As expected, they are taking a darker turn with this season.
You can tell from the angle of the shot and saturation of the screen of how they are trying to build up a moody air around it, and even the makeup is done to suit the darker theme of this season. Where the first season was a far warmer shade, dealing with Jang Uk’s entry into the world of magic and his growth as a mage learning the ways of ryusu, tansu and chisu. This one deals with how much he has suffered due to the aftereffects of S1 and the ice stone currently in him

I like the premise of it, the long-lost daughter of the Jin family being locked up in her tower by her obsessive-possessive mother (Rapunzel style) finds the dark and mysterious Jang Uk with his own dark past and unknown future who can help her escape her trapped and confined life, very nice very nice, not very original but I liked the SFX so I’m willing to give it the benefit of doubt.

(THOSE WHO HAVEN’T WATCHED THE SHOW DON’T READ AHEAD CUZ SPOILERS)

One thing I want to say to everyone who was disappointed with JSM not being in this season and GYJ taking the main lead’s role I don’t think you understood the premise of the season very well, for whatever reason JSM couldn’t play Naksu/Buyeon GYJ’s character gelled perfectly with the plot and her character was the most properly developed character in the entire story.

But damn that first episode fight scene was epic. I’m impressed by this small detail they added, in the first season Jang Uk’s fighting was flashy and showy, it was impulsive and depended on hard, fast and quick movements, this shows power but lack of experience. In this fight scene Jang Uk’s movements are slow, calculated, his facial expressions do not change, they show mastery and technique and quick foot work it is a contrast between the Uk of the first season and Uk now to show us how much he has matured in the three year time-skip

I love Yul so much!!! It pains me to see my beloved forest-prince Yul suffer with second male lead role so much because baby is literally perfect ? he’s smart, funny, handsome and he loses all sense of direction when he’s flustered ?? it doesn’t get better than that. I would very seriously PAY to watch a 20 episode spin of series of JUST SEO YUL MY DARLING as the male lead because he deserves so much betterrrrr<3333

The content was so good and the last episode LEFT SO MUCH SCOPE for a season 3 if they have the proper writers for it. I feel like Alchemy 1 and Alchemy 2 both had the same problems; they both had AMAZING plot and AMAZING VFX but their writers didn’t know how to handle it, they kept dragging out minor plots for 5-6 episodes on end and then squished the main plot into the last 30 mins of the last episode.

Listen, I love happy endings as much as the next person BUT- when there was such a good opportunity to pull in an apocalyptic vibe after they brought in the fire bird!! Then Jang Uk and Go Won (who is no longer the crown prince) can team up with Jin Seol Ran/ Bu Yeon to deal with the post-apocalypse world and that would have given us more depth into the King’s Star storyline that they spent SOOO MUCH TIME since like season 1 emphasizing and we would have gotten more content, the ending just felt really rushed and the SFX of the fight scene of Jang Uk and the fire bird was underwhelming at best. Considering all the amazing fight scenes they gave us (ref; Seo Yul’s fight scene when he went to protect So-I, Park Jin’s fight scene in ep 10) they could have made the Jang Uk-fire bird fight scene a little longer and flashier and could have showed off Lee Jae Wook’s skill eitht he sword a little more is what I felt.


And I just want to say before I wrap up, how passionately all the actors played out their roles to perfection the characters all were well-written, had depth and understanding and made y’all feel something, On that note there was the scene where Park Jin has to lock up Kim Doju (Kim Yeon) inside jinyowon and you reference back to that scene in S1 where she had asked “if I was in a very dangerous room and you had to choose between saving me and closing the door what would you do?” it makes you wonder if the whole thing had been planned from the start. I got literal goosebumps watching that scene because it was so emotional I actually started tearing up because Kin Doju and Park Jin’s relationship was my very favourite throughout the show, my poor clueless little Jin (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

Have I mentioned every character I liked— oh wait I forgot!! Our best friend Eunuch Go and his best friend the tortoise. The highlight of watching this show was watching the prince and his turtle. The prince himself was such a vibe throughout the whole two seasons of the show and I know he will make a veryy good king.

And that brings us to the end of the review.
As always, my review is just my personal opinion a d not meant to offend anyone.
I loved the show, it’s a very good show, definitely go watch it don’t listen to anyone else (especially the hate. Its not worth it.)