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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

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

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lighthouseas · 1 year ago

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will sneaking mike in through his bedroom window so they can make out. and it's all well and good yk they're giggling and kissing but then hopper decides to check on will because it's like 11 pm and he's making so much noise and, in a bout of desperation whilst hopper is opening his door, will shoves mike off of his bed and onto the hardwood floor so hopper can't see him.

and like. hop knows INSTANTLY what's up (he already knows at this point that will and mike are dating) because will has a dopey lil smile on his face and a hickey forming on his neck and his clothes are all ruffled right. but hopper plays it off, asks will if he's okay, will says he is. alright then. hopper leaves. he knows mike is definitely somewhere in the house. probably with a forming bruise from the bump he heard.

unfortunately, will shoving mike off of the bed so abruptly did, in fact, give him a bump on his forehead, so he goes downstairs to get ice for it.

hop is downstairs, too, sipping coffee and watching as mike pulls a bag of peas from the freezer (mike doesn't notice him at first) and subsequently grumbles a, "hey, mike. fall off the bed again?" from the dining table. mike very nearly shits his pants.

(hop let's him stay, though, on the condition that there will be no "funny business".)

#this happened trust me i was the peas #idk what this is. im so tired guys lmao #im not rereading it but like theres probably grammatical mistakes its fine #can utlel im sick or ah #*nah #stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #will byers #jim hopper #st.txt

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squishi-bunni · 1 year ago

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"I'll always love you."

Howl x Reader Drabble

Hurt-Comfort

Reader has abandonment issues

"Love, what's wrong?"

"Are you going to leave me?" I ask.

His eyes widen at me. "What?"

I felt tears prick my eyes. "Are you going to leave me?" I repeat. "When I stop being interesting, are you going to toss me out? Will my true self repulse you?"

Howl grabs my shoulders firmly, forcing my eyes to meet his. His gaze is stern, but his eyes still have some softness.

"Even when I learn everything there is to know about you--every quirk, every flaw, everything you may for some reason hate about yourself--I will stay by your side."

For some reason, I broke into a fit of sobbing. I don't know why exactly, but at those words--words I've never heard from anyone before--everything I had been holding back broke through the damn I'd built.

Howl pulled me close, pressing my chest flush against his, and he gently caressed my face, wiping away the tears.

He held my cheeks like porcelain pots and made me look into his eyes. "I know you're used to being left behind, but I promise my love, I'll never leave you. No matter what, I'll always love you and always be yours."

There was nothing else I could do but smile into his hands. I held his face in the same way he held mine and said, "I'll always love you, too."

#howl jenkins pendragon #ghibli #fluff #hurt comfort #comfort #howl pendragon x reader #howls moving castle fluff #howl x reader #howls moving castle #I am 100% projecting #I love to project my pain lololol #my fictional character boyfriend comforts me because real men are trash and hurt my feelings 🫶#there are grammatical and spelling mistakes probably idk and idc it's 3am and i write these in complete self indulgence #studio ghibli

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purgemarchlockdown · 1 year ago

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Milgram and The Rose Bride

(CWs: Child Abuse, Cults, Unhealthy Relationships, Bullying, Sexism, Discussions of Ownership in the context of Marriage, minor mentions of sexual abuse and minor mentions of sexual abuse in relation to Minors)

(Spoilers for Utena!)

Alright so, since I'm putting this on the Milgram blog, most likely most people who see this don't know what the Rose Bride is and what that means so lets answer that question.

The Rose Bride is a concept in the 90s Psychological Shoujo Anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, in which the main premise is that a bunch of highschoolers are dueling for marriage (ownership) of the Rose Bride so that they can revolutionize the world.

Now, the thing is, The Rose Bride is a Real Person, and the implications of her ownership and the environment that Allows for that to happen are explored through the series, and the reason why I'm bringing it up in relation to Milgram is this.

"In the end, all girls are the rose bride."

Let's talk about Mahiru for a bit since her being so focused on romantic love makes it a lot easier to explain what I mean by this.

In T1 we get this interrogation from Mahiru:

T1Q20: What do you think about smoking? I've never smoked before, but I might copy him if who I love smokes.

This is a deeply concerning sentence, Mahiru has just stated that she is willing to do something incredibly physical destructive to herself if the person she loves is doing the same. This connects back to her thoughts on having "matching love."

We fought sometimes, I was happy to get hurt Let's have matching pain, this sickness is pretty bad This is a claim of responsibility From the two of us with matching love

Now, the Rose Bride has to anything the person who is engaged to her tells her to do. The Rose Bride is not allowed any sort of Autonomy or Agency.

(Transcript Link for Utena Scripts)

Touga: The Rose Bride, cooking? Touga: You shouldn't do such things as cooking. Touga: You should only take care of the roses here. Touga: This birdcage is your territory. Touga: And you are the beautiful little bird which lives here. Touga: I want to possess this birdcage, and everything in it.

Touga: Himemiya Anthy is the Bride of the victor of the Duel. Touga: While she was engaged to you, the Code required her to obey you.

I Love You:

What am I supposed to do now? If you won’t tell me, I can’t be me

Mahiru is also probably the most traditionally feminine out of the entire female cast. With her priorities being love, romance, and having children.

(Mahiru Interrogation)

T2Q1: What's your opinion on Marriage? Mahiru: It's something I really dream of.

T2Q10: Do you like children? Mahiru: Yup. I always dreamed of having the older being a girl, and the younger being a boy.

Mahiru is willing to do Anything for love, even if it gets her hurt in the process. That's what she's Supposed to want, that's what is Supposed to bring her joy, that's what is Supposed to bring everyone joy. (Mahiru T1 VD)

Es: I honestly have no interest in those matters. Mahiru: What? No, no. There’s no such thing as that. Being in love is like a landmine. It’ll explode someday, you know? The only thing that differs is whether it happens earlier or later in life. It’ll happen to you too. Even if you don’t have any interest in it now, one day it’ll explode for you as well. All because you’ll have that fateful encounter with your special someone.

Love is what Everyone Wants and if you say you Don't you just haven't found the right person.

Mahiru: Yeah, yeah. You’ll deny it at first. I mean, I was like that as well. Before then, I always admired soap operas and shoujo manga because I thought that they depicted a world different from our own.

Voice: Once upon a time... Voice: ...there was a princess grieving over the deaths of her mother and father. Voice: Before this princess appeared a prince traveling upon a white horse. Voice: His appearance gallant, and his smile gentle, the prince enveloped the princess

The amatonormativity in Mahiru's worldview is clear. People are Supposed to fall in love and have the Normal Idealized Heterosexual Romance and there's Nothing Else Outside of That At All.

Mahiru: Yeah, yeah. You’ll deny it at first. I mean, I was like that as well.

Anthy: But I've been engaged to you, Utena-sama. Utena: I've told you to stop mentioning stuff like "engagement" and the "Rose Bride." Anthy: Nevertheless... Utena: Look, no matter how you look at me, I'm a regular wholesome girl. Utena: I'm only interested in wholesome boys, not a bride or stuff like that.

And Mahiru does a lot to preserve a "marketable" quality to her actions and behavior. TIHTBILWY is formatted like a magazine, something that is sold and bought by consumers. Erasing the messiness of her relationship or even Romanticizing those qualities to seem appealing.

Giving you love to the point of pulling you down It's just because I still get worried, please forgive me Even when I test you, even the times we do the breakup ritual, Is because I love you

Voice: but because of the strength of her admiration for the prince, Voice: the princess made up her mind to become a prince herself! Voice: But is that really good for her?

The story of the Prince in Utena is one that is a fabrication, it hides and excludes multiple Very Important parts of the story all in the favor of portraying the Ideal Fairytale Heterosexual Romance.

Unlike Utena who chooses to become a "Prince" (which is a concept I'll get into in a bit.) Mahiru is trying to make Herself the Rose Bride. She orientates her life around who she loves, she's willing to accept a lot of abuse for the sake of an Ideal Relationship, she even actively downplays her intelligence and strength! Something that is explored in detail by this post by archivalofsins you should check out.

