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sid_guardian2019-07-25 10:27 pm
extrapenguin) wrote in sid_guardian2019-07-25 10:27 pm
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Guardian Episode by Episode: 21
Welcome to the rewatchalong! This week we do episode 21 a day early, as I'm traveling tomorrow. The Imgur screencap album has 85 images. Please excuse any oversights; I'm a bit bleh due to the heat.
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, Episode 19, Episode 20
This week, Zhao Yunlan adapts to life blind, while the SID searches for a cure. We start the Miracle Doctor arc.
Introductions
We meet Sha Ya! She is a musician who disses a speaker's acoustics, then zaps the speaker when Lin Jing tries to chat her up over it and makes him pay. She is at the very least amused by Lin Jing's flirting. We then see Ya Qing come up to inform us that yes, Sha Ya is with the baddies.
[insert dramatic music here]
This is also the first time we meet Doctor Cheng, I believe! She is Shen Wei's friend from university. She's a neurologist, except that she does ophthalmology and hypnotherapy. Dragon City Hospital must be very short-staffed. Or she's a genius who specialized in all the things for shits and giggles.
She's also absolutely delighted by Shen Wei finding someone who cares about him that much.
Characterization
Chu Shuzhi is the one to ask what the hell happened to make Zhao Yunlan go blind and prompt Zhu Hong telling that actually, Shen Wei is the Envoy. We don't see his reaction, but the next day he's perfectly willing to restate his undying loyalty to the Envoy (and sigh when Zhao Yunlan tries to do the "but I am your boss actually!" thing).
The regulars find it amusing.
He also got invited to the Guos' for the Reunion Festival, where he played Mah Jong successfully and was super OTT dramatic about his puppet. On the way back, he revealed that he didn't know what a polite remark is.
Please observe how his puppet got its own chair.
Of the SID members, Lin Jing is the only one who didn't have a family/friends to spend it with. He got everyone else's photos, though. And then he met Sha Ya and his heart went doki doki. :P Music seems to be something he likes – his idea of suitable audio entertainment for his blind boss was a sad eulogy with guitar accompaniment.
"I have your sheet music! Please pay attention to me!"
We start Da Qing's amnesia arc! He recalls that 10k years ago, he was part of something big, and wants to remember it. He is also the nonverbal communication stage with Shen Wei with the miracle doctor (how much practice did they have during the war?) and as top of the food chain, "I'm not stealing, I'm openly eating your snacks."
He later gets kicked for his troubles.
Zhu Hong goes home for the holidays only to walk right into a matchmaking session. Oops! She calls it off pretty easily, though. (I was, however, charmed by how the snake boy we see was advertising how good he is at housework! *g*) She reveals to her uncle that the only one in her heart is Zhao Yunlan, and definitely takes the opportunity to cuddle when Shen Wei tosses her at him.
"Uncle, if you're going to organize yet another matchmaking round, could you at least get a new set of groom candidates?"
While everyone else is busy, Sang Zan and Wang Zheng have a romantic interlude. With dancing and an excessive quantity of rose petals.
The Hanga only have one traditional dance. Eventually they might want to branch out.
At the Yashou market, Ya Qing murders Jia-ge for failing to guard the secret passage from Zhu Hong, and was pretty ready to murder Zhu Hong as well. How much can leaders of Yashou tribes get away with with members of other Yashou tribes?
We also have Professor Ouyang turn up again. Hi, Professor Ouyang! He offers Doctor Feng publicity and tries to recruit Shen Wei into the human-buffing research he's conducting. He fails at both.
"Shen Wei! Come join me in my project to slowly fill up a graduated cylinder with colored liquid."
Shen Wei isn't reacting well to Zhao Yunlan's blindness. (He probably blames himself for not arriving sooner.) He's turned into Yunlan's seeing-eye Dixingian and he's so worried about Yunlan that his lecture is an utter mess. He's also very much on edge, and when Zhao Yunlan knocks over some things, he snaps and says, "In the past, you-". I think he was making a reference to Kunlun, there. There's also the freak-out when he finds out Zhao Yunlan has been reading the Ancient Mysteries, which is interesting in light of Shen Wei's secrecy over the past – it seems that in addition to not wanting to tell, he also doesn't want Zhao Yunlan to find out at all.
Internal soundtrack: the swear equivalent of "fuck fuck fuck fuck" used 10k years ago by the Dixing forces.
He is also willing to kill Ya Qing at the Yashou market for colluding with evil – while Shen Wei is likely at least partly motivated by revenge for Yunlan's eyes, it raises the questions of whether what Ya Qing did counts as a Treaty violation, and whose jurisdiction is she in, anyway?
