My excitement towards the announcement of a third season of The Eternal Love and its release was immense, like many other fans of the cute and lovable Xiaotan-Liancheng couple. After two previous successful seasons, I was anticipating another captivating plot with cute interactions. And while Season 3 was not as splendid as the previous two seasons in my opinion, it exceeded my expectations as I honestly had no idea what the third season was going to be about. It gave the audience more information on the magical elements included in seasons 1 and 2, as well as provided an interesting story and even some new characters.

Before continuing further with this review, I would like to say that if you are considering watching this drama but have not watched the previous two seasons, please do so before watching Season 3 because there is quite some information that you need to know before watching this. This is not a "it's okay if you don't watch the previous seasons" drama. If you skip the previous two seasons before watching Season 3, you will be very confused. Also, if you have not watched the previous two seasons, do not read this review unless you don't mind spoilers about S1 and S2.

You might have realized that The Eternal Love (all seasons) does not have a very high budget, but the drama did a great job with the money they had. The costumes in the third season seem to be a little more fancier, and as usual, very gorgeous. It didn’t seem like the drama had as many people as there should have been, for example, the manor (servants, housekeepers) and the palace (eunuchs, servants, etc), but there were enough extras to keep the story going.

Story-8.0
There really wasn't anything extraordinary about The Eternal Love Season 3. Just like in the previous two seasons, time travel plays a major part in the story. (or this time, rather, an alternate or parallel universe) This time, Emperor Mo Liancheng and Empress Qu Xiaotan travel to another Dongyue with matriarchy, or in other words, a place where women had more power than men. I immediately thought of The Romance of Tiger and Rose, as aside from time travel, this was another major detail the dramas had in common. I would have preferred the matriarchy in The Eternal Love Season 3 to be more prominent, though. Season 3 had quite a few questionable points when it came to matriarchy, but I won't write much about this to avoid spoilers. .

The first few episodes were very light and fluffy, the plot just focused on the leads being lovey-dovey birds. You may remember the many kisses in Seasons 1 and 2. Well, Season 3 is perfect for those craving for more. For me, though, I thought there might have been too many kisses. Something that popped up in my mind was that when there weren't kisses for a long time, the plot was moving on more quickly and smoothly. But the leads are very good kissers, so I have no complaints about that aspect.

As the story moved further, more and more questions surfaced about the new characters. There are quite a few new characters in Season 3, and although it wasn't hard to remember their names or anything or that sort, I honestly did not really know their importance in the drama until the later episodes. I spent quite some time wondering their identities and why they were introduced to us in the third season. Some characters did serve a very important purpose in the end, but others just kind of...fell flat. I wanted to know more about them, their desires and pains. While the drama did show much of their desires and pain, I always had this sense of wanting to know more. I also wanted to know more about the background story of Xuanling Continent and the pearl, more about why they were whisked to a different land again (I know that some of these questions have been elaborated on, but for me, it wasn't quite enough).

This feeling is pretty hard to describe, but I felt that the plot was a little...unfinished? Not exactly unfinished, but some parts in the drama, especially the ending, felt a little rushed with some plot holes, like a big pumpkin pie missing a tiny slice, while the middle felt a little dragged. The plot was interesting, yes, but I wasn't standing on my tippy-toes waiting for the next episodes to be aired.

Acting/Cast-9.0
Fortunately, most of the cast came back to film the third season, and there wasn't any replacement needed. (for those actors and actresses who were unable to film the drama, the drama expertly managed to cover this up by introducing more interesting characters.) I was already very familiar with the cast from Seasons 1 and 2, so I already knew what to expect from them in terms of acting. Again, they acted very well, especially when the characters they acted had a drastic personality change. (because most of the drama took place in another universe) But even with the changes, the drama maintained our cute couples: Mo Liancheng and Qu Xiaotan, and Jing Xin and Mo Jingxuan (14). Jing Xin and Fourteen had some very cute moments together, just like in the previous seasons. Seems like fate kept these couples together.

I was also pretty familiar with a few of the new actors and actresses who played new characters, especially Fang Yilun (Alen) and Zhou Zixin, who played major supporting roles. They showed their characters’ desperateness very well and their devastation when they couldn’t get ahold of the things they wanted to obtain the most. Although Mo Yanchen and Qu Mei’er were not exactly the most likable characters, I have to applaud Yilun and Zixin for their amazing portrayals as them.

Back to the leads. Xing Zhaolin and Liang Jie’s burning chemistry was not a surprise. They’ve had it since the first season, and the chemistry just continues to burn nonstop. Mo Liancheng and Qu Xiaotan are cuter than ever, and we can just see the love they have for each other in their eyes. Maybe I should also applaud the leads for not falling in love with each other irl yet, because the characters’ love for each other is just so pure and surreal.

Mo Liancheng has to act like the cold male lead from Season 1 again, but with a different identity, for a reason that I will not disclose, so there really wasn’t anything new about the male lead. But Xing Zhaolin acted very well during various timings, showing Mo Liancheng’s personality and temper. The Mo Liancheng in the other Dongyue is also reserved, but he was reserved in a different way due to the matriarchal society. He is not royalty anymore, but has a rather noble status. I also liked the way the drama portrayed new Mo Liancheng’s character development. I got a breath of fresh air after watching the previous two seasons. On the other hand, Qu Tan’er is now a princess and the emperor holds high expectations for her. And, there’s no better actress to act out as the emperor, Tan’er’s aunt, than Liang Jie herself. I really liked the two contrasting personalities here as it really brought out Liang Jie’s extraordinary acting skills. On one side, she’s the bouncy and bright Xiaotan and on the other side, she acts as the emperor of Dongyue, cold, poised, and rather scheming. It was nice to see Liang Jie act rather devilishly, as I normally saw her as a quiet or cute female lead.

I didn’t exactly understand the emperor’s desperation for what she wanted though, as it was clear that who she wanted was not alive anymore but she just kept thinking that there was still hope and refused to let go. That was my biggest frustration, because this poised and elegant emperor suddenly toppled down her step just because of this one person who she knew about since the beginning. (will not name the person because of spoilers)

Music-7.0
To be completely honest, I was a little disappointed when I realized that the third season was just reusing the songs used in the previous two seasons. I don’t think there was one new song. But I love the OSTs, so there’s nothing to complain about the soundtrack besides no new songs. And this could just be me, but I felt that a few bgms were a little too overused. For example, the same background music could have been used two times in just a matter of a few minutes when another bgm could have been used. Perhaps this was due to the budget, but I did get annoyed by the bgm use at some point during the watch. But as soon as I heard the OSTs again, I was flooded once again with memories of my past watches and experiences with this series, brightening my day.

Rewatch Value-7.0
I would prefer to watch the previous two seasons over the third season but I’m sure the first few episodes would be a light watch with some popcorn. Again, the middle became a little dragged, but the audience was rewarded with a cute and once again, happy ending.

Overall-8.0
I thoroughly enjoyed The Eternal Love Season 3. More interesting characters were introduced along with the welcoming back of our beloved leads and supporting characters, and cuteness and fluffiness were blended with a little desperation, darkness, and mystery. I was delighted to see our couple back on screen again, and really enjoyed their third adventure together that showed their bond even more. Again, some outside forces blocked them from being together immediately, but their love for each other stood out and was more important than anything. Season 3 is truly another successful installment of The Eternal Love Series. Happy watching!