failed to protect the two people whom he had deeply cared about which led him to hold many deep regrets in his heart. When a similar situation popped up, Seo Yul decided to follow his head this time. And this is why he decided to "tear my heart out and break into pieces". In his mind, by killing Naksu, he could at least save Jang Uk as well as save the world. However as logical as his choice may have seem, it was not purely logical. The purely logical decision would have been to just kill Naksu and live out whatever time he had left. Instead, he planned to die with her and this is where his heart leaked into his final decision. Seo Yul wanted to die with her because she was his world. He could not imagine living in a world where she was not in it. Anyways, Seo Yul does not have to choose between the heart and mind. Rather, he should choose both. A mix between the heart and mind.

Why Didn’t Seo Yul Tell Jang Uk?

I have seen many complaining Seo Yul should have told Jang Uk about Naksu, but did everyone just conveniently forget how Jang Uk did not tell neither Seo Yul nor Naksu the other knew until 6 episodes later in Part 1? Istg I think many people seem to overlook the many flaws of Jang Uk just because he is the male lead or whatever. Jang Uk’s reasoning for not telling either parties is because he did not want Naksu to fall for Seo Yul and leave him....aka Jang Uk’s reasoning were for selfish gains. For Seo Yul, he chose not to tell Jang Uk for more noble reasons, he wanted to prevent the death of his best friend along with other innocent people. I also wanted to add that Jang Uk did not tell Seo Yul how Jin Mu had used her to kill him in Part 1. If Jang Uk had, maybe Seo Yul would not had felt so tortured about everything.

RIP Soi

Soi was a pretty shitty person, but underneath the lying, scheming, stealing, Soi's love for Seo Yul was genuine. Despite Seo Yul being in love with another girl, Soi still gave Seo Yul honest advice. If her love for Seo Yul was not true, she could have easily told Seo Yul to kill Naksu. Instead, Soi encouraged him to seek treatment from Jinywon and to not kill Naksu because he liked her. Something worth noting is how some of Soi's speech was similar to what mirror/future Jin Bu Yeon said in Ep 7.

In the end, Soi sacrificed her life to protect the one person who actually was nice to her. She saved Seo Yul's life more ways than one or maybe it was fate. Had Soi not been captured by the men from Cheonbugwan, Seo Yul would have ended up killing both himself and Jin Bu Yeon in Danhyanggot. Her last few words at the end was simply beautiful.

Jin Mu

Uh oh Jin Mu.... you fucked up majorly by having your guys hurt Seo Yul. Unlike most characters in this show, Seo Yul is one of the most well protected characters. He is well liked by everyone and he has connections to people in high places. For example, one of his best friends is the King Star while the other is leader of Songrim. Seo Yul is also the heir of Seoho Fortress and his relatives include Queen Seo and the Crown Prince. Even though in the preview, it is said that if Seo Yul dies, there will be a clash between Songrim and Cheonbugwan, it's more like Songrim and Seoho Fortress vs Cheonbugwan.

Jin Mu has been hiding behind the Royals, but I do not believe he will be able to this time. For one, the Crown Prince actually likes Seo Yul and they are cousins. Secondly, General Seo Il is Queen Seo's brother and Seo Yul's father. If Seo Yul dies, you bet your ass General Seo Il will be traveling to see his sister to find out what the hell happen. And remember, the rest of the Seo family is not aware Queen Seo shifted bodies for superficial reasons. Anyways, I am guessing Queen Seo does not want her brother to visit, so she will probably tell Jin Mu to figure out his own shit. The next person Jin Mu will try and blackmail into helping him is the Crown Prince. However, I do not think the Crown Prince will end up helping Jin Mu either. Instead, the Crown Prince will finally tell Jang Uk the truth about everything.

The only person left for Jin Mu to turn to is Mama Jin. From the text preview, it says Mama Jin will only remove the bloodworm from Seo Yul if Jin Mu can bring Jin Bu Yeon back to Jinyowon. I think this should be an easy task because Jin Bu Yeon seems like she would willing go back to Jinyowon if it meant Mama Jin will help save Seo Yul's life. One thing I do wonder though is if Mama Jin will actually end up saving Seo Yul or not? Keep in mind, Seo Yul does know Jin Bu Yeon is Naksu and Mama Jin had wanted to keep this a secret. Well shit is about to blow up anyways because Heo Yun Ok is about to read Seo Yul’s letter which details everything.

Final Thoughts

I am sorely disappointed with how Part 2 has played out. The writing for this part is terrible. And it did not help things when they changed the female lead from a seasoned actress to a rookie actress. GYJ's acting skills are simply not up to par. I do not care if many consider to be the most attractive female ever. Her acting skills simply suck. She failed to display a true understanding of her character. At many points, I found her to either be overacting or underacting. There was no in between. To get an unbiased opinion, I had asked my sister (who has never watched AOS or heard of GYJ) to watch a clip of her in AOS. My sister's response was "eh (she's) a little stilted". With experience, she may become a great actress, but for now, she is just a basic rookie...not a monster rookie as many have hyped her to be.

Going forward, the Hong Sisters should really learn how to manage their time better. The pacing in Part 2 is obnoxiously slow. They should have cut down on the romance too in order to allow more time for plot development. One of the biggest things that pissed me off this entire series is how female characters were treated. I felt like I was a watching a show from the 18th century or something. Women in this show were constantly being belittled and undermined by males. Jang Uk was probably the most guilty of this. I hated how the story kept focusing on Jang Uk like he was god's gift to women. Compared to Jin Bu Yeon's story, Jang Uk's story was boring. Additionally, his growth arc felt stagnant. He did not really grow up/mature and is still a man child. Anyways this is just my two cents!

#alchemy of souls #alchemy of souls light and shadow #aos #there are probably grammatical mistakes #theories #analysis

[mindmeltonabunaosblog]

Leaking On Reddit Again??!

Since you all are in the first group, I will give you one chance to personally message me and explain to me just why exactly you decided to go on Reddit of all places to leak my stuff.

If no one fesses up, I will be removing EVERYONE in this first group. I meant it when I said I do not want anyone to be leaking my stuff.

[mindmeltonabunaosblog]

Alchemy of Souls Part 2: Theories & Analysis (Eps 23-24)

Hello Fellow Readers.

I will start this post again with the friendly reminder to not share any my theories/ideas anywhere online. Do not share the password to the blog with anyone.

Eps 23-24 was boorrrrrringgggggg. The plot basically went nowhere. This post will not be too long just because there was not much for me to really analyze. You are welcome to skip the first section of this post just because I am basically vetting in it! Let's hope things will pick up in this week's episodes. I will try to get the next post up by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, but it might turn out to be Thursday instead. I hope everyone will have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Stay safe and healthy!

Thinking caps on! Time to analyze and theorize!

Disclaimer: There are probably many grammatical mistakes in this post! Please do not hesitate to comment below or use the ask anything button if you have any questions or need further elaboration on something I had discussed in this post.

Rants and Thoughts

I will first start out by saying the romance in this story has become obnoxiously annoying. Shit is blowing up around Jang Uk and Jin Bu Yeon, but their only concern is wallowing in their grief or chasing after a man like a lost puppy respectively. It feels like we are reliving Part 1, but the only difference is that Jin Bu Yeon has complete amnesia instead of childhood amnesia. The Hong Sisters dumbed down characters even more and gave Jin Bu Yeon amnesia again just to make the love story of Jin Bu Yeon and Jang Uk seem more epic than it really is. In my opinion, I found the love story of Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon much more epic….childhood love that had to overcome many obstacles (i.e Jin Bu Yeon growing up to become an assassin, dying/switching bodies, falling in love with his best friend, dying again, etc) to finally be together. 

Overall, I did not find Jang Uk to be a well written character. Everything was basically handed to him and so there was not really a growth arc for his character. Compared to Jin Bu Yeon’s or Seo Yul’s life, Jang Uk had it easier. Despite his real parents not being around, he at least had the best adoptive parents in Daeho could offer, Park Jin and Kim Do Joon. Jang Uk was also surrounded by his two best friends. With Seo Yul, though he did not have his parents around, he was lucky enough to have Park Dang Gu and Jang Uk. Meanwhile, Jin Bu Yeon had no one to take care of her except for herself. When it came to love, Jang Uk did not really have to work for it, it just fell into his lap. And when there was a chance Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon would fall in love Seo Yul, Jang Uk resorted to keeping stuff from her or using her assassin identity as a reason why she should stay away from Seo Yul. I think I would have accepted the Jang Uk and Naksu /Jin Bu Yeon relationship if Jang Uk had not been so shady about things. For example, in Part 1, Jang Uk was aware since Ep 12 that Seo Yul knew “Mu Deok” was Naksu, yet he chose to keep this both from Seo Yul and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon until Ep 19. If Jang Uk had told these two people before everything, I would have respected his character even more. It would have shown me that Jang Uk was able to get Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon on his own merits. The way I look at it is that if Jang Uk had told Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon, she may or may not have left him, but at least she would have been given truth and allowed to make her own decision. Furthermore, if Jang Uk told Seo Yul and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon about stuff earlier, it could have added to his character’s growth arc. Part of growing up is having to sacrifice things and doing things we do not want to do. I am left to question just what exactly has Jang Uk sacrificed? I guess some could say he had to sacrifice his power to destroy the Ice Stone barrier, but even that was not a true sacrifice since he ended up getting his powers back. To me, the only two characters who made significant sacrifices were Jin Bu Yeon and Seo Yul. Jin Bu Yeon had to sacrifice her childhood and 10 years of her life while Seo Yul had to sacrifice his own happiness. So, tell me why this series had heavily focused on a character who did not really grow? I really do not get it. I found that Jin Bu Yeon’s and Seo Yul’s story and journey of growth was much more interesting merely for the fact, they actually grew and changed. With 6 episodes left, I highly doubt Jang Uk will grow as a person, but who knows maybe the Hong Sisters will surprise me.

When it comes to Jin Bu Yeon, I had such high hopes for her as a character since Part 1, but now I feel like she is a complete disappointment for me. Throughout Part 1, she was inches away from remembering she was Jin Bu Yeon when she was conveniently killed off for the umpteenth time. Now in Part 2, she has been reduced to a damsel in distress whose only concern is following Jang Uk like a lost puppy and trying to get him to love her. Is this what her character has been reduced to? A female who has lost her sense of independence. Jin Bu Yeon made Jang Uk her entire world and thought this may seem romantic to many, I find it quite pathetic. A word of advice… do not make a person your entire world because if things end, you will feel like you have no reason to go on or live. Instead, fill your world with your own hobbies, friends, family, dreams, career, etc. Be your own person. Be an individual. Have a full and well-rounded life. There is more to life than just love. It would seem that Jin Bu Yeon is not the least bit concerned about the ongoing drought, Jin Mu and Queen Seo’s plan to take the relics from Jinyowon, Seo Yul’s bloodworm, her family drama, JIn Cho Yeon not being able to marry the man she loves, or investigating the weird creatures that keep popping up, etc. She is too busy chasing after a man. It almost feels like the message being conveyed is that women cannot do anything on their own, they need a man for everything like helping them to remember things or providing them with their own self-worth. LIKE WHAT?! I found that I kept having to remind myself that AOS is written by females and not males. Then I see Tweets saying how it is better if Jin Bu Yeon does not regain her memories because she might run away so she should live happily as Jang Uk’s wife and lady of the Jang household. I guess this is the definition of “ignorance is bliss”. DA FUC IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!!!!!! This kind of life may have been fine for Do Hwa, but it is not the life for Jin Bu Yeon. She is so much more than a docile housewife who waits dutifully on her husband hand and foot….SHE IS NEXT LEADER OF JINYOWON FOR GOD’S SAKE. She is not meant to live in someone’s shadow, she is meant to shine brightly on her own. 

