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sid_guardian2019-06-14 08:10 pm
extrapenguin) wrote in sid_guardian2019-06-14 08:10 pm
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Guardian Episode by Episode: 17
Welcome to the rewatchalong! We are now at episode 17. The Imgur screencap album has 66 images. There will be no rewatchalong next week, as I am traveling, and the one after that will be on the Sunday (30th). The Icon Battle round 2 icons are available, in case you missed them.
Previously on:
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, Episode 16
This week, we finish the soil composition and Zhao Yunlan runs around Dixing case, and start the Fight Club case.
Introductions
"Why did you bring a baby to Fight Club?"
We see Ye Huo for the first time. He warns Chu Shuzhi that this place is not a nice place, and Guo Changcheng should go home.
Characterization
In the past scene, Zhao Xinci seems to be sorry that he killed Bao Laosan's wife instead of the actual thief Bao Laosan (but he was willing to execute a guy for theft just because he didn't immediately turn himself over). Now, Bao Laosan was killed in the scuffle, but Zhao Xinci wants everyone to think it was intentional – was it Zhang Shi taking control and not shooting, or has Zhao Xinci grown soft but doesn't want it to get out?
Zhao Xinci's shock? regret? at killing the wife instead.
Zhang Shi seems to be able to temporarily manifest outside Zhao Xinci's body – or is he simply causing Zhao Xinci to see things, and an outside observer would see Director Zhao talking to himself?
There's friction over Bao Laosan's death, though – Zhang Shi is understandably pissed at the unnecessary death of one of his people, while Zhao Xinci outright declares that it's his "mission and destiny" to kill Dixingians. He also, once upon a time, chose killing one criminal over saving his wife, while his son was present.
Zhang Shi brought the SID library a book on Kunlun's adventures! Hmm. Wanting for Zhao Yunlan to prepare for his role as Kunlun?
When Bao Laosan dies, we see a reaction shot of Chu Shuzhi (usually in Western media, reaction shots go to women, because it's more acceptable for women to display emotions like shock, so my ears pricked up at this) and he looks just as shocked as if everyone had suddenly started driving on the left with no warning. It seems Zhao Yunlan hasn't killed anyone as part of an investigation. (Even Zhao Yunlan's boasting that Da Qing brought up was that Zhao Yunlan wanted to arrest all the Dixingians, not kill them.)
That is the most expression we've seen him have.
Chu Shuzhi later escorts his duckling in Fight Club and is very protective of the Guo Changcheng literally clinging to his coattails.
Cong Bo dressed up as a waitress to get pics of the underground fighting ring. Alas, we did not get to see pics of the crossdressing.
We also don't get to see anything involving more creative uses of this pole.
We get more friction between Ya Qing and Zhu Jiu. Ya Qing calls out Zhu Jiu on his leaving a fellow Dixingian to the wolves, while Zhu Jiu says he's 100% OK with it all, since only the strong deserve to survive, and anyway Ye Zun let him know the true voice of his heart,which is that he should dye his hair purple. Ya Qing says that she is only in this business for the benefits to the Yashou, not out of any love for Ye Zun's WTF Social Darwinist methods.
Ooh, Ding Dun was the Regent's pupil! The Regent freed him, and now the Regent is executing the trio of delinquents. For leading Shen Wei to Zhao Yunlan and thus Ding Dun? For not succeeding in distracting Zhao Yunlan from the mission of finding the Dijun Booklet? He didn't tell the delinquents he was the Regent. (Come to think of it, how did Wu Tian'en manage to lead Zhao Yunlan to Ding Dun? It seems a touch suspicious.)
Shen Wei's Oh No I Have Misplaced My Human search is in parts hilarious and in parts touching. The bar crowd thinks he's a fake Envoy until he turns off all the lights, at which point they do a complete 180° and the bartender is all !!! at the Envoy turning up in his bar.
"Okay, now that you believe I'm me, has anyone seen my human?"
