sid_guardian | Guardian Episode by Episode: 28

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type: episode discussion

Guardian Episode by Episode: 28

Welcome to the rewatchalong! This week we watch episode 28. The Imgur screencap album has 52 images. Next week's post will probably be on the Thursday again.

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, Episode 21, Episode 22, Episode 23, Episode 24, Episode 25, Episode 26, Episode 27

This week, the Merit Brush endgame finally starts after a bunch of Sha Ya flashbacks.

Characterization
"Must we be sacrificed for the sake of the human race?"

Let's start with Sha Ya! We get her backstory of being part of the friendliest love triangle of all time, (seemingly) losing it, only for the dude to get himself shot, hence her desire to murder Zhao Xinci as the (presumed) gunman. Prior to that, however, she was remarkably rational, and handled Gu Ban picking Hua Yuzhu reasonably well.

The reason she wanted to go to Haixing was to see the stars! She was also the driving force behind them going to Haixing, since Hua Yuzhu wanted to see the flowers but was willing to let it be, and Gu Ban was too bland to have any opinions.

Note also her and Hua Yuzhu running around the scenic bridge with no Gu Ban in sight. He must've been offscreen being boring.

I'm pretty sure getting caught was part of a plot, and I think she was okay with it because she wanted to use the SID to track down Hua Yuzhu. After she's done that and chosen the villains' side, she sends Lin Jing the code for the message, either due to regrets or because she wishes for an audence. And she has no patience for Wang Xiangyang's villain monologues.

Lin Jing is still besotted with her (until he hears about Gu Ban) and is completely willing to forgive the murder attempt and give her a nice ring. And let her out of the SID so she can visit the forest of emotional significance. (As opposed to telling his boss Hua Yuzhu will be there and keeping his bonus for the next century.)

The episode also contains a brief appearance by Ye Zun. He claims it has been a long time since anyone visited, so he hasn't had a chance to apply his compassionate heart. And like any good fairytale being, he says his wish-granting function is only available for a limited time, so you better travel up to Haixing now or never!

"No, I swear they only stuffed me in here because my altruism made them all look bad! Honest!"

The award for the most metal line of the episode goes to Zhang Shi for "You're quenching your thirst with poison, kid." He's so obviously not-Zhao Xinci that even Wang Xiangyang cottons on! *g*

Wang Xiangyang wanted to do some Envoy cosplaying to make this look more legitimate and dramatic, but he couldn't make his papier-mâché polearm look like anything but a sad metaphor for his life so far.

Other cool conversations are Wang Xiangyang explaining that the point is not whether or not the SID can solve the thing, it's to lead them around, to which Ya Qing remarks "You sound more and more like boss." We also get Sha Ya demanding "Must we be sacrificed for the sake of the human race?" which is imo one of the throughlines of the show.

"Must we be sacrificed for the sake of the human race?"

Shen Wei is really into his responsibility and Envoy duties in this episode. He appeals to Sha Ya's reason and assures her it's possible to turn back (similarly to how he handled Da Ji), he teleports to Zhao Yunlan's side in the forest to help with the Sha Ya search, he gives a pep talk to Zhao Yunlan after Zhao Xinci gets kidnapped, and when some crows confront them, he pushes Zhao Yunlan out of the way. And offers no explanation for why his cut isn't healing, because of course.

Shen Wei, internally: "If only we could ignore your xenophobe dad and just be like this forever."

While he isn't concerned about Shen Wei's sudden affinity for keeping his cuts bleeding, Zhao Yunlan should rethink his personnel choices – leaving Lin Jing in charge of his girlfriend wasn't the wisest choice (just like leaving Guo Changcheng alone with Zhu Jiu wasn't the wisest choice). At least give Zhu Hong jurisdiction, y'know?

"Well, the good news is that we can fund the new building solely from the bonuses I've had to cancel."