Now that isn't to say Mahiru isn't a horrible partner. She is, and this is why. Mahiru is Expecting this sort of incredibly idealistic fairytale romance from her partner, an ideal that no person can possibly live up to without harming the people they care about and themselves!

Do you really think you know what love is? If you do, let's just overheat together The things that I only want to say to you, and the things that I want from you Is love

My emotions are out of control, that’s inconvenient? I don’t care!

You can't live up to this and you shouldn't want to! It's an unrealistic and unachievable ideal with a horrific power imbalance to boot! Yet Mahiru is Trying to conform to these ideals, trying to conform to the unrealistic expectations of women and relationships in society, and that's why she's here in the first place.

"He who believes friendship exists is a fool."

So these toxic and unhealthy ideals and expectations are at the core of Mahiru's character and her situation. But there ideals are perpetuated by an environment that promotes this sort of behavior, one that isn't unique to Mahiru's situation.

Muu Kusunoki is a 16 year old teenage girl who is both a victim of bullying and someone who bullies others for her own gain.

She also might of had a homoromantic relationship with her murder victim.

Let’s meet up inside the pain, a place just for me Postmortem makeup to hide my heart, how to solve it is a secret The stabbing of the little devil’s voice, counterattack being a suicide note “I love YOU”

I wonder who that reminds me of.

I'll get into Shiori in a second, but it's important to note that Muu introduces a concept that's present in Mahiru's story but is particularly present in Muu, the concept of the cycle.

Saionji: No... I was to be the one to rescue her from the coffin this time. Saionji: No! I am the one who will save her this time. The castle said to contain eternity... Saionji: the power to revolutionize the world...

The concept of eternity and nostalgia in Utena tends to be depicted as a coffin, one you need to break out of to grow.

Touga: If the egg's shell does not break, the chick will die without being born. Touga: We are the chick; the egg is the world. Touga: If the world's shell does not break, we will die without being born. Touga: Break the world's shell! Touga-Juri: For the sake of revolutionizing the world!

The duelists want the Rose Bride so that they can gain the power to revolutionize the world. Who she is does not Matter as much as what she can Give Them.

Now, this idea is particularly present in characters like Shidou and Kotoko who position themselves as saviors, not for the benefit of others but for what they Get out of that arrangement, thematically fitting the concept of the prince.

However, Muu is not the prince, she is not a savior. In fact she always positions herself as the victim, as someone pitiful and weak. (Crying B)

Muu: Hey… Prison guard, when you say “I”… Who are you talking about? Es: [breaking down] Muu: Prison guard? Es: [stumbles] Muu: Prison guard. What’s wrong? Prison guard! [shakes Es] Hey! Prison guard! Es: Shut up! Don’t touch me! Muu: [cries] You’re so cruel… I… Even though I was just worried about you… [cries again] I can’t take it anymore. I hate you, prison guard!

Es pain and breakdown is caused by something Muu said, and yet when Es very sharply tells her not to touch them because their uncomfortable with it. Muu immediately starts crying and talking about how much They got hurt because of what they did, when Es is currently unresponsive due to what she did to them, albeit unintentionally.

Muu needs to to be the victim, After Pain shows all the bad things that happened to her and not Any of the bullying she participated in. It's Not My Fault is a whole song about how everything she did was right actually and that everyone else was wrong.

Now, Muu isn't a master manipulator or anything. She's an impulsive 16 year old. If Muu was a master manipulator she wouldn't be here, would she? She'd be still in school taking the honey up as she was before Rei did whatever she did.

Muu gains power by being pitiful and weak so she'll be loved, and by its' very nature it's self-destructive. She cannot be Happy because if she Was this wouldn't work anymore. She Must be in a worse situation, she must be the victim, or else no one would pity and love her.

I am innocent as everybody desires

Juri: You're just like Shiori... Juri: ...cruelly innocent.

Muu cycles from being "weak and pitiful" to being "queenly and powerful" and tends to hurt herself in the process. This attempt at grabbing power and love through pity Harms Muu, and she seems to even be drowning in a lot of self-hatred and self-pity, and is looking for external validation to confirm that she's "good."

But I guess some of it is my faultMaybe it’s ok as it is I want to feel “alive”, is it ok if I breathe?

Hey, what if If I am a bad girl Don’t hate me. Don’t even try to proof from “After Pain”

And, in an attempt to gain power and control, Muu traps herself in a coffin.

Shiori: This is me, the real me! Shiori: And not the underdog that was living a miserable life in the shadow of the bright shining Juri! Shiori: The real me that surpasses the light. Shiori: Yes, this is the me that controls Juri.

But, it isn't all her fault.

Again, Muu really was bullied, horribly so if were judging by her lyrics in After Pain and the sequences we see in it.

If I was gone, If I had just disappeared I overheard, I found out How much I’m not needed

T1Q4: Is there something you hate? Scary people and ghosts. And right now, school.

Muu isn't lying about this, and Rei isn't fully sympathetic either, she did Hurt Muu and Muu really did want to apologize to her.

T1Q9: Do you have apologetic feelings for who you killed? A: The person who did the wrong thing first should apologize.

Shiori: Juri-san was so kind to me. Shiori: But I thought she was kind to me because she looked down on me, Shiori: and that she had pity on me for being plain and useless. Shiori: That's pathetic! Shiori: So I wanted to change my relationship with Juri-san. Shiori: But what I did with him made me more miserable than before. Shiori: I should have wanted it for myself! Shiori: But now... Shiori: Now I'm on equal terms with her. No, I've won! Shiori: I always had a place in Juri-san's heart. Shiori: I'm the winner! Shiori: What shall I do? I'm so delighted to know my friend's secret I almost can't bear it! Shiori: She suffered alone, looking at my picture in secret... Shiori: That was Juri-san? Poor thing! Shiori: No good! It's still no good! Shiori: How could you look at me like that?!Shiori: Why did it all turn out this way?

The school as a whole is letting a horrible environment of bullying and toxicity be left to rot and fester. You Really Can't create a healthy friendship in a world like that, it just won't let you. If your not friends with someone because you gain something from them, you'll suffer.

Muu: Wow, poor thing,.. I’ll teach you! Friends aren’t like that, you know. Rather than using each other for something, we just get along because we’re comfortable around each other. That’s all. Es: Well, I’m sorry about that. Muu: Haruka-kun is really nice! He accepts anything I say, he listens to anything I tell him. For me, that’s really comfortable. Es: And that’s… “friendship”? Muu: What do you mean? Of course we’re friends! Haruka-kun is happy with it, so it only has benefits for both of us! Es: I, as someone who has no friends, can’t judge, of course, but isn’t that just exploitation? Muu: Exploitation…? Um, I don’t really understand, but… I do help him pick out clothes [in return], and I recently gave him a hairpin I didn’t need anymore as a hand-me-down!

Akio: But sincerity by itself changes nothing. Akio: Without power, one finds themself merely depending on others to live.

Jackalope describes this relationship as a "Master-Servant" relationship and it seems like this is the type of friendship Muu is familiar with. She's emulating how her friendships were in school, just with someone else as the servant and her as the master.

T1Q1: What is a friend? A: Someone who properly listens to what I say.

Now this doesn't completely absolve her obviously, what she did was still Very Bad and even though she Breaks the hourglass in her MVs. She doesn't really leave it.

Muu does not want to accept responsibility for her actions, she believes herself to be justified and in the right, even when she has Done Wrong.

This unwillingness to accept when something she did is wrong and the unhealthy environment of Milgram that assigns strict moral value to people's actions and has no nuance in its judgement...leads her back into the cycle she was trapped in.

“A girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to become a witch.”

Now we've tackled the gender roles and horribly toxic cycles and ideals, so, what happens when you Can't work within those confines, or even want to break out of them? Just, hypothetically, if you cannot become a princess (which is everyone because the ideal of a princess is so incredibly unrealistic that anyone who aspires to be it would destroy themselves in the process) or Don't want to be a princess, what happens?

Well.

You become something Other.

Something Evil and Unnatural.

Something that needs to be Punished and Harmed.