We see Shen Wei go really hard on the delinquent trio – anger and pulling his blade out – and then, after he's reached Zhao Yunlan, he outright kills Ding Dun. (Even if Ding Dun was legally dead already, it's still killing a person.) Is this just him being super worried about Yunlan and willing to kill anyone who tried to kill his human, or is this supposed to be his normal modus operandi as the Envoy/how Dixing is supposed to work?
The delinquents actively fear for their lives. Methinks you're overreacting a bit, Shen Wei.
We don't see what Shen Wei does to save Zhao Yunlan.
"Yunlan, wake up! I urgently require your advice on how to quickly found a hospital!"
The Chancellor commented that Shen Wei looks happier now! Then he immediately gave Shen Wei an ultimatum of teaching vs the SID, and Shen Wei was going to choose the SID (due to putting the aforementioned prevention of war and his duties as the Envoy above things like research?) until Jiajia used nepotism on his behalf and he was allowed to do what he likes. The following scene where Jiajia talks with him was very interesting from a characterization perspective! It's almost as if he didn't realize that people liked Professor Shen and found him an important figure in their lives. It did cause him to do a lot of thinking – he was even lost in his thoughts while Zhao Yunlan explained case-related things to him.
Was he unable to see value to others in his role as Professor Shen?
In this episode: Zhao Yunlan figures out that the dude whose surname means "candle" might perhaps have light-based teleportation powers! He figures this out via doing some research by asking an actual Dixingian civilian. This is something Zhao Xinci never could have done, and as an extension of that, Zhu Jiu is someone Zhao Xinci never could've captured.
"Asking produced surprisingly good results!"
Zhao Yunlan claims he's heartless, ruthless, and an asshole, though that might be just to discourage the "fortune teller". He is definitely given pause by the question of family; he laughs it off, but has to take a moment to generate the quip. Interestingly, he recognizes Ding Dun on sight once Ding Dun takes off the mask.
He also has a prime "Well, that backfired spectacularly!" moment.
In some prime Socialist Brotherhood(TM), Zhao Yunlan brings Shen Wei to his mother's grave back on Haixing. Shen Wei cannot read the mood and states that he's not siding with Zhao Yunlan/the SID due to siding with humans, but only to prevent another war. While they probably do need to talk more about Shen Wei's loyalties and just who he is for Dixing, this is very much not the time and place. Especially when Zhao Yunlan is having some Thoughts about his dad bringing flowers to mom's grave and experiencing emotions related to that.
"Shen Wei, please, you're not helping."
Canon notes
Cinematography
Shots from beneath to show impressive power for Bao Laosan.
Shots from above to show that Zhu Jiu is small before the pillar and to show that Zhao Yunlan has a firefighter's pole thing.
Shots from afar!
We get scenes shot through blinds and other intervening devices to demonstrate secrets and discord.
Left: Zhu Jiu and Ya Qing have a disagreement, and also foreshadowing of Ya Qing harboring doubts. Right: Zhao Yunlan decides to take the Kunlun book as evening reading.
Also, this shot of Shen Wei and his blade is a perfect example of the lyrical diagonal in composition. In Western art thought, the gaze is thought to start from top left and go to the bottom right. The lyrical diagonal interrupts that movement abruptly, like crashing into a brick wall. It is meant to give pause.
The other diagonal is called the dramatic diagonal, and while this shot doesn't have that per se, it shows as the line of sight. Think of the dramatic diagonal as pressing the accelerator on the gaze's way from corner to corner, while the lyric diagonal makes it stutter.
Zhao Yunlan looks at books, decides to leave lit review to Shen Wei.
We also get some tilted camera in this episode. The changing of vertical and horizontal to diagonal gives some life to the shot.
It can also be used to make the height gap look less vast.
Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
We start with the same jacket as last episode, but then he gets to sleep and change clothes for lit review (into a leather jacket), and again before sending his field team to Fight Club (into a denim jacket).
Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
No.
Previously on:
Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15, Episode 16
This week, we finish the soil composition and Zhao Yunlan runs around Dixing case, and start the Fight Club case.
