#anti Heinrey

[pruneunfair]

The internalized sexism in remarried empress, (for an ask)

*this is going to be a long one so hold on tight*

It's no question that remarried empress is one of the most popular manhwas on webtoon and being so popular it holds a lot of influence, unfortunately, that influence promoted the internalized misogyny in not just the readers but in other works as well.

In the first chapter, Navier is presented as this baddass perfect woman, during her divorce trial she brings in a hot rebound who also happens to be another Emperor so she wont have to give up her life as empress, sounds pretty feminist right? Unfortunately that's only one of the few times we see anything related to feminism at all.

We are soon sent back a few months before the trial and right away, Naviers ladies in waiting are tearing another woman down and already believe this new woman is a threat to Navier because the Emperor Sovieshu is attracted to this newbie

We are shown the basic concept of how the narrative wants us to view these two characters. Navier is perfect empress who is being wronged by her husband and this unnamed woman who's only crime so far was existing is a wench and a homewreaker, the ladies imply it as some sort of extreme act of disrespect for having to bathe what they believe to be a slave, proceeding with sucking up to the lead by saying they only wash their hands to bathe her as they don't even wash themselves and even when they admit this mystery woman to be beautiful they backtrack to making sure Navier is supported. You might think that this is just friends supporting friends but it goes beyond on that later on.

Later on we are introduced to this mystery woman, Rashta, a former slave found by Sovieshu in the woods who is immediately portrayed as rude, stupid, and a crybaby

The reason she cries is because she was struck and referred to as "the slave" while she wasn't very polite it's clear Rashta isn't doing this on purpose, rather it is sheer ignorance and an unusually large optimism

now, a lot of people like to say that Rashta must've done something on purpose to get Laura imprisoned and that she knew what she was doing, therfore justifying the hatred for her existence. However, Laura hit Rashta for reaching out to Navier and calls her a wench in the process

Some fans use the excuse that she smirked after Laura got sentenced to 3 days imprisonment and yes while that is excessive for Laura, Rashta was a slave only a few days ago and she's been mistreated by nobles her entire life plus I don't think she's smart enough to pull off Hannibal levels of planning like that, I personally think her smirk here is meant to be more of a "that's what she gets for treating me like that." Then a "hee hee my evil plan worked!"

the rest of the comic goes the same way, Rashta is continuously portrayed as a whore who ruined Naviers life by turning her husband against her, and she's written to be hated as a pick me who won't know her place. Rashtas pretty much every part of those "other girls" in those not like other girls templates. She's girly, loves the attention, emotional, dainty, overly sweet but secretly only has ulterior motives, and in the novel, she acts extremely childish even referring to herself in 3rd person, even when she makes good points it's all intended for the reader to laugh and jeer at her.

Shes practically designed to be the pick me archetype for baddass mary sue fans to despise and she sadly only gets worse as time goes on, not just in morals and personality but also in her writting

And how is Navier perceived?

Shes endlessly perfect, everyone loves her including several different powerful men from all different countries. Even her cheating ass husband is given the cheapest redemption arc in the end just for being sorry that he cheated and realizing how much he wants her. All the characters your meant to view as good adore her and anyone who doesn't is written as the meanest bad guy on the planet worthy of death. While she isn't the worst character I've seen, the narrative tries so hard to make her more amazing that Navier looks worse as a result, such as not caring about slavery despite being described as kind and devoted to all her subjects. Ergi even says it straight to us that there will always be that invisible wall between her and the poor.

The characters we're supposed to see as good are:

Heinrey: A king who planned on going to war with Naviers country and only stopped when he fell in love with her at first sight, who also tortures and threatens anyone who even so much as inconveniences or talks shit about her all while he puts up an innocent front to appear non threatening (wonder who that sounds like)

Kaufman: A grand Duke who drugs other people with love potions which are essentially date-rape drugs and gets away with it once another woman takes the blame

Kosair: Naviers brother who violates Rashtas autonomy by slipping abortion drugs in her food and it's never talked about again.

Lebetti: One of Rashtas slave owners who still continues to harass Rashta and views anyone lower than her with contempt including her own nephew and so on

And who are the characters we are supposed to hate?

