Ever think about how pro-women the apothecary dairies are? I do, and now I'm writing an entire thing about it because hyperfixation go brrrrrrr.
WARNING!! HERE BE SPOILERS FOR LIKE… EVERYTHING UP TO LN 8!!
If you don’t know, The Apothecary Diaries are a series of japanese light novels that were adapted into a manga, which were then adapted into an anime. The mc of the series is a girl named Maomao, who is an incredibly intelligent apothecary with a wide knowledge of poisons and medicine. Through various series of shenanigans, she goes from being a regular servant in the Rear Palace, where the Emperor’s consorts live, to being the food taster for one of the major consorts, then briefly working in the pleasure district (basically a red light district) where she grew up, then begins working for the manager of the rear palace, who is also Maomao’s love interest. Along the way, she stumbles onto and solves various mysteries, which is the bigger gimmick of the series. Now, if you were to watch the anime, read the manga, or read the light novels, something you’ll notice if you pay attention is how much power women hold. It isn’t an open, loud and proud thing, it’s set in imperial china in the 17th century at the earliest, but if you look for it even a little, you will find it very easily. I want to talk about a few things, but the one’s I’ll highlight right now are Maomao, naturally, the Empresses Dowager and Regent, and various other women from the manga and light novels that’ll probably spiral into tangents.
So. Maomao. If she suddenly decided to really wield the power that she has access to, she could easily be one of the top 5 most powerful women in Li, probably top 3. Here are some of the ways she has insane access to political power:
She is Lakan’s absolute darling daughter, no matter how much she does not want anything to do with him. In his eyes, she can do NO wrong. Lakan is such a powerful man that even the Emperor is hesitant to do anything that would upset him
Related to previous, she is Lahan’s younger sister, again against her wishes, and he holds an affection towards her that mirrors their father’s. Lahan isn’t as important as Lakan, but he’s important enough to go on big diplomatic missions with the Emperor’s younger brother
She has the favor of all 4 of the recent High Consorts of the Emperor: Gyokyou, who I’ll get back to, Lihua, Lishu, and Ah Duo. I’m not counting Lou Lan/Shisui since she isn’t a consort for very long and is disgraced/will be disgraced.
Gyokyou?? Hello?? Maomao saved both her life and the life of her infant daughter, tasted her food, and tended to her when she was pregnant with her son, and even taught her ways to help pleasure the Emperor better
Saved Lihua’s life twice over; once by removing the toxic white powder and nursing her back to health, and the other by foiling a plot by her sister/chief lady-in-waiting
Personally requested by both the Emperor and the Empress Dowager to do tasks for them
Best for last: Jinshi. He is so down bad for her it’s hilarious and kinda pathetic. Poor guy. Anyways, HE’S THE IMPERIAL YOUNGER BROTHER. His claim to the throne is still up for debate at the point where I’ve gotten to, so there’s still a chance he could be the literal Emperor. AND HE WANTS MAOMAO AS HIS WIFE!!! He wants to marry Maomao! And he’s told her this! There’s a chance that Maomao could be Empress! Even if he doesn’t become Emperor and he marries her, that would still put her around the same power level as Gyokyou, who is the current Empress, and Anshi, the Empress Dowager (aka the Emperor and Jinshi’s mother)
If Maomao really wanted to grab her life by the reins and fuck shit up, she could embrace the La name, marry Jinshi, almost certainly have the backing of Gyokyou and therefore the Emperor, and probably also Lihua and Ah Duo. I can’t see her actually doing it, but it’d be fun to imagine…
Next, the Empresses Dowager and Regent. We’ll start with the Empress Dowager, the Emperor and Jinshi’s mother, who we’ll just refer to as Anshi for simplicity. It’s mentioned multiple times just how much influence she has. She was almost single handedly responsible for ending the making of eunuchs and taking of slaves, and she did that while dealing with the late Emperor. It’s said that the Grand Marshall was put in place by her, and he remains exceptionally loyal to her. She dealt with the late Emperor, placing such a fear of women into him that he stopped going after young girls (Yeah, the late Emperor was a pedo, if you weren’t aware). And now, Anshi is an extremely respected figure with power over the major players of Li.
The Empress Regent… If I were to talk about everything she did, we’d be here for hours. But she essentially took control of Li during the reign of the late Emperor, who was a fool unfit to rule. You cannot understate the impact she had, and her legacy haunts the narrative. She is one of the easiest characters to point to as an example when you talk about women’s power in TAD.
Miscellaneous characters lightning round! GO!
