This will be brief.
1. The importance of eyes
We already know the importance of eyes. We know that “eyes are windows to the soul.” But in this drama, this proverb takes on a very literal meaning because Naksu exists as a soul. Uk can see Naksu the assassin when he looks into the eyes of MuDeok. To him, it’s important that he checks MuDeok’s eyes to confirm that he didn’t lose Naksu or that Naksu got replaced.
From Episode 7:
Uk: Can you see now?
Naksu: Yes, I can see.
Uk continues to study her eyes.
Naksu: What?
Uk: I was told the mirror made illusions. I am checking if it’s really you that I saved.
To me, this indicates that MuDeok’s body doesn’t matter as much Naksu’s soul to Uk. He wasn’t merely content to have MuDeok back. He wanted to make sure she was Naksu. If Naksu’s soul wasn’t in MuDeok’s body, then MuDeok was just an illusion for him. It’s Naksu’s soul inside of MuDeok’s body that he didn’t want to lose inside the mirror.
As I said this before: MuDeok’s body is similar to the urn that housed the Gwiju spirit. Uk had no problem shattering that urn. And the spirit was eventually transferred into the body of the dead Sapsali dog.
From Episode 8:
Naksu was distressed that Uk’s soul was switched.
Naksu: So you have shifted souls with my pupil, Gilju.
Uk: MuDeok.
Naksu: (slashing at him) I may have been too weak to protect him from you. But I will make sure to end your life.
Uk: (stopping her) I did not know you cared about Jang Uk that much.
Naksu: Shut it!
Uk: (grasping her by the arms) Master! It’s me, Jang Uk. We did not shift souls.
Naksu: (turning to look at Gilju)
gifs from seawherethesunsets’ tumblr
Uk: (shaking her) Look into my eyes. It is me, right? I am the only one who can look at you from this close. Do you recognize me?
He forced her to look deeply into his eyes and see that it’s really him inside the body.
gifs from seawherethesunsets’ tumblr
My Comments:
a. Well, even if MuDeok couldn’t see the soul of Uk in his eyes, his words suffice. He was telling her something (i.e., standing close to her) that only she and Uk would know. It’s part of their memory, or shared experience. GilJu wouldn’t know to refer to it.
b. To me, this scene is important because it’s laying the groundwork for later episodes. If the soul should ever lose his/her current body, and be transferred into a different body, the eyes will be the determinant.
Uk or Naksu should be able to find and recognize each other, despite the unfamiliar outward appearances, by gazing into each other’s eyes. That’s because eyes are the windows of the soul.
c. In Korean dramas, love goes deeper than body; there has to be a soul connection.
d. The Hong sisters have used this “eye” trope before in “Hwayugi/Korean Odyssey.”
The monkey king (played by Lee Seunggi) gave the female lead one of his eyes and promised, “I will find you. Wherever you are and whatever you become, now I’ll be able to recognize you.”
2. What stops a soul-shifter from running wild?
I guess, the answer depends on the skill level of the person replying.
a. To Gilju, the ice stone can prevent running wild and the Queen aka Danju is the known keeper of the ice stone.
Like I said before, the use of the ice stone for the AoS is like using a cheating device. The mage hasn’t the skill level, aptitude, and more importantly, the moral principles, to perform the soul-switching, but he’s in a hurry to achieve such an extraordinary feat for rather dubious goals.
Gilju: The four families were not the ones who killed your entire family. It was your father. He had run wild and murdered them all.
Naksu: (remembers the maid’s order for her to hide from her dad)
Gilju: Both you and your father were exploited and will eventually be petrified and die.
Naksu: Was the man who shifted my father’s soul the Danju, Jin Mu of Cheonbugwan?
Gilju: Jin Mu is not our true Danju. (inching slowly closer to her) The real Danju is someone else.
Naksu: And who is that?
Gilju: The true Danju can prevent you from running wild since the real Danju possessed the ice stone.
b. But Master Lee thinks otherwise.
From Episode 5:
Lee: That’s not a soul shifter but he died because of one.
Uk: You know about soul shifters?
