Schneider's family ; The significance of Marian
REVERSE 1999 SPOILERS AHEAD : FOR CHAPTERS 1 AND 2 ! Please tread carefully and make sure you only read about what you're willing to know.
I know we're all still completely in shambles from Chap. 2, but I wanted to make a speculation about Schneider-- and a comment about how well she's written !
Let me start with this: In many pieces of media, viewers, listeners and readers alike are told that a character has people they care for. They're told a character has a lover, a wife, kids, a family, a sister. We're told the same about Schneider: that she has 11 older siblings, and that she works in the mafia to support them.
However, it's very rarely that we're given a name and a face for these supposed loved ones. And even rarer is it that they're written well, not just as a ploy for empathy, but as their own character:
Ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed guests: I present to you, Marian.
Marian is one of my favorite characters just as a stand-alone: she's realistic, she's anxious, she clings to Schneider like a lifeline-- but she's brave, too. I'd love to do an in-depth analysis on her another time, but we're here for another reason.
Marian, first of all, shows us what Schneider's family is like. How they were raised, what they believe in, who they depend on. Soft topic, I know, but as someone of Italian lineage, it's very important to me that I point this out: Marian is extremely religious.
Immigrants of every kind tend to be religious. It gives them much more faith than they ever could have: a new lifeline. They managed to make it across such a winding sea? Oh, thank the lord. They haven't been kicked out of the Americas for emigration? Thank you, holy one. There's so many more reasons for this than "they need something they don't have"- maybe the fact that the rendition of god in every religion is said to love everybody, not just those who were born into wealthy families with the bluest eyes and the blondest hair.
When in a moment with no reason, and all different kinds of desperate measures being needed.. Schneider does what her family coaxes her to. She prays.
(I can't find a screenshot, but please refer to the iconic "I didn't know you prayed" scene, and the screenshot directly below this sentence.)
I also want to point out a large difference between Schneider and her family: Schneider's perspective on a 'god' differs so, so much from her family's.
She looks to whoever may be above, in her world, scornfully-- at least, in the present day. In her past, there is a particularly impactful line I want to debunk.
"The god there ... loves the world."
Schnider's family seems to believe that god was the one guiding them, the one who will forgive them-- Schneider believed that it was a whole different entity. This kid believes that the god in Sicily, whoever they may be, does not love the world-- and mio dio, if that's not fucked up, I don't know what is.
And, when Schneider comes to America and sees that shit isn't as it's cut off to be, she's resentful of whoever this god may be. She gives a pray as her last bet-- what her family wants.
And it's not that she doesn't believe in this god-- no. She just doesn't believe they love her.
"Finally forgive me" -- Finally being the key word here. She's lived all her life never being treated to mercy or being 'forgiven for her sins' -- and at her most fragile, exposed moment, she relents to what her family has taught her. To what she truly believes-- to Sicily, to Marian, her sorella. Maybe even all 11 sorelle and her parents.
And, again, they're different at face value. Marian is calm, kind. She dresses modest and has her hair grown out: she's timid, too, not befitting of a mafia boss. She's different from her younger sister.. but she's still important. She shows us another side of Schneider: and, more importantly, she shows us what-- no, who Schneider is fighting for.
Marian provides us with extremely beneficial background context of where Schneider comes from-- and, in that process, gives many of us someone to empathize with. Yes, I too know somebody at least a little like her. You do too, likely.
Maybe, you're even like Schneider-- maybe she's someone you'd aim to protect.
,,aaand that's the little lore rant. Whew! Now to study for my math finals. I hope you have a good day :)
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Hi I'm gonna rant about Apothecary Diaries and how much I hate it again because Youtube won't stop reccing me videos of it and I have to keep staring at the thumbnails while I wait for my sub page to load. So I keep thinking. And spiralling.
Also straight up like 75% of my problem with Apothecary Diaries is that Jinshi is not a fucking eunuch.
It's like the basis of him being in the harem area. Not only is it a massive fuck you to everything about harem but like? It's solely so that he, the love interest, has a cock he can stick in Maomao? It's because he's the male love interest. That's it.
If he was actually a eunuch it might be an interesting take on the romance. As it stands, it's the most boring, cookie cutter, snark-snark woman in a subservient position but doesn't act like it, heterosexual relationship ever. It reminds me of 10,000 other romances that have done it better and with more interesting men.
And god I just. It's so frustrating because Jinshi is the only part of this show that I dislike! The rest of the show has fascinating themes and moral quandries and characters. And then there's Jinshi. Trying to fuck Maomao. And being creepy. And being in the harem area despite not being a eunuch and clearly having a sexual desire for Maomao. Which, again, rules. Where are the rules. Why does this rule not fucking matter.
Why does the worldbuilding of this series build up everything so nicely and so perfectly and then Jinshi comes in and none of it applies to him? It's not even well written in the narrative. He just sucks. He can do whatever he wants. Whenever he wants. And there's no fucking consequences. Ever.
Oh no Maomao thinks he's ugly.
Big fucking whoop this guy could hold her down and assault her and he wouldn't get in trouble.
I just. I cannot get over how much Jinshi sucks. How much his character is awful. How the story just completely ignores all the ways he breaks it and its rules and just goes "lalalalala" and keeps going.
Everything about Jinshi sucks. He breaks every rule. He is creepy. He abuses his power. He's not actually supposed to be in the fucking harem. And in the end it's SURPRISE! He's got a functional cock! So he can FUCK YOU ANYWAY!
Honestly it seems to me like the creator just. Fell in love with Jinshi and stopped caring about logic.
And I STILL can't get over the BAIT AND SWITCH and the eunuch thing. Like of COURSE the ONE THING that makes this not a typical power-struggle snark-snark-kiss anime relationship isn't even fucking REAL.
God I fucking hate this series.
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