Besides Rashta and Sovieshu, the only other characters so far are Krista, the former queen of the west and her father

Ironically Krista is hated for the same reason readers supported Navier for: not wanting to replaced as queen, which isn't helped by Heinrey asserting that Navier is the one and only queen and anyone who objects will face serious consequences but they fix that by dumbing her down and blaming her for Kaufman drugging Heinrey. As for her dad, the old Duke. While he is the only man actively against Navier so far the only ways he has been punished is being told that Krista killed herself. (In the novel the old Duke does face serious consequences which involved him being murdered along with innocent people after his son attempted a hit on Navier)

But overall you get the message, most of the characters you are supposed to love are men and ladies with no personality, men who do atrocious shit yet we're supposed to look past it and conveniently the only man who is punished is an ugly bastard.

The ladies in waiting are the biggest contributors to the internalized misogyny, often they support it by insisting any new woman who shows up must be an evil whore, even Krista's ladies in waiting do this

Not like it matters though anyway since Navier basically wins most of those girls over on her side and they're never seen again

You see what I mean? Every other woman in this story has little to no character, they exist solely to push the FL up and punch down at any woman they don't like which usually consists of women that either dainty "other girls" or ironically women in a situation similar to Naviers and any woman who opposes Navier is affectly an idiot who gets girlbossed back into place. Meanwhile almost all of the men who commit absolutely horrible acts get away with it since they all essentially go awooga for Navier, with the only exception being less than conventionally attractive dudes like Krista's dad.

for fucks sake even Alan, one of Rashtas other masters who 🍇ed her, got her pregnant and participated in keeping her child away from her until she got successful is viewed as this sorrowful wittle baby who got taken advantage of by the evil Rashta and was "wrongfully" told to screw off by her. It took an episode where Alan was so unfathomably stupid to get readers to realize they shouldn't side with a rapist, and yes, while the narrative will try to push the idea that Rashta took advantage of him to raise her status and that she consented. News flash: a slave cannot consent to someone who owns them, it's like a student-teacher relationship.

Now the hypocrisy. Navier can do one thing and it's viewed as such a girlboss power move but when someone else like Rashta does something similar, it's embarrassing and pathetic. For example, Rashta is mocked by nobles mind you, for wearing an expensive and flashy wedding dress. Meanwhile Naviers wedding dress is literally weaved with thousand of gemstones

Hey, it's their words not mine.

Or how Rashta was considered evil for stealing Naviers spot as empress (even though Rashta didn't even want to be empress at first and Sovieshu gave her the offer, it's not like she held a gun to his head) but when Krista shows distress over being replaced as queen, the comments basically tell Krista to suck it up because Navier deserves it more. Everytime a man does something wrong in this story, the characters and even the readers trace it back to somehow being a woman's fault.

Readers are even encouraged to laugh at Rashta for not being able to learn as fast and eventually having a breakdown from the stress (not to mention she's also pregnant here so those hormones must be going wild)

yeah let's just blame a pregnant woman who wasn't educated in reading until a few months ago for not being able to be as smart or stoic as Navier and then crying from the stress.

finally, how this promotion of internalized misogyny affected other works. The Trashta nickname has become so popular that it is used everytime a woman who doesn't support the MC or even just inconveniences her is introduced, constantly the comments never shut up about the "new trashta." Even women who don't mean harm like Helena from kill the villainess was treated horribly because she's the "other woman" it erases any attempt at creativity in these stories and dumbs down any other woman who isn't constantly worshipping the FL as an evil bitch who needs to go.

Conclusion:The Remarried empress isn't the feminist power book with complex characters, maybe in season 1 but not anymore. Women who even think about being rude to Navier are punched down and killed if they don't change their mind while almost all the men are excused for their cruel actions because their hot guys with abs who only wanted to protect the one and only goddess Navier.

[yourmateyoya]

God I hate him

[violetlunette]

Right, so I’m going to say something that will probably get me some flack but—I think Heinry’s worse than Rashta.

Notes:

*Anti-Heinry

*Slight defense—very slight—of Rashta

*Anti-Ergi

TRIGGER WARNING:

*Mentions of rape

Don’t misunderstand; Rashta’s actions are far worse, and she wrecked a lot of people’s lives. While I sympathize with her, I will never deny that she earned her villain status. However, all her actions were done out of desperation and ignorance.

At the start, Rasta had no idea what her presence would mean to Navier. She just thought the Emperor brought her into the family and that they would share him. And how would she? She was a slave isolated from the world and abused in every way by her owners. (And yet are portrayed as more sympathetic than her, but I digress.) On top of that, in their country, it wasn't uncommon for a kind to take a mistress. How would Rashta have known she was basically a homewrecker?

