luxee

I genuinely enjoyed Blossoms of Power, which is why the final few episodes annoyed me so much. There was so much potential in this story, and the two leads were strong enough to carry it beautifully, so watching everything become increasingly messy near the end was honestly frustrating.

He Yu and Meng Ziyi were easily the biggest reason I stayed invested. Xiao Huayong and Shen Xihe were both incredibly intelligent characters, and I loved that neither of them constantly needed rescuing. They could read situations, make plans and handle problems themselves. More importantly, once they began working together, their relationship became one of the strongest parts of the drama.

Xiao Huayong's devotion to Shen Xihe was honestly something else. He was completely gone for his wife, but what made it work for me was that his feelings did not take away from her strength. He supported her ambitions instead of trying to control her. Their relationship felt like two capable people choosing to stand beside each other.

And I really liked Shen Xihe. Her coldness never bothered me because it actually suited her story. This was a woman carrying an enormous amount of trauma and responsibility, so I never expected her to walk around smiling and expressing every emotion. Meng Ziyi understood that restraint really well.

Most of the political storyline kept me interested too, although the Prince Ding arc was one part where I felt the writing became noticeably weaker. There were several decisions that did not make as much sense to me as the rest of the story.

But then we reached the final stretch.

What happened there??? 😭

I could understand the decision to create conflict, but I could not get behind Prince Xin's eventual “redemption.” After everything he had done, telling Shen Xihe that he had supposedly been doing it all for her did not suddenly erase his actions for me. His behaviour throughout the story made it very difficult to believe that he was secretly sacrificing himself.

What frustrated me even more was how much attention the story seemed determined to give him near the end. After everything Shen Xihe had already suffered, I did not need the drama to turn his actions into some grand tragic love story.

And then there was Xiao Huayong.

If the drama had actually committed to his death, I would have respected that choice. It would have been heartbreaking, but it would also have given Shen Xihe's journey a genuinely bittersweet conclusion. Instead, the story created all that emotional weight and then reversed it.

That made the whole thing feel less impactful to me.

I also did not love having important answers pushed into the additional episode. For me, an extra episode should feel like an epilogue that shows us the characters' lives after the conclusion. It should not feel like something I have to watch because the actual finale did not give me enough answers.

Still, I cannot pretend I disliked the drama overall. I really didn't. The first part had me completely invested, the leads were excellent, the romance was one of my favorite aspects, and the visual presentation was gorgeous.

So yes, Blossoms of Power was a very good drama for me.

I just wish the writers had trusted their own story more in those final episodes.