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3r-tree · 1 year ago

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The Classism, Sexism, and Mishandling of Slavery theme of the Remarried Empress ((pt 1. of why I might divorce the remarried empress series)) WARNING: SOME SPOILERS INSIDE

Note: this story/review was written by someone from the western hemisphere, so yes I am well aware that cultural differences is most likely a definite factor in this. However, this is my opinion on how this series kinda rubs me the wrong way. I will admit that I am behind on the series, and some of the info I got was from spoilers so it might be outdated, as I stopped at episode 85 on webtoons, and read some spoilers, if this is the case, I am prepared to address what I’ve said in a new post ( a reblog of this) to make things more fair.

Ok so I’m gonna do a super quick introduction because anyone, who’s anybody knows the basic premise of one of, if not the most popular manhwas next to WMMAP. It’s a manhwa that essentially has dominated on webtoon, ruled on insta and I think is even set to have it’s own movie/kdrama eventually come out.

Yours truly, was a fan of this series, especially when I got caught up in the tales of hype, and complexity of the story/spoilers, and the beauty of the novel. Like I genuinely liked this series, as the premise was easy to follow, it almost seemed like it was written from a sympathetic villainess’s pov and it just made me a fan, until I wasn’t.

The tales of Navier being an awesome strong female lead in the face of walking dung and his mistress Rashta (affectionately known by fans as Trashta- which hold on I will address that in this) was pretty good at first, until I sat down and actually thought about this series. Now I know you’ll say- hey, hey, hey, this is a manhwa (technically not isekai) why are you actually putting deep thought into this? And I’ll say, well, I have this rule when it comes to fiction.

I (the reader) will only take a series as serious, as the series takes itself. So to elaborate, this means I’m not going to sit down and waste time telling you how certain series does things on a broader or more indepth scale if it’s clearly here for a good time. No, this means that if a story wants me to take it seriously, then, um yeah I am going to do so.

Now, coming back to this series, I’m going to get straight to the point, that might upset some people, because I know there’s probably a lot of cultural differences between the writer of this story, and readers who are located on the western hemisphere, like me.

But- with all due respect.

Something about this story does NOT sit right with my spirit,

and it’s mainly the classist narration/the dealing with slavery, with pinches of sexism here and there, but let’s start with the classism.

This story feels like it’s essentially punching DOWN, like it’s telling the lower class to know it’s place, some were born to rule, others merely to serve/follow orders, and punishing the one person, Rashta, who albeit unethically and under bad circumstances, tries to create a better life for herself by somewhat breaking the social norms by climbing up, terribly. I’m not justifying what Rashta has done, nor am I condoning it, but the complete lack of empathy in the narration of a story that is praised for being complex is….well….disturbing.

In fact, if I have to be honest with you, I feel nothing but apathy vibes from the tone/way this story was written. There’s a distinct lack of empathy when it comes to the suffering of others, particularly women not named NAVIER, that I think needs to be discussed more, especially when people want to push this series as something that promotes a strong fl, because I think it pushes a strong/independent fl at the expense of some other female characters (don’t believe me- just look at how the fandom so readily vilifies a female character who gets in Navier’s way,).

Guys like Sovieshu and Heinrey are allowed to have explicitly outlined sympathetic aspects to them, whereas the women’s pov is far more subtle, before they inevitably end up doing something terrible (I’m talking about Rashta and Heinrey’s sister in law). All do terrible things, but I feel more inclined to say that the women who become antagonists in this story are more victims than the guys who willingly perpretate the acts, yet aren’t allowed the same leeway/understanding from the narrative. Get the picture?

Let’s start with the topic of cultural differences, now shall we?

PT 1. The Slavery Discussion and Rashta:

Slavery is no stranger to being apart of isekai, in a lot of stories it’s either added as a footnote to help worldbuilding in a fairly negative way, or it acts as some sort of trauma for the mcs to portray them in a more sympathetic light. But in this story, it’s handled so…strangely. Slavery is very much traumatizing, no matter in which media it is presented, or the purpose/form. The after effects/trauma of slavery is massively understated, and I for one think it should be treated with respect when it comes to playing a major role in a story like this.

