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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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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.)
no subject
And yeah, Ye Zun is a colossal ... Ye Zun.