He's also very concerned about his dad, and no matter how much of an asshole Zhao Xinci might be, he's still Zhao Yunlan's dad and Yunlan cares about him. Zhao Yunlan's upset enough about this that he actually kicks over a chair! And needs a pep talk from Shen Wei. And goes to touch the Longevity Dial, which doesn't give him anything useful, except a nap. (The Longevity Dial's thing is classic intermittent reinforcement – give something every time they're touched, and they'll only be touched in great need. Giving out something randomly if touched, OTOH, is the same mechanism some abusive relationships work and how scientists get rats addicted to pressing the "give food pellet" button.)

"Not sure if want."

Oh, and Zhao Yunlan sits on the table even when talking to Vice-Minister Guo.

Timeline of day
21:30 Zhao Xinci's car accosted
00:00 Vice-Minister Guo comes to the SID and the countdown starts
06:00 Zhao Yunlan wakes up after his Hallows groping nap

Canon details

There are 119 Hua Yuzhus in Dragon City, from which we can probably come to some conclusion about the population. How common is the name 华玉柱 in China?
Flowers and trees not common in Dixing
There's a forest on the east side of Dragon City
Zhao Xinci recommended Zhao Yunlan for SID Chief
The Regent isn't sending reports on Dixing to Shen Wei, but he should be.

ETA: Taiwan has 28 million people and about 4k people with the surname 华. Assuming a similar density of people with that surname in Dragon City and that all of them are called 华玉柱, we get a population of 826k for Dragon City. Now, since there must be people with the surname 华 who are not called 华玉柱, Dragon City is most likely a city with over a million inhabitants.

Cinematography
The "hold shot constant but change focus from one thing to another" technique is pretty common in cinematography, but this is the first time I recall seeing it in Guardian!

Sha Ya, Hua Yuzhu, a bridge, and a plant.

And the standard shots from above

Love rivals hold hands 100% platonically while dude gets left out. Zhao Yunlan goes to fondle the Hallows.

and below

Shen Wei teleports over to prevent Zhao Yunlan from fondling any Hallows. Ye Zun tries to talk a bunch of Dixingians into visiting Haixing.

And then ones that I just plain like and would like to highlight!

Sha Ya electrocuting a car while flanked by two people in black? Very metal.

Zhao Yunlan, alone in the SID, lit by a spotlight like the lone soul he is.

This one's here just because Sha Ya looks happy in it.

Zhao Yunlan jacket watch
Three! We continue from last episode and its leather item, then Zhao Yunlan goes home to change jackets into something that's not leather. On the day of the 24h countdown, he puts on a denim affair.

Did Shen Wei take off his glasses?
Yes, when he was watching over Zhao Yunlan sleep off his Hallows nap.

The face of a man who wishes Zhao Yunlan would fondle him in lieu of the Hallows.

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Ah yes, the "Just be poly!" episode. I'm sure by this point that that phrase is stamped on my forehead with how many times I've yelled/muttered/sighed it at my monitor during the Gu Ban / Hua Yuzhu / Sha Ya backstory. Gu Ban is basically a cardboard cutout that says "No gay here!" and could easily be removed without me noticing.

I'm pretty sure getting caught was part of a plot, and I think she was okay with it because she wanted to use the SID to track down Hua Yuzhu.
It sounded to me (1, 2) like Wang Xiangyang and Ya Qing specifically sent her to serve as a distraction for SID while they got ahold of Zhao Xinci's schedule (so they could kidnap him).

I love how often the pillar is the source of all the ideas in Dixing. Everyone's just going about their lives, and then, boom, fairy uncle Ye Zun has a Brilliant Plan! Dixing fairytales must be wild, because he's been doing this to people for a lot longer than just the duration of the show - although perhaps not the full ten thousand years. (I always wonder what the ruins used to be - did he have a temple? My headcanon says yes.)

Shen Wei's duty-driven pep talks really contrast hard with his lack of personal disclosure here. Sometimes I want to jump in the wormhole and smack Kunlun before he can say that one thing in that one scene that one time, you know?