The fact that Rashta was a slave who was abused and mistreated is seemingly glossed over a LOT- it is most likely the reason why she is, the way she is. She’s so naïve/willing to go along with Sovieshu’s schemes because she spent her entire life up to that point being treated worse than dirt, and now has to deal with living in constant fear of having to return to that life. She probably doesn’t genuinely know any better, as no one was there to teach her right and wrong, or guide her. That cycle of trauma and abuse is so hard to break, and probably even impossible, given the settings/position she’s in.

So she’s unable to protect herself from the schemes of those who’ve been born into the game of politics and power and are coming for her blood in order to exploit her, yet the story tries to play it off as…making her kind of selfish, and evil.

It’s almost like writing Cinderella or maybe just any slave girl (a girl who spent her life as a slave up until she got married) as some sort of pawn, without any sort of empathy/sympathy for the character from the narrative…could you imagine how heartbreaking that would be? This is pure exploitation, yet it never feels like it’s called out in a long-lasting/meaningful way for you to sympathize with Rashta, or offer the character any sort of leeway/complexity (save for the end when she’s about to be executed but even then it’s too little too late) nah it feels almost like the story is telling you that this is what Rashta deserves, she’s just another cog in the wheel for the haves to use.

I’m not saying that Rashta is completely innocent in all of this, because yes I will admit, that Rashta is a terrible person, who’s done bad things (albeit some under the bad influence of Heinrey’s friend, and others was just because of her, she’s really not a good person, at ALL)- BUT, she’s ruining others because her life was ruined, it’s probably her way of punching UP, of securing herself in a society that clearly does not want the poor to advance/better themselves. Which as bad as it sounds, isn’t completely inexcusable, given how cutthroat the story likes to play it’s politics as. ((Like look at Navier and how she’s always thinking politically, you could probably try to sell her girl scout cookies, and she’d suspect you of espionage or something))

Even in this elevated position, we see that Sovieshu doesn’t even see Rashta as a person of her own, she’s just…a plaything to him, something he’s using because he feels like Navier isn’t giving him the love he deserves. ((I’ll touch on Navier next part)). The Rashta around him depicts herself as stupid, cute and playful, because she knows that’s what he wants her to be, and there’s high possibility that the moment that he finds out that she’s not that (she’s actually a lot smarter than he thinks), he could very easily dispose of her. That brings me to the worst part of their whole relationship which a lot of fans, and Navier herself seems to miss- the unequal power dynamic-

The worst part is that he disposes of her, at the end, when it really should’ve been his head on a pike, but alas, she dies and the story doesn’t care because at this point it’s almost like it’s done more to explicitly tell you how terrible she is, than to make you somewhat sympathize with her. ((Keep in mind I’m not saying Navier had to accept Rashta with open arms from day 1, but Navier should’ve 1000% been suspecting foul play in more places than she did. I mean someone who was at most a mistress (coming from slavery, where she was uneducated) was pulling all of these political power moves like Rastha was, should’ve raised some flags for Navier, but eh, whatever I guess. Sovieshu doesn’t really seem to get the punishment he deserves.

Let’s not forget that Rashta can’t exactly say no to Sovieshu’s advances (dude’s the emperor who could have her beheaded for breathing out of her mouth wrong) and like I said before, is literally being manipulated by Heinrey’s friend. It’s sad because I know this story will probably gloss over it (I kinda know the spoilers where he ends up taking away her kids in the end after she’s executed, which is kinda good because at least her children aren’t orphans, but once again it’s just exploitation. Exploitation of a naive women by powerful men- seeing the theme here? Sovieshu uses her against Naiver, and Heinrey’s friend uses her against them both…almost feels like her main purpose is just to be a tool for others (most noticeably MEN) while having no agency of her own…))

You can say that maybe I’m overreacting about this, but like I said before the story likes to take it’s politics/characterization seriously, and I have no doubt that if Navier was a slave- we’d be exploring every traumatic aspect/long term effect of slavery. Everything Navier would be doing would be constantly sympathized with, because the story would recognize that she was a slave, and the cycle of abuse/trauma she’s faced it’s hard to break. Yet the story continually lacks that empathy for most of the female characters, in fact, the story seemingly gets a kick out of pitting women AGAINST each other. Because at the very least the fans do (I need to talk about Heinrey’s sister-in-law, remind me to talk about her for the next part).

