from one ship to another

A son married to his adoptive mother (in an illusion)

A guy and a weasel

Toxic yaoi incest

An ape disguised as a fox disguised as a dragon with a fox (who might not really be a fox)

A gender-shifting fox with a human

An ape and a rock

duan jiaxu’s cute antics

Miserably in love with the same woman since time unknown.

Meets this other smart, beautiful, utterly crazy woman who is actually the aforementioned love of their life, but they don't know about it.

Are mind f**ked because this woman reminds them so much of the person they are in love with even though there's no resemblance at all.

Reluctantly. Very reluctantly, they let go of their past. Heal and let this person close. Fall head over heels for this woman. Only to find out that's it's her all along.

Rich pathetic boylosers

much like in hotel del luna, the act of letting go is seen as something positive—but not in the "letting go of all human connection" sense; in more of the sense that the regrets in the past and the anxiety for the future is let go to welcome in whatever the moment will bring, whether that be fish sauce or honey.

in the way that the old king, too, (and symbolically speaking, old way of living) is let go—as are traditions, in the sense that it is no longer just the rich, powerful and prestigious who get to train in magic any more (which i think is the best, and most perfect place to end seo yul's arc). also in the individual character moments (in park jin and kim do-ju as well as cho yeong and jang uk's respective situations where they each faced that moral choice; to hold on, or to let go and relinquish control), where it was heavily rewarded in outcome.

i do think that it's heavily implied that seo yul and heo yun-ok are seeing each other by the end. with the flowers, the broken limb and the fact that a direct comparison is drawn between their appearances, i think it's pretty safe to assume that they both let go, too, in their own ways—and were also rewarded in that choice.

as much as i, for my own reasons*, did want to see buff, sword-wielding naksu, i think it's completely in-character for her as cho yeong to not want to pick it back up again. she already made the conscious decision to put it down in the first part, and she's stuck by that decision to the best of her ability and autonomy. she's still powerful, and she's out there living her best, most adventurous and magical life with her husband, and honestly? i couldn't wish for a happier ending for them.

hehe

when Go Won asked the useless king to abdicate I ascended to heaven. That throne looked so perfect with him sitting on that. THE RIGHTFUL KING OH YES

Spring Girl and Summer Boy have a twin! Cho Yeon looked so pretty with her hair down.

Mama Jin. Okay. I hated her this season... but... I could... somewhat understand her pain. She carried a dead baby in her stomach for 13 months, plead and beg and performed sorcery to bring it alive, put her everything in raising that child only to be it forcefully taken away from her and she looked for her child for more than a decade and when she found her, a different soul is living inside her daughter and it's already petrified. There's also the guilt of almost killing her own child. If I'm on her shoes, I would go crazy too. I would never forgive the things she's done to Yeong (imprisonment and stitching golden needles to her skin) that's horrible and I like that JangUk told that straight to her face. What I love about this, is that it's Yeong's kindness that broke her madness.

Jang Uk and Yeong. I freaking love the ending!

I love that Yeong got to choose. All her life, she was manipulated by Jin Mu, now she got to choose what she wanted to do. She chose her name Yeong (finally! In the past, I don't know what to call her mudeok, naksu, buyeon and there's seol ran too. girl I- ) and she chose not to use her sword again. She decided to let go AND THAT is strength too.

Yeong and Master Lee were able to recognize the noble energy of the turtle and then we learned that it was indeed a very special turtle (I forgot the exact name of it). Because of Yeong’s comments and the way she associated the Crown Prince’s noble energy with the turtle’s, he also saw the turtle as special.

However, to everyone else, the turtle was just a mere turtle. It wasn’t special. Jin Mu made that clear when he saw the Crown Prince had the turtle by saying there were more noble animals in the Crown Prince’s possession. When Jin Mu got rid of the turtle, that helped wake the Crown Prince up. If Jin Mu got rid of a turtle that he saw as meaningless, would he do the same to the Crown Prince if he no longer felt the Crown Prince was of any use to him?