So, now, this is where I have to mention that Utena as a show deals with underage sexual abuse, I didn't mention this for the other sections since they were not as relevant to those discussions. However since this section deals with the abuse received by the Rose Bride it feels important to mention.

I will not be referring to it in the context of Amane's due to how we don't have information in the text pointing to Amane being a csa victim. This is for the sake of Tact, as it feels wrong to speculate about it here and I do not feel like I'm the right person to examine this.

It will, again, be mentioned and alluded to, so stay safe and do what's good for your health.

So, Amane Momose is repeatedly dehumanized throughout her story.

This is a consistent theme with her, she is treated as something subhuman and terrifying.

In Purge March, Amane is consistently depicted as scary, threatening, or otherwise evil.

There's even a section in her T2 VD where Amane calls herself "evil," though it is done in a roundabout way while she's talking about Shidou (who I will get to in a bit.)

A: Both pain and illness are trials. According to our teachings, those who run from them are the worst evil there is. That’s one of the four great principles. No matter who you are, that cannot be forgiven. E: What are you…? A: Oh – speaking of which, there is one among the prisoners right now. An evil existence that’s trying to steal people’s trials away from them.

Shadow: The witch roams this world of darkness even now. Shadow: Seeking the young and noble, to sacrifice them anew! Shadow: Surely the light presents an obstacle to the witch, to her dominion over the dark. Shadow: Beware! Beware! She is still somewhere in this world...

Not only that, but Amane is The Cat, a symbol constantly associated with sin and impurity throughout the MVs with Kazui and Yuno.

And is implied to have actually Been asked if she was human by her parents.

(Amane T1 VD)

Amane: Yes. It is only natural for a person(/human) to apologize to another for breaking a promise. Es: … Amane: Why are you looking so doubtful? Are you not human?

I promise! A good girl that keeps a promise is like, mwah!

Amane is not to be considered human, she's even collared and leashed in her Prisoner design, the medal and bow on her outfits in the MVs being another "collar" of sorts.

Amane Needs to be Restrained and Domesticated or else she'll bring harm to the people around her. She isn't good enough to be a "good girl" and seems to Know This.

Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl

It's always "I can be a better girl" or "I can be a good girl" and not "I am a good girl," and the line above implies its impossible for her to be one. It's not something she can do.

When she gets punished by her parents its to make her a "better girl," and to "change" her into a "good girl." It is love, for they are not leaving her to die as an animal.

(Amane Interrogations)

T2Q9: What does love mean to you? A: To spread mercy with no limits.

But it’s not scary at all, because it’s love I can really think it’s great. See isn’t it a great thing?

Even though these punishments keep on Almost Killing Her!

It's what she needs to go through to be good! And even if she doesn't even believe its possibly anymore what else can she do? Run? Running away from trials is a sin! One of the worst there is! She can't allow herself to be more sullied than she already is.

Plus she knows this is love, she isn't scared anymore, it's childish to be scared of it.

Akio: A child like you can't appreciate my ideals. Akio: The Rose Bride exists because of ideals you don't comprehend.

Plus there's a sort of comfort in it, she knows what happens next. She idealizes Milgram somewhat in T1, believing that it's possible for this world, that resembles her abusive environment so much, could be Good.

Amane: Ah, I am looking forward to it! Seeing whether your judgement will align with that of these higher standards! If that is the case, maybe Milgram would be the right world for us to live in, rather than the outside world! Milgram relies on your judgement, isn’t that right? In that case, you could become the mediator for a far more righteous world!!

There's a comfort in Milgram's strict forgiven/unforgiven verdict system with a (theoretical) possibility of growth! And she later takes comfort in the same religious doctrine that Harmed her when Es does declare her as unforgiven.

If your so used to a situation, even if it harms you, why would you ever want to leave it? It's scarier if you leave it, you don't know what will happen next. At least at home, Amane knows what to do so she can get off a bit longer without getting hurt.

If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

Akio: Anthy, the sword. Akio: That's right. You're a good girl, Anthy.

Amane's suffered for twelve or so years, an eternity trapped in a coffin. A cycle of abuse and pain and horror and fear. Why would she Ever want to leave it when what she's seen of the outside world is so horrible?

Amane: In fact, there have been people who said that to me. I’ve been told things like, “You’re being deceived.” “You can still make it right now.” “You’re crazy.”

People are always positioning themselves as stronger than her, people are always positioning themselves as smarter than her, people are always positioning themselves as Her Prince.

Shidou: I…… I just don’t understand. If everything about MILGRAM is true…… why did a child like you have to become a murderer? Just imagining what sort of circumstances must have led to that, it makes me so sad…… Amane: ……*sigh*. Is that right. I don’t think I’m going to get along with you, Shidou-san. I don’t agree with the fact you refuse to acknowledge that I have my own free will, and that I should be held accountable for my actions, just because I’m a child. I may have only been alive for 12 years, but all the choices I’ve made, even if they weren’t the best ones, were entirely my own. What point is there in you getting sad when I have no regrets myself? ……please give me back my test. It seems you don’t have the concentration levels required to be my teacher. I’m going to get Kotoko-san to teach me instead. Shidou: Amane…… I don’t think that’s true. However smart you may be…… you’re still just a child.

Utena: Cut it out with that "Rose Bride" or "possession" nonsense. Utena: That girl is an ordinary girl named Himemiya Anthy! Touga: Is she? Touga: Is it true that you're an ordinary girl? Utena: You don't like it, do you? Utena: Being the Rose Bride or whatever... Anthy: I... Utena: Go ahead, speak your mind! Anthy: My mind... Utena: Yeah! Utena: You hate being treated as the Rose Bride, right? Utena: Tell him clearly! Anthy: All right. Anthy: I hate being treated as the Rose Bride. Utena: What's so funny?

Amane: You are treating me as a child after all. Because I’m a child, you believe that I must have been brainwashed. It’s not like that. I, too— children, too, understand everything! Please don’t just decide that people must be unhappy.

What she wants doesn't matter! When has it ever mattered? The people who say it does, don't like it when she acts in a manner they don't expect and her parents have made it Very Clear that what she does isn't important to them.

Any sort of happiness she could possibly get tends to come from things that are outside of her cult. And because of that, she isn't supposed to have them, and she is wrong for wanting them in the first place.

And yet...Amane cares so much about having free will and autonomy though, it's her main argument in her T1 VD and her biggest problem with her treatment.

Amane: I see. Then, are the things that I as a twelve-year-old think irrelevant? Are you going to cast aside the feelings that I know I have in this very moment, purely based on the fact that I have not yet lived for a very long time? Judging these things based on someone’s age will not take you very far. Do I, at age twelve, not have my own will?

That's the thing with Amane Momose, she doesn't want to be a "princess."

T2Q13: If you could be reborn, would you still choose to be yourself? A: Obviously.

She wants to stay as her, no matter what. In spite of all of this she doesn't want to be anything else But Her. Even if it gets her hurt.

Amane helped the cat because she wanted to, she saw it hurt and couldn't look away.

Utena: Hey, save her! Utena: It's too cruel! Utena: Save her! Utena: Save her...

And in the eyes of god, she was wrong for doing so.

Dios: She can no longer be saved.

’Tis ordained, thou shall follow thine destiny

But again, Amane doesn't want to die.

T1Q12: What is the meaning of life? A: I think it is something you learn for the first time when you look behind yourself when it ends. I do not want to have regrets then, so I live on with all my might.

This was the tipping point of her, how much more is she willing to suffer? How much longer is she willing to stay here? Because she will die, it's not an if, its a when.

So, she decides, to break out of her coffin, and while it is partially due to how she was given a righteous reason to kill her mother. It is a crime that is mainly motivated by self-preservation and hatred.

Amane: Furthermore, isn’t it condescending of you to assume that just because I happen to be a child, I am incapable of hating someone enough to kill them?

Unfortunately for her, the audience isn't as willing to accept that.

I talk about it in more detail over here but we are Constantly positioned in the place of her abusers. From framing to her opinions on us, ever since we voted her guilty in T1 for the primary reason of "making her realize her mistakes." we mimic her parents.

Since she cannot become a princess, she becomes a witch, and is forced right back into that cycle she desperately tried to escape.