And then, it was only when others began manipulating her and Navier's brother tried to abort her child, that Rashta purposely lashed out at others to protect herself.

As the story went on, she was abused mentally and emotionally by everyone around her and gaslighted. She only believed one person was on her side, but he was the one behind all her pain and more. (Fuck you Ergi! I hope he gets stabbed with a yeevil fork and tossed out with the rest of the shit.)

I’m not saying she shouldn’t have been accountable, as she should have and was. And Navier's attitude towards her was justified. 

However, Heinry pulled a lot of shit as well, but unlike Rashta, he not only didn’t need to, but he knew better.

The western kingdom was not under threat from the Eastern empire, nor was his kingdom in need of anything. Heinry was just greedy. He was even going to take Navier as a political prisoner to make her fall in love with him through Stockholm. The only reason he didn’t is because of the divorce and Navier proposing marriage to him.

Then there’s his actions towards Krista. 

While not an innocent bird, I don’t think she crossed a moral line that earned her final fate. If I recall right, the worst she did was let a rumor spread. She didn’t even try to take advantage of Heinry when he was under the love potion and passed out on her lap. Yet, he forced her into suicide and had her remaining family spit on her memory. (Good job looking after your brother’s widowed wife, bird shit.)

And when you think about it, Heinry’s partly responsible for everything Rashta has done as he manipulated her through Ergi. Don’t get me wrong, Ergi’s actions are his own, but Heinry is the one who gave him the orders and helped. True, the former would have done what he did without the latter, but Heinry was the one to put him in the position to do so.

And on top of he spent a decade participating in rape by tricking girls into sleeping with him. (What they did is called buddy swap. Look it up yourself for details.)

And again, unlike Rashta, Heinry, a royal Prince raised with a royal education and more, knew better. He knew his actions were harmful and selfish but did it anyway for greed. And, again, there was no need for his actions. The Western kingdom was flourishing and under no threat from any other nation. They were said to be equal in power to the Empire, they just didn't have the name for--reasons.

Heinry wasn’t in a desperate situation where he was worried he would lose everything if he didn’t act, unlike Rashta. Worse, being a man of the world and not a slave, Heinry was well aware of the ramifications of his choices and that people would be hurt. Yet, despite all he did and unlike Rashta, he was never held accountable for anything. Why? Because he's the male lead, who's close to Navier. They get away with everything.

To sum it all up;

While Rashta's crimes were arguably worse, they were done out of ignorance, manipulation of several parties, and desperation. She had no idea what else to do other than what she did, and her choices were limited due to her gender, status, and knowledge.

Heinry’s actions were out of selfishness, greed, and of his own free will. No one pushed him to do anything, he CHOSE to even though he didn’t have to and had several options before him. Had he stayed his hand, he wouldn’t have lost anything. And again, through Ergi, he manipulated Rashta, so Heinrey has a hand in her crimes, as well.

He had choices and several options, and he chose the ones that hurt others. Yet was never held accountable for any of it and was even rewarded for being a terrible person. 

And that’s why I find him worse than Rashta.

[isekaithatplease]

You know what's even ironic,the fact that Kaufman is still in love with navier even though she's now pregnant with heinreys children. And the fact that kosair,naviers brother is a violent man that caused him to be outside the borders and how he even goes tok far as to feed rashta abortion drugs is so scummy. How the hell didn't navier even stop or at least call them out for their shit?

Because Navier doesn’t care. Slavery is a huge problem in her empire but she barely bats an eye at that when we’re supposed to believe she’s this ‘fantastic empress.’ Honey- where??? ((Stop congratulating people for doing the bare minimum lol)) It’s really just a bunch of telling but no showing especially for a story that should be a bit more politically involved?? Plus We really don’t see her interact with the lower class save for that magical orphan who- as we see has to be magical in order to get said attention in the first place! (Fantastic philanthropy really)

How ironic would it have been if she’d been originally pushing to end slavery before Sovidiot brought in Rashta?

Ngl Id actually be more sympathetic to Navier as a whole as despite her cold exterior it showed that you know she was actually pushing for reform for the lower class citizens! But nah she can’t be bothered to deal with peasants.

But back to your point- Can someone please tell me what the whole point of the Kaufman/Navier plotline was? Because honest to goodness it sounds like pointless drama to extend the story length at this point. Either that or just show how irresistible goddess Navier is.

