Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Raven of the Inner Palace
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Thesarum
 SubscriberPosts: 463 |
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Or indeed how it's quite difficult for English speakers to pronounce りand the other "r" sounds and ふ properly without some effort and practice. (I've personally got a long way to go, I know that)
If anything, we're amongst the worst offenders at just reading anything written with a roman character set as if it were an English word if we possibly can... Anyway, in the name of not straying too far off topic... I should mention the ED. It's not the most... animated.. thing ever, but I really like it. The track for the OP is growing on me too. |
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moozooh
Posts: 151 |
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Yeah, music and design carries the aesthetics of this show hard. Animation-wise it's very bare-bones and cuts corners wherever it can.
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poltroon
Posts: 105 |
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I'm really enjoying this. It's lovely to look at and listen to.
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beaverusiv
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I'm really enjoying this show, but my overall opinion will heavily rely on how it ends. They're putting a lot of balls in the air and if we don't get satisfying payoffs it will tarnish the whole show.
I'm not so well versed in anime to know how common this type of show is or if this show is highly regarded but I do love media which is pondersome and takes its time to get to the point, letting you relish/absorb the characters and settings |
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moozooh
Posts: 151 |
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I wouldn't expect the show to have a very conclusive ending since the light novel it's based on has 7 volumes total, so this season will likely adapt half of their content at best, or possibly even 1/3.
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beaverusiv
Posts: 14 |
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I would just like some sort of satisfaction, I'm aware there will be no "happily ever after". Just hoping the final episode doesn't just feel like another episode, or worse, try to set up a bunch of cliffhangers to entice you to read the novels
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Leviathonlx1
Posts: 204 |
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We're actually starting the final chapter of the 1st volume with episode 5. So at most we'd see 2 volumes or maybe only 1 depending on how the final chapter is done. |
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ab2143
Posts: 743 |
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Any guess as to what the map at the end is all about? It’s cool that the final scene transitioned to the OP but it’s now left me with more questions on what that map is and why Shouxue reacted the way she did…
Hahaha, that fat, golden bird is a great security alarm |
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JohnRhogan
Posts: 164 |
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Wei Qing isn't having to hide his appearance, unlike Shoxue with her hair. Since the Emperor has seen her silver hair, will he mention that to her, or find out (if he doesn't already know), why silver hair people were nearly wiped out. Jiu Jiu and the mute woman in Shoxue's chamber have agreed to keep her silver hair a secret, since they already know. That I believe will make things easier for Shoxue to (at times reluctantly) do her job. I think she have feelings for him, cause she never seems to turn him away when he approaches her chamber. It's funny watching her reactions when he brings her food, though.
The emperor treats the consort with respect and courtesy, even if she's being mean-spirited towards him. I normally don't watch period anime, but I was interested in Shoxue because of her apperance. Gotta admit, the intro's kinda catchy. |
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ab2143
Posts: 743 |
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Poor Shouxue.
I did get caught off guard when it was revealed that Bingyue was possessing Jiu-Jiu... Again, now I'm even more excited to read the novels for this series! |
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SHD
Posts: 1757 |
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So I'm still watching this because as much as pseudo-Chinese courtly romances are not my cup of tea normally, this one seems to have a pretty decent mystery and fortunately it has dialed back the romance aspect for now. Which is great, but I have to admit watching the show without subs makes reading the reviews a bit of a challenge, trying to figure out who the reviewer is talking about, since the subs use Chinese readings.
It's a bit more complicated. Sure, that one Summer King killed the Winter King out of a twisted love. But that was at the end of the devastating war that his love for her ended up causing, as basically two kings went head to head, destroying the country. When Pseudo-Chinese Aegon The Conqueror heard the story and realized that his protégé was made Winter King by the goddess, he decided to err on the side of caution and locked her away and never met her again, lest he fell in love with her, or she with him, and the whole thing repeated again. And obviously she needed to be stripped of her title and declared an imperial consort so she couldn't possibly marry anyone else, and she had to be made completely isolated lest she had the chance to develop any kind of power centering around herself as Winter King. Meanwhile, the raven goddess' curse keeps her from running away, securing the Summer King's power. (I think the raven goddess is kind of a dick, to be honest.) Which is all fine and well as a backstory, is adequately epic in all its tragedy of (male) selfishness and (female) suffering, but I'm just wondering about the logistics of it all. I mean, sure, to further protect the Summer King's power, the Winter King's origins were obfuscated. But this means that as far as anyone knows she's basically this random woman who is there for... some reason?  And seems to be replaced with another random woman from time to time? Our hero can't be the first emperor wondering about why this tradition exists, also why he has a wife he never actually weds or meets. Also, if the Summer King doesn't know the story then why must they tell it to the Winter King? Wouldn't it be easier for everyone if she had no idea either, and then she could just live her life within palace grounds, knowing none the better, but at least not being locked up? Even better, why can't she be a priestess for the goddess? That way she can't marry or hold any official position either, but at least she doesn't need to be all locked up. ...yet again I feel like I'm thinking about this more than the writer did. Or maybe it's explained better in the LNs.