And Someday, Together, We'll Shine

So, that's a bit of a downer. But even so we have hope!

It's not exactly easy when the system built is so counter-productive to everyone's wellbeing and development that it often makes them worse instead of better.

But Amane has made a promise to live. Muu Does want to have genuine relationships with the people around her. And Mahiru has admitted her relationship wasn't as ideal as she initially thought.

And sometimes, you just need to see a possibility for something outside of all this to be able to get out of it.

Anthy: What will you be doing in ten years? Utena: I dunno. But... Anthy: But? Utena: But I hope we can be together like this drinking tea then. Anthy: Yes. I hope so too. Utena: I'm sure that'll be great. Utena: Let's have tea and laugh together ten years from now, okay? Utena: Promise? Anthy: Yes. Definitely.

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anonymous-gambito · 6 months ago

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Saw a comic where the Prince's bride falls in love with the Little Mermaid and decides to run away with her and realized that's kinda what happens in rgu

#revolutionary girl utena #the little mermaid #anthy himemiya #akio ohtori #utena tenjou #Akio is the prince who makes the Little Mermaid dance to his whim despite her every step making her feel like she's being pierced by knives #Except in this AU he actually knows about her pain and knows she saved him but he still grew uncaring and cruel #Utena is as if he then told the church princess about the little mermaids suffering #That to be human she needed a man to love her more than than his own parents‚ love her with her whole soul and marry her #And he tells her he cannot be that man #And so she then‚ full of emotion and determination‚ proclaims that she will become that person and save her #Though Utena has a lot of similar characteristics to the oblivious Prince though #So she kinda has the role of both #Though anthy is a lot more antagonistic than the little mermaid #A lot of rgu girls act like certain fairy tale girls if they were more antagonistic #which probably works with the whole princess/witch dichotomy #though I personally haven't noticed similarities between anthy and the Sea Witch #I also see similarities of the Prince and the Little Mermaid's dynamic in Touga's and Nanami's relationship... In both directions #hans christian andersen #shoujo kakumei utena #sku #rgu #''I wrote so well! Totally gonna get a good grade in tumblr posting'' I think before I come back and notice a million grammatical mistakes #ambi utena post #utena analysis

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captainnait · 6 months ago

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Go ahead, infodump about Bob from Headrush. No one is stopping you

3:11 pm, 5/20/2024

You will not believe how big of a smile I got when I first saw this ask 😭😭 Like I'm genuinely so happy to talk about him, thank you,,,

Anyway, you don't need to ask me twice 💥

(Yeah, a lot of rambling under the cut, hehe)

— One of my favorite canon facts about Bob is that he REALLY hates emoticons. He mentions it two times: one time in a question, where he refuses to read out loud the category name, that is just an emoticon, and instead just calls it "that. . . thing" or smth, and the other time is in the "Don't be afraid to express your emoticons" Headrush category, where he just straight up tells players to be cautious of people who use emoticons 😭

Either he had a terrible experience with someone who used emoticons. . . Or his old man brain just doesn't understand them. Or both idk.

— I don't know if it's just an Andy Poland thing or not (it's probably is, but still—), but I just really like the way he can change up his voices so quickly. My man can literally go from "uwu im so silly" type of voice to LITERALLY the most brutal and manliest voice imaginable in just a span of a few seconds, and I think that's INCREDIBLE.

If we talk about Bob specifically though, I really like how silly his voice sounds at the end of the round, when he says "bye-bye" or other similar to that lines. It just makes me giggle, okay,,

— I don't remember the full context behind this image and the question it is from, but. Yeah. Huh.

[For some reason Tumblr just doesn't let me put this image in, but it just a screenshot of the game with red words written on the screen, saying "Bob has a "thing" for Barney"]

It's also pretty funny, since a few rounds later I got another Barney question ("Even Purple Dinosaurs Have to Die... Someday"), and Bob didn't sound really amused by it lol

— There are a lot of lines in the game, where Bob jokes/admits that he feels pretty lonely and/or isolated, which is very interesting, considering that he doesn't seem as a very introverted person or someone who doesn't go outside much.

I don't have any specific speculations on why he is like that, but I think (headcanon, I guess) that it's something that he grow up feeling like and, perhaps, still haven't grown out of it.

— In "None of the Smoke & All of the Cancer", Bob says that he finds smoking to be "sexy". It isn't very clear whether if he meant it as a joke or not, so. Eh.

— A lot of people said it way before me, but. . . This man has major dog vibes. Like, I can't pin down specific things that make me think like that. It's— It's just the overall vibe I get from him lol

— I'm pretty sure I've seen someone already make a post about it (I'm not sure though), buuuut it's pretty fascinating to me how little sexual interest Bob shows in women (compare to other hosts in the series, at least) and how little he cares for "mushy" stuff in general, valuing friendship/platonic bonds a lot more.

This probably could stem from what type of game Headrush is, since it's aimed for a younger audience - teens, who probably don't really care about love in that young age. But yeah, just an interesting thing to thinking about while in a shower.

— His relationship with Old Man is pretty weird, because he both shows extreme violence and, yet, somehow, some type of respect towards him? Like, there are moments were he shouts, yells and doesn't mind kicking Old Man for his annoying shenanigans, maybe even having a way easier time with it than other hosts. But then there are a few rare moments, where he actually doesn't mind Old Man at all and would even listen to his stories with a genuine interest.

Of course it's not something completely new to the series, but it is also makes me fairly curious, since I feel like this is the game where we get to see a lot of Old Man's personality and how he influences those around him (in the case of this game (99% of it) - Bob lol)

. . . That's it, ig. For now, i feel satisfied)

I also would really like ranting about Milan and his weirdly homoerotic relationship with Bob, buuut I need to get all the TTwM clips first, so. Yeah. That'll have to wait 💥

#i probably made lots of grammatical and logical mistakes here but i don't really care anymore tbh #ydkj #jackbox #you don't know jack #bob headrush #ydkj headrush #ydkj headcanons

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hylianane · 9 months ago

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every time i think about that fucking Oye Primos disney channel show i shake with rage like i hope it never sees the light of day i hate gringos with latino grandparents so fucking bad

#those showrunners can eat my ass they LOVELOVELOVE TO PRETEND THEYRE LATINO ACTUALLY but cant be fucked to learn their family’s own language #theyre making a show to represent latinos ❤️ with the only lines in spanish in the intro being grammatically incoherent ❤️#and one of the character’s name literally meaning vagina (AND penis! Such a meaningful word) ❤️ like that stuff is in la RAE bro #if your show for latinos would need to change a characters name for the latin spanish dub like theyre huey dewey and louie-#-because itd be actively offensive to multiple regions then maybe its not for latinos!#if no one in your crew caught those mistakes then its probably not made BY latinos either right #but you knew that dont you? No show runner gets on instagram to ‘clap back’ to the people correcting you by saying that #actually the language we speak isnt even ours and it was enforced on us by the colonizers so really its anti-latino to defend it #Theres no way you can speak such disgusting shit like that and not be self aware right?#The show isnt for latinos its for white people whove never set foot in latam and refuse to learn the language of their grandparents #who LOVE to slap that label on themselves to feel special and oppressed #que coman mierda todo ellos #aquellos que se burlarían cruelmente de un latino hablando con acento y solo hablar de como la inmigración y los mariguanos-#-se están robando sus empleos o yo no sé que mierdas #Me dan ganas de ranchar pensar que disney mando a hacer un programa solo para aquellos hijueputas #en vez de para los niños que viven en latinoamerica #Ooh but look guys heres a latina princess isnt she lovely? She doesn’t live in latam either tho ptff are you kidding thats stupid #princesses dont live in 3rd world countries yuck. She lives in fantasy land obviously #Mátense

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earthly-apples · 2 years ago

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I really like Uwe’s Erik…disclaimer that I never completed the original novel or watched a full Broadway prod before, but I applaud his choice to make Erik a creep. Man has been living in the sewers for I don’t know how many years, eaten away by loneliness and self-contempt, never had a chance to learn the logic of normal social interacting.

