More Joel Trickster gifs pleaseeee

i’ll add it to my to do list!!!

tbh after the trauma the hong sisters gave us in part one, i dont even care that the firebird plot was anticlimatic so long as that happy ending was served 

HOWEVER. i have thoughts about how the episode could have been improved upon ( in my opinion )

not revealing park jin, kim doju, and jin hogyeong being alive until the end

jinmu’s death needed to be a little more excruciating imo, deserved to see janguk fuck him up a little more but i get why they didn’t

have the firebird behave as more of the actual threat they’d been building it up to be: have more damage done to the towns, show more serious injuries occurring with danggu and co., have the entire group practically crawling to show up at the constellation basin; have jang uk suffer more injuries ( even tho this would hurt me LMAO ) and have it be a near death thing bc quite frankly, it was a little too easy; and then after the firebird is defeated, have buyeon / seolran pass out with the panic of her ‘dying’ from exhaustion and no longer having use for the body. 

with all of the above, this would’ve left us in a state of Stress and added more tension necessary for a final episode

THEN do a time jump with the Happy future and whatever and let us be confused for a minute before setting up the flashbacks that give us answers as to: how park in, kim doju, and jin hogyeong ended up being saved, and the scene where buyeon / seolran gives naksu control over the body again

honestly the time skip was just fine imo, but very rushed and it felt like there were very few scenes for jang uk and cho yeong so maybe a preview of them capturing other relics in a montage kinda style before hitting us with the tree scene + the ending scene with the cat relic

alchemy of souls part two really pulled a twilight breaking dawn part two on us

ALCHEMY OF SOULS: LIGHT AND SHADOW 2022 - 2023┃Park Joon Hwa & Bae Hyun Jin

he is a bright light that protects the world, and she is a shadow that protects him by embracing the darkness surrounding him.

ALCHEMY OF SOULS: LIGHT AND SHADOW 환혼 : 빛과 그림자 — 2022, dir. Park Joon Hwa

All the folks complaining that we didn’t get “badass Naksu” back really are showing that the only way they think a female character can be strong is if she kicks ass. Was Naksu awesome? Of course. But she was also the version of Cho Yeong that was abused, neglected, forced into becoming magically and physically powerful as a tool for Jin Mu. In the end, Cho Yeong made her own choice to reclaim her birth name, stick with the divine powers she received from Bu Yeon, and be happy and free alongside the person she loves. Also, would you want to go back to using the magic and the sword that you were forced to kill your lover with?! Yeong and Uk both spend the whole story chasing freedom, and they both got it in the end. They are both powerful, both free of others’ control, both happy with each other. I don’t see how that isn’t an ideal ending.

i think giving cho yeong the choice to relax and step away from being the “physically strong assassin mage” was a well thought-out twist, and cho yeong not having any active fighting scenes doesn’t make her any less powerful or strong. it’s almost like a reassurance, like telling her that she can relax, she can rest easy now knowing that the burden of revenge and death will not be weighing on her shoulders anymore, that she doesn’t need to train heavily out of survival or to be a weapon anymore. yes, we wanted more fighting scenes from her but we didn’t account for the fact that we have been seeing her fight all along: for herself, for her memories, for her life, for love, peace, comfort. she provided so much support in a multitude of ways, and continues to do so without needing to be a fighting machine. i don’t think her powers got stripped or that her arc got taken and given to someone else. cho yeong got to grow beyond the prison made by those who manipulated and exploited her, and that is more powerful than anything.

ALCHEMY OF SOULS: LIGHT AND SHADOW (EPISODE 1 & 30) 환혼 : 빛과 그림자

Oh well. We’ll try another day.

ALCHEMY OF SOULS: LIGHT AND SHADOW 2022–2023 | S02E04

S1E3: WAR

EPISODE TWO: X TO THE X

헤어질 결심 - Decision to Leave 2022 — dir. Park Chan-wook

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀❝ I screamed as the force flooded me, burned me, consumed me from within. I became a living star. by life. a new sun, born to shake the air and devour the earth. I am the contrition. ❞ ⠀⠀