Friday, March 29, 2024

Alchemy of Souls: Meet The Top 8 Greatest Villains

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Everyone loves villains. We all look for someone to admire, someone who can motivate us: a hero. “Alchemy of Souls” has been very popular among K-drama fans, and there are several well-known villains in the series. Since I have already posted a list of the top 7 powerful mages, I figured I’d make a list of the top 8 villains in “Alchemy of Souls“.

Despite being a villain in every sense of the word, they were still very popular and had their fans. These eight characters changed my opinion about who we should be wary of. 

8. Jin Woo Tak

Jin Woo Tak

Joo Seok Tae played the role of Jin Tak, an insecure husband filled with doubts and had his eyes only for his second daughter, Jin Cho Yeon. Both were because he thought his wife cheated with Jang Gang to conceive their first daughter, Jin Bu Yeon.

Before he met his death, Jin Ho Gyeong made him know how her feelings for him never changed from the moment she fell for his warm smile and reassured him that both conceived the child he led to her “demise“. She hoped to add to his agony. 

Jin Woo Tak became a villain after falling for the tricks of Jin Mu. He was controlled to put a blood-sucking worm in Jin Cho Yeon’s body, lost his first daughter, deceived his wife and directly made the queen in his sister’s body suffer. This makes me wonder what he did to those girls he brought home to stand as the fake daughter and if he actually ever intended to get the real one home after making Ho Gyeong have hopes.

Backstory:

Jin Woo Tak is originally from the Choi family that started the alchemy of souls.  When alchemy of souls got tagged as sorcery, he and his family went on practising it in Gaema village. Jang Gang, the Gwanju, had to end it by arresting Jin Woo Tak’s sister and taking their heirloom. From that moment, he became the enemy of Jin Woo Tak, who swore revenge as he hurried away with his sister, that had suffered a burn. 

7. King Ko Sung

King Ko Sung

Park Byung Eun played the role of King Ko Sung, the King that used alchemy of souls, a forbidden magic, to commit yet another crime. He had asked Jang Gang to help him get an heir to his throne by performing the alchemy of souls because he knew Jang Gang had been practising it secretly.

Jang Gang had to obey the royal order, so he performed the alchemy of souls, and King Ko Sung used that to sleep with Do Hwa, Jang Gang’s wife, who didn’t know about soul shifting. Jang Gang didn’t also know that the king had plans to use his body to sleep with his wife.  Do Hwa ended up conceiving Jang Uk, the King’s star born out of sorcery, who had to grow up hearing that his father wasn’t his father. Were there no queens in his palace? Was he really without a choice but to take advantage of his helper? Ko Sung is a villain. 

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Backstory:

King Ko Sung was close to his deathbed and had a very weak body. He needed to conceive a son so his brother wouldn’t take the throne. 

6. So-I

You can’t tell me you weren’t expecting her on this list. Seo Hye Won played the role of So-I, the fraudster from Sari village, that ended up scamming people on her first ride to Daeho. So-I pretended to be blind to gain favours from people, that included Seo Yul and finally Jin Mu, that found her worthy of being the Jin Bu Yeon he could use to curry favour with Jinyowon and finally a vessel for Shaman Choi’s soul.

So-I temporarily made Jin Ho Gyeong happy as she rejoiced that she finally found her missing daughter. She contributed to the death of the merchant that covered up for Mu Deok, two men from Chwiseonru, the courtesan house, and the men that tried to collect the money she owed them. Mu Deok got suspected as the perpetrator of the crimes So-I committed as the conditions were just too perfect. 

Backstory:

Not much is known about So-I apart from the fact that she knew Mu Deok right from Sari village. The reason why she became a fraudster wasn’t known, but So_I indeed became Jin Bu Yeon to save her own life.

5. Gil Ju

Gil Ju

Remember Gil Ju? The man who coveted Jang Uk’s body by all means. He even went as far as threatening Mu Deok because he found out that she was actually Naksu and he had killed the wrong gisaeng, whom he thought was her. Mu Deok was asked to bring Jang Uk to a secluded place where Gil Ju could shift into his body. As the henchman and side aide of Jin Mu, he helped the soul shifters look for humans to feed on when they were running out of energy. Hence, Gil Ju made it to my list as a villain. 