"A cure for Yunlan's eyes or your life! Wait, let me amend that. A cure for Yunlan's eyes and your life!"
In his less murderpants and worrywart moments, he has admitted that Dr Cheng is his university friend, admitted that he doesn't know much about the past (hinting that he slept through some of it!), and been very very discombobulated by the SID greeting him as the Envoy. He was nice and went to do aftercare of Chu Shuzhi's feelings, too, even if Chu didn't need it in the end.
Have one very shocked xiao-Wei.
Zhao Yunlan is trying to adapt to a life of blindness and put on a brave face, even if he's very frustrated by the situation. He has an alarm(!) to remind him of Shen Wei's schedule, since he's sure Shen Wei would forget everything fussing over him! He also continues his wheedling of Shen Wei and accuses Shen Wei of abandoning him and claims that he only got home because a "kind person" helped him.
His life is hard: his Hallows blind him and his cat steals his snacks. Will no-one show pity for this dashingly handsome young man?
As for his father: The moment Zhao Yunlan realized the person helping him up was dad, he jerked his hand away. He also lied about how he lost his sight. Then they had a conversation where Zhao Xinci warns Yunlan away from Shen Wei (revealing that he knows Shen Wei's double identity) and moved into a veiled argument about being friends with Dixingians. Zhao Yunlan says he wants a friend who, when push comes to shove, can be trusted to have his back, and says Shen Wei is good for him. We can all concur.
The closest thing to a positive father-son interaction these two have had in over a decade.
When Zhang Shi says something positive ("I trust you because you are my son.") about Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan immediately spots it as being unlike his father. After Zhang Shi's speech on the four things one mustn't worry about (permanence, right and wrong, kindness and evil, life and death), he remarks that that's more than his father has said to him in the past 15 years. Is that time the time since his mom died?
"The pod person factory must've had a mix-up; there's no way anyone would think my dad would ever say something that positive about me."
At the Yashou market, when Zhao Yunlan calls Shen Wei "xiao-Wei", I think it was a calculated move to stop Shen Wei in his tracks to save Ya Qing's life and thus curry favor with the Yashou leaders. Whether this was the right call, I don't know, but it does make clear that Zhao Yunlan is playing politics while Shen Wei is fighting a war.
"Now that I have my hand on your shoulder, I know where the rest of you is, which is all I need to know! Please bring your butt closer so I can fondle it in lieu of some Hallows."
Canon notes
Cinematography
I'd like to start by talking a bit about diagonals. Shots consisting of vertical and horizontal lines are stable; tilting it so there are diagonals introduces instability and thus doubt. In Zhao Yunlan's conversation with his father, the moment Zhao Xinci takes over, the next shot is shot from a lowered perspective to turn the copious verticals into diagonals:
The other shots in the scene were all regular non-diagonal ones.
The camera stayed mostly at eye level this episode, save for the pan around Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei when they arrived at the (empty) Yashou market...
I also for some reason find a lot of Zhao Yunlan's body language with the cane uncannily reminiscient of Ye Zun.
...and the ceiling shots of Wang Zheng and Sang Zang dancing:
This episode's close-up of hands was from the dancing, too:
This shot is just here because I like it in how it frames Zhao Yunlan and he's so very sure he's in the center of the portrait.
Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
This is at least one day after episode 20 (more likely several, given the notes that Zhao Yunlan's apparently been to several doctors' already, and this is the morning) and happens over two days.
Shen Wei shoe watch
They're under Zhao Yunlan's bed!
At the very least, they look like shoes Shen Wei has worn, but not anything I recall on Zhao Yunlan.
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, Episode 17, Episode 18, Episode 19, Episode 20
This week, Zhao Yunlan adapts to life blind, while the SID searches for a cure. We start the Miracle Doctor arc.
Introductions
We meet Sha Ya! She is a musician who disses a speaker's acoustics, then zaps the speaker when Lin Jing tries to chat her up over it and makes him pay. She is at the very least amused by Lin Jing's flirting. We then see Ya Qing come up to inform us that yes, Sha Ya is with the baddies.
[insert dramatic music here]
This is also the first time we meet Doctor Cheng, I believe! She is Shen Wei's friend from university. She's a neurologist, except that she does ophthalmology and hypnotherapy. Dragon City Hospital must be very short-staffed. Or she's a genius who specialized in all the things for shits and giggles.
She's also absolutely delighted by Shen Wei finding someone who cares about him that much.
