I had such a love/hate relationship with this show... Season 1 was a dream come true in the sense that it had fantasy, magic, action, romance and comedy - pretty much everything that I like in a story. All the characters were well-developed, the plot was engaging and the overall vibe was so surreal. I loved it. Felt like I was there going through the journey Jang Uk had.

And then season 2 aired. Although I loved JSM as Mudeoki in season 1, I wasn't too distraught over the change of actress. But then I started season 2 and I felt my excitement and interest wane episode by episode. Almost every other scene made me wonder about its relevance to the story - the plot was murky and didn't hold up to the standard season 1 had set. I was expecting l would only have to adjust to a new actress but imagine my surprise at finding out that they had changed the character, the love story and the very thing I liked about the romance.

I will just highlight the issues I found in the romance in s2:

Amnesia: Adding this overused trope in a fantasy show that had previously established itself as a unique show, was such a disappointment. There are so many ways they could've shown the soul connection without having either of the characters go through memory loss. Ugh. This felt very fanfic level writing to me.

Jang Uk: I love this guy. He was such a fun character in s1 and to see him turn into a serious/darker version of himself was sad but also very much needed for the show. But why make him fall for Bu-Yeon so quickly? It just felt like insta-love to me. One of the best things about Jang Uk/Mudeoki in s1 was how they ended up having feelings for eachother because of going through trials and problems together. That's how their bond formed. To see all that erased in the new season, and them falling in love over proximity, marriage and shared kisses and a disservice to their own story. It was a little unbelieving for me how Jang Uk was heartbroken for three years and it only took him a few days to fall in love again with another person. Kissing her etc also felt like a an infidelity, I don't know, it felt a little weird, because he thought she was someone else and didn't care if it was Naksu or not and to think that he had already forgotten about Naksu and I didn't like that feeling so I felt uncomfortable about watching.

Soul connection: Again, this felt like a cop-out from the writers. You can show soulmates in a story without it being so surface level. I would have loved it if they had actually gotten to know eachother better, and then fallen in love. Anything that would be more believable because gosh I SO wanted to ship these two.

Their visuals were so good but because of the reasons above, I just couldn't adjust to this storyline and hence.