sid_guardian | Guardian Episode by Episode: 19

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Guardian Episode by Episode: 19

Welcome to the rewatchalong! This week's topic is episode 19. The Imgur screencap album has 72 images, NONE of which have Youku logos!

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, Episode 17, Episode 18

This week, SID members get kidnapped, Zhu Jiu attempts extortion and gets captured.

Characterization
Let's start by talking about our favorite purple-haired drama llama Zhu Jiu! He makes a car engine malfunction somehow, which doesn't seem to be in his wheelhouse but okay, and then he pauses his evilness to do a whole load of gloating and confesses that he murdered xiao-Jie.

"Let me pause my evil masterplan for a moment to gloat about how I murdered your brother! The boss pays me by the monologue."

Intriguingly, Zhu Jiu addresses Shen Wei as "Professor Shen" on the ransom video. Is this incidental/"I know your secret, Black-Cloaked Envoy!" or is he invested in preserving Shen Wei's double identity for the future drama?

Zhu Jiu claims to know nothing of first aid (despite having been a Dixing palace guard??)

The recruitment speech Zhu Jiu gives Chu Shuzhi is interesting – we know he knows he's dying; is he trying to recruit himself a replacement? His speech was also interesting re: Dixing's illumination levels – "forsake the darkness for the light" would to me imply getting the fuck out of Dixing and wholeheartedly embracing Haixing and maybe getting a job topside like Chu Shuzhi. Zhu Jiu also straight-up refuses to answer when asked who his boss is. Does he think Chu Shuzhi knows Ye Zun?

First, full of hope, but then rejected and dejected. ~~That's what one gets for hitting on taken people.~~

I'd like your thoughts on Zhu Jiu's expression and body language when he hears that he'll be getting the Hallows from Zhao Yunlan. To me, it seems like he's almost sad/like he'd have preferred to not get that phone call, but idk if it's because of some masterplan stuff, because he's sad Chu Shuzhi turned him down, or whether I'm just imagining things.

Zhu Jiu's anti-Yashou prejudice turned out to be part of his downfall. Had he not been arrogant about being chosen personally by the boss and considered Ya Qing useless, she might've declined the invitation from the other Yashou elders and been there to bail him out again. Instead, he got captured. (If Ya Qing wasn't recruited by Ye Zun, then she must've been recruited by Zhu Jiu, which says interesting things about her and Zhu Jiu's recruitment strategies.)

"Nooo! This shirt cost me two months' salary!"

Guo Changcheng continues being a dumb puppy. He reassured Ye Huo's minions that Ye Huo would be OK and was cute in his utter faith in Zhao Yunlan, then screwed up by getting out of the car after specifically being told not to (thus causing their capture/being a part of the reason they were captured), and locking away the freezer shutdown switch. This is the episode where on the first watchthrough my annoyance turned to loathing.

Chu Shuzhi, on the other hand, isn't stupid! He's sort of vaguely mentioned learning stuff from Zhao Yunlan, and here we see him taunt Zhu Jiu out of murdering Guo Changcheng. Then Zhu Jiu gave his spiel of "come work for my boss" and Chu Shuzhi's expression was pure "look at this fucking idiot" until Zhu Jiu insulted the Envoy and Chu Shuzhi went into "hdu insult Envoy-sempai" mode.

And let's not forget him taking off his jacket to keep Guo Changcheng warm! (Ye Huo wishes he were anywhere else for a plethora of reasons.)

This is also the first time we hear about Chu Shuzhi committing taboo crimes in Dixing. The information does come from Zhu Jiu, yes, but Chu Shuzhi himself says he'll tell Guo Changcheng all about it once they get out. No hint as to what makes the crime taboo.

The Hallows also count as characters! In this episode, Zhao Yunlan has no real reason to touch the Awl, but then the Awl starts glowing and he touches it. Wang Zheng earlier speculated about the Hallows being sentient; maybe they really are, and are pulling Zhao Yunlan towards them so that they can make him touch them? So: is Zhao Yunlan actually touching the Hallows of his own free will, or is he being mind controlled/mind influenced by the Hallows to do so whenever they have a message to tell or they want to screw with him?

I mean, this does not look healthy.

The vision was mainly about a potential future to avoid, but the Hallows made vision Chu Shuzhi laugh manically and say "This is just the beginning" – beginning of what? Is this a warning about Ye Zun, or a triumphant declaration of victory now that Zhao Yunlan has been corrupted by dark energy/the Hallows and they can beam visions straight into his brain whenever they feel like it?