Characterization
Chu Shuzhi is the one to ask what the hell happened to make Zhao Yunlan go blind and prompt Zhu Hong telling that actually, Shen Wei is the Envoy. We don't see his reaction, but the next day he's perfectly willing to restate his undying loyalty to the Envoy (and sigh when Zhao Yunlan tries to do the "but I am your boss actually!" thing).
The regulars find it amusing.
He also got invited to the Guos' for the Reunion Festival, where he played Mah Jong successfully and was super OTT dramatic about his puppet. On the way back, he revealed that he didn't know what a polite remark is.
Please observe how his puppet got its own chair.
Of the SID members, Lin Jing is the only one who didn't have a family/friends to spend it with. He got everyone else's photos, though. And then he met Sha Ya and his heart went doki doki. :P Music seems to be something he likes – his idea of suitable audio entertainment for his blind boss was a sad eulogy with guitar accompaniment.
"I have your sheet music! Please pay attention to me!"
We start Da Qing's amnesia arc! He recalls that 10k years ago, he was part of something big, and wants to remember it. He is also the nonverbal communication stage with Shen Wei with the miracle doctor (how much practice did they have during the war?) and as top of the food chain, "I'm not stealing, I'm openly eating your snacks."
He later gets kicked for his troubles.
Zhu Hong goes home for the holidays only to walk right into a matchmaking session. Oops! She calls it off pretty easily, though. (I was, however, charmed by how the snake boy we see was advertising how good he is at housework! *g*) She reveals to her uncle that the only one in her heart is Zhao Yunlan, and definitely takes the opportunity to cuddle when Shen Wei tosses her at him.
"Uncle, if you're going to organize yet another matchmaking round, could you at least get a new set of groom candidates?"
While everyone else is busy, Sang Zan and Wang Zheng have a romantic interlude. With dancing and an excessive quantity of rose petals.
The Hanga only have one traditional dance. Eventually they might want to branch out.
At the Yashou market, Ya Qing murders Jia-ge for failing to guard the secret passage from Zhu Hong, and was pretty ready to murder Zhu Hong as well. How much can leaders of Yashou tribes get away with with members of other Yashou tribes?
We also have Professor Ouyang turn up again. Hi, Professor Ouyang! He offers Doctor Feng publicity and tries to recruit Shen Wei into the human-buffing research he's conducting. He fails at both.
"Shen Wei! Come join me in my project to slowly fill up a graduated cylinder with colored liquid."
Shen Wei isn't reacting well to Zhao Yunlan's blindness. (He probably blames himself for not arriving sooner.) He's turned into Yunlan's seeing-eye Dixingian and he's so worried about Yunlan that his lecture is an utter mess. He's also very much on edge, and when Zhao Yunlan knocks over some things, he snaps and says, "In the past, you-". I think he was making a reference to Kunlun, there. There's also the freak-out when he finds out Zhao Yunlan has been reading the Ancient Mysteries, which is interesting in light of Shen Wei's secrecy over the past – it seems that in addition to not wanting to tell, he also doesn't want Zhao Yunlan to find out at all.
Internal soundtrack: the swear equivalent of "fuck fuck fuck fuck" used 10k years ago by the Dixing forces.
He is also willing to kill Ya Qing at the Yashou market for colluding with evil – while Shen Wei is likely at least partly motivated by revenge for Yunlan's eyes, it raises the questions of whether what Ya Qing did counts as a Treaty violation, and whose jurisdiction is she in, anyway?
"A cure for Yunlan's eyes or your life! Wait, let me amend that. A cure for Yunlan's eyes and your life!"
In his less murderpants and worrywart moments, he has admitted that Dr Cheng is his university friend, admitted that he doesn't know much about the past (hinting that he slept through some of it!), and been very very discombobulated by the SID greeting him as the Envoy. He was nice and went to do aftercare of Chu Shuzhi's feelings, too, even if Chu didn't need it in the end.
Have one very shocked xiao-Wei.
Zhao Yunlan is trying to adapt to a life of blindness and put on a brave face, even if he's very frustrated by the situation. He has an alarm(!) to remind him of Shen Wei's schedule, since he's sure Shen Wei would forget everything fussing over him! He also continues his wheedling of Shen Wei and accuses Shen Wei of abandoning him and claims that he only got home because a "kind person" helped him.
His life is hard: his Hallows blind him and his cat steals his snacks. Will no-one show pity for this dashingly handsome young man?