The "Why are you so stupid?" scene is a mood for both of them, and frankly the hypocrisy is astounding. Take a bit of your own medicine, Shen Wei.

I sometimes wonder how much of Zhao Yunlan's decision to leave people in charge of people that they have no business being in charge of (GCC with Zhu Jiu, Lin Jing here with Sha Ya) is a test, but really, he's probably just doing the best with the resources he's got, with a side of "Employees are often disappointing anyway, so why worry about it."

Gu Ban is basically a cardboard cutout that says "No gay here!" and could easily be removed without me noticing.
He's the rare dude who dies just to generate angst and pain for two women with no arc of his own! Nevertheless, I'd rather he have been deleted from the show.

I love how often the pillar is the source of all the ideas in Dixing. Everyone's just going about their lives, and then, boom, fairy uncle Ye Zun has a Brilliant Plan!
TBF, Ye Zun has had ten thousand years to come up with Brilliant Plans! And yes, I want to read all the fairytales of Dixing. Fairy uncle Ye Zun shooting people up with his pillar would be amazing. One wonders what he thinks of it all.

Sometimes I want to jump in the wormhole and smack Kunlun before he can say that one thing in that one scene that one time, you know?
Me too. Just – don't, Zhao Yunlan. Shut up and nod and pet xiao-Wei's hair instead.

The "Why are you so stupid?" scene is a mood for both of them, and frankly the hypocrisy is astounding. Take a bit of your own medicine, Shen Wei.
Indeed. And Shen Wei was so baffled that Zhao Yunlan might miss him when he was gone, during the hospital bomb thing! Seriously, Shen Wei.

I sometimes wonder how much of Zhao Yunlan's decision to leave people in charge of people that they have no business being in charge of is a test,
When he discovered there was a traitor, he said (paraphrasing) "Hire whom you trust, trust whom you hire" and I guess this is him placing absolute trust and not second-guessing his team? But yeah, he ... should hire more people, for one, so he could have more redundancy in his team (Ye Huo was right there!), and try to make sure there wouldn't be any obvious conflicts of interest.

(GCC with Zhu Jiu, Lin Jing here with Sha Ya) is a test, but really, he's probably just doing the best with the resources he's got, with a side of "Employees are often disappointing anyway, so why worry about it."

Tellingly, GCC and Lin Jing are both human. Every one else isn't or is dead.

I'm not sure how telling this is, since I can't come up with a situation where someone with Sha Ya-Lin Jing level ties to one of the other people would've been taken captive ans Zhao Yunlan would've let the subordinate with ties guard the captive/not let the subordinate with ties guard the captive. The closest is Da Ji, but she was dead then.

(And Guo Changcheng was more Zhao Yunlan flubbing by not specifying that zhu Jiu needed two guards all the time/making sure a responsible and competent person was guarding him all the time, instead of him ordering Guo Changcheng to guard Zhu Jiu. So excess belief in his subordinates but excess belief in their logistical skills rather than Guo changcheng in specific.)

Sometimes I want to jump in the wormhole and smack Kunlun before he can say that one thing in that one scene that one time, you know?
AND HOW.

This seems like a good place to note that I happened across a Guardian fic by a writer I like, idly googled to see what the hell canon it was, came across this comm and especially these rewatch posts and

qikiqtarjuaq 's gif posts, and, er...now I may have all the download pages bookmarked and have read through a bunch of meta and... I don't even know from cdramas and I'm not usually a visual canon person at all, what even. That is to say, thank you very much. :)

But really, Shen Wei--I can't remember the actor's name--that man has eyes for DAYS. No wonder does he take his glasses off or not is a major issue. And that straight back.

Welcome to the fandom! :D

Thanks! It's surprising what a Vorkosiverse overlap of fans there is ;)

Welcome to the fandom! I'm a lurker for the main part but decided to log in to say hi. Also the actor is Zhu Yilong and he just is so so good at micro-expressions. Another fan I know who has a hard time with face recognition actually thought that Shen Wei and Ye Zun are played by brothers/two different people and was floored when they realized that it's the same guy. That's how good he is in changing everything to convey a different person.