This episode is basically a tour de force for Zhao Yunlan planning an operation. He figures out what he needs to do (lure Zhu Jiu out, cut the lights, put power-suppressing handcuffs on him), sets all the pieces in motion, and executes the plan. I loved it!

Zhao Yunlan's thinking face.

Shen Wei's way of displaying concern is fussing; in this instance, aggressively wiping Zhao Yunlan's nose with a handkerchief. He's also fucking pissed, at Zhao Yunlan, at himself, or at the Hallows. (And he has no clue why Zhu Jiu hates him.)

"No, Yunlan, I know you are perfectly capable of imagining me without clothes without getting a nosebleed and fainting. Sit still and let me wipe the Hallows-dust off your face."

There was a very blatant line when Zhu Hong and Shen Wei were going to Fourth Uncle's place. Zhu Hong wondered whether "any affection in the world can last forever", turned to Shen Wei, and gave Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's friendship as an example of an affection that would/could last forever. It was hilarious. As was Shen Wei giving her the advice that the crush would go away within three years.

Lin Jing does appreciate Zhao Yunlan, despite the bonus-canceling: "If the sky was falling, boss would hold it up."

Canon details

According to the Lord of Dixing's palace's books, humans corrupted by dark energy can get "unstuck in time" and see visions of the future
They have touchscreens on a random lab! This must be the future; modern labs have at best light switch type arrangements and more often stuff that's from the 80s. Also, the safety countermeasures on that cryolab are crap, and cold temperature labs don't work like that
There has been no Yashou High Chief for decades
It's the Reunion Festival (5th day of the 8th lunar month, so between 8 Sept and 7 Oct), and the Zhu Jiu vs the SID thing has been going on for over half a year

Cinematography
A shot through a netting thing:

What is the secret the Hallows are hiding?

A bunch of shots from afar:

Interesting to note is that a lot of it is used as a visual language for waiting.

Then there's this shot from below:

There's this nice shot of Zhu Jiu's hand:

Also, I just realized that Zhu Jiu and the Envoy are IIRC the only people on the show who have back-of-the-hand protector/decoration thingies.

And this standoff:

And Shen Wei looks very appealing while using the Hallows as torches:

Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
Only one jacket, but it's different to last episode's one, so this one must happen the following day or a few days later:

Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
No.

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This is one of my favorite episodes. And there are so many pretty screencaps of Chu Shuzhi in the imgur album. *stares*

And all the comments under screencaps about Zhu Jiu are so funny.

"Actually, I have a terminal case of mortality, do you think you'd like to be my successor? You'd have to interact with an annoying Yashou, but you can do all the dramatic monologuing you please and the pay is decent."

Heh.... :DDD

This is a very Chu Shuzhi episode! Actually, given Zhu Jiu's speech to him this episode and Ye Huo's little speech of "I wish my life were like yours" last episode, I think there's some subtle compare-and-contrast of Chu Shuzhi as he is vs other Dixingians. Zhu Jiu and he are sort of foils of each other in a way: loyal right-hand men of one of the twins, but Ye Zun took a respected man and made him a criminal while Shen Wei took a criminal and made him a respected man.

And all the comments under screencaps about Zhu Jiu are so funny.
Thanks! :D

but Ye Zun took a respected man and made him a criminal while Shen Wei took a criminal and made him a respected man

OMG, this is such a wonderful observation. ♥

This is a very Chu Shuzhi episode!

It is, that's the main reason I love it so much.

Zhu Jiu and he are sort of foils of each other in a way: loyal right-hand men of one of the twins, but Ye Zun took a respected man and made him a criminal while Shen Wei took a criminal and made him a respected man.

This is so well said. I never looked at it that way, but yes, absolutely. :)

Really cool observation!

Ye Zun took a respected man and made him a criminal while Shen Wei took a criminal and made him a respected man.
YES!!! I love this.

Also, I just realized that Zhu Jiu and the Envoy are IIRC the only people on the show who have back-of-the-hand protector/decoration thingies.

I've been meaning to ask if anyone knows what these things are called, so I'll take this opportunity!

I applied some google-fu, and it resembles a piece of samurai armor this website calls a "tekko". I think the kanji is 手甲. Google translating the Wikipedia page confirms the method of attachment. I can't find any clue as to whether the hanzi would also be 手甲 from here; will have to google more. It's annoyingly hard to find info on Chinese history in English compared to Japanese.

