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Apothecary Diaries S2 Episodes 9 & 10 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-18 18:49:55
Imported:
2026-06
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Comments

A Guy

Hearing your take on the whole inner child thing makes me really want you to watch or read berserk. A lot of what the both of you enjoy in writing is exemplary within that story.

Cezar Bianu

She raped him. Thank you for putting the dot on the I for that. Many people are soooo double standard about this.

AttackRunRepeat

I also think the previous Emperor's mother did something to him—my three running theories are The Empress was also sick in the head and as we all know hurt people hurt people. My second theory is that because he was the heir probably at a young age they made him be with women he was not prepared for at a young age. Third his mother was so power hungry she basically was verbally abusive and terrifying to be around for the young boy and he became afraid of older women. I'm not saying that he can't be a sick freak but usually creeps like that aren't terrified of older women. I would even say a staggering amount have wives.

Itai Perez

2 great episodes. This is a series that is great to re-watch when you know what happens later. As you know a lot of details which may appear insignificant become important later.

A Guy

During the lead up struggle for power before the previous empress came to power it’s implied the previous emperor was the target of horrific sexual abuse committed by a majority of the palace. So by the time he became the only successor, the Empress went into overdrive to in her eyes protect her son. Although like you said it is likely that he was molested by his mother. To add onto it and This certainly isn’t a defense for him what he did, he hurt an untold amount of little girls it’s just likely that the reason he only ever interacted with the girls was due the fact he was scared of older women due to his sexual trauma. It’s also likely that he did have some form of pre-existing mental illness. Also in regards to his political failures, I don’t know if it’s too fair to depend on him. He was only ever really a figure head. A lot of the political injustice we see in the story is primarily the fault of the previous empress. I don’t know how much you can fault the emperor considering his state.

A Guy

I feel so bad for jinshi his parentage either comes down to being the tragic consequence of a conspiracy and a failed Love story or the product of retributive rape.

Melon Bread

In regards to why the late Emperor was Like That, Natsu Hyuuga made a post on twitter that heavily implied that he WAS sexually abused when he was younger, just not by his mother. She was only a low-ranking concubine before her son assumed the throne, and so was unable to protect him from concubines of higher rank than herself. That would explain why she was so intent on protecting and indulging him after she rose to power as Empress regnant. He was definitely intimidated by, if not outright terrified of, her, but likely for different reasons.

ao kaze

If we’re talking about the previous emperor daughter, she would be the current emperor’s half sister … are we going with incest theory again ?

Claude

So there is the theory (or more or less confirmed) that the current emperor really goes for huge chest women, because he absolutely despises his father’s taste for little girls. Like he wants no one to link him to that man, so much that he makes sure all his concubines look very mature (huge boobs) and why he wouldn’t even dare to touch lishu

Michael Johnson

Regarding the late emperor, body language from scenes seem to imply he was abused by probably his mother. It could be the reason why he is fearul of women and only interacts with children.

Chels

Oh man the first ep was.. hard 😅 it touched on something I'm still working on but I think Steph is right about the emporer being how he is as a trauma response. One of the more bitter pills to swallow for me is the lesson of "hurt people hurt people." Without going into it too much, I really relate to the younger empress lady's situation and I was abused by a boy older than me for a few years, which caused me to do a few things I am not proud of that I took sole responsibility for, before I told his mom. His mom tried to run me over for it, so I hated that family to death for many years. However, the oldest son who lives in California is friends with my father, so he visits once a year and one year, 3 months after his mom died, Rich visited us as per usual but he was messed up and drinking pretty heavily and we figured it's cuz he was mourning. Well, he took me aside and said he heard about what his family did to me and apologized before breaking down and telling me all what was happening there and why he left for Cali as a teen. Turned out all 3 sons were being sexually, verbally, mentally, and physically abused by their mom horribly. This info messed me up pretty good so I finally discussed the topic with my counselor and she explained to me that oftentimes, there's a sort of chain reaction of trauma (generational trauma is one form of this chain reaction) where the ones abused tend to hurt themselves or others in the same way as an unconscious attempt to normalize or cope with something they didn't know how else to deal with. It's interesting the show touched on this dilemma and very realistic, even if the mother didn't abuse her son, what the empress did and her obsession is something that can happen as a response. This is kinda why I started trying to learn about human behaviors and trying to come to a place where there is no black and white. Nobody is entirely the bad guy, rather there is other situations involved. A bigger picture. So while yes, people need to be held accountable for the things they do, if we can recognize these patterns and where they are originating from, we can try to intervene in the chain reaction and also have more empathy for people, even ones we dislike. That's another tough lesson I'm trying to work on is that empathy and accountability aren't mutually exclusive. I can empathize and pity someone who I also think should be taken out of society. Just harder in practice than in theory 😅 but ya this is why I love psychology and Anthropology. It allows us to see these patterns and try to change the outcomes, but only if people are willing to stop and logically acknowledge that there's more happening than just "oh this person's just evil" ach this show is so good how it makes us think 🥰 also, very brave in touching on a subject that not a lot of people want to touch on

