Steampunk Nusantara

This was a random get a few years ago, but I put off reading Nicola Sutcliffe's Queens of the Kingdom: The Women of Saudia Arabia Speak because I expected it to upset me. I've now read it and yes, it upset me! A lot!

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I'm 20 episodes into 189 for Aryana (each episode is like 20 minutes once you skip the recap and future teases), and there's stuff I like about this show!

Aryana, despite being the sweet, kind, thoughtful heroine of the show, also stands up for herself and gets to argue/fight back! Not only against her enemies (heheh "enemies") but also against the people she loves, including her mother and best friend, and that's just so nice. Love doesn't preclude disagreement, and being good does not mean having to accept injustices meted upon yourself. No idea if this is more common in the genre now (I've only watched three other Filipino shows at this point, so I'm speaking about telenovelas of the past in general), or if it's because Aryana is thirteen instead of an adult woman and the rules for a teenaged main character are different. Either way, I like it.

There are still certain conventions in play, i.e. the good characters are very good, and the mean characters are very mean, but I did like that Aryana made a genuine mistake when she first met her future-rival (and secret half-sister) Megan. Which means that Megan doesn't hate Aryana out of nowhere -- it was a legit off-the-wrong-foot situation. A good character would, of course, have listened to Aryana's explanation instead of elevating it to an unnecessary rivalry, but Aryana isn't 100% blameless, and that's neat. I also like that the rivalry lives rent-free in Megan's head while Aryana only ever seems to remember Megan exists whenever Megan actively harasses her. Basically, the power dynamics aren't what I thought they would be, with Aryana being a poor girl on a scholarship in a fancy school.

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