Also the way he stands is partly because of how tight his suits are tailored to fit. Which is a delight in other ways.

Thank you! All good to know; I'll keep that name in mind.

and jeez, those suits are doing us some favors...

I've seen a fair number of his other works and in the one Border City his character barely talks save for brief sentences but he conveys so much emotions with his eyes it's so good. ~~The rest of the show is a bit of a mess and translations stop halfway through too. Hoping that his Grave Robber role is gonna be good.~~

He tends to kind of curl his shoulders when he's not acting but yeah he has a really nice form, tho the real draw are his eyes for me.

Welcome! :D How far in are you? I'd warn about spoilers but if you've read these posts and a bunch of fic already, it's probably too late for that.

Thanks! I think I have been generally spoiled for the ending, though I haven't grasped all the details. That's okay; I like to know in advance if I'm going to get my heart broken :)

Welcome!

Thanks!

Hello and welcome to our corner of the fandom! \o/ Shen Wei really is such a brilliant character, so much restrained pining shown through perfect micro-expressions. And yes, Zhu Yilong (his actor) has the most gorgeous eyes. I literally have a bunch of gifs saved of just his eyes...

Thank you! I've been enjoying your posts, especially the eyes ;)

Flowers and trees not common in Dixing

What do people in Dixing even eat? If they eat cattle, what do the cattle eat?

...and then I wander off into the distance, my moaning cries of what is the economy of Dixing rising up into the night.

phyrry and I speculated that they eat a wide variety of chemosynthesizing algae. Dixing's economy and food production really is something I would like some canon-compliant fanwank on.

Heh, my brain goes similarly in fibre frustration. What are their clothes made of? Where are the animals for wool production or plants for cotton? Do they spin? Weave? Knit? Even a population as small as Dixing can't base clothes production around silkworms for silk either, so wtf.

(I have another show I love with an underground civilisation that I have similar woes for, but at least the majority of their clothes give the impression of being handwoven as opposed to mass produced in factories)

They have SOME kind of metal production, because of the jewelry making, but is it made locally? Is it imported from Haixing? Is their entire economy structured around piracy from Haixing? Which, you know, would be a legit worldbuilding choice: Dixing lives underground but in return, Haixing pays them in goods (but not services?), and if Haixing won't give them specific things, they just go through a portal, find a warehouse, and help themselves.

Metal production doesn't surprise me since I would imagine mining of some kind would be around in an underground civilisation and presumably they could use the lava/magma/whatever as a heat source. They probably could have used that as barter currency until paper currency showed up, at least. (Possibly also some kind of glasswork, if they had anything that could be melted down to make glass or a glass equivalent? Idk, that one's reaching a bit.)

And yeah, piracy from Haixing wouldn't surprise me. Smuggle down those resources, yo. XD Seize the means of production or whatever. >.>

I'm pretty sure every Dixingian save the Lord, Regent, and Envoy (and palace guards) is in something smuggled from the surface. I think there was also some speculation that Zhu Jiu might fund his criminal activities by smuggling things, which would also give him a network of contacts to use to get people to throw themselves against the SID.

*nods* Yeah, I think I remember seeing that. It might have to be something Zhu Jiu took over though because I don't think he's been around on the surface long enough to set it up and get it running that smoothly while also throwing poor saps against the SID and working on getting Ye Zun free all at the same time.

This has so much great Sha Ya stuff! Her throwing away the phone on the roof is such a badass moment.

A thing that totally cracks me up in the interrogation scene is Lin Jing randomly reading out news about land developments. That's always totally top of my news ticker, especially when I talk to my was-just-arrested crush!

"No, I swear they only stuffed me in here because my altruism made them all look bad! Honest!"