As for his father: The moment Zhao Yunlan realized the person helping him up was dad, he jerked his hand away. He also lied about how he lost his sight. Then they had a conversation where Zhao Xinci warns Yunlan away from Shen Wei (revealing that he knows Shen Wei's double identity) and moved into a veiled argument about being friends with Dixingians. Zhao Yunlan says he wants a friend who, when push comes to shove, can be trusted to have his back, and says Shen Wei is good for him. We can all concur.
The closest thing to a positive father-son interaction these two have had in over a decade.
When Zhang Shi says something positive ("I trust you because you are my son.") about Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan immediately spots it as being unlike his father. After Zhang Shi's speech on the four things one mustn't worry about (permanence, right and wrong, kindness and evil, life and death), he remarks that that's more than his father has said to him in the past 15 years. Is that time the time since his mom died?
"The pod person factory must've had a mix-up; there's no way anyone would think my dad would ever say something that positive about me."
At the Yashou market, when Zhao Yunlan calls Shen Wei "xiao-Wei", I think it was a calculated move to stop Shen Wei in his tracks to save Ya Qing's life and thus curry favor with the Yashou leaders. Whether this was the right call, I don't know, but it does make clear that Zhao Yunlan is playing politics while Shen Wei is fighting a war.
"Now that I have my hand on your shoulder, I know where the rest of you is, which is all I need to know! Please bring your butt closer so I can fondle it in lieu of some Hallows."
Canon notes
- As per Da Qing, the story told in Ancient Mysteries did really happen, but the details may have been altered by time
- In the Northwest sky, Kunlun wrote: "Stone that crumbles before it grows old, water that freezes before it gets cold, wood that rots before it's born, gold that melts before it's warm; that is what the Hallows are made of" – original Kunlun, or Zhao Yunlan during his month-ish in the past?
- "The sky will not collapse, the earth shall not crumble, and the Hallows won't come forth" refers to Hallows only coming out in times of trouble
- Snakes don't live long, sez Uncle
- Market introductory speech: "All beings begin imperfect. Out iwth the old, in with the new. At the end of the year, the tribes pray to the gods and the ancestors. There's a cloud between the mountains of the great wilderness called the pillars supporting heaven. The dragon god of water touches it and the seasons change."
- The leadership election is in 3 months. Today is over 6 (but under 7?) months since Zhu Jiu became a menace, so the show takes place over ~10 months.
- The sacred wood has withered for 10 000 years.
- Reunion Festival seems to both have everyone go home to their families but also have classes on at University the day after. WTF?
- Zhao Yunlan has a cane now! It is the same cane that Ye Zun will use.
Cinematography
I'd like to start by talking a bit about diagonals. Shots consisting of vertical and horizontal lines are stable; tilting it so there are diagonals introduces instability and thus doubt. In Zhao Yunlan's conversation with his father, the moment Zhao Xinci takes over, the next shot is shot from a lowered perspective to turn the copious verticals into diagonals:
The other shots in the scene were all regular non-diagonal ones.
The camera stayed mostly at eye level this episode, save for the pan around Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei when they arrived at the (empty) Yashou market...
I also for some reason find a lot of Zhao Yunlan's body language with the cane uncannily reminiscient of Ye Zun.
...and the ceiling shots of Wang Zheng and Sang Zang dancing:
This episode's close-up of hands was from the dancing, too:
This shot is just here because I like it in how it frames Zhao Yunlan and he's so very sure he's in the center of the portrait.
Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
This is at least one day after episode 20 (more likely several, given the notes that Zhao Yunlan's apparently been to several doctors' already, and this is the morning) and happens over two days.
Shen Wei shoe watch
They're under Zhao Yunlan's bed!
At the very least, they look like shoes Shen Wei has worn, but not anything I recall on Zhao Yunlan.
Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
No.
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Oh my god I never noticed this and now I kinda want to be nicer to him in my Ghost Story AU.
ETA: Internal soundtrack: the swear equivalent of "fuck fuck fuck fuck"
OMG your captions <3
ETA 2: okay sorry sorry but Zhao Yunlan is playing politics while Shen Wei is fighting a war is brilliant.
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Given that he's also a fan of ghost stories in canon (see: Lai Su the webnovelist), perhaps you should? :P
I'm glad my captions and text are on point!
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I would have more sympathy for Lin Jing being lonely if he noticed and respected Sha Ya's nonverbal signals that she's not interested in what he's trying to sell. Instead he doubles down on peak techbro pushiness (although it's at its worst with the ring he gives her later, when she returns to Dixing).
The Ancient Mysteries book part fascinates me. I wish I understood what was going on there. What are these parts of which the Hallows are made? It's like a fairy tale! (I could make guesses from phase diagrams, but this isn't that kind of science fiction.)
