Cho Na

I watched Case 5 (Chuyang Alley) and why I have a sad feeling about Zhou Shen... (spoiler below)

Her soul stays within Mu Deok and safe because of the ice stone.

But she died after soul-shifting herself into Mu Deok, and her body is burned down in front of public...

Jang Uk, who is already prophesied to be a king, he becomes the next Daeho king after a big showdown between the mages and the royal family that killed the latter, since they're scripted as the villains anyways. Who knows... the late king was poisoned by his sister-in-law to die, so the current royals are not entitled for the throne. Maybe she's poisoning her husband, too (remember the 'herbs' that is sent by Jinmu to her through the eunuch?)

Meanwhile, after Mu Deok's life is safe with ice stone and no longer in danger of petrification, it's revealed that she's Bu Yeon, the long lost daughter of the Jin family. As a noble young Lady Jin, she then marries Jang Uk (who is the king). From partners-in-crime they become power couple.

Park Jin and Do Ju, finally realize that they love each other, got married. They have a child who will be the next leader of Songrim. Park Jin's nephew, Dang Gu, is no longer the heir but he doesn't care about business anyways.

Since Dang Gu doesn't need to be the next leader of Songrim anymore, he then marries Cho Yeon, who will be the future leader of Jin Family. Besides, we know now something is blooming between them. Her sister Bu Yeon can't be the leader, since she will be the queen.

Oh, almost forgot about Seo Yul. Sorry if you're his fans, Seo Yul doesn't end up with anyone. That seems like the fate of second leads in dramaland. Being single, he becomes the pupil of Master Lee. It makes sense anyway, since Master Lee learned magic from Master Seo Gyeong, who is a Seo. Seo Yul should inherit the family's magic spell.

Or perhaps everyone with romantic hearts may want him to have a partner... the newcomer, Dr. Heo's granddaughter perhaps. But aren't they supposedly distance relative?

Jang Kang, Jang Uk's 'father' comes back from seclusion and carries on with the leadership of Cheonbugwan after killing Jinmu.

A happy ending and all institutions have their rightful leaders/successors.

Who knows... I'm actually the long lost sister of Hong Mi Ran and Hong Jung Eun, lol lol...

Thank you to everyone who read my article!!! Now that I have nothing else to do (yeah, right!), I imagine the ending of this drama if I were the screenwriter. Spoiler below, don't read if you haven't watched Episode 8:

You're welcome, I'm glad it helps you since I was confused too in the beginning, lol. If you have any other question about the drama let me know. Just put in a spoiler.

Now I finally caught up with Ep 8, I can answer your comment, lol. I'm very glad that Jang Uk asked Mu Deok's advice about where to go. She is his teacher. Besides, that tells me Jang Uk doesn't become cocky after mastering Tansu, killing a 4th level magic soul-shifter, and winning over Crown Prince. In public he's Mu Deok's master, but in public he humbly asks her opinion. I love how Hong Sisters created such a lovely character.

Regarding Mu Deok telling him to go to Songrim at this time, I think she's strategizing something. Besides, Songrim is a safe haven for Jang Uk as now he's won over the Crown Prince. As it's the end of Ep 8, we'll have to see what the strategy will be. We know they have the same goal now, to get the ice rock to save her life.

I love how it's revealed to Mu Deok that her father is not killed by the mages for nothing, but because he becomes a run-wild soul shifter who killed anyone. She no longer has hatred and ambition for a revenge, and can accept the other mages wholeheartedly.

Yeah, I read that comments too and also the Twitter post comparing between AoS and some historical Cdramas (wuxia). As a fantasy drama that isn't related to any Korean's dynasty, AoS has freedom to pick and mix features for its own 'culture'. Why I even think there is some Disney influence, as well as European culture (the magic mirror and Cho Yeon's costume).

I'm glad the info in my article helped you to watch all the episodes. I hope it can help others who are reluctant to watch, too...

I'm not sure I understand your comment.

The information you quoted about Jeongjingak and Sejugwon being part of Songrim is taken from the drama official site on tvN. Cheonbugwan is not part of Songrim, it's a separate entity. Although Jang Kang disappears he's still the boss and since Jang Uk is supposedly his 'son', automatically the public assumption is that Jang Uk is the successor of Cheonbugwan.

If what you meant by Jang Uk is "given an option to go to... Jeongjingak, Sejugwon, OR Songrim" is that Park Jin offers him to be his successor of Songrim... but no, Park Jin only offers Jang Uk to study medicine or business instead of studying magic to be a mage. Park Jin never offers Jang Uk to take over Dang Gu's position as a successor.

You can start with writing reviews on the shows you love. I started that way, too. The more you write, the more you learn how to write good write ups. Later you may want to write recap articles for the shows you already finished, or currently watching articles for airing shows. I myself still try and err on writing articles, so every recap is different ;D.

Before the drama started airing, I read all about AoS on its tvN site. I found that there are so many characters and places, and they were quite confusing. I can imagine people got confused too, lol. People who don't like historical dramas because of the many names may avoid watching it. With that in mind I wrote this article with different layout ;D.

Not related to this article, but how is it going with Dilraba's UFG? It will be an interesting article to read since she's acted for a while. We need more UFG articles, but Idk what happen to the UFGs in the pending section, it seem a lot of them got stuck.

Yup... now that you mentioned... did you notice the FL's past princess costume style is similar to Jin Cho Yeon's? In FNOS it also seems the historical costumes don't belong to Joseon or any other Korean era...

I believe you will love this drama despite of what the ending would be, since both HDL and AKO have open endings.

HDL... lol... I wrote an article recently (not yet published) and was surprised the costume for Jang Man Wol is 100+ pieces!

I think Hong Sisters tried to include as many characters that's why the first episode has so much info, confuses people if they are not used to historical dramas (that tend to have so many characters). That's why they think Part 2 is necessary.

I actually prefer watching non A-lister actors, it seems like the ratings of their dramas are more objective and only people who like the genres watch those dramas so the rating is based on the story, acting, and technical stuff rather than fandom. Dramas with A-list actors tend to be rated subjectively by fans or anti-fans, lol.

OMG... I'm so sorry I didn't see this comment earlier. Only the main writers get notification of the comments. I'm not the main writer, cassiopeiastars is, but she's no longer on MDL. So nobody knew this comment until I just happened to check this article out of curiosity...

A lot of his personal life info came from his old live streams. I'm not sure if the original are still available or not, but these ones we found are translated in Youtube into English and other languages by his fans. Based on his popularity now, I doubted he will tell very personal stories like these anymore. Nowadays he should be more careful on what he says on live stream. I read some people commented (I think the one about Heroes) that he's more diplomatic answering questions, too. Can't offend anyone in the entertainment industry!

I think he has such a broad vocal range and can sing any type of song genre because of his experience being street performer. He took any kind of song orders so he got to know how to sing them ;D

Who's the first one?

Yeah, I agree with your opinion. I guess the original choice to cast a rookie for the main lead is for cost saving, since building that open set is really expensive. But they should've known already that Mu Deok's character is complex. I think Jung So Min is a perfect choice because she can bring up the feisty, coldhearted and boyish FL .

The community in the comment section have the same guess as yours, since it's emphasized from the beginning by tvN (in their site) that the Jins are looking for their lost daughter, so must be someone important, right? The direction of the drama already hints that in Episode 6 when Mu Deok is able to see the jade through the locked box. She is confused with that, since Naksu originally doesn't have the ability. I haven't seen Ep 7, but probably hints more since Mu Deok is able to enter the secret room. Did you watch Ep 7?

I hope I can catch those two up this weekend, I still need to finish my other article ;D