Someone once reblogged/replied to my last post and said that no one in this series is a morally good person. That’s fair. I agree they’re all pretty terrible people in their own ways. Honestly I’ve said it time and time again. I don’t have a problem that they’re terrible people.

Good characters =/= good people

What irks me is when the novel disrespectfully handles heavy topics like slavery and trauma to build up its Mary Sue fl. The whole story markets itself as being some pro feminism revenge story but it’s really not? It doesn’t feel like at least half of the cast gets their proper comeuppance? No seriously- Sovieshu should’ve kicked the bucket. Heinrey and his creepy friend should’ve been held more accountable to a higher degree as well.

Navier isn’t a girl’s girl at all. To both the character and story’s fault Everyone must either worship her or hate her. No one who disagrees with her is allowed any sort of meaningful empathy that Navier in my opinion is sort of undeserving of. (Anyone is free to argue this- but she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and everything magically works out for her. I’m supposed to feel more sorry for her than the girl who was sold by her abusive father into slavery?) hahaha no.

At this point I’d advise people who actually want to see a pro feminism story with political intrigue to read ‘I’ll Saved this damn family!’ Now that’s a story that can treat other women who aren’t the fl well and promotes pretty good relationships between them too.

[whatmyface]

ok (not pro heinrey btw) but im just thinking about how, the most free/restricted navier is with queen, like this is the most open she is emotionally, he hairr is down and flowy (while its usually in intricate designs), she has a simple red dress idk. just shes so comftarable with queen, whil enot knowing its heinrey and it just kinda makes me think of how weird it is the heinrey is queen again. i just idk, where im going with this.

[violetlunette]

It's really disturbing that Sovenshu has the moral high ground of all the males in the story by default. DGMW, he pulled some serious shit and deserved the divorce he got. However, his pales in comparison to the others, especially Heinley and Erigi's.

Heinry and Kaufman and sexual harassment

TW: nonconsensual SH

I know manhwa fandom glorifies rape and sexual harassment and often the ml's are like that so I wasn't surprised when Heinry and Kaufman were just that.

First let's talk about heinry. He in his bird form stalked Navier to get close to her with malicious intent, he fell in love with (read got obsessed with) her later. But his first priority was to gather information and ruin her reputation. What a great start for our golden retriever puppy boi 🥺

Navier kissed queen, held it against her breasts, even spent a night with his bird form while he could feel her touch as a human being, not to mention as a naked person too. Navier didn't know it was heinry. She thought it was an adorable bird and he took advantage of that. He was a pervert who touched Navier intimately and later blushed in his room thinking about 🙄

McKenna never let Navier touch him in his bird form cause he knew it wasn't right. He felt uncomfortable doing this to Navier. Cause it was creepy and sexual harassment.

Of course the author made Navier brush over the fact cause otherwise how would he look better next to Sovieshu? You don't want people realise that your ml is worse than the antagonist.

And now Kaufman - that man is lucky cause he gets hardly any backlash despite being equally creepy cause he licks Navier's feet and punched Sovieshu. But this fandom ignored how he offered a rape drug to Navier to apply it on Sovieshu. Yes it was a rape drug. It basically forces people to fall in love with one person and the aggressor could do anything to the victim and the victim would have no choice but to comply. He also does this to heinry later. This guy is just distributing rape drugs like Tylenols and yet gets no flake from Navier. Cause once again how would he look better than Sovieshu if people realised that?

You know who never sexually harassed Navier or any other women? Sovieshu

You know who never distributed rape drugs to people? Sovieshu

Everything he did with Rashta was consensual between two adults. He never pushed Navier to get sexually intimate when Navier refused him.

His relationship with Rashta was never treated as cheating rather Rashta was considered a second wife. She signed documents like a marriage certificate and their prenup was that her kids won't get the throne. She told Navier that they had the same husband and Navier never refused that cause it was true.

Polygamous relationship was allowed and heck even Sovieshu told Navier she could take another husband if she wanted but he told her not to take heinry or Kaufman which is very logical cause it's a security risk for the nation. He wasn't against Navier taking another concubine, he was against the creepy dudes that were circling his empire.

Man I can't believe that Sovieshu, the intended antagonist of the story, is way more moral than the supposedly good guys of the story.

