Alquimia de Almas Parte 2: Luz y Sombra (2022)

honestly this is what i think

this part were like a little repeat reversed and re-do of part 1 at episode 8. i was a fan from part 1. i don't mind however this story ends. honestly i felt like the story were forced to have part 2. i find that it was true because of the re-re-re thing... but i'm glad they did part 2 because this is the only korean drama that i waited by the hour. it was that good to me. well, its simple enough, its mysterious a bit, exciting, makes your heart race too, make you be jealous, makes you angry and a lot more else... so for conclusion, the actors must be top tiers because of the feeling i got, and the writer were good too.. though some part makes me really upset, i just want to believe that it was done deliberately...

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Inferior to Season 1, but an ending quite a worth

Set 3 years later after the finale of Season 1, Season 2 starts slowly and brings all the characters back to the game. There are very few fantasy shows which make you invest in characters, and season 2 fits this description.

Although the second season starts sluggish with everything that kinda replicates the first season, the last 3-4 episodes bring the real excitement and closure, with which I am pretty much satisfied. What still works for this fantasy drama is the star cast, the chemistry between characters and how magic is used to weave a tale of ambition, dreams, love and kingdom. What perhaps could have been better was a climax full of action. But again, the makers opted for a rather happy ending. Personally, the latter is inferior when compared to its predecessor, but all ends that ends well.

My Rating : 8.5/10

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Could've done better

I didn't want to write a review cause I loved the drama but I had a lot to say still.
Everything is good. Everything was going well until Ep7. That's when everyone on the set of AOS 2 understood that they had only three more episodes and they still haven't revealed anything.
10 episodes were more than enough with the run time but it still made us feel that the ending was rushed. In the last three eps, things were revealed in a magnitude of seconds. And the ending? the climax? lasted barely minutes that we couldn't even remember. It wasn't a nice gift with a Tiffany's & Co. bow tied to it but an express gift card that your uncle bought last minute cause he forget to get you a present on New Year's.
And the actress switch.
I understand that you want JSM back cause yall love her but i really don't understand why GYJ received hate. It's not like her acting is bad. You've got to give chances to new actresses.
But then some of you ask, "Was the switch necessary?"
Yes. It was and it is. It showed that they were destined to be with each other even if they can't recognize each other. And also the fact that it was Mu-doek's face that he was seeing, not her face. he never saw her before. Now he sees her completely.

Even tho the ending was rushed, the drama delivered what it was supposed to deliver. Mid-way I lost hope and was gearing up for another Scarlet Heart Ryeo. But the heavens heard the viewers. So no complaints.
Except for this one, thats all I promise.
I got Seo Yul's face and all my issues are gone.

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Obrigado Jang Uk e Cho Yeong por ter inventado o romance