He bends the managers to his will through fear and benefits, and not out of personal charm. He throws a tantrum when his wishes are ignored, one that could go as far as to murdering innocent people. I can see why people feel that Uwe’s Erik grabbing Christine and dragging her around with little care comes across as rough, but this is a man who has communicated with others only through threats for decades. It has become habitual—natural even—for him to impose his will upon others through violence. He wants to see Christine submit when he shows his anger, when he pinches her arm and screams in her face.

So it’s confusing for him to see that Christine answers neither with absolute obedience (fear) nor further resistance (hate). Fear and hate are the only emotions he’s familiar with, and in the moment of confusion he lets Christine and Raoul go, and being overwhelmed with emotions, he harshly fends off Christine when she turns to check on him.

Tl;dr: I am a man-child character interpretation enjoyer.

Also. Der Tod and Erik are very different, even though the former throws a bit of a tantrum when he gets turned down. But he’s much more sophisticated in character and a man enjoying his job at the heart of it all. Truly my little meow meow.

#blah blah blah #poto #probably grammatical mistakes or bad structure but could care less

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zlobonessa · 11 months ago

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ficlets-i-wrote-and-translated-in-the-middle-of-night, re: zero, modern au crusch/fourier/ferris

this one is actually the scene that i originally envisioned in my fic about them but it didn't work out. the fic itself is in russian so uh. do what you will with that.

"how are you? not stuffy? how's the head? is there no noise in your ears?" ferris asks again, feeling fourier's forehead and throat. crusch watches her palm intently. uneasiness is throbbing in her chest, her brain pounding: your-fault your-fault your-fault.

"i'm fine, ferris," fourier sighs. the air is whistling in his lungs. "despite the misconceptions of the general public… i'm still not sweet enough to melt in the sun."

"you!.. oh, go to hell!" ferris snorts and scowls, but seems calmer now. crash returns her attention to the engine.

but what else is there to watch: there are no miracles, it's time for her to face the truth.

"bad news," she says, pausing — why? — anyway, "the radiator cracked. with this… you won't get far, unfortunately."

ferris covers her face with her hands. inhales the air convulsively. removes her hands.

"should i call a tow truck then?" she asks in her almost normal voice, reaching for the phone in her purse.

crusch bites her lip.

"i think so. fourier, i really am so…

"mhm-m," fourier stops her with a gesture. he sips from a can of coke: crusch doesn't even know where he got it from, she doesn't keep stuff like this in her car. it must be ferris—but wasn't it she who told them, making a scary face, about all its dangers for teeth and stomach?

a special case, imagines she ferris, shrugging helplessly.

fourier puts the can on the trunk with an unnecessarily loud thunk.

"can we pretend there's no signal here? at least, let's say… for a couple of hours."

crusch and ferris look at each other uncomprehendingly.

the corner of fourier's lips goes up.

"i've never been in a car accident in my life."

ferris chokes on air indignantly. fourier chuckles.

"you know, stuck in the middle of nowhere, far from civilization with a gorgeous lady… and with a stern driver up to her ears in engine oil… an exciting scenario, eh? crusch, it suits you amazingly, by the way. ferris! ferris! i'm kidding! just kidding!

ferris slams her purse into her palm as a warning sign.

"just… a small change of scenery to a more exciting one", fourier looks away to the right side of the road: further, crush remembers (she mentioned it a minute before the accident, didn't she?) there was an unremarkable gas station just behind this hill and sparse trees shown on navigator, " for a while."

she and ferris exchange glances again, this time helplessly. that's a lot of their conversations lately, isn't it? wordless staring behind fourier's back.

"this… it would be terribly irresponsible, your highness," crusch finally squeezes out.

fourier shrugs his shoulders.

"yeah"

he crosses his legs, almost scratching the paint. crusch looks at him: sitting on the trunk of her car, wearing his own t-shirt, bought for a mere pittance in some second-hand store and now too big for him, with a haggard face and permanent bruises under his eyes.

there is neither determination nor response in ferris' face: she looks at crusch, lost and expectant.

crusch slams the hood carelessly, too roughly.

"okay."

#re zero #my writing #ferris argyle #crusch karsten #fourier lugunica #if the grammatical mistakes are way too bad in this one.... well it's 5 am here but also probably my fault

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unityrain24 · 1 year ago

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三つの瓶

窓のまえに三つの瓶をあります。そして、瓶の中に苔をあります。好きです。きれいです。

今は雨ですから、嬉しいです。雨が大好きです。

(すみません、私は日本語を上手ではありません。れんしゅうをします！)

#雨 #苔 #大自然 #日本語の練習 #日本語 #moss #rain #nature #mossy #japanese practice #probably made numerous grammatical mistakes #unityrain.photo

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mindmeltonabun-blog · 11 months ago

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My Demon: Theories and Analysis for Eps 7-8

Hello Readers!

The episodes this week were top-tier! Some quick thoughts I had about this week's eps: Kwang Chul gave a whole new meaning to the phrase, “step on me”. I totally wasn’t expecting this drama to have any blood or gore, but here we are. Did they have to make Gu Won’s stabbing so violent and gruesome?!! Blood was spurting out everywhere! It seriously made me want to vomit.

Other thoughts I had were that all of Madam Ju’s family members should be in prison or at least a mental institution because they're all so freaking crazy. The only good thing about these episodes was that Do Hee and Gu Won finally admitted their true feelings to each other.

I'll try to keep this post as short as possible, but you know me, I still end up writing a shit ton. Anyway, let's take a deeper dive into some of the many mysteries in "My Demon". Time to put on our thinking caps to analyze and theorize!

Demons' Limitations

In Ep 7, we were finally given more information about demons. Specifically, the writer provided us with information about demons' limitations which are quite similar to the limitations of the genie from Aladdin.

For those who don’t remember the rules of Aladdin's Genie, here they are:

1. Can’t kill anyone 2. Can’t make people fall in love 3. Can’t bring anyone back from the dead

There are some minor differences between the two sets of rules. For instance, instead of the rule that prohibits you from making people fall in love, there are rules against interfering with God's work and preventing natural disasters.

I believe the writer is presenting these rules to suggest that Gu Won will eventually break one of these rules to save Do Hee's life (see the section "What's Best for You is What's Best for Me" for more). Something interesting to note is that Netflix didn't translate the whole page in this scene. There is a part of the text that says, "Killing the living, saving the dead, etc are part of God's domain". This means God is allowed to kill the living, bring back the dead, prevent natural disasters, etc. Basically, God can do all the things demons can't. Seeing this translation also made me realize what God meant when she said "turf" in Ep. 7. I'll further elaborate in the section titled, "God/Lady".

Demons vs Guardians

I'm curious about the differences between demons and guardians. When a demon becomes a guardian, do they acquire a new set of powers? Or does becoming a guardian simply mean they return to being human without additional abilities? Based on the information presented so far, it appears that for a demon to transition into a guardian, they must learn to love and be loved in return. Achieving these milestones would essentially enable them to regain their soul and humanity. It would be cool though if, upon becoming a guardian, demons retained their powers but without an immortal lifespan, similar to Lee Yeon from Tale of the Nine-Tailed!

What Landed Gu Won in Hell? Love

Being a demon is comparable to the life of a genie. In both cases, the individuals are bound to fulfill the desires of others. However, for demons, this servitude isn't a mere obligation--it's a necessity for their continued existence. Unlike genies, demons must grant wishes to sustain their own lives. When I think about it, the life of a demon is quite sad because they have to spend their entire existence granting others' wishes without ever having an opportunity for their own wishes to be fulfilled. This got me thinking about what exactly was Gu Won's greatest desire or wish. Side note, y'all should check out the show Lucifer if you like mystery, devil and human romance, family drama, etc.