Lee: When soul shifters run wild, they feed off the energy of humans. That is why they banned the alchemy of souls and started capturing and killing soul shifters.
Flashback to the time when Uk and Naksu witnessed the soul shifter/spy in Songrim being hunted down and turning to stone. Uk saw that Naksu looked aghast because that was the same fate that awaited her.
Uk: Do all soul shifters run wild?
Good question. It’s been more than a month that Naksu shifted. (The training for the duel was one month.) Why hasn’t she run wild yet? It is because the energy inside of her hasn’t yet been depleted because it came from the ice stone, too? Or is it because she’s unknowingly found another energy source within range…like Uk’s energy?
Note that Naksu seems to be getting stronger, not weaker, as time goes on.
Lee: Not if they master Hwansu.
Uk: Is that level even possible for a human being to master?
Lee: Of course. Would you like to be my pupil and reach that level? You are not only well-built and smart, but you also have what it takes.
Master Lee was obliquely referring to Uk being the King’s Star.
Uk: Thank you for the compliment but I do not wish to be celibate.
Lee: If you become my pupil, I will teach you how to take off that binding bracelet. (mimicking the voice of a pupil) “Master” – that’s all it takes.
Uk: (smiling) Please stop trying to convince me.
My comments:
a. So, if Uk masters Hwansu, he can soul-shift anytime and anywhere he wants to. And the only people who’ll find him are those who can recognize his soul by looking into the eyes.
b. If there mission to acquire the ice stone from the Danju fails, there’s always Master Lee. He can teach Uk how to do AoS, and prevent Naksu from going wild.
3. Yul’s red flags
I was ignoring Yul because I didn’t see any red flag about him until this episode.
a. Red Flag 1
He was chasing the soul-shifter at night when he saw a figure running through the bamboo grove. He then did his magic with the sword to slash through the bamboo.
Uhhhhh…no. That was dumb. To me, Yul was like a hunter in the forest. No hunter (at least a trained one) would shoot in the forest blindly, simply because he saw something stirring in the dark.
A prudent hunter shoots only when he’s certain that he has the target identified; he must have an unobstructed view of his target. He can’t shoot indiscriminately based upon the sound or shadow of a wild animal/bird. This is what Yul did. He saw somebody running, assumed that it was the soul-shifter, and immediately unsheathed his sword to do magic. What he should have done was get closer to the runner to get a visual identification then aim for the monster.
A prudent hunter should always be aware of the risk of causing injury or death to a human because he misidentified the human for his target. Yul wasn’t thinking responsibly.
So…he was shocked when he saw that he injured Naksu/MuDeok. He said it was an accident; I say it was recklessness.
b. Red Flag 2
He’s getting emotionally involved with MuDeok/Naksu after the mirror incident.
Yul: (seeing her injury) Why? Why is it you again?
The other guys: Is that the soul shifter?
Yul: No, she’s Uk’s maid. I accidentally hurt her, so I must get her treated.
Then when he cured her injury, some of it transferred to his hand. Later, however, he told Park Jin that he was injured because of the Soul Ejector he’d touched. It had leftover poison from the sorcery.
Well, I doubt that he had injured his hand from the Soul Ejector. But if he did, he shouldn’t have used that injured hand to heal MuDeok/Naksu because he was contaminating her wound with the poison from the Soul Ejector.
Oh well…I hope gangrene doesn’t set in, and the wound heals without incident. Yul’s a good guy but he isn’t a genius that people touted him to be.
c. Red Flag 3
I think he’s beginning to dislike Yul for not caring enough for Naksu and endangering her. But this is partly Naksu’s fault. She makes it sound like Uk was dominating her.
Uk: Why are you here?
Yul: Master Heo ordered me to trace the root of the sorcery. And this is what I found here.
He shows Uk the binding bracelet. But the binding bracelet was found by the temple’s fountain, not in the bamboo grove.
Uk: I must have left it behind.
Yul: Do you not need it anymore?
Uk: No, I’m fine now. I almost lost that Jin family treasure. Thank you for finding.
Yul: You also left something else.