A Guy
>>177652371

You have my condolences. I hope life is going well for you.

Fabien

By the end of ep 9, Jinchi was implying that the adult woman in the picture was actually Anshi, not the late emperor's mother. Because he was attached to that yellow color because of Anshi, and painted the adult woman in yellow, like Anshi. It's complicated to feel empathy to the late emperor but in the end he was really attached to Anshi despite all that happened, and despite her being an adult (thus ressembling those that abused him as a child ? (according to some readers he was)). Anshi probably left that behind her at this point, but at least she finally knows he didn't discard her (he just couldn't touch her, I suppose).

Chels

I kinda think the second ep was just a fun filler (as in fluff that is canonical, not the non-canonical usage) ep before shit hits the fan, or it is a lesson they want us to take into further plot points. I think they're really just messing with us that the lady was a ghost. But~ I have a theory that the missing daughter is the lady who was trying to kill Jinshi and faked her death. The one Maomao was talking to about abortion flowers. She knows medical stuff because she was raised by a doctor like maomao~ Also I think I'd be interesting in ya'll sharing and discussing stories from the Bible ☺️ I love folklore and mythology and I think the way you guys discuss stuff from the Bible feels more open and not disrespectful to people who don't practice Christianity. I like some stories from the Bible but the people who tend to discuss them and their meanings tend to do it in a way to push their beliefs onto others rather than just sharing an interesting concept from a open-dialogue pov. So ya, if that's something you guys would ever be interested in or comfortable doing, I think that would be interesting. Also 👏👏👏 Wesley nailed that about the bioluminescent mushrooms. I thought "no way~ that's far fetched" but that was impressive lol now I wanna go research all things mushroom 😂

Fabien
>>177651877

I think what he despises is probably how his mother had to endure harsh experiences, especially his own birth. I think that's what made him particularly hate that kind of practices, to the point of never visiting a concubine (Lishu). Because in general, that kind of things wasn't as morally frown upon in the past as it is now (even if it's a fictional world, not really historical, so who knows). Even if that depended on the age, 10 was still crazy, 14 (Lishu) not so much, historically.

Zinfiny

i am so ready for next weeks reaction

Cronshaw

Anshi gets the reverse Lakan treatment: a character presented initially to us as virtuous and kind who's personality is shown to be quite a bit more murky than that. They do a really good job fleshing out the side characters in this show and making them very compelling.

Lulu-chan

This has not been confirmed in the OG material but the author hinted at the pdf emperor being SAed by other consorts/concubines, not the Old Empress. His mother then sheltered him and tried to protect him in any way she could, knowing his ineptitude and trauma.

Lulu-chan
>>177649235

I just wrote more or less the same and then I read your (much more detailed) post 😊👍🏼

LuciusDaLuster
>>177693635

He was rped by Anshi. She did it while talking to him how worst piece of shit he is the entire time. That's when he closed himself shut. Anshi could do this, because she was Empress and Empress Dowager didn't have power to oppose her directly. That how she ended up pregnant again.

LuciusDaLuster

If you didn't realize. Anshi is VA by the same actress who voices Elsa from ReZero. Perfect mix of calmness and danger.

