noor1234

Isn't it 40 episodes?

@peachblossomgoddess thanks for this explanation. All of it makes sense now.

oh okay! Interesting.

Ep. 4: Can someone here explain what did the empress dowager gain from arranging the death / defeat of the country's army (30,000 soldiers!!!!) by creating faulty crossbow weapons & by engineering downfall of general ML who also has a general as father? What kind of skin does she or sickly emperor have in the game to create so much chaos & killing of their own people when it was Prince Changsha who coveted power, not ML?

If emperor has no kid of his own, surely the power will go to his uncles & relatives or whoever the courtiers/ eunuchs decide.

Prince Changsha's downfall I can understand, because he was attempting to overthrow the emperor & dowager. But I don't understand why faulty weapons were created for one's own army when it was fighting a foreign power. Also, if ML hadn't arrived to protect the crown, both emperor & dowager would've been killed - so why do they want to kill him?! And erecting a monument for 30K soldiers that got killed because of empress/emperor is okay????!

And why is ML sooooooo shocked to see SML aka prince #3 be installed as Regent? And now why can't SML get married to FL as a regent? & why must FL be married off to ML the same night a rebellion has been crushed with a new regent (her bf) appointed?!!!!

FL's father's speech to her did not make sense to me either. He says he, dowager, emperor & his pupils/ courtiers are on one side, & ML's family on the other side so FL has to be pawn to stop ML's family from rebelling in future! ML's family has command of 300,000 soldiers. If they want to rebel, no one can stop them, certainly not a sickly emperor with no son of his own & his senior citizen mother (dowager). And the general's family did not betray the trust even on the day of Prince Changsha's rebellion. So why should FL not marry the 'crown prince' (her bf) but still HAS to marry the general who emperor, dowager & her own father suspect of aiming for the throne? And IF for e.g. FL's father does not want her to know that SML is his son & she is not his daughter, still it should not stop her from marrying SML.

If Prince Changsha & ML could not work together, what makes the sickly emperor, dowager & FL's father think SML & ML will work well together?If ML's family wants to rebel, how can FL as wife stop them?!

ML did not even want to marry FL, he was only doing it to crush Changsha & got her to run away for this specific reason too. And he knows she doesn't want him. Why continue with the farce now?

And he already has 2 other wives - I don't care how merry & independent they are, he has TWO wives already. Why be stuck with a woman he never intended to marry?

I know 'Grand Tutor' is probably going to turn out to be a villain too - but why should ML+FL marriage continue right now?!

All of these developments are far-fetched, the story is sounding dumb right now. It makes no sense.

Blossoms of Power is great. I've watched the first 2 episodes & this is okay too.

Yikes! And the grand tutor has never told his only daughter the truth, who is fantasizing about Mao all the time! Or his very secretive wife, who knows more than she tells. And why would Mao go evil later on knowing she is betrothed to ML?! More Yikes!

@smolbeans @capybaraaa @monkeylover, thanks. Watched the first 2 episodes & ML & FL are doing well in their roles. But the 'enemies' i.e. Crown Prince & (I think) FL's former bf are weak, almost cartoonish villains. How can a mere general be one-up to such a corrupt crown prince & why doesn't the crow prince have the backing of emperor + empress. In fact, empress has gotten her niece married off the ML. So ML has a wife already (though he hasn't even seen her before coming back from battle & has no relationship with her, but there's a kid?), which made me feel sorry for the women of this era. She'll end up with his older brother later on (the end credits scene)?

Also, the end credits of each episode show an older couple - I'm guessing that is the leads as old people or someone else?

If FL demands a breakup of engagement, then it will not make any sense - surely she should know better than anyone else that if she can manipulate & scheme her way to power, then others can also manipulate to get the truth out of her to know her true intentions - after all she is the one seeking a prince to strengthen her (new) general dad's position. And ML IS still the short-life span crown prince so the real dynamics of this cold partnership do not change. For a woman who no one can trust, she sure has a tall order for others to fulfill.