Uk: (looks at him blankly)
Yul: Are you not looking for MuDeok?
Uk: (turning serious) Where is she?
Yul: I found her hiding in the forest. She was injured and bleeding profusely.
Uk: (runs)
But when Uk finds MuDeok, she signals him to pretend that he ran away and left her behind because he was scared.
MD: Yes. We had spotted the soul shifter when we took shelter from the rain. But thanks to you, I almost got ripped into shreds by that soul shifter.
Uk: I am sorry. I was too terrified that I did not thing twice and ran away.
Students: Yul mistook MuDeok for the soul shifter and almost killed her. Had he not treated her right away she would have died.
Then Yul arrives.
Uk: Yul. Thanks for rescuing and treating MuDeok.
Yul and MuDeok look at each other.
My interpretation here is that Yul believes that MuDeok/Naksu would do anything for Uk –even brave the soul shifter on her own. This is consistent with his observation in Episode 4 that she didn’t hesitate to fall in love with him or brown-nose the Crown Prince for her young master’s sake.
So he asks Uk to confirm that he did the cowardly thing and fled the scene when the soul-shifter came.
Yul: Did you really run away and leave her behind?
Then it’s Uk and MuDeok’s turn to look at each other. Lol. If I were MuDeok, I’d get cross-eyed fast with all these exchanges of glances.
Uk: Had I fought I would have died. We need to be selfish at times. (addressing MuDeok) Why are you staring? Don’t you agree?
MD: In any case, I’m glad that both of us are fine.
Uk walks up to MuDeok and looks at her blood-stained shirt.
Uk: Right.
Uk looks unhappy as he watches them. Of course, he doesn’t understand what a dramatic night it was for the couple. Uk defended MuDeok against GilJu, and almost lost his soul to GilJu. But Naksu and Uk choose to downplay what happened to them.
Hence, I say that Yul has this false impression that Naksu is a dutiful and loyal servant who goes along with Yul’s dangerous plans even if it costs her her life. He couldn’t be more wrong. She’s the one who pushes Yul to his death.
Uk: You always pushed me to my death.
Naksu: (scoffing)
Uk: But whenever you did that, I found myself on a whole new level. Keep doing that and stay by my side. (waits for her answer)
Naksu: (stalls) Fine. I will do that and push you to your death if you stop.
d. Redflag 4
MD: Thank you for treating me.
Yul: Uk seems fine without the binding bracelet. I guess he can control his energy now. He risked his life and got what he wanted once again. And you were by his side again.
This is connected to the scene in Episode 4 when Yul reproached her for always putting Uk in danger. She was there when he was poisoned and when he dueled the CP. So, she asked if he wanted to separate them. But Yul didn’t want to separate her from Uk, because for one, Uk got what he wanted anyway each time, and for another, she risked her life for him. Yul believes that she serves Uk’s interests.
MD: If you were so bothered by that, you should have just let me die.
Yul: Next time, I might have to do just that.
Since he already knows her true identity, he’s beginning to alter his illusion of her as a much put-upon servant of Uk. If she’s endangering herself because of Uk’s schemes, then she must have a self-serving reason to do so.
4. The double star in Naksu’s constellation
I’ve been meaning to point this out. There were two brightly-lit stars in her constellation.
As I pointed out elsewhere, if Naksu and Uk are yin-yang, then I’ve to assume that she had a constellation on her birthday that’s equal in significance to Uk’s constellation. If Uk is the King’s Star, then Naksu’s astrology must reveal something consequential about her fate, too.
Otherwise, there’s no balance. They’re not yin-yang.
5. Is it cheating?
Was Naksu cheating when she threw her drop of blood to Uk?
Well, they were supposedly fighting to the death. So, I’d say no holds barred.
What’s the point of imposing a restriction on the method of dying (e.g., no Tansu, no liquids, no front teeth allowed, no chocolate, no tickling, no cheating, no stabbing below the belt, no headlocks, etc.), when the two fighters were prepared to die anyway?
Jin Mu didn’t protest the drop of blood flicked at Uk for the Tansu move because the Tansu, which involves flicking a drop of water, is a legal move in the fight.