But again I'm not surprised. Manhwa community glorifies rape and sexual harassment. Trust me if heinry and Kaufman were ugly looking, there would be much more outcry but they get a pass cause they look decent. Don't get me wrong, I still dislike Sovieshu about how he treated Navier and Rashta later but that bish paid for his crime by being miserable rest of his life.

Heinry is the pUpPy boi and Kaufman is the mysterious hurt foreign man 😑 never did. They don't even think their actions were creepy.

I really hate manhwa authors and its fandom sometimes.

This is why beware of the villainess will always be my favourite. It points out the creepiness of manhwa fandom.

[anneeeboleyn]

webnovels will introduce a female antagonist with a compelling backstory & great character potential only to completely diminish her character by making the most unhinged and pathetic writing choices so that people don't start rooting for her instead of the flawless, perfect, mary sue main character.

[imbouttasue]

As much as I hate Camilla, at the end she still won. As for Rashta and Sovieshu lol the antis made them famous across the manhwa fandom. They're more known then the fl and ml of TRE. Thank you antis. Also Navier ain't no Diana. Diana had compassion for people, something which Navier lacks. She only cares about power and rich nobles.

Camilla is rashta but less unhinged 😘

most fans are just here to see sovieshu & rashta suffer lmao they just won't admit it. Navier and heinrey pairing are bland. our trash children are here to add flavor, to add spice. rme won't be as entertaining and popular without them

Also no I have to disagree. navi does care for the people, even the poor but she supports them passively since in her head, the emperor must always shine more than the empress. the narrative between her & rashta's rivalry makes perfect sense since it's a misunderstanding piled onto another misunderstanding until it comes to the point they actually become enemies instead of understanding each other's faults.

It's just hilarious to see the british royalty get compared to remarried empress because the similarity is so uncanny (is Alphatart a fortune teller?). you can't unsee it at this point

[pruneunfair]

The Remarried empress fandom is practically a cult.

If it isn't the very pro-monarchy storyline that gets me, its the fans and how they idolize its protagonist and everyone else who supports her, this normally wouldn't be an issue if it didn't reach the point of condoning literal slavery.

The way the fans of this comic act is straight up disturbing, part of me thinks remarried empress might even be propaganda to push imperialism and monarchies. The characters you're supposed to root for are all horrible people such as a slave owner who is regarded as a cute fangirl, the ML who is a king with an annoying uwu persona that also steals from mages and kills innocent people, a grand duke is so obsessed with Navier he becomes a creep who goes around passing date-rape love potions like candy, and a brother who violates another woman's autonomy by slipping her abortion drugs but they never face consequences and if they do, its portrayed as something unfair caused by the evil women who get in Navier's way.

speaking of which lets talk about how any other woman in this story who is powerful and above Navier in some way is immediately villainized. the mistress Rashta is a former slave who was sold by her father, abused by her masters, one of them sexually assaults her as well (the narrative tries to say Rashta consented even though a slave can't say no to someone who owns them) and ends up severely traumatized after her baby is taken away and replaced with a dead one. Already off to a rough start for someone we are supposed to see as a one dimensional villain.

in the beginning chapters, Navier's ladies in waiting are already ridiculing Rashta before she even did anything all for being a slave who dared to become the Emperors mistress and hurt the feelings of their perfect empress, how could that slave not worship our empress!? What a wench!. later the narrative justifies making a slave the ultimate evil by making her into someone who "seduced" the Emperor and is ultimately written as a evil moron who is the true villain using her body to charm the poor little noblemen. (Ugh..) In the end her character is basically to be a punching bag for Navier to girl boss back into place and she dies alone in a prison cell as the most evil empress in history.

Then there's Krista, a queen dowager who didn't really like Navier but never went as far beyond snubbing her and letting rumors spread, bad but nothing too horrible, and when she sends a gift one of Navier's ladies in waiting gets all upset and asks if she can toss the gift out, its played off as a joke but it becomes clear it's supposed to tell readers that Krista is a mean mean woman for not adoring the MC.

Then when Krista is becoming too independent for the authors liking they begin to ruin her character by having pine after Heinrey, weird as hell but it could've worked if she was actually utilized as a villain and not a bug that needs to be squashed, she then gets blamed for letting Heinrey rest on her lap even though Kaufman was the one who drugged Heinrey while Krista didn't know, she's disgraced and later killed off while Heinrey proceeds to make the rest of her family suffer in the long run as well. And yet fans practically celebrated her death.

