Yes, the king is reasserting his authority - he's not joking. I just have the sense that there's kind of a wink to the audience from the author at this point.

I'm not trying to say that we shouldn't wrestle with ancient texts the way they are! I totally agree with that. But I don't always think you can pick a piece of text out and not look at later parts. Like in the flood story, it's significant that vegetarianism was preferred, but also that it was superseded.

I also do agree that stories of women acting as independent agents count as feminist. My point was that I don't see Esther as being very different from the other women you mentioned. Both Esther and Ruth have reactive elements to their behavior. They both use their sexuality to achieve goals that they decide are important after a family member talks to them about the situation. You say that Esther seems to be acting out of fear; to me Ruth seems kind of passive in the Boaz situation. And why is Esther acting out of personal fear any worse than Hannah acting out of personal distress at being childless?

Yael is a good point. I can't argue with Yael being an active agent (though I don't like the violence in that story).

Cruel to Haman - he was going to wipe out the Jews, I'm not sympathetic. Cruel to his sons - I hear that. I've never known what to do with the emphasis on the sons.

I'm not familiar with the book of Judith at all - I'm out of my element once we leave the Tanakh.