Nexo Knights Opinion: King Halbert is pretty sexist, even if it’s not intentional
Something that irked me when watching Nexo Knights is how sexist King Halbert can be sometimes.
I get that he is written to be the overprotective and doting father who is afraid to let go of his precious daughter, but it comes off as sexist sometimes.
Even though he’s not intentionally being sexist, the way he treats Macy and even his wife sometimes ends up being implicit sexism.
1) Macy’s Graduation
In the very first episode, we see this type of behavior from him. The Knights graduate from the academy, and the King personally gives EVERYONE their shield during the ceremony EXCEPT his daughter Macy. Which is really messed up considering the ceremony was publicly broadcasted and she probably felt humiliated that everyone got a shield but her.
2) Disregarding Macy’s discomfort in dresses and overly feminine fashion for his personal joy
Throughout the series, Macy expressed many times that she does not like wearing dresses, ball gowns, and overly feminine clothes. But this guy keeps insisting on her wearing dresses.
I get that she sometimes has to wear them especially for important royal duties, but there are many times I feel like it crosses her boundaries. Such as in the episode “the King’s Tournament” where she does agree to wear a dress to his birthday, ONLY if it was a small party. It was not a small party at all. Also it was broadcasted live to the entire kingdom.
In the same episode, Queen Halbert encouraged her to wear a gown because it would “please him” to see her in a dress at his party, and that “he’s so happy to see you like this”, referring to her wearing a gown.
3) Macy’s dress
I get the feeling that what Macy wear is mostly the King’s preference of what he likes to see her in.
Analyzing the dress Macy wears throughout the series. I noticed how different it was from the attire other characters would wear.
The dress that Queen Halbert, Goldie, and other background characters wear all look pretty similar to each other in style. Except for Macy’s. Her dress is the only one with a really poofy skirt, there’s a lot of bows and ribbons decorated on it, and the color is much more bright and saturated compared to other dresses we see in the show. And clearly she’s not the one to pick it out, she openly expressed her hatred for what she wears. I get the feeling that her dad makes her wear the dress because he personally likes it on her. Not taking any consideration in how she feels about it.
Also, I realized that Macy is wearing the SAME dress she wore as a child. Looking at the dress design, it make more sense if it was something designed for a child, considering the bright colors and bows that decorate it. Not something an adult would wear.
It could be that the King isn’t ready to accept that his daughter is grown and decide to keep her in the same dress that she wore since she was a child to keep that specific vision of her in his head.
4) Macy’s role in the agreement between King Halbert and Jorah Tightwad
What I didn’t like about this predicament is how Macy is treated like an object during the King’s Tournament. At first when Jorah demanded a kiss from the princess as a prize, King Halbert did try to deflect it away by suggesting something else. But what I kind of didn’t like was that he didn’t try to immediately shut it down, or say that it was not negotiable. Making me think that he’s alright with Macy being treated like an object. Even though Macy does take up on that bet, I feel like him going through with that is allowing her to be treated like an object during the tournament.
5) Queen Halbert’s Statue
This one I feel is just stupid and also messed up. In season 3 we meet Roberto Arnoldi, an artist who got commissioned by King Halbert to make “a smashing statue of Queen Halbert”. Arnoldi took the description literally and sculpted a statue of the Queen beating up monsters. The Queen of course loved it, but the King hated it and basically kicked Arnoldi out of the kingdom because of it.
I get that he wants an elegant or graceful statue of his wife, but what does it matter? It was a gift for his wife, which she liked.
If the commission was personally for him specifically, I get why he might be upset if he didn’t get what he was asking for, but it wasn’t for him, it was for her.
His reaction makes me think that he has a certain image of femininity that he imposes on those around him, and overlook what the women in his life actually thinks.
He doesn’t even take into account that the Queen actually loved his gift for her, and got mad that it wasn’t what he had in mind. He’s more mad that the artist didn’t make the Queen look more feminine, elegant, or graceful, and he kicked out that artist from the kingdom because of the commission, which is messed up. Banishing someone from the kingdom and uprooting their career for something so petty and unfair.
He also doesn’t take into account that Macy hates wearing dresses and ballgowns, but only focuses on how much personal joy it brings him seeing her wear one.
In conclusion
I know in some episodes he’ll praise Macy for being a knight and how there should be more good knights like her. Which is great and all, but his behavior is quite consistent within disregarding the feelings of women in his life. Especially Macy’s feelings on the subject.