The comments are honestly the worst part, nothing but "Trashta has nothing on our queen! 😍" and "Navier is such a true girlboss! go away Trashta! 🤢" there are chapters where characters like Heinrey literally say that he'll torture people who don't like Navier and the comments are all just "Awww he's such an upgrade from Sovieshit, what a soft boy he is!" ffs it honestly feels like a cult where Navier is the god and all her supporters are her apostles.

The message is clear: you MUST like Navier! If you don't then it makes you a bad guy worthy of death row, and it doesn't take much either, all you need to do if talk a little shit about Navier and boom, her hubby has your mouth with rocks and sewn shut (yes this actually happened and it's never talked about again) if Rashta did something like that she'd be getting flamed, I'm even willing to bet if it was Heinrey who mutilated Delice the comments would either be full of cheap excuses for him or they just would give him a slap on the wrist.

I really wanted to like Remarried empress but I honestly can't anymore with the hypocrisy. Navier isn't even very likeable anymore since all she does now is react to everything and either condone what people do in her name or just not caring, so much for an empress who loves her subjects.

[violetlunette]

But see, you don't understand; he's a simp for the Main Character and has hot abs, so automatically that makes whatever he does okay. Plus have you seen his bird form? It's adorable!

He*rey simps finding out people actually hate him and acting surprised is so funny to me. Like I wonder why people hate that creepy stalker that stalked MC, touched her without consent, ruined people's lives, committed vile crimes (self admitted), stole people's magic including from orphan (like how low life do you have to be to steal from orphan), massacred people, goaded people into harming children. Like seriously? You're surprised?

[shyentsmissingink]

Rashta is literally the only good character in remarried empress imo.

[violetlunette]

The Remarried Empress Krista deserves better

Notes: *Spoilers for the series *Vent post / Critical *Touches on anti Heinrey and anti Kaufman *One line of Navier critical

So, I just learned that Krista is just as—if not more hated—than Rashta. Like, WOW. Really? Okay, she screwed up by working with Kaufman and trying to blackmail bird shit later, but that’s it. She wasn’t overly antagonistic toward anyone. Even to Navier, the worst she said was, “Sorry, but I can’t be your friend.” She didn’t even try to hurt anyone. Even when Heinry came to her, drugged, all she did was wipe sweat from his face. That’s it. She didn’t even try to kiss him. And it’s made clear she even knew about the love potion; she just followed Kaufman’s orders and waited in a room like he told her too. Again, threatening to blackmail birdshit later was a shit move, but aside from that, she never crossed the moral line, unlike every single one of the protagonists. (We don’t even know if she would follow through or if it was just a desperate bluff.) Yet because of Kaufman—who gets to marry a princess later in the series—and one threat she makes, Krista loses everything.

She loses her family as her father is made to believe she’s dead, and the rest are forced to turn on her to save themselves. Nieces and nephews, whom she doted on, are made to believe she’s a vile woman and insult her name. She loses her status and position in society and is finally isolated for what can be assumed to be forever. And on top of all that, she’s hated by the fandom. Wow, okay.

No, know what? Fuck it. She deserved better. She did wrong, but what she did was just a poke compared to what every other character does, and I am including Navier, who pardons SLAVERS later in the story to boost her rep. Like, if you made a list of all the terrible things the other characters--especially Heinry--did, she would look like a a saint. (If someone actually made that list of everyone's crime, I would love you for it.) But oh! I forgot. She doesn’t have hot abs or goo-goo eyes for the protagonist, so she’s evil, worse than scum, haha—fuck.

Krista was a good queen to her people and loyal to her husband, even though he had several mistresses. She was loving to her family—though NONE of them deserved it—and was even polite to Navier. She never did anything immoral except when she was pushed by Kaufman. And the worst she did was make a threat, which, if we look at her past actions, was most likely an empty threat.

Krista, you deserved better, and everyone else involved with your downfall deserved WORSE.

[mephistominion]

Okay, a couple major things:

The Empress may have power, but a large majority of it belongs to the Emperor and his court. If she tried taking on the slavery system that had been set up by previous Emperor's, she may not have been able to get enough support and money to sway the WHOLE country and the court and Emperor. Just because she is an Empress doesn't mean she can just decide one morning, "Oh, I want to do away with a centuries old institution." And sign a piece of paper and undo it completely.

Think about what happened in the USA. The whole fucking country went to shit over the issue of slaves (or "state's rights" to some people 🙄).

