Raven of the Inner Palace

Episode 6

History is built on a foundation of bones. All too often, those bones belong to women swept away by historians who didn't think they were important enough to mention or who felt they'd set a bad example for whatever passed for a “good woman” in their own times, and in the case of the women who would become Raven Consorts, they were removed so as to solidify men's hold on power. Long ago, Shouxue is finally made to tell Gaojun, there were two kings: the male Summer King and the female Winter King. The former passed through the family line, but the latter was chosen by a goddess. The original pair married, but that was hardly a requirement, and even before Shouxue tells us how that played out later down the line, we can make an educated guess that it didn't go well.

Even the mere fact that women who were once “kings” are now “consorts” is a prime example of how history is written by the victors rather than by an impartial third party. You don't have to be a history or literature buff to realize that when someone changes another's title so drastically it's probably a power play, and that's precisely what happened: the hundred years of war were ended by the reuniting of a Winter and Summer king, but instead of acknowledging and ruling with his Winter King counterpart, the Summer King chose to wall her up inside the Inner Palace. He called her his Raven Consort, and it was he who began to tradition of not sleeping with consorts of that title. He seems to have written it off as a way to “protect” her, but the truth feels rather less altruistic – he was likely afraid of the power she could have over him, or possibly of simply giving up some of the power that he had won.

If it isn't quite the (pseudo-)Ancient Chinese version of fridging, it certainly feels like something similar. As Shouxue explains it to Gaojun (and Wei Qing and Jiu Jiu), an awful lot has been done to Raven Consorts in the name of keeping them “safe.” They can't marry, they can't have children (with the emperor or anyone else), and the goddess won't even allow them to leave the palace. The title is a trap, and while it may be better than having no home at all, it really feels like Shouxue is in the position that Wei Qing was before meeting Gaojun: caught between two terrible choices of how to live. She's supposed to have just as much power as the emperor; they're two halves of a whole as laid out in the origin myth of their kingdom. But because one Summer King decided that if he couldn't have the Winter King for his woman, no one would have her, she's been robbed of her power and any choice she may have had.

Those actions also seem to have had an effect on the goddess, because she's been warped into an overprotective, vindictive creature. That she took on the form of the Night Wanderer to choose Shouxue indicates that she's no benevolent creatrix, if she ever was; the Night Wanderer is the equivalent of the boogeyman now, a monster to scare kids into being home before dark. Shouxue's life is even more lonely and proscribed than it seemed before – she's a king with no throne, and she never had a chance to claim it.

How does all of this relate to the dead princess beneath the willow tree or the white-haired sorcerer? Is history going to repeat itself yet again? Or can Shouxue and Gaojun find a way to give the Winter King back her throne? There's clearly more going on here than even the opening myth suggested, and this story is just getting better as it goes on.

Rating:

Raven of the Inner Palace is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.