I think it’s easy to forget how Ah-Duo and the Emperor’s relationship haunts the romantic narrative between Maomao and Jinshi.
It’s not addressed often, but based on what little we’re told, it’s very likely that Ah-Duo was (and still is) the love of his life.
She was the Emperor’s childhood sweetheart. She was his only consort for over a decade. Ignoring how rare that is—how it would have been encouraged for a prince to take more than one concubine—he refused to take on any other consorts for the first ten years after Jinshi's birth. He only accepted other concubines after the former emperor passed away, and he ascended the throne.
For as the current emperor, he could no longer avoid the obligation of taking other consorts, producing heirs—especially since he knew Ah-Duo could no longer bear him children.
Despite losing her womb, the child Ah-Duo gave him is the only one that has survived into adulthood. A child he dotes on, loves dearly, and who he deeply wants to be his heir, despite Jinshi's clear objections. And it makes sense why he'd want Jinshi to succeed him. He's the only child he bore with the woman he loves most, who bears such an uncanny resemblance to her, who shares her intelligence, charm, and cleverness.
He loved her so much that he kept her—a woman who could never get pregnant again—in the rear palace for over eighteen years. It hurt their relationship to have her caged there. The one solace they had was being able to be near Jinshi as he grew up.
And by the time the Emperor gives in to the political pressure to replace Ah-Duo with a younger (fertile) consort, he does something that we haven't seen any other emperor do so far: he allowed Ah-Duo to leave the rear palace. Not only that, he gave her the Southern Imperial Villa: an entire compound (comparable to a small palace itself) to call her own in the royal capital, where she can live her life comfortably and privately. It isn't true freedom—not really—since she doesn't have jurisdiction to travel the world as she's always wanted, but it's a hell of a lot more freedom than any other consort has ever received up to that point.
And he leaves the palace often to visit her there. This is extremely uncommon; in theory, an emperor should have no further reason to interact with a former consort if the woman cannot serve the baby-making purpose she was chosen for. He gave her a residence in the royal capital because wants to keep her close. He wants continued access to her, even after she's comfortably installed in her new life outside the palace.
Jinshi knows all of this, and is painfully aware of how easily history could repeat itself with him and Maomao. Jinshi knows how trapped and stifled Ah-Duo felt in the rear palace, knows it strained her relationship with the Emperor, knows that it ultimately pushed her away from him, emotionally. It did not affect the Emperor's love for her, but it did affect Ah-Duo's love for him.
Jinshi watched his own parents' romantic relationship fall apart due to the absolute power that came with his position. He wasn't able to avoid claiming his title as the Moon Prince; he'll do anything he can to avoid making Maomao feel the same way Ah-Duo felt.
As much as I like 'Jinshi, the Moon Prince' and 'Jinshi, the Lover,' what I'm a huge fan of is 'Jinshi, the Honorary Ma Clan Member.'
He's Basen's milk brother, they grew up and trained together, and the two are still close today. Gaoshun treats him like one of his own sons. Maamei is not afraid to push back and give him advice even when it's technically above her station as a woman, and Jinshi (being who he is) sees no issues with this because of how much he respects (and fears) her. Chue is not afraid to goof around and tease him in relation to his love of Maomao (as long as Suiren and Taomei aren't around). The antisocial Baryou can talk to him just fine (albeit in part because he sees him as a level above human, but that's just Baryou). And Jinshi knows damn well how scary Taomei (who nursed him alongside Basen) can be, just like Basen and Baryou.
The Ma clan can't ever be his "friends," per se, because as part of this society, they're required to be "servants" who don't forget their place. They're only in the Moon Prince's orbit because they were born to be. And yet, like the preordained marriages of Gaoshun/Taomei and Baryou/Chue, they've found some affection for one another anyway. As evidenced by the many other awful people we've seen, it could've easily been an incompetent prince and his band of corrupt and/or bureaucratic and/or boring-af lackeys (the Western capital provided a great contrast), but it's not. They're all fairly good, smart (sans Basen), upstanding people with vibrant personalities ("characterful," as Maomao would put it) all doing remarkably well to navigate the difficulties of this time in history. Jinshi is so lucky to have the Ma clan, and the Ma clan is so lucky to have him and each other.
The Ma clan is my favorite group of characters in the whole story, and in my mind, I always include Jinshi (one of my favorite characters) as an honorary part of it. There's some excellent Ma clan fanart I've seen ("are the kids alright?" by @sporadora, The Ma Kids! by @vsettacrescellie) that rightfully includes Jinshi. And as I've discussed before, Lishu's coming in as well and I really can't wait to see how that goes, Jinshi interactions included, 'cuz Lishu's awesome and she deserves this relatively (considering the era) warm and caring family.
