#sovieshu

Navier is Slavier

(for condoning and befriending Rashta's abusive slave owner Lebetti)

Heinrey can be Heinazi

(commits war crimes and actively harms literal children by stealing their magic)

I will never understand the Rashta slanders at all, the hatred others had for her back then was so incredibly unjustified and so strange . I don't know if we used to lack reading comprehension or empathy but I'm so glad people started to notice what's really wrong with The Remarried Empress.

Based from my information, Rashta is 17 years old in the novel and 19-20 years old in the manhwa. AGING HER UP DOES NOT MAKE SOVIESHU LOOKS AT THE VERY LEAST, ACCEPTABLE. In fact, with this same method, the artist has completely backfired her own medicine. Forced to aged up a minor to justify Sovieshu can and will raise questions from fans and we're starting to. Sovieshu was 30 years old at the very least and he groomed a 17 years old woman.

Now, I have always thought Sovieshu *AND* Navier to be predators. Both partners and their cup of tea and cheerful and childish people with different outcome. As soon as Rashta lose her taste, Sovieshu immediately goes sour. Navier would have taken a liken of Rashta if she was not a slave, she's a classism woman that was taught to accept this standards and of course, I will not hate her for this.

What baffles me most of this story is how the narrative FAILS to point out how wrong these treatments are. Navier will never be seen as evil and Rashta will never be seen as tragic. All the men there rots with sexism and the fact that all of them- even Rashta father lived their lives normally without any deep consequences as much as Rashta speaks a lot about this story!

Let’s begin with a quote from the wiki:

"As a child, Sovieshu was a kind and sweet boy, continuously looking out for his mother and best friend by trying to ensure they were alright and comfortable. He was very playful, as shown in flashbacks during his time with Navier. In one incident, he even ended up injuring himself to pick peaches for her from a high branch to make her happy. He also teased her often and in return he often got hit with a pillow by her."

From early childhood, Sovieshu showed strong empathy toward others, and he does not stop doing so in adulthood. He is the first to show compassion toward Rashta and to see her not as a runaway slave, but as an ordinary person with her own thoughts and desires. He genuinely cares about her, visiting her whenever he can. He does not grow close to her immediately, but as soon as the court nobles begin spreading rumors more actively, he makes her his concubine in order to protect her in some way.

He could have fabricated a commoner background for her, but the author, in order to make Rashta a particularly hated figure at court, does not allow Sovieshu to take such actions.

“Unlike most nobles, he questions the existence of slavery and considers to restrict its practice (for example: minimum living situations would be granted, certain abuses by their owners would not be allowed, etc.), but does not consider to try to limit the crimes that condemn the punished as slaves, eliminate its inheritance system which condemns the descendants of slaves to the same fates, and much less completely abolish slavery itself. Generally, it seems that, as a ruler, his heart was originally good-intended, but his own interiorized prejudices and beliefs interfered in his desire to help his people.”

Unlike Navier, Sovieshu questions the very concept of slavery, which, for a ruler of that era, is an almost revolutionary and liberal idea—one that requires a great deal of empathy (though it is unclear which specific prejudices are being referred to here). Sovieshu sees people rather than titles. That is why he forgives Viscount Roteschu for revealing Rashta’s past (he allows him to continue visiting the palace freely - though this is likely the author’s will, without which the plot could not continue, rather than an actual fault on Sovieshu’s part). He also forgives Grand Duke Kaufman, who, out of jealousy, allows himself to strike the Emperor of another nation (!) and insult the official concubine.

At the same time, Sovieshu emphasizes that he refrains from imposing serious punishment only because he does not want to ruin the man’s reputation, and instead limits himself to severing diplomatic relations - after which Navier accuses him of acting emotionally:

“I do not know what you are planning, but I cannot trust someone who seems to be driven only by emotion. To protect your reputation, I will not imprison you.” He turned away coldly. “But I will have to reconsider my agreement with Kaufman.”

Sovieshu repeatedly asks Navier to treat Rashta with compassion, but she refuses to be involved with her in any way, even though Rashta’s safety and comfort are literally her responsibility as the mistress of the palace. At the very beginning, when Navier withdraws her hand from the injured Rashta, Sovieshu says a phrase that reveals everything we need to know about his worldview:

“Is an empress’s dress nobler than a human hand?”

Even the attempted murder of Rashta by Viscount—Duchess Tuania’s lover - is regarded by Sovieshu, who is often called weak-willed, as a brutal crime, and he sentences the viscount to death. However, due to Navier’s special power - namely, the author’s unlimited love - he mitigates the sentence and merely exiles the criminal (which could be interpreted as his belief in second chances, though it is more likely the author’s desire to portray Navier - who, incidentally, had intended to spare a man who tried to kill someone! - as wise and rational).

Let us talk about Sovieshu’s other qualities. Everyone knows that he is deeply dependent on Navier, with whom he spent most of his life. He loves her, and at times even shows jealousy, which is usually nothing more than genuine concern for her. For example, in one of their conversations about Heinrey, he warns her to be cautious around foreigners - which is fairly logical. It would be unpleasant if the secrets of the Eastern Empire suddenly ended up in another country’s hands - especially one with which they had long-standing tensions and, until the New Year celebrations, no diplomatic relations at all.

