Guardian Episode by Episode: 10

[extrapenguin]

Welcome to the rewatchalong! We have now reached episode 10, i.e. we are a quarter of the way through the series! The Imgur screencap album has 51 images.


Previously on:
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9

This week, we are in the Hanga arc proper, and learn Wang Zheng's backstory.

Introductions/the Hanga story
We get our proper introduction to Sang Zan. He was born a slave, and the Hanga Patriarch killed his sister. When his brother went to ask for justice, the Patriarch's son killed him. This left only Sang Zan to poach birds to get medicine for his sick mother. As luck would have it, he met the Patriarch's daughter, Ge Lan (Wang Zheng), who found him cute, and then he used that relationship and her naïve encouragement of his ideals of everyone being equal to stage a slave rebellion, assassinate the Patriarch and his son, and become the next Patriarch himself.


He kept Wang Zheng by his side, the only person who could protect her from the hatred of the rest of the Hanga.

He tried to rule with Wang Zheng as his ... queen, I guess, and I supposed he loved her, since he was going to abdicate responsibility and run away with her when they were captured and Wang Zheng executed. He also tried to bring her back with the Awl, then buried her with it when he failed. (We're also told he changed after that. We'll find out more next episode.)


This was my favorite Wang Zheng moment.

Characterization
Zhao Yunlan rebuffs Shen Wei's information-gathering attempt, then when Shen Wei tries to accompany them on the way, he asks Zhu Hong (who is also suspicious of Shen Wei) to keep Shen Wei in place, all while playing with social niceties/pretending he doesn't suspect Shen Wei.


Nothing to see here, Professor!

After Wang Zheng's infodump on the Hanga story, Zhao Yunlan has formed an insight on Sang Zan's character – "A man's most basic dignity is to let his loved ones be safe." When the Envoy agrees with this, Zhao Yunlan looks at him as if in surprise. Shocked that the Envoy is so human?

I love how Shen Wei keeps wearing Zhao Yunlan's jacket very possessively. It also guards us viewers from the very STEM Prof fashion choice of detachable plaid sleeves, so go ahead, Shen Wei.

As the Envoy, Shen Wei teleports between Zhao Yunlan's gun (which is likely the only thing in this place that can seriously hurt him, WTF was this choice, Shen Wei) and the ghost beasts, then kills the ghost beast that was trying to hut Zhao Yunlan. Maybe he noticed Zhao Yunlan's hesitation on using the gun?

In any case, the separation is slipping – Zhao Yunlan already remarked that the Envoy resembles Shen Wei, and some of Shen Wei's remarks about how Zhao Yunlan should turn back and go make much more sense as a continuation of the conversation he had with Professor Shen than as something the Envoy would spontaneously say.

Shen Wei as the Envoy is "limited to half his powers" and can't stay too long on the surface. Even now, he aches – what is it about Haixing that oppresses him?


Either that, or it was just a convenient excuse for the heartache he has from liking Chief Zhao so much.

We also get some nice grabbing from the Envoy, who doesn't immediately release Zhao Yunlan's arm afterwards.


Pls no rushing into danger.

Zhu Hong obeys Zhao Yunlan's instructions and stays to take care of Professor Shen, even if she'd love to be charging into danger with Zhao Yunlan.


The power of politeness confines Shen Wei to this social engagement he would rather not be a part of.

Another bit I liked was Chu Shuzhi! He was the one who used literature review and geometry to figure out where Wang Zheng was likely going/the location of the third Hanga holy site. Just because he's the field team and the muscle doesn't mean he's dumb.

Then there's the bit where Guo Changcheng successfully uses his "fear to electricity" shock rod ... to shock Zhao Yunlan in the back. Chu Shuzhi finds this hilarious. This is likely another indication of Chu Shuzhi not respecting Zhao Yunlan's leadership, but let's be real, it works just as well as Chu Shuzhi feeling like this is vicarious justice for all the years Zhao Yunlan was an asshole towards Dixingians.


Chu Shuzhi approves.

Zhu Jiu has lines he won't cross, whether for moral or pragmatic reasons. He outright reassures Wang Zheng that rape is not on the menu, only torture.


Don't worry, I prefer to keep my pants on.

Canon notes

• Snakes have different (more drug-resistant?) metabolisms to humans, but cats don't.
• This is the first occasion Zhao Yunlan has been betrayed by a team member.
• Zhu Jiu says to Sang Zan, "Trapped here for so many years without dying – which of us is the real monster?" Given that Sang Zan has been empillared for a century, this would imply that Dixingians' lifespans are less than a century (or that, at least, they would show significant signs of age at that point).
• The Awl was on the surface a century ago. No evidence on the other Hallows' disappearance – same time vs different time – or whether the disappearance was noticed immediately or only after delay.