Senti que o que faltou nessa temporada foi mais episódios.... ficou um pouco corrido os acontecimentos, principalmente depois que a Naksu recupera a memória e ao contrário do que muitos queriam ( que ela voltasse a usar a espada e ser aquela assassina do começo) eu já não esperava por isso mesmo, não fazia sentido já que na primeira parte ela já tinha desistido dos seus poderes e da vingança assim como o Jang Uk desistiu dos seus objetivos... queria ter visto mais do aspecto psicológico dela lidando com as memórias de ter sido uma assassina e de ter matado a pessoa que ela amava.... ficou corrido demais ser na reta final a descoberta sobre sua verdadeira identidade.
Eu gostei muito da evolução da personagem, vi muitos comentários reclamando da personalidade fofa dela (sendo que fazia total sentido no contexto atual da história, porque ela havia perdido as memórias e ficou trancada por anos em um quarto que parecia uma prisão pela suposta mãe amorosa) é óbvio que ela não teria o mesmo jeito fechado e traumatizado da primeira parte, continuou malandra mas em outro contexto hahaha
O que faz dessa personagem tão interessante é o quão complexa ela é, Cho Yeong nunca perdeu a essência ousada e destemida, ela só recuperou a humanidade que haviam tirado dela, poder conseguir expressar os próprios sentimentos, criar laços, ter amigos e uma pessoa a qual ela ame e lute é que fazem dela forte e não segurar uma espada novamente. Inclusive a vingança contra o Jin Mu foi perfeita, fria e cruel, seria muito fácil atravessar a espada no coração dele, porém ela escolheu uma morte lenta com aquilo que ele mais queria. (foi uma pena a reviravolta dele sobrevivendo, poderiam ter feito do rei o vilão final porque tinha muito potencial). Gostei muito também que a Jin Buyeon/Jin Seolran não foi esquecida e teve participação ativa em tudo.
Eu amei também que eles inverteram a situação nessa temporada, o Jang Uk estava fechado e frio (como a Naksu na parte 1) e ela estava sendo alegre e despreocupada ( como ele na parte 1) teve muitos paralelos bons do casal com a parte 1 como mais uma vez eles tem essa relação de urgência em que um está usando o outro para benefício próprio... ela precisa de alguém que enfrente a mãe dela porque não poderia fugir por causa da pulseira de rastreio e ele precisa que ela retire a pedra de gelo para que ele possa morrer...
A química dos dois foi incrível e intensa ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 o maior mérito desse drama é o casal protagonista.(NINGUÉM ACIMA DELES)
Acho que o mais senti falta /ou mudaria nessa parte 2 foi:
Do casal Choyeon e Park Dangu e até mesmo deles individualmente
Poderiam ter desenvolvido a relação da Jin Buyeon/Naksu com a Choyeon (afinal como ela lidou com o fato de ter salvo a assassina de seu pai?😕)
Ter dado mais desenvolvimento pro Seo Yul, parece que ele não teve nenhuma evolução desde a parte 1
Não ter tido aquele drama horroroso sobre aquele verme
Ter mostrado a volta do Jang Uk depois da derrota do pássaro de fogo e a reação dele quando viu que a Cho Yeong retornou.
Enfim foi um drama maravilhoso e me senti muito conectada e evolvida pela história, então os problemas que teve não afetaram a minha experiência.

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Pay attention

In the 1 st series we have a female warrior/master who pretends to be a maidservant. Her pupil is besotted and through great effort gains sufficient skills to be praised by her and along the way falls in love.
In this 2nd season our two lovers (due to plot contrivance) do not recognise each other for the majority of the 10 sessions. ML is now a bad ass with unlimited power and FL is a weakened female locked away by her self-serving mother.

Characters from 1st series abound and there is a thread of humour peppered throughout that was not part of the 1st series. Special mention of the black turtle and Park Jin's cooking. Lots of CGI special effects and a great many characters all acting in their own best interests to the extent that from a Wuxia drama it became a melodrama.

What also stood out for me was how the modern element crept in. From short hair to some language idioms, and the Fl was was definitely channeling a modern woman at times.

I found this entertaining and if I ever rewatch the 1st series I will probably rewatch this as well.
Actors all did a great job and production was very elaborate but I feel the Hong sisters needed to keep the themes and flavour of their brilliant 1st series.

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watched weekly as it came out

LOVED the first season / part and was super excited for this one as well!! the main actress change didnt bother me and i love yoonjung sm the change made sense and the overall romance between the leads & chemistry was off the charts i hope we see them in another project together hopefully.. 🤞,, for 10 eps the pacing done really well, rarely slow and i would have liked jang uk to realize buyeon’s real identity just a bit sooner but no complaints 😭 that last ep was definitely the SADDEST. just the thought that kim doju and park jim could’ve died breaks my heart ❤️‍🩹 but they didnt die and naksu’s soul is still alive so we thank the hong sisters for that 🫶 im seriously going to miss this show i did not expect to love it so much but the things we dont pay too much attention to at first soon are cherished! this drama was my personality for months and now you’re telling to find something else?!? 😞 anyways 10/10 acting & ost we love you blue flower by lia ❤️

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When it was good it was so good. Like any drama, there’s always frustration. Fantasy genre don’t really have rules to follow as they set their world, so I tend to let it slide. All these theories has fans expecting to much and look for them for explanation. As a whole, it’s a 30ep structure drama, could have been 20ep & divide the 2actress each 10ep for better pace but I love this world and characters so I love spending extra time w/ them even when they just talk and bond. GYJ & LJW’s chemistry is what will make me return and rewatch this drama. Overall, The most important thing was it was a pleasure to watch this world & anticipate what to come.