He even admits that he would not necessarily object if Navier had lovers (which is still very different from legal concubines, a common practice in the Eastern Empire, unlike lovers, who could damage the Empress’s reputation).

Throughout the novel, Sovieshu is the only one of the two who tries to repair their relationship and restore the friendship the author constantly alludes to:

“Would you like a drink, Empress?”

“I’m fine. I’ll have cake.”

“You’ll gain weight.”

“That’s better than getting drunk in public, isn’t it?”

“I’m not going to get drunk. But if you eat at this hour, you’ll grow fat.”

“Even if I gain a little weight, I have a tailor.”

Sovieshu smirked into his wine as I put a piece of cake into my mouth."

This dialogue is pure teasing, reminiscent of the friendship they once shared - the one the author keeps insisting existed.

Sovieshu is an empathetic character, capable of kindness and care. The novel repeatedly mentions how he dreams of having a child (and ultimately, he becomes the only genuinely good father figure who truly tries to care for his child). When his future firstborn appears, he worries that Navier will not accept the child:

Sovieshu hesitated at first, but eventually replied,

“I am afraid the Empress will treat the child with hostility.”

It is precisely because of his love for children and his desire to be a good father that Sovieshu takes the child away from Rashta, fearing that, due to her deteriorating mental state, she might harm him:

“Her mental state deteriorated further after her crimes against the empire were exposed, and Duke Ergi Claude maliciously brought his estranged son to Sovieshu during the paternity trial of Glorym. When the results showed no blood relation, Rashta was arrested for crimes against the empire and the Emperor. During the trial, she was found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment. She was stripped of her title as Empress. She committed suicide in prison by swallowing a poison pill, and Sovieshu had her cremated and scattered her ashes.”

Because of shock and despair after the falsified paternity test results, and considering his frail health (throughout the story, Sovieshu frequently faints and experiences hallucinations), he likely did not even attend the trial.

I am not trying to justify Sovieshu’s dishonest actions toward Rashta, but I do believe that, to some extent, he became a victim of circumstances. Rashta, portrayed with childlike speech and behavior, was written that way deliberately so that she could never compete with Navier. The author intentionally made Rashta appear as pitiful as possible in the eyes of readers so that her favorite heroine would shine by contrast.

Sovieshu could have been an interesting character and a great Emperor if Alpha Tart had not been afraid to challenge Navier. He could have been a likable character if he had been developed not solely through the lens of hatred toward a treacherous adulterer, but through a more objective perspective free of favoritism.

Compared to characters like Heinrey, Sovieshu is actually a decent emperor (for the most part), he had a positive relationship with King Wharton when the latter was still alive after the two countries temporarily established peace when Heinrey was still a prince, and instead of wasting time complaining about Navier marrying another man, he has to force himself to move on and focus on the current mana shortage in the country after the mines start to run out and Hiltonian nobles are buying up every remaining conductor possible before the supply permanently tanks.

Sovieshu is a good emperor, but is he still a good person?

Navier of Trovi. The most suitable bride for the empire

Despite often being thought as the perfect match for Fahlgren's emperor, these two would only work best as friends, their marriage was what doomed them to fail in their partnership to begin with.

Navier and Sovieshu are on two sides of the same coin. Navier is completely incapable of viewing herself as anything other than perfect, she can do no wrong, nothing is truly her fault, and only she can repair any problem the empire may come across, if anyone thinks otherwise than they are simply ignorant of her struggles.

Sovieshu on the other hand is aware that his actions are negatively impacting other people, most notably the women in his life. Unlike Navier, he is the one completely in charge on the country as a whole. His first wife might hold more respect since she's not the one enraging nobles and running the pure bloodline upheld for so long into the ground, he has to live with the knowledge that he isn't a good person and thus, he has the ability to at least feel bad for what he did.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that he actually tries to GROW from those mistakes. There's a difference between feeling bad for yourself and learning from yourself. That's ultimately what makes these two so similar, they might be savvy as diplomatic nobles but as people, they are novices. Navier has no reason to even think that she could be selfish and Sovieshu is too busy feeling sorry for himself, which ironically, they both resent each other for.

Navier thinks that Sovieshu is a foolish man and a gullible husband, a man who was so easily swayed by the allure of a pretty little thing he found in the woods despite claiming in their youth that he would never treat Navier the way his father treats his mother, but now that her infertility is well known by this point, all of his morals went right out the window. She's the one who has to act as a PR for her husband while he's out trying to uproot everything, they ever stood for together in favor of placing the blame for the country's mistreatment of slaves on her.

Sovieshu thinks Navier is a cold and bitter woman who would rather allow her friends to continue business as usual with collecting innocent people like pets then give Rashta the benefit of the doubt. He knows that Navier is more ticked off that Rashta is a slave rather than the fact that she's a mistress at all and he thinks its mighty hypocritical for her to not consider Rashta as one of her people when one of Nian's slaves is currently working in the palace as a maid. She's the one who can't understand that the empire still needs an heir whenever she likes it or not, and he needs to put his country first at the end of the day.

