r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Apr 18 '25

Episode Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Season 2 • The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 - Episode 15 discussion

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Season 2, episode 15

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755

u/VoidRay728 Apr 18 '25

If the girls are surprised that Luomen seems like a pretty normal person, wait till they find out who Maomao's REAL father is.

600

u/kkrko https://myanimelist.net/profile/krko Apr 18 '25

Once they find out, everything will make so much more sense to them.

365

u/Ellefied Apr 18 '25

Literally runs in their blood

187

u/Theinternationalist Apr 18 '25

"Maomao, are you sure Luomen wasn't adopted?"

"No but it makes a lot of sense."

139

u/Luck_Is_My_Talent Apr 19 '25

Luomen is also part of the bloodline, he is one of the few people that crazy doting father recognizes as an equal or superior.

102

u/Earlier-Today Apr 19 '25

In intellect, but he doesn't fully understand why he's so passive and content in not being recognized for his brilliance.

It's not hard to imagine that Maomao and Lakan are both on the spectrum.

25

u/RedRocket4000 Apr 19 '25

I agree show possible symptoms of autism and with Maomao ADHD. But can't diagnose especially as so many conditions share those symptoms. Including Lead poisoning which was very common in past times.

9

u/Earlier-Today Apr 20 '25

Considering the business with the face powder, it's not hard to believe they already know lead isn't good for you.

178

u/Frontier246 Apr 18 '25

"Ah, so your bio dad is as eccentric as you are. Now it makes sense."

204

u/Charming-Loquat3702 Apr 18 '25

I know this might sound insane, impossible even. But I think compared to Lakan, Maomao is downright normal.

236

u/ErfanTheRed Apr 18 '25

That's Luomen's parenting for you. He singlehandedly lowered her eccentricity levels from quadruple digits to around 100-200

139

u/shanatard Apr 18 '25

maomao in another timeline where wasn't prevented from touching corpses

84

u/Falsus Apr 18 '25

Maomao in another timeline would be mega spoiled by Lakan and probably be a genius shogi/go player of all noble young ladies. Consider how Fengxian was I doubt she would be much better...

Imagine a young prince Jinshi is with the imperial Go teacher and Lakan does as Lakan does with Maomao in tow now and they have Maomao just shit on Jinshi in Go...

Yeah that would be pretty funny.

56

u/mindless_scarecrow_ Apr 18 '25

hmm kinda made me wonder if maomao will still be interested in medicine or will she have another obsession in a parallel universe where lakan raised her and loumen is still serving in the rear palace cause then she will not be exposed to the medical field.

80

u/jahnny06 Apr 18 '25

Maomao being raised by her biological parents sounds terrifying not gonna lie

50

u/Falsus Apr 18 '25

Most spoilt princess of the capital for sure.

29

u/Hp22h Apr 19 '25

Considering Lakan is a general...

She'd likely drown entire enemy armies with her tactics. Maybe in poison, for dramatic irony. She wouldn't be allowed to be a straight up general, but I imagine a mysterious advisor with easy access to maps and logistic records would be the next terrifying best thing...

9

u/RedRocket4000 Apr 19 '25

Poison mastery key to the only Empress Regent of Chinese history.

After stepping over a massive number of bodies to gain the throne she is considered a good ruler of China. And good to the commoners resuming the best farmer gets the most land to farm rules instead of the neposism and favors system in use then, all land being owned by the Emperor.

9

u/hinakura https://myanimelist.net/profile/astarcalledspica Apr 19 '25

In another timeline she would be the deadliest strategist!! But I love this Maomao so much.

8

u/yurilnw123 Apr 20 '25

That joke in Re:Zero discussion thread made me laugh so hard.

For those unaware, Mao Mao shares the same VA as one of Re:Zero antagonists, Capella. In the second-to-last episode, Capella was asked about her personality and said "Nobody taught me to not play with corpses".

53

u/Ill_Act_1855 Apr 18 '25

Frankly it's made pretty clear that the only reason Lakan himself is able to function in society is because Luomen helped guide him when they were young (Remember Luomen is Lakan's uncle, and specifically taught him tricks to help him deal with his face blindness among other things)

11

u/HugeRichard11 https://myanimelist.net/profile/CostCurl Apr 20 '25

Ah forgot all 3 are actually related. Already hard to remember the royal family tree and what not to be fair

40

u/Falsus Apr 18 '25

Honestly, a large part of the reason why Maomao seems so normal is because we see her point of view. So all the antics and thoughts are laid out.

To others... yeah she would be pretty rough to understand sometimes.

12

u/EffectiveImportant51 Apr 18 '25

This was my thought process too

144

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

[deleted]

188

u/Boshea241 Apr 18 '25

If I remember the flash back correctly, Luomen is also the person who helped Lakan better interact with people.

157

u/SecretEmpire_WasGood Apr 18 '25

Loumen is just the cool uncle that stepped up to be a better parent than his brother. Is he actually Uncle Iroh?

56

u/Atharaphelun Apr 18 '25

Basically yes. Except in this case, the Zuko equivalent is still a bit cray cray.

37

u/GammaRhoKT Apr 19 '25

To be fair, Zuko start out quite cray cray too

4

u/ToujouSora Apr 22 '25

Loumen is just tooo op and he isn't even main character

39

u/Eegeria Apr 18 '25

Yes he was! Luomen seems like a kind and insightful person all around. I am curious to see how Lakan and Luomen interact, I wonder how much info Luomen shares with Lakan about Maomao....

23

u/OldInstruction5368 Apr 19 '25

And.... It was Loumen's punishment that caused Fengxian's and Maomao's disaster.