You can argue well it’s just the times, so strong women really shouldn’t be working together, but then I’d say- um, no. If this story wants me to suspend enough belief that magic exists, Navier feels no remorse about breaking social standards (and being able to get away with it too) while being the main ruling force of the empire behind the scenes, with some fairly outspoken female characters- then I could totally buy the strong women working together, even in unconvential means. In fact, it’s kinda frustrating that Rashta spends the whole story getting manipulated by powerful men for their own means and she never wakes up/develops from it. Hmmm, that’s kinda…suspicious to me…

Honestly-

The fact that magic exists in this world, but Slavery is still around is just….wow, sure it’s a form to punish you for not paying off debts- but I fail to see how that works, when Rashta’s debt ridden father was able to get away from it by selling off someone else, it’s a blatant loophole that even the poorest of the poor can escape, with little consequence. What’s the point of having that system if it apparently doesn’t even work right? I think it’s almost too severe, and stupid given how many loopholes the story glosses over.

Maybe Navier isn’t that kind of an empress, why exactly has she never pushed for the elimination of slavery/increase of human rights? We know that she’s the one who’s wearing the real political pants in her empire, and the administration seems to be fine with this, as we never hear them complain. Also we’ve seen her gladly sponsor someone from the magic school, which was, a fairly expensive school, and I think the girl was from a fairly good background, unless I’m mistaken, maybe she was poor, but she had to be exceptionally good to get it. ((I’m choking on the classism here)). So it’s not like she’s going out of her way to benefit the massive underprivileged class of her empire, I kinda wonder if she knows they exist (save for the time they kind of rightfully grill her for running off to go marry the prince of the enemy empire, which sure she had her reasons for it, but I doubt the peasants would know/care about the full story, not when they have slavery and God knows what else dark ages problems to deal with).

Navier’s face when she hears the lower class cry for food. They should’ve thought about that before they became peasants!

You could also argue that this slavery isn’t exactly similar to the form of slavery in the west (which I would answer that there were other forms of slavery before the one that notoriously evolved in the western hemisphere, that were still socially degrading)- but once again, like I’m saying, if you’re going to base something off of a thing that has had traumatic/degrading long term effects socially, you should treat it with respect or don’t write it at all. I feel like there was either a blatant lack of research, or care when it was written into Rashta, which honestly would’ve been ‘fine’, if the story didn’t really try to antagonize a traumatized character while it later on tried to paint the narcissistic sexist Soviedung as complex, or sympathetic. Heck, I’m pretty sure the story is going to try to make Heinrey somewhat complex/sympathetic for trying to sabotage the empire while Navier was trying to run it! Yet Rashta doesn’t get a pass until it’s too late….

It’s like the story hates the underprivileged, which, is actually kinda funny to me.

If a westerner had tried to write something like this, it would be rightfully called out. So I’m not making any full exceptions here. You can argue that yeah cultural difference here is one thing, and I’ll say, alright, fine, fair. But then I’ll say, doesn’t it seem sexist to you that at the end the female character is seemingly more villainified/suffers more than the male character (who keep in mind is the main perpetrator) yet the story never seems self aware to call this out? So at best it’s probably just innocent ignorance, and at worst it’s just kinda sexist.

Protecting the women who you’ve been low key politically sabotaging so you can take over her empire be like:

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that slavery shouldn’t/can’t be used in fiction, but the way how the series fails to empathize with an obviously traumatized person from slavery but painting her the way it does, is just….wrong…

ESPECIALLY because the story literally tries to become a contortionist in order to make Sovieshu more sympathetic the last second. Why does Sovieshu get to have something of a redemption arc/sympathy when Rashta doesn’t??? It’s giving me classist, and low key sexist.

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