Cinematography
Lots of shots of our characters from afar and/or slightly above.




I also like this shot:


The Hanga costumes look a bit East European to me, at least Wang Zheng/Ge Lan's dress. I suppose it's an amalgam of stuff that read as non-Han?


Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
Only the one jacket he wore yesterday as well. Notorious jacket thief Shen Wei has yet to return that North Face jacket.


Shen Wei shoes watch
No shots of Shen Wei's footwear.

Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
Not on screen.

Comments

[trobadora]

Zhu Jiu says to Sang Zan, "Trapped here for so many years without dying – which of us is the real monster?" Given that Sang Zan has been empillared for a century, this would imply that Dixingians' lifespans are less than a century (or that, at least, they would show significant signs of age at that point).

Can you explain that? I don't see what Sang Zan not aging in the pillar has to to with Dixingren?

[extrapenguin]

Sang Zan calls Zhu Jiu a monster, and Zhu Jiu replies with that remark as a way of saying "fuck you". Given that Zhu Jiu reaches for that rebuke so easily, it implies that he finds staying in a cave for a century without dying to be abnormal, so Dixingians' lifespans would have to be less than a century (unless interfered with). Otherwise Zhu Jiu would find Sang Zan's lifespan just business as usual and he'd reach for something else to yell as a heated rebuke to Sang Zan's accusations of him being a monster.

[fangirlishness]

I can comment just fine. *g*

I am just at that exact point in the novel, where Wang Zheng tells them her story, and I always liked how parallel the show is to the novel this early on.

The fire rod thing is very similar in the novel, too.

[extrapenguin]

Has everyone decamped for the weekend, then? *g*

Huh, interesting. Is Sang Zan/Wang Zheng supposed to be a wholesome ship we're meant to cheer for there as well? I must confess it's a NOTP based on the pieces of Sang Zan characterization we get here.

...what's the fire rod?

[teaotter]

These episodes have always felt odd to me: let's interrupt our adventures to jump backwards in time and talk about one of the minor characters and their tragic backstory! What?

I'm 100% positive I'm supposed to find something in Wang Zheng's story that resonates with the current day, but I just don't.

I do really like Guo Changcheng zapping Zhao Yunlan, and then lao-Chu's response.

[extrapenguin]

These episodes have always felt odd to me: let's interrupt our adventures to jump backwards in time and talk about one of the minor characters and their tragic backstory! What?
I think the relevant bit is supposed to be "waited for 100 years" – just like Shen Wei waited for Zhao Yunlan for a long time! And maybe some pillar-related foreshadowing. After all, we haven't seen Ye Zun yet. Mostly it's just hitting several birds on the downwards arc of the bird-killing stone: we're getting strong hints on what Zhu Jiu's teleportation power's limits are, plus this is where Shen Wei's identity secret gets exposed.

While Wang Zheng's backstory sure is tragic, I just can't ship her with Sang Zan. It got rather Stockholm Syndrome-y at one point, and he received a complete personality transplant in the pillar. It's still meant to be read as 100% romantic.

[riventhorn]

Both times I've watched this ep, I haven't really paid attention to the Wang Zheng storyline. So next time I will actually have to watch that part with more focus. And lol, Shen Wei can't just refuse to have tea with Zhu Hong and so must wait to hypnotize her. I assume this must also be a Dixing power he learned? Or do you think he can learn powers from the Yashou too?

[jo_lasalle]

No proof, but my theory is that Shen Wei picked up many powers to do with mind control stuff that he had something in his toolbox that worked against her hypnotism, not that he learned her hypnotism specifically. (I know he says it as a half-joke in episode 14 that he could wipe Zhao Yunlan's memories, but... only a half-joke!)

[qwerty]

In ep 11 when they show the hypnotism scene SW tells her to avoid using it unless needed because it can be turned back on the user.

[lynndyre]

Those detachable plaid sleeves are hilarious, I love them. (Shen Wei's fashion sense is proof he's an alien)

I keep trying to figure out exactly how the aboveground thing works. Shen Wei and the Regent seem to be constrained but all the people they arrest... don't seem restricted at all. In 15 Shen Wei says he's limited by "the ZhenHun token and black power", so I'm wondering if the Guardian token effect only happens if you're traveling legally, as it were. Unauthorized border crossings don't get the regulation imposed power-limitation and are then more dangerous. idk.

