Though I Am an Inept Villainess

Episode 4

It would be too easy to discard Shu Keigetsu. After all, that's what people have been doing to her for a long, long time. Her parents killed themselves (or so we've been told; I'm not entirely sure that's the truth of the matter), the woman who sponsored her Maidenship at court refused to stand up for her, and other court ladies spurned her. Keigetsu was pushed into a position where she felt she had no other option than to steal Kou Reirin's life and body. After all, her own life experience had taught her that she was worthless, that nothing she did would ever be good enough – her parents couldn't even be bothered to take her with them to the afterlife. She's the “villainess” of this piece, yes, but she was forced into that position by not conforming to the social ideal of what a young lady who ought to be grateful should be.

I think one of her closest literary sisters is Becky Sharp, the heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. When Thackeray published the novel in 1847-48, Becky was the shocking antithesis of what a heroine was supposed to be. She wasn't grateful, she knew what she wanted, and, horror of horrors, she took steps to get it. Becky's not a “nice young lady.” But what the people who want her to be one don't see is that she's had to become unscrupulous because of the position she was placed in as a poor young woman. Becky, although she has received mixed reception over the centuries, was groundbreaking in a mainstream Victorian novel. Keigetsu stands to do much the same for villainesses, because unlike many of her sisters, she really doesn't have many other options. She's not becoming manipulative because she enjoys being evil; she's doing it because she feels she has no other options. She's done something “bad” (taking Reirin's place), but despite what she says and her innate anger at life, she's not doing it because she hates Reirin. She's doing it to save herself.

That makes Reirin and Keigetsu an important pairing. In this week's episode, Keigetsu breaks down and asks Reirin for help. None of her court ladies will do so because they think she's Reirin and that she knows how to help herself, something Keigetsu never considered. She also grossly underestimated the delicately feminine word “frail” people used to describe Reirin; she never imagined that her chief rival for the prince's affections was actually chronically ill. Contacting Reirin through the magic flames of a candle is a major move on Keigetsu's part because it shows that she's beginning to think beyond her own pain. A piece of her likely assumes that even if she asks, Reirin won't help her, but instead the other young woman quickly tells her exactly what to do. There's no anger or recriminations, just genuine helpfulness. On a shallow level, this demonstrates that Reirin is the so-called good woman to Keigetsu's bad. On a more considered level that defies the tropes, it's proof that Reirin doesn't hate Keigetsu and never has. She's not the woman her self-proclaimed rival assumes she is; she's not angry, and she simply wants everyone to be happy.

Of course, we know part of that is an act, something Reirin learned to protect herself. We learned that last week when she made excuses for LeeLee while letting it slip that she was perfectly well aware of what her lady-in-waiting was actually up to. That's every bit as much a coping mechanism as Keigetsu's anger, because both of these women are victims of a system that tells them that their only value is in being sweet and kind and pretty and bearing children for a man. Reirin is refusing to play the game, while Keigetsu is playing to win.

With the ghost festival (which will be on August 27th this year in the real world) coming quickly, Reirin will get the chance to show that Keigetsu's not all bad, because, of course, everyone will assume it's her dancing. But she'll also get to show off her dancing and her sewing, even if no one's likely to be all that thrilled with her presence. But that's one of Reirin's strengths: by not playing the mean girl game (which Kin Seika is excelling at), she's already won. Now she just needs to convince Keigetsu that together, they can be each other's shooting stars.

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Though I Am an Inept Villainess is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.