Ep. 9: ML's role is one of the best written that I've seen in quite some time. Usually these sort of dramas give the meatier role to FL, with ML being a supportive eye candy. I think this is ML's show all the way: with his illness & terminal notice, his disguises, his martial skills & desire to do good as emperor, he's ambitious & love lorn - plus if his father/ emperor really did poison him, the pain that ML has had to endure in his short life, that's such a cruel thing to do to anyone, let alone one's own 'favorite' son. And he has grown to know FL in his own way, each encounter leading him to appreciate her dubious, diabolical nature more (even when it hurts him badly).

FL is bugging me now: she has the soul of the cold logical Gu consort & memories of being Wei general's daughter. She should've shown SOME reaction on first encountering the equally cold widower prince (former husband) in that temple especially since she comes to know he has lived in her memory for 3 years & he did save her. She is an imposter living someone else's life. Yes, she's making choices that ensure she & her new family has power to save themselves in court intrigues BUT she is not Wei's daughter. She is actually Gu. So for her to not even think of Gu past or this guy who DID save her is really cold. I like her character (especially as the faceless Gu consort who was pragmatic even when she faced the massacre of her entire family & avenged them in her own way) but love is not everything. I think common decency or care could also be shown. And she only shows her warm side to less fortunate, poverty-stricken people, never to people of her own status.

She also is taking advantage of the love, goodwill & short life span of ML. I don't think that hut scene would've worked with any other prince where she is calling the shots & the guy is just agreeing to all of her terms for the 'union' & is merely getting her token 'presence'. They do show her as 'missing' the one person she can talk to (& that's ML) & I know it will take a long time for such a woman to even comprehend that she is dependent on some guy for love - but she is taking advantage of a dying love lorn guy (technically).

I still don't understand why Rongo consort wants to get rid of FL.

The Justice minister & that imperial guard are a hoot!

SML who is ditto copy of BTS's Jungkook is extremely irritating. His scenes are unnecessary.

Ep. 1: What a start!

A few observations based on the various trailers for this series:
1) The FL does not look like 'lead actress' or 'heroine', she still looks like a second lead category actress.
2) She IS too young i.e. she looks like a teenager than a woman, but my guess is that given the historical times these people lived in, girls were married off quite young, & ML is supposed to be older man (as opposed to her). There have been a few dramas with 'wiser senior male' & 'precocious girl' in court politics storylines recently.
3) The trailer has NO kissing / intimate scene - a sign of doomed production or is it not shown as a caution over anti-fans reaction?
3) What has happened to the ML? He looks haggard & dull - I'm talking about makeup & styling - in fact the FL is also styled & filmed in quite B-grade production film style. The production looks & feels low budget too.

But I'll watch the first few episodes to see how it goes.

Ep. 1-2: This is off to a very good start, even though I'm getting jetlag fatigue with the avalanche of royal court politics & scheming 'princely' historicals that have aired this year.

Both of MZY's upcoming dramas - Blossoms of Power & Tigers Sniff the Rose - look very promising. But I will say, MZY & LYR, the leads from Blossom (2024), have a natural chemistry as in they look effortlessly very good together. I don't know why, maybe it's got something do with his almond-shaped eyes & her donut-shaped eyes, when they look at each other, they sizzle.

Both of MZY dramas - Blossoms of Power & Tigers Sniff the Rose look very promising.

It's rumored that it will release in November 2026 as 8 episodes!!! I think it HAS to release this year because of maybe the time frame / storyline, but EIGHT episodes is too few. I hope nothing got changed. I hope it lives up to sky high expectations. I hope JJW aka Lee Jae Han resumes acting.

The trailer is all about female empowerment & rising above one's fate predetermined by class. 'Romance' will take a back seat because this drama isn't about a guy, it's about all the women relegated to the status of servants & hence, exploited & treated horribly by others, who rise above this situation.

Also, ML shunned FL when her family was crucified over treason charges, & only saw her talents as a servant (not knowing she's a lady demoted to a servant), I don't know how much loyal such a guy would be going onwards. There's even a great scene in the trailer about how FL tells him what she thinks of him after he marries her.

Ep. 7-10: were ridiculous & campy: Either ML is in bed injured or FL is in bed injured. I also don't see chemistry between the current reincarnation of ML+FL, so they were involved in some grand romance as demon fairy 500 years ago but these episodes have not developed relationship between these 2 Academy students. FL calls him her best friend simply because he has risked his life a couple of times to save her. And he is confused about all the kissing scenes he keeps getting dreams of. I think their relationship should've been explored to save ML's 'bro' / bodyguard, but it turned out to be a situation where both FL & ML nearly got killed.

