What do you think of Shisui in The Apothecary Diaries?
I love her, she is my favorite character <3 She stole the season as the (fake) villain she is!
Shisui is a foil to both Maomao and Jinshi, which is why their respective confrontations with her in the finale are them facing themselves.
Maomao and Shisui are both daughters of important politicians. Lahan and Shisu are respectively the fox and the tanuki of the imperial palace and they are foils themselves. Lahan was the heir of the La clan, but was considered unfit because of his disability. Shisu was instead adopted by the main family of the Shi clan because of his ability. Whatever the case they rose to power because of their intelligence and had their life marked by a tragic love. Lahan left his love waiting for too long, while Shisu waited for his love far too long. Maomao and Shisui are the fruits of these complicated loves and have had opposite upbringings as a result. On the one hand Maomao is technically a noble, but since she was born outside of a wedding/when Lahan was absent she is brought up in poverty in the pleasure district. There she still receives love and care by the courtesans and Loumen. On the other hand Shisui is a noble, but she is brought up in a cold and controlling environment. She is shown no parental love and is treated like a doll and a weapon of revenge.
Superficially their lives may seem opposite, but the two girls are actually quite similar. Both suffer the consequences of an absent father and an abusive mother, but they still love their parents and work to give them as much happiness and peace as they can. Season 1's finale is Maomao's scheme to solve her father and mother's tragic love. Season 2's finale is Shisui's scheme to give peace to both her father and mother. Both send off their parents by dancing on a roof. Maomao's dance is a celebration of life, while Shisui's is about accepting death.
So, why is Shisui so important for Maomao? By meeting Shisui, Maomao really meets a different version of herself. Shisui is just as smart as Maomao and just like the apothecary she has been conditioned to repress her feelings. And yet, no matter how much Shisui appears as an uncaring doll she can't help, but to love her family, to love people, to love the world. Maomao is the same. She keeps saying she is selfish, cold, unfeeling. She insists she only minds her own safety and business. And yet, she is always the first to jump into the fire for others. Shisui kind of makes this part of Maomao clear to her, as Maomao's thoughts in her last meeting with her convey:
"You should just run. Just throw it all away and run with Suirei. Politics, your parents, the clan, just throw it all away. I don't care about other people, either. I'm the most important person to me. Do you realize how much I went through after being dragged here? But, still...Why can't I stop myself from reaching out to her?"
Maomao and Shisui are both selfish, right? And yet neither of them can't help, but to look out for others.
Jinshi and Shisui are two nobles who are trapped in their respective roles. Jinshi is trapped as the Crown Prince/Imperial Brother and tries to escape this reality by becoming Jinshi the eunuch. Shisui is trapped as Loulan the Concubine/the Shi Clan heir and tries to escape this reality by becoming Shisui the maiden. Both act as if they are of humbler origins to find true bonds outside of their status. Still, both know these masks are only temporary.
At the same time, I would say they have an opposite relationship with their "fake identities". Jinshi's personality as the "beautiful eunuch" is in itself a shallower version of himself. It is only through his relationship with Maomao that his childish, but also more noble self starts coming to light only to truly bloom when he steps into his role of Imperial Brother to save her. In Shisui's case, it is the opposite. It is Shisui's personality as "Loulan the Concubine", which is the lie. She presents herself as a shallow beauty only interested in clothes and fashion, when her real self is far more modest and in love with bugs. She acts as her mother's doll, when she is far smarter and a potential better leader than Shenmei. So, differently from Jinshi, Shisui's true self can only shine when she escapes her "Loulan" persona to embrace who she truly is (as Tamamo).
Finally, both Jinshi and Shisui are blamed for their parents' actions. Jinshi is blamed for the Previous Emperor's sins because he looks so much like him. Shisui is blamed for Shenmei and Shisu's crimes, even if she sabotages the rebellion and saves Suirei, the kids and as many of her people as possible. This shared tragedy is why Jinshi and Shisui's final meeting is all about solving these generational conflict.
On the one hand Shisui fulfills Shenmei's wish to "hurt" Jinshi, who looks just like the man who refused her and broke her pride. On the other hand Jinshi welcomes Shenmei's hate and anger by taking responsibility for the Previous Emperor. By doing so both Shisui and Jinshi really free themselves from their respective curses. Shisui fulfills her mother's revenge in her own way. A revenge without real victims. Jinshi aquires a scar, which sets him apart from the Previous Emperor. Finally, his face is his own. This is highlighted by Maomao's words:
"Master Jinshi is too beautiful. That causes ripples in the heart of the people around him, making them focus only on his beauty. But Master Jinshi's true essence isn't flamboyant, like his appearance. He's much more solid and practical".
