Apothecary Diaries - S2 Episode 9

yes we did, thank you for this~

Michelle Lam

ugh thank you again phyllis for breaking this down!! now im wondering who that baby girl is, where she is and if she has anything to do with the assassination attempts?!

Michelle Lam

ok i was getting that type of vibes after watching this and the next episode. it is so effed up :*(

Michelle Lam

Facts.

Phyllis

I’m still upset that anime of the year didn’t come down to this or Frieren, it just goes to show that most people who watch anime don’t actually watch anime, they just watch whatever is hype like Solo leveling.

Chayanne Acosta

The baby mentioned in the flashback of this episode is older than the emperor. MaoMao is only 17… At 21:32, in the French subtitles, she says ‘qu’il soit illégitime ou échangé à la naissance, cela m’importe peu’, which means ‘whether he is illegitimate or switched at birth, it does not matter to me’. It seems to me that this translation is closer to the Japanese version.

ao kaze

maomao's parents are lakan and fengxian as confirmed in s1. jinshi's mother is either anshi (empress dowager), or lady ah duo (looks like jinshi from s1). remember when maomao had the baby swapping theory that: she thinks it is possible that the baby that died could be the empress dowager's baby, and the current emperor's baby survived, but no one else knows about the swap. meaning everyone but ah duo would think jinshi is the emperor's brother, but is actually his son with ah duo. if this theory is true, it explains why jinshi could look like ah duo, why he looks like the previous emperor, and why he is also the "imperial brother" who we havent seen the face of. keep in mind the brother never appears in the rear palace where jinshi is, and the two are never seen together either. we know one baby died from honey so jinshi is the survivor.

Hassan Jameel

They did (5 days ago) but it wasn't tagged for some reason. If the link doesn't work, just go to the Rice & Ginger homepage and scroll under Posts https://www.patreon.com/posts/135973416?utm_campaign=postshare_fan&utm_content=android_share

chaosdreamer

I also just realized after rewatching this, that at the first encounter, if you see both of their eyes, in the late emperor's eyes, there was little Anshi, but in the little Anshi's eyes, there was no one. I think the anime production team did that on purpose. The late emperor caught Anshi as his first love (or friend or whatever person he felt comfortable with) but little Anshi didn't really "see him", for her he was only a tool to get power, as she used by her father. But seems like the late emperor still respected her even after she matured, as he drew her in the picture...after all, she was the first person that ever "cared" about him, so it must've been really huge for him, even though he still couldn't talk to her after she matured. Kinda tragic tho. The author said Anshi is one of the worst women in this story, I didn't quite get at first but after rewatching and reading the light novel, I kinda get it why....

mamimumemo

Regardless of what trauma the late emperor received, I hate him. And I’m glad that the empress sacred him into a lonely corner to die alone. I’m guessing that’s why she prevented the late emperor from getting too close to Jinshi. He’s too pretty and feminine looking. she probably recognized that look in that old man’s face approaching “her” child and acted accordingly. I too thought maybe the emperors mother may have done something to him but he didint fear her so I doubt that’s the case

AlecSinWonderland

diana

You are confusing timelines, the story of the exiled daughter and doctor was before Lady Anshi arrived to the Rear Palace and gave birth to the current Emperor. Meaning that daughter is older than the current Emperor probably over 10 years older than Maomao.

Parely

Sequence of events for your understanding of what the Empress Dowager, Lady Anshi said: - Back then, doctors in the palace weren’t castrated. They were the only men allowed into the Rear Palace without being eunuchs. - Before Lady Anshi, a girl gave birth to a baby girl and claimed the baby was the late emperor’s daughter. - The late emperor denied this, saying he had nothing to do with it. - A doctor was blamed as the father and was exiled along with the baby girl. - The girl who gave birth to the exiled baby girl was not allowed to leave the Rear Palace. - Doctors had to be castrated. - Later, Lady Anshi got pregnant and gave birth to the current emperor. - Maomao’s adoptive father helped with Lady Anshi’s delivery. This means he wasn’t the exiled doctor and was already castrated at the time, which is why he was allowed in the Rear Palace. - We also saw a scene where Lady Anshi forced herself on the terrified late emperor. And presumably got pregnant and gave birth to the younger brother of the current emperor. My thoughts and conclusion that I came to is similar. I believe the late emperor may have suffered from trauma that developed into a mental condition, causing him to fear adult women and only feel safe around young girls. To be clear, this is not to excuse pedophilia. However, his condition may explain some of his behavior. Despite his fear, it’s also possible he had some affection for Lady Anshi perhaps even admiration since he painted her, which may suggest complex, conflicted feelings.

Phyllis

Michelle might be confusing this show with something else because as far as we know, Maomao's mom never said anything about Maomao not being Lakan's daughter.

chaosdreamer

The author has said on Twitter that the late emperor was abused by other concubines when he was a child because his mother was a low-rank concubine, that is why he's traumatized by women and could only talk to children. And after he became an emperor, his mother (the late empress) forced him to bear a child, but he was afraid of women, so she forced him to take young girls. I think the emperor had a childish mind, but the empress forced him, so I guess he had no choice. Not like I support him, it's still disgusting what he did, but he was also the victim here. Both the late empress and Anshi (the current empress) have an ambition for power and broke the late emperor...

mamimumemo

definitely a complex episode😮‍💨 a lot of mental circles for each character in this

Luna

This is a heavy one 😔

ao kaze