Iron Widow: Wu Zetian in the FranXX

Ach ja, I read a book. An actual book with like no pictures, more than 200 pages and even some complicated words. Don’t worry, this won’t happen again in the near future. I initially heard about Iron Widow because the author talked about how one of the novel’s influences was the anime series Darling in the FranXX and how they were underwhelmed with its second half, which I can very much sympathize with. This and the fact everyone I have seen talking about it seems to praise it almost unanimously lead to me caving in and reading it. My final verdict: It’s fine, I guess.

There isn’t something I could concretely point towards as to why I slowly lost interest towards the end, despite what are some incredible opening chapters. Sure, I have some opinions about the abysmal pacing whenever something concrete and “plot relevant” happens, mostly about everything that frames the actual core of the story, with its ending especially leaving me with the impression I have only read a slightly more elaborate checklist of events than a proper finale. Also, one could probably cut half the occurrences of the word “heat”. But beyond that, it essentially does everything right I criticized Sexiled for and for what it is, it does so with overwhelming confidence.

Iron Widow has a very strong – for simplicity’s sake, let’s call it “feminist voice”. The moment we are introduced to Wu Zetian’s perspective of the world, one would be hard-pressed to not understand the source of her never-ending rage. She lives in a system where girls and women are robbed of their agency, barely treated as humans and shamed for being born female. It is also very much self-aware about The Discourse™… you know the one. It doesn’t need to explicitly use words like “patriarchy” or “misogyny” to tell a story about it, it criticizes the notion of the gender binary and heteronormativity in one breath, while talking about the arbitrary differences between men and women in the next one. If right-wing people were literate enough, they would call it capital W woke, because it very much is in its original sense of the word. Beyond the giant robots fighting off alien invaders, Iron Widow is a dissection of harmful socio-cultural systems and how they hurt everyone and everything in the long run, without having to rely on its fantastical elements, because real life history is full of it and arguably its best and most impactful moments are in its more mundane and grounded situations.

There is a certain catharsis, or, if you would like to use some more negatively connoted words, wish-fulfillment and power-fantasy, in reading about a character that not only so easily identifies the problem, but is also willing and eventually able to solve, or more accurately, fight it head on and win. Tonally, I would describe the voice of Wu Zetian, and by extension the entirety of the text itself, with just one word: Rage. The first part of the novel is about Zetian’s suicide mission to avenge her sister, because she is cornered by life in such as way that destruction is the only thing that could give it meaning, even if it doesn’t lead to any real change. It eventually escalates to the point of her essentially becoming a usurper and killing anyone in her way to escape her own impending predicament. Almost a cautionary tale, even, the way the system created the very person bringing about its downfall.

To repeat something I also already mentioned in my Sexiled post, I am a straight man and thus simply never had to worry about the things women have to go through. I have the privilege of full autonomy over my own body, I can basically do whatever I want and my very existence is not being politicized or up to debate. The only shackles on me are the ones of capitalism, but even they have become less tight for me. Thus, I wouldn’t really call Iron Widow, as a story, relatable for me, but it doesn’t have to be. It itself makes the point of men being able to understand the suffering of women. My fascination with Wu Zetian is not an emotionally charged one with her being someone I can project myself on, but rather one whose situation I can accept and acknowledge. Her outspokenness also makes it really easy to understand her whole thing and gives us some great passages:

How do you take the fight out of half the population and render them willing slaves? You tell them they’re meant to do nothing but serve from the minute they’re born. You tell them they’re weak. You tell them they’re prey. You tell them over and over, until it’s the only truth they’re capable of living.

It is obviously no great piece of critical theory, despite how well-versed Zetian somehow seems to be in it at times, but it arguably does a very effective job in contextualizing what is happening around her (In this case the lack of female comradery between the concubine pilots).