Backstory: 

Gil Ju’s reason for joining Jin Mu to raise an army of soul shifters wasn’t known, but he needed to be in Jang Uk’s body probably because Uk was hot (just kidding).

4. Ji Ho

jin ho

Ji Ho was the soul shifter that went all out for Seo Yul. He was desperate to kill him because Yul tried to petrify him. Ji Ho was just the very close aide of Kang Man Cheon, the very powerful leader of Daegangtongun before Kang Man Cheon used the alchemy of souls to steal his body. Ji Ho gained full power when the ice stone created a barrier around Jeongjingak, then he went wild, started killing the mages and even injured Seo Yul brutally.

The real villain should have been Kang Man Cheon, but since his soul is in Ji Ho’s body, we will consider Ji Ho the villain. The villain who fed on the energy of his own mother.

Backstory:

Kang Man Cheon was old, and like every other person that believed in Jin Mu, he wanted the alchemy of souls so he could shift his body into a younger person. His prey was innocent Ji Ho, who got subdued by Naksu.

Try this quiz to check your energy level, mage.

3. Naksu

Naksu

Naksu, the powerful sorceress tricked by Jin Mu, made it to our list as a villain in “Alchemy of Souls“. As a child, she was the daughter of a star recording mage who went wild. Naksu believed mages unjustly killed her father, and she was literally out for their heads. It was later revealed that her assassinations were strategic, and she only killed the mages Jin Mu had shifted their souls.

Naksu was also the childhood sweetheart of Seo Yul, and their little romance never lasted because she found out Yul was from one of the families she planned to take revenge on. 

Backstory: 

Naksu killed mages for revenge and believed in the Danju, who was thought to be Jin Mu. She was trained and raised as an assassin.

2. Shaman Choi

Danju

Shaman Choi had a good life and a pretty body while it lasted. She got into the body of the Queen of Daeho, which earned her immunity. Shaman Choi could be reached by no one else but Jin Mu, eunuch Kim and her brother, Jin Woo Tak. She was also the real Danju preparing all the soul ejectors from the ice stone. 

After suffering a burn while trying to save her family’s heirloom, Jang Gang was going to burn, she got acquainted with Jin Mu, and they were both using the ice stone’s power as they wished to perpetrate evil.

Backstory

Shaman Choi was performing the forbidden alchemy of souls in Gaema village before Jang Gang caught up with her. She needed to get revenge on him and wanted no restrictions on performing the alchemy of souls. That must have been how Jin Mu played tricks to get her wrapped around his fingers. 

1. Jin Mu

Jin Mu

As you would have expected, the master planner and trickster of “Alchemy of Souls “, Jin Mu. In all of these, Jin Mu was the one giving them the wings to fly around Daeho, committing crimes and disturbing the people’s peace. He worked his way up from being a student of Jang Gang to assistant Gwanju after learning the alchemy of souls from him. Jang Gang should have at least regretted that he made the mistake of letting him live backwhen he tried to keep King Ko Sung’s betrayal under the rug. 

Jin Mu stole the show as the intelligent villain capable of manipulating everyone, including the king. He effortlessly maintained his good side to everyone while using their weaknesses to achieve his goals. No happy moment, no wife, no son, no romantic connection or any connection to anyone, just black magic and vibes. 

Backstory

Jin Mu was a honey biscuit thief when he was with the Jang family. He always wanted attention from his sister, Jin Ho Gyeong, but wasn’t given the luxury as he was a half-brother gives birth to illegitimately.

Alchemy of Souls” really got us hooked, and we can’t wait to see the end of it. Will Naksu be back in her own body? The same body that got burnt in broad daylight? Will Jang Uk be able to love and look at her the same? What happens to Yul and the bloodworm in his body? Did Maidservant Kim and Park Jin have their hot love story? Jin Mu had a lot up his sleeve as the main villain, and we can’t wait to see season 2.

Confused about the storyline? Check out Movie Recap – Top 10 Things you need to know about the trending Netflix K-drama: “Alchemy of Souls”

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