I just watched the expected 24-episode Apothecary’s Diary and I’m a little excited, I’m not going to lie. I had some trouble adjusting to…the adaptation… but now I really look forward to each new episode and the fact that I will get to watch a lot of them makes me quite happy!
I once said that I found the palace intrigue aspect of The Apothecary’s Diary quite interesting. I stand by that. There’s something about the complex politics of ancient empires that fascinates me. But that doesn’t mean I find it, for lack of a better word, pleasant.
First, we discover that the Queen Mother was probably still a child when she gave birth to the emperor. Of course this is an anime and you can’t always tell by her appearance but she looks almost the same age as her son. And that happened a lot. But then there’s the whole disturbing story of the Virtuous Spouse. I’m not just uncomfortable with the idea of a son taking his father’s concubine for himself. Again, I know it happens a lot but it’s really not fun to think about. But Maomao himself tells us that Lishu was only 9 years old when the previous emperor died. And they decided to move on but that meant she became the previous consort. If Maomao was shocked by the idea of having a nine-year-old concubine, and who wouldn’t be, what would she think of a six-year-old child? Perhaps even younger.
I think I know why this was included in the story. Very Young Spouses is probably historically accurate – sidenote, I tried to look up the average for young spouses and instead I found this article about what happened to the concubines when they were “old” (I’m not sure what the age limit is) and wrote:
Royal concubines were either executed by palace eunuchs or chose to commit suicide, usually by hanging themselves with silk scarves or drinking poison.
and now I’m sad.
Anyway… I think they included a bit of consort Lishu so that we still get a true sense of history without condemning too much of the current emperor’s character. He didn’t choose a child, his father did and he was just happy to let her stay at the palace. That is all. There’s nothing to see here.
I hope I didn’t discourage you too much. Let’s go back to Maomao. Don’t you love how twisted she can be? First threatening the other maids with very convincingly implied sexual assault and then getting weird about the poison. But you know, even Maomao isn’t allergic. You have to be careful, those things will mess you up!
Our little Maomao became a real pincushion this week. She’s so popular that she gets hairpins left and right! The two of them are pretty obvious but who is that puppy officer? I love how the characters in this drama calculate and collude even when they are good guys, like Maomao, Jinshi, and most of the concubines, or they are sweet innocent little waffles like Gyokuyou’s ladies in waiting, Jinshi’s assistance and now this new guy. It seems like he will be a good shield for Maomao. I hope they spend more time together. Wink, sniffle!
However, the mystery remains unsolved, right? Maomao realized that Lisgu was probably the true target of the poison. That’s great, but we still have a poisoner on the loose. At first, I thought it might be the Lishu taster but after seeing her reaction at the end of the episode, I’m not so sure. She was probably upset with her spouse and may have even been involved in the attempted poisoning but I don’t think she was the mastermind. Additionally, she will have to taste the poison herself if she doesn’t change the food. I think she fell for another lie and that’s what she’s worried about. But who poisoned it? And why?