At the rate we are going, I really do not know how the Hong Sisters will manage to wrap up all the loose plot ends. It would be a goddamn miracle if they did. Instead of trying to convince us of the main loveline, the Hong Sisters should have spent more time resolving all the other problems going on in Daeho, patching up the plot holes, and giving us the full story of what really happened in the past (200, 20, and 3 yrs ago). Someone on DC Gal said Part 1 was 70% Plot 30% Romance and Part 2 is 90% Romance 10% Plot. I could not agree more! I wish Part 2 focused more on the actual plot than loveline. At this point, I give zero fucks about the loveline. For all I care, Jang Uk and Jin Bu Yeon can run off into the sunset without a single care in the world…every other character has been picking up their slack and trying to prevent Daeho from being destroyed anyways. To watch this show and not be angry, you would have to throw logic out of the window a long time ago. 

Park Jin's Cooking Show

So, what was really in those rice cakes? Fish sauce or honey? It is both. All the boys received rice cakes which were filled with both fish sauce and honey. What this symbolizes is that life is filled with both sweet and bitter moments. Life is bittersweet and that is what makes it so beautiful.

Regardless of whether your destiny is predicted to be a sweet or bitter one, it should not prevent you from doing whatever. Take your chances and make your own destiny for life in general is very unpredictable!

During this scene, you can see Park Dang Gu's own personal growth. Part of being an adult is accepting the consequences of your actions whether they turn out to be good or bad. Even if the possibility of things turning out to be good are low, it should not prevent you from trying something.

Seo Yul’s Bloodworm

Sad boy #1 is on a mission to die. It is heartbreaking to watch Seo Yul become so suicidal after the events that happen three years ago. It feels like the only reason he came back to Songrim is to die. For Seo Yul, "home" was never Seoho Fortress. To him, home was always Songrim, a place where he grew up with his two best friends and had many fond memories. Seo Yul chose to not take the medications because he felt he needed to punish himself for failing to protect his best friend and first love. FREAKING NOBLE AF!!! Unlike like most, I really do not think Seo Yul will die in the end. Jin Bu Yeon will probably remove the bloodworm from him once she gets her powers back. Even if Seo Yul dies, I am sure he will be brought back to life and become stronger than previously. After all, the ongoing theme in AOS is coming back from the dead stronger than before (i.e Jang Uk and Jin Bu Yeon….Jin Bu Yeon should be the most powerful person now just because she has died like 4 times now?!).

Evil Duo 2.0: Jin Mu and Queen Seo

Queen Seo is a crazy ass bitch. I would even go as far to say she is even crazier and more extreme than Shaman Choi. If Master Lee is really Seo Gyeong, I can see where Queen Seo got her extreme trait from. Queen Seo’s main motivation to get the Ice Stone is not for power, but for beauty (i.e switch to a younger beautiful body). Like just how vain can she truly be????? Maybe her body targets are Jin Bu Yeon, Heo Yun Ok, or even Jin Cho Yeon since they are considered Daeho’s most beautiful. Anyways, the one thing Jin Mu is good at is preying on people’s insecurities and convincing them to do what he wants. What does Jin Mu want? Ice Stone and power. Queen Seo fell into Jin Mu’s trap while the Crown Prince knows better.

Evil Duo's Plan....Major Plot Hole?

While reviewing Eps 23-24, I noticed there might be a major plot when it comes to the Evil Duo's plan. In Ep 3, the Evil Duo's plan was to take Jinyowon to get the relics. Their ultimate goal was to use the relics in a rain ritual so they could get new Ice Stones from the sky. However, their plan was hampered when Jin Bu Yeon got married to Jang Uk who could protect Jinyowon.

Following this, their plan was to separate Jin Bu Yeon from Jang Uk by bringing back "Naksu". At the end of this meeting, Jin Mu made it seem that Jin Bu Yeon would be free to marry Uncle Seo after the Evil Duo had separated Jin Bu Yeon from Jang Uk.

In a later conversation in Ep 4, it was revealed they actually wanted to kill Jin Bu Yeon instead. The only reason I could think of as to why Jin Mu had said two different things is because in the earlier conversation, Uncle Seo was there. Therefore, Jin Mu did not want Uncle Seo to know they were actually planning to kill Jin Bu Yeon. The reason why they wanted to kill Jin Bu Yeon is because it would make Jang Uk and Jinyowon enemies. In turn, this would leave Jinyowon unprotected and theirs for the taking. A brief digression....I really do not like the message being conveyed here. It gives me the impression the Hong Sisters are saying women cannot protect their own treasures-a man is needed for that. Jesus Christ....such regressive thinking.

So, where exactly is the plot hole in this? It is in the Jinyowon relics part of their conversation. It is common knowledge that the rain ritual must be performed by a Jinyowon Priestess...so why would Jin Mu and Queen Seo want to kill a person who is needed to perform the rain ritual? How could Jin Mu and Queen Seo not be aware of this fact? Even in Ep. 21, Uncle Seo said the Unanimous Assembly was discussing how they would soon need a Jinyowon Priestess to perform a rain ritual in light of the ongoing drought. Jin Mu is part of the Unanimous Assembly so he would know this fact. Therefore, I do not get why Jin Mu thinks the key to the rain ritual is the relics and not a Jinyowon Priestess. Were the Evil Duo planning to get Jinywon and force Mama Jin or Jin Cho Yeon to perform the rain ritual? Or were they planning to perform it themselves? I am not sure how these two can perform the rain ritual because Jin Mu does not have any more powers and it seems neither does Queen Seo. Based on everything so far, it feels like the only people who can perform these rain rituals are divine Jinyowon Priestess. Keyword is "divine". Hopefully, the Hong Sisters will patch up this plot hole soon!

Cinnabar Phoenix Statue

Now let's talk more about the ongoing drought. It is highly important that we recognize we do not know WHO or WHAT is causing the drought. I had previously theorized I thought the drought was caused by the events three years ago (i.e Jang Uk resurrection with the Ice Stone in his chest and Jin Bu Yeon dying and being resurrected again). Now it seems the drought may be caused by someone placing these Cinnabar Phoenix statues into local wells. The likely suspects are the Evil Duo. However, we should also consider there is someone else who is causing the drought. For all we know, the Evil Duo are not the ones who are causing the drought, but are just the ones who are taking advantage of it.

It seems these statues can block the water. What is interesting about these statues is their color and shape. In one of my other previous posts, I had mentioned one of the hanja meanings for “Seol” as in Jin Seol Ran was “cinnabar”. For those who do not know, cinnabar (also known as “red cinnamon”) was a commonly used material by Chinese alchemists. Side note, you can make the connection between the cinnabar/red cinnamon and the cinnamon sachet the Crown Prince gave to Jin Bu Yeon in Part 1. Additionally, in the story of the Moon Rabbit, the rabbit was seen making the elixir of immorality under a cinnamon tree. Anyways, cinnabar is the solid form of mercury. It was highly sought after because it was believed to be an important ingredient for making the elixir of immorality.

With regards to its shape, I think it resembles a bird. Specifically it could be a phoenix which is an immortal mythological bird. In alchemy, phoenixes are representative of the Philosopher's Stone since the stone was red in color and underwent transmutation through fire. Overall, maybe what these statues do is that they are able to collect the energy of water. If this is indeed true then there is a high probability it is the Evil Duo who had planted these. Recall from earlier, I did say these two currently do not have any powers. Therefore, they could be planting these statues as a way to temporarily have powers.

Gwiseo

Given the Hong Sisters like to take inspirations from Korean mythology, I decided to research to see if Gwiseo was based on any creature from Korean mythology and found indeed it was! Gwiseo came from a Korean myth called “Rat Transformed Into a Man” or “쥐의 둔갑”. It is a shapeshifting story about a rat who transformed itself into the master of the house and was later killed. The story began with the rat eating the broken tip of his master’s fingernail or toenail and transforming into the master. The real master got expelled from the house while the fake one remained. While being expelled from his house, the master drifted around and eventually receive the advice he should bring a cat home in order to kill the rat who had impersonated him. The master did as he was told, and the rat was killed which allowed him to resume his position. 

There are some variations to this myth though. For example, sometimes the rat assumes his master’s position while his master is away. In other versions, the rat does not turn into the master, but a young groom or son. Sometimes the rat is seen as a divine creature such as in the shamanic myth, “Changsega”. In this story, the rat explained to Mireuk the origin of water and fire during the creation of the universe. 

While it may seem that Gwiseo’s sole purpose in the episode was to fool Queen Seo, I think it is also related to the whole Jang Uk seeing “Mu Deok” and kissing “Jin Bu Yeon” scene. Jang Uk thought the fake rat (Jin Bu Yeon) was the real rat (Mu Deok) in his drunken stupor and therefore kissed her. And yes people, you can mistakenly kiss people while you are drunk…I have done it plenty of times before. Shit happens. 

Moving on, I decided to look up what the hanja meanings for Gwiseo were and found several meanings such as soul/spirit of a person from the west, soul/spirit of a cunning person, return to one’s own home, return to the west, and to get married to the west. The funny thing about the Gwiseo is its name Gwi[seo]….SEO. Was this relic originally created by Seo Gyeong and this is why it is called Gwiseo? Maybe Seo Gyeong created this relic to essentially fake his own death 200 years ago. Or it could simply be that this relic was called Gwiseo because it fooled Queen Seo. FYI…in AOS, anyone with the same surname are related to one another. For example, anyone with a “Seo” surname are all related to each other. This is in contrast to the real world where those with the surname “Smith” can sometimes not be related. I hope you all have realized this a long time ago. 

Master Lee

Erase What Is Unnecessary

I wished we had more Master Lee and Master Heo Yeom moments! Hell, I wish we saw Master Lee more often in these past few episodes. Anyways, something to pay attention to is what he said to Master Heo Yeom. He said, “erased what was unnecessary” and ended his dialogue with a devilish smile. What did Master Lee mean by this? I thought he meant he erased the Cho Yeong memories. Recall that from my previous theories, I mentioned the memories Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon had in Part 1 were not her own (i.e Dad getting murdered), they were Cho Yeong’s memories. Meaning the Cho Yeong memories were the false memories. Though it has not been shown, I still believe it was Master Lee who erased and changed Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon’s memories after the initial switch when the girls were children. So, why would Master Lee erase the Cho Yeong memories from Jin Bu Yeon? It could be for a few reasons such as preventing Jin Bu Yeon from running wild again, allowing Jin Bu Yeon to finally coming into her full powers, and preventing Jin Mu from using Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon again. 

Witnesses To Jin Mu's Wrongdoings

Jin Bu Yeon is Master Lee's "Magnum Opus" or "Great Work". What do I mean by this? Jin Bu Yeon is Master Lee's greatest creation. He created someone who was not only a highly skilled fighter, but also a great priestess. Essentially, Master Lee had created someone who could not be killed. He created the perfect witness who could testify to all of Jin Mu's crimes and live to tell about it. Remember, Jin Bu Yeon was there when Jin Mu made her find the Ice Stone. She was also there when he made her clean up his soul shifting mess. And finally, Jin Bu Yeon was a witness to Jin Mu using the shaman bells to force her to kill Jang Uk.

In order to build an ironclad case against Jin Mu, Master Lee had been going around planting even more witnesses around Jin Mu. In Eps 3-4, Uncle Seo was seen in the meeting between Jin Mu and Queen Seo. During this meeting, Uncle Seo was a witness to the Evil Duo's plan of separating Jin Bu Yeon and Jang Uk from each other and their goal of stealing the relics to perform a rain ritual so they could get more Ice Stones. Some would ask why would Master Lee ask Uncle Seo to be a mole since it seems they do not know each other? Well, if Master Lee is really Seo Gyeong, then it would make sense he would ask another family member to help him with his grand plan.