Rather, he was protesting that Uk had learned Tansu, and therefore was at higher-ranking mage than the Crown Prince. He didn’t think the wide disparity in rank was unfair when Uk, a Jipsu-level newbie, was challenged to death by a Ryusu-level mage. But he deemed it unfair when his protégé the CP was knocked out by a Chisu-level Uk.
*****
That’s it for me.
@Packmule3, great analysis. You said it would be quick, but it is thorough. You may want to switch a few Yuls to Uks and a few Uks to Yuls. Could be your autofill was being opinionated.
It wasn’t auto fill, @welmaris. I was dictating so it was me. 😂
Thanks. I’ll change them later.
I think Yul is a great Second Lead. He has a soulful gaze and his shared history with Naksu make the viewers care for him a lot, but never enough for a full-blown Second Lead Syndrome. As @pm3 points out, he may get angry at Uk for supposedly endangering MuDeok, when in fact the opposite is true.
I am surprised that there is so much talk about Second Lead Syndrome in this drama on the Internet (and even Third Lead Syndrome caused by the Crown Prince). Jang Uk and Naksu are destined to become like the power couple from the flashback in the beginning of Episode 7, so there is no reason for SLS.
MuDeok’s shoulder wound was from soul-shift-failure Gilju. At the fountain, after he told her about Naksu’s father and the real Danju, he grabbed MuDeok’s shoulder. Where his thumb gripped her is where her wound and the blood on her clothing appeared. Perhaps because his hand was partially stone by this time, Gilju had the strength to penetrate her skin. But there was also sorcery in MuDeok’s wound, which Naksu worried would spread. The the wound left on her shoulder is in the same place a soul-shifter’s blue bruise would appear, but MuDeok’s is black, the same color as the Soul Ejector.
Even though Sapsali had previously learned to tolerate Naksu in MuDeok’s body, Sapsali growled when in the fountain area as MuDeok was hiding. He sensed the soul-shifter sorcery Gilju had left on her body. Sapsali didn’t react when Yul picked up fragments of ice by the fountain and activated a tiny bit of Soul Ejector, but the searchers assumed Sapsali had growled from sensing a recent use of Alchemy of Souls. MuDeok was able to run into the bamboo forest unnoticed by the searchers.
When Yul’s careless sword magic to cut through the forest hits MuDeok, it knocks her unconscious. But Yul had seen a puddle of blood by the fountain, and blood where MuDeok had rested in the bamboo forest, so he knew she was already wounded before his magic hit her. I believe Yul was intentionally misleading the other searchers about the nature of MuDeok’s wound. He also lied by omission by saying she wasn’t the soul shifter, since he suspected Naksu had soul shifted into MuDeok. She was a soul shifter, but not the soul shifter they currently were hunting.
The wound on Yul’s hand, after the wound disappeared from MuDeok’s shoulder, looked like it was aflame, suggesting that the transfer of magic had just happened. If it hurt as badly as it looked, Yul was remarkably calm for being in serious pain.
Thank you for the very good notes. I hadn’t considered how Mu Deok’s stars might have aligned with Uk’s. I really agree with the red flags about Yul. When Yul healed Mu Deok’s shoulder and some of Gil Ju’s sorcery poison transferred to his hand, I wondered if he can make it leave his body or whether it will subtly infect his personality as long as it is there. Do you think we may start to see Yul acting in a less saintly way?
I know that Gil Ju described Mu Deok’s father as a soul-shifter running wild, but his behaviour doesn’t seem to me to be the same as other wild soul-shifters. They started to feed off other humans’ energy to maintain themselves but he killed people with his sword – more like going berserk as @Cleopatra wrote. Could something else have been involved?
When Gil Ju’s soul returned to his own body, he had a very rapid decline into petrification. Why did that happen to him but not to Jang Kang? Mu Deok was guessing when she referred to his weakness. Had Mu Deok1’s presence have something to do with it?
Gosh, in the last episodes I can’t help seeing hexagons and octagons everywhere.
