Blossoms in Adversity 惜花芷 recently aired its finale, and all in all, it’s undoubtedly an ending that finished up each of the character’s adventures rather beautifully — no cliffhangers whatsoever and you may be sure the lunatic emperor got his just desserts. In fact our two main characters even got their sailing off into the sunset moment!
A Good Ending to Satisfy Almost Everyone
After all the tribulations thrown their way by the emperor – heck Gu Yanxi and Hua Zhi were even forced to break up by the emperor, Hu Yitian and Zhang Jingyi’s characters pretty much received their happy ending. If this was a book, you might argue viewers even got an epilogue out of it since the drama even included footage from Gu Yanxi and Hua Zhi’s wedding and following honeymoon sailing the seas!
Likewise, the entire Hua family also enjoyed their long-expected reunion with their wives and daughters after the emperor’s (Hai Yitian) death finally saw them home. The scene of the Hua womenfolk waiting by the city gates was extremely moving. What’s really terrible though was that Hua Rong (Huang Sirui) couldn’t be there. Despite marrying Jiang Zhengzhi (Lu Qi), who’s a doubtful character, and his scheming family, he has true affection for her, although it can’t alter the terrible course of their relationship, which ultimately ends in death.
As for the others, Zheng Zhi (Hu Jiahao), the bookish scholar, proposes to Hua Ling (Wang Qiaoxi). With the emperor gone, the Hua family is protected and Shen Qi (Caesar Wu) is reinstated. Shao Yao (Lu Yuxiao) and Shen Huan (Bian Cheng), the younger brothers of Gu Yanxi and Shen Qi, also get their happy ends, as do guard Chen Qing (Hou Weitao) and Hua Zhi’s maid, Bao Xia (Wang Lina). Hua Qin (Liang Zhijing) married into the Sun family, originally undervalued by many, but finally became a wealthy widow. Old and young, men and women, all find their stories finding a gratifying finish.
Rushed Ending
If one were to choose flaws, the latter six episodes’ tempo in particular might have been improved. For all its 40 episodes, the last couple of episodes felt a tad bit too rushed with the production attempting to squeeze everything in before it ended. With all the ends for all of the characters that needed to be tied up, the narrative lines for some felt like they lacked substance – the trade-off of having too many character arcs and too little time.
Even the way the emperor was assassinated was a touch too convenient. How on earth could an extremely paranoid ruler swallow poison? The manner the other baddies were “dispatched” too felt rather rapid. Haoyue (Tian Ai) who was revealed to be a spy planted to assassinate the emperor was stabbed by her co-conspirator, Prince Hui (Zhai Xiangyang). Then Prince Hui himself looked to have also swallowed the poison before getting killed off by Gu Yanxi.