The closest English term would be a demi-gauntlet, but that doesn't really fit what Zhu Jiu is wearing at all.

Thank you so much, that is fascinating.

I'm rather confused about the timeline of the drama. The 1st 8 episodes take an month, then episode 16 is 2 months after that, and now at episode 19 the show has taken 6 months? But where does all the time come form? Most episodes seem to start right after the previous episode or at most a couple of days? I've mostly been just trying to go with the flow and not worry about it too much but it bugs me.

Most episodes seem to start right after the previous episode or at most a couple of days?
This is due to cdrama pacing! Basically, the cases are split between episodes, but there are always those mid-episode breaks between cases, during which everyone changes clothes. Those are of an unspecified time length (though at least one was long enough for Zhao Yunlan to do laundry) and where most of the time comes from.

(As another example, in Nirvana in Fire, there was a year-sized mid-episode transition. It's the same sort of narrative convention that leads to dramas just being shot as however many hours of miniseries without episode transitions aligning with any sort of break in the pacing.)

I think it's been discussed somewhere else before but the Reunion Festival most likely corresponds to the Chinese New Year's Eve, falling on a new moon in the lunar cycle. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Moon Festival for the full moon at night on the 15th day of a lunar month, and the plan to capture ZJ would've failed on a clear moonlit night.

Is CNY called the Reunion Festival? Googling told me that the Mid-Autumn Festival is also called the Reunion Festival, but didn't bring links to CNY. (Though the whole time-and-date business is complicated by the fact that Dragon City doesn't seem to have seasons.)

the plan to capture ZJ would've failed on a clear moonlit night
Obviously Zhao Yunlan called the meteorologist's office and had them arrange for some clouds! :P

Traditionally, CNY Eve (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year#New_Year's_Eve) is the biggest and most formal family reunion day.

Ok, well hopefully if I watch so more cdramas I'll get used to it -- but its not what I'm used to. Maybe some day someone will put together a proper timeline of the show -- but its not a project I have time to work on right now.

I'm currently watching Nirvana in Fire and I hope the year long transition is signaled some how or I'm going to be so confused. (I mean I'm kinda confused anyways because there's a lot to keep track of)

I was confused about the freezing room. There's a giant fan that looks like it goes to the outdoors. I don't recall it spinning. The holes between the blades aren't big enough for a whole body to get through, I'm guessing, but they could put their arms through it. Warmer air should be coming in through the fan, and they should be able to stand close enough to it/hold an appendage out of it to keep themselves from freezing to death, if not be able to signal for help?

TBh, as a physicist who has actually been in multiple cryolabs, nothing about the lab makes any sense!

1. It's not possible to get to absolute zero. However, it is possible to get pretty close – picokelvin level.
2. The cold bits of the cryochambers are in general at best finger-sized; no-one's going to be able to stuff a human in there.
3. The cryochambers generally start cooldown by pumping the chamber to a vacuum, so they would die of depressurization instead of hypothermia.

...so they could've just used a walk-in freezer instead. That would've been more realistic.

"Forsake the darkness for the light" sounds almost like the opposite of Ye Zun's mind control mantra, "If you desire the light, first revere the night". Hmmmm.

(The cryolab design makes me very angry, in the 'incoherent gnashing of teeth' sort of way.)

"Forsake the darkness for the light" sounds almost like the opposite of Ye Zun's mind control mantra, "If you desire the light, first revere the night". Hmmmm.
Oops! Zhu Jiu's impending death must've screwed his mind. :P

The cryolab is just ... TV writers have no clue how to science, and also cannot search things up on the internet, because that might throw a wrench into their plans of coolness. (Just pass me another drink.)

Zhao Yunlan's thinking face is very attractive. And I love Shen Wei's shameless lying to Zhu Hong in that scene, like "Yeah, np, you can get over a dude in three years, easy." From the guy who pined for 10k years...

LOL, yes! Even if one only counts the time he's been awake and makes a conservative estimate, that's still much over three years. Over a decade! Shen Wei has pined for decades! And now he's lying to his colleagues!

Shen Wei's shameless lying to Zhu Hong in that scene
I actually laughed out loud the first time I watched that scene. What the hell, Shen Wei.

This is a fun episode where I always forgot how much of the milestone moments are actually in it! The nose-wiping! Shen Wei revealing himself/being revealed to Zhu Hong! The love advice conversation!