Beyond all the thematic stuff, Zetian is also just a really engaging character when she is not busy mentally and physically standing her ground in front of other men. Her inner struggle of how to handle her own family was one of the most interesting conflicts, her saying that the triangle is the strongest shape in reference to later going full poly with the two guys in her life is almost too funny, with how much levity this brings into an otherwise grim story and most importantly, despite being the “perfect victim”, she isn’t portrayed as a savior character or even as a morally good one. It is easy to see how she might be justified in most of her actions, but she mostly does so out of self-interest and not fully understanding the reasoning for other people, making her a giant hypocrite at times. Her initial mistrust and straight-up animosity towards Li Shimin was interesting, because she was very confidently at fault. She has this “I was wronged my entire life, so I won’t take the high road”-attitude, which makes her very flawed and balances out the otherwise perfect, almost Mary Sue vibe she emits.

If any of this interests you, I guess you have yourself a recommendation. No matter what I am going to say in the next paragraphs, it is a competently written story and I have a feeling if it is genuinely able to speak to you, it can very likely hit like a brick to the face. It also has the line “You can’t shoot me; I’m rich!”. Peak writing.

With that being said, let’s talk about some specifics that I personally have some opinions about. Spoilers ahead.

If there is one thing I constantly asked myself while reading, it is the following: Why hasn’t anyone put a bullet between Wu Zetian’s eyes the second she exited the Chrysalis with Yang Guang’s corpse in tow? I mean, the story goes over how she convinces the strategists to let them use her, as she would be a valuable addition to the war effort. However, the farther into the story you read, the more you come to understand that this line of thinking shouldn’t fly with them. For the military, upholding the agenda seems to be priority number one with the Hundun attacks and humanity’s continued survival being second at best. In fact, Zetian’s presence only made the Hundun situation worse, so the military’s continued tip-toeing around her and Shimin eventually contradicted its otherwise cut-throat operation and sexism for me. Like, stop pretending to simply tolerate them. Either treat them properly or just go through with what they are already trying to do in roundabout ways.

From their point of view, they have a man convicted of patricide and double fratricide on their hand, as well as someone who is able to kill their beloved golden boys by simply going to pilot with them. Zetian, as a concubine pilot, is absolutely expendable, and Li Shimin is most likely too, as they are probably not really needed in the larger picture of the war, no matter how high their spirit pressure turns out to be. Also, the whole “pilots as celebrities” thing doesn’t seem to be integrated strongly enough, as the military couldn’t just get rid of them and have some kind of excuse on hand in case anyone cares.

It is almost laughable how they stationed two guards in their cockpit this one time, which obviously did nothing in keeping them under control and then essentially gave up on supervising the pair entirely, while they are currently in possession of the strongest war machine capable of laying waste to the entire frontier. Ignoring more sensible solutions for subjugating the two (Remote-controlled exploding collars would probably be my go-to approach), the incompetence of the military strategists can’t just be blamed on naiveté or underestimating the two people to be constantly shown not to be underestimated. Seriously, in the final battle, another pair was ordered to straight up kill Zetian and Shimin… then why let them deploy in the first place? They clearly weren’t intended to fight, because otherwise they would have waited for them to kill the Hundun that wiped everyone’s asses first and it sure as hell couldn’t be framed as an accident or them simply dying in battle. Also destroying one of your strongest Chrysalis in the process? C’mon! One of the strategist guys is literally named after the Zhuge Liang, at least he should know better.

At the end of the day, I probably shouldn’t think that hard about it. It’s simply peak YA contrivances. In this sense, it feels rather similar to other novels like The Hunger Games, etc. which have to enable the protagonist in some way, even if it makes less sense in the great scheme. Same goes for the introduction of minor antagonists in Iron Widow, because apparently the system itself is not enough. Fundamentally, this again doesn’t really matter, unless you care for laughably bad characters in your story, but it is something that yet again weakens the impact the themes should have. The point is that Zetian’s situation is horrible, regardless of whether the men around her treat her blatantly awful or like a literal princess. With how exhausting the commentary can become at times, it somehow is able to drown itself out by falling back on tropes that do more harm than good. I also know that it can be done a whole lot better. The Apothecary Diaries essentially does a lot of the same commentary as Iron Widow, but is able to write around the need for someone to constantly put Maomao down, because the system of the imperial palace already does so itself better than any other character could do.

