I finished watching the Apothecary Diaries anime and...
look it's really good but especially in season 2, parts of Jinshi and Maomao's relationship bothered me.
I wanted to hear some other opinions so I watched a video "debunking" everyone that has issue with it and I don't know how else to explain it other than it was full of rape apologizing.
And like...I agreed that I don't think Jinshi would do that. The series also makes a point about rape, specifically pedophilia, but that doesn't mean it's immune from all criticism, like the essayist seems to think.
The most infamous scene is the "frog" one so let me go through that.
Context: Jinshi is the head eunuch in charge of managing the rear palace. Secretly, he's the emperor's brother and crown prince, so he wasn't castrated. Since it's a secret, no one outside of his small circle, including Maomao, knows.
In this scene, a group tries to assassinate him and he escapes with Maomao by jumping off a waterfall and hiding in a cave behind it.
This is the first part the essayist went over that bothered me.
Yes, Maomao strips and tells Jinshi to do the same. This is not her exerting power in the situation or trying to "allure" him; this is to dry their soaked clothes and there's no ulterior motives.
There's a difference between a state of undress and sexualizing a state of undress. This is not sexual. It doesn't matter that Jinshi "could've" reacted here if he wanted to assault her.
Further, they put their dry clothes back on and go through the cave to an opening in the ceiling. He's obviously much larger than her, so he boosts her up, she gets thrown off balance by a frog and they topple on top of each other, you know the trope. This is where the "frog" incident occurs.
The argument was made here that Maomao acted first by touching him and not stopping immediately. Should she have removed her hand when asked? Yes. But she didn't walk up to him and cup a feel for the hell of it, they fell and she was trying to get out of his grasp, that's just where her hand happened to land. She also was confused because, you know, she thought he was a eunuch. She was calculating, as she does throughout the entire series. Again, yes, she should've removed her hand sooner, but the touch itself was not sexual in nature.
Compare this to him pinning her, grabbing her leg and straddling her basically going "do you wanna find out how big it is?" THAT is sexual in nature.
It pissed me off so much that the video essayist said that BECAUSE she didn't say no, BECAUSE she didn't fight, because she "provoked" him, (which was her typical snark in a nervous attempt to not hear information a servant girl shouldn't have and he got touchy about his "size") she obviously wanted it and was in control, ignoring that her immediate thought is about how she pushed him too far.
All this right after where she has an inner monologue about how she shouldn't think on anything that would put her life at risk (if she steps out of line, she can be killed) and freezes when wondering if she should kick him off.
Additionally, in episode 47, a man in Jinshi's guard gets beaten because during a fight, Jinshi got a single cut on his face. Yes. Maomao is right to be afraid of repercussions of physically hurting or rejecting him. That's why she tries to stay ignorant and use the "I fell on a frog" as plausible deniability.
Now do I believe he would've stopped if she said so? If she seriously said it instead of simply trying to disengage, yes. god what does that say in general though
Although there is the infamous "honey" scene. To be honest, I never took issue with it until I heard it defended. Maomao actively tells him to stop, calls for help and eventually is only spared when Lady Gyokuyou shows up.
Maomao doesn't have the authority to deny him, unlike a high-ranking concubine, which causes him to nervously scurry away like a rat. It then gets brushed aside as a prank. Overall the scene helps Maomao solve the case and her telling Gaoshun if he really thinks it was harmless fun, he can do the licking next time is funny.
The essayist claims Maomao agrees that it was a prank, but that's not what happens in the anime. She doesn't linger on it, but she never excused it. Even if she did, she's not in a position where she's allowed disagree.
Why does harassment so easily get brushed aside as "it's just a prank, bro" like that comment didn't sit right with me and I didn't even care about the scene.
As far as pranks go on him, it's really just her helping with what he asks, such as the Moon Fairy dance. Yes, she had him swim a lake, but he was the one who asked for her help and the plan did work. Yes she got a little carried away with a disguise and put lipstick on him, but that's very minor. Mostly her "pranks" against him are just being mildly snarky and blunt, which is also just her personality.
I don't think Jinshi is a bad person. He adores Maomao and frankly forgets his rank around her, but she doesn't (except very briefly when she gets excited). We as the audience know he loves her and wouldn't harm her, but she doesn't believe no one else would. She knows there's rules in place and crimes are punishable by death. Early on in the show, she even requests if she's ordered to be killed, let her die by poison instead of beheading. Jinshi of course says that's not gonna happen and he wouldn't do that, but Maomao recognizes he's a high-ranking official and she is just a servant girl.
