I Am Not A Monarchist... But

So I'm trying to write a review of The Twelve Kingdoms but I kind of feel I need to write a bit of a disclaimer.

I am not a monarchist but the concept of divine right is very important to understanding that story and for that matter huge swaths of literature and history,

The Twelve Kingdoms takes place in a fantasy world where the primary thing that differentiates it from just being a simple historical drama set in ancient China is that the mandate of heaven is enforced. The gods have more or less set up the constitutional rules of government as well who runs it and EVERYBODY in the setting knows that not pissing them off is rule 0 for a functional society.

Before serious talk of plot or character takes place that kind of has to be understood.

And to a modern audience especially a western one that might seem kind of... stupid. We've spent what? 300 years preaching how absolute monarchy kind of sucks.


And it does. I am not arguing we bring back the monarchy.  God no.

But that the concept of divine right, that God directly chooses who's in charge, whether we like it or not is baked right into the even western culture.

And let's face it that idea is not going away. There are a lot of people who believe that if God takes a direct role in the affairs of earth, he also takes a direct role in the affairs of government.

But I digress. That is a rabbit hole I do not want to go down. 

The point that I want to actually make is that if you want to understand Shakespeare, King Arthur, Robin Hood or even the Bible itself  you kind of have to wrap your brain around the idea that at one point in time people really did believe that God chose who was on the throne and trying to supplant or usurp their authority was a direct affront against God.

And since a lot of those stories are baked right into the culture so is divine right to a point. I mean no person is seriously going to argue for the monarchy at least not in America.  But we have plenty of stories even modern stories that argue for the monarchy.

And it kind of pricks at me that we don't acknowledge that that's kind of going on even if we disagree with it.

Especially since that stuff kind of builds up over time without people realizing it.