Master Lee's other witness is the Crown Prince. Recall Master Lee has been forcing the Crown Prince to interact with Jang Uk. He is doing this to prove to the Crown Prince that Jang Uk is innocent in all of this. Through these meetings, the Crown Prince is beginning to see that the real bad guy in all of this is Jin Mu. The Crown Prince is also a witness to Jin Mu's plan to use Naksu as a way to bind Jang Uk. Jin Mu also disclosed to the Crown Prince that his one of his goals is to use Jang Uk to do their biddings.

Overall, Master Lee is like the Cullens from Twilight and gathering witnesses who can attest to Jin Mu's treachery so he can be finally punished once and for all! I am telling you guys, Master Lee is like the ultimate chess master!!! He is not about the short game, but the long game. He is always behind the scenes working to get people to do what he wants them to do without them knowing it. Man has like a plan A, B, C, D, E, etc.

Stuff I Am Too Lazy to Type More About

Turtle Symbolsim

Could be representative of growth..."coming out of one's shell"

Black Tortoise is one of the celestial animals in Chinese constellations. Alternative name for Black Tortoise is Black Warrior, Dark Warrior, and Mysterious Warrior. The cardinal direction of the Black Tortoise is North and its season is winter. Could represent Jang Uk.

Turtle shells were also used by Shamans for divination purposes...the Crown Prince did call Jin Bu Yeon Turtle Shaman. Jin Bu Yeon is a shaman through her father.

#alchemy of souls #alchemy of souls light and shadow #AOS #there are probably grammatical mistakes #theories #analysis

[mindmeltonabunaosblog]

Alchemy of Souls Part 2: Theories and Analysis (Eps 21-22)

Hello Fellow Readers.

I will start this post again with the friendly reminder to not share any my theories/ideas anywhere online. Do not share the password to the blog with anyone.

Anyways, this week's episodes were just okay! They were not as exciting as I hoped for them to be. Some of my pre-premiere theories ended up being wrong which was expected given I did not have much to work with. However, my main theories from Part 1 have yet to be proven wrong (i.e Naksu's soul=Jin Bu Yeon's soul). These eps just confirmed to me that it is Jin Bu Yeon's soul that is in the "GYJ body" or more like in the JSM body with the GYJ face (I will talk more about this later). I do not expect this post to be very long which may be a relief for some of you. As always, I suggest that you all review some of my other posts because there are some concepts in them which are still present in Part 2!

Now thinking caps on! Time to analyze and theorize!

Disclaimer: There are probably many grammatical mistakes in this post! Please do not hesitate to comment below or use the ask anything button if you have any questions or need further elaboration on something I had discussed in this post.

Reverse, Reverse

From personalities to faces to importance of soul over body...everything in is reverse. Why did the Hong Sisters choose to do this? Because they are freaking sadists!!!! Part 1 was riddled with mind games and Part 2 is no different. If anything, it is even more disorienting than before. I just want to vomit 99.9% of the time. I understand why many feel lost and confused....it is because the Hong Sisters keep laying on more mysteries and upping their illusion game!!! To navigate through this show, you need to have an open mind, reevaluate what you think you know, ask yourself what is the big picture, and never take anything at face value!!! Furthermore, always question the who, what, when, and how. In doing so, you might not feel as nauseated and be able to make significant connections.

Wraiths

Wraiths first appeared in Scottish folklore and are believed to be ghosts who are associated with black magic and sorcery during its lifetime. Often, Wraiths are a result of a witch or wizard who tried unsuccessfully to extend the years of their lifespan or tried to manipulate time in some other form. 

So why do these Wraiths surround Jang Uk? It is because he has not properly dealt with his grief. He drinks strong alcohol to numb the pain he feels instead of dealing of with it. The more he tries to not deal with his grief, the more prevalent and stronger these spirits become. By having Jin Bu Yeon around, she may be able to lighten his spirit. In turn, this would repel the Wraiths and other dark creatures. Jang Uk just needs to sing Let It Gooooooooooooooo!

Echos of the Past: Jinyowon Priestess, King Star, Drought, and Rain Ritual

While many viewers have become enamored by the beauty of Naksu/GYJ face and the loveline, they seem to have lost sight of the real ongoing problem in AOS right now which is the drought. In case you all have forgotten....there is a drought going on!! Wake Up! Beauty is not going to save Daeho...Jin Bu Yeon the Jinyowon priestess is. The people of Daeho are beginning to see the effects of the drought. For example, the alcohol makers did not have the water needed to make quality liquor for Jinyowon ancestral rites. They said the drought began three years ago ......what a coincidence!

Given that we know the drought began three years ago, what does this tell you? It tells you that the Ice Stone being inside of Jang Uk and his resurrection through it along with Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon dying/being brought back to life without her memories are all connected to the drought.

In some ways, the events now are reminiscent of what happened 200 years ago with some significant differences. Recall the order of events 200 years ago...

Drought -> Jin Seol Ran performed the rain rites -> Creation of rain and Ice Stones -> War to obtain the Ice Stones-> King Star is brought about to end the chaos by destroying all the Ice Stones -> King Star decided to save the last Ice Stone instead of destroying it to save his dying lover, the Jinyowon Priestess, Jin Seol Ran

The only difference between now and 200 years ago is that the Ice Stone is within the King Star and the Jinyowon priestess, Jin Bu Yeon has lost her memories. What I want to point out is we do not know the circumstances of what led to Jin Seol Ran's injuries and subsequent death. Could it be that in order to make it rain, Jin Seol Ran had to pour her energy into the ritual? In the end, Seo Gyeong betrayed her by saving the last Ice Stone instead of destroying it.

For all we know, Seo Gyeong was not the hero we all thought him to be. Maybe what really happened 200 years ago is that Master Choi had tried to destroy the last Ice Stone, but Seo Gyeong fought him for it in order to harness its power and become immortal. Maybe at some point, Seo Gyeong realized the error of his ways and gave the Ice Stone to Jin Seol Ran to save herself, but she was like nah bitch.

Jin Seol Ran probably realized that it was better to conceal the Ice Stone than use it for herself. She did what she had to do to save humanity as a whole. Some might ask why she did not destroy it herself since it was already in her possession? Well, maybe it was because she no longer had the energy to do since she already had used up all of her energy to perform the rain ritual. And with Seo Gyeong, he probably ran away like the coward he was instead of coming back to Jinyowon to help her destroy it.

Seo Gyeong probably returned at some point after Jin Seol Ran had passed away and created more relics such as the "Mirror Of Longing". Maybe he created such a thing because he longed to see his deceased lover, Jin Seol Ran, again.

Other things worth noting is that rain rituals are usually performed by shamans so I am thinking that Jin Seol Ran was probably both a priestess and shaman which is what made her "divine".

Flash forward to the present, maybe what is going to happen is Jin Bu Yeon will take out the Ice Stone and use it to power the rain ritual. Therefore, the King Star will die while the Jinyowon priestess will survive this time around.

Lizard Man...Imoogi?

Anyone having flashbacks of the Imoogi in TOTNT? For those who have not watched TOTNT, there is this snake like creature call an Imoogi who can possess people. Long story short, the Imoogi in TOTNT was after the fox bead/Yeouiju which is like the equivalent to the Ice Stone. In legends, Imoogis are serpents that reside in bodies of water like lakes or oceans and they aspire to ascend to the skies to become full fledged dragons. Imoogis can become dragons in a variety of ways such as obtaining a Yeouiju, marrying a sacrificial virgin bridge, etc. They are usually auspicious creatures, but they can sometimes be harbingers of typhoons, famine, destruction, etc. They are born in places where the living and the dead interact. Anyways, you can refer to my old TOTNT posts for more information about them!

In TOTNT, the Imoogi possessed the ML's lover in order to use her to obtain the fox bead. In a twist of events, the ML's lover makes the ML kill her to prevent the Imoogi from getting the fox bead. So maybe a similar thing will occur in AOS! Meaning, the lizard man could go and possess Jin Bu Yeon so that Jang Uk would give up the Ice Stone.

Something I forgot to mention is that in shaman rain rituals, lizards can sometimes be tortured to make it rain. It is believed that if you torture a lizard long enough under the hot sun, it would convince the heavenly dragons to release water from the skies. So maybe this lizard man will be used in the rain ritual!

Soul Transforms The Body

Before we get started with this section, I want to just review some things I had previously mentioned in other posts. First, soul/energy gives life to a body. Without a soul/energy, the body is lifeless as in stone cold dead (pun intended). Blood is the intermediate between soul/energy and the body. It is like this: soul/energy -> blood-> body. For example, you need energy for your heart to pump and circulate blood throughout your body.

Additionally, I said before the soul can physically transform the body. For example, when Naksu (Jin Bu Yeon)’s soul went back into her OG body, it transformed her body so she could physically see. Remember, change occurs from inside (soul) -> outside (body) NOT outside (body) -> inside (soul). Also, recall that memories are a feature of the soul and not body.

Overall, I believe the reason Jin Bu Yeon's soul was able to heal her eyes is because it was trying to prevent a clash from occurring. For so long, Jin Bu Yeon's soul was in a body that could physically see Therefore, when her returned to its OG body, it had to adapt and create a suitable environment thus changing her body (i.e healing her eyes). I want to be clear that this is done subconsciously. It is kinda like when you have a fight or flight response. I would say Jin Bu Yeon's soul is like a virus...it is able to mutate/evolve into a different form in response to its surroundings.

It is imperative that you remember all of this for later! 

Dissection of Master Lee's Dialogue

A word of caution, Master Lee never tells the truth outright! He often speaks in a cryptic manner as to hide his true intentions and/or the truth. Although for many viewers and some characters, they tend to take what his says as literal and therefore do not get what he is really saying. For example, when Master Lee told Jang Uk to protect the sword and to not let anyone use it otherwise he would die, Jang Uk made the mistake of taking what he said as literal instead of figuratively. Jang Uk did not protect the sword (Naksu) and he let Jin Mu use the sword (Naksu) so he ended up dying. Master Lee also likes to change names to suit whoever he is speaking to as to not reveal that he knows the truth about whatever. For example, in Ep 13 during the conversation between him and Jang Uk, Master Lee did not straight up tell Jang Uk he knew that “Mu Deok” was really Naksu. Instead, he referred to Naksu as “Mu Deok” in order to not reveal to Jang Uk that he knew.

Collectively, Master Lee speaks in a deceptive manner to prevent viewers or characters from uncovering the truth until the right time. Something else I want you all to notice is how Master Lee never once mentions "Mu Deok" nor "Cho Yeong". Why? Because that girl is dead and gone! If anything Cho Yeong/Mu Deok is the plot device, not Jin Bu Yeon/Naksu. Cho Yeong's alternative name is "Mu Deok" which is something Mama Jin does not know. In her mind, she still thinks like many viewers do that Naksu=Cho Yeong and Mu Deok=Jin Bu Yeon and so Master Lee plays on this ignorance. Master Lee only mentions one real name (Jin Bu Yeon) and one alternative name (Naksu) to hint to viewers that they are one and the same.

In the scene above, he says the soul inside this body belongs to Naksu. Mama Jin interjects and says this body is Jin Bu Yeon's. What Master Lee was really saying is that Naksu's soul is Jin Bu Yeon's soul, but Mama Jin did not quite catch that because she still thinks the body's identity is what determines a person's true identity and not the soul.