Fourth Uncle knows what Zhu Hong needs. She's not going to be doing the housework.
Shen Wei is having such a bad day here, I think he needs to call in. His students would probably appreciate it. (I still think fondly on the time my diffeq prof wrote an equation down wrong on the board and we spent the rest of the class session failing to solve it. Not what you want to be remembered for...)
I did not notice the cane being the same one Ye Zun uses later! I'll have to run that one by my Watsonian friends, my brain is stuck on the obvious Doyleist interpretation (cough, props budget, cough).
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And this is precisely why I really don't want to be nicer to him in my AU. Cut it out, Lin Jing! You're being terrible!
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Could be I was missing something cultural and there was some sort of coding that showed she actually was interested but couldn't Because Reasons. But if a dude tried something like that on me, I'd skin him alive.
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(I actually think men are lovely but kind of clueless half the time. Poor them.)
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As someone who normally has zero patience for this sort of stuff, I was actually surprisingly okay with this ship once everything was done! The start is urgh, granted, but Lin Jing being okay with Sha Ya straight-up trying to murder him (and being a total fanboy over her music) did a lot to win me over.
I think either the Hallows descriptions have been mythologized over the 10k years, or Zhao Yunlan engaged in some profound trolling in the past. Once I'm a bit more awake I'll try to figure out whether each description matches a Hallow.
LOL, yes.
Obviously Ye Zun stole the cane from gege's boyfriend because he was jealous of gege's boyfriend coming first in gege's heart! Perfectly logical.
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I would have liked at least two more episodes in the past, and the Merit Brush arc has plenty of fat to trim.
As someone who normally has zero patience for this sort of stuff, I was actually surprisingly okay with this ship once everything was done! The start is urgh, granted, but Lin Jing being okay with Sha Ya straight-up trying to murder him (and being a total fanboy over her music) did a lot to win me over.
See, I was more okay with it early on, when I was still mostly reading the subtitles and glancing up once in a while. Around rewatch #3 I started really paying attention to the rest of the screen, and ... yeah, not thrilled with Lin Jing. Although you're right, he does have a few good points.
I think either the Hallows descriptions have been mythologized over the 10k years, or Zhao Yunlan engaged in some profound trolling in the past.
Definitely the trolling, but why not both?
Once I'm a bit more awake I'll try to figure out whether each description matches a Hallow.
My best guess:
* Stone that crumbles before it grows old ~ the Mountain-Piercer Awl
* Water that freezes before it gets cold ~ the Merit Brush
* Wood that rots before it's born ~ the Resurrection Dial
* Gold that melts before it's warm ~ the Lantern
But if it's also what the Hallows are *made* of, they're missing one element of five: fire. And it sounds like the other four are corrupted somehow. Hmm.
Obviously Ye Zun stole the cane from gege's boyfriend because he was jealous of gege's boyfriend coming first in gege's heart! Perfectly logical.
That is a lovely Watsonian explanation, thank you! I'm still confused why Zhao Yunlan had such an odd cane in the first place, but then I look at his apartment and -- yeah. Yeah.
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Yeah, it'd have been nice to show Zhao Yunlan's alcohol for the Yahsou twig scenes the first time round (and then with flashbacks in the relevant episode), plus more scenes with bb Shen Wei all starry-eyed at Kunlun. And even episode 21 could've been trimmed a bit - did Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's dancing have to be that long?
I guess I just have stricter standards for douchebroery - Lin Jing has his good points and isn't condesplaining guitar playing to her, which is more than what can be said for some dudes I've had the misfortune of interacting with.
I'd have assigned them differently! The Lantern is what melts, the Sundial is what crumbles before it's old (because it gave up its life), and the freezing water is the Awl and the rotting wood is the Brush due to vague handwaving. Though now I want a fifth forbidden Hallow that they need to track down without alerting Ye Zun about its existence!
Zhao Yunlan asked Shen Wei to buy the most OTT dramatic cane, because even if he can't see it, he will be blind with *style*.
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Rice wine takes at least 21 days to brew (eyes cabinet); so there was plenty of time to have hijinks back in the past. Maybe even a short case?
And even episode 21 could've been trimmed a bit - did Wang Zheng and Sang Zan's dancing have to be that long?
I write all the Wang Zheng/Sang Zan sappiness off as 'token het to placate the censors'.
I guess I just have stricter standards for douchebroery - Lin Jing has his good points and isn't condesplaining guitar playing to her, which is more than what can be said for some dudes I've had the misfortune of interacting with.
