#if i wrote a post like this for the kinnporsche fandom theyd be screaming crying throwing up

[deliciouswastelandgoddess]

Anatomy of a Soft Cliff-hanger - The Genius of Alchemy of Souls' Season 1 Ending

[A case study of film-making techniques]

Cliff-hangers have been a prominent plot device of all sorts story-telling medium since... well....since humans have been telling stories, Although the use of the term "cliff-hanger" has been attributed to late 19th century, the concept itself has always existed. If you have been paying attention to the how television is being produced in the last couple of decades, you will notice a rise in one particular type of cliff-hangers: the unconfirmed death. This is a subset of a larger group of cliff-hangers, that everyone likes to call - An Unanswered Question.

A popular example of this is Jon Snow's death in Game Thrones Season 5, finale. In recent years consistently this plot device been dangled in front of audiences in a way that provokes emotional investment in a particular character's (or even the actor's, which is a whole other discussion) fate rather than any investment in the entire narrative of the story.

Jon Snow's death was a hard cliff-hanger where an end of an episode or a season is always at an extreme climactic high, with a clear cut, specific question for the audiences to be emotionally invested in: Will Jon Snow live? This isn't a bad thing in and on itself, but it does get boring after a while. Alchemy of Souls, on the other hand ended its first Season on a soft cliff-hanger.

Allow me to explain.

The ending was high on emotions, actions and drastic change in character dynamics, everything you would expect from a season end cliff-hanger but if this show was directed like Game of Thrones, it would probably end on this scene:

With Jang Uk dead, Naksu/MuDeok on the run, Jin ChoYeon hunting her and all of Songrim grieving for Jang Uk's death. The showrunners would have left it at that and the major question for the audiences to ponder would have been: Will Jang Uk live? But the show decided to take a different, and in my opinion a cleverer, path. They let the narrative move beyond the absolute climactic high to a sort of an emotional plateau, from a point where it would have been a hard cliff-hanger to a soft cliff-hanger.

There is no more question of whether or not Jang Uk will live, because they already showed us that he survived. There is no question of whether Naksu will live or not because they showed us two weird women saving her from drowning as well. We know all the players in the game, we know where everyone is, emotionally and physically. We could also guess at almost everyone's motivations and goals at this point. The board is set, the story is in full motion. There are no more specific or narrow questions for the audiences to wonder about, only abstract ones, primary of which is: What happens now? Which, in case you hadn't noticed, is a much harder question to answer simply because of how broad its scope is, and therefore, also a very fun one.

A soft cliff-hanger allows the audiences to indulge in rich meta analysis and theories which are wide in variety. The anticipation is built not through shock but through indulging in genuine wonder and curiosity. A soft cliff-hanger also allows for the showrunners the opportunity to softly subvert audience expectations, again not through cheap plot twists but through intelligent and detailed plot progression.

Its not a perfect show. The world building is all over the place, the magic system makes no sense, etc. But despite all its flaws, Alchemy of Souls delivered a solidly intriguing ending with little to no gimmicks and that is its genius. I cannot wait for Season 2.

#alchemy of souls #alchemy of souls meta #alchemy of souls spoilers #lee jae wook #jung su min #jang uk #mudeok #naksu #game of thrones #jon snow #I am aware I use game of thrones for film making comparisons way too often #also there isnt enough meta analysis i nthe alchemy of souls fandom #if i wrote a post like this for the kinnporsche fandom theyd be screaming crying throwing up #we just love a good meta around here #a case study of film making techniques