Introductions
"Why did you bring a baby to Fight Club?"
We see Ye Huo for the first time. He warns Chu Shuzhi that this place is not a nice place, and Guo Changcheng should go home.
Characterization
In the past scene, Zhao Xinci seems to be sorry that he killed Bao Laosan's wife instead of the actual thief Bao Laosan (but he was willing to execute a guy for theft just because he didn't immediately turn himself over). Now, Bao Laosan was killed in the scuffle, but Zhao Xinci wants everyone to think it was intentional – was it Zhang Shi taking control and not shooting, or has Zhao Xinci grown soft but doesn't want it to get out?
Zhao Xinci's shock? regret? at killing the wife instead.
Zhang Shi seems to be able to temporarily manifest outside Zhao Xinci's body – or is he simply causing Zhao Xinci to see things, and an outside observer would see Director Zhao talking to himself?
There's friction over Bao Laosan's death, though – Zhang Shi is understandably pissed at the unnecessary death of one of his people, while Zhao Xinci outright declares that it's his "mission and destiny" to kill Dixingians. He also, once upon a time, chose killing one criminal over saving his wife, while his son was present.
Zhang Shi brought the SID library a book on Kunlun's adventures! Hmm. Wanting for Zhao Yunlan to prepare for his role as Kunlun?
When Bao Laosan dies, we see a reaction shot of Chu Shuzhi (usually in Western media, reaction shots go to women, because it's more acceptable for women to display emotions like shock, so my ears pricked up at this) and he looks just as shocked as if everyone had suddenly started driving on the left with no warning. It seems Zhao Yunlan hasn't killed anyone as part of an investigation. (Even Zhao Yunlan's boasting that Da Qing brought up was that Zhao Yunlan wanted to arrest all the Dixingians, not kill them.)
That is the most expression we've seen him have.
Chu Shuzhi later escorts his duckling in Fight Club and is very protective of the Guo Changcheng literally clinging to his coattails.
Cong Bo dressed up as a waitress to get pics of the underground fighting ring. Alas, we did not get to see pics of the crossdressing.
We also don't get to see anything involving more creative uses of this pole.
We get more friction between Ya Qing and Zhu Jiu. Ya Qing calls out Zhu Jiu on his leaving a fellow Dixingian to the wolves, while Zhu Jiu says he's 100% OK with it all, since only the strong deserve to survive, and anyway Ye Zun let him know the true voice of his heart,
Ooh, Ding Dun was the Regent's pupil! The Regent freed him, and now the Regent is executing the trio of delinquents. For leading Shen Wei to Zhao Yunlan and thus Ding Dun? For not succeeding in distracting Zhao Yunlan from the mission of finding the Dijun Booklet? He didn't tell the delinquents he was the Regent. (Come to think of it, how did Wu Tian'en manage to lead Zhao Yunlan to Ding Dun? It seems a touch suspicious.)
Shen Wei's Oh No I Have Misplaced My Human search is in parts hilarious and in parts touching. The bar crowd thinks he's a fake Envoy until he turns off all the lights, at which point they do a complete 180° and the bartender is all !!! at the Envoy turning up in his bar.
"Okay, now that you believe I'm me, has anyone seen my human?"
We see Shen Wei go really hard on the delinquent trio – anger and pulling his blade out – and then, after he's reached Zhao Yunlan, he outright kills Ding Dun. (Even if Ding Dun was legally dead already, it's still killing a person.) Is this just him being super worried about Yunlan and willing to kill anyone who tried to kill his human, or is this supposed to be his normal modus operandi as the Envoy/how Dixing is supposed to work?
The delinquents actively fear for their lives. Methinks you're overreacting a bit, Shen Wei.
We don't see what Shen Wei does to save Zhao Yunlan.
"Yunlan, wake up! I urgently require your advice on how to quickly found a hospital!"