As for the previous episode:
I mean he may be a special case who ran away before the knife got to him, but that possibility aside he most likely was, along with Shimazaki Nobunaga's and Okamoto Nobuhiko's characters. Castration of imperial eunuchs was very thorough, so that even if they gained power they can't pass it on to a child, nor develop a powerful family. By the way, if anyone is curious, the official webpage of the anime has a nice downloadable pamphlet with basic character info & seiyuu commentary (in Japanese, but even if you can't read it it's still neat), and some cute wallpapers/icons. |
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q_3
Posts: 154 |
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I think it was explained that the historians deliberately rewrote the creation myth to add the "Raven Consort" with her own mythology to avoid those kinds of questions. She does have supernatural powers so she's not just some random girl, and giving her a mystique that's somewhere between witch and court wizard with ominous undercurrents would deter most people from asking questions.
My reading is that the reason she's a "Consort" is specifically to limit her social power. A priestess who can wield the goddess' powers could easily amass a following; a consort who can grant small wishes or solve mysteries for a price is going to be seen as useful but not much of a leader. As for why the actual truth is explained to her, each consort seems to be taught by their predecessor - and the earliest surely knew of her predicament, meaning each generation could explain it to the next. It would likely also be hard to keep much of it a secret given that the Raven Consort seems likely to have access to the relevant documents (and enough spare time and interest to get past whatever barriers are thrown up) and also is directly connected to the goddess which would be an independent source of information for her. |
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SHD
Posts: 1757 |
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Sure, but it's "most" people and not all people. Most people in an imperial court, especially one like China's, would have better things to do than to wonder about something like this anyway, but there's always that one nosy minister, or a lady interested in her supernatural powers, or just an emperor who wonders what that mysterious woman is doing there and why are there all these weird rules around her. (Like, what's the point of her being a consort if he can't ever meet her? If she must not ever meet the emperor then what is she doing on palace grounds anyway? If she's not a priestess, and she can't directly work for the emperor as an imperial witch, then what's the point of her being there in the first place? And why is she regularly replaced with someone new, and on what logic?) And just as the current emperor wasn't satisfied with the answers he got when he asked about her, I'm sure there would have been others in the same shoes, had the story allowed it. The point I'm trying to make is that I think the story is needlessly overcomplicating her/the raven consort's situation to make her as miserable as possible for maximum "aww the poor girl :'( " effect, which raises questions and puts the story on shaky ground if one stops to think about it. (I know I'm not supposed to, but anyway.) Toning it down a bit and applying less draconian rules around her role/existence would make it more believable while still making her situation overall pretty crappy and sad.
Quite the contrary: being a consort should actually give her a ton of social power, were it not for all the weird and artificial rules around her person. Obviously this is pseudo-China, not real China, but as far as I'm aware (someone with more knowledge about Chinese history please correct me if I'm wrong) being an imperial consort was actually a very high rank for a woman for most of Chinese history, just below the empress, and while this varied with various dynasties and systems, usually there weren't that many imperial consorts - it's not like they were a harem, most of the time there were 4-9 of them (except for that one time when there were almost a hundred, but that was a rare exception). So in this story Jusetsu is actually way above in rank compared to regular court ladies, likely even the other consorts - she's addressed as "娘娘" the equivalent of Your Highness. Not to mention that consorts were expected to socialize and be patrons of art, etc, in fact it was in their own interest to do so, to gain leverage for themselves against rivals. (So again this is something a lot of people would wonder about - it would be one thing if there was one eccentric consort who is just very anti-social and withdrawn, but all of them?) So no, I think her being an imperial consort is simply so that this way she's not "available" for anyone else to marry. But that would also be the case if she was a priestess, and in that case she would actually have to lay low and live humbly. And since she's not the only priestess in town, likely there are other deities and people with supernatural powers, she wouldn't be any more danger than those. After all, even as a consort she could develop a following, since it's common knowledge that she has powers and technically she is not forbidden from meeting anyone other than the emperor, there's a good chance that bored and/or superstitious courtiers would gather around her, since she does favors for them. Then again, her being a priestess would mean she wouldn't be able to have a romance with our lead guy without eventually giving up her powers, so. 
Anyway, I'm perfectly aware that I'm thinking way too deeply about this and I should just handwave it away. But this is what my brain automatically does happens when a piece of worldbuilding that is the cornerstone of the story just doesn't make sense once one stops to think about it.
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WatcherZer
Posts: 294 |
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Another bit to add is the Winter King was originally in charge of religion and faith while the Summer King was in charge of the Secular ruling. In essence the Winter King was a Pope at the head of a church. During the civil war it was the followers of faith vs the followers of secular government.
She was made an Imperial Consort to preserve her social standing and privilege while removing the confusion of two leaders of equal power which is inherently unstable (and may have been deliberately designed to be so by the Goddess of Darkness that created the two positions). The head of the civil service (who is also the administer of the religion) and other senior civil servants knows her importance but maintains the secret not even telling the emperor unless forced to. Also another reflection is the difference between eastern and western religions, in Eastern religion you can have a god of darkness but that doesnt make them inherently evil, they are just acting in their nature and equally worthy of worship. That sort of stuff dies out in the west when the Greco-Roman and Norse pantheon is replaced is replaced by Judeo-Christian beliefs. E.g. Loki was similarly a god of chaos who would side with the enemy during Ragnarök but was still worthy of worship. |
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Folcwine P. Pywackett
 Posts: 99 |
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Your comment about Raven is excellent but you might want to reconsider this statement. The ancient Roman Republic existed from 509-27 BCE and the Republic had two Consuls of equal power, one could veto the other. Both were elected and served one year terms until the next election. Both could also be prosecuted for whatever they did during their terms. This was a defense against singular Monarchical tyranny. It was not the Consuls who brought down the Republic but rather the military who established the office of Imperator (commander or general) and created the Empire. |
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