The Regent's power? About the matter of Ding Dun.

[solo]

This is a thing that struck me on watching all this for the gazillionth time. I'd never paid much attention to Ding Dun in episode 8 and for the longest time failed to connect him with the stabby guy in episode 18. Once I did, though I started wondering.

Ding Dun first appears in episode 8, where he is almost promptly offed by Zhu Jiu (around 18 minutes in). The Envoy was looking for him because he'd been up to mischief at the palace, and he states 'the traitor is dead'.

Ding Dun is mentioned 29 minutes into episode 15, where the Regent suggests he may have stolen the Dijun Register, and the Envoy says 'Ding Dun was ambushed in Dragon City. I personally took his body back to Dixing.'

Episode 16, around 6 minutes, Shen Wei says to Mr Slimebag next to the Regent 'You're the clerk who replaced Ding Dun'. All fine and so far logically consistent.

But of course Ding Dun is fit as a fiddle in episode 17, happily burning the Dijun Register and stabbing Zhao Yunlan. (20, 21) Shen Wei kills him for good.

Later in the episode, (30) the clerk worries that the Envoy might have figured something out re Ding Dun, but the Regent says 'Don't worry. Without proper evidence he won't say a word. I did it all out of kindness. Ding Dun was my student. I was soft and helped him cheat death. How was I to know he'd keep going down the wrong path.'

The 'cheat death' is my version, previously it was all about helping him to 'escape', I have no idea from where.

But what I'm wondering now is, can the Regent revive people like Shen Wei can? If Shen Wei says the guy was dead, I'm pretty sure he really was dead. Can anyone with dark energy revive people? Or is this the Regent's original power and Shen Wei learned it by observing him?

Thoughts?

Comments

[jo_lasalle]

No coherent thoughts, but innnnnteresting!

Later in the episode, (30) the clerk worries that the Envoy might have figured something out re Ding Dun, but the Regent says 'Don't worry. Without proper evidence he won't say a word. I did it all out of kindness. Ding Dun was my student. I was soft and helped him cheat death. How was I to know he'd keep going down the wrong path.'

Though it cracks me up that what you're laying out here really sounds like a subplot that was supposed to be meaningful, but it never actually became meaningful. It fits with Ding Dun's actual death, which to me was always "Shen Wei kills a guy and nobody notices or cares".

From what you're laying out here, the Regent having healing powers would sound plausible. But it also might be plausible that as the Regent, he might simply have the resources to get someone who can heal people, so it's not necessarily conclusive?

[solo]

True, he might have outsourced the issue. I'm quite intrigued that the Regent seems to have felt enough loyalty to anyone to bother with whatever he did, but he presumably considered it a low-risk thing.

[jo_lasalle]

He might also be lying there! I mean, telling the truth that he helped Ding Dun escape, but dressing up as "kindness" when what he was doing was be strategic - gaining himself someone who might be loyal to him.

But yeah, low-risk thing in any case.

[trobadora]

I thought "helping him escape" was about Ding Dun's original escape from prison, prior to his first appearance working for Zhu Jiu - after all doesn't the Envoy come to the SID asking them to help hunt him down because he's escaped from prison?

[solo]

He escaped from the palace before he could be imprisoned and you're right, the Regent could have helped him with that.

It doesn't quite explain why he is alive again after being not just sort of, or mostly, but all dead, though?

[trobadora]

That's true, it doesn't explain why he's alive after being dead! I have no good explanation for that either.

[sakana17]

I wondered about "helped him cheat death," too. I hadn't thought about healing being the Regent's power. Because, ick, I dislike the Regent so much I don't want him to have a decent power. But now thinking about it, it could have helped him become Regent, a useful power like that. Though apparently he doesn't bother to use it on the Lords of Dixing? Orrrrrr... He does use it on the Lords of Dixing to extend their useful life long enough until a successor can be found? Hmmm!

I also like jo_lasalle's suggestion that the Regent could use his connections to get someone else to heal Ding Dun. To me, that seems more Regent-like... But I am fully prejudiced when it comes to the Regent and I own it.

[solo]

I know, right? The Regent's power should definitely be something like grovelling. And yeah, he could have got someone else to do it, or something entirely different might have happened, but somehow Ding Dun went from dead to alive again in Dixing and there's nobody else in the picture who even hints at being connected to him.

[winter_blossom]

I couldn't make heads nor tails of the Ding Dun issue myself, but I really like your theory! I never thought to connect his apparent return from the dead to the Regent's admitting that he helped Ding Dun escape (whether from prison or from death or from both is uncertain).

I always did wonder what the Regent's power was. He couldn't possibly not have one, holding such a significant position for so long, but it would be really cool to think he can revive people provided he gets to them early enough after death, and maybe provided they fulfil a few other conditions, like having been killed before their natural lifespans are over, with dark energy and not by illness or accident, provided the Envoy didn't kill them himself (cos maybe SW's dark energy automatically nullifies the revival), etc.

I find the Regent to be a very interesting character, personally, since imo he's the best politician in the entire story (putting all the Haixing ministry guys to shame XD), and who, at the end when both the heroes and the all villains have finished killing each other, is not only alive and kicking but also in a relatively safe position, probably for the rest of his days. Just like all the real-life backstabbers we know and love (to hate)!

[solo]

really cool to think he can revive people provided he gets to them early enough after death, and maybe provided they fulfil a few other conditions,

Yeah, that would be an awesome power to have and would make people want to be in your good books just in case.

who, at the end when both the heroes and the all villains have finished killing each other, is not only alive and kicking but also in a relatively safe position, probably for the rest of his days. Just like all the real-life backstabbers we know and love (to hate)!

Very true! He lives in the realms of plausible deniability. How I hate people like that. ;_;

[jo_lasalle]

Bringing them back from the dead (under certain conditions) in a more specific way than general "healing" could work really well for the kind of guy he is and the position he's in, where 'cultivating some people who owe you big time' would be very useful!

[winter_blossom]

Right? Would be a good basis for fic! If anyone would ever bother to write fic with the Regent in any position of significance, that is... Which I'm sure nobody would ^_^

[mekare]

Hmm, that is really strange. I like the theory of the Regent having the revival power, and using it to prolong the King‘s lives.
The whole alive-dead-alive thing sounds like something adapted from the novel but then not properly explained? Or maybe those scenes were cut?