Last week's episode of The Apothecary Diaries, "The Empress Dowager", took anime fans down a dark rabbit hole filled with speculations, unanswered questions, and dangling plot threads ripe for the picking. With the Empress Dowager, Lady Anshi, arriving for a visit to the rear palace, she turned to Maomao for help unraveling a mystery that's been plaguing her since the previous Emperor's death. Did she curse him before he died, and was that why his body did not show signs of decay, even after a year?

With Maomao's inner-dialogue about the Emperor's proclivity for young girls, and the memory of Jinshi's nightmare at the start of Season 2, Episode 7, "The Shrine of Choosing", it was hard not to judge the previous Emperor and make assumptions about his general character. There was another nickname for the last Emperor that Maomao referenced in the previous episode that didn't stand out as much as...