I really think you should apply to run Ye Zun's PR department! It would help him a lot. *G*

I know it's a bit pointless to complain about the budget at this point, but, seriously, they could not have borrowed some work clothes somewhere for those deforestation workmen? All these workers in the park are in "bring our own random t-shirt" outfits!

Wang Xiangyang wanted to do some Envoy cosplaying to make this look more legitimate and dramatic, but he couldn't make his papier-mâché polearm look like anything but a sad metaphor for his life so far.

LOL! Ouch.

The proposal scene in the phone booth is really very cute, and the actress for Wang Xiangyang's wife is selling it really well. The merit brush arc really isn't my favourite, but this was a nice reminder of ouch, IMO.

My heart really breaks for Zhao Yunlan in this one. Despite his relationship with his dad being so terrible, he can't help freaking the fuck out; he's really losing it in the SID there. I love that Shen Wei talks him down by appealing to his sense of responsibility (and how clear it is that nobody but Shen Wei is going to jump in to talk him down). Though the crips little *pat, pat* Shen Wei does at the start just after they got the news always strikes me as... in a slightly different emotional register. Like he hasn't quite found his "talking Zhao Yunlan down" groove yet.

Shen Wei calling Zhao Yunlan an idiot (out loud, not just in his head!) while staring at him worried-fondly kind of gives me life. *g* Especially followed by the exasperated eyeroll to end all exasperated eyerolls.

Taiwan has 28 million people and about 4k people with the surname 华. Assuming a similar density of people with that surname in Dragon City and that all of them are called 华玉柱, we get a population of 826k for Dragon City. Now, since there must be people with the surname 华 who are not called 华玉柱, Dragon City is most likely a city with over a million inhabitants

Oooh, nice catch & extrapolation!

The face of a man who wishes Zhao Yunlan would fondle him in lieu of the Hallows

But how dangerous is he, comparatively? ^_^

This has so much great Sha Ya stuff! Her throwing away the phone on the roof is such a badass moment.
IKR? She is amazing and I wish she'd been around more. She's basically a taser, please recruit her into the SID?

I assume he was all very awkward and read aloud the news feed to cover it up, since he did on a previous occasion start reciting after a tour guide earbud thingy on Dragon City's bedrock formations...

I really think you should apply to run Ye Zun's PR department! It would help him a lot. *G*
You jest, but ... I honestly wouldn't mind? Start off by asking him what he actually did to get locked up, appeal to people's senses of fairness and say he's already been locked up 10k years, doesn't he deserve to get out? (And that's the ludicrously simple bit. Though I suppose Ye Zun wouldn't want to be pitied...) - Actually, I'd call Amnesty International. *That* would be a headache for all the decisionmakers involved!

The proposal scene in the phone booth is really very cute, and the actress for Wang Xiangyang's wife is selling it really well. The merit brush arc really isn't my favourite, but this was a nice reminder of ouch, IMO.
Bai Suxia is cute and has an excellent sense of dress! If only she could've survived and Wang Xiangyang conked it instead...

Though the crips little *pat, pat* Shen Wei does at the start just after they got the news always strikes me as... in a slightly different emotional register. Like he hasn't quite found his "talking Zhao Yunlan down" groove yet.
It's not something he's had to do before, y'know? And he can't just say "xiao-Yunlan" and have Yunlan's track of thought immediately turn to other matters entirely, unlike with some people. *g*

But how dangerous is he, comparatively? ^_^
Well, he, too, could kill Zhao Yunlan. But the true love triangle of Guardian is Shen Wei vs the Hallows for Zhao Yunlan's heart.

She's basically a taser, please recruit her into the SID?

Very true!!

You jest, but ... I honestly wouldn't mind? Start off by asking him what he actually did to get locked up, appeal to people's senses of fairness and say he's already been locked up 10k years, doesn't he deserve to get out? (And that's the ludicrously simple bit. Though I suppose Ye Zun wouldn't want to be pitied...)

It might be a slightly hazardous workplace, working for Ye Zun. It'll be interesting trying to explain to him about not creating a hostile work environment and vacation days and the like...