Plus that campy laughing by the Wuyue master trying to retrieve fox from FL was so B-grade.

The romance is not convincing for me.

And SML who is obviously geared to become a villain later on is too goodlooking to be relegated as a villain (this is the third drama I've seen that has him as 'Highness' - there are 2 other short dramas where he was emperor). I wanted to see all 3 'fragrant' bond people to get along & fight bigger battles together, but the drama has other plans.

The OST song 'Rise Above' by Ren Ran is pretty good.

Ep. 39-40: This was such a bad drama. ML entered the city without imperial decree risking a death sentence - this time to save the unlawful kid 'king' & his murderous mother queen dowager who were responsible for his brother/father's death as well as deaths of soldiers, supporters of crown prince & indirectly people of the Academy, etc. FL came to fight against Prince Li's rebels for the very 'queen dowager' who had killed everyone she held dear to get power.

The speech that the lame duck & henpecked ML gives to Prince Li about 'surrender, you killed some guy & some princess & some people' blah blah was laughable because that is exactly what ML & FL were defending when they opposed Prince Li - they defended the 8-year reign of a criminal dowager & her kid 'emperor' who had killed far more people in far more unjust way.

I couldn't believe FL & ML were fighting against Prince Li who had come to claim what was. rightfully his all along!!! The leads helped to continue the illegitimate rule created by Marquis Muyang, dowager, consort, etc.

At least the drama gave Prince Li good fight scenes when he very nearly overthrew this illegal monarchy. What a valiant effort!

To top this very bitter-tasting cake, the queen dowager & kid king were given a very easy self-serving send-off by him proclaiming his mother's action as wrong - a sort of 'truth & reconciliation' effort to manage his reign without his ruthless mother.

This show proves that injustice survives & thrives. And also, that female-centric dramas that are created just to serve the career of the lead actress are narcissistic endeavors that function to just propel the lead actress as the know-it-all & be-it-all, her way being right, everyone else being wrong & everyone following her example & treating her like some benevolent god, whoever she says should be punished gets punished, whatever she decides happens, whoever offends her is bad, whoever serves her is good.

The ultimate ridiculousness was Prince Li thinking of his past with FL as he lay dying!!!!...when she & her idiotic husband had just gotten him killed! Why would Prince Li be thinking of HER in a blaze of arrows?!!!!!

This drama is a vanity project of FL's, nothing more. It's just for her fans.

I didn't understand Ep. 1 so glided through it. But the story picks up Ep. 2 onwards. And the CGI is good, there are so many battles & scenes that require CGI, I am amazed how this was even visualized, let alone performed. I think the title 'The Eternal Fragrance' gets explained in Ep. 6 that it's the spirit bond that ties all 3 together (i.e. FL, ML & SML) when one feels pain / is in danger, the other will know.

It's semantics really. I don't agree. She was always a princess who wanted to avenge her dad & bro & wanted power to bring peace between lands. During a period of unrest, she was cared for by ML's family & ML - she fell for him but never told him explicitly (unless you count the makeout session between them that impregnates her after she is already in a political marriage.) She was always cold as ice. There was no need for her to not be open with him - she could've said, hey! I love you but I have higher aims in life which don't include a man with no territory or title. Simple! But she never verbalized her feelings to him, which is extremely irritating. She knows he loves her to the point of insanity, yet she always talked around in circles. Till the end, even after he becomes ruler of a territory & kills their mutual enemy Pei Song, he is unsure whether she truly loves him or not. He finds out through objects & songs etc. She says 'let's get married' like a statue. And ML is a man of extremes, nothing was halfway with him. He was actually startled when she accepted him in the end.

I don't think FL has the same intensity or warmth in the novel that ML has. I don't think she was ever 'obsessed' with him - she hid his memory & her love in trinkets & abstracts, never showing her emotions, but she also never held him tightly, never spoke nicely to him, never said a single word of affection to him, even in the last chapter when they ARE together. Very cold personality.

She's the sort of person who would make a great queen / leader but poor wife / lover.