Continuing on, she thinks blood is a result of the body and not as an intermediate between the soul and body. Then here comes Master Lee calling out for how shallow she is. Something suspicious is what he asks Mama Jin, "Get rid of it once again?". Keyword..."again". What he is really saying is does Mama Jin plan to get rid of her daughter once again despite her being in this "new body". Mama Jin had already gotten rid of the her daughter when Jin Bu Yeon's soul was in her own body (JSM face) and now that Jin Bu Yeon's soul is in a "new body", she is planning to get rid of it again. Now, you cannot really blame Mama Jin for this because she is still not aware that Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon. The lesson Master Lee is trying to teach Mama Jin is that her daughter had been standing in front of her this entire time soul and body, but she was too blind to see it.

So what exactly did Mama Jin promise Master Lee? Maybe she promised Master Lee she would try her best to love and treat the soul inside as if it were her precious daughter. What would be the point to this promise? To help Mama Jin accept the truth that Jin Bu Yeon is no longer the child she remembered. Jin Bu Yeon grew up and experienced some serious shit such as becoming "Naksu" the assassin.

It is a tough spill to swallow for any parent to know their child had to experienced many hardships before being able to come home. Mama Jin would gladly accept child Jin Bu Yeon, but would she ever accept adult Jin Bu Yeon? I would like to think so, but I think it will take Mama Jin some time. She must be willing to accept both sides of her daughter...the light (child Jin Bu Yeon) and the dark (adult Jin Bu Yeon who became "Naksu").

Here comes Master Lee again pretending that he does not know Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon. He puts on this act because he wants to trick Mama Jin into thinking that her daughter and Naksu are not the same soul.

I know many of you at this point will say this is clear and definitive proof that Jin Bu Yeon and Naksu are separate entities and that Jin Bu Yeon was the one who pulled Naksu's soul into her body. However, if your soul returned to your OG body, would you say that you took over your own body? Probably not. So then what did Master Lee mean when he said, "her soul was actually locked up inside this body"? I thought this meant that one portion of her soul had locked itself up in her mind as a way to prevent itself from experiencing pain which stemmed from a traumatizing event (i.e boat incident). Think about this way, you have returned to your own body after being away from it for so long, but you do not realize this is your own body. You start to remember things you used to like, but all the sudden you are flooded with your old memories all at once...what would happen? You would freaking run wild. So in order to prevent this from happening, your soul/mind instinctively locks out the more painful memories.

What Master Lee is really asking is does Mama Jin you want to keep child Jin Bu Yeon soul or adult Jin Bu Yeon soul. Master Lee frames things to make it seem like it is a hard decision, but it is really not because it is the very same soul. Imagine you had to wipe your laptop and you are allowed to reset it from just ONE backup. Do you choose the older backup (i.e child Jin Bu Yeon) or the most recent backup (i.e adult Jin Bu Yeon)....you would probably choose the most recent backup because it contains both the older files and more recent files. Anyways, Master Lee wants Mama Jin to choose the adult Jin Bu Yeon so he uses reverse psychology on her.

So why did Jin Bu Yeon's soul transform her body/face into the "Naksu" face? Because this was the last adult face her soul "saw" and identified as being hers. Again, her soul is highly adaptive in response to its surroundings and therefore regenerates her body to reflect the last face she saw was hers (Naksu/GYJ face). In doing so, her soul is able to prevent her from running wild again. Remember Jin Bu Yeon was a blind soul before she entered the Cho Yeong body. Therefore, the first time she saw herself, she thought the Naksu/GYJ face was hers.

Where is the "Mirror of Longing" when you need it? Oh right...conveniently destroyed. I guarantee you if it hadn't been destroyed and you placed Jin Bu Yeon with the Naksu/GYJ face in front of it, it would show the JSM face reflecting back.

Also, I want you all to realize that shamans are not the only people who can change and erase memories….powerful mages like Master Lee can also erase memories. I would not leave out the possibility that it was Master Lee who changed Jin Bu Yeon’s memories to be that of Cho Yeong’s memories. He may have done this to prevent Jin Mu from being suspicious! Meaning he wanted to keep Jin Bu Yeon’s soul in the Cho Yeong body a secret. Additionally, both girls probably did not run wild after the swap because Master Lee had erased their memories.

Where do powers come from? The soul. Where do memories come from ? The soul. Everything comes from the soul, not body. A divine soul/energy is what makes the body divine, not the other way around. Master Lee is just deceiving Mama Jin for the time being.

Oh Master Lee...what he is really asking is if Mama Jin can bear the truth which is that her daughter used to be the assassin, "Naksu".

More reverse psychology on Mama Jin. Master Lee wants Jang Uk to stay away from Jin Bu Yeon because he has already seen what happens when they fall in love....they give up on their responsibilities, destinies, and ended up dying. So this is why he said what he said above. People tend to do stuff when they think they came to it on their own accord. Just remember Master Lee is super manipulative, he knows how to play people!!!

Does anyone notice anything interesting when you compare Master Lee's dialogue with Mama Jin and what he told Jin Bu Yeon? It is in a different order! By changing the order, Master Lee leads Mama Jin into believing that divine powers and memories are features of the body and not the soul. Why did Master Lee do this? It is because he does not want Mama Jin to figure it out just yet that Naksu's soul is Jin Bu Yeon's soul. If he had told Mama Jin outright that Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon, she would have tried to forced Jin Bu Yeon to remember stuff. In turn, this would lead Jin Bu Yeon to feel pressured and stressed which would have caused her to run wild again.

It is important that Jin Bu Yeon gradually integrates both sets of her memories (Jin Bu Yeon childhood memories (divine powers) + Jin Bu Yeon adulthood (Naksu skilled fighter) memories) otherwise her mind would overload. Memories have to come naturally instead of being forced. And this is also why Master Lee has not told Jang Uk that the soul he loved is in the body with the Naksu face. If Jang Uk had knew, he may have also been like Mama Jin and try to force Jin Bu Yeon to remember stuff before she is mentally ready which again could cause her to run wild. Jin Bu Yeon might seriously have a meltdown if she remembers the boat incident, killing her supposed father, killing her lover, etc all at once. Now, the only person Master Lee actually told the truth to is Jin Bu Yeon because she is the only one that matters.

If it does indeed turn out that Master Lee is the one who swapped Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong as children then his motivation could have been that he wanted Jin Bu Yeon to not only be a divine priestess, but also a 'highly skilled fighter. Additionally, he may have wanted to plant Jin Bu Yeon in the Cho Yeong's body so she could be a witness to all of Jin Mu's crimes. In doing so, Master Lee could use her to testify against Jin Mu. Recall, Daddy Jin was suppose to testify against Jin Mu, but he sadly got eliminated and this allowed Jin Mu to escape punishment once again.

Jin Bu Yeon is now the only person left that can testify against Jin Mu. As a child, Jin Bu Yeon was used by Jin Mu to get the Ice Stone. Then as an adult, Jin Mu used her to get cover his soul shifting schemes by having her kill innocent mages. Finally, Jin Bu Yeon was also a witness to how Jin Mu/Shaman Choi used the shaman bells to cause innocent people to run wild and kill others (i.e Cho Chung and herself). Once Jin Bu Yeon gives her testimony, it would finally absolve the names and faces of the parties involved from any crimes while putting Jin Mu away once and for all.

On the positive side, at least Master Lee has finally returned Jin Bu Yeon to her rightful place, face, and name....HAHAHA. MAN IS SERIOUSLY SO EXTREME!!

Traumatizing Events In Danhyanggot

After watching the latest two episodes, it caused me to rethink some things such as what really happened to Seo Yul and Naksu when they were teenagers. Back in Ep 6, Naksu pointed her sword at Seo Yul and you could see there was some blood on the tip of her sword. We never knew where the blood came from nor did we ever find out how exactly Naksu discovered that the boy she was in love with was Seo Yul from the Seo family.

Keeping in mind what we had previously discussed in the section before (changes to the soul can physically transform the body), I want to propose the theory that the teenage girl we saw in earlier episodes was actually Jin Bu Yeon's teenage face and not Cho Yeong's teenage face.

So this what I think happened back in the day... Jin Bu Yeon's soul in Cho Yeong's body initially projected the Jin Bu Yeon teenage face after the switch (probably done by Master Lee). It was only after she completed her first assassination assignment did her face transform into the Cho Yeong teenage face. Her first kill is what triggered this change starting first with her soul and then her face. This physical transformation represented the loss of childhood innocence and initiation into adulthood. Notice too that we never saw what teenage Jin Bu Yeon looked like. We assumed that the teenage girl in Danhyanggot was the face of teenage Cho Yeong, but as it turned out that face is actually the face of teenage Jin Bu Yeon.

For all we know, Seo Yul went after her and saw something he should not have....the gruesome transformation of Jin Bu Yeon's face into the teenage Cho Yeong face. Such a scene could have been so traumatic to Seo Yul that he chose to completely block it out from his memories until now. So why are these memories suddenly resurfacing? Maybe it is because of the Jin bloodworm in his heart! Hurry up Jin Bu Yeon....you need to remember everything so you can take out that Jin bloodworm before Seo Yul dies!!!

If you notice in the Part 2 teaser, they purposely chose to obscured the face of teen Naksu. Why would they have done so if we had already saw what teenage Naksu had looked like? It is because we are about to see a different face...the real face of teenage Cho Yeong.

Now going back to Ep 5, Seo Yul saw an hallucination of sorts. Initially, I thought this scene was suppose to represent the soul he knew as a teen was now in the JSM body as an adult. However, now I realize that it was suppose to represent the same soul and body instead of the just the same soul. I hope that makes sense haha.

Oh so where was I going with this? Right right…JSM will be returning! Once Jin Bu Yeon remembers everything (JBY childhood memories + JBY adulthood/Naksu memories), the GYJ face will transform into the JSM face. I am thinking this will either happen in this week’s upcoming episodes or the following week.

Face Amnesia

The theme in AOS should be convenience haha. Characters who are normally smart become conveniently dumb at certain points. Objects which could show a soul's true form gets conveniently destroyed. And now the latest.....characters who saw the Naksu/GYJ face conveniently developed face amnesia. For example, Master Heo Yeom, Park Dang Gu, Seo Yul, and the hundreds of people who attended the funeral in Ep 2 of Part 1. Many will say these people did not recognize the Naksu/GYJ face because she was dead. Speaking from experience, a dead person's appearance does not significantly change from when they were alive. They may look somewhat jaundice, but otherwise they pretty much look the same when preserved properly. Anyways, let's just go with it ....everyone who saw her dead face have developed facial amnesia through some unknown means haha.

It would seem that the only people who did not develop facial amnesia are the ones who saw the Naksu/GYJ face while she was alive (Jin Mu and Park Jin). It is understandable that Jin Mu would recognize the Naksu/GYJ face given he had seen it for a long time. Now with Park Jin, he is somehow conveniently out of the way. Meaning that despite him being someone who could easily recognize the Naksu/GYJ face, his character is sidelined for the sake of the plot. I guess this is why the Hong Sisters made Park Jin a complete hermit who does not travel outside to see the posters nor visit the Jang household where he could run into the Naksu/GYJ face. To me, this just makes stuff just feel so unnatural. Had Park Jin seen the posters or ran into the Naksu/GYJ face, you know perfectly well he would have said something to Jang Uk and this would ruin the whole Jin Mu is going to use the shaman bells to try to control Naksu plot. At least if Park Jin did this, the plot would be more exciting.