Intriguingly, Zhu Jiu addresses Shen Wei as "Professor Shen" on the ransom video. Is this incidental/"I know your secret, Black-Cloaked Envoy!" or is he invested in preserving Shen Wei's double identity for the future drama?

I thiiiiiink my impression was that he's using it as a low-level threat there, something he can hold over Shen Wei's head.

One thing that stands out to me about the opening of this episode: the show is really quite callous sometimes. The last ep made a bit of a point of how these boxer kids were rescued, and then they just sort of all die in Zhu Jiu's attack and it never even gets mentioned. Just, in passing, they're all dead because we're done with the boxer plot now!

Zhu Jiu claims to know nothing of first aid (despite having been a Dixing palace guard??)

Might tell you something about "first aid" among the Dixing palace guard...

Had he not been arrogant about being chosen personally by the boss and considered Ya Qing useless, she might've declined the invitation from the other Yashou elders and been there to bail him out again. Instead, he got captured.

I think I missed that! (Or my rewatch is a few weeks too long ago.) Nice catch.

AAAAAAAH GUO CHANGCHENG. I now he's there for comedy to some degree still, but I really, really, really wish they hadn't done the thing where he is the one who fucks up their escape. (Or, yes, gotten out of the car.) It's really bad comedy all around; it makes no sense that Zhu Jiu didn't see that button, and it makes Guo look SO BAD, and I really have to fanwank that interlude away quite hard to enjoy the (really otherwise well-done, IMO) Chu/Guo interaction around the freezing to death. I mean, it took them a while to hit on cuddling for warmth but once they did, it really plays beautifully. (I love that Chu divides up his various cloaks, with Guo getting the proper cloak but Chu trying to cover himself with the floofy chiffon scarf thingie.)

This episode is basically a tour de force for Zhao Yunlan planning an operation. He figures out what he needs to do (lure Zhu Jiu out, cut the lights, put power-suppressing handcuffs on him), sets all the pieces in motion, and executes the plan. I loved it!

kjlödaöjkldaöjkldsaölkadfjkadjl excellently put. Zhao Yunlan planning things is ❤️❤️❤️

Lin Jing does appreciate Zhao Yunlan, despite the bonus-canceling: "If the sky was falling, boss would hold it up."

I HAD THIS IN MY NOTES. I totally missed this the first time I watched the episode, but Lin Jing having a casual big loyalty moment here for Zhao Yunlan got me right where I live.

Fourth Uncle getting chewed out by Flower Lady was very fun, I thought!

Also, I just realized that Zhu Jiu and the Envoy are IIRC the only people on the show who have back-of-the-hand protector/decoration thingies.

They might both shop at Drama Llamas R Us! (Shen Wei has a loyalty card.)

Super minor detail: Zhu Jiu's power walk through Dragon City amused me with all the people staring at him. I don't think he stands out THAT much for weird clothes...

Thanks once more for the work you put into this! Always fun to read!

The last ep made a bit of a point of how these boxer kids were rescued, and then they just sort of all die in Zhu Jiu's attack and it never even gets mentioned. Just, in passing, they're all dead because we're done with the boxer plot now!
Huh, I actually just assumed Zhu Jiu had ignored them and they'd scampered off. I guess it's more likely he just ate their life energies to give to Ye Zun. (This is why you should've stayed in the car, Changcheng!)

AAAAAAAH GUO CHANGCHENG. I now he's there for comedy to some degree still, but I really, really, really wish they hadn't done the thing where he is the one who fucks up their escape. (Or, yes, gotten out of the car.) It's really bad comedy all around; it makes no sense that Zhu Jiu didn't see that button, and it makes Guo look SO BAD, and I really have to fanwank that interlude away quite hard to enjoy the (really otherwise well-done, IMO) Chu/Guo interaction around the freezing to death.
YUP. The only way it makes sense on Zhu Jiu's part is that he set the button up himself so that it wouldn't stop the freeze but would instead make the plate clang up so they'd hate each other. And if they had to have Guo Changcheng do it ... at least make him trip up over his feet so it's an accident! Agh. As I mentioned in the OP, this is the point where I started hating Guo Changcheng instead of just finding him annoying. It's just, couldn't they have not done it? Or done it in any other way?

They might both shop at Drama Llamas R Us! (Shen Wei has a loyalty card.)
Oh no, now I want the fic where everyone from Dixing shops there, and Shen Wei and Zhu Jiu meet amongst the shelves! Or Zhu Jiu runs the store to fund his villainous misadventures.

