#I'm analyzing RASHTA

[finisnihil]

Watching the general populous of Webtoon hate Rashta from The Remarried Empress so violently, to the point of making her ridculing nickname a synonym for The Other Woman archetype, is really exhausting for a number of reasons, with the main one being that there are numerous female main leads of similar stories that fit that characterization of her more.

I love The Remarried Empress but the readers love to blame Rashta for EVERYTHING that happens in it, when at the end of the day, Rashta is just an antagonist. I know! Shocking! Rashta is not the driving force of the story! You know who is? SOVIESHU.

Sovieshu has always been the main villain. He is the one with all the power, he is the one who created a situation that pit these women against each other. Rashta was a slave because her father was a criminal, being Soveishu's mistress was a means of survival. Like, of course she sucks ass at scheming! She never had an education, and Sovieshu stalled on giving her one because he was ATTRACTED TO HER CHILDISH DEMEANOR. Soveishu liked Rashta because she was what Soveishu wanted from Navier and she sucked up to him in the ways he wanted! Because she needed to in order to survive! Her mistake was becoming paranoid, arrogant, and cruel to continuously provoke Navier, but that was also at the urging of another man: Duke Ergi! Because Rashta is uneducated and vulnerable and she thinks he's her only support system! She went through the trouble of ousting Navier at Ergi's suggestion and Soveishu began to just use Rashta as a baby factory, because as Rashta became like Navier to survive the political world and as he realized he lost Navier, he stopped caring about her. He never saw her as a human, he only saw her as a slate to project on the child version of Navier he was still in love with.

Now, i'm not gonna deny the heinous shit Rashta has done nor am I defending it, she is the antagonist, she does do cruel things that can't be excused, and that's factual. But the tragedy of her is that she was set up to fail by every single man in her life. She started seeing the women around her as competition because of those men. She never once had power and her frustration at her powerlessness and her disillusionment is valid. Navier was protected by her status as a noble, but Rashta had nothing and watching her crash and burn is satisfying but also sad. In another comic, she would be the female lead, and she would be safe and happy, she would be loved. To see the fandom boil her down to some man stealing bitch is really sad because it takes all the focus from Sovieshu. Instead of ripping him apart for using a system to abuse the women in his life, everyone rips apart Rashta for lashing out as a victim of that system.

You know who fits this dynamic more though? Diana from For My Derelict Favorite. Diana is a saintess with healing powers who was mistreated for being a commoner and married the Crown Prince. Hestia, the protagonist, targets her for revenge for a numerous amount of reasons, but what makes their conflict interesting is that Hestia is her equal. They were both commoners, they both are beloved by the world's god, they both rose in their station. The difference is that Diana is everything Rastha is percieved as. She still acts like a victim of the class system, despite the fact she's the crown princess and now has power and luxury. She looks down on the other nobles for their spending and ridicule of the lower class, yet doesn't realize she's become just like them. She casts aside Caelus for killing the novel's OG villains to save the empire, but has no problem acting like nothings wrong despite her treatment driving him to try and take his own life. She thinks herself objectively right and special and the minute anyone criticizes her, she turns on them, her husband included. She makes it a goal to steal Caelus from Hestia in order to hurt her and validate her behavior, thinking Caelus still loves her over Hestia. When Hestia makes soap accessible for the common people and makes advancments in changing the nobility's views of the lower class, Diana nitpicks her for it, because she can't stand to see Hestia take the limelight. She uses her power and privilege to bully and abuse others and then runs crying when she's called out on it.

The difference between these stories is clear. Rashta has no power and isn't the main villain, she doesn't have equal standing as Navier. She does a lot of her actions out of desperation for love and to survive while still being cruel. Diana and Hestia come from equal status; Diana is the one in the most power. She abuses the systems meant to mistreat those like her for her own benefit and nothing more. Helios is the antagonist while Diana is the villain, because it is Diana's actions that push the plot, akin to Soveishu. Helios and Rashta make things difficult, but they're really only along for the ride, and their interference in the plot happens because of the villains their characters serve.

[pruneunfair]

You know what I love the most about this panel?

That no matter if your a Navier fan or a Rashta fan it pisses you off. Because this is an image where once again Sovieshu is imagining both Navier and Glorym together where she's the mom even though she stated multiple times she doesn't want to raise another woman's child and it continues to displace Rashta as just another womb to pop out a baby for Sovieshu to take from her because he convenientally leaves her out of his visions of everyone he considers special in his life.

Hes even imagining this with Navier in her divorce dress for christ sake, as if she'd see that baby during the divorce trial and be like "oh cute this is worth getting back into an abusive relationship"

This man really is the common enemy. No matter how much Navier fans and Rashta fans split the fandom in two with a civil war over which character is better we can at least come to the agreement that Sovieshu was always the problem.

[iotnonii-dormant]

Okay I'm trying to analyze the themes of the Remarried Empress (a difficult task since a lot of Manhwas I read are fantasy romance, a genre that will neglect a conflict or meaningful obstacles for two bland little leads)

And the main one I'm finding is that the obstacles and course of the story are affected heavily by historical precedent. A lot of screen time is given to talking about ancestors, previous mistresses, previous emperors. When sovieshu crumples up the wedding invitation from Navier and Heinley, his advisors first concern is that future generations will realize that Sovieshu was angered at it. Heinley's entire clan is pretty much wiped out and recorded deragoatorily in history (a bit tangential to the theme I stated but perhaps it would be better to expand it to be the influence of history)

Navier, as our protagonist, has the most clear understanding of these historical precedents and is very aware of how she must conduct herself. She's very strategic throughout the story with using these precedents and deciding when to break them.

Perhaps a foil is Krista, the former queen of the Western Kingdom. She is stated to be very similar to Navier, they are described, dressed, and speak in similar formal ways. However Krista isn't smart about when to retreat, (something that sovieshu explicitly judges Rashta for during her child's banquet scene with the decorative sword,) she's doesn't follow tradition (and because it's manhwa rules, she's punished for laying eyes on Navier's man). She doesn't follow historic precedent of retiring to the (??? I forget it's name) estate. Since I'm mainly consuming this through webtoons, it's a little hard to tell what statement this could make on the whole historic theme, but I'm looking forward to it.