Another thing I would have loved to see a larger focus on would be the piloting. Not the actual piloting of the mechs, but rather the experience of piloting. Piloting a Chrysalis is more akin to this meta-physical and abstract experience of clashing minds, a constant push and pull with the risk of your consciousness being consumed by your co-pilot. It is arguably the most overt reference to Darling in the FranXX and the aspect I expected the most from. And to be fair, what we do get is pretty great and probably some of the best material Iron Widow has to offer. It is just that it doesn’t matter that much. For the first time, Zetian kills her partner, as she wanted to do so, piloting with Li Shimin only happens sparingly after the first time and most of their development happens outside the Chrysalis anyway and the last time happens at the very end of the novel with someone who barely counts as a character in my book. It is a shame because, as the author also noted, the pilot system is such a great narrative device in exploring the characters, their relationships and world, so seeing it get mostly ignored is weird, when it would be the first thing I would want to expand upon from FranXX’s base. The only thing it addresses is the seating order, which felt more like the natural conclusion of another plot point.

Speaking of which, let me talk about the one and a half plot twists the novel throws at the reader. Towards the end, Zetian and Shimin torture a certain information out of one of the strategists regarding the discrepancy between the spirit pressure of female pilots inside and outside the Chrysalis. Turns out the yin seat, the one occupied by the concubine pilot, limits the spirit pressure, making the male pilot in the yang seat stronger in comparison. This is presented as a big revelation and becomes essential to their final plan by revealing this information and broadcasting it to everyone at the end of the next battle. There is just one small problem: This information does not matter or changes anything in the slightest?!

I don’t get why this detail is even presented as a secret to begin with. Everyone seems to be already aware that the concubine pilots are way more likely to die, thus the reason why the male pilots have a full harem of them. It is also blatantly obvious that the male pilots only get paired with women weaker in terms of spirit pressure, so there is close to no chance of the male pilot dying. The whole system is already designed in such a way that favors men, so the fact the seats just make the difference in spirit pressure more pronounced is basically insignificant information in the larger picture. This is also why I wonder how revealing the truth is supposed to sway public opinion, especially since, in the context of Iron Widow’s society, this is the easiest to justify things ever with the rhetoric already in use. “Of course the wife should sacrifice herself for the husband” or something along the lines. Female lives are not held to the same standard as the male’s, thus acknowledging a way in which the system is rigged simply doesn’t matter with no one powerful enough interested and willing to change it.

The other twist at the very end is more or less just Darling in the FranXX, but with the roles kinda reversed. I am only calling it half a twist, because it was so clearly communicated that once we got the final confirmation, it was more about clearing up the details than what is truly happening, to the point I wondered how surprised Zetian and Yizhi were by it. Like, the Hunduns, the mindless killing machines, literally talked with Zetian and apparently the other pilots and I am meant to believe no one was bothered by this?

So yeah, Iron Widow is mostly a decent novel, but at times loses the plot in the narrative it frames its themes around. This was not meant to turn into a hit piece, yet here I am complaining for more than half the post ¯\(ツ)/¯. It is honestly a bit of a shame I eventually lost interest, but it is what it is. Turns out I still have standards for media I would otherwise consider to be my kind of thing.

On a meta note: I couldn’t believe no one has made the same reference as I did in the title of this post… and arguably to the surprise of only idiots like me, someone indeed did. So while I now have to feel like a cheap copy-cat (Even picked the same text passage, lmao :D), give Empress in the FRANXX a read if you are interested in someone who can contextualize the interplay of themes and mythology better than I ever could.