Throughout the show, we have witnessed that our deepest wishes and desires, can ironically, lead to our demise, sending us straight to Hell, where we are tormented by these very wishes. Take for example, Park Bok Gyu's wish to never go hungry. After he died, he was tortured by creatures with fish heads. Conversely, the mob boss, who sought wealth and power, faces a fate in Hell that, according to Gu Won, would be even more severe. These examples show us the larger the wish, the steeper the cost--meaning that if your wish is significantly large, your soul could end up in far worse places than Hell. But what's worse than even the deepest levels of Hell? Becoming a demon. Unlike in Hell, where you could finish your punishment more quickly and be reincarnated, being turned into a demon means becoming a slave for all of eternity. All hope isn't lost though because as I mentioned earlier, if you learn to love and be loved returned, you can be free of your demon existence.

I'll now provide you with what I think Gu Won's wishes were and the circumstances surrounding his transformation into a demon! Let me just say that Gu Won's wishes were astronomical. They weren't common wishes like wealth or power which would be easily granted by demons. They were wishes only God could grant.

(DISCLAIMER: DO NOT PLAGIARIZE MY THEORIES, I BETTER NOT BE SEEING MY THEORIES ON ANY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM WITHOUT CREDIT).

So, Do Hee and Gu Won were in love, but their societal positions created significant barriers. Being a kisaeng and a nobleman, they faced the harsh reality their love could not flourish in that lifetime. Now, Do Hee was forced to work as a kisaeng to provide for her family.

Due to Do Hee's status as a kisaeng, she was either sold off to someone else or, in an alternative scenario, their forbidden love led to her tragic death (who knows, maybe Jin Star's past self killed Do Hee in a fit of jealousy; maybe they were sisters?). In either situation, Gu Won would've felt a profound sense of insignificance and weakness, unable to protect Do Hee from these tragic fates. Like he must've really hated himself.

In his pit of despair, Gu Won wished he could've saved Do Hee from her enslaved position as a kisaeng or untimely death, protected her, and married her one day. Now, those are some big wishes, and remember what I said? The bigger the wish, the larger the cost. In a twist of fate, God/Lady heard Gu Won's fervent wishes and offered Gu Won a deal. God would fulfill all of Gu Won's wishes if he agreed to work as a demon.

Sometime after this, Do Hee found out Gu Won became a demon because of her and felt immense guilt. Do Hee who was a devout Christian, prayed to God wishing Gu Won would be spared from suffering such an existence as a demon. Now, God mostly fulfilled this request by erasing Gu Won's human memories (I'm going with the Grim Reaper/oblivion tea theme here haha). Since Gu Won's inability to protect Do Hee tortured him deeply, the act of forgetting lessened his emotional pain. I say mostly because God wasn't quite done with fulfilling this request.

Just imagine being God, you would have to shuffle so many things around to fulfill both Do Hee and Gu Won's wishes. Make Do Hee rich so she's not working in a slave position...check...create a situation where the two would meet (i.e matchmaker got the hotel name wrong)...check...create a situation where the two would have to depend on each other (i.e shut off Gu Won's power on the road)...check..... make them get married..check and check.....free Gu Won from his existence as a demon...ongoing. IT'S A LOT Y'ALL.

How do you save Gu Won from a sad existence as a demon and spontaneous combustion? You turn him back into a human by introducing him to the very girl who would be capable of bringing out his humanity through her love. She's the water that extinguishes the Hellfire that is about to consume him. Gu Won freed Do Hee from being an enslaved kisaeng in the past and now she's freeing him from the shackles of his enslaved existence as a demon.

Gu Won and Do Hee are each other's salvation. One cannot survive without the other. If one is killed, the other one will be too. For example, if Do Hee dies, Gu Won would either be stuck as a demon for all of eternity or combust. And if Gu Won dies, it would leave Do Hee unprotected and she would probably get killed. It's like Do Hee said, they share the same fate and are in the same boat.

What’s Best for You is What’s Best for Me...Danger on the Horizon!

On the surface, the quote "What's best for you is what's best for me", said by Madam Ju and echoed by Gu Won may seem sweet, but upon deeper reflection, it reveals a bitter truth: what's best for you is not always what's best for me.

A brief digression: I have a suspicion that Gu Won might be a long-lost ancestor of the Ju family. Why would the writer intentionally give Gu Won similar personality traits as Madam Ju or have him repeat things she said if not to suggest there was a possible familial connection? While shared traits don't always indicate a blood relation, the repetition of the same phrases is highly suspicious. I guess one reason the writer did this was to convey that even though Madam Ju was gone, Do Hee would still have someone similar by her side. However, they could've accomplished this without having Gu Won be the male version of Madam Ju.

Another explanation for why Gu Won and Madam Ju say the same phrases could be that they crossed paths in the past. Maybe Madam Ju heard Gu Won say it or vice versa. Who knows. It would be sweet though if Gu Won were a long-lost Ju family member because then Do Hee would be related to Madam Ju through her marriage to him.

Ok, sorry for the brief tangent, it's my ADHD brain haha. Now, let's get back to discussing how what's best for you is not always what's best for me. Taking the example of the mother and her sick daughter, from the mother's perspective, signing away her soul to ensure her daughter's health might seem like the best thing to do for her daughter. Yet, it wouldn't be truly best for the mother as she would be damned to Hell. Similarly, from the daughter's POV, what's technically best for her (i.e not being sick anymore), wouldn't actually be the best, as she would be fraught with guilt knowing her mother suffered because of her.

When it comes to Do Hee and Gu Won, what's best for Do Hee is to continue investigating the deaths of her parents and Madam Ju. However, this poses a significant risk to Gu Won, who is almost fully human now and no longer invincible.

This leads me to my next point. Gu Won would stop at nothing to ensure Do Hee's happiness. He's well aware that for Do Hee to continue her investigations, she would need to remain alive and safe. For that to happen, he would need to have his powers fully working so he could protect her. What this means is that Gu Won will become a full demon again. I believe this is about to happen soon because, in Ep 8, we see God/Lady looking at the moon which is now a "waxing gibbous". If you recall from Ep 2, Park Bok Gyu hypothesized that they would have to wait until the next full moon to attempt transferring the tattoo back to Gu Won so he could be a demon again. And well, the next phase after a waxing gibbous is a full moon.

I think Gu Won isn't going to tell Do Hee about his decision to become a demon though. He's going to take Do Hee to the beach and make her think it's a romantic outing and she's not going to suspect anything because they’re in a relationship now. Then bam into the water they go! The betrayal she'll feel after Gu Won does this will be astronomical. It goes back to Madam Ju's quote about having someone on your side who, if they stabbed you in the back, you would understand. Even if Do Hee understands why Gu Won did this, it still wouldn't change the fact it would still hurt like Hell.

Would Gu Won doing this be really what's best for Do Hee? Or the both of them? Yes and no. While it would keep Do Hee alive and safe, she would be riddled with guilt knowing Gu Won sacrificed his soul and humanity to ensure she was protected. At the same time, Gu Won would become immortal again and able to protect Do Hee better, but he would no longer be able to feel love for her since demons are devoided of human emotions. Gu Won would simply view her as someone he just needs to protect to keep his end of the bargain.

Following this, I think there will be a situation where either Kwang Chul or Abraxas gets ahold of Do Hee and I think this is where Gu Won’s latest dream will come into play. To save Do Hee, Gu Won will have to kill whoever, and this will force him to break the rule that states demons can't kill. Subsequently, he'll spontaneously combust. Well, that's going to suck. Had Gu Won remained human, he could've killed whoever and not spontaneously combust. However, since he's a demon again, those consequences would apply. Don't worry y'all, I feel like Do Hee is going to wish or pray to God/Lady that she'll take pity on them and bring Gu Won back to life lol.

Abraxas..It's Still Seok Hoon

So earlier this week, I posted on Twitter how I now thought Abraxas was Seok Min or Do Gyeong based on the pillows. However, after thinking through some more things, I'm going back to saying Abraxas is Seok Hoon. That's my final answer.

Seok Hoon is a trickster/magician! He makes things "disappear" including money and people. That's why Madam Ju said in Ep 4, "You killed someone on top of all your dirty tricks?". He even suggested Do Hee let his department buy shares of her company to offset their losses which is a form of trickery since it would appear Do Hee was engaging in stock manipulation or insider trading.