Super minor detail: Zhu Jiu's power walk through Dragon City amused me with all the people staring at him. I don't think he stands out THAT much for weird clothes...
Well, he was also power walking and likely stopping every few minutes for a manic cackle...

This rewatch has given me a much greater appreciation of Zhu Jiu. I like him much more this time around!

Thanks once more for the work you put into this! Always fun to read!
♥

is Zhao Yunlan actually touching the Hallows of his own free will, or is he being mind controlled/mind influenced by the Hallows to do so whenever they have a message to tell or they want to screw with him?
This is an interesting thought! My gut feeling is that ZYL would be naturally inclined to messing around with them bc Curiosity and (if they are sentient to some degree, which I like) that natural tendency paired with their desire to attract him make it difficult if not impossible for him to resist.

I think you could see it as them recognizing him as the person they want to light the lantern and sort of...grooming him for it? Sort of getting him used to them while also getting to know him better. Which is horrible and creepy so of course I like it. =/

Well, Zhao Yunlan is curious ... but the Hallows only react to him, and are definitely luring him in. "Grooming" is a very good word for it. Good point that they might be aiming to use him as the wick, though of course ficcing provides us with several other things they might want to do.

Oooh, I missed this when it went up. Late to the party!

I'm glad Ya Qing did the sensible thing there and stopped hanging out with the guy who did nothing but insult her.

The Guo Changcheng stuff is just... really really painful. So dumb. So useless. I mean, he essentially causes the deaths of those boxers everyone has been trying to save just because he couldn't follow one simple order. And don't even start me on the thing with the switch.

One thing I never quite got was why Fire guy is so useless in the lab. He can make fire! There's some flammable stuff there. Why not at least set that on fire to delay all the freezing a bit?

I like your theory that the Holy Tools are pulling Zhao Yunlan towards them. Given how curious and reckless he is, they wouldn't have to pull very hard, I think, but the idea that isn't just on Zhao Yunlan has some appeal and would explain the frequency of the touching.

This episode is basically a tour de force for Zhao Yunlan planning an operation.

THIS! It's just wonderful!

I will never get over how Shen Wei manhandles Zhao Yunlan after the Awl incident. Like, 'your body is mine, don't you dare be stupid with it.' No sense of personal space whatsoever. ♥

Someone said somewhere that Zhu Jiu's hand decoration thingie is actually a Final Fantasy fan item. I cannot verify this but it would say interesting things about Zhu Jiu. :)

Shen Wei with the Holy Tools: so beautiful!

I'm glad Ya Qing did the sensible thing there and stopped hanging out with the guy who did nothing but insult her.
I am a bit ??? that she would spend so much time hanging out with the racist, and also that she'd then continue being loyal to the racist's racist boss. Surely you can get better co-conspirators than these, Ya Qing!

One thing I never quite got was why Fire guy is so useless in the lab.
I think he was supposed to be heavily injured by the explosion, as evidenced by him just sitting down and not doing anything the whole time + being sent to hospital afterwards.

Given how curious and reckless he is, they wouldn't have to pull very hard, I think, but the idea that isn't just on Zhao Yunlan has some appeal and would explain the frequency of the touching.
Yeah, there are cases where he does think it's a good idea to touch them and it's reasonable, but other times, it's like his brain skipped straight to Plan Z, Touch the Hallows, and it's baffling, especially given that the situation is not urgent at all.

Shen Wei with the Holy Tools: so beautiful!
He is!

that she'd then continue being loyal to the racist's racist boss.

I think she never realized that the racist's boss was also racist until quite late one.

I can't help wondering what the whole 'revitalizing the Yashou Tribes' is meant to actually mean, anyway. What does she want to happen?

as evidenced by him just sitting down and not doing anything the whole time

That actor must have been so bored...

I think she never realized that the racist's boss was also racist until quite late one.
Maybe? I read her final disillusionment with Ye Zun (via Mi Lu) as being about "aw fuck, they think the Yashou are disposable"; she probably got the idea that Ye Zun wasn't all gung ho about the Yashou cause much before that. Though now I wonder whether they communicated at all before Ye Zun was released from his prison. Hmm...

I can't help wondering what the whole 'revitalizing the Yashou Tribes' is meant to actually mean, anyway. What does she want to happen?
I have no clue so far, but maybe there'll be another throwaway remark about it later on?

That actor must have been so bored...
Hey, he got to turn up to work, take a nap, and collect a paycheck! That's better than nothing.

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Guardian Episode by Episode: 19

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