Why Maomao WORKS (and Hollywood's Female Leads FAIL)

Comments · 1.7K

• NE

  @net-42 · 1 year ago

  Wrong, she's not doing it to not get fired. She's doing it to not get EXECUTED.

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• AR

  @archiox0628 · 1 year ago (edited)

  No actual women can relate to the unrealistic girl bosses hollywood keep throwing at us. They claim it's "empowerment", but in reality its always badly written plot armor. You cant feel that the girl boss MC earned their feats that way.

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• WI

  @wildkat1916 · 1 year ago

  Maomao actually feels REAL to me whereas a lot of the Hollywood main female leads feel very…plastic

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• CH

  @chanterellecryptid · 1 year ago

  What I find a little funny is that Apothecary Diaries is so well-written that this show -- largely concerned with women's issues, with a majority female cast, and a protagonist who is an absolute girl's girl -- does not register as feminist to a lot of viewers because their perception of 'feminist show' is Rings of Power-style hamfisted writing.

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• TE

  @Terry_the_maidenless · 1 year ago

  when recommending this anime to my friends , i described it as "House MD but  House is a girl and Wilson is a eunuch"

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• MA

  @MarioDadio · 1 year ago

  I thought in season 1 she would be the "I'm not like other girls" type of character,  specially when she shared scenes with Jinshi, but she really developed deep and meaningful relationships with other female characters in a highly competitive environment for women and her mistrust for men is hinted and explored vicariously through the Verdigris characters. Another thing i love from her is that she puts her strengths at service of others, you can see it even in little gestures, like making alcohol to clean the house for the safety of the toddler or giving a lady in waiting medicine for the cold.

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• GR

  @gregsimoes8645 · 1 year ago

  The difference between MaoMao and most American &quot;girl boss&quot; characters can be seen in the very first episode. MaoMao figures out what&apos;s going on with the babies BUT she knows that it&apos;s not in her best interest to just TELL everyone that. So she leaves anonymous messages and then later it is necessary for other characters to trick her into proving that she&apos;s much more than she appears to be. If it were a Hollywood story, MaoMao would just march up to the emperor himself (despite living in a patriarchal society and being a low class peasant girl) and declare her ability to anyone and everyone that can hear, and everyone would see how amazing she is and only the one villain character would plot against her and that would be presented as just because she&apos;s a woman rather than a complex, multi-layered issue of politics and conflicting motivations.<br>In fact, one of the best things about Apothecary Diaries (IMO) is how in episode 1, Lihua seems like a &quot;bad&quot; character for being dismissive of MaoMao, but is later shown to actually be a complicated woman who can be very kind and just ignored MaoMao mainly because she had no REASON to trust the random comments of some unknown simply because it came from the female MC.

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• CA

  @canadiangopnik7007 · 1 year ago

  It&apos;s also telling that she hasn&apos;t really changed despite her much more favorable situation now; 2 of the 4 highest ranked concubines who just so happen to be the Emperor&apos;s favorites love her, 1 of the other 2 likes her, the Emperor likes her, the Emperor&apos;s mom likes her, Jinshi loves her, the greatest strategist in the army is her dad, and she has a scarily impressive track record at this point, she could get away with so much more than she could at the start of the show, but she doesn&apos;t

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• KA

  @KayTwilight · 1 year ago

  Back in high school, we were taught that a &quot;Mary Sue&quot; is a mark of a bad writer. Strange how many people are writing for Hollywood that use them.

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• KO

  @Koshak87 · 1 year ago

  Maomao does not strive to be a hero. She just lives her life the best she knows how. We are awed by her keen mind and vast knowledge of apothecary craft, but we can also relate to her mediocre sides and her shortcoming. But that&apos;s not all. Her heart is ultimately in a right place and, despite her peculiar experience in pleasure district, she still is quite a pure soul.<br>All of this put together is what, imho, makes Maomao so charming and fun to watch.

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• AD

  @Aderon · 1 year ago (edited)

  Another great thing about Maomao&apos;s personification is that she knows where her place should be, but doesn&apos;t know where she actually is. Where Galadriel pushes things well outside her wheelhouse, Maomao is very careful to <i>not rock the boat,</i> so to speak. Where Galadriel faces challenges to her authority with insolence to insist she&apos;s correct, Maomao would rather prove her expertise on its own merit; she&apos;s not right because she&apos;s Maomao, she&apos;s right because she chooses not to be blinded by ignorance.

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• TH

  @TheProswagonist · 1 year ago

  The first episode of the show tells us the 3 things Maomao can&apos;t hold back that shape the core of her character: <br>- Curiosity <br>- Thirst for knowledge<br>- A small sense of justice<br>Its some combination of those 3 traits that always move Maomao to action, despite wanting to keep a low profile and her more introverted tendencies. Cause even though Maomao usually doesn&apos;t care about the everyday lives of people, she does care about people, and will put herself out there more for the sake of helping someone.

  1.2K