The Chancellor commented that Shen Wei looks happier now! Then he immediately gave Shen Wei an ultimatum of teaching vs the SID, and Shen Wei was going to choose the SID (due to putting the aforementioned prevention of war and his duties as the Envoy above things like research?) until Jiajia used nepotism on his behalf and he was allowed to do what he likes. The following scene where Jiajia talks with him was very interesting from a characterization perspective! It's almost as if he didn't realize that people liked Professor Shen and found him an important figure in their lives. It did cause him to do a lot of thinking – he was even lost in his thoughts while Zhao Yunlan explained case-related things to him.
Was he unable to see value to others in his role as Professor Shen?
In this episode: Zhao Yunlan figures out that the dude whose surname means "candle" might perhaps have light-based teleportation powers! He figures this out via doing some research by asking an actual Dixingian civilian. This is something Zhao Xinci never could have done, and as an extension of that, Zhu Jiu is someone Zhao Xinci never could've captured.
"Asking produced surprisingly good results!"
Zhao Yunlan claims he's heartless, ruthless, and an asshole, though that might be just to discourage the "fortune teller". He is definitely given pause by the question of family; he laughs it off, but has to take a moment to generate the quip. Interestingly, he recognizes Ding Dun on sight once Ding Dun takes off the mask.
He also has a prime "Well, that backfired spectacularly!" moment.
In some prime Socialist Brotherhood(TM), Zhao Yunlan brings Shen Wei to his mother's grave back on Haixing. Shen Wei cannot read the mood and states that he's not siding with Zhao Yunlan/the SID due to siding with humans, but only to prevent another war. While they probably do need to talk more about Shen Wei's loyalties and just who he is for Dixing, this is very much not the time and place. Especially when Zhao Yunlan is having some Thoughts about his dad bringing flowers to mom's grave and experiencing emotions related to that.
"Shen Wei, please, you're not helping."
Canon notes
- Apparently, using Dixing powers to cause harm + resisting arrest = death penalty.
- Zhu Long 烛龙 and Jiu Yin 九阴 are famous Dixingian heroes.
- Zhu Jiu didn't yet have powers when he met Ye Zun.
- Zhao Yunlan's mother's name is Shen Xi 沈溪, with the same surname as Shen Wei.
Cinematography
Shots from beneath to show impressive power for Bao Laosan.
Shots from above to show that Zhu Jiu is small before the pillar and to show that Zhao Yunlan has a firefighter's pole thing.
Shots from afar!
We get scenes shot through blinds and other intervening devices to demonstrate secrets and discord.
Left: Zhu Jiu and Ya Qing have a disagreement, and also foreshadowing of Ya Qing harboring doubts. Right: Zhao Yunlan decides to take the Kunlun book as evening reading.
Also, this shot of Shen Wei and his blade is a perfect example of the lyrical diagonal in composition. In Western art thought, the gaze is thought to start from top left and go to the bottom right. The lyrical diagonal interrupts that movement abruptly, like crashing into a brick wall. It is meant to give pause.
The other diagonal is called the dramatic diagonal, and while this shot doesn't have that per se, it shows as the line of sight. Think of the dramatic diagonal as pressing the accelerator on the gaze's way from corner to corner, while the lyric diagonal makes it stutter.
Zhao Yunlan looks at books, decides to leave lit review to Shen Wei.
We also get some tilted camera in this episode. The changing of vertical and horizontal to diagonal gives some life to the shot.
It can also be used to make the height gap look less vast.
Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
We start with the same jacket as last episode, but then he gets to sleep and change clothes for lit review (into a leather jacket), and again before sending his field team to Fight Club (into a denim jacket).
Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
No.
no subject
no subject
I know! He thought this was just an inconsequential hobby, but now impressionable youths like him! He is Shocked.
no subject
Jiajia is such an adorable character too. Boo on Ye Zun for killing her in the deleted scene.
no subject
Shen Wei is expressing modesty of opinion.
I know!
Obviously they deleted the scene because even Ye Zun would never.no subject
What was the context for this?
no subject