Since we have Jin Mu who recognizes the Naksu/GYJ face, we must also have someone who recognizes the Mu Deok/Jin Bu Yeon face aka Soi. The point to having these characters be able to recognize the GYJ and JSM face is that it sets up the real demise of Jin Mu. Currently, both the GYJ face and JSM face have been essentially burned. Both faces are associated with negative connotations (GYJ face-the killer assassin and JSM red wedding instigator) and therefore Jin Bu Yeon cannot even wear her true face. Where is this all heading? Once Jin Mu's crimes are exposed, Jin Bu Yeon will finally be able to show her true face (JSM face) without fear of being hunted down or treated like a monster.

Uncle Seo and Queen Seo

The Seo family are an interesting bunch. At first, Uncle Seo seemed like a fierce tiger, but he is actually one big scaredy cat. Then we have Queen Seo who is the most vain and self absorbed person in Daeho. Queen Seo believed she was not invited to the wedding because of the way she looked. In actuality, she was not invited because the wedding was suppose to be a secret. This further angered her and she threw a bitch fit. I guess Queen Seo will turn to Jin Mu to switch her into a different body since no one else seems to be willing to help her. Cry me a river Queen Seo!

I wonder what Jin Mu will ask for in return because y'all know Jin Mu...he does not do anything unless there is something in it for him. Maybe Queen Seo will give him Seoho Fortress in exchange for swapping her into a more beautiful body. Or it could be that Queen Seo will pull some strings so that the relics at Jinyowon will be moved to Cheonbugwan.

Jin Mu's Plan

Can we just skip to the good part where Jin Mu is exposed for all of his crimes and gets executed or something? His villain plot already hit its peak. I am tired of his character at this point. He is literally not doing anything new. I guess what will happen in the next eps is that Jin Mu will try to use the shaman bells to control Naksu once again, but it will not work this time. Why? Because Naksu's soul is transitioning to becoming her true self... Jin Bu Yeon. In Part 1, Naksu ran wild because Jin Mu pushed his evil energy into her as well as pushing memories which were not her own. This caused a conflict between her soul and body. I also want to point out that any time you have energy pushed into you which is not yours, you can run wild. For example, look what happened to Jang Gang when the energy of the AOS spell was poured into him...he ran wild!

#alchemy of souls #alchemy of souls light and shadow #AOS2 #there are probably grammatical mistakes #theories #analysis

[mindmeltonabunaosblog]

Alchemy of Souls Part 2: Theories and Analysis (Ep. 0)

Welcome back fellow readers!

A little housekeeping! For those who are lucky enough to make it in here, I just want to remind you that you will not be allowed to share any of my theories and/or ideas with ANYONE!!! This includes friends, family members, friends of friends, etc. If I find my stuff is leaked onto any social media platform, I will kick out those responsible without any further notice. If people continue to leak and share my stuff, I will shut this blog down permanently. I am sick and tired of others stealing my ideas/theories and then portraying them as their own.

Now with that out of the way, let’s put our thinking caps on! There’s a lot to discuss and analyze! 

Disclaimer: My theories for Part 2 may be highly erroneous given that I am basically working with nothing. I expect they will be more accurate once the first episode of Part 2 airs! Additionally, I am still sticking to my original theory that Naksu’s Soul=Jin Bu Yeon’s soul and Mu Deok’s Soul=Cho Yeong’s soul! If you are new to this blog, please be sure to read my other posts since I tend to build off of them.

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet: Hanja Meanings

Before we take a deeper dive into other stuff, I want to take a closer look at some of the hanja meanings of each characters' name. Why? Because it’s fun and it could reveal some relevant pieces of information! Additionally, I would like to thank my Korean friend who assisted me with all these hanja meanings!

It should be noted that the Hong Sisters did not officially provide the hanja for the characters’ names. I am well aware there was an article floating around which said someone from AOS said "Uk means light and Yeong means shadow". However, I did not find that article to be very reliable. It is like an article saying so and so said this. Unless this directly came from the Hong Sisters, I would be highly skeptical and conduct my own outside research to verify what the article said.

Now, what I believed the Hong Sisters did was incorporate several hanja meanings to formulate a common theme for each of the characters' names. I would also like to add that "Yeong" does not only mean "shadow". The hanja character specifically mentioned in the article also meant "light".

I have listed most of the hanja meanings for each of the characters below. I did not include hanja meanings for some minor characters just because I am too lazy to write more! Anyways, If you are curious and want to look up those characters' hanja meanings, I would strongly suggest using Naver's Hanja Dictionary!

Jin Family

Seol Ran (설란)

Seol (설): Name of sacrifice, kill, die, snow, bond, happy, white, and noble

Ran (란): Red cinnabar, red, vermillion, sincere, creator of chaos, orchid, bright, beautiful, pretty, shine, south, overflowing, waves, streaming water, bird, egg, and bell

Seol Ran: Snow Orchid, blue dragon, blue agave, blue orchid, and a sincere person who sacrificed themselves

Additional Notes: In Chinese Alchemy, red cinnabar was a highly prized ingredient believed to be one of the keys to immortality. Chinese alchemist would also heat red cinnabar to form liquid quicksilver otherwise known as mercury! It’s interesting that cinnabar changes color when heated. It is almost like the sun (red) and moon (blue/silver)!

Ho Kyung (호경)

Ho (호): Great, beautiful, love, pain, bitter, suffering, shouts loudly, tiger, brave, fierce, noble person, lake, protects, reaps, bird

Kyung (경): Ruler, star, seventh heaven, sun light/shadow, capital city, respectful, light, change

Ho Kyung: A great leader who is both beautiful and fierce, tiger mom, a person who has both experience great pain and happiness,   and, a noble person who is a greater leader

Bu Yeon (부연)

Bu (부):  A blessing to come back or return, float (in water), ruler, beautiful, carry many burden on one’s shoulders, rely on, to return again, auspicious, daughter in law, wife, wealthy, to be hidden or concealed, prophecies, charm, cherished, helpful, protector, damaged/rotting, advances quickly, master/teacher, to unfold/spread out, evidence, testimony, and sulfur tree cracked like a turtle's shell, to pay back, and to be punished

Yeon (연): Bright, sun, new year, connection , relationship, invisible line that connects people, fate, elegant, lucky, smoke/fog/soot, skillful, continuous feeling of longing for and loving someone, bird, beautiful, gentle, falling rain, rain spirit, follows the water, lotus flower, rice flower (rice), to burn, and dark blue metal (lead)

Bu Yeon: The whole story, a blessing fated to return or comeback, one who had to carry many burdens on one's shoulders, and beautiful lotus flower

Additional Notes: The name "Yeon" is a generational name. If you do not know what generational names are, please Google it!

Cho Yeon (초연)

Cho (초): The beginning, root/source, one who beckons or calls on spirits, acidic/sour, to bind, to entangle, to resemble, harsh, and candle

Yeon (연): Bright, sun, new year, connection , relationship, invisible line that connects people, fate, elegant, lucky, smoke/fog/soot, skillful, continuous feeling of longing for and loving someone, bird, beautiful, gentle, falling rain, rain spirit, follows the water, lotus flower, to burn, anddark blue metal (lead)

Cho Yeon: The appearance of not having relationship with others, a bright candle, one who participates in ancestral rites, and one who is both sour and sweet

Seo Family

Gyeong (경)

Gyeong (경): Star, past, gratitude, seventh, sun/shadow, ruler, good luck/auspicious, blessing/curse, fixes, respectful, Seoul, land border, to fight, to wait for awhile, capital city, light, to rule, startle, a surprise, the end, writing, noble, to plow/to farm, to make others obey (haha the character depicts a person hitting another person with a wooden spoon...wooden cane...same thing), smart with words, and to make a mirror (to set an example)

Yul (율)

Yul (율): Chestnut tree, tremble/fear, to lead, to follow, light, smart, scholarly, man of principle, melody/tune, cold, fortress, Jin (small castle), lightning, to shine/bright, a bird, flower clouds/auspicious clouds, charming, a rainbow, and a big wind

Additional Notes: The tree Yul and Naksu was sitting on was a chestnut tree. It should be noted that the name Yul means Jin. This could be a potential hint that Yul will eventually marry into the Jin family.

Il (일)

Il (일): One/first, sun, overflowing water, to run away, neglectful, to unify, and friendly

Additional Notes: It seems like General Il is a very strict man. Despite his other positive qualities, his flaw is that he can be cowardly and neglectful.

Ha Sun (하선)

Ha (하): False, fake, liar, summer, to shine, sunset, vilify, river, defective, flawed

Sun (선): Nice/good, kind, sister in law, hwan (to return), to cover up, envious

Ha Sun: A woman who shines brightly, a two faced woman, a person who is heavily flawed and envious of others

Additional Notes: I have noticed that anytime anyone has the hwan hanja they tend to be soul shifters. The hwan hanja was also present in the name "Yeong".

Yoon Oh (윤오)

Yoon (윤): Soft, docile, debate, moral, unorthodox king's seat, excessive, govern, director, heir, successor, to shine, pleasant, to lead, and handsome

Oh (오): Evil, bad, dirty, mean, black crow, five, daytime, to become enlighten, arrogant, sad, likes to enjoy life, and joker

Yoon Oh: A successor who will become enlighten, a person who is pleasant yet arrogant, black sheep of the family, and a person who does not take life seriously

Additional Notes: Yoon Oh has many conflicting meanings. It makes me think although he may seem like an evil person, he is a good person deep down.

Park Family

Jin (진)

Jin (진): Name of a star, truthful, rare treasure, cautious, to complete, one who pushes forward, thunderous, and war

Additional Notes: It is funny that Park Jin's name is "Jin" because it is also the surname of the family of which his nephew is trying to marry.

Dang Gu (당구)

Dang (당): Sweet/sugary, party, balanced, confident, loving, dignified, government office, loud, gathers people together, foolish, and honest

Gu (구): Expensive taste, long time, to become entangled, talker, puppy, to take charge of, genuine, and investigative,

Dang Gu: One who is the life of the party, a person who is sweet, genuine, loyal as a puppy, and a person who will work in a position of power

Jang Family

Uk (욱)

Uk (욱): Morning sun, sun, light, arrogant, brave, to shine brightly, regret, to suffer, warm, cherry blossom tree, to be sad, and hard worker

The Royals

Won/CP (원)

Won (원): Chief, king, nice, source/beginning, hopeful, ambitious, distant, resentful, petty, hateful, and helpful

Heo Family

Yeom (염)

Yeom (염): Hot tempered, innocent, acupuncture, cute, honest, salty, dislike, and light

Yun Ok (윤옥)

Yun (윤): Truthful, beautiful, moral, and extra/excessive

Ok (옥): King, leader, son of heaven, jade, shelter, to shine, and bright spirit, treasure, and beautiful virtue

Yun Ok: One who will shine beautifully and beautiful wife of a king or leader

Cho Family

Yeong (영)

Yeong (영): Sunlight/shadow, new year, flower, spirit, hwan (to come back)

Others

Naksu (낙수)

Nak (낙): Road, passage, journey, music, song/tune, musical instrument, falling rock, to fall, and connected/entangled

Su (수): Water, great, to lead, to follow, heir, fate, water overflowing, long life, tree, and method

Naksu: Falling water, Zelkova tree, word to describe the story behind something, and ears of grain falling in a field after harvesting, one who follows a road, entangled fate, and one who follows the music

Mu Deok (무덕)

Mu (무): Nothing, no, not, raised by an older woman, lakeside, perish, fog, dark, change, exchange, defame, and shaman

Deok (덕): virtue, blessing, and good deed

Mu Deok: No virtue, no blessing, and a person who was raised by an older woman on the lakeside

Master Lee Cheol (이철)

Cheol (철): Bright, wise, Iron, black iron, smart, wise, firm, unchanging, strong, knowledgeable, to reap, wise man, and sage,

Light and Shadow Theme

It has been hilarious to watch numerous simple-minded people particularly on Twitter say Part 2 is all about Jang Uk and Cho Yeong because the hanja meanings for their names is “light” and “shadow” respectively. As you can see above, the hanja character used in that article does not only mean “shadow” for Cho Yeong. I think the title, “Light and Shadow” can be applied more broadly to all the characters and is not exclusive to just Jang Uk and Cho Yeong. 

