Once i drop a kdrama, i never go back to it. I watched 2 episodes of alchemy of souls last year and then dropped it. The story looked like a typical superhero movie where the main character possesses special abilities. Not that there is anything wrong with it but I have watched this plot a hundred times in western movies/tv shows, and it bores me now.

I was still curious as to why this drama is soo popular. So i gave it another try and this time i felt connection with the female lead. I was interested in her journey as an assassin who lost her powers. I figured that she will fall in love with the guy with special abilities but i still wanted to know how she will navigate her journey in a new body. But all i got was her being a tool to help the male lead in his endeavours and that was it. We didn’t got to see the exceptional shadow assassin in action. No display of her powers and abilities till the end. Her story could’ve been soo much more than just being a love interest of the male lead. If this show was just a romcom with little backdrop of magic then I would’ve been okay with it but we are introduced to a new world of alchemy of souls, all just for a romance story!!

The male lead was way too lucky every time and I wasn’t very fond of him as his character lacked the effort and hard work required or worthy of all the power he came to possess. Meanwhile FL was pushed back in the corner to cheer for him.

The curse of 2nd lead strike again. Seo yul known to be the 1st among his fellow mages to achieve high level magic skills yet he was caught up in one sided feelings and did nothing the entire season. He was adorable but his character plays little to no part in the story. Did him knowing the real identity of mudok changed anything at all ? No
Even in the last episode when mudok run wild,I thought he will do something now but no, nothing at all!! Crown prince emerged as a character better than my expectations. I liked his presence in the show yet he also didn’t had much to add in the main story. There are some characters that were the soul of the drama like Master Lee, Park Jin and maid servant Kim. Jin family’s relics were soo fascinating, they can make an entire show on the Jin family’s relics. Lady Jin was a such an badass lady, really liked her.

Overall I will praise the writers for introducing us to a new world of mages. It was very creative yet characters had much more potential than what we got from them.