I was already enamored by all the characters pre-LN8, but I think LN8-12's introduction and fleshing out of the Ma clan, especially Chue, is when I truly fell in love with the cast and when I felt like I really got the full picture of Jinshi now that we've seen the clan he (partially) grew up with.
if i had a nickel for every time an anime foreshadowed a characters color blindness by showing how they see the world but playing it off as Mood i'd have two nickels
which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice
No One Hates The Royal Power Imbalance More Than Jinshi
Sometimes you have to live a lie in order to survive. Sometimes you're twelve years old and people are already talking about your potential bed partner. You need to do whatever it takes it keep yourself safe, because you don't want to be forced to sleep with someone for the sake of a role. You've never felt like yourself to begin with, so you're willing to do whatever it takes to escape it. A lie on top of a lie. Does that mean you're a bad person?
You have only ever known love and sex as politics and cages. You spend your teenage years watching women have no choice but to surrender themselves to the Emperor and day after day you deal with being sexually assaulted and harassed. You make mistakes, mistakes that haunt you as you get older. No one stopped you, you learned to stop yourself. In a world where everyone eggs you on to take, to do your "duty" you teach yourself to hold back, to look at the bigger picture.
Jinshi does not manipulate for nefarious reasons, he's disgusted in himself for using his face to get things done, but he'll do it if it means good for the nation. He looks back at his younger self and shudders in embarrassment. He sheds his false eunuch image and eventually grows past his boundary-crossing actions, and he stacks weight upon weight onto his shoulders because all he knows is to put himself at work for the state, for the sake of the empire.
Is one's desire to be free, to have control over one's body, wrong? Jinshi wants to be human, he wants to bridge the gap between him and others. He wants Basen to be casual with him, he wants Maomao to not have to fear about the broader implications of their relationship, he wants to be anything but a royal. He feels so uncomfortable in the skin of heaven he is willing to tear and burn it off, leave scars and scabs, all for his goal.
Some people seem to think Jinshi is selfish or that his path to personal autonomy illustrates a tendency for moral failings. I am never going to say he's perfect and completely selfless on that journey, but I hope people can see what Maomao eventually does, someone so caged, that he's close to getting squashed.
Maybe you all haven't lived lives where you've donned a false mask in order to forge your own path. I guess most people don't. Sometimes you have to repress parts of yourself to achieve that end goal, but that doesn't mean that you aren't constantly aching. Treated as a doll, as a stud horse, as a means to an end, as a second chance, as a pawn; anything but a person. How far are you willing to go for your sense of self? Jinshi could go so much further, but he doesn't. He cares far too much.
i really like how, as part of the apothecary diaries' storytelling and themes, no singular character ever has the whole story. even maomao, despite how smart and good she is at putting pieces together, doesn't always have the whole truth (even tho it's incredibly easy to treat her word as such). they have their experiences, their memories, their speculations, and their limited facts, which are all fragments of this bigger narrative they're in. and it's lovely how there are consequences to not having the fullest information, how even the smallest detail can change an argument entirely. as a viewer, it's fascinating to go back to previous chapters and episodes and to trace those threads across the story, because it feels less like i'm a passive participant and more like i'm part of the experience, actively engaged in figuring stuff out along with maomao ^^
I appreciate how The Apothecary Diaries intentionally creates backstories for characters that actually support their characterization.
A pet peeve I have with some media is the use of a tragic backstory to only prop up a character's positive traits. We see a hardworking, kind protagonist and find out that they've experienced significant trauma. Wow, what a wonderful person. They've had to overcome so much. The other characters grow fond of the protagonist. The audience is supposed to feel a mix of pity and awe at this protagonist for what they've endured.
I see this a lot in shoujo anime as a way to soften the audience to the heroine. In shonen, there is a similar formula, but the trauma may also be used to motivate the protagonist to some goal. These protagonists are so good and noble- such wonderful role models who have had to overcome adversity.
I find this trope lazy and boring. It's a shortcut to make the audience feel sympathetic toward the protagonist immediately, without having to actually witness them struggle. Moreover, this trope often does not depict realistic long-term effects of trauma.
The Apothecary Diaries uses tragic backstory as a way to contextualize a variety of character traits in a realistic way. Trauma is used to deepen characterization rather than evoke a certain response from the audience.
To keep things simple, I'm going to focus on Maomao. I'm pretty sure I only touched on events in season 1 of the anime, so spoilers for that under the cut.
Maomao's Intro and Kidnapping
We don't know much about Maomao's past at the very beginning of the story. The most tragic thing we witness in the first episode is that she gets kidnapped and sold. But this is not even treated as particularly traumatic. At no point are the circumstances framed as a way to elicit pity from the audience. If anything, Maomao just finds it extremely inconvenient and annoying. Her reaction to her kidnapping and trafficking accomplishes two things: 1) it shows how commonplace this is for the setting and 2) reveals Maomao's character traits. Our protagonist is in an environment that can be extremely dangerous for marginalized individuals. She has an interesting mindset of begrudging acceptance. She is not inappropriately cheerful or optimistic about her circumstances, and she is not in deep despair. Maomao is a realistic and practical survivor. She acknowledges the unfairness but chooses to focus on what will ensure her survival- completing her tasks at the palace and keeping her head down.