(No, I'm kind of enjoying the idea of Ye Zun having PR management staff. Once we can make sure somehow he doesn't eat them.)

Gu Ban was too bland to have any opinions.

He's easily the most boring character in the entire series. And not even attractive to make up for it.

And she has no patience for Wang Xiangyang's villain monologues.

One of the things I love most about her!

Shen Wei, internally: "If only we could ignore your xenophobe dad and just be like this forever."

LOL I wouldn't even blame him. Not that he'd ever!

Shen Wei wonderful talking Zhao Yunlan down. And all the touching!

I find it impressive that everyone is still at the SID when news of the kidnapping comes in just before midnight. There was no emergency until then, do they all live there? Does noone ever go home?

Taiwan has 28 million people and about 4k people with the surname 华. Assuming a similar density of people with that surname in Dragon City and that all of them are called 华玉柱,

I don't follow, why would we assume that 'all of them are called 华玉柱'? Am I missing something?

The "hold shot constant but change focus from one thing to another" technique is pretty common in cinematography, but this is the first time I recall seeing it in Guardian!

Isn't it used in the battle couple scene?

Loving that shot of Sha Ya flanked by goths.

He's easily the most boring character in the entire series. And not even attractive to make up for it.
Indeed. In fact, he's so bland it took me a moment to think of a scene where we saw his face! *g*

I find it impressive that everyone is still at the SID when news of the kidnapping comes in just before midnight. There was no emergency until then, do they all live there? Does noone ever go home?
There was a bit of chatting about how this was obvs the start of Wang Xiangyang's endgame, so i can believe Zhao Yunlan keeping everyone at the office a while longer.

I don't follow, why would we assume that 'all of them are called 华玉柱'? Am I missing something?
I'm trying to work out a minimum population for Dragon City, basically. So badically, given that we know how many hua Yuzhus there are, how large is the city. In reality, of course, not everyone with the surname is Hua Yuzhu, but even if the SID got every person with the surname Hua, there'd still be over 800k inhabitants in Dragin City.

Isn't it used in the battle couple scene?
...yes, but I was actually talking about the "change focus from people to piece of surrounding" thing that's moderately popular in timelapse stuff and documentaries. My bad.

At least give Zhu Hong jurisdiction, y'know?
SERIOUSLY. The fact that Da Qing is Deputy Chief instead of Zhu Hong is ridiculous. I kind of wonder if someone was trying to make a statement about women's acceptance in administrative roles or if I just want that to be the case. I think the fact that she's eventually made Yashou HBIC is an argument for it, but again that's probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Pretty sure it's because Da Qing has seniority - he's the only one who's been with the SID since the days of Zhao Xinci, after all.

Thus exposing yet another problem with hierarchies.

True.

trobadora said, Da Qing's deputy chief because of seniority, but here my beef was that Lin Jing was left in charge of Sha Ya and none of Zhu Hong, Da Qing, Wang Zheng, or Sang Zan apparently tried to stop him from bringing her out. Which is ... well. It's Lin Jing's girlfriend, of course there's a risk he'd do something stupid and they'd be better off sidestepping that by putting someone else in charge of her.

I feel like it's another instance of the writers knowing what they wanted to happen and making it so by the easiest (if not the most logical/reasonable) method (like leaving Xiao Guo in charge of Zhu Jiu).

ETA: Taiwan has 28 million people and about 4k people with the surname 华. Assuming a similar density of people with that surname in Dragon City and that all of them are called 华玉柱, we get a population of 826k for Dragon City. Now, since there must be people with the surname 华 who are not called 华玉柱, Dragon City is most likely a city with over a million inhabitants.

Wow, so interesting! (I wonder if the population of Dixing is similarly much higher than it seems to be going by what we actually see on screen. I've always thought it probably was ...)

I was actually thinking of making a general post asking how people treat the population issue for Dragon City (mentally add more people vs. assume somewhat small and/or depopulated city), but good point about Dixing...

