You want me to look at a slave who's been put in a position where denying the emperor could result in her being killed, beaten, or sent to a worse place than where she came from, and say she's simply a villain? The one the emperor outright states he likes because she reminds him of his wife when she was a CHILD? The one who was turned into someone cruel in a desperate attempt to protect herself, egged on by the manipulations of men?

Because slavery in manhwas is either the biggest ick and miss or an ok, not the best but almost there or a "finally!! someone who isn't justifying the slavery of sentient beings because of whatever just because" and I will dropped the first one almost immediately.

And in the Remarried Empress it was so disgusting how the story and fandom talked about Rashta, someone born into slavery for a crime her father committed if I remember correctly, and it was disgusting how the story put a lot of the blame on her when Sovietsu and her former master where right there.

I don't need her to be perfect or even nice, her storyline was her trying not to fall into slavery again and getting drunk in power, and in any other story she could have been a morally grey protagonist or a sympathetic one.

Like, at first I thought it would be more of both Navier and Rashta either conspiring against Sovietsu or that Navir being so educated and "caring" about her nation(even though she befriends slavers and does nothing for slaves) would at least recognize that Rashta was holding onto Sovietsu because he was her only possibility at having a little bit of a better life while alone and beated down by the world.

But no, she did nothing and the story frames her as basically the only victim in the situation and Rashta as a villainess.

Also she made interesting plot stuff happens and I think it's kinda unfair how she died but the other guy the emperor who is also to blame got off Scott free basically, I mean he suffered but it was just kind of boring with him.

More in tags.

A grown woman, a noble woman from birth, with public knowledge that the past emperor’s have mistresses to have just because the emperor can, and she thought that Sovieshu was going to be loyal to her and not have any mistresses.

But no Sovieshu had to get a teenage slave mistress which is problematic because Rashta (Who never had rights like nobles and royalty) cannot consent at all for fear of being enslaved again. That man is a child predator who abused his power to force a non consenting underage girl to have sex with him and to carry his child.

Navier is a problematic and a bland main character, a free woman who's victim blaming a teenager who experience SA (Not once but twice) and believed that her baby is dead, and Rashta a teenage slave girl just got out of slavery and is exploring what the rich and powerful have to offer.

Rashta isn't perfect and she's a victim to the system that Navier and Sovieshu benefits heavily from and don't care about the slaves in their kingdom. Rashta is messy and real, I'll always defend her till the day I die.

Since she was described as a girl with sparkling black eyes and silver hair, I decided to make her a crystal pony. But then I remembered that crystal ponies are mostly Earth ponies and sometimes unicorns. There are crystal guards but they don't have crystal eyes, so I'm not sure, maybe they're just related to crystal species like Cadance. I still didn't want to reject the idea and remake the cutie mark, so her genetics are like Cadance's: Equestrian but with crystal ponies blood. This type of ponies has regular eyes but their mare reflects the light (for example, Cadance). Crystal ponies were enslaved, too.

I think the pegasus race suits her and I made two variants: with normal wings and with Scootaloo's. Rashta is malnourished and I thought that maybe they would cllp the wings of the enslaved ponies. But Rashta also had good health and remarkable beauty despite it, that's why there are two variants. Also, I drew her wings with white feathers ecause she was repeatedly compared to an angel.

Rashta has calluses on her hands, so I made her hooves like that (in the palace they will be trimmed). That dark gradient is just pigment. Her cutie mark is a white lotus with the crystal centre (it has light blue, mint, pink and lilac - Rashta's colors). Lotuses grow on the swamps: TRE isa swamp and Rashta is the only good and pretty there. Plus, I thought the crystal symbolizes the fragility. Later, I 'll make her alicorn version, this is pre-palace Rashta.