[solo]

I'm wondering if the Guardian token effect only happens if you're traveling legally, as it were. Unauthorized border crossings don't get the regulation imposed power-limitation and are then more dangerous.

That's an interesting theory! I could buy that, but if it's something that only gets conditionally imposed and not automatically, I then wonder why in moments of crisis (like...Ye Zun!) they can't to go to whoever controls this and say hey, can we maybe let the Envoy have his full powers for a bit to help with this problem?

[jo_lasalle]

It would be a little weird if legal travel was more of a hindrance to powers than illegal travel, but it is a thing that IMO really needs some fanwank, because, as you say, it's not like we hear this about the 'bad' Dixingians that come to the surface.

(Maybe it's a comment on how bureaucracy and the proper forms make everything harder, including use of your power. *g*)

On the other hand, maybe the 'bad' Dixingians are also constrained, or they wouldn't have a super long lifespan on the surface because they burn through their energy too fast... On the other hand, there's butler Wu, who's been around for a long time... IDK, IDK!

[extrapenguin]

Shen Wei just went around the department one day with a notebook to copy what others were wearing so he could fit in better! It's not his fault Engineering folks have terrible fashion sense. He has merely succumbed to peer pressure.

(Then he'll go on a several-month research jaunt to Europe and return in jeans and a hoodie. Zhao Yunlan will explode.)

[mecurtin]

It had to be pointed out for me to notice that the sleeves are actually detachable: I saw him as wearing a T-shirt over a plaid shirt, a fashion choice I have seen scientists make IRL.

The only way that shirt doesn't look like the kind of thing biologists, geologists, etc., wear into the field is that there are no pockets. Otherwise, seems pretty typical to me.

[solo]

I find the Sang Zan / Wang Zheng backstory so incredibly boring. I might have found it more interesting if it was only half as long as it is. Clearly we get some important plot points and foreshadowings, and maybe they had to be buried in this long-ass backstory so they wouldn't be too obvious but omg.

As for Sang Zan, I don't obviously approve of the patriarch-killing but I admit that slave rebellions are totally up my street. Go slaves! And maybe I'm a bad person but if someone killed a person I loved and I had the means to come for them, I absolutely would, so I'm on board with that.

The thing with teleporting right in front of ZYL's gun... that hadn't really registered for me. Oh, Shen Wei. Getting shot by that gun could have been a very dramatic way of blowing your cover.

Those sleeves... #hideseyes

[extrapenguin]

I'm okay with the length – I do like even the bits that don't contain Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan – and the flashback story, but it was ... well. Do not ship. I enjoy slave rebellions, and I don't think Sang Zan was wrong, per se, to kill the Patriarch, but it does not add up to a shippable love story, not without a lot more work.

Oh, Shen Wei. Getting shot by that gun could have been a very dramatic way of blowing your cover.
Also an excellent way of making sure Zhao Yunlan never shoots it again. He jsut worked up the nerve, and now the fucking Envoy teleports in front of his bullet! Oh my god Chu is going to kill him, Heilao-ge please don't die, surely you can fix yourself???

[floating_hell]

I really loved this arc in the novel - I know they took out the BL elements for the show, but I do wish they could've kept in the scene where Zhao Yunlan goes outside to check what's going on and, when Shen Wei suspects he's been gone too long, Shen Wei decides to go after him. He tells two students where he's going and that he'll be back. And they're of course like 'uh cool... is that other guy like, on his way back, or...?' of course they're asking cause they just want to leave, but Shen Wei answers 'no, no, he's fine. I'm here. How could I let anything happen to him?' And they're just left sitting there like 'that's... really not what we asked... or wanted to know, come to think of it.'

[fangirlishness]

I loved that part. The whole snow storm is wonderful in the novel.

(And the jacket thing also makes so much more sense - and Shen Wei's all... "but cold is where I'm at..." and Zhao Yunlan still pushes his jacket on him. I love it.)

[qikiqtarjuaq]

I liked the Wang Zheng/San Zan backstory, because I enjoyed the parallels to Shen Wei & Zhao Yunlan - Finding a lost loved one after a long wait, and doing anything in your power to protect them.

I also love the cracky thought that the Envoy wasn't feeling weak at that moment, he just suddenly had an attack of feelings, and had to try to explain it away to Zhao Yunlan.

[jo_lasalle]

I also love the cracky thought that the Envoy wasn't feeling weak at that moment, he just suddenly had an attack of feelings, and had to try to explain it away to Zhao Yunlan.

LOL! <3 Poor Lord Envoy and this.... human-ness...

[extrapenguin]

"Haixing is bad for me, because I keep getting confronted with all my feels about you all the time!"