Jinshi isn't defined by his beauty, but by his heart like the kindness he showed Shisui by accepting her scar.
So, Shisui forces Maomao to accept her own heart and Jinshi to step into his role. She scars both in a sense:
She scars Maomao psychologically, as she leaves the apothecary to grapple with feelings of love and grief
She scars Jinshi physically by forever changing his face and "ruining" his beauty
In short, Shisui embodies a trial for both our protagonist. It is a painful trial which ends with losses. Maomao loses a loved one and Jinshi loses his comfortable mask as the "beautiful eunuch". Still, it is also a trial that helps both grow up. In a sense it marks a passage from "adolescence" to "adulthood".
Maomao goes through an adolescence phase where she enjoys Xiaolan and Shisui's company, which comes to an end with Shisui's disappearance.
Jinshi traps himself in an eternal adolescence by taking the medicine to suppress his sexuality and fake himself an eunuch. The Shi clan's rebellion forces him to grow up.
The end result is that both Maomao and Jinshi mature and find themselves closer as a result.
Not only that, but their bond does bring life. Like, it is not by chance their kiss/sex scene gets interrupted by the kids being reborn. It is symbolic of Maomao and Jinshi's relationship (symbolical sex) saving the children (creating new life). Once again this is something both Maomao and Jinshi do thanks to Shisui.
On the one hand Shisui asked Maomao to care for the kids and help them when the medicine brings them back to life (immediate care / microchosm). On the other hand Shisui asked Jinshi to forgive those that have already died once (political scenario / macrochosm). So, it is only thanks to both Maomao and Jinshi that the kids survive and can have a future. Symbolically it is Shisui the one who entrusts the couple with this future. At the same time, it turns out Shisui herself is one of the kids who is given a second chance of life thanks to our two protagonists.
The silver hairpin is a metaphor for Jinshi and Maomao's bond, as Jinshi clearly gives it to Maomao as a token of love. Later, Maomao gives Shisui the hairpin and the object ends up deflecting the bullet and saving Shisui's life. This is a perfect commentary to Shisui as a character.
Shisui chooses to love everyone even if she really does not have to. Actually, it would be easier to leave behind her family and her people and to escape with only Suirei or even on her own. Still, Shisui chooses to stay and to die out of love. It is important she isn't really planning to survive. She plans to ensure everyone's survival, but her own. And yet, her friendship with Maomao saves her and grants her freedom. The girl who chooses love is saved by love.
As a final note, Shisui's rebirth is commented by several motifs.
First of all, there is her insect motif. Throughout the series, Shisui compares herself to an insect, specifically crickets. She is scared of becoming like the "cricket wife" of her horror story who "consumes" her husband. This is why she keeps taking abortion medicine. At the same time, she sees herself as an insect that has to die, so that the kids can live. She is the one generation evil who won't survive the winter, but will ensure the young ones' survival. Well, "Loulan" dies, but "Tamamo" is reborn and chooses a cicada as her symbol. Cicadas are symbolic of rebirth and are insects, which spend the winter hidden, so that they can start singing in the summer.
Secondly, there is her tanuki/fox motif. She spends her life as the Tanuki's daughter, changes her looks like a tanuki and goes to face Jinshi looking like a tanuki. Still, she herself is far more similar to a fox, as Jinshi calls her a fox twice. In the end, she can leave the tanuki behind and fully embrace her "fox self" as Tamamo, whose name comes from Tamamo No Mae, a fox spirit.
Finally, Shisui says goodbye to the viewers and the series twice. The two scenes are complete opposite and interesting to compare.
Shisui's first goodbye is her final dance under the snow. It is winter and she is in the mountains surrounded by snow. She is accepting the death of "Loulan", the Tanuki's daughter and the cricket who can't survive the winter.
Shisui's second goodbye is her send off, as she runs towards her new life. It is summer/spring and she is by the seaside, surrounded by water. She is reborn as her new self "Tamamo", a fox and a cicada who sings in the summer.
Two sends off, one rooted in death and the other in life, one tragic and the other hopeful. One is fake (a mask) and the other is true (her real self). It is really the perfect goodbye for a character so rooted in duality.
