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「禁軍」 (Kin-gun)
“Royal Guard”
Shisui carefully considering motherhood and seeing her own mother’s example, to decide to break the cycle and not be like her, by refusing to become a mother herself and take an abortive medicine- I respect her for that. Especially since her decision flies in the face of her duties as the (former) concubine, and her mother’s wishes.
These past few episodes have been as close to seeing Mao Mao get emotional as ever we’ve gotten. For all of Mao Mao’s aloofness, it’s clear that her friendship with Shisui meant a lot to her. Meeting people changes you, even when you don’t ask for or want it. So, it is with Shisui. Mao Mao’s learned how to think about other people, which in turn causes her to do -gasp- irrational things, such as stay instead of making a run for it as soon as the opportunity arises. Another irrational thing she does- that kanzashi. Dude, she’s lending Jinshi’s gift to the girl who committed treason against his brother. Jinshi’s going to find out and I’m curious as to what his reaction will be when he does.
Okay, so, I know he’s actually the Moon Prince, but I can’t help but call him Jinshi. I mean, it’s the only name we’ve known him by until recently. As of today, he is a new man- finally taking the bull by the horns and heading the Forbidden Army as the crown prince. Or not- seeing as Gyokuyo birthed a prince, apparently- convenient for Jinshi, though I don’t see this being the end to things. I will say, he looked mighty fine donning his imperial armor, flashing courage and resolve as he charged into the fortress. Even Mao Mao was struck by it. Thank goodness the stupid denial is over now. It’s obvious she had a strong hunch all along, given her lack of surprise upon observing his true identity stand before her.
On the other side of things, we get a peak into Shishou’s side of the story. I have zero sympathy for him, jelly fish of a spineless human that his is. But it does at least explain how he got to where he is. Wow, so the emperor asked him directly to wed his daughter who was exiled as a bastard child. Shishou makes for an interesting foil to Loulan. They both live in the same family situation with the same woman, and both were mere putty in her hands. Loulan, however, had the guts to change in defying her mother, first with blowing up the gunpowder factory, then rescuing Suirei. Albeit, she waited far longer than she should have to raise her protest, but as they say, better late than never. In stark contrast to her father who does nothing, and is fully aware of his passivity. “Take responsibility for once in your life” oof, what a burn. Just what is that responsibility? To me, that would mean “turn your horrid wife for a slice of justice”, but judging from the preview, I don’t think that’s it. As for the “Shenmei wasn’t always like that”- I don’t know if I entirely buy that, and it’s certainly not an excuse for how she acted. I hope she faces the music and gets her come uppance after all the misery she caused.
Mao Mao has one final mission- save the children. There’s no need to speculate on how- the strands of coincidences have already been woven there a la the handy dandy resurrection potion. Does Lihaku grasp the situation and is on Mao Mao’s side? That he decides to bury instead of burn the kids (cremation is the traditional method) would seem to say “yes”.
Preview
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This is the first time I noticed Maomao acknowledging Lakan as her father. She may have done so in previous episodes, but it went right over my head.
The scene where the corpses of the former children were picked up like everyday objects was heartbreaking. That scene was as disheartening as last week’s scene where Mamao realized Shisui poisoned the children as a means to protect them from slaughter while seeing their mommies get slaughtered.