And the reason that people dislike Rashta isn't because she's uneducated or stupid - it's hinted at in the comic, and blatant in the novel, but she is just ACTING that way and using her beauty to get what she wants. The moral issue of her being a runaway slave isn't the main issue Navier has with her - she doesn't give a shit that she is lowborn, or a slave, she cares because Rashta stole her fucking husband and is taking over the court, and even after being taught about the ways Mistresses are supposed to interact with the Empress, she blatantly disregards that and constantly disrespects Navier, before usurping Navier's position entirely.

She said it herself, "I'm not going to turn my back and let an enemy stab me because of they have less power/are less fortunate." And, I'm sorry, would you HONESTLY just let someone ruin your life because they were runaway slaves? I may not have acted as Navier did, but I also wasn't raised in a time or country (which isn't the only country that has slavery, in the story) that has slavery as a normal thing. I couldn't honestly say I wouldn't react like Navier did if I had been raised like she was.

That isn't to say that Navier is without fault or isn't culpable for the situation. Yes, she did have power in court, mainly with charities, trade deals, and nobles in the court, and she could have started something to help reform/abolish the slavery laws in place. She also absolutely could have been less frigid toward her husband and others in her court which would have solved a lot of problems. Not only that, but there were many different things she could have done to help Rashta better understand the situation (though, honestly, idk if I could've been civil to someone fucking MY husband and Emperor). She has a very cold, guarded personality, and I know it's because she was taught to have a certain "air" or "dignity" to uphold as the Empress, but even then, she is downright cruel sometimes, and I don't agree with that.

In the end, I think a lot of the blame, in terms of slavery in the Eastern Empire, lies with the previous Emperor's, but also mostly with Navier's piece of shit husband Sovieshu, who has more power than her and is also Rashta's lover; if he loves her so much, why could he not start to abolish slavery, if he pities and cares about her so much? If he genuinely cared about his people as their sovereign lord, he should have changed things, like he said he would when he was younger, and if he had worked alongside Navier, his Empress, they could have easily abolished these laws, but he did not. He, in my eyes, is far more culpable than Navier.

Remarried Empress Manhwa - Nice Try, Poor Execution

Remarried Empress tries to subvert the trope of ‘If It’s True Love Then Cheating Is Okay’.

Some fiction plays cheating on one’s partner as good and sympathetic as long as it’s the protagonist who cheats.

The Remarried Empress manhwa strikes a blow against that trope (huzzah and all). The protagonist is a hardworking, politically powerful Empress and her lousy husband is cheating on her with a low-class woman. The narrative wants us to care about Empress Navier, not the cheating scoundrels.

Unfortunately for the direction of narrative sympathy, the 'low-class woman’, Rashta, is literally a slave and Navier uses her political power to support slavery.

As a result, the Empress is about as sympathetic as Jefferson Davis, i.e. not at all.

The work is South Korean, so I apologise for the America-centric comparison (especially since I’m not American). An alternate comparison might be Kang Duk-kyung, a human rights activist (and artist) who was enslaved by the Japanese army during World War II. The specific model of slavery in Remarried Empress has a similar level of oppression to the American model, although it isn’t based on race. In this world, slaves are bought, sold, and given physical descriptions on purchase papers like livestock. Slave owners rape slaves (given the power dynamic, any kind of sexual relationship between a slave and an owner is rape), own any babies that result from sexual abuse, and separate children from their mothers on a whim. No cases of well treated slaves have been shown in the narrative. The world of Remarried Empress looks like it has an early eighteenth century technology level and also has magic, so there would presumably be labour saving devices that could support political interventions to give slaves easier lives and workers’ rights.

Speaking of political interventions, there haven’t been any. Empress Navier is explicitly not a figurehead queen like Marie Antoinette (called 'the Austrian woman’, sidelined from any real power, received disproportionate blame for France’s ills). Navier has actual power, making her complicit in legal slavery in her country. I dislike her.

Good stories don’t have to be about sympathetic characters, only about interesting characters. It’s okay and even good to have a protagonist who’s not a great person. What I can’t stand about this narrative is that it’s pushing the reader to give sympathy that this Empress does not deserve.

The Wicked Queen is a much better take on this kind of story. Here, the queen being cheated on is an actual villainess and owns it; as a result, she’s terrifically interesting.