That would be a cool question to ask! And yeah, Dixing is a related question, because we see so little of it.

I could buy Dragon City as a 100k university town; it sometimes has that feel. But I'm also totally willing to adjust it and treat it as a much bigger city.

On the other hand, I just realised while talking to

extrapenguin that my brain has apparently decided there should be an equivalence - that regardless of what size you go for, Dixing's population should be about the same as Dragon City's. Brains: weird. *g*

Yeah, to me, "is Dixing equivalent to Haixing or to Dragon City" is one of those questions I haven't answered for myself either. I totally get why a brain might glomp on the Dragon City equivalence!

They do say somewhere that there are significantly fewer Dixingren than there are humans, IIRC.

My personal headcanon re: Dixing is that since time isn't real, at any given point of time a significant chunk of its populace is sleeping, and since someone has the farm the algae/smuggle stuff from the surface, a bunch of people work outside the city, so we only ever see a small amount of them. I guess I consider Dixing to be a 100k person city to Dragon City's ...2m? inhabitants. But the numbers have a lot of fuzz factor in them.

... You know, it's funny, I never realised this before, but I seem to have this feeling that Dixing's population should be about the same size as Dragon City's. So, all of Dixing has only as many people as this one city on the surface (but not fewer than that). That's what feels right to me, apparently. Huh.

Dragon City itself sometimes feels like a it shouldn't be over 500k people at most, from what we see on screen, and I could buy as low as 100k - but I'm also totally willing to adjust for TV-budget standards. *g*

Dragon City itself sometimes feels like a it shouldn't be over 500k people at most, from what we see on screen, and I could buy as low as 100k
As someone who's lived in several 100k to 500k cities (and visited many more), Dragon City feels much, much larger in every way but the unmentioned public transit system. *g* (I could buy it as million-ish based on the feel and such matching the feel of million-person cities I've visited.)

And as for Dixing's populace, the intro narrative mentioned that there are fewer Dixingians than humans. They seem to live in one city only, so a city-state-sized populace would make sense.

Edited 2019-09-20 17:43 (UTC)

As someone who's also lived in such cities, as well as one much larger city, I really do get that 500k-max feel from it.

Not 100% sure about Dixingren all living in that one city - there could be small towns or villages, at least? But yeah, essentially, city-state population.

Apparently, during episode 8, Dixing's population is confirmed to be 900k-ish. (scene)

What really eliminates Dragon City from the 500k max category for me is the scenery we see from the University roof. The centrum-density housing goes on seemingly forever, and we know that there's a river in the city, which we have no indications of in that city background. Add to that the severely variegated nature of the boroughs and it doesn't match any of the cities I've lived in.

Oh, good catch about the 900k! That gives us at least something to go by. Do we think all Dixingren are registered, or only the ones with powers, or ...?

What really eliminates Dragon City from the 500k max category for me is the scenery we see from the University roof.

I just rewatched the rooftop scene in episode 1, and it honestly doesn't look that huge to me. The roof isn't high enough to see very far, and the view reminds me a bit of one close to my current home.

Seeing Zhao Yunlan finding new, creative ways to sit on furniture not designed for sitting is honestly such a joy.

And really, the more I think/re-watch the way the Hallows just kind of hook Zhao Yunlan, the more I think they're more on the evil sentient object side of things than whatever world-saving devices they're supposed to be.

I know? Sitting on flat objects that arent't chairs or benches is a very zhao Yunlan speciality. Definitely an honorary cat!

And really, the more I think/re-watch the way the Hallows just kind of hook Zhao Yunlan, the more I think they're more on the evil sentient object side of things than whatever world-saving devices they're supposed to be.
THIS. And we haven't even gotten to the Ye Zun bits. (Also, the true love triangle of the series is Shen Wei vs the Hallows for Zhao Yunlan's heart and hands.)

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Guardian Episode by Episode: 28

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