Fair! I used to have a higher tolerance for his sort of nonsense, I think. Now I just go nope.
I'd have assigned them differently! The Lantern is what melts, the Sundial is what crumbles before it's old (because it gave up its life), and the freezing water is the Awl and the rotting wood is the Brush due to vague handwaving.
Hmm, I think I do like the Brush being wood. (I was thinking water = ink, and the Awl makes pillars = earth. At least we agree on the Lantern?)
Though now I want a fifth forbidden Hallow that they need to track down without alerting Ye Zun about its existence!
That would be a lot of fun!
Zhao Yunlan asked Shen Wei to buy the most OTT dramatic cane, because even if he can't see it, he will be blind with *style*.
... now I wonder if Zhu Hong picked it up while she was out grabbing Shen Wei sweatpants.
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I mean, they had to get the Hallows back! Let them do some investigating! (And let Ye Zun do some actual villainy, so it's not "For the crime of killing your abuser, we sentence you to spend the lifetime of the planet in sensory deprivation" from the Hallows.)
That is probably a valid take. I, personally, hate it because Wang Zheng stopped doing interesting team stuff and instead just ... only interacted with Sang Zan. Where did my team stuff go?!
Wait, sweatpants? When did she grab him sweatpants?
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Yes! A bucket full of yes to all of this. The whole 'Ye Zun gets ten thousand years in a pillar for eating the dude who enslaved him' thing bugs me too.
Where did my team stuff go?!
Well, that's why we have fanfic...
Wait, sweatpants? When did she grab him sweatpants?
Episode 22, as per our previous discussion about Shen Wei's
engineer-typicalquestionable taste in casual clothes. (It would have had to be a previous shopping trip, though, as the timing doesn't work out. Oh no, now I want to write the fic about ZH - or LJ, or DQ - going shopping repeatedly because ZYL and SW keep needing stuff.)no subject
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I guess I know what I'm doing this afternoon now...
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Could that be the wick?
I'm still confused why Zhao Yunlan had such an odd cane in the first place, but then I look at his apartment and -- yeah.
Or he only got it after/because he was blind and some cat yashou with questionable taste picked it for him.
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Sure, why not?
Or he only got it after/because he was blind and some cat yashou with questionable taste picked it for him.
Fair! It does seem like the sort of thing Da Qing would pick up while he was out making a snack run and happened to walk by the local cosplay shop.
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This is me. I see the points raised, I see the pushiness, it's not a good look on a dude. But somehow for me it comes together, she has more baggage than she ever tells him, he adores her, he brings Zhu Hong on a date... (And I'm personally also very awwww about the sky thing.)
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Yeah, that part was really really uncomfortable to watch.
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Oh, wow, that's a good detail. Did Ye Zun break into ZYL's apartment? XD
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1) find out where his brother lives
2) break in
3) look around, notice it seems like his brother hasn't been there much lately
4) notice ~~Dixing energy coming from across the hall
5) break in
6) notice a new suit, put it on
7) notice a very nice cane, put it away for later
8) rummage through the fridge for snacks
9) pet the cat
10) realize the cat is yashou
11) pet the cat more
12) plan world domination
13) more snacks
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(Also, Ye Zun has no idea how to clothing. He put on two jackets and no shirt.)
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From the impersonation scene? Rewatching, it looks like it might be a blouse with a really deep neckline. It's got shirt cuffs on the wrists, whatever it is.
Overall, though, that outfit is Deeply Weird. Considering how buttoned-up Shen Wei is, of course Ye Zun's like "here's my sexy, sexy collar bone, Zhao Yunlan, do you like what you see."
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It was hilarious! I think he might've had seducing Yunlan as a background thought? "Look, gege, Kunlun likes me more! He can't tell us apart!"
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She's a neurologist, except that she does ophthalmology and hypnotherapy. Dragon City Hospital must be very short-staffed.
LOL! There is a people shortage in Dragon City in general, so maybe everyone has to do multiple jobs? (Maybe Shen Wei becoming a consultant for the SID was him finally meeting his three-jobs quota?)
In the doctor's office, it also becomes clear that Shen Wei forgot his class! Zhao Yunlan had to remind him and it seemed to come out of the blue! Poor Shen Wei, all worried sick. ;__; (Shen Wei losing his focus in the lecture later is so heartbreaking.)
Chu Shuzhi is the one to ask what the hell happened to make Zhao Yunlan go blind and prompt Zhu Hong telling that actually, Shen Wei is the Envoy.