The biggest trick Seok Hoon is attempting to pull on Do Hee is to make her believe he's really on her side and that he's her real guardian. Going back to Madam Ju's quote about having someone on your side means you would gladly let them stab you in the back and understand. When you trust someone completely, it means you would let them stab you in the back because at the end of the day you know they have your best interest at heart so you would understand.

Throughout this show, the writer has made it a point to emphasize how Seok Hoon is the only one on Do Hee's side. Here's the thing though, Do Hee doesn't completely trust Seok Hoon as evidenced by how she doesn't tell him everything. The same goes for Gu Won, but he's not a suspect in the death of Madam Ju.

Between the two men in the show, who do you think is the real demon and guardian? Btw, Abraxas is sometimes seen as a demon in mythology. For me, the real demon is Seok Hoon. Even though Gu Won projects an image that he's a big bad demon, he's actually an angel on the inside. In contrast, Seok Hoon projects an angelic persona, but he's really a devil on the inside. Gu Won is the real guardian who's trying to protect Do-Hee while Seok Hoon is the real demon who's trying to kill her.

One major question I had from earlier episodes was how Abraxas/Seok Hoon knew the identity of Gu Won was the Director of Sunwol Foundation before the wedding news articles came out that said as much? Furthermore, how did Seok Hoon know the Wild Dogs were looking for him? If you remember, the Wild Dogs only found out Gu Won was the Director of Sunwol and Do Hee's bodyguard after Kwang Chul passed the note revealing as much. There was no explanation of just how exactly Seok Hoon and Kwang Chul found out Gu Won was the director of Sunwol and that the Wild Dogs were looking for him. I looked through earlier eps to see if there was ever an instance where Do Hee told Seok Hoon that Gu Won was the Director of Sunwol, but there wasn't. I think Seok Hoon probably found out this bit of info from Secretary Shin. She probably mentioned it in passing to Seok Hoon because she thought Seok Hoon was Do Hee's ally.

I'm sure many of you are probably wondering how Seok Hoon can be Abraxas when we see Abraxas chilling at Seok Min's home. Well, the thing is, we haven't seen Seok Hoon's place for a reason--he doesn't have one. Due to his "hippie" lifestyle, he engages in communal living, meaning he lives with relatives. More specifically, he resides at Seok Min's home, and that's why we see him as Abraxas there. There's a strong possibility that he and Seok Min are probably working together too. Additionally, I'm ruling out Do Gyeong as being Abraxas because I think he's trying to help warn Do Hee in his own creepy way. When it comes to the pill switching of Madam Ju's medications, I suspect Se-ra may have some involvement. According to the info on SBS, Se-ra is the daughter of a leading pharma company. As someone with a background in pharma, I was like wait a minute. While I'm not sure about the rules and regulations in South Korea, in the US, diclofenac is a prescription medication. I'm just going to guess it's the same in SK. This led me to think that maybe Se-ra provided the diclofenac to Seok Hoon.

In Ep 7, Abraxas/Seok Hoon informed Kwang Chul that Gu Won was only a demon when he was around Do Hee. This revelation led the duo to believe Gu Won's access to his powers was somehow linked to his proximity to Do Hee (they just didn't know how close). To test this hypothesis, they decided to separate the two lovers so that they could eliminate Gu Won. When this plan failed, they went back to the drawing board. At this point, the duo remained unaware of the tattoo and its connection to Do Hee and Gu Won's powers because there was nothing in the book about the tattoo transferring or how to get it back. I wouldn't be surprised if the book didn't even say how the tattoo was connected to demon powers.

It was only after Seok Hoon saw Do Hee place Gu Won's hand on her wrist with the tattoo that he realized the connection between the tattoo and Gu Won's demon powers. This is going to be important further down the line.

After realizing this, Seok Hoon messaged Kwang Chul, saying, "There's something wrong with his powers." Although not explicitly shown on screen, I believe Seok Hoon knew precisely what was wrong with Gu Won's powers. He deduced Gu Won was becoming human through Do Hee's love. This is why Seok Hoon chose to tell Gu Won he was the reason why Do Hee was giving up the Chairwoman position and investigation of Madam Ju's death. Seok Hoon strategically revealed this information to Gu Won with the intention it would encourage him to pursue a relationship with Do Hee, ultimately leading to Gu Won becoming fully human through her love. If Gu Won were fully human, he wouldn't have the powers to protect Do Hee, making them both sitting ducks for slaughter.

Seok Hoon's little plan is going to backfire, though, for two main reasons: He doesn't know one can get the tattoo back and he doesn't understand the power of love. Remember, the book doesn't tell us how one gets the tattoo back. Bok Gyu and Gu Won are the only ones who know this bit of information because they figured out the conditions (i.e full moon and ocean) had to be the same as the night the tattoo was initially transferred. Furthermore, Seok Hoon doesn't know the lengths Gu Won would go to protect Do Hee. He doesn't understand that Gu Won would essentially sell his soul and humanity to protect Do Hee (Gu Won's already done it once before in past), meaning he would become a demon again to protect Do Hee.

God/Lady

I don't know about y'all, but I'm quite frankly done with God in disguise figures in fantasy dramas. It's like in every single fantasy drama, there's always a God in disguise character that gives you hints of what will happen in the form of riddles, leaving many scratching their heads to figure out what they mean. We have seen these types of characters in Goblin, Tale of the Nine-Tailed, King Eternal Monarch, Doom at Your Service, Alchemy of Souls, etc. The list is endless.

The latest God in disguise is Lady... who goes around saving "recyclables", more like saving people. Anyway, I've seen many questioning if she’s really God. Y’all if she’s wearing a hat that spells out G-O-D in bold letters and she’s always asking money for Jesus Corporation, what does that tell you??? I don’t know how much clearer it can be that she is God. Instead of questioning whether she is God or not, maybe it would be a better use of our time if we spend it trying to decipher what she says instead.

Let's get to dissecting the many things God has said. Now, I've already gone over most of the things she said from Ep 1-6 either in the previous post or on my Twitter act so I won't really discuss more here. However, the are a couple things I forgot to mention in my last post though. Here they are:

The roulette wheel has 18 odd and 18 even numbers (36 numbers total). (18) 1+8=9 and (36) 3+6=9 all correspond to Gu (9) Won. The sum of all the numbers (0-36) on the roulette wheel is "666" which I already said in the previous post is the number of the beast/devil and corresponds to Gu Won (the combination to his safe is 666). When you flip “666” it’s “999” which is an angel number that symbolizes completion and new beginnings.

In "Divine Comedy", there are 9 realms of Hell + 1 with Lucifer = 10. The same pattern is present in Purgatory and Heaven. Gu Won's soul was in Hell and now it's in the purgatory on its way towards Heaven. Demon-> Guardian. Hell-> Heaven

On a broader level, if 1= new beginning and 0= end, our couple who's represented by the number 10 symbolizes they are each other's end and beginning. They complete each other.

The bill God is holding when she's saying, "I'm betting all my money on the odd numbers", is a 1000 bill. 1000 or "cheon" means "heaven". That scene could be intrepreted as God or the heavens are betting everything on our couple to win. Also, Madam Ju's first name is Cheon which probably means she went to heaven.

The overall conclusion I'm drawing from what God said about odd numbers from eps 1-6 is that our couple will have a happy ending after they go through some shit haha.

Moving onto what God said in Eps 7-8! When Gu Won called God/Lady, "Arabica woman", my mind lit up! Does anyone see the connection? Arabica...Abraxas. Abraxas is 7 letters and Arabica is 7 letters. In some belief systems, Abraxas was viewed as God. So, Gu Won calling her "Arabica woman" could be another hint she's God. The word "Arabica" also sounds very similar to "Abracadabra" which is related to Abraxas. Just so we’re clear, I’m not implying God/Lady is the Abraxas who’s trying to kill Gu Won and Do Hee. Seok Hoon is a wannabe Abraxas while God/Lady is the real Abraxas haha.

I also found it hilarious that God was constantly begging for donations for Jesus Corporation. It made me think about that time Madam Ju said she bribed God through donations after Do Hee said liars can't go to Heaven. Guess Madam Ju bribed God enough to earn a spot in Heaven.