More specifically, when a member of the La clan (Loumen) gained the ire of the Palace and was exiled, the head of the family/Lakan's father used that as an excuse to pre-emptively soft-banish Lakan as well. He claimed concern over the palace being angry/petty enough to go after Loumen's closest associates as well, so essentially kicked Lakan out of town for a few years until the scandal blew over. Not out of Lakan's safety, mind you, but just because the head of the family considered the disgraced Loumen's closest family member to be a liability at the time... or, honestly? It was all just an excuse to lash out at Lakan further.

Man was a colossal prick.

Anywho, the point is that Loumen's exile also forced Lakan out of town for a few years... right after Maomao's mother had just seduced him in an attempted baby trap. That was the only way she felt she could get out of the marriage to a man she didn't want while lowering her price enough for Lakan to afford. As Meimei later said and Maomao acknowledged... Lakan was the one being tricked by Fengxian. She should have just been honest from the start and he would almost certainly have agreed.

Then no one in Lakan's family cared to let her know he wouldn't be returning for a while: hence that giant mountain of (increasingly unhinged) letters as Fengxian's life deteriorated more and more severely.

And once again, the inciting incident for this Rube Golberg of Shit was Loumen's exile. His kindness towards a troubled nephew was then later used against Lakan, destroying his chance at a happy family life.

To be perfectly clear, I blame the shitheaded father of Lakan more than anyone else here with only the previous Empress Dowager deserving additional scorn. It's just... tragic, how Loumen's kindness towards Lakan backfired so painfully.

17

u/Crikyy Apr 19 '25

Lakan was the one being tricked by Fengxian. She should have just been honest from the start and he would almost certainly have agreed

The problem was that Fengxian's defining feature was her pride. That's why she never told Lakan about her plan, and Lakan was too eccentric and obsessed with Go to realize, even though he had more than enough intellect to catch her drift.

Also, Luomen was skilled enough to prevent Fengxian's siphyllis from deteriorating to the current extent, but the Old Lady didn't trust him back then as he just came there after being exiled. The entire tragedy was indeed a massive trainwreck of unfortunate coincidences. Literally if only 1 thing went right so much pain and suffering could have been avoided.

17

u/OldInstruction5368 Apr 19 '25

Oh, I'm not saying it was out of character for Fengxian. Nor am I particularly blaming her here. Courtesan life is difficult when you are little more than a plaything to be bought and sold. She was trying to take agency over her life and secure a happy future for herself and chosen husband. It's just... She and Lakan both were terrible communicators: a trait Maomao has unfortunately inherited.

The Old Madame can't be blamed for chasing Lakan away either. We've seen some of the horror stories of courtesan life: used, abused, and tossed into the ditch to die. Hell, with many additional horror stories from the Rear Palace which isn't much better. We can't blame her for assuming the worst out of Lakan, especially since the scandal nearly broke the Verdigris house.

Which is why she lied to Lakan and let him believe Fengxian died. She was trying to protect her girl from this (assumed) bastard. Think about that rich merchant's son that got a sick thrill out of ruining courtesans. Men that don't care about the flowers they trample are likely far too common. But Lakan was too wracked with guilt (for not realizing the truth sooner) to properly defend himself, even if the Madame was willing to listen.

It really was a huge cavalcade of unfortunate misunderstandings, bad timing, and shear tragedy... that was started when Loumen's kindness was trampled by petty spite and hatred. Both his kindness in facilitating the baby swap at the request of both mothers, and out of kindness to Lakan. Punishment for the former lead to punishment of the later.

5

u/RedRocket4000 Apr 19 '25

Have learned reading about Luis and Clark that a mercury treatment was fairly effective on syphilis. Of course it was mercury they were using. So it was the massively superior immune system that the one in four children that lived to adulthood had that could take that long term.

Talk about something that needs a word for word animation. And it type of tale Star Trek based off of. They were using roughly 6,000 calories a day about double the modern Oympic Athlete uses.

11

u/aramatheis Apr 19 '25

FINE I'll re-watch the Lakan episodes and weep all over again

53

u/Latase Apr 18 '25

maomao: i think i can raise the dead.
lakan: say no more, do the corpses need to be chinese?

7

u/RedRocket4000 Apr 19 '25

Yep LOL. Doing stuff with dead bodies was Taboo.

Was in Christian Lands too. Ben Franklin was member of the real Hellfire Club in England who paid gravediggers to steel bodies for scientific examination.

5

u/awakenDeepBlue Apr 22 '25

Back then, practicing on corpses was the only way to get good at surgery, so graverobbers were in real demand and well paid.

32

u/visionofthefuture Apr 18 '25

Nature vs Nurture lol. She definitely learned behavior from Luomen too. Which is why she’s relatively self controlled.

14

u/MaskOfIce42 https://anilist.co/user/MaskOfIce Apr 19 '25

I think that's a part of it, definitely got some eccentricities handed down, but also I think Maomao's infant life may have stunted her emotional growth more than we think. She essentially never learned to emotionally connect as a baby given what was said about her crying for hours and no one coming to help, so eventually she stopped crying. And that is actually very hard to teach after the fact

10

u/Pengwynd1 Apr 18 '25

I don't know if that will happen anytime soon, as that would reveal that Maomao is technically a noble. I think that would cause quite the uproar.

1

u/RedRocket4000 Apr 19 '25

And someone would have to take her as consort right then. Love to see Maomao's reaction the most.

4

u/shsl_despair_girl Apr 19 '25

Nurture works hard but nature works harder

5

u/hell_jumper9 Apr 19 '25

Hongiang wouldn't let Maomao be hire by anyone if that happens.