@Fern
GilJu had a rapid decline into petrification bec he was dying and he failed to complete the AoS. He was already dying before the AoS. After his failed attempt to switch souls, he lost energy quickly.
Jang Kang, on the other hand, was a healthy man before the AoS. But he was in the King’s sickly body. I’m guessing that he could have gone “wilding” soon but he asked JinMu to get the Soul Ejector from the Secret Chamber.
And I don’t know if there’s a plot hole in the timeline or deliberate sequence….The King THANKED JG for allowing him to spend 7 days (or was it 9?) with his wife.
To me, it meant that JG (in the King’s sickly body) didn’t use the Soul Ejector IMMEDIATELY to get the King’s soul out of the body, despite him having it in his possession already. He knowingly allowed his wife to be with the King all those days.
JG couldn’t have been sleeping for 6 days after the AoS, called JinMu to retrieve the Soul Ejector on the 7th day to switch back with the King.
If he’d been in a coma or sleeping for six days, he should have lost energy since the King was already dying, and the rule is: the weak body can’t handle a soul’s great power. The mismatch makes the body lose energy faster.
He should have petrified quickly like GilJu did.
To me, he woke up on Day One after the AoS, realized what the King was doing to DoHwa, called JinMu to get the Soul Ejector, but he waited till Day Seven to extract the King as agreed upon.
Ugh. He was using dark sorcery to keep himself alive while the King went about his “business.”
@packmule3, I hadn’t considered that Jang Kang let the king continue for 7 full days. That is truly gross. I thought it was either, 1: plot hole, 2: time needed to get Jin Mu up to speed with the process, 3: Jin Mu was away and unreachable for a while (scouring the countryside for likely children to corrupt or similar dastardly errands.)
I suppose it could have been because it was part of the deal with the king that Jang Kang had agreed to in the first place and he was afraid to be exposed if he went against the king’s will, sort of like being blackmailed to accept droit de seigneur.
I’m still curious about the wife’s background but that may never be explored. Hers is one case of not perceiving a different soul in the right body. I also would be surprised that the current king and CP know that the queen has a Choi soul, if that theory is correct.
@pm3 and @Fern, Didn’t JK in the King’s body suddenly woke up and then summoned Jin Mu? He woke up in a shock or at least that’s what I remember. I doubt JK waited because he wouldn’t want to be pertified, the King’s body couldn’t handle it. Moreover, Naksu didn’t wakeup immediately in Mu Deok’s body either. But yes there are far too many plotholes in the show.
Plus totally agree with you on cheating here. The match wasn’t fair to begin with. They wanted Uk dead so performing Tansu while the CP does everything in his power and his sword sounds fair to me
@wapz,
Yes. The CP and Uk’s duel wasn’t fair.
The CP knew it. He wanted Uk to forfeit it by not showing up. But though I like the CP for being fair-minded, I dislike that he’s easily manipulated.
Like Uk was able to dare him to touch a relic in the Jinyowon, Jin Mu convinced him to duel Uk. The CP goes against his own better judgment.
Re the AoS,
We were shown parallel movements: the King going to DoHwa; JK waking up.
JK summoned Jin Mu, and Jin Mu would have arrived at the royal chambers pronto because he thought it was the king summoning him. Jin Mu wouldn’t have taken 6 days to obey the king.
And it wouldn’t take Jin Mu 6 days to get the Ejector from the Cheongbugwan Secret Chamber.
Either way, JK is no good. He’s “Captain Firefly” in this drama. 🪰
Capt Firefly was the bad guy in “Hotel del Luna.” I said he was more depraved than Manwol because he mentally tortured her and she snapped.
@packmule3
I enjoyed your take on the importance of eyes. It was like a subtle love letter that I had missed.
I thought Yul used his sword to cut the trees and stop the person. I don’t think he used enough force to kill. The guys were exaggerating as he had misled them. But it bothered UK. That scene had some interesting undertones.
On your comment about eyes, what are people’s take on what is being symbolised by those who are blind in this series eg MD before Naksu? This is, ofc, not just with respect to this episode, but the story as a whole.