Anyways, what does light and shadow mean exactly? What does it represent? Light can symbolize truth, the sun, happiness, goodness, clarity, life, and peace. In contrast, dark can symbolize hidden truths, the moon, sadness, evil, confusion, death, anger, and chaos. You get my drift. Within each of us, we all have a light and dark side. We are a combination of yin and yang. In Part 1, we saw Jang Uk’s light side and in Part 2, we will see his dark side. Same goes for Yul except in reverse. In Part 1, we saw Seo Yul’s dark side which was cold, distant, and constrained. In Part 2, we get to see his light side which is warm, friendly, and relaxed.

Now let’s talk about the dark and light side of our favorite person….Naksu. Her dark and light side is a bit complicated largely due to the fact she does not know who she really is. And if you have been following me for a while, you all know who I think Naksu really is…Jin Bu Yeon. Most will say that Naksu’s dark side is her assassin side, but I think her dark side is also Jin Bu Yeon, her shadow self. The side which has been kept hidden and buried deep in her sub conscious for so long and is waiting to come out! And soon in Part 2, it will finally be free! I am sorry, but HONG SISTERS DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO DRAG OUT IT FOR ALL 20 EPISODES?! I said it once, I will say it again, Naksu needs a psychologist! Naksu was experiencing an identity crisis on epic portions while suffering from multiple personality disorder which may have resulted from childhood trauma/amnesia! Some other random thoughts.....Jin Bu Yeon is a moon child and the moon itself has a light and dark side....it is not completely dark!

Anyways, I just want you all to realize is that each and every one of the characters, they are all undergoing both physical and mental transformations! In Part 2, they will be exploring the other side of themselves! 

Jang Uk

Moving on to the man of the hour, Jang Uk. I want to first begin this section by saying I am honestly kind of done with his story. For the entirety of Part 1, I felt like too much focus was placed on his character and not enough attention was given to Naksu’s story and her own journey of self-discovery. It felt super unbalanced. The Hong Sisters only had one great mystery (identity of Jin Bu Yeon) up their sleeve and they purposely chose to drag it out in a variety of ways. For example, they made certain characters dumb (i.e Naksu, Mama Jin, Seo Yul) or placed too much focus on a single character (i.e Jang Uk).

In Part 1, the spotlight was heavily placed on Jang Uk which led to other characters' stories being pushed into the shadows. From what I have seen so far of Part 2, it would seem that Jang Uk is more or less the same childish, selfish, arrogant, impulsive, and irresponsible person as he was in Part 1. The only difference this time is that he has the Ice Stone within him. Throughout Part 1, he begged for his powers back without thinking it would come with many responsibilities. Maybe now he can understand things from Seo Yul's point of view which is that it is not always easy to do what you want when you have many responsibilities placed upon you. Sometimes you have to learn to sacrifice things for the greater good.

I hope he will learn to grow up and not be so selfish. Maybe he will realize that his actions can and do impact those surrounding him like Kim Do Joon and Seo Yul. He is no longer a child and needs to think of others before thinking about of himself and his grief. I mean look at Kim Do Joon, she is choosing to remain a single maid at the Jang household instead of marrying Park Jin because she is worried about Jang Uk.

Instead of going around hunting every soul shifter there is, maybe he should learn to calm down and be more calculated in order to find a way to get rid of the source aka Jin Mu. Maybe he should listen to that song from "Frozen".... "Let It Go". He is becoming as Master Lee had said, "greedy and obsessive". He has let his own grief and desire for vengeance blind him from seeing things clearly. The world is depending on him and he needs to use his powers for the betterment of humanity as a whole instead of wallowing in his grief. He needs to step up!

Moving forward, I hope Part 2 does not remain the Jang Uk show and that other characters' stories will also be shown. Finally, before any of you say I am an anti Lee Jae Wook fan, I am not. You can like an actor, but not particularly like the character they play.

Seven Stars (Chilseong)

Going back to Ep 15, we saw Master Lee saying how the light of the King Star and the energy of the surrounding seven stars would not shine yet and it got me thinking.... who do these seven stars represent? In Greek mythologies, it is believed that after a person dies, their soul travels to the heavens and become stars. Given this, maybe the seven stars were innocent souls who had died or fallen because of the Ice Stone. My top guesses are: King Seong, Jang Gang, Jin Bu Yeon, Cho Chung, Cho Yeong, Daddy Jin, and Jang Uk. Some might ask why Jang Uk is included in this list? Because he had to die in order for his soul to be transformed into a more powerful one. Ultimately, all of these deaths gave rise for the 8th star (King Star) to finally shine.

In Korean myths, there is also a famous tale of how the seven stars came to be! Without getting into too much detail, I will just say it is a myth about seven sons who heroically saved their mother by bringing her back to life with a resurrection flower (haha resurrection flower…get it?). For their heroic act, the heavens rewarded the seven sons by turning them into stars which later became known as the "Big Dipper".

Other myths connected to the seven stars include the Chinese folk tale, "The Cowherd and The Weaver Girl". It is a story about the heavenly King’s daughter, Jingnyeo, who was a talented weaver and a man named Gyeonu who was a herder. Jingnyeo and Gyeonu were madly love and the King eventually allowed them to get married. Soon after their wedding, both Jingynyeo and Gyeonu began to ignore their responsibilities. The King became furious about this and decided to separate them. Sadden for the young couple, the birds decided to build a bridge which would allow the couple to see each other once a year. Something worth noting is how similar the names of Jingnyeo and Gyeonu are to Jin Seol Ran and Seo Gyeong. Also, the notion of bridge connecting lovers to one another was also present in AOS (i.e Jang Uk/Naksu and Seo Yul/Naksu).

The Fake Burning of Jang Uk’s Body

The Hong Sisters are masters of deception. They like to trick viewers into thinking one thing by manipulating what one sees or does not see. Remember, your eyes can deceive you when it comes to stuff in AOS! So let’s talk about Jang Uk’s funeral and what was so odd about it!

We had a total of four body burnings in AOS (GYJ body, Master Lee, Master Kang, and Jang Uk). What is interesting about these burnings is the time of day (day vs night) and whether or not these bodies were placed into coffins. Both the GYJ body and Master Lee's burnings were conducted during broad day light and their bodies were not placed into coffins. In contrast, both Master Kang and Jang Uk's burnings were done during the nighttime and their bodies were placed into coffins. So what does it tell you? It could tell you that the truth about Master Kang and Jang Uk is being concealed.

With Jang Uk, the truth which was concealed is that his body was never burned. The purpose to his body burning scene is that it placed the idea in many viewers' mind the notion that bodies could be brought back from ashes. Tricky tricky Hong Sisters! This is similar to how they showed the initial switch between Jang Gang and King and then showed the switch between Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong which led to many viewers thinking the switch between those girls was the initial switch. Point being, the damage has already been done, many viewers have already gotten into their heads that the switch between Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong was the initial switch and that bodies can be brought back from ashes.

What actually healed Jang Uk's stab wound was Jin Bu Yeon jumping into Lake G (noticed how the fire turned blue like ice once Jin Bu Yeon jumped into the lake?) and the Ice Stone which was within him. It almost seems like Jin Bu Yeon's death had activated the Ice Stone within Jang Uk!

Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong

Ok now onto the switch which is literally the bane of my existence! I will say this once more, Mu Deok/Cho Yeong is not an important character in the whole grand scheme of things. If anything, Mu Deok/Cho Yeong is a plot device used to confused viewers from uncovering the real truth which is that Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon. Viewers became so distracted by all the recent posters and teasers that they completely forgot the Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong mystery still remains unsolved. Additionally, it was never revealed why exactly Naksu experienced all these dizzy spells at Jinyowon. To add more confusion, the Hong Sisters decided to bring back the GYJ body. Side note, I truly feel sorry for those who did not solve the mystery of which alternative identity (Naksu and Mu Deok) had belonged to which real identity (Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong). These people are about to get really confused in Part 2. For those whom I managed to convince that Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon, you won't have as hard of a time! All you have to do now is track which body contains the soul of Jin Bu Yeon!

Whose Soul is In the GYJ Body?

Given the nature of this show, one of the first questions one should always ask is whose soul is in a certain body. We have two choices in this case: Jin Bu Yeon or Cho Yeong. I have debated this for a while now and arrived to the conclusion that it is Cho Yeong’s soul that is contained in the GYJ body. However, I could be completely wrong and this is the Jin Bu Yeon soul in the GYJ body. If that is the case, I would be totally fine with that!

I think this is Cho Yeong's soul in the GYJ body because we had already seen the Jin Bu Yeon soul in the GYJ body in Ep1 of Part 1. Therefore, it would seem repetitive for the Hong Sisters to do this again. However, they could very well do this again! The Hong Sisters could do a single twist (Jin Bu Yeon is Naksu and she currently is in the GYJ body) or they could do a double twist (Jin Bu Yeon is Naksu and the soul in the GYJ body is not Jin Bu Yeon). Seeing as how the Hong Sisters have dragged the Jin Bu Yeon/Cho Yeong mystery out for so long, I am thinking they are going for the double twist!

Another reason for why I think it is the Cho Yeong soul in the GYJ body is the behavior of TvN. They have been pretty suspicious. For example, they placed a female’s silhouette on the character diagram without a name. Why did they not simply place GYJ's face on it and simply say "Naksu". Furthermore, they could say something like Naksu's soul returned to her OG body, but she has lost her memories. In this sense, they could maintain the Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong mystery. They could even have played up the mystery of how the GYJ body came back. However, since TvN did not choose to do any of these things, this furthers my suspicions this is just the Cho Yeong soul in the GYJ body.

Adding to all of this, the AOS cast did not appear on Amazing Saturday to promote their show nor hold a press conference like they did previously for Part 1. Something just smells really fishy and I am not talking about Master Lee’s fishes either!

When you think about it, both JSM and GYJ have now played Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong. It’s fun right? Anyways, what this all means is that I think JSM will be reprising her role as Jin Bu Yeon while GYJ will be playing Cho Yeong (as in plain old Cho Yeong…not a member of the Jin, Seo, or Choi  family or a water dragon…I can’t I really can’t with some of this other ridiculous theories). Some may ask if JSM is indeed the FL, why did she not appear in any of the posters or teasers? Simply put, it would be a major spoiler if she had appeared in them!

Jin Bu Yeon

Now, let's talk about the character who is basically the whole story which is Jin Bu Yeon! She is basically like a cat with nine lives or four lives! It must be exhausting for her to have died a total of four times now. I would definitely not want her fate that is for damn sure lol! Dying once seems bad enough, but four times? That just seems so excessive! I hope for her sake this will be the last time she has to come back to life!

The Disappearance

What still remains a great mystery is just who exactly had shifted Jin Bu Yeon’s and Cho Yeong’s soul when they were kids. At first, I thought it could have been Shaman Choi and Jin Mu, but I am starting to suspect it was Master Lee all along. In one of the last episodes, the camera panned out to the lakeside as if there was someone watching the whole boat incident happen. This made me think of Master Lee because he is known to have a hobby of fishing things out of the water!