I found that a really interesting choice. The way Shen Wei's double identity is revealed, once Zhao Yunlan knew, was almost super casual - I think they don't actually tell Zhu Hong in the previous episode, they just sort of let her observe Shen Wei turning into the Envoy. And here, Zhu Hong makes a pretty big call to let the rest of the team know, and it doesn't sound like she had instructions on how to handle this. Which in the context of Zhao Yunlan just having lost his eyesight, does make sense!
I love that Shen Wei singles out Chu specifically to apologize to for not telling him the truth. <3
On the way back, he revealed that he didn't know what a polite remark is.
I personally don't ship them romantically, but Chu being nervous that he messed up the meet-the-parents is absolutely adorable.
Please observe how his puppet got its own chair.
LOL YES! Respect the puppet!
"I'm not stealing, I'm openly eating your snacks."
:DDDDDDDD
I was, however, charmed by how the snake boy we see was advertising how good he is at housework!
Heeeeeeee. I loved it.
I have on occasion wondered, once Zhu Hong gets over her crush on Zhao Yunlan, what sort of dude would work for her. I do suspect she'd be quite happy with someone she can boss around up to a point, but that guys like these candidates would be a little too pushovery for her.
At the Yashou market, Ya Qing murders Jia-ge for failing to guard the secret passage from Zhu Hong, and was pretty ready to murder Zhu Hong as well. How much can leaders of Yashou tribes get away with with members of other Yashou tribes?
I like Ya Qing, and she gets a lot of stuff to do that is "ambiguous villain", but yeah, the casual murder of young snake guard is actually worth keeping in mind...
which is interesting in light of Shen Wei's secrecy over the past – it seems that in addition to not wanting to tell, he also doesn't want Zhao Yunlan to find out at all.
He must be panicking about the timeline, and is in a state where he'd be quick to panic, the poor lamb. (I think he probably can't know how much Zhao Yunlan is 'supposed' to know before he travels back in time, but if his overriding mission is to not let slip about the timeloop until it happens, I can see that he gets nn-nnnnervous over any idea of Zhao Yunlan finding out stuff on his own, whether Shen Wei can tell whether he was 'supposed' to find that out or not.)
Internal soundtrack: the swear equivalent of "fuck fuck fuck fuck" used 10k years ago by the Dixing forces.
In a nutshell!
He was nice and went to do aftercare of Chu Shuzhi's feelings
LOL! <3
He is also willing to kill Ya Qing at the Yashou market for colluding with evil – while Shen Wei is likely at least partly motivated by revenge for Yunlan's eyes, it raises the questions of whether what Ya Qing did counts as a Treaty violation, and whose jurisdiction is she in, anyway?
He really snaps there, man. I don't think he was thinking of it in terms of a literal Treaty violation, but he feels justified in dispensing some justice, and is also seriously on the RAWR!!! end of Shen Wei emotions. (Does he know by this point that she just murdered somebody? I don't remember...)
Interesting confession: I had not actually put this together with Zhao Yunlan's eyes this explicitly. After the Ye Zun interlude, I kind of forgot Ya Qing also had a big hand in that park scene - or didn't think through what that might mean to Shen Wei. But the degree to which Shen Wei snaps is totally in line with all the other times he reacts... unusually strongly... when Zhao Yunlan was in danger or harmed. #duh
As for his father: The moment Zhao Yunlan realized the person helping him up was dad, he jerked his hand away.
Zhao Yunlan KILLS ME in that scene. He's totally got it together being all aggressively fine over losing his sight, but his dad helping him up makes him crack.
(Though I'm also a terrible person and still find Zhao Yunlan walking into the gate hilarious.)
The speech at the gate makes no sense to me and I've stopped trying to get it to make sense.
Is that time the time since his mom died?
I took it as either the mom dying, or a short while after his mom died and there having been some moment where Zhao Yunlan concluded / was shown once and for all that his father didn't like him? Kid!ZYL looks a little younger to me than 13, but, what do I know...
I think it was a calculated move to stop Shen Wei in his tracks to save Ya Qing's life and thus curry favor with the Yashou leaders. Whether this was the right call, I don't know, but it does make clear that Zhao Yunlan is playing politics while Shen Wei is fighting a war.
I like this interpretation. I've only seen interpretations so far that explained it from a meta level (like relating to a scene that later got cut) but Zhao Yunlan is a smart and calculating sort of guy, so it's an interesting take he might have come up with it in the moment...
Zhao Yunlan has a cane now! It is the same cane that Ye Zun will use.
OMG is it??