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Hope something more

I just finished watching this drama. I had mixed feeling at the end. I was unhappy about the change of the fl but my optimism kicked in and give the new fl a chance. To be honest, there is not much that big going on apart from waiting to find his true love standing in front of him,

The highlight-
sword fight on point
Comedic moments
This Season was a little dark last season I still enjoy it. An especially Jung UK character.
The outfits were a 10
So the couples still love each other.
Love the big fight with Phoenix on ice lark.
Sexy making-out session (made my face go all red)
CGI was flawless hit the nail on its head

Downside-
I was hoping for a real mother-and-daughter reunion
The Crown prince didn't do much until the boring end
Ml and fl didn’t have kids at the end I was hoping there would.
There was not a lot of mystery this season.
Jung Uk could become king if he want to
Ml and fl didn’t feel much romance from them.
Is the gift that fl give to ml I thought there be connected only to their power, not just anyone can use

Overall what I got from the drama was a powerful start to an unknown end filled with love and pain. I wanted a little more from this show.

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The world they built was too good for this

The best way I can describe how this drama felt to me is a shoujo reverse harem manga type of thing. I don’t know if that’s explanation enough but that’s the best I can do. I did have a lot of reservations about part 1, some of them carried out to this second part others didn’t but then new issues emerged in this one.
Let me explain, one of my biggest issue with this show (both parts). Whenever you’re watching this sort of stories there are always key scenes that are meant to draw you in and make you root for the Lead/s and make you go “WOW this character is super cool”.
This drama had -IN MY OPINION- too many. It was specially bizarre to me in the first part how Jang Uk was supposedly an underdog but then there was always -insert convenient plot hole here- and it allowed him to show off his out of the ordinary abilities. I get it he was supposed to have super abilities compared to the rest because of his horoscope but sometimes they stretched it too thin for my liking. With this second part I got it the first couple of times. it was needed to understand how powerful Jang Uk had become but then every other scene they are showing off his abilities and it got boring very fast.
Now one thing that I liked about the first part that didn’t carry into the second part was the ensemble cast. I know we only had 10 eps for this part but it amazes me how much talent and chemistry this ensamble cast HAD and they let it GO TO WASTE LIKE THAT. Part 1 & 2 feel WORLDS APART in that sense.
The focus was the main couple and I know this sounds ridiculous but the way it was presented to me in the first part was an ensemble cast rather than just the main leads and the rest acting as background which is what part 2 became (except maybe for Park Jin and his new wife). Why introduce so many characters in the first part that ended up amounting to nothing but a couple of sidelined sub level plot lines at most or not used at all.

One thing I liked about this second part though (even if the story felt a little rushed and nonsensical) was that I could finally root for Naksu and Jang Uk to be together. And that’s mostly because they greatly reduced Seo Yul’s presence here but mostly because Jang Uk had infinite amount of romantic chemistry with THIS actress. I was mostly team Seo Yul in the first part because I felt Minhyun had better romantic chemistry with Mudeok than Jang Uk (Besides Yul was given more of the date like romantic scenes than Uk)
Naksu was done WRONG in so many levels they turned her into nothing more than a damsel in distress for this 2nd part. Jang Uk literally had to rescue her up until the very end. Like yes she learned to rely and depend on someone else which is nice but let’s not pretend Naksu wouldn’t have relied on her strength and ability to fight even more so now that she had someone to protect. The shift was too sudden and in my opinion out of character that it felt like we had an entirely new and different female lead.

Because of the way the characters and this world was richly built and shown to us the ending was a little disappointing because it could’ve delivered something more. The OSTs and the cinematography was top notch and it does feel like I could watch another season of this with the newly appointed King and/or Seo Yul stories as the main focus because they are interesting characters by their own right.

There’s so much more Id like to add like how they made me cry so much for no reason because nobody ended up dying (it would’ve been better if they had it would’ve set how high the stakes were and the severity of the fight at hand) or the way they recycled Jin Mu one too many times BUT overall this was an enjoyable watch though nonsensical at times.

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