So what could be Master Lee’s motivation for shifting the souls of the two girls? Well, it could have been he wanted to make Jin Bu Yeon stronger. If you could not already tell, Master Lee is quite an extreme person! Remember what does not kill you, will make you stronger. And before any of you say Master Lee would not do that. He would. That man basically chemically castrated himself just to obtain more power. Let’s also remind ourselves that he did not prevent Jang Uk from getting stabbed. Rather he just went fishing or whatever and allowed Jang Uk to get stabbed just so Jang Uk could come back stronger. THAT MAN IS EXTREME OK? Master Lee is the type of person who would not give you a warning before pushed you off the cliff, he would just straight up do it. Another possibility is that the person who switched the girls back then was Jin Bu Yeon herself! Who knows really though!

Memories

In my previous posts, I had mentioned how I thought it was Jin Mu who brainwashed Jin Bu Yeon into believing that she was Cho Yeong. However, after watching Ep 19 (Shaman Choi and Jin Mu conversation), I was left to wonder if Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong had transferred their memories through some sort a psychic tunnel which was formed as a result of their initial switch. The other possibility is that Shaman Choi changed Jin Bu Yeon's memories to reflect Cho Yeong's memories. There are still many unknowns! However, I do believe that whoever had performed the initial switch between the two girls were also responsible for the change in their memories.

The Cure for Jin Bu Yeon’s Petrification

At the end of EP 20, we saw Jin Bu Yeon become petrified. After which, she jumped into Lake G and was then rescued by mages from Jinyowon. We do not know what happened to her after that. From the teasers, it seems there is a petrified woman currently residing in Jinyowon. For now, I am assuming this is Jin Bu Yeon and she was able to be cured of her petrification. However, the method utilized to cure her of her petrification remains a mystery!

When it comes to curing Jin Bu Yeon of her petrification, there could be three possible ways with the first being herself. I had said previously that the key to Jin Bu Yeon regaining her Ice Stone powers is all in her head. Meaning, she needs to remember who she was before which is Jin Bu Yeon…the Ice Stone. She may have regain both her memories and powers by staying at Jinyowon for a long time or she could have regain her memories after she lost consciousness in Lake G. In turn, this would cure her of her petrification. The second way could be whatever method Master Heo Yeom used on Master Kang. However, I do not think Mama Jin would have reached out to Master Heo Yeom given that she probably would not want anyone to know she fished Jin Bu Yeon out of the lake in the first place. The third method could be to extract the Ice Stone from Jang Uk. However, we do not know if Mama Jin is even aware the Ice Stone is in Jang Uk, but we can play devil's advocate for a hot minute! If Mama Jin does know he had the Ice Stone within him, I feel like she would have tried to get it from him. However, since she has not as far as I can tell, I am thinking she was successful in finding and reviving Jin Bu Yeon. 

Cho Yeong 

I will admit I was shocked to see Go Yoon Jung appearing in the preview at the end of Ep.20! After the initial shock, I kept asking myself just how exactly did that body come back from a pile of ashes? Nothing in this show had indicated that such a thing could even be possible. Bringing back souls from the dead was possible, but bodies? No, it wasn’t possible at least in the context of what had been shown. I racked my brain trying to think of a variety of ways it could be possible while connecting them to the themes of alchemy and souls. After countless hours of researching and thinking, I could only come up with three possible ways: 1) Mama Jin created a homunculus 2) Mama Jin used some sort of blood magic 3) Mama Jin used a soul bracelet.

Creation of a Body? Homunculus? Blood Magic?

So, what exactly is a homunculus? In lamest terms, a homunculus is an artificially created human. I just like to call them "petri dish humans" or "test tube babies". Alchemists back in the day believed they could create these “tiny humans” by mixing a bunch of ingredients (blood, bones, sperm, herbs, a form of energy like electricity, philosopher stone/Ice Stone, ashes) into whatever container (beaker, cauldron, animal, etc).

An example of a homunculus from pop culture is Voldemort’s body in Harry Potter. The ingredients used in this case was bone of one’s father, flesh of servant, and blood of enemy. These ingredients were subsequently combined and mixed in a cauldron! Side note, special credit is goes to Yu from Twitter who mentioned this Harry Potter reference to me!

Collectively, maybe what Mama Jin did was that she found some of Cho Chung’s (or Cho Yeong) bones or ashes and blood from the arrow Park Jin shot in Ep. 1 and mixed them in a bath tub or whatever. Following this, the concoction needed a source of energy which could be obtain from creation of a lightning storm, Mama Jin pouring her energy into it, or extraction of Ice Stone energy from the relics. The other theory I have is that she used some sort of blood magic or sorcery on the blood that was on contained on Park Jin’s arrow which shot the GYJ body in Ep 1. That’s all I got for how to create a body. Sorry!

The Bracelet

So now let’s talk about this mysterious bracelet! If I had to choose between these theories and the ones I had just mentioned (homunculus and blood magic/sorcery), I would probably choose these just because they seem more aligned with the theme of souls. Anyways here are some of the theories I have for what the bracelet is: 

Jin relic which reflects the form of the soul which was contained in it (Yu from Twitter also told me how this theory of mine reminded her of the Dreamstone from Wonder Woman 1984)

Duracell battery pack which keeps the wearer alive

Resurrection Stone from Harry Potter

Of these three, I feel like #1 is the most likely explanation of what the bracelet is, but it could very well be the other two! Essentially, what the "glamour bracelet" or "soul bracelet" could do is that it brings back the desired soul and then project its appearance outwardly. The body underneath could be some random dead person or it could also be the petrified JSM body. I am leaning more towards it being the former just because if this was the petrified JSM body then Seo Yul would have his energy sucked out of him when he touched it. Overall, I think the bracelet contains the Cho Yeong's soul. Although I cannot say with certainty that it does not contain Jin Bu Yeon's soul!

Why Is Cho Yeong Being Kept In the Prison At Jinyowon?

One theory I have as to why Cho Yeong is being kept as a prisoner in Jinyowon is because Mama Jin does not want Cho Yeong to escape and reveal that she had used sorcery to bring Cho Yeong back (in order to figure out which soul was her daughter's). Mama Jin could have killed Cho Yeong and discarded her remains, but maybe Jin Cho Yeon had talked her out of it. It also could be that since Mama Jin got Jin Bu Yeon back, she decided to spare Cho Yeong’s life.

Additionally, I think by the time we see Cho Yeong in the prison, Mama Jin has have already found Jin Bu Yeon. Why? Because if there was any potential that the soul in the GYJ body was Jin Bu Yeon, she would have provided better accommodations. Also, Cho Yeong does not appear to be wearing the famous Jin winged eyeliner. I feel like I am having deja vu. First it was Soi who impersonated Jin Bu Yeon and now it is Cho Yeong...maybe third time is the charm! Side note, in the recent bts vid by Jin Mu, GYJ appears to be wearing the exact dress Soi wore in Ep 17 during the assembly...could this be the Hong Sister's way of hinting to viewers this is yet again another Jin Bu Yeon imposter?

Other questions I have is how Cho Yeong is freely roaming around without anyone saying anything? I mean a lot of people did attend the GYJ body burning and therefore would have recognized the face and associated it with Naksu the assassin. Did Mama Jin use Jin Cho Yeon to pull some strings with Park Dang Gu? Who knows!

Jang Uk vs Seo Yul…Who Will Find Jin Bu Yeon’s Soul First?

Between Jang Uk and Seo Yul, I wonder who will be the first to discover Jin Bu Yeon's soul? The thing about Cho Yeong and Jin Bu Yeon is that both share a few similarities which might make it difficult to differentiate between the two souls. However, these two do also have notable differences. I have listed below several similarities and differences between the two girls that might be helpful for Part 2!

Similarities 

1. Dads died because of Jin Mu 2. Abandoned at an early age 3. Familiar with Jang household (Jin Bu Yeon while working in the 4. Jang house and Cho Yeong while visiting the Jang house with her dad) 5. Recognizes the name "Mu Deok" 6. Has amnesia (Jin Bu Yeon has childhood amnesia while Cho Yeong has complete amnesia)

Differences

Jin Bu Yeon 1. Born to a divine mage family 2. Loved birds 3. Could climb trees 4. Could see energy and things most could not 5. Able to control relics 6. Kind, but had her limits 7. Spent childhood living in Danhyanggok 8. Knows how to play the bird whistle  9. Gets disoriented when coming into contact with stuff from Jinyowon  10. Able to open the doors of Jinyowon  11. Able to cast spells 12. Did not see her constellation plate  13. Does know the name Naksu 14. Has blue eyes 15. Associated with Jin purple, colors of late summer (mint green and salmon pink), and moon/night sky (purple, blue, etc)

Cho Yeong

1. Born to a normal mage family 2. Foolishly kind  3. May or may not have powers (I know in one of the eps they said she could see water, but this might have been a result of being switched with the ice stone at a young age) 4. Knew what Jin Mu looked like 5. Spent childhood in Sari Village 6. Spent some time in Danhyanggot and therefore may know some parts of Danhyanggot 7. Saw her constellation plate as a child 8. Does not know the name Naksu 9. Does not have blue eyes 10. Associated with red and shades of red (i.e pink)

What I think will happen is that Jang Uk will think Cho Yeong is the Mu Deok he once knew. He will call her “Mu Deok” and she will probably say that name sounds familiar because she did go by as “Mu Deok” when she lived in Sari. There are some things though that could give away that she is not Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon such as if Jang Uk takes her to Sari and it triggers some memories. Recall that Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon never lived in Sari. Other things that could give her away is if Jang Uk calls her “Naksu”. If Cho Yeong says she does not recognize that name, it would indicate to Jang Uk that she is not the soul he fell in love with in Part 1. Additionally, I do not know if Cho Yeong ever traveled outside of that cabin in Danhyanggok so she might not recognize the tall tree when Jang Uk takes her there.

Some might ask if Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon got her memories back, why did she not approach Jang Uk and talked to him? Maybe Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon felt really guilty for what she did to him and therefore could not find the courage to face him.

I do not think Jang Uk is meant to find Jin Bu Yeon. There has been some signs which indicated since the very beginning. For example, Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon never told Jang Uk about all the strange things she experienced while at Jinyowon. Furthermore, Master Know It All Lee did told Jang Uk to go to Sari to find out more information about "Mu Deok" for a reason. I believe the reason for this will come into play in Part 2 when Jang Uk helps Cho Yeong to discover who she really is. Maybe Jang Uk and Cho Yeong were destined to be with each other from the start, but some things got in the way. During the bachelor party, recall that Jang Uk did say he liked Mu Deok while Seo Yul said he liked Naksu. And well, Jang Uk will get Mu Deok aka Cho Yeong. Be careful what you wish for!

I think it will be Seo Yul who discovers Jin Bu Yeon's soul first. Remember, he did say he liked the girl from Danhyaggok before she became known as "Naksu". The soul there was Jin Bu Yeon. Although Seo Yul did not know much about her at the time, he at least knew of her fondness for birds. It is this piece of information that might be central to helping Seo Yul to recognize that the soul in the GYJ body is not the same soul he had once loved. Naksu's fondness of birds is also a habit which has remained with her consistently despite everything else. It is also a habit that connects her to her true identity (Jin Bu Yeon). Another thing which can be proven to be useful in finding Jin Bu Yeon is the Jin bloodworm currently residing in Seo Yul's heart (how symbolic). Who knows, maybe the Jin bloodworm will lead him to Jinyowon and allow him to open the doors of Jinyowon to finally find the real Jin Bu Yeon.