What would've happened if the dog didn't show up and save her?
3 times in the show he tries to get intimate and all 3 times, he's interrupted. Frankly I find him trying to fool around with her while next to the bodies of 5 dead children to be distasteful at best. (I'm surprised this one isn't as infamous as the final scene where he bites her.)
Also I can't believe the essayist actually said "she's a tsundere" as an excuse. Yes, she's blunt and gets comfortable being less formal with him as the show goes on, even enjoys some teasing, but frankly there's a difference between banter and actively moving in on someone trying very hard to pivot and disengage.
It's not okay because Jinshi is "a green flag in a sea of red flags". (I don't even agree there is a sea of red flag men in the show tbh) It's not okay that her frozen silence was taken was a "yes". I don't know if I even agree he wouldn't ignore her clear signals when each time he's made advances, she has tried to pivot or actively swatted him away and he still presses. She's not being coy.
I don't think Jinshi's an abuser or that many of these things actively bother Maomao, like it's just their dynamic and it can have fun rom-com-adjacent moments, but the bigger ones leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I don't think including them is wrong, actually after each incident they spend time away from each other and I think their relationship backslides a bit, but seeing the scenes called "cute" by fans and eaten up as shipping material is a little off-putting.
The essayist made a comment about how many headcanon Maomao as asexual and they disagree because she plays these "cat and mouse" games, as if she doesn't make a face to every "cute" comment Jinshi makes towards her.
Maybe I'm too ace myself, and yes this is just my own personal feelings, but Maomao does read as ace to me. She's more interested in herbs and medicines than anything else, flat out ruining sweet moments when her deeply-desired ox bezoar comes up. Season 1 shows she wants to keep working in the palace because if she's out of work, she'll be pushed to become a courtesan and sold off, which she expresses a LOT of distaste for. Add this onto her being seemingly the only woman who is not affected by Jinshi's looks or cares about the handsome eunuchs like other court ladies, yeah. I get a lot of ace vibes from her. (Don't forget when she had a guy strip to assess if her sister would like his build. Wasn't sexual to her, despite how it looked to others.)
I don't see her snarky comments as flirting and toying with hearts as much as this essayist did. Sometimes I wonder about straight people...
Anyways, that's about all I have to say on it. Show was good, I liked it, just prefer the murder plots to trying to make characters kiss in uncomfortable ways.
I love how immediately Gaoshun has to tell Maomao to stop treating Jinshi like a bug because he's being an absolute freak about it. He's like hey, I know we only met a week ago, but you've already given my insane boss a sexual complex and for all of our sakes you should probably try to avoid activating it
Day 14 of #migretorymay2026 hosted by @migratorymay is is the dimorphic Amur Falcon, with striped and spotted female and gray male. Also reposts of Day 12 - Cuban Tody, and Day 13 - Tailorbird
i hope that by now you're used to the fact that i can never stick to my initial plans when it comes to art. and i can't do the same thing for too long. so here's something i started working on last month and finished today, because i've always wanted to do one of those incorrect quote things (source)
Decades-long campaign powered by patient perspectives results in switch from PCOS – a name that caused confusion and undue suffering – to PM
a health policy paper has been published saying the name is officially updated to polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS)
polyendocrine= multiple endocrine factors
metabolic = affecting/affected by metabolism
ovarian = from the ovaries
essentially, instead of using the symptomatic term (many people with PMOS do not develop cysts) the new term widens the diagnostic area and makes it easier to diagnose, treat, and do research on people with PMOS (even atypical types, such as no cysts).
it may seem like a waste of time to change a name instead of focusing on research, but for a lot of medical professionals a name can be associated with a hard set collection of symptoms, so the name needs to change to acknowledge that the disorder is not well understood and has a broader, subtler, and often missed set of symptoms. for example ADD is considered an antiquated/unused term, and now comes under the ADHD umbrella. in healthcare names and terminology changes all the time, and this is a positive change. your local healthcare professional may not know about this unless theyre really up on the news though!
in case you want to read about the name change process that was published in the Lancet (one of the most impactful and well respected medical journals):
Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), previously named polycystic ovary
syndrome (PCOS), affects one in eight women. However, the
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