The Empress of Ayodhaya

My forms of entertainment and enjoyment have revolved mainly around free events, festivals and nature outings simply because things have gotten way too expensive for me to justify it as a reasonable want in any way. While most people I know have a subscription to Netflix or something similar, I can’t even bother with such a thing. That’s just how bad things have gotten and it’s a reality check for anyone that is residing in a high cost of living state. So, I’ve been turning to “free” entertainment online with the latest being a drama series called, “The Empress of Ayodhaya” or “Mae Yua”.

This is a Thai drama series that I thought was already finished only to learn that it’s actually a very new drama series that is currently airing as I am blogging about it. I honestly was a bit on the fence about whether I should watch it or not even though the stunning Mai Davika is the lead of it when I saw a questionable scene in its trailer. I found it weird and do not even want to go into the rabbit hole of whether that’s how things were truly done or if it was just made up for the sake of entertainment purposes. The latter is probably more likely.

There seems to be a consensus that there are inaccuracies here and there in the drama series, with one of them revolving around how actors speak. Supposedly, someone used a present day word as opposed to a word that would have actually been used back in the days. It makes viewers who know better question how much homework was actually done in the process of creating this specific drama series. Again, historical or not, I think it’s important for viewers to keep in mind that at the end of the day, the creators, be it the film director or script writer, probably has a bigger priority to “entertain” people over getting things accurate. When you think about it, it makes sense because you’ve got Mai and these other stunning actresses on screen. Don’t get me wrong though because I’m with the others on how important historical accuracy is.

Continuing on with inaccuracies, the thing I’m most bothered about is the “intimacy” scenes at holy grounds. Like, wtf is going on here? I feel as though this would have been severely taboo back in those days. And I think it’s safe to say that it’s severely taboo in the current day as well. Why did they not just film such scenes in a jungle or a deserted lone cottage? I understand that there’s an aesthetic to it but it’s just screaming all kinds of wrong here.

Now, I haven’t really been keeping up with a lot of drama series and movies because I just don’t have the time to do such a thing, but I feel as though I haven’t come across any movie or drama series that has been bold enough to air such a scene(s) at religious locations. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) I honestly find it disturbing because I can’t help but to wonder if it’s just going to send out a message to the public that it’s OK to do this. Like, I know that such things can happen in the real world, but in an ideal world, this type of stuff just does not fly. We’re talking about religious sites where monks aren’t allowed to touch women and here you are filming an “intimate” scene even if it may just be kissing or something that alludes to more with the right imagination. Yes, it’s just a movie/drama series but can you imagine someone doing this in real life and getting caught? They’d be ostracized in society big time.

I do not know whose brilliant idea was to do this and we are not even at episode 4 yet. (Note: At the time of writing this, episode 4 was not yet aired and available to me.)

Moving on. As much as I like Mai Davika and I find her acting to be superb in this drama series, I am not sure if I’ll be able to finish this drama series. The issue here isn’t Mai, but just the story itself on how we see women (noble women, mind you) doing all they can just to get the attention and favor from one man (the king). And this started to make me think a lot about women in present day society. Women can be severely batsh*t crazy. And I think a lot of the craziness has roots from the past. We are talking about well off women having to play mind games in order to get ahead. If this is the case for well off women that can technically be spoon fed and kowtowed to for the rest of their lives, what about the women of lesser statuses? What other crazy mind games did women from lower hierarchies have to entail in order to get what they wanted or “survive” basically? There’s that popular phrase: survival of the fittest and I think that’s what this was all about, in a weird way.

If you’ve ever worked in an environment where your colleagues are dominantly female, you may have seen a lot of unnecessary nonsense and drama dependent on which field you were working in. Unfortunately, a lot of fields that women dominate in can be severely catty and I see uncanny resemblances from this drama series and the real working world where females supposedly “thrive”.

Females aside, let’s talk about the males. There is no eye candy for me in this drama series. Unfortunately, no male is my type in this drama series. So far, the only male that I think I can tolerate is that soldier originally from Sukothai. I’m sure he has some type of backstory and I’m kind of here for it. The other guy that probably has an even bigger backstory is Mai’s lover. He’s dressed in white as some type of so-called holy man (royal Brahmin) but based on the fact that he gets “intimate” with Mai, I’m sure his holy man character is just a front. He has got to be someone with royal lineage. I am not certain if he’s actually someone affiliated with the Lopburi lands but I wouldn’t be surprised if he has ties to it and he, together with Mai, have eyes on the prize (getting back what’s theirs and more). The king is full of PTSD from doing something he shouldn’t have done and with him having access to these noble girls from different parts of Thailand, all I can say is I’m cringed. It is here that I stand my ground that I’m only okay with that soldier from Sukothai. I don’t like his hairstyle but that’s irrelevant… lol

I’m sure I’m going to find more infuriating things about this drama as I continue to watch it but I hope it’ll be an overall good drama series. I’m feeling the costumes. I’m feeling Mai Davika’s acting. And I’m hoping in the end, it’ll basically be something akin to Mai (Jinda, actually) showcasing a lot of “girl power” energy. I feel that this drama series is heading towards that direction but not without a lot of infuriating hiccups along the way.

Update: I had written this blog post before episode 5 was aired. While I have yet to watch the episode since I haven’t even had the chance to watch episode 4 yet, it has come to my attention that animal cruelty may have been involved in the making of this series. This is not cool and I’m thinking of just not bothering with this drama series any further. If I wasn’t already feeling the various red flags of this drama series to begin with, I can now solidify my decision to not support this drama series from here on forward. I’m disappointed that the team behind this drama series had to resort to a form of animal cruelty for the sake of entertaining humans. It’s 2024 and I’m sure there are many ways around making a scene “realistic” without the help of a live animal. (Note: I only know what I’ve heard as I haven’t seen the scene itself.) While I don’t ask others watching this drama series to quit watching it, I think it’s an opportunity for all connoisseurs of drama series/movies to question what actually goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. It’s probably not as pretty as we think it is even if it’s made to appear that way.