When it comes to Jang Uk and Jin Bu Yeon, I do not think this pairing would be good romantically. You have a King Star and an Ice Stone which are both powerful beings. If they got angry at each other, they could potentially destroy all of Daeho in their rage. It is like two nuclear bombs! Both Jang Uk and Jin Bu Yeon are very impulsive people so they need to be with calm people to balance them out. Plus, we have already seen how they were together. They both gave up on their responsibilities and did not have any further ambitions to grow as people. 

Seo Yul

When it comes to Seol Yul, there were so many weird things about him that I did not initially notice until I had my eureka moment in Ep 16. After this, I began to pay more attention to Seo Yul and rewatch his parts more closely. Anyways, let's talk about all the strange things about him and how it all relates to Jin Bu Yeon!

Clairvoyant

Is this man a seer? At the end of Ep 20 after Jin Bu Yeon became petrified, I was like OMG Seo Yul’s vision came true! In Ep 7, he saw Jin Bu Yeon with the side braids (a style she wore as a child) and in Ep 19….she fashioned her hair the exact same way as the mirror image (or future Jin Bu Yeon as I like to call it). I think Seo Yul sees is the future states of Jin Bu Yeon. I do not know how or why he is able to do so. It could be that this clairvoyant ability runs in the Seo family or it is a rare ability exclusive to Seo Yul. It also could be derived from some sort of magical connection that was formed between his ancestor (Seo Gyeong) and Jin Bu Yeon’s ancestor (Jin Seol Ran). Additionally, maybe this ability was awakened in him in order to prevent another great chaos. Who knows! I just found it very strange! From the teasers, it looks like Seo Yul has more visions so just pay close attention to what happens in them ! They might reveal Jin Bu Yeon's whereabouts!

White Symbolism

Upon further reexamination, I noticed also how most of the things which were given to Jin Bu Yeon was all white (i.e white flower, white umbrella, and white bird). The color white signifies rebirth, resurrection, innocence, and purity.

In specific, the flower meaning of the flower Seo Yul gave to Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon is gratitude, elegant, everlasting beauty, happy life, pure love, weddings, and divine goddess. The name of this particular flower is called, "Column Stock White Goddess Matthiola". I think the Hong Sister had been foreshadowing that Seo Yul and Jin Bu Yeon would end up together. The flower which was placed in her hair reminded me of a binyeo pin (for those not aware guys usually buy girls a binyeo pin to show their intention of marrying them). It is like the Hong Sisters did a "fresh" take on a binyeo pin. Recall that while at the market, Jang Uk did not buy Jin Bu Yeon the binyeo pin which could signify they would probably not be getting married. 

With the white bird is what connects Naksu to her true identity which is Jin Bu Yeon since it is known Jin women are associated with birds. It is also what connects Naksu to happy childhood memories in Danhyanggok. Side note... birds in literature are seen as messengers between the sky and land (water is also a bridge a between the sky and land)! The hanja meanings for "bird" include feather, the highest, Big Dipper, island, phoenix, prisoner of war, shamanistic, renewal, one of the castles, autumn, and to fall.

Something else worth noting is the white flower Jin Bu Yeon had carved at the servant competition. Though it is not connected to Seo Yul, it is still connected to the Jin family crest which is a flower!

The Bloodworm Antidote

Now onto the icky red wedding blood worm! I would like to give credit to my Korean friend for proposing this theory! During one of our many conversations, my friend reminded me that in AOS, the antidote to a poison can only come from the person in which it derived from. In this case, the bloodworm (poison) came from the Jin family. Therefore, the antidote is probably a Jin female aka Jin Bu Yeon. Maybe Jin Bu Yeon will remove the blood worm through sorcery aka Ice Stone power by placing her hand over his heart. If this occurs, it would parallel to the scene in Ep 8 where Seo Yul placed his hand near her heart to heal her injury. My friend also informed me that one of the hanja meaning for the show title is "blood marriage". When the Jin bloodworm was introduced into Seo Yul's system, it symbolized a blood marriage between Jin and Seo families.

Master Lee 

Ok we cannot talk about AOS and not talk about one of my most favorite characters....Master Know It All Lee...the man who talks in metaphors/riddles and has a chaste tea drinking problem! After I correctly predicted that Master Lee is a soul shifter, I am still patiently awaiting to see if he turns out to be Seo Gyeong! We still do not know the exact details of what exactly happened to Seo Gyeong after the Great Chaos. For all we know, he could have retreated into the mountains as Seo Gyeong and then came back down as "Master Lee".

I definitely feel like this will be revealed in Part 2 because they had introduced the Seo lanterns for another reason besides being used to determine if Queen Seo was alive or not. Every one of the great mage families in AOS has a dark secret. Maybe the Seo family’s great secret is that Seo Gyeong’s lantern is still lit which would indicate he is still very much alive. I believe this information would only be known to the leader of Seoho so I do not think Seo Yul or Queen Seo are aware of Seo Gyeong’s lantern. 

Additionally, it seems like Master Lee and Seo Yul do share some similar personality traits. For example, both are poor communicators when it comes to love and they like to give flowers to women they like. I swear to God if Master Lee starts walking in the wrong direction when he gets flustered, I know he is definitely Seo Gyeong! Remember that both Seo Yul and the Crown Prince (Seo Yul's cousin) do walk in the wrong direction when they are flustered so it seems this trait does run in the Seo family.

Upon rewatching AOS for the 100th time, I also noticed something else that was odd about Master Lee.....he built his house exactly where Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon’s old house was. Danhyanggok is a large place so Master Lee could have built his place somewhere else. By purposely choosing to build his house where Naksu's former home was, it tells me that Master Lee may have been keeping tabs on Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon for a long time now.

The other thing about Master Lee is that he is super manipulative. When he has a goal in mind, he will get people to doing whatever he wants without them ever knowing they were being manipulated by him in the first place. As to what his true end goal is? I do not really know. I can only speculate and say he wants to return things to their rightful place. Or it could be that he finally wants to retire or die. If he is indeed Seo Gyeong aka the King Star, his goal could be that he wanted to live long enough to train and pass down his wealth of knowledge the next King Star. What a sad and lonely life it must have been for Master Lee/Seo Gyeong! To deal with such a depressing fate, King Stars cope by drinking....Master Lee/Seo Gyeong with chaste tea and Jang Uk with alcohol. They should form a support group to deal with their drinking problem.

Endgames, Alliances, Marriage of Seasons

Throughout this series, there has been clashes between the great mage families as well as the great mage families and the royals. One way to prevent all these clashes is through marriage! Back in the day, it was common for families to marry their kids to other kids from great families in order to form alliances. In this way, people would not fight with one another because they would be related. For example, if Jin Cho Yeon and Park Dang Gu had gotten married, the Jin and Park family would’ve been related and not fight as much. Symbolically, their marriage would have been a marriage between the spring and summer season. 

Now the one person who has contributed the most to the current chaos is none other than Jin Bu Yeon. She is basically at the center of everything. Her disappearance caused a great deal of chaos, but her return will also bring great peace. As for her season, I think she is late summer which is a season that is the center of all the other seasons and is a transitional period. And let’s be real….Jin Bu Yeon has transitioned so many times now. Anyways, if we are going in order of the cycle of seasons then she would marry Autumn aka Seo Yul. In doing so, the Jin and Seo family will finally form an alliance which was meant to be since 200 years ago. In addition, in leaked Part 2 photos, Seo Yul was seen wearing purple robes which are colors associated with the Jin family. Furthermore, his purple robe was nearly identical to the robes worn by Daddy Jin Part 1. 

This finally leaves us with winter aka Jang Uk. So who would he marry? Initially, I thought he would marry Heo Yun Ok because this would form an alliance between Seo/Heo and Jang family, but given GYJ’s appearance, maybe Jang Uk will marry Cho Yeong. Such a marriage could symbolize the close friendship/relationship that their dads once had. In addition, maybe Jang Uk and Cho Yeong had met as kids since Cho Chung did often visit the Jang house with Cho Yeong. Who knows…maybe Cho Yeong was his first first love. Anyways, the other possibility is that Jang Uk will marry no one because it is as Master Lee says….the life of a King Star is a sad and lonely one.

Other Characters

Uncle Seo and Queen Seo

In Part 2, we will be introduced to Seo Yul’s cousin once removed (I am calling him Uncle Seo for simplicity sake). Some questions I have is what role does his character play in the current events of things? Just based on his hanja meaning, it feels like his character may seem like a villain at first, but he will eventually turn out to be a good guy. Maybe the purpose to his character is that he will take over Seoho Fortress which would allow Seo Yul to be free to marry Jin Bu Yeon. Recall that Seo Yul is currently the heir apparent to Seoho Fortress so he cannot marry a Jin since he also has to lead his own house. Other random thought............who are the Seo's fighting? Are they fighting amongst themselves or a new enemy?

In leaked pics of Part 2, Uncle Seo was seen with Queen Seo and Jin Mu. This rises the question of why he and Queen Seo are meeting Jin Mu? Are these two planning to join hands with Jin Mu to get something? I highly doubt Uncle Seo and Queen Seo are meeting with Jin Mu to ask if he can save Seo Yul from the bloodworm. Instead, I think they are meeting with Jin Mu for two different reasons. Maybe Uncle Seo wants Jin Mu’s help to take over Seoho Fortress while with Queen Seo she wants Jin Mu to switch her into more beautiful body. Additionally while we are on the subject of Queen Seo, what ever happened to Shaman Choi? I mean I did not think she would simply die with a flick of Park Jin’s wrist. Who knows…maybe it’ll be revealed what happen to Shaman Choi in Part 2. 

Jang Gang

Although Jang Gang is now a pile of ashes and gone with the wind, it was never revealed just what the hell he was doing for 20 years. I think this was purposely done because it was connected to the mystery of Jin Bu Yeon and Cho Yeong. Hopefully it will be revealed just what exactly Jang Gang had did for 20 years in Part 2.

Final Thoughts 

Whew, this post was not nearly as long as I had expected! There are some things I have left out just because I do not feel like writing anymore (this post was already 20 pages in Microsoft Word). I know I have forgotten to mention some other things, but if there is anything you want to ask which is not found within this posts or previous posts, please feel free to comment below or use the ask me anything button! I cannot wait for this season to begin and to see how many more mind games the Hong Sisters will play. Finally to be clear, based on what I have analyzed so far, I do believe JSM will return and it will completely surprise the majority of the fandom. If this does indeed turn out to be true, I will say this, do not let what you see with your eyes fool you! 

Update 12/9/22

Just some other random thoughts I have:

1) Jin Mu is the one who orchestrated the whole soul shifter being near Jinyowon incident. He probably wants to find out what Mama Jin has been guarding so he uses his bells to control one of his soul shifters. He knows Jang Uk will follow the soul shifter. Anyways what Jin Mu is basically doing is using Jang Uk to do his bidding without Jang Uk being aware of it.

2) Jin Mu will try to control who he thinks is Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon to kill Jang Uk again…however what he doesn’t know is that he ends up controlling Cho Yeong/MD instead of Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon. Remember that when Cho Yeong had returned to her body, she is considered a soul shifter.

#there are probably grammatical mistakes #alchemy of souls #AOS #alchemy of souls light and shadow #theories #analysis

[mindmeltonabunaosblog]

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Do not ask me questions and then use my answers to formulate own "theories" and post them as your own thoughts on social media.

Do report to me if you find someone who has been leaking my theories!

Do feel free to point out any flaws in my theories so I can work to make them better! *If I find that you have shared the password to this blog or my theories on any social media platform, you will be removed without further notice! If I find there are multiple instances where my theories/ideas are being leaked, I will shut down this blog. I will do my best to provide you all with the best theories and analyses there is, but in exchange you all will need to adhere to the rules I have set forth!

Let's get to theorizing and analyzing! Thinking caps on!