every single adult in this story has failed their children. she was just a baby. she was hurt and was looking for the only other person who had given her warmth, and she was rejected. just like nora, just like theo, and the many other children who have suffered in this story. i do think that this chapter brought a complexity to shuri's mother that was not there before in the same way that we got complex views of nora's, theo's and even the neuschwanstein's parents. clearly, her mother has been in shuri's shoes. her mother has felt abuse. her mother, likely, had nobody to turn to. it's a sick, ugly understanding, but it's there, and you see it in her face: i don't think we've ever seen her mother look so motherly (for lack of a better word), even in the previous chapter. her mother almost treats this like a coming-of-age, like shuri has now learned the truth of womanhood, of being married to a man. she's learned about the sacrifices it demands of her. and i think that in her mother's own twisted understanding, she tries to comfort shuri by telling her what she was likely told before, that this is the truth, and that shuri just needs to handle it; to live by the good days and struggle through the bad ones, just as the mother herself has done. it's survival. it's disgusting, and it absolutely does NOT excuse her mother for the awful, despicable things she's done to shuri. it only adds another tragedy to the whole situation: that shuri was not the first, nor will she be the last. she was just a baby who got caught in the crossfire.
every single adult in this story has failed their children. she was just a baby. she was hurt and was looking for the only other person who had given her warmth, and she was rejected. just like nora, just like theo, and the many other children who have suffered in this story. i do think that this chapter brought a complexity to shuri's mother that was not there before in the same way that we got complex views of nora's, theo's and even the neuschwanstein's parents. clearly, her mother has been in shuri's shoes. her mother has felt abuse. her mother, likely, had nobody to turn to. it's a sick, ugly understanding, but it's there, and you see it in her face: i don't think we've ever seen her mother look so motherly (for lack of a better word), even in the previous chapter. her mother almost treats this like a coming-of-age, like shuri has now learned the truth of womanhood, of being married to a man. she's learned about the sacrifices it demands of her. and i think that in her mother's own twisted understanding, she tries to comfort shuri by telling her what she was likely told before, that this is the truth, and that shuri just needs to handle it; to live by the good days and struggle through the bad ones, just as the mother herself has done. it's survival. it's disgusting, and it absolutely does NOT excuse her mother for the awful, despicable things she's done to shuri. it only adds another tragedy to the whole situation: that shuri was not the first, nor will she be the last. she was just a baby who got caught in the crossfire.