Unresolved plot holes

Making this topic so that questions don't get buried in comment section.

Some unexplained and unresolved plot holes still remain. I'm not sure what to make of them:
1. Naksu, for whatever reason disappearing from JBY's body (that even looks like Naksu now) when she regains her memories, of all things. Why didn't she disappear earlier when she was Mu-Deok? Nobody knows. But in the end, even her disappearance turned out to be a lie and she simply took a back seat temporarily for Jin Seol Ran to fulfill her duty. Tbh, master Lee was especially speculative in part 2 and seems like he was just talking out of his ass that time.

 2. The fire bird, such a giant plot device, being the original reason Jinyowon was built - no mention of it whatsover in part 1. Was this bird the cause of drought 200 years ago? How was it even captured? Unknown.

 3. Previously established lore that only priestesses with divine magic can perform the rain ritual and that it is being kept in Jinyowon. But apparently Jin Mu, a mage, had it ready all along and could perform it himself? And does the ritual require drought to work? Couldn't Jin Mu just perform it at his leisure? At the beginning of part 2 he wanted to convince the populace that the ritual is required because of the fake drought and force the priestesses of Jin clan to perform the rite. Didn't seem like it mattered whether the drought was really coming or not. But then they invented that whole fire bird thing and Jin Mu changed his plans altogether. What gives?

4. 200 years old Jin Seol Ran, who (as was mentioned in part 1, refused the ice stone and died) apparently planned this whole thing all along so that Naksu and Uk could get together and defeat the fire bird, because she could forsee the future. Contrived, overcomplicated bs aside, I get that she needed Uk because of him being the King's Star with superpowers, but why the heck JSR needed Naksu's soul stuck together with hers in JBY's body? It still remains unclear.

 Lucyw260:

I have an answer to your 4th point. Jin Seol Ran needed Nak Su in Jin Bu Yeon's body because without Nak Su then Jang Uk that she needed would never have been able to become powerful, open his gate of energy and all that

But why couldn't she do all that herself as Mu-Deok? Because she wasn't a mage herself?

I'm thinking it has more to do with her foreseeing the future events - all of what happened was basically set in stone, just like that fire bird hatching was said to be inevitable. She just had to be there at the right place, at the right time (Sari village) to begin helping the leads to achieve their ultimate goal.

I’m thinking JSR didn’t remember exactly who she was from the start. Like, when she was reborn as JBY and located the ice stone with Jin Mu and her father, I think that was when she realized who she was and what she had to do (destroy the ice stone) but when she fell and got lost, so did most of her abilities, and perhaps all of that coming back was too much and she lost her memories and abilities again. Then, years later, when she returned home as Mudeok, she witness Naksu’s power and saw her energy, so she pulled Naksu’s soul by instinct/muscle memory. I think her memories started to come back very slowly and then in the end of Part 1, when they are testing the powers of the ice stone, it all came back to her: first her most recent memories as JBY and then who she truly was. In Part 2, she already knew everything, but her body needed to heal properly after running wild and for that to happen she need Naksu’s energy and Naksu was also important to Jang Uk and to make sure he would play the role JSR had planned

My theories to your questions.

1.  The Depleted Priestess Vessel - JBY Body

JSR in s2 told Yeong that only after she regains her full powers she will be kicked out. JSR as MD in s1 had limited energy. She only was able to trap Naksu. MD -JSR manifested abilities only in cases of emergency: 

examples:

-saved MD-Naksu from drowning in the lake (When Uk told her she can go die), then MD-Naksu was able to unsheath her sword - my thought JSR let through the cracks a bit of Naksu's energy to save herself.

-saved Uk from soul shifting

 and MD-Naksu only that one time when she saw the broken jade. Other than that she was a simple muggle.

She did not take MD face in s2 ending because as you said, Naksu was still there, and I don't think the remolding would be instantaneous.

2.  The Unnecessary Mythical Creatures to bring sophistication to the drama

True, I'd prefer it wasn't introduced at all, along with the black tortoise.

Firebird - I'd much rather prefer if Jin Mu made lots and lots of efforts to bring draught. And our "good" characters to come up with a well thought out solution, not JSR coming in and giving all the answers.

Black Tortoise -  again, I'd much rather see our characters lost and trying to find a way out based on their logic and efforts. 

These were all shortcuts and it made the plot ridiculous. As disatrous as it seemed, all had an easy solution.

3.  Jin Mu singing in the rain - The rite expert

Jin Mu said he has a team prepared for the rite and he chose a non-Jin priestess family for the rite.

But I was wondering too why do they need the drought at all? 

My only logic is that the rite would not have any results if there wasn't a drought. It'd be singing to make it rain.

4.  Divine Priestess = Warm blanket

JSR could have remained a story from 200 years ago to teach the new generation. We did not need her at all in present AOS.

But to answer to your Q with my theory, Jang Uk needed to survive with the ice stone and be able to sleep at night, so JSR trapped his destined lover and made her a priestess from mage so she could keep Uk warm at night.

If they were fated to be lovers from the beginnig, she would have never killed Uk. So it's just them contradicting themselves everytime. They needed to explain themselves and they brought - yin-yang- fate b*sh*t to the table, and all for JSR's 3 min of fame, displaying a not so overwhelming divine power.

Uk and the team could have solved it themselves, if they spent some time studying and planning this season, not wasting it on Park Jin, turned philosopher, terrible cooking scenes.

Serioulsy, I'd expect Uk and co. to be working the whole season in the shadows to shut down Jin Mu and the cabal. They all knew. Excuse me, Park Jin stepped down and Uk not doing anything in order for Park Jin to live b*sh*t.

They only dealt with the problems as they presented themselves. All done in a rush. Solutions magically appearing.

All in all, the writers wanted to give us an over-complicated story and ended up unable to untangle.

Yep, nice of them remembering, would have been nicer if it was addressed during these 10 episodes, not the last. 

I agree, it was one of the best dramas of 2022. Nothing is perfect.

Gold plague floating in the water. Not plot holes but just weird.

1. Ela n despareceu como mudeok porque era o corpo em sua forma original como metamorfo com duas almas, não havia petrificado então o corpo inicialmente não tinha magia pra se manter vivo.  Da pra gente perceber que foi uma escolha da jil seoram manter a alma dela já que já havia cumprido o propósito. 

 2. O pássaro de fogo foi resultado da erupção de um vulcão 

 3. Pelo q entendo dos rituais de chuvas da cultura asiática n é preciso ter  seca completa, apenas ausência de chuva e determinação do rei pra ser cumprido, normalmente é feito por príncipes e marcado como um grande momento, de fato  nao entendi pq jimun iria fazer, mas talvez esteja ligado ao fato dele trabalhar em cheonbugan, em outros dramas que já vi é escolhido pelo astrólogo, realmente não me recordo do jimun estar exercendo essa função totalmente, mas lembro dele ter acesso as placas das estrelas de nascimento.

4. Jin Seol Ran,  não precisava da Naksu, mas precisava dos poderes de sacerdotisa pra enviar o pássaro pra estrela do rei e não tinha nenhuma sacerdotisa tão poderosa que pudesse alcançar esse feito, além do fato de que ela estava perdida durante sua infância como jinbuyeon e precisando de ser guiada, mas como naksu estava usando feitiçaria proibida ela ter prendido a alma do corpo pra evitar e consequentemente levou ela até. Certamente se ela tivesse encontrado o caminho de casa como ela já estava procurando antes não teria sido necessário a naksu, como nas cenas finais eles dizem q não era o destino mas pq eles se escolheram.