noor1234

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.

Thanks for the trivia!

I don't think she ever 'betrayed' him. She very clearly tells him she can't marry him because he isn't powerful enough. The problem (& angst) comes from ML's complete devotion & obsession with her & her refusal to acknowledge even the slightest of affection or warmth for him. He fights actual wars for her. He asks her to marry him or run away with him again and again. He is constantly written as 'wolf like' 'wild' 'crimson eyes full of pain' to show his obsession for her & hurt at her rejections. She marries a weak king just to have a powerful alliance, then she has a one-night stand with ML after telling him she likes him. Then they don't see each other for 2 years or so - she has a daughter by him, who is known as the king's daughter. She doesn't tell ML the baby is his (he finds out on his own). He is made a general in her army (but not by imperial decree so he is an independent general), and she sends him women for pleasure - who he doesn't touch. He gets jealous that she is 'spending time with the weak man king' & she gets jealous that he is with 'beauties' - both have only had each other as s*xual partners but they verbally torture & goad each other. He continues to touch her & makeout with her whenever he gets the chance (even in prison btw), whether she resists or not (she does - there's a 'gold chain' sequence around Chap. 227 which I doubt will be included in the drama in its entirety). There is zero warmth in her & she never spells out how much or if she loves him. He finds out that she loved him all along in the most obscure of ways: she has kept the wood carvings he made for her, she sings the Southern Territory's song to their daughter that he sang for her, she doesn't get him executed, etc. etc. - these bread crumbs lead him to again propose marriage when he's ruler of a territory & is a renowned general who has won wars & killed their mutual enemy Pei Song. It is only then, when he is powerful & she has no excuse left to deny him his place by her side (& in the daughter's life), that she accepts him.

So technically she never accepted him for love. She only accepts him when he reaches zenith of power.

A long-suffering guy gets the girl he wanted after 3 years of longing in which she kept rejecting him (despite being in love with him). You will suffer with him. If you think that's a HE, it is. The leads don't die, they end up together.

She's more like a non-committal person because as a princess her goal is to avenge the deaths of her male family members (dad & bro) & rule over 2 territories - she cannot do that with a man of no consequence, she needs to align with a powerbroker, either a prince or a general, and ML is none of that. So she marries a feckless 'king' that she never sleeps with, she gets the ML 'beauties' so that he spends his days with them (he doesn't), both are jealous of the other's presumed paramours. He keeps prodding her to accept him & she keeps going round in circles unable to commit to him because she wants power. So he becomes powerful so that she accepts him - and even then, the way FL accepts him is very very cold (she's almost like 'okay you are powerful now & baby daddy so you'll do'). There is no overt passion or warmth from her. Infuriatingly non-communicative. You are just supposed to understand her feelings in hints & wooden carvings made by ML that she doesn't throw away.

:) :)

@atsukoM it's supposed to be a whimsical reply to 'how did they get the plague' query. The deaths-by-plague is an illogical anti-climactic setup. Dramas don't usually explain illogical stuff. They got a plague that never left the mountain nor has anyone heard of it. And the only survivor of deadly virus has been roaming the streets of Dachu & even now, no one has thought of separating her from the rest of population, she'll come back to Dachu with ML & continue her life. Very selective plague, frankly.

Fei Bai & shop manager have never mentioned mountain getting a plague, in fact the martial artist Fei was shocked to learn that everyone had died. / disappeared on that mountain.

Because FL is an all-encompassing deity-like figure avenging wrongs, she gets to decide right & wrong in this drama, she knows everything, whether it is about stars, medicine, business, history of court officials & politics or martial arts - if she can know all those things in 8 short years, where everyone around her is dying of a plague, why can't she be the sole survivor of a plague? She just is better than everyone else in everything, even immunity! That's why!

Since 'Blossom' (2024) there's a trend in Chinese historicals to turn ML's hair white on one pretext or another. The ML in Blossom's Ep. 1 nailed the look so well it has been copied ever since then. That's why there's an influx of white haired generals / courtiers in last 2 years.

An intelligence agency experimented on animals & created a biological weapon that was then unleashed on an isolated set of people to test its potency & whether it would spread beyond them or not......if it were real life, a 'vaccine' would be developed & sent out to billions to make profits off this 'virus'. In the drama, however, the 'plague' never left the mountain or infected the soldiers serving down below......

Ye Li & Prince Mo Li also make Mo Li..... just saying.....

Prince Ding/MXY is uncle to both current kid emperor and Prince Li. All are part of Royal Household.

- The crown prince was from 'empress' & Prince Li is their descendant. Current kid emperor is from concubine - the empress dowager who sits alongside him in court. So he is son of former emperor while Prince Li is son of crown prince (& grandson of late emperor), who was originally going to get the throne after emperor's death. Concubine carried out killings of crown prince & his supporters & turned Prince Li into a court jester with the help of Marquis & consort to get the throne.

- Prince Ding/MXY's brother-general guarded the border on behalf of late emperor. When that emperor was on death bed, he sent an edict to him to come back to capital because of brewing tussle for crown. Brother came back & was arrested by concubine's right-hand man Marquis on charges of treason for leaving the border WITHOUT imperial edict. Brother could not show edict because he had given it to FL's mom & it was snatched from her by her husband's family who sided with concubine in tussle for power.

- Prince Ding/MXY's brother was allied with late emperor & definitely the crown prince - that's why his removal as a powerful support system for crown prince was essential to concubine's plans for throne. That's why he got killed.

- Prince Ding/MXY most certainly has favored the kid emperor over Prince Li. And will continue to crush Prince Li. Ideally, empress dowager should be executed & kid emperor should be exiled & Prince Li should fight his way back to throne. But I don't think this drama will show that. Dowager & that kid emperor - both of whom have blood on their hands, will survive & thrive, because Prince Ding & FL support them.

This drama's sense of justice is limited to whims of the leads.

This is the story of an FL who wants to have ultimate power as queen (to bring peace to the region) and will do anything that gets her there - even marry some suspicious 'king'. ML is a vagabond assassin / traveller who helps her during her travels & falls really badly for her, so much so that he works for her for years, watching her ignore him / dismiss him (she doesn't tell ML that she loves him because she has bigger goals & he doesn't have the power she needs in a man). They have a one-night stand & she pretends the child is the king's, not ML's. He is turned into one of her 'independent' Generals (i.e. not titled through imperial decree). That scene in the trailer where she shoots an arrow at him during one of his rebellions is infamous. For those who want to see how weirdly FL treats him for the entirety of the novel, Chap. 225 is maddening enough - too much of mental torture of a man totally devoted and a woman who is armed with indifference & won't show her true feelings. He remains emotionally tortured till I think Chap. 250 in a 260 chapter novel! It is only after he becomes ruler of one territory - Northern Wei - and becomes a leader of renown due to his military achievements that FL accepts him. It's very anti-climactic. The End.

As for 'passionate (or forced makeout) scenes' I have no idea how they will ever get the 'golden chain' scene from Chap. 227 in the drama (it's bound to get censored anyways.) Her reciprocation in Chap. 234 of his proposal 'Let's Get Married' is so cold, it sent shivers down my spine.

There are a lot of battle sequences in the novel. I'm skipping this one - because there's Overdo & Tigers Sniff etc. that have more of a well-rounded story than just one battle after another with star-crossed 'lovers.' But ZLH fans will probably love the emotional roller coaster/ torture his character goes through just to get accepted by the woman he loves.

I just finished the novel. The real synopsis is as follows.....