(more likely several, given the notes that Zhao Yunlan's apparently been to several doctors' already, and this is the morning
Oh, good reminder on the doctors...
Finally, this episode had Zhao Yunlan so ouchy, and such a jerk, and so charming. <3 And Shen Wei looks unearthly pretty in the scene at the flea market.
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LOL that is hilarious ... and I want to see how he does the bureaucracy for the Envoy gig. Is he marked as a SID Consultant twice? *g*
The others are just whatever, but Chu is his minion!
I think Shen Wei should've just called in and also acquired a larger support network. Currently, it's just him, and he's in full Protect Yunlan mode so he's not consulting Yunlan, and I really think he could do with having someone to share his burdens with, academic, interpersonal, and Envoy-official.
Nothing's explicitly stated, but she's choking Zhu Hong and there's a corpse at her feet. (Zhao Yunlan, of course, didn't see the corpse. Had he seen it, idk if he'd have made the same choices...)
It's Traditional! :D
Zhao Yunlan and Ye Zun both have black canes with golden toppers. I can't get pics on mobile, but yes, it's the same.
There are a lot of interesting things to chew on re: Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's relationship and them. Shen Wei also seems even more protective/parental than usual. Will have to chew on this some more once I am no longer colossally sleep-deprived.
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It's really quite telling that he's willing to. But at that point it's really important to Zhao Yunlan keeping this ginormous deal a Really Okay and Handle-able Deal, so Shen Wei cancelling class would be NU-UH. (And, not to open this can of worms, but just now it's also striking me that this is an interesting question that slightly changes colour if you assume they're an official couple vs. if you assume they're not...)
Really, thank you for the cane info, I never noticed and that is DELIGHTFUL. (Oh god Ye Zun, you colossal... something.)
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And yeah, Ye Zun is a colossal ... Ye Zun.
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And Dr Cheng is shipping the two of them so much, it's adorable! I thought maybe they took Zhao Yunlan to her because they wondered if something was wrong neurologically, having checked out various other options.
I love that Shen Wei actually apologizes to Lao Chu, that's so considerate of him.
Lao Chu, by the way, is Xiao Chu at the Guo household! That anyone would 'xiao' him just cracks me up. And he was concerned that Guo's parents wouldn't like him.
Will no-one show pity for this dashingly handsome young man?
I actually find it really lovely how Da Qing treats the blindness thing, he kind of plays around with it to make Zhao Yunlan lighten up and it works. Everyone else is all DOOOOOOOM and he's like haha, kick me if you can find me.
But ouch Zhao Yunlan's body language when he finds out the one who helped him up is his father... just ouch. A great spirited fightback from Zhao Yunlan on the matter of Shen Wei and then, just to remind us what state he's in, he knocks his head on the gate. Love this sequence, love sassy Zhao Yunlan.
Does Zhao Yunlan realize the flea market is an empty field? You'd expect sound at least?
[w]hen Zhao Yunlan calls Shen Wei "xiao-Wei", I think it was a calculated move to stop Shen Wei in his tracks to save Ya Qing's life and thus curry favor with the Yashou leaders.
I always thought it was done to stop him killing Ya Qing, yes. The currying favour part didn't occur to me, I thought he was just basically DNW because he doesn't like Shen Wei killing people in cold blood.
It's funny how everyone wants Zhao Yunlan to go to the miracle doctor but of course Lin Jin has to point out that only science works!
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If one really wanted to, one could say that maybe Ye Zun spit her back out because her hair was tickling him, and only kept the guitar in...
I thought maybe they took Zhao Yunlan to her because they wondered if something was wrong neurologically, having checked out various other options.
That does make sense to me, though I think my general impression was that her speciality is a little... free-floating in the Guardianverse.
Everyone else is all DOOOOOOOM and he's like haha, kick me if you can find me.
That's a great point and probably really what Zhao Yunlan wants, given all his own Aggressive Okayness.
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Or that she escaped, but Ye Zun ate her guitar in a fit of pique! Or maybe he just wanted to learn how to play the guitar, and didn't quite understand that the way to do that is not by eating the guitar...
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Lao Chu has been xiao chu twice, then! The first time was with the Regent, whom he choked. Guo changcheng's parents did not get subjected to any murder attempts!
Zhao yunlan knocking his head on the gate was hilarious. Chu would've laughed.
Huh! Do we see any other scenes that'd support this interpretation?
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Huh! Do we see any other scenes that'd support this interpretation?
No, because generally when Shen Wei kills people it's in the heat of a fight. This one's an exceptional scene and we can read all sorts of stuff into it. :)