As a side note, I find the reactions and assumptions of the ladies-in-waiting at the Jade Pavilion hilarious and almost meta in its own way. When they meet Maomao, they make a bunch of assumptions about abuse she's endured and deeply pity her for being a taster. Unlike in other media, this is played for laughs. Maomao is not a heroine who puts on a brave face to hide her pain. Maomao is fine, all things considered. In fact, she is giddy at the prospect of being poisoned.
Maomao's Freckles
We get a glimpse into the realities of Maomao's struggles when she explains her freckles to Jinshi. She tells him what she has had to do to protect herself from sexual assault, thus revealing the ongoing trauma of womanhood. There's something about this scene that hit differently for me compared to other media that have attempted to discuss violence against women. Jinshi was clearly affected by what Maomao says, but I don't think that was the only purpose of the scene. From a characterization standpoint, Maomao's delivery in the scene is excellent- indifferent and unemotional. She is not seeking to trigger pity, sadness, or guilt in anyone. In fact, it is bothersome to explain it to Jinshi, and she rather not have to. Dwelling in anger and self-pity goes against her main goal- survival.
In other media, violence takes center stage. Witnessing violence or hearing a character discuss violence has an immediate emotional impact. In this scene, violence is framed as constantly in the periphery for women. Maomao says she has not been sexually assaulted, but the continuous threat of violence is a reality that she has had to navigate. She alters and mutes her appearance as much as possible. She keeps her head down and tries not to draw attention. We understand now that her response to being sold to the palace is nothing new to her- she has always been a realistic and practical survivor.
I also believe that this scene had a different kind of impact on the audience. I didn't watch the scene and think, "Oh wow, poor Maomao, she's been through so much." I thought, "Yup, that sounds about right. Being a woman is hard." I know I can't speak for everyone, but Maomao's dialogue deeply resonated with me. This type of trauma was not framed as something unique to her. She spoke on it as a reality for women that she tried to cope with in her own creative way. I actually think that her neutrality gave space for the audience to fill in the emotional blanks- many of us know that it is quietly terrifying to live this way.
Maomao's Upbringing
It's not until the end of season 1 that we understand the trauma of Maomao's upbringing. Much of her characterization is enriched as a result.
We see glimpses of her mother throughout the beginning of season 1 but are not given any information. Maomao stares at her little finger but we don't know why. If we only stayed with Maomao's narration and there was nothing to provoke her, the audience wouldn't know anything about her trauma. This is very much in character for Maomao. She explains it herself- she has learned to disconnect from her emotions. The only reason the audience learns about Maomao's traumatic upbringing is because of Lakan's attempts to see his daughter.
Even as Maomao reflects on her trauma, there is a distance to it that helps keep her character consistent. She refers to her mother as "that woman" and "the woman who gave birth to me." She describes her relationship to "the courtesan who chased her off" as a "nightmare" but one that is "in the distant past." Maomao has come to a place of acceptance- she acknowledges the pain she experienced but has separated herself from those experiences.
Has she healed? Probably not. In true Maomao fashion, she is intellectualizing and compartmentalizing her trauma. She tells Jinshi, "Did you know? It grows back. Whenever you cut a finger tip off." Maomao sees the effects of her trauma as temporary, and something she has moved on from.
However, much of Maomao's character is rooted in her trauma and that hasn't changed. The effect of her mother's rejection, the confusing and intrusive presence of her previously absent father, and the lack of attention from the busy women of the Verdigris House isn't going to be resolved by simply accepting the past. Maomao continues to struggle with trusting others, understanding other's feelings, and expressing her own feelings. (I recognize some fans interpret some of these tendencies as neurodivergence, and I will take the stance that both neurodivergence and trauma can be at play here.) Relational trauma is healed by relationships, which will be a continuous challenge for her character.
That is an excellent use of trauma for a fictional character. Maomao will continue to struggle with the effects of trauma, and the audience will be rooting for her the entire time. She isn't an unaffected role model protagonist- her character feels human because she has realistic and understandable struggles.
One more thing I'll add- I don't want to discount Luomen and the Verdigris House. Maomao's relationship to her adoptive father and her sisters is incredibly heartwarming. I'm actually so glad that the story stipulated that she was loved dearly by so many people throughout her life, even if they couldn't always give her the attention she needed. She doesn't have a Cinderella upbringing where she endured abuse and neglect constantly. In fact, I would argue that her resourcefulness and drive to pursue her passions was a result of (or at the very least nurtured by) the love and support she received by the people who raised her.
This is also very realistic and adds to the complexity of her character- Maomao has been deeply wounded and greatly cherished throughout her childhood, which has led to the formation of an emotionally-distant, brilliant, practical, and compassionate protagonist.
