No more frieren Fridays 😭 and no more apothecary diaries Saturdays 😭

Untreaded syphilis does effect the mind in the later stages

All major characters in the series are complex and nuanced, Jinshi great grandmother the Widow Empress, that is still alive, is at the same time a cruel authoritarian, that brutally punished anyone that cross her, and the person most responsible for the abolishment slavery in the Empire (that is not exactly China, but very China inspired).

When we analyze history for what it was, and how it’s evolved now, we can learn why society acts the way it is today. When society lead with a male monarchy in mind, women were only seen for their fertility and their usefulness lies as baby makers. Therefore, this restricted women from doing notable occupations, making discoveries, or being leaders in the world. For instance, not only Imperial China acted this way. We can see England’s monarchy acted the same exact way with Henry VIII (fertility over the well being of women) Women have much more of a say in today’s world. Women can be educated, go to school, choose occupations, be financially independent and not depend on men anymore. However, these limiting ideologies are still pervasive today and have evolved into more nuanced thinking in society (slut-shaming aka pureness > “dirty”, being pregnant in the workforce sees you as a detriment to work, moms primarily the stay at home parent, etc) Like MaoMao does in the story, every person is given a set of limitations they must follow in their lives. For women and men, gender roles greatly dictate how we should act and how society wants us to be. Some play the system like MaoMao does. Some aren’t as lucky like all of the emperor’s courtesans and the brothel’s girls working there. One wrong move and you’re as good as useless (which is the same as being dead). This was a great analysis on the series! I love Apothecary Diaries and how it gives so much nuance to its characters. Although these women are in tough positions, Apothecary Diaries never shames them for being in the positions they’re in.

I love that we can have a seemingly cliche "evil government official" character like Lakan, and it immediately gets flipped on our heads in one episode. Making us feel like crap. He's as much a victim of this system as anyone else. A sensitive man with a genuine disability forced into a role he never wanted. A role that on the surface seemed impressive, but took everything he wanted from him.

Dark reality ? This has been the golden standart in most societies all across the globe throughout centuries up until recently.

You should say "The Dark Reality during that time period."

This World need a Genghis Khan

11:37 although one thing, why didn’t she talk to Laken about the idea before allowing herself to get pregnant?

Idk what idiots choose anime of the year. Half of season was full time boring, I love slow story telling, but it must have some Impact in the first place. This anime has very huge problem with telling story about nothing, every episode had interesting scenes but they were 3-5 mins per episode at best scenario, and it mostly focused on shitty detective concept that had literally zero Impact on story. Just like you said it got more interesting after episode 11, but how is this thing even in top 5? I will never understand those brain dead People that would choose this over an actuall good stuff. I bet that mushoku tensei is not gonna be even in top 10 of the year while it is literally best story ever created in media 😂