[whatmyface]

ok so idk how to explain this properly but when heinreys a bird it kinda feels like hes trying to take advantage of the situation/be creepy, because like just imagine if all the things u've done with your cat wasn't actually a cat it was a prince from and other kingdom. it feels very creepy and is 1 of the big (many) reasons i dont like heinry and their relationships in general.

[pruneunfair]

Characters I hate the most in remarried empress

5:Heinrey

A lot of people dislike him now for being a cruel bastard to the point of torturing foreign nobles just so he can favor his wife. While that is messed up I'll take that over his constant "UwU my queen~" persona that he displays 90% of the time because at least the former is the remnants of his inital personality. It goes from kind of funny to straight up cringey, I do not see what Navier likes so much about his puppy guise, he's so low because to be fair, he was introduced as a scumbag (kind of), he just spends so much time simping that it's basically tossed to the side

4:Lebetti

I know a lot of fans say Lebetti is young and can learn better, she's 17 sure but it took her entire family being executed just so she'd be inclined to care about Ian. She's basically a mini me of Lotteshu and when's she not doing that, she's another blind Navier worshipper who is used for as a stand in for the reader, I don't know how fans didn't realize their stand in is a slave owner but I digress. The only reason she's at number 4 is that while I do find messed up she gets to raise Rashtas child and likely feed a biased view of her to Ian, if she really wanted to be evil, she would've let Ian become a slave for his mother's crimes so I guess there's that.

3:Kaufman

Jesus christ this man is a walking, talking manifestation of second ML syndrome. He's essentially a plot device for no other purpose other than propping up Navier as so beautiful that multiple royal guys want her and so shit can go down , And of course the obvious slipping love potions in others for no other reason then "the plot calls for it", he doesn't even face the consequences. He's fucking creepy as well since he's STILL in love with Navier even after she's married and pregnant GET OVER IT MAN! In the end he just gets with Charlotte (Kosairs ex fiancé) so writting wise: his whole "nice guy" problems can be solved

2:Alan

I really just have a personal vendetta against the whole Rimwell family. The moment I lost all hope in remarried empress is when I was expected to sympathize with a rapist. The narrative wants readers to believe Alan was wronged even though he was the one to participate in keeping Ian away from Rashta until she got rich, even though it was HIM who decided to abandon Rashta after she wanted to run away with him. Yeah he's a good father so what? Wow! A dad actually raising his kid how amazing, it's almost like that's called the bare minimum. The moment he tried to say that Ian deserved to be treated like a prince because he was Rashtas son is when the comments finally saw him for what he was, he makes up for all this by getting executed in the end

1:Laura

Your probably wondering out of all these scumbags, why is a random side character on top? Well, the characters below at some point had personality traits that made then complex characters in the past or they did something to make up a little for it making them a tiny bit more tolerable. Laura however has never once shown any signs of any other personality other than "Your majesty! Your so wonderful and the best! That slave needs to know its place around you!" At least all Naviers other ladies in waiting have some sort of gimmick to them or in rare cases they have other stories going on with just them. Laura's gimmick is that she is willing to hit a slave for Navier even if said slave made a genuine mistake and isn't used to palace intrigue. Her face pisses me off everytime I look at it and everytime she speaks it's never anything besides love for the leads and hatred for anyone against Navier. she needs to get off her glazing and go back to bullying Cinderella with her evil stepsister design she's got.

Anyway let me know if there's any other manhwa/comic to rant about because I'm sure everyone's probably tired of me bitching about remarried empress

[pruneunfair]

Evalie deserves better.

Rashta isn't the only one getting screwed over by the plot. Even allies of Navier don't always get treated well.

Im not just talking about her own parents not being able to recognize their own daughter either. She was one the of kids Heinrey stole magic from and it isn't just a simple swiper no swiping case, having your magic stolen has been described as incredibly painful, and her Idol Navier just.. does nothing when she finds out. It's just one big communication is needed lesson (the one thing remarried needs and yet it failed at encouraging it smh) imagine that now. You, a poor mage who recently had been suffering because the one thing that made you special has been taken brutally away from you, and your idol, the empress who treats you like a daughter ended up accidentally benefitting from that stolen magic to get ice powers but when said empress learns where it came from she instead gives the man who tried to ruin your life kisses and never tells you that he was responsible. But oops! She gets her powers back discreetly anyway and becomes a healing mage.

Hurray for zero consequences and a plot that only succeeded in making the leads look like assholes!