Both of them are right and wrong, and they are both so dead set on the idea that one of them is completely in the right and the other is completely in the wrong that nothing truly gets fixed, not the slave problem, not their terrible personalities, and not their marriage. Even if they never divorced, they would still be sleeping in separate bedrooms.

Rashta, the empress with no surname

The idea of Rashta and Sovieshu's relationship sounds romantic on paper, key word: on paper.

This marriage was the most disturbing compared to Sovieshu's other options for wives. Unlike Navier and Beatrice, women he might not get along with but still holds some sort of respect in mind for them, he doesn't think he has to owe Rashta basic decency, after all, why should he? HIS family never owned slaves so the fact that he WANTS to love bomb her in the first place is evidence enough to him that nothing is technically wrong with their relationship. Sovieshu in this case is like a lot of female leads in OI with slaves as a mechanic in the narrative, he isn't whipping Rashta, he isn't branding her with the symbol of House Vict, she isn't telling him NOT to call her his pray and she's not actively fighting him off when he wants to sleep with her, so there's really nothing wrong here.

Except, no, there is EVERYTHING wrong going on here. Sovieshu only really liked Rashta during the early beginnings of her stages of grief when she was still in the denial stage. As reality starts to inevitably creep back in, Sovieshu himself starts to feel weird calling Rashta prey (which in my universe, is his reasoning to explain why he suddenly stopped calling her that if she claims he always calls her his prey) He notices eventually that Rashta is disassociating from reality every time she has to perform her "duties as a royal mistress" for him and this leads him to eventually stop sleeping with her all together. He used to find himself excited by Rashta because she appeared to love him the way he always wanted Navier to love him, she wanted to do regular couple things like going out to a picnic, eating dinner together, cuddling up close during the cold, raising a family, etc.

But she was never eager to do any of those things because she genuinely wanted to, she was eager to do those things because they allowed her to live in denial that everything was getting better even though it wasn't, she didn't want to raise her daughter WITH him, she just wanted to have the right to raise her child at all. Sovieshu can't feel like he's in the right anymore the longer he is being forced to acknowledge the truth that he is no better than Lotteshu or Alan, Rashta might as well be his kept slave at this point.

But of course, Sovieshu doesn't take this as a wakeup call. He does as he always does, feel sorry for HIMSELF. He still doesn't see Rashta as an actual person, the things he did to her might as well just be extensions of his own pity party. Rashta isn't her own person, she's just reduced to the slave Sovieshu took advantage of, effectively erasing her as a person by giving all the power to Sovieshu, it was never about her; it was always about the man holding the other end to her golden leash. Who cares what she thinks, Sovieshu said he felt really bad for what he did, and she should just shut up and be grateful that she got to be the empress at all.

Beatrice Arwen, could everything be better in another life if he chose her instead?

As one of the main candidates for marriage back when Sovieshu was still a crown prince, it sounds logical, right? Everything is destined to go wrong between Navier and Rashta, so why wouldn't a relationship with a mocked noble girl end up working out?

To start off, Bea thought that Sovieshu was handsome exactly one time when she was a young teenager, she never really had any close feelings with him to begin with, if anything she's rather intimidated by him. Sovieshu also just finds her to be too annoying in general, and he'd probably disparage at all the things she'd like.

There's only one timeline where Sovieshu would willingly marry Bea and that would be a timeline where Bea rejects Rashta's offer to run away with her after being framed for cheating on the emperor, Bea cherishes Rashta but she doesn't know what will happen to them if they get caught and only agrees to give her friend the tools needed for escape. Unfortunately, without an additional person to help protect her and fight off the bandits, Rashta is killed and Glorym is lost.

Sovieshu lost his daughter, Beatrice lost her best friend right after losing her entire family, both are in a dangerous headspace, and the empire still needs an heir. With Bea as a previous marriage candidate and lady in waiting to his previous two wives, Sovieshu basically says "Fuck it" and makes the rash decision to marry Beatrice purely out of sentimentality of what was familiar of the good times, since Bea has no title to fall back on and is relying on staying in the emperors good graces if she wants to continue living lavishly, Bea relents and becomes the third empress in Sovieshu's reign.

Technically, the title of Bea's entry isn't entirely wrong, she is the wife who would end up having the closest sense of "stability" with Sovieshu, but the marriage isn't good, far from it actually. Similarly to his first marriage, these two don't actively try to do anything as little as having dinner together, after the birth of their one and only son, that's it, there's no reason to try anymore unless the heir dies young. Bea lives the rest of her life unconfrontational and unremarkable, she isn't popular with the people nor is she popular with the nobles in her social circle, everyone knows that the only reason she is an empress is because of a very special set of circumstances that brought her there.

And the fact that the authors turned the slaves into the villains while constantly uplifting the nobles who either abuses them (Penelope literally bought Eckles to use as a shield) or turn a blind eye to it all together

When I started reading remarried empress I honestly believe they were going to write Navier as this good empress who will free herself and her people from Sovieshu’s bs but turns out she’s just like him