#or possibly alchemy

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

One of the fascinating trope subversions in Alchemy of Souls is that Jang Uk is a Chosen OneTM, but instead of the usual paths, where he's specially trained, or hidden away for safety, or famous or something, everyone who knows Uk is special is actively trying to hinder his progress.

And not just the bad guys! The good guys too. It's like if every single teacher in Harry Potter was Snape.

His father cripples and abandons him, Park Jin will not let him be trained and actively encourages him to be lazy, and Jin Mu writes him off as useless but also refuses to train him. All the other important mages dislike and refuse to train him (though they don't know the whole truth). Master Lee is the only person in the entire series who knows Jang Uk is the Prophecy King Star Baby and actually helps him.

Now of course, if you try to mess with destiny, destiny messes back. So obviously Jang Uk would find the most terrifying possible trainer, a soul-shifting murderer, who is willing to help him. Which is just perfect because that's tootally what happens narritively when you try to prevent a prophecy, it just finds another way to come to fruition. Everyone is acting like the king and queen in Sleeping Beauty, thinking they can just destroy all the spindles and nothing bad will happen. She will always find a spindle, you fools!

What's just great karma is that they end up with a Chosen One who doesn't believe in their morals at all. Seo Yul is more like what they would want, a person who will sacrifice themselves to save the world, but instead they have Jang Uk, who will burn the world down to save one person. And it's their fault! They made him that way.

Also, how picky to be like, "Well the Prophecy Baby wasn't born in a way that I like so I don't think he should be the Chosen One." Do you people realize you could have all died? And again, Master Lee is there being like, "I don't care how he was born, if you guys got a King Star baby it's because you need one. Ya idiots."

Edit: I meant Sleeping Beauty not Rapunzel 🤦🏼‍♀️

#alchemy of souls #jang uk #chosen one trope #prophecy must be fulfilled by any means possible #nature will find a way #master lee #being the only person with brains #prophecy baby

[starmist]

To me Alchemy of Souls is very much a “they’ve been dead from the beginning” story

Like,,, Cho Yeong died that day with the rest of her family, Master Lee declares her dead and Kim Dojoo even holds a jesa for her.

Naksu dies, if not the moment she shifts her soul/has it stolen, then in ep18 when she lets go of the ice stone and chooses to live a normal life. She herself even says in ep5 that “now Naksu is also dead”.

Hell, she even lives as essentially a vengeful ghost. A cold and empty existence, her only purpose to avenge her family. The entirety of s1 is about her learning to live and want to live which is what makes her fate so tragic.

Jin Buyeon died in the womb and later, the girl that was born through the power of the ice stone, is thought to be dead by everyone save for her mother.

(Nice parallel of Cho Yeong & Jin Buyeon where Jang Gang, like Jin Ho Gyeong, obsessively looks for a little girl thought to be dead by all but him, because of his grief and guilt)

And even her name belongs to a woman’s dead granddaughter. Though I’m only looking at this through a s1 perspective, Jin Seol Ran, Jin Buyeon’s original identity, has also been all but dead for centuries.

A twice over dead girl, inhabiting the body of another dead girl, uses the name of yet another dead girl, and shares a body with a two centuries long dead woman.

She was never going to survive. How much she changed, everything she did, was all futile in the long run because she died long before the story started, there was never any saving her, she was dead from the very beginning.

#personally I’m a big fan of tragedy #yes happy ending are nice and to me the story ended in ep19 but not everything has to have a happy ending to be good #basically that nice dichotomy! what is the significance of the distinctions post #anyways have a (possibly controversial) speed analysis brought to you by AVOIDANCE! get yours now for only FREE.99!! #alchemy of souls

[braininatankwithalaptop]

You know, as set in stone as a spell forger/researcher Zorian is, I think in another life or timeline he could have just as easily become a detective.

An empath that is naturally curious about the world and might look for divination help and be pointed to a detective? I don't think Zorian would join the police force but he in one way or another respects Haslush, and might find his skills fit the field. After all, as a freelance detective/P.I. it would give him the career path of his two favorite activities of "stick my nose into other people's business" and "help my friends."

#mother of learning #zorian kazinski #mol #and possibly Kael would be his alchemy/forensics analysis guy #even though he isn't officially working with zorian #I could also imagine Zorian having an extremely biased pricing system #friends and Kirielle get extreme discounts and/or free consults #while family gets steep price hikes #damien because he can afford it #and his parents and fortov because fuck them

[elkian]

The narrative thrust of Dungeon Meshi is basically FMA and it's cruel and unusual to keep Ed Elric and Laios separated by dint of minor problems like "existing in different universes" when they were born to be besties.

Also Falin and Al should form the "Seems like moral leashes but are actually just as unhinged as their older siblings, just quieter about it" club.