Johan Gustafsson

It was Japanese monks who underwent the ritual you spoke about. Look up Sokushinbutsu. Or here's a passage from Wikipedia: "In medieval Japan, this tradition developed a process for sokushinbutsu, which a monk completed over about 3,000 days. It involved a strict diet called mokujiki (literally, 'eating a tree'). The monk abstained from any cereals and relied on pine needles, resins, and seeds found in the mountains, which would eliminate all fat in the body. Increasing rates of fasting and meditation would lead to starvation. The monks would slowly reduce then stop liquid intake, thus dehydrating the body and shrinking all organs. The monks would die in a state of jhana (meditation) while chanting the nenbutsu (a recitation of the Budda Amitabha's Name in Remembrance of him), and their body would become naturally preserved as a mummy with skin and teeth intact without decay and without the need of any artificial preservatives."

Kindyh Bordat

You guys will starve really long for romance, because the only things that's forcing the author to put some developement of the jinmao ship in the books are her aunt backed up by fans constent harassment XD. Author is a Jinshi hater and a aromantic.

Lulu-chan
>>177753646

She doesn't hate Jinshi, she only said he's a very difficult character to write, so initially she wanted to kill him off, but he proved to be very popular so she changed her plans for him.

Cat Huang

i dont think the previous emperor gave the orpiment to little jinshi as a gift, i interpreted it more as he'd dropped it and jinshi, being curious, just picked it up

Cat Huang

omfg i cant wait for the next ep reactions

Joshua Finkelstein
>>177768901

Well Jinshi said at the end of the first episode he “must have picked it up,” because it reminded him of the picture the emperor made for his mom.

Mike Q

Great reactions as always. Wish you guys could binge. Banger of an opening! You can watch the ending! Deffo something wrong with the late emperor and the empress. There must be some abuse that made the emperor so afraid of adult women. Also the ghost stories are surprisingly relevant for later, as with other details in these two episodes. Also, an island nation to the east have been mentioned before and the clothes look Japanese, so I reckon "not-Japan" must exist. Maybe the story telling was another victim of the late emperor, since he had many victims. And LOL about Maomao having that tinge of facial blindness.

Chideraa Udegbulem
>>177645440

I always thought because he looks as pretty as Jinshi that same way people try to touch him people most likely adult women SAed the pervious Emperor and that’s why he fears adult women and turned to children

Nick Pram

i don't think the novel author and the anime creators ever made it clear who accidentally swap the babies/initiated the baby swap. But I'm guessing that between the mothers, Lady Anshi was the one who knew/realized first before Ah'Duo that the babies had been switched. Just like the previous Emperor who avoided her once she gave birth and maturing into adulthood, Lady Anshi too couldn't brought herself to take care of her own son who in her mind a reminder of her own transgression so she's fine with the babe be out of her sight. She found it easier to love and be a parent if it's her grandson (Jinshi). Meanwhile, Ah'Duo accepted the swap in reflection of how poorly she was treated during their coincided labors; her blood son would be safer in the higher, steadier place beside the Empress rather than be raised by the (then) prince's concubine. Ah'Duo was ready to take care of the son she was given, a chance to still be a mother. But alas the honey debacle happened. In connection to motherhood, Lishu was also brought back to the rear palace after the pdf Emperor's death because of the current Emperor and Ah'Duo's consideration for the girl. She was still untouched by the time the previous Emperor had died; her going into the rear palace the first time was near after Lady Anshi took her revenge. Lishu then was returned to her family where her father sent her to a monastery for a year (as proof to the society that she's still pure and as a preparation for her next betrothal to who know whichever rich older man her father appoint her to). Knowing Lishu's predicament, Ah'Duo—who had build mother-daughter relationship/codependence with Lishu—asked the current Emperor to order Lishu's return to the rear palace as a concubine (but really to shelter her away from her groomer father). The current Emperor obliged bc 1) if Ah'Duo wanted her quasi!child back, then Ah'Duo would get her quasi!child back, 2) his paternal fondness for Lishu was enough for him to acknowledge that he has the responsibility to remove Lishu from her own family lest the thing with his own father would be repeated at Lishu in the future, 3) Lishu's late mother was a childhood friend to Ah'Duo and him, and 4) although he doesn't see Lishu THAT way, he does see a potential for Lishu to be Jinshi's future concubine (which was a win-win solution all things considerate bc that would still kept Lishu away from her family and it would secured Jinshi's connection to a girl from a prominent family)