Shisui’s Mother; leader of the Shi clan, the one orchestrating the entire coup against the Emperor
Shisui; was a consort, but was a very smart spy who would find out information from other consorts, and eventually sacrificed herself to pull all the blame onto her and the Shi clan and make them the villains, before faking her death and escaping to live her life in another country
Ayla; one of the foreign emissaries, seems to hold a lot of power in Shaoh currently and was providing weapons for the Shi coup
Suirei; basically Ah Duo’s closest advisor currently, and extremely medically minded like Maomao, so they get along very easily
The High Consorts; the women closest to the Emperor, pissing them off is a bad idea because they can and will ruin you (Except for Lishu, but she’s so extremely unlucky that everything does its thing for her)
The Shrine Maiden; the most powerful woman in Shaoh for basically her entire life, unseated the former Emperor as a baby (if you say that she’s not a woman because she was born with a penis you will be blocked, no if’s, and’s, or but’s)
The White Lady; so, so many crimes. Had an entire network of stuff going on in which she used her albinism to appear as an immortal to commit her many crimes
In TAD, 9 times out of 10, you pick a powerful character, it’s gonna be a woman. This series adores women and celebrates them whenever possible, whether it’s something small like an emissary from 50 years ago finding Grams so otherworldly beautiful he described her as a moon nymph, to something as major as basically Anshi’s entire character and her backstory and relationship with the late Emperor. And when something tears women down, like marriage standards or the binding of feet, the series denounces it through Maomao. When Maomao isn’t taken seriously by other characters, it’s treated as an obstacle and that character is seen as an antagonist or villain. The male characters we like, Jinshi, Gaoshun, the Emperor, Basen, Lihaku, Sazen, Kokuyou, they all hold Maomao in high regards and respect her opinion, listening when she proposes theories. It’s the women that push things forward, that introduce the conflicts and try to seize power and foil plots and solve mysteries.
The men with power don’t really do anything with it, but the women do everything.
Kokuyou is so funny. A tragedy he isn’t talked about more. He’s a walking misfortune. He is such a clown. He got kicked out of his town and helped and then basically adopted by Maomao. He has been ridiculed and harassed for his face and yet he is so social. Maomao thinks he’s crazy. He’s a decent doctor. He is all that and a bag of chips. Maomao hired him and left and he’s been holding down fort with Sazen (who is one step away from a breakdown at all times lol). God bless his soul 😂
I am now invested in the relationship between Sazen and Kokuyou. Maomao, truly evil, is trying to keep these two “lovebirds” apart.
Yo: When did Sazen get married to a doctor?
Maomao: 👀
Or Sazen and Kokuyou’s interdependence.
They are fast becoming my favourites. Sazen stole the show after his encounter with Maomao’s penchant for snakes. I hope Kokuyou turns out to be a great side character.
Ahhh! I have to edit this post bc Sazen’s letter is so desperate for Kokuyou.
@meowmeowsabortionclinic all of your talk about your bestest of boys Kokuyou and all the gay that Kevin cut from his interactions with Sazen has paid off because i wrote a fic and i hope you enjoy, and i hope i did justice to your boy <3 Sazen deserves a little hand job and Kokuyou wants to give it to him!
snippet under link
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
It left Kokuyou resting one hand on the work bench and the other on Sazen’s thigh, just above his knee to keep himself from crushing the man as he lent over his shoulder to watch him diligently work.
He didn’t mean for his eyes to wander from the mortar and pestle Sazen used quite well considering how little he had actually used one. But they had. His eyes had drifted to look at a face that was not particularly handsome but with quite some charm, it was no wonder the ladies of the Verdigris often tried to convince him to spend his coin on them. A little tan but with sharp jaw that left him looking rather nice until his eyes welled with tears, at that point Kokuyou just wanted to lay him in his lap.
His eyes wandered down, not entirely willing, to the clothes that stuck to him tight with the sweat of effort, Kokuyou was sure his own clothes looked the same. At least he was sure to a certain point, up until a too pronounced bulge in Sazen’s lap.
His eyes darted back up to Sazen’s face, not entirely sure of what he saw. Sazen’s face flushed from what Kokuyou had thought was simply the heat, it was a heat that was affecting him, leaving his head a little light after all. Was Sazen’s warm face not sweat or fever but just another effort of desire as the one in his lap.
The feeling it was sat warm in Kokuyou’s chest. The feeling of being wanted always tended to, and he was so rarely wanted. Was he just telling himself for his own selfish want that Sazen wanted him?
A soft noise from Sazen, something so soft and quite Kokuyou only heard it because they were so close, his ear so close to his mouth, brought Kokuyou out of his thoughts. He felt Sazen’s leg tense under his hand, only then realising the pressure he had put on it, the way he squeezed the meat of his thigh.
He released the grip he had on Sazen but didn’t remove his hand. He settled a little deeper into the floor, knees spreading wider as he did, accommodating Sazen’s body between his, closer to his, feeling that fickle thing as desire. Feeling wanted, feeling needed.