When God says she knows this place like the back of her hand, she doesn't mean the train station, she means the whole world...because you know, God is omnipresent. God then tells them, they've intruded on her "turf" which means they've intruded on her domain.

What's her domain? Matters of life, death, natural disasters, fate, making people fall in love, etc. This was why Gu Won's powers would fail at the most random times or rather not-so-random times. God already has a grand plan for these two and she's keeping up her end of the bargain of the contract she made with them in the past (refer to "What Landed Gu Won in Hell? Love" section). However, these two would interrupt her work so she would shut off Gu Won's powers so that they follow the predetermined path she has planned for them.

Gu Won's power failed in Ep 1 because God was creating a situation where they would depend on each other, get to know each other, fall in love, etc. In the latest power failure, God turned off Gu Won's powers to prevent them from escaping so they could kiss each other. Consider this scenario: If God hadn't prevented them from escaping, what would've happened? They wouldn't have kissed. That kiss set the wheels in motion for the romance between Gu Won and Do Hee. God was just giving them a nudge in the right direction.

The next time Gu Won experienced another power failure was later in Ep 7 when he and Do Hee were attempting to leave Sunwol Foundation. Once again, we should question why God didn't want them to leave at that particular moment. Remember, because Gu Won and Do Hee were unable to leave precisely at that time, they encountered the Wild Dogs, who then proceeded to pledged their allegiance to Gu Won. Based on Ep 9 preview, it appears the Wild Dogs will play a crucial role in finding Kwang Chul.

As Gu Won and Do Hee were leaving, we saw God telling them, "What flickers would eventually go out sooner or later". Many interpreted this scene as God saying Gu Won's powers would eventually go out. Well, duh. I interpreted this scene a bit differently because I noticed God was looking at the clock that was flickering and pointing at 1.

What does 1 symbolize in numerology? New beginning. My interpretation was that she was saying Gu Won's life as a demon along with his powers was coming to an end and that he was about to begin a new life as a human.

Gu Won should really be nicer to God lol. Look at what happened to the Prince from Beauty and the Beast after he wasn't nice to the old beggar lady...she turned him into a beast. Ohhh now I get it....Gu Won needs to learn to love or he'll remain a beast forever aka he'll remain a devil/demon forever haha (666=beast=devil).

Later in the episode, one guy advises the other to let it go and blame it on fate. This refers to an earlier scene where Gu Won was blaming Do Hee (Fate) for losing his powers. God's message is clear--Gu Won shouldn't be blaming Do Hee for his current state; rather, he should be blaming himself. After all, it's not her fault that he's falling in love with her and becoming human. Moreover, there's the possibility that becoming human was one of Gu Won's original wishes in the contract he signed with God.

In Ep 8, we don't see much of God except in the beginning. Many interpreted what God said in the following scene as meaning Do Hee had special powers that allowed her to heal Gu Won. However, I don't believe she possesses any supernatural abilities. Instead, I think she saved him through the power of love, and, perhaps prayers. If you look at the end of Ep 7, you'll notice Do Hee's hands were in a prayer position right before they zoomed in on the cross tattoo. Do Hee likely wished and prayed for Gu Won's salvation, and God granted it.

Regarding the second thing God said, I believe she was referring to the moment when Do Hee was trying to save Gu Won. Seok Hoon witnessed Do Hee placing Gu Won's hand on her wrist, setting off a chain of events that would eventually threaten her life (refer to "Abraxas...It's Still Seok Hoon" section).

Tarot

Whew! We are almost near the end of this post! There wasn't really anything of significance in terms of tarot in this week's episodes. One thing I found interesting was that the social influencer had asked Gu Won if he was a magician. For those who don't know, the 1st tarot card is "The Magician". You can make multiple connections between that, the number 1, and Gu Won, but since I'm tired of writing, I won't be further elaborating on it. I think we'll see a situation in the future where everyone really thinks Gu Won is dead, but he'll show up very unexpectedly and say "Abracadabra, I'm back!".

One last thing I found interesting was the tarot card pulled by Jung Mi in Ep 8. She had pulled the 19th tarot card, which is the Sun. This card usually indicates success, good fortune, happiness, etc. Also, 1+9=10 and Yi Sun...Sun haha. I think this card conveys the same message that everything will be okay after we go through some Hell.

I bet you all that we'll be seeing the following tarot cards in future eps: #1 The Magician, #8 Strength, #11 Justice, #12 The Hanged Man, #13 Death, #16 The Tower, #18 The Moon, and #21 The World!

Other Random Thoughts

Gu Won and Do Hee's red and green didn't refer to Christmas or Battery Charge Status. They referred to the colors on the roulette wheel. There is only one green space on a typical roulette wheel and it corresponds to the number 0. Number 1 is usually red. So 1...0....10 and 1+0=1 completion. Also, odd numbers are usually red and even numbers are black. Oh, I get why Do Hee was wearing a red dress and Gu Won was wearing a black suit now haha.

What determines if one remembers their past lives or not? Why is Park Bok Gyu the only one who remembers his past lives? Will Do Hee ever remember her past lives?

I can't believe Park Bok Gyu compared Gu Won to being a meat eater who ended up becoming a vegetarian because he met a very special pig (Do Hee) that he didn't want to eat haha.

With Madam Ju, is she suppose to be a spirit in limbo or is Do Hee schizophrenic? In Ep 8, it almost feels like she’s a real ghost bc we see her tapping her cane in hesitation after Do Hee said she didn’t know who killed Madam Ju and her parents.

I hope the Wild Dogs or Park Bok Gyu will find the bug underneath Gu Won’s desk when they’re cleaning haha. Did Seok Hoon put bugs in Do Hee’s place?!!

Was Gu Won a prince when he was human?

Do Hee’s birthday is Oct 29 (look at her phone in ep 1) which means she is a scorpio. On the SBS site, it tells about the story of the frog and scorpion. In the story, the scorpion stings the frog who’s carrying it across the river. They both end up dying and the scorpion is basically like oops it’s just in my nature to. Also, on the lovers tarot card (Rider Waite deck), there is a snake which equates to the 8th zodiac sign…scorpio! The other zodiac sign on the lovers tarot card is a lion which means Leo (5th zodiac sign). I guess Gu Won’s zodiac sign is Leo. This would also explain why he likes those lion bookends haha. Oh and lions are considered “apex predators” haha. Leo’s element is fire and Scorpio is water….hahaha Fire and Water…Gu Won and Do Hee. In most tarot decks, the 8th tarot card is justice. In the Rider Waite deck, the 8th card is strength which shows a lion.

The kiss scene with the garden backdrop looks like the lovers tarot card where Adam and Eve are in the garden of Eden. I can totally see people start making theories about how Do Hee is Eve and Gu Won is Adam after reading this post 🤣. And talk about “original sin” and “forbidden fruit”. Good luck haha.

Number 15 is associated with the devil tarot card as well as the full moon (the full moon comes 15 days after the new moon).

One other theory I had for Gu Won and Do Hee was that in the past, they were in so love that it became detrimental to everyone around them. Gu Won was a rule breaker and instead of doing whatever job he was suppose to do (I.e work as a government official), he was always going around “flower watching” aka hanging out with Do Hee. Him and Do Hee forgot about their responsibilities so God punished them. Gu Won’s punishment was to be turned into a demon so he could learn to follow the rules (Gu Won did say the demon manual was a book filled with many threats haha). For Do Hee, maybe her punishment was to always be alone, meaning she would always lose those closest to her. I feel this theory is just meh haha. The other theory aligns more with the many themes in the show than this one. I would be surprised if the writer goes this route haha.

END

Overall, I don't think we'll have a sad ending. I'll definitely let y'all know if I see anything in future eps that would indicate otherwise! I hope in this week's eps, we'll get to see what actually happened in Gu Won and Do Hee's past! I'm dying to know the circumstances that led to Gu Won's transformation into a demon! Alright, that's all I have for now!

#my demon #gu won #do do hee #do dohee #jeong gu won #kim yoojung #song kang #tarot cards #there are probably grammatical mistakes #oops I sound repetitive

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mindmeltonabunaosblog · 2 years ago

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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

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