[jo_lasalle]

I wish the Sang Zan actor reminded me less of a wet towel, but while I don't ship it (the wet towel factor is one problem; incredibly boring filler scenes are another), I was actually quite impressed on first watch how dark and twisty their romance is. The development of princess and mistreated slave, then the roles flipped around, is very tropey and a bit fanficcy to me, and in that way I actually found it nicely underlining of the tropey-ness of the main pairing of the show.

And in between the dark and twisty, there's the pretty neat thing where not only do the roles get flipped around, but Sang Zan actually really can't handle power and becomes a tyrant himself. I liked it.

(And I still do. I only say 'on first watch' because on every other watch, the boring parts are now just too boring to bear.)

This episode has some of my favourite Zhao Yunlan - Shen Wei - Zhu Hong stuff, too. Both Zhao Yunlan actually putting her on the Shen Wei case and trusting her with it, and the way Shen Wei is just a cut above her baby snake skills, but he's also kind about it, giving her an under-the-influence instruction so she doesn't get in over her head again.

The detachable plaid sleeves are... Oh Shen Wei, honey. I guess there's a reason you have to steal jackets.

Shen Wei as the Envoy is "limited to half his powers" and can't stay too long on the surface. Even now, he aches – what is it about Haixing that oppresses him?

This is a very interesting detail that, IMO, never gets made more concrete, which I found on the one hand frustrating, but on the other gives fic writers nice wiggle room to put limits on Shen Wei's power. Though the biggest question this raises for me is: we really get no indication that he routinely spends longer chunks of time in Dixing to 'recover' - he has an apartment where he seems to actually live, and a full-time job at the university, and then he basically moves in with Zhao Yunlan, so... I don't see him going to Dixing to get his 8 hours, you know?

This is likely another indication of Chu Shuzhi not respecting Zhao Yunlan's leadership, but let's be real, it works just as well as Chu Shuzhi feeling like this is vicarious justice for all the years Zhao Yunlan was an asshole towards Dixingians.

I really think this is just Chu's twisted sense of humour. I can't think of it off-hand but there are other moments where I LOL'd because he's stoic and grumpy all the time but then someone walks into a door and he finds it hilarious. He and Zhao Yunlan have a sort of rough and tumble working relationship where I don't read this as actual lack of respect, though Zhao Yunlan's particular working style doesn't inspire Chu's more "let me pledge my sword and puppet strings to you!!!" dramatic streak the way the Black Cloaked Envoy does.

Enjoying the cinematography section again! Though I also can't help notice how it brings home that they had, like, ONE CLIFF that had to double for ALL THE CLIFFS IN HAIXING.

Notorious jacket thief Shen Wei has yet to return that North Face jacket.

Apologies if I've said this in a previous post already, but I think I only put it on Twitter: I looked into that jacket once, because I thought I neeeeded it. It's resold for about €900, used. Shen Wei is a very, VERY bad jacket thief! It's apparently a limited edition designer collaboration jacket and Shen Wei got STINKY GOO all over it.

[fangirlishness]

I also can't help notice how it brings home that they had, like, ONE CLIFF that had to double for ALL THE CLIFFS IN HAIXING.

ikr? LOL. But at least it is *a nice cliff*.

It's resold for about €900, used.

Wow, I did not know this. This is some nifty BTS information!

[qwerty]

I find the Wang Zheng/Sang Zan romance terribly boring, but I have been warped by years of terrible media apparently into thinking there's nothing wrong with it as long as Wang Zheng is happy.

Also I must protest the accusation of Jacket Thievery. ZYL put it on SW with his own two hands! He wants SW to wear it. And to smell SW on his jacket. Unfortunately SW is bad at romantic nonsense and instead of making it smell of hot professor went out and got stinky monster blood on it.

* Evidence : even while SW is passed out and even before he smells the monster guts, ZYL made no move to reclaim the jacket and instead wants it on SW again.

[jo_lasalle]

Also I must protest the accusation of Jacket Thievery

How can you defend a Dixingian criminal! It was obviously a long con to part ZYL with his very expensive jacket. Someone should alert the Envoy...

[mekare]

You know, I just rewatched this episode for the first time and when Yunlan talked about how people change after losing a loved one in the cave (I believe he says: I know people like that.) I immediately thought that he is referring to his father. We got the tiny flashbacks to his mother‘s death earlier (though at this point we don‘t know that‘s what they are).

[extrapenguin]

...that is a very, very good point. Excellent catch! (IIRC it also implies that Zhao Xinci saw Shen Xi as "his"/his responsibility, which might have some unfortunate implications, depending on the precise wording used. Which I'd have to check.)