#elk text #look me in the eye and tell me ed elric wouldn't love the monster lore #replace alchemy with cooking and you've got basically the same series (and i mean that in the best way possible) #also ed and al would be learning the local magic systems within like two days #'what do you MEAN you can just. fucking resurrect people' #'oh it's risky as hell outside of specific reality-warped zones and prone to failure and requires great sacrifice' #'i'm still pissed but this universe requiring rules and restrictions on the matter mollified me slightly' #'hey laios i'm pissed off wanna make cool swords with me?' 'BOY WOULD I'

[my-drama-heart2406]

This is A Rant

Okay so I really think Shin Seung-ho wasn't joking.

I, at the same time, want and don't want a season 3. But then again, it's not about what I want.

Look only 4 episodes left. Looks like Yeong will get her memories back (finally). Also looks like Yunok recognised her, she throws water on her face (that bitch). Also looks like Uk will recognise her (also finally). But I'm pretty sure that will not happen in the middle of the episode. Probably at the end with a cliffhanger.

So there's the whole aftermath left for their relationship. How will Uk and Yeong react. Yeong will probably pull back from him. Uk will reach out. Now, they already visited the tree but this time Yeong was wearing pink, and it was sunset.

In the trailer they show them near the tree again, but there she's wearing blue/green, with tears in her eyes and, it's daytime.

Then there's that scene from the trailer where they join their hands with the jade eggs in btw them. She looks like she's wearing the same dress as above. So all in all, a lot of romance left.

There's this scene of bloodied Jang Uk. I hope it's not his blood.

Then there's that whole scene with Cheombugwan burning, in ruins.

And whose sword is this??? This is the first scene of the first trailer. WTF is happening????

The whole action sequence is left, which we saw in the final trailer.

But that's not the only thing. Jin Mu dying and Uk-Yeong getting a happy ending is not the end of the story.

Remember, Jang Uk is the King's Star. It's his destiny to destroy the ice stone. Not being able to take out the ice stone is not the problem. See at this point, it's actually a boon. With the help of the ice stone Jang Uk won't die and he can prevent Yeong in Jin Bu-yeon's body from running wild. But that goes completely against his destiny. Which was why Park Jin saying "if you take out the ice stone, you will die" was so important. This is exactly what happened to Master Seo Gyeong. He destroyed all the ice stones, except one because he wanted to save the woman he loved. Which resulted in one ice stone being left in the world, which caused so much chaos. After recognising Yeong, Uk won't want to die and also not let her go wild. But he'd need the ice stone for that. See, completely contradictory to his destiny.

Now I have no idea how they're going to tie this up. I'm not even going to think, I just want a happy ending.

But do you think they'll be able to complete the story in 4 episodes? I mean do you want them to? There's already so much left from the trailer that's not shown, how are they going to complete the rest of the story???

I really don't want a half-assed ending to a show that I love so much. It's not about an ending that the audience likes, but one that completes the story for each character.

#alchemy of souls #i think season 3 is quite possible at this point #my babies don't deserve a bad ending #alchemy of souls: light and shadow #alchemy of souls light and shadow #alchemy of souls season 2 #tvn alchemy of souls #jang uk #naksu #jang uk x naksu #seo yul #go won #park dang gu #lee jae wook #go yoon jung #hwang min hyun #shin seung ho #yoo in soo

[yuelun]

.... I just really want her to be real. I want it more today than I did yesterday, and I'll want it even more tomorrow. And I worry about it, but I also have such a strong gut feeling. I just, I really want her to be real.

#[ ooc. ] wherever her spirit may be among the countless grains of sand and specks of dust between the harbor and the mountains… #[ /makes all of the dramatic hand gestures. ] #[ i've been going crazy and i'm losing my mind. i feel like monica geller walking into a messy house. ] #[ and the messy house is genshin's lore scattered all over the place. ] #[ it's terrifying to look at because it's so much and it's everywhere; but it's also so very riveting to unravel in every possible way. ] #[ and i'm losing my mind but i'm also having the best time and i just really adore her to the moon (haha) and back. ] #[ i'm also getting really tired of so much (all) of the fanart making her out to look so very young. stop it. look at her /here/. ] #[ does she look /young/? ] #[ ok but back to me losing my mind: /LOSING/ my mind. help me. i need to just-- dive into a hole where i write her. ] #[ instead of diving into the mariana trench of endless lore pits that has sea creatures in it that we've never seen before. ] #[ but also guys. GUYS. ALCHEMY!!! /ALCHEMY/ FINALLY. ] #[ and natlan is coming. and the resurrection arc/plot. and and and and. /shakes the air around her manically. ]

[asofterepilogue]

jang uk and naksu are both so prideful yet never hesitate to put themselves in the most humiliating situations if they think it'll get them what they want, and I have to respect that kind of single-mindedness.

#it's also kind of amusing in the most uncomfortable way possible #alchemy of souls #mine

[tansu-bomb]

Jin Mu: I will call the dead NakSu once again to shake up Jang Uk

AOS nation: Jin Mu, you filthy snake. Just Die! 🐍

Jang Uk: (first hugs Jin Mu in relief) Thank you for bringing her back to me.

Jang Uk: (then hands over the sword to NakSu) Tansu him into pieces, my love.

AOS nation: (and then Yeong-Uk passionately kiss over Jin Mu’s piecemeal-ed dead body) 🥰🪺🥰

This is how I beat Jin Mu induced stress. 😂

#its possible #alchemy of souls #alchemy of souls s2 #jang uk #cho yeong #naksu #kdrama #fun post

[mantisgodsdomain]

Possessed with desire to convert a handful of OCs to Dungeon Meshi for fic purposes. Downside is ofc that we are going to have to draw humanish faces. Wish us luck.

#we speak #it is bau and marigold for all interested #considering we feel like bau would be solidly an ogre with no questions asked #but marigold is a big tougher because unfortunately the stereotypes that match up are less compatible with her role #considering her TF specialty though. might not be that much of a barrier. #half-foot who moonlights as a “tallman” for purposes of not getting fucking arrested. or possibly other way round in some way #she is ofc doing illegal activities but with a subtly different flavor #worlds number one user of changeling spores for illegal activities. probably also uses them in beastkin tattoo ink. #something something alchemy yknow how it is

[vriibot]

thinking about when fenn said he was studying abroad during the rivenspire quest. what did he mean, where WAS he that they just let vampires study?

#fennorian #he was busy being in a vampire drama set in an educational setting #no seriously #bc hes already an alchemist and scholar #as of his mtc when verandis was keeping him in the castle #restoration so he can be useful in combat? #formal alchemy education if he just learnt on his own before? #the only other possible mention is in the tutorial he mentions his education #but irt to combat i read that as like... idk my hc is altmer probably have more formal education so like #altmer dueling customs little fancy educated man

[minotaurmerkaba]

#esoteric #mystery schools #photon belt #spiritual initiation #theology #self love #spiritual awakening #spiritual journey #higher self #alchemy #love #love quotes #in the best way possible #i love you

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Naksu/Mu-deok: He is in love with this ugly face? He has terrible taste!

Jin Seol-ran/Bu-yeon (sitting in her body's backseat and letting Naksu drive): This is the soul he's going to fall in love with? He *does* have terrible taste.

#alchemy of souls #naksu #mu deok #jang uk #jin seol ran #jang uk's taste is suspect #runs toward the reddest possible flag

[coffeecakecatt]

Umbraton’s booming art industry is wild to me. Because Umbraton has a good enough art trade that there being professional art thieves is a viable profession, they’ve got a booming film industry, an active newspaper, and they have a rising idol industry that ONLY has the Rediesal Wrench to compete with. AND they have protection on wonderous beasts which there’s been no implication (as far as I’m aware) that Illumina Federation or Lumopolis or Northland are even AWARE wonderous beasts exist. Vic has a circulating book as Umbraton seems to be the only place who’s read it to the point Istvan has placed protections on wonderous beasts and can arrest people for poaching.  I desperately want to know why Umbraton and the Rediesal Wrench are the ones who are progressing in the art field and Lumopolis is NOT even though they have the luxury for it. Even with Lumopolis’ choir there hasn’t been any indication I’ve picked up on that they have artists they’re commissioning for religious paintings. I feel like Schwartz would be competing with Istvan over all this in some passive way, just his own flavor of strict added onto it.  Umbraton is out here thriving in every art and other industry imaginable and it’s Lumopolis’ fucking basement. 

#Alchemy Stars #rambling #I just want to know what's got Umbraton doing every art thing possible #Other than crime prospers #Which according Umbraton #Crime wins

[maybeitdontmakesense]

I’m watching alchemy of souls and I don’t understand how the mom from jinyowon does not recognize her lost daughter even when she opened those doors

#like is it because she not blind so it’s not even a possibility to her mind or what #alchemy of souls #sam talks

[da3drat]

Everybody wish me luck i’m going on the hunt for a daedric spear. Probably gonna get killed.👍

#sea fails at morrowind #i wont even be using it yet i just want it in my back pocket so when i have enough money to really spend on enchantment i can go all in. #if possible I want: aoe frost. on target frost. and aoe shock #possible i will not be able to fit all that on one spear but GOD it would be fly as hell #so we’ll see #im gonna need like a million dollars lol bc i have zero enchantment skill #and i do not plan on leveling it any time soon if at all #im hoping i can bang out a bunch of expensive potions to make the money though im getting good at alchemy

[generic-waffle]

I’ll take “what if fear was an attractive force, instead of a repellant one?” for 200, Alex.

#tmagp #on the subject of this. we know alchemy is a huge factor #so it seems possible that much like the elements #some may naturally want to bond more with certain things or manifestations than others #additionally. it’s possible that the nature of alchemy #being transformative- means that the avatars-